The Lioness of Shadi

22 - Words in the Wood

They could not ride through the Kharsaanu Saquutu on the path that Eigou had chosen, not with the many branches that hung low enough to knock a mounted person from their horse's back. It slowed their progress considerably, but the boughs above were densely packed enough that the undergrowth was relatively manageable. For all their endurance on the backs of their horses, Shir Del and Roshanak clearly felt the long walk far more intensely, bowed legs and long, narrow feet ill-suited to such a trek. Ilati suspected that part of their quiet was discomfort from being hemmed in on all sides by trees as well. For children of the silver-grass steppes, this place no doubt seemed unnatural.

A hush lingered around them, even the clopping of hooves softened by the thick layer of loam and needles underfoot. The perfume of cedar filled their senses, sweet and clean. Breezes rustled in the branches high above as a gentle susurrus of needles and soft birdsong still filtered down alongside the patches of sun sculpted by the branches. The peace of the place soothed some of Ilati's fears like Eigou's healing balms.

Ilati struggled to imagine a man like Ilishu striding down a forest path, every inch a king even as a boy, with combating a great beast on his mind. Ilati wondered if he had stopped to observe the beauty of the place he would one day order logged for its wealth. Had he run his fingers over the rough bark and brought fingers away sticky from aromatic sap? Had he smelled the red-brown needles crushed underfoot and the clean scent of sweet waters flowing as little streams through the forest like silver threads in a tapestry? Had he, for an instant, thought of anything except conquest and domination? Was there once a wondering boy there or only the hardened old man she had known?

"You are being very quiet, Ilati," Menes observed. The two of them were at the rear, since Shir Del and Eigou had taken the lead and Roshanak was most protected in the middle.

"Just letting my thoughts turn." The priestess heard Shir Del snapping at Eigou by tone, even without catching the words. The press of trees and bushes was getting to the warrior woman after several days of travel. "This place is so strange."

"After the desert and grasslands of Kullah, I agree. It reminds me of home." Menes spoke with a wistful hint in his voice.

Ilati cocked her head slightly in question. "I thought Magan was rocks and desert."

"It is, but I spent my boyhood south of that kingdom. I was not taken into the King's service until I had seen ten summers in the place of my birth, Kashta." Menes smiled fondly, taken back to some halcyon days. "It is a place thick with broad-leaved trees and rain, mists and red clay. There is not one great river, but many, and lakes, all rimmed with great banks of tangled roots. I used to fish amongst them, sitting in a canoe made of a tree so large a man could not link his arms around it, the center burned out and the wood carved to suit, while my older brothers herded cattle. Flowers like you have never seen bloomed everywhere. I remember my mother collecting them for my sisters and nieces..." He trailed off, a shadow passing over his joy.

"Why did you leave?" Ilati asked gently.

"You must understand, Ilati, that Magan has a great hunger for many things from the south: hardwoods and ivory, incense and gold. They invaded when I was a boy, destroying much and stealing more, including many of its people. Some would work in the construction of their magnificent monuments or serving their people. I was strong even then, strong enough to learn the soldier's life. My brother Tebeb and I were pressed into service. We did not see our family again, not after Araka."

The priestess felt a sympathetic ache in her chest. She was all too familiar with that feeling. "What became of Tebeb?"

"A spear to the stomach," Menes said quietly. "He was older. He had to challenge them, prove he was still a man of Kashta, to honor the blood of ancestors demanding revenge. I took the coward's path and bear the name of Magan to prove it."