A Scoundrel's Song

26

Skirting to the west of Acidici, hugging the foothills of the Antaberuno Mountains, travel took a winding, precarious path. Heavy-going, roads that were little more than animal tracks, avoiding people as much as possible. A couple of villages passed away at short distances, the sight of olive and orange groves giving a sense of civilisation to a sparse, rugged terrain.

Turning east above Lake Enni, the glittering waters tempting with the promise of fresh fish and water but the memory of events at Lake Caranccilio serving to send shivers down the back of any that hoped to set tentative feet within those waters. Small streams and widening rivers gave them opportunities to bathe and take on water for the butts set upon the wagon, but, under the relentless rays of the Sun, a swim would have calmed everyone's nerves.

Across the landscape, they started to encounter more fields as the terrain flattened. Wheat billowing in the gentle breezes, fields of tomatoes and beans. Farmsteads looking inviting, but offering little but paranoia for Niico after their time in Ancomo. Everywhere they had travelled, they had encountered animosity and the revelation of Herit's true identity had done nothing but feed that paranoia.

Niico couldn't believe he had not noticed. Yes, the child had looked rather more dainty than most boys, but Niico himself had looked much the same at Herit's age and no-one had ever mistaken him for a girl. At least, he didn't think so. Even back then, his blonde curls and pretty face turned heads and now Niico wondered whether they had ever thought him as anything other than a boy. As a grown man, he had never met anyone that thought him feminine despite his prettiness.

Also, yes, there had been several times when people had 'mistakenly' mentioned that Herit was a girl and that only made Niico worry more. He prided himself on his cleverness, his abilities to observe situations and people and know exactly what was happening and who they were. After all, how could he play his tricks if he made mistakes like that? He feared his powers of observation were waining, which made it all the more clear that, perhaps he should retire, after all?

The thing that bothered him the most, however, was that the child absolutely refused to return that magical ring. Refused! Niico had found it, it was his. That he had tossed the ring to Herit only meant he wanted the child to look after it for a short while. Not only that, but the child had noticed, every time, when Niico had tried to liberate the ring from the girl's possession, proving even more that Niico was no longer the skilled and wily man he once was.

"Give me the ring." The time for subtlety had come to an end. "It's mine. I found it and I have more chance of needing its power than you. Give it to me."

"Why don't you take it?" The child held up the hand wearing the ring and waved it in front of Niico's face. "You didn't want it."

Niico's hand swept out like a snake striking, only for Herit to move her hand, laughing. Laughing at Niico's decrepitness. It had come to this. A child faster than Niico. A child taunting him. A child thwarting him. Niico didn't think it an overstatement to accept that his life was, effectively, over. Without his speed, his light-fingered touch, his persuasiveness, his skilful ways to extract anything he wanted from anyone he wanted to take from, he had nothing left. Little more than a broken husk of the man he once was. A pitiful wreck. A still-beautiful pitiful wreck, but a pitiful wreck nonetheless.

"The child learns from you. I would not wish it, but if it makes you look foolish, then I shall accept it for now." Even Akafa saw him for the fool he had become, that little smile upon his face that he had started to wear more often. "Give up your attempts. Herit will not give you the ring."

Niico slumped. Even Pel looked at him with pity. He could see her sidelong glances as she drove the wagon over the undulating path. For days, now, since leaving Ancomo, she had spoken to him far less than before and it had started to make Niico feel isolated. Antioni, too, had settled for sitting away from Niico at every opportunity, talking with the others, but not him and only now did Niico realise he wished it not so.