Fool

Sir Danielle Longbow looked Minister Qian Jo in the eyes as her blade cut the life from him. The old man whispered something as her blade sank into his carotid artery. Gulping with guilt she pulled the blade away.

            He clung to the wound. Red poured over his fingers as he tried to hold the cut closed.

            “What did he say?” Danielle asked, looking at Barra Mohani, the only one among them that knew Quingo and the common tongue of the continent of Omnired, which some in Crann still called Tiruile.

            “Just the word fool. That’s it.”

            “He’s right. I am.”

            “No. We did what we had to. You’re not used to this kind of thing. I am. He was never going to sign the trade agreement. The lessons your kingdom learns from the guns will be invaluable in the fight against the Empire of the Holy Proclamation. We should make all speed back to Crann immediately.”

            “Do you think we can trust him?” Danielle asked, nodding to Din Jan.

            The soldier of Quin Shi had willingly joined them, saying that he had been disgraced by his nation. Once she had been more inclined to believe in people hoping for a better life. Without a nation to back her up she was more wary. He might have been planning to kill them in the night or to sell them out to soldiers of another nation along the road home. Din Jan barely knew them.

            “I don’t think we should. We can keep watch. Have him guarded, as he guarded us.”

            The pool of Minister Qian Jo’s blood was almost at her feet. She stepped back. Exhaustion fell upon her when she looked at the body. She was a murderer. She had killed in battle, in self-defence. It had not been that. She had killed him because he was inconvenient. Her head pounded with pain.

            “What do we do with the body?” Danielle asked. They were off the road, high up in the mountains.

            “Take off the clothes and leave him for wolves or whatever carrion live here. Burn the clothes and he’ll be bones before the next sunrise.” He was matter of fact Barra wasn’t concerned by the corpse at all. “If I can offer some advice?” His brown eyes met hers, waiting.

            “Sure.” Her voice was as dead as the man at her feet. His blood was on her sword and the green jacket she had bought in Wubianjing.

            “He was not a good man. He was going to blackmail and rape you. Don’t pity him.”

            “I don’t pity him. I pity myself for the stains on my soul.”

            “You did the work of justice with this.”

            Danielle winced as she considered Barra’s moral flexibility. Thinking about it made her headache worse. She sipped water from her canteen.

            “I’ll build a fire,” she said. She was glad to have a task.

            “No. We should strip him and keep riding. There will be soldiers from Wubianjing tracking us by now. We can burn the clothes after a hard ride. 

            The assassin began peeling off the clothes of the minister.

            She looked away.

Barra had a bloody sack slung over his horse in a minute.

            They rode on, down the mountains into Niquin. Forest covered the land to the west. They rode for the safety of the trees, where they could not be seen for miles away. 

            Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw Qian Jo and heard his dying word.

            “Fool.”

            Branches hit her face in the dark as they rode.

            “Fool.”

            Owls hooted in the night.

            “Fool.”

            Eyes stared at her from the darkness.

            “Fool.”

            They skirted a village where people were singing around fires in the dark.

            “Fool.”

Danielle’s eyelips were drooping. Her muscles were limp. She had to hold herself in the saddle.

            She wanted to scream.

            “We should make camp here,” said Anne Hyland. “I can’t ride any further. The saddle sores of my saddle sores have saddle sores.”

            They set up camp, tying the horses up together. They made a small fire and the first thing to burn was the sack of bloody clothes.            Orange flames chewed red stains and spat black smoke into the sky.

            “Wake up.” Anne was shaking her. “Come on Sir Longbow. We have to go.”

            “I was asleep?” Her eyes stung from the harsh light of the morning.

            “No. You just blinked, and night turned to day.”

            “Alright,” said Danielle, getting on her horse.

            They hadn’t eaten. Growling stomachs bitched about the stupidity of their owners from horse to horse.

            “Fool.”

            They rode until nightfall again.

            The horses supped from a stream. Danielle threw her face into the water and thanked the gods for a sensation that wasn’t the pungent sticky feeling of sweat laced with guilt.

            “You’re going to be alright Danielle.”

            “What?” She didn’t know who had spoken. She didn’t know where she was. “It won’t be long until you see Lupita again. Don’t worry.”

            She wasn’t worried.

            She was dead inside.

            “Fool.”

            They crossed the mountains between Niquin and Thraca.

            “Qian Jo was bad man,” said Din Jan. He held her shoulder. She reached for her sword. A moment before she had been riding her horse. She was sitting on a log as they all looked at her.

            She shook loose of his grip and stood. He backed away with his hands raised. The endless rice paddies of Thraca’s south lay before her. She was wearing different clothes. She didn’t remember changing. She walked away, back along the road south, around a bend where no one could see her.

            She vomited.

            “Fool.”

            Danielle saw his face, smiling. She felt his hand on her leg. She smelt the stink of his smoky breath. The stink of the alcohol he had been drinking filled her nose.

            Dry retching until her throat ached, she wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

A battle. Was she dreaming? Explosions. She swung her sword. Soldiers of Iripth fought beside her against soldiers of Niquin. She saw the moustaches that men liked in that part of the world. They seemed to be part of the uniform and beards were a bonus.

            Their battle cries told her where they were. “Makt!” Their bright turbans bobbed as they ran, falling to gunfire and arrows. They gave their response with a volley of bangs and the twang of bowstrings.

            She had no bow.

            “Fool.”

            There were plenty lying around.

            The warriors of Niquin fell with her stolen arrows in their eyes. Was she invincible? She had an arrow in her breastplate.

            She blinked.

            Lying on her back covered in bloody bandages.

            “Fool.”

            On a horse with men and women from Iripth around her, swords and guns on their hips, uniforms discarded.

            “They’re coming with us to Crann,” said Miss Hyland. “Danielle? You’re worrying me. What about a joke?” Miss Longbow shrugged. Her chest complained. “What do you call the useless bit of skin at the end of a penis?” She shrugged. “A man!” Anne smiled weakly.

            “I know one,” said Sir Errol. “Anne taught me it, but still.”

            “Go on then, see if you can tell it better than I would,” said Miss Hyland.

            “Alright.” Sir Euan inhaled deeply. “Find a woman who can cook and clean. A woman who’s great in bed. Find a woman with lots of money. Just make sure the three of them never meet!”

            “Very good.” Danielle tried to smile.

            “I have one,” said Barra. “What is the difference between incomplete and finished? A man without a woman is incomplete. A man with a wife is finished.”

            Euan Errol laughed. The men and women of Iripth looked at them, not understanding a word.

            “When a wife says I love you, you’ll never know if it’s her or the wine talking,” said Anne. “No smile at that? Nothing. What’s the difference between love and marriage?”

            “I don’t know,” said Danielle. She wondered where she was again. Hills seemed to have vanished. Open grassland and shrubs stretched for miles on one side and smoking villages lay on the other.

            “Love is blind,” said Anne, “marriage is an eye opener.”

            “A wife spent years looking for her husband’s killer,” said Una Donohuei the assassin, “she never found anyone to do it.”

            Anne coughed, spraying water across her horse’s mane.

Stars looked down upon her from a sky of black and blue. She sat up. Their caravan of defectors had become a runaway army. There were dozens.

            “A husband asked his wife if she would still love him if he was old, fat, and bald. She told him ‘I do’.” Anne looked for a smile on Danielle’s face. Instead of telling another joke she wrapped her arms around Sir Longbow and squeezed her tight. “You’re going to be alright.”

            “Where are the guns?” Danielle asked Barra. They were riding again. She had no idea where she was. The memory of their mission returned with a jolt. Without the guns it had all been for nothing.

            “You have two.” He pointed to her belt. “I have four. Anne has three. Una has four. Sir Euan has three. Sir Aled has three. Din Jan has two, but no powder. We’re still watching him.”

            “Thank you for organising things. My head has been empty since I cut Qian Jo’s throat.”

            “He’s been haunting you, hasn’t he?” Barra pulled the reigns of his horse to be closer to her. He held her shoulder, “you say the word ‘fool’ constantly and look as if you’re in a trance. You need to let go of the guilt you feel. He would have killed you without a moment’s hesitation. Din Jan has told us all about him. He was married to a woman who was a girl when he was forty. He was feared by every woman who served him. Some of them went missing. People think he killed them, but he was too powerful a man to accuse.

            You saved yourself.

            You avenged the women he hurt, the women he murdered.

            You’re going to go home and be happy with Lupita, Carl, and Nettle. You can work on the reconciliation with your mother. Crann Kingdom will prevail through your efforts. The guns we take will prove decisive against the Empire of the Holy Proclamation.

            I want you to do something for me. When you next sleep. Remember a battle you fought on the walls of Leonor. It doesn’t matter which. Picture the men you fought there. One, then another, cast aside by your blade because your lover, your family, your people needed you. He was just another invader coming for the people you loved. He was another enemy who met his end to be forgotten.

            You’re alive.

            You’re a good woman.

            Danielle?

            Say it. You need to say it.” He straightened up in his saddle.

            “I’m alive. I’m a good woman.” She saw the wall of Leonor. She heard the cries of battle. She felt the clash of steel, her sword against that of the enemy. One then the other. Then him. Then the next.

            She saw Lupita, smiling. She saw Carl and Nettle.

            “Thank you, Barra.”

            “Did that help?” He asked.

            “I don’t know yet. Perhaps.

            Barra?”

            “Yes.” He looked at her.

            “How did I get my sword back? I don’t remember.”

            “You made Qian Jo order the guards to give our weapons back to us at the gates of the Endless Wall.”

            “I want to be home.”

            “We’re in Bragyp now, Sir Longbow. Soon we’ll be on a ship. You were incredible in Makt you know. You fought like a hero from the legends. Even with an arrow in you.”

            “I’m paying for it now,” she said. She could feel the pain of her latest wound every time she breathed.

            “We pay for everything we do Danielle. I believe it was worth the price. You’re no fool. Qian Jo was wrong.” He sniffed the air. “Can you smell it? That’s the ocean, Sir Longbow. We’re almost there.”

            She looked at the motley army that walked alongside them. Men, women, and children hoping for a better life. Some had swords and the same simple fire lances she had taken to Crann from Sliabh on a different adventure. They wore shoes or sandals. Some walked barefoot. Defectors had cold looks on their faces, they felt something akin to her trauma.

            Children talked about the new land they would go to, where they would have enough food and work. Mother’s smiled and told the children that was right, though they weren’t so sure.

            The sky above was azure. The emerald grass was razor sharp. The wind blew the blades of green back and forward in waves. The smell of salt was in the air. Seagulls flew on the horizon. Over that horizon was the ocean. Over that ocean was her home.