The Charlatan

09. A Bitter Pill

'I'm sorry?' Did this Veltie think she could raise Safiya's dead brothers with a 'sorry?' No, I mustn't project my grief onto an innocent person. She helped us, Safiya told herself. She was lying on the ground under the shelter the Veltie—Clara—had set up. Priyanka had long fallen asleep, succumbing to her exhaustion. Safiya was not so lucky. Now that her adrenaline had worn off, her arm ached badly. Pain, both physical and emotional, kept her wide awake.

She had been tending the shop since sunrise; the customers with brains knew to come in early if they wanted a fair deal. A sleepy merchant was a careless merchant. But Safiya had long since mastered the art of business. Market well. Market differently. And most importantly, make your customers believe that they are buying your goods at a bargain. The sisters' shop at the border was a roaring testament to both Safiya's and Priyanka's talents in the world of trade and commerce.

And now it was gone.

Safiya rolled onto her side. A blanket would have been wonderful, but alas, she would have to make do. She was not used to the cold and silence. A large family of businesspeople made for a warm and rowdy household at all hours of the day and night. Oh, don't cry again, Safiya told herself as she began to tear up. She suddenly felt a hand on hers.

"Safi... Can't sleep?"

Safiya heard Priyanka's soft voice. She squeezed Priyanka's hand in response, not trusting her voice.

"What do you want to do?" Priyanka asked.

A good question. What were they going to do? Move to the capital? With what gold? Safiya ran through a list of her business partners in her head. Perhaps someone would take them under their wing until they worked enough to find a living space. They might also be able to nick some extra gold by returning some favors. Safiya had definitely done that before; it was easy to take advantage of some people.

What about Clara? A voice in her head nagged at her. Indeed, what about the Veltie? She had helped save their lives. That was no small debt to repay. Debt. The word echoed in Safiya's mind – a reminder of the Veltie attackers and the mysterious 'charlatan.' The fires that had erupted during the battle had gone out as quickly as they had come. The fleeing attackers had ripped apart the grass around them and muddied the earth to erase their presence. No, Safiya couldn't allow that. She couldn't allow them to get away with defiling her home and disrespecting her people. Her family would never rest until the gods recognized that justice was served. She leaned closer to Priyanka and whispered as quietly as she could.

"I'm going to the Citadel."

Priyanka shook her head. "We're going to the Citadel."

Safiya woke several times during the night. Sometimes she would wake in sweat and panic, unaware of where she was. Other times, she felt all-consuming anger and needed to get up to walk it off. After rushing out from under the shelter for only gods knew which time and vomiting a few feet away, Safiya knew that it must be the gods calling her. She knelt on her right knee and bowed her head. She prayed.

Her face was hot and cold at the same time. She swayed, from exhaustion or emotion she didn't know, but she forced herself stable. Now was not the time for rest, she felt. Safiya breathed deeply and, as the moon began to set, began to feel restored. The gods had answered her call for strength. She had been right; there would be no rest until justice was passed. Not for her family, and not for her either.

The Genesese gentleman woke first. Safiya was still on her knees when he emerged from under the shelter. She glanced his way. He paused for a moment before turning to look at her. They held gazes for a spell and the Genesese began to make his way over to Safiya's prayer spot. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but shut it again when he likely realized that he didn't know Safiya's language. Safiya dealt with many customers from many different lands, but the people of Genesis were far from regulars. Her own Genesese was very broken. The fair-haired man crouched down to Safiya's level and looked at the trees ahead of her, his gaze as cold as the white of his skin. Safiya turned to look in that direction as well. There was just the wood, thick trees whose branches and leaves obscured the light from the sun above them. Safiya could hear the chirping of birds as they began to wake, and she knew that the day to come would be full of hardship and pain. But, as the birds woke every day, so did life go on.

Safiya sat with the Genesese gentleman for a while. They said nothing to each other, but Safiya began to feel that it was not a lack of words or language that kept their silence.

"Safiya, your sister is calling you." Clara emerged from under the shelter and hailed the older twin. She then turned to the Genesese gentleman and began speaking to him in his language. Safiya left them to their conversation and tended to her sister.

"Are you in any pain?" she asked. Priyanka grimaced; that was answer enough. Safiya sighed, her arm beginning to ache again. "We need to get you healed before we can make it to the Citadel," she said as she helped Priyanka slowly sit up. Priyanka nodded.

"We'll need an audience with the King. Didn't we make a Veltie contact a few weeks ago?" Priyanka asked.

"We did; he was the owner of a bar in the Citadel last I recall. Are you thinking we might swing by his establishment and bargain our way into his inner circle?" Priyanka nodded. "Then, all we need are tickets to the capital. Perhaps we can do some fine gentlepeople some favors in return for them," Safiya paused and looked at Priyanka grimly, "But that can wait until we are healed and safe in the city."

"You worry too much. I've survived hellfire, I doubt the gods would smite me now."

"Don't even joke..." Safiya buried her face in her hands, exasperated.

A heartbeat passed and Clara appeared at the entrance to the shelter. She and Safiya carefully picked Priyanka up off the ground and onto Air's shoulders. There were several days of walking ahead of them, Clara said, and they set off immediately.

Some few hours into their hike, Safiya noticed the hesitant and careful atmosphere around the group. The Genesese gentleman, whose name Safiya still did not know, had kept quiet the entire time, and Clara kept glancing at him and the rest of them as if she wanted to say something. Finally, when the group stopped for a rest, Safiya saw her chance to speak up.

"Clara, I'm afraid I haven't yet found out this young gentleman's name," she said as she indicated the Genesese gentleman sitting beside her. He raised his eyebrows and looked at Clara. She waved at him dismissively and answered Safiya.

"He calls himself Air," she said. Upon hearing his name, the Genesese gentleman, Air, seemed to finally understand what the conversation was about.

"Air," Priyanka repeated simply. What she said to him next was a lightly accented Genesese greeting. Air smiled and responded cheerfully. Clara also seemed to relax a bit more. She tentatively began a conversation in Velte, and Safiya was surprised to find out that Air could also speak it, albeit harshly. With a common language and names exchanged, everyone felt more confident.

As their hike through the woods continued, the group's mood picked up a bit. Time passed quicker. Air started humming intermittently, Clara teasing that he was finally losing his mind out in the middle of these desolate woods.

Safiya guessed that it was nearly moonrise when Clara suddenly darted forward ahead of the group. She was calling out to someone. As she and Air, carrying Priyanka, walked closer, Safiya saw that Clara had stopped an old gentleman sitting atop a horse-drawn cart. He was carrying lumber. A woodcutter, Safiya thought. Few wandered this deep into the forest. After explaining their situation, the woodcutter offered the group a ride into town. It would take the night, but it was better than shivering under another tiny shelter in the open.

Finally feeling her exhaustion and, more importantly, no longer in a heated panic over the horrid events of the days prior, Safiya gladly shuffled close to Priyanka and sank into a deep sleep. The clattering of the cart and the woodcutter's quiet conversation with Clara were the last things Safiya heard before she embraced a dreamless darkness.