Heir of Iron

Chapter 23: Navran

(An iron ring, found at http://ess.uvic.ca/2015/02/01/spring-2015-iron-ring/.)

Navran sat by the window and watched the moonlight on the murky water. The floodwaters of the Amsadhu gurgled and sloshed against the posts holding up the guest-house. Dung smoke and the murmur of distant gossip drifted through the window. Everyone in the guest-house slept except for him. And all he could think was: What am I going to do now?

He was supposed to be free. Gocam had given him one task, and when it was done he meant to leave behind every memory of the Heirs and their children. Ulaur forgive him, but he had failed at even being a faithful Uluriya sheep-tender. And now---"The Heir of star-damned Manjur," he whispered to himself.

The curse tasted bitter on his tongue. The Heir of Manjur shouldn't curse by his namesake. But there were a lot of things the Heirs of Manjur weren't supposed to do. Like drink a third bowl of rice beer. After Mandhi had left the kitchen he had given in, and Sumi had given him two, then admitted that Mandhi had commanded him not to give any more. Which was a perfectly reasonably thing for Mandhi to do. Because she at least knew that she couldn't let Navran drink all he would want to. Not now. Not ever again.

And then a new thought: what was he going to do about his mother? He was supposed to return and help her. Be a son, a true son. Ulaur help him, he had wanted to do it. That seemed like a goal within his reach, a chance to do something he might succeed at.

The starlight was like dust in the foam of the water. The thought occurred to him: this was still a chance. He had failed his duties as a son, but he had the chance not to fail in his duties as a son of Manjur. Odds were that he wouldn't amount to anything. But he might try.

And then he saw the first streak of fire fall from the sky.

At first he thought he imagined it. Then he saw another, like a ball of pitch trailing a tail of flames. Where it landed a flare of hungry fire burst up after it. Shouts began to echo across the flooded canals. More streaks fell. Then a sound like thunder and a blast of heat threw him aside.

A red light flared through the window of Paidacha's house, and the sudden roar of flame swallowed the other sound. He went to the window again. One of the meteors had hit, not the guest-house itself, but the building adjacent. That home was already a ruin, timbers and thatch blasted apart and drifting in the water, still afire. The flames bloomed outward. They stroked the eaves of Paidacha's guest-house, then leapt the gap.

Navran screamed, "Fire! Awake, everyone!"

He clambered over sleeping bodies, pounded the floorboards, and continued shouting, "Fire!" Those sleeping in the common room began to stir. He pushed past them into the room where Mandhi slept, where he found her already rising. The fire licked around the frame of the window of her room, and embers glowed in the thatch overhead.

"I heard you," Mandhi shouted over the crackle of the flames. She shoved the polished box that held the star-iron rings into her traveling bag, along with a few changes of clothes and other items strewn about the room. A heartbeat later she was at the door.

In the seconds they had spent in Mandhi's room the common area had emptied. Paidacha crouched at the entrance of the guest-house and shouted for them. "Come, quickly! You two are the last!"

At the door Navran hesitated. "Are we leaving the house? Can't we fight the fire?"

"Are you insane?" Mandhi said, pushing past him and leaping down the ladder into the reed boat that waited below. Paidacha had evidently pulled it from its moorings beneath the guest-house and packed it with a dark shapes that Navran couldn't make out.