The Wolf, the Butterfly, and the Kraken

Chapter 32

Joann
The rain let up. It was long since lunchtime, and Vam had not arrived. What if the storm had caused problems with the flight? What if the lift crashed? What if he had survived the Southern lines only to die in a stupid flight?
The servants quarters hall door from the kitchen opened, and father popped his head in. “He’s here. He just wants to wash up a bit first. You know how traveling gets.”
Relief spread over me. After what seemed like hours he came into our quarters. His fur was still damp, but I didn’t care and gave him a large, long hug, breathing in his scent deeply. And gagging. I coughed, “You smell like fish.”
He stood straight and tall. “I got a job at the docks. I help haul in nets, and pack barrels of fish. I will be paid at the end of the week, and if for some reason Lord Eureces calls me away again, either you or your father can collect my earnings.” He was very proud of this. Then he sniffed me curiously, “Have you been drinking mint tea?”
I smiled, “No. I have been collecting mint.”
“And what do you plan on doing with it?” he asked.
I grinned, “Selling it in Lyngara, and making enough from that to pay for Oshies schooling, and then some.” I showed him all the cans I had stored away of dry mint leaves. There were 20 now, which were full to the brim. “I’m sure Iara could profit from this as well. I have also considered asking hair cutting shops if they would sell cut hair to us for Kiro’s shop.”
His eyes bulged, and jaw dropped. Then he asked, “But how will we get it there, and the profits here?”
I tilted my head, “I’m still working on that. But we do have a town full of raiders and warriors who will be heading back to Lyngara in Spring. They could probably profit a bit too.”
He frowned, “So how much did all of this mint cost us exactly?”
I knew he was wary of oweing anyone more money and favors. “The only expense I have incurred is the cost of the cans, which I have paid for with what I got paid for picking the mint from various properties where it is not wanted. I also have a part time job as a healer. It’s not much, but I have beans on the table, and a tiny bit in savings for a place of our own.”
He was so happy! It was a good day. Oshie had missed his daddy, and didn’t leave his side once he had finished his tutoring session for the day.
A few weeks went by, and life settled into a sort of pattern. We would wake, have breakfast, and walk Vam down to the docks where he worked. Our family was quite the curiosity in Centris. Vam became a favorite at the docks. He worked very hard, and was stronger than the Veneran men by far. And it wasn’t long before his sense of humor was discovered under his armor of honor.
One man, named Navin, had been trying to irk Vam. He thought Vam made the rest of them look bad. He had been speaking loudly, so Vam would hear, “What do you get when you cross a scroungy mongrel with an ass?”
Men asked, “What?”
“A lycant.”
Men chuckled.
Vam looked over to the same group of men and asked, “What do you get when you combine a fish that’s been sitting on the docks for 4 hours, and a pile of fluffer crap?”
One of the men hesitantly asked, “What?”
Vam shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know either, but it smells like Navin.” Everyone laughed heartily at that.
Where I worked Vam was not allowed to visit because some people had heart palpatations as it was. However, Oshie was always welcome as he was so well behaved. He had Arda, my boss, wrapped around his little finger. He would come in, and crawl up onto her lap while she ate lunch, and happily feed her small bites of food, and she would feed him a nibble or two here and there. It was sweet.
He surprised her by making a small water sculpture in a vacated tub one day. He made it look like her. She was thrilled and later asked me if he was going to be able to receive healer training. She knew our family had very little money, but not that he was enrolled in the Academy. I just told her we were looking into it.
I was at work when a messenger arrived. He patiently waited while I left my patient and dried my hands. The message read:

You and Vam are required. Something appears to be going on at Finton. Make all haste.
Lord Eureces

I told Arda, “I have to leave, now. I am sorry for any inconvenience.”
Arda glanced at the Host messenger, and nodded, shooing me out the door saying, “We can manage. Go on, be safe.”
In one hour I had retrieved Vam from the docks, and we had put Oshie in his grandfathers care. I packed two cans of mint into our bag, and left.
Normally the flight would stop when the sun went down, but instead it continued on through the night, and in the morning new aircasters gave us just enough time to pee before we took flight again. “What do you think is happening in Finton?”
He shrugged. “Maybe clans that dislike each other are fighting? Maybe warriors are shaming the raiders? Who knows?”
We were exhausted when the lift landed at the Southern camp. We weren’t even allowed to freshen up, but were quickly ushered to Captain Harris. He looked so relieved to see us that I forgave how I had only gotten to use the bushes twice in as many days.
Vam asked, “How may we be of service?”
“It’s something over in Finton. They all gathered outside this one place for like 3 days. Some started ripping things apart. Something is being built, but we aren’t sure what. No one can see from the vantage points. Only you can enter Finton to see what’s going on. Also, more recently, a great deal of noise has been coming from there.”
Vam’s ears wilted a little bit. “Please, do not ask me to spy on my people. It is something unforgivable.
I agreed with my husband on this. “It was in our agreement. Nothing to dishonor our name.”
Captain Harris said, “Could you at least let me know if it is something I should be concerned about?”
Vam chuffed. “We will go as far as your men are stationed before we determine if entering is needed.”
He was grateful, and went with us directly to a boat, which ferried us across the river. We followed a road that went up to the top of the cliffs that Finton backed up to.
I could hear it long before seeing anything, and it seemed familiar somehow. Vam stopped Captain Harris before the entryway down. “You have no need for concern. It is a funeral for one of our great warriors, who has died. In the main camp there is not time, or resources, to honor them. I wish to go pay my respects. The warrior who passed once worked alongside my mother.”
Captain Harris was baffled. “You know who died without going down? How?”
“Every lycant has a battlesong. It has themes from certain clans, and families. I have heard of this warrior because his battlesong mingles with my mothers. He is Reega, of the Jumping Fish clan. He has done many great things for my people. Coming here for battle was a small thing. He saved a town from fire, went into flooded areas and saved families, brought food to those who had been cursed for 3 generations. Every year his name was heard for some great deed. He was selfless, and generous. A good lycant. You would be hard pressed to find a family, or clan, that has not benefited from something he did at some time.”
I followed my husband down the path that led to Finton. “What am I supposed to do here?” I had never been to a lycant funeral. The noise grew louder the closer we got. Funerals I had attended in the past had always been subdued, quiet. I had a feeling that wasn’t the case here.
He paused on the path. “Just do what I do.”
And exactly what would that be?
The noise level grew as we approached down the very thin ‘road’. I doubted a horse and carriage could make their way down. Maybe a goat and cart might make it. We rounded one last bend and I could see Finton, or what was left of it.
There was an inn, and a shed. Everything else had been torn down. In what would have been the center of town was a large pyre. On it lay a corpse, wrapped in cloth. A group of about 25 warriors stood guard around the pyre. They were anything but silent though. No, their vigil was not silent. They howled at the top of their lungs this warriors battlesong.
At first I was scared, but then-then the story. He did amazing and beautiful things. He helped family friends, and even enemies at times, smoothing over aggression between clans.
And as the guard shouted at the top of their lungs I saw lines of warriors and raiders alike, waiting their turn to pay homage too. Many had been brutally injured, but the lines stretched into 4 directions. Vam and I got into one of these.
The warrior ahead of us finally had his turn, and sang of how proud he was to serve in the same battlepack with the one who had paid for the priests help when he was a child with blight, sure to perish, but pulled through with some medicine. The warrior was doing what every warrior, and raider, and man there did, trying not to cry at a funeral.
Vam stepped up and thanked him for training his mother, and making sure she occasionally had a break to make it to a sing. That was how she met his sire. He was also a trainer of Oyarg, and inspired him to become a better warrior.
I was last, and all eyes seemed to be on me. I know that strong though lycant women were, they were still women. I let my tears fall as I sobbed about how the world would not be the same without Reega of the Jumping Fish clan, and that was why my son would know who he was. “I want my son to strive to be like him.” Vam was howling agreement, and it got picked up by everyone in Finton, and finally, after I had been the first to let tears fall, the floodgates opened. Tears streamed down every face.
A torch was carried around, lighting all of the guards torches. As one they turned, and thrust the torches into the pyre. At first it burned slow and smoldered, but then the flames climbed higher and higher. The mighty warrior was engulfed in flames.
After two hours a raider approached Vam and I. I thought I recognized him from the boat, but wasn’t sure. “Would you like to join us for some poor hunters stew in celebration of his life? It isn’t the grand feast he deserves, but it’s all we have.”
Vam nodded, “We would be honored.”
I still had my rucksack. “May I contribute to the meal? I have some leaves for tea.”
The raider nodded, and led the way to the inn. In the kitchen area two warriors nodded when I asked if I could make some tea. They were shocked when I dumped several ounces of mint into a large cauldron of boiling water. The aroma of mint filled the inn, and soon warriors and raiders alike were asking what that scent was. I showed the two warriors how to serve it so a bit more water could be added to the cauldron. As word got around that Vam and I had produced mint tea for Reega’s funeral our praises were sung. Many had never dreamed of tasting mint tea. It was a very special treat and made the funeral that much more memorable. We sat, drinking mint tea, and warriors complimented Vam on the wonderful mate he had found, sometimes lightly teasing if I were the only female in the litter.
It was, all in all, a good funeral. But I was tired, and so was he, and eventually we had to trudge our way up the goat cart path where hundreds of the Host were now stationed. The raider hunters were there, and extremely relieved to see us. “What took you so long?” Captain Harris asked.
I yawned. “It was a really good funeral. Lots of respects were paid. The pyre itself took hours, and there was the usual food and chit chat after. Honestly, we left early.” I yawned again. “I am tired, and their inn is a bit overcrowded. May we speak in the morning?”