A Veteran Returns Home: Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Five
The darkness subsided into scorching heat and blinding light. He covered his eye to see with no great success and barged into a crowded street. Midday, a good time to be out, he thought harried by the crowds rushing to be home and out of the heat for a few hours.
The last time Nemo had exited that tunnel he had collapsed in the road. A monk in blue had saved him and he awoke in a temple. His mind was foggy and strained. Which way was it? Yet more steps to retrace. More directions to remember. A wroth bubbled within to roar and curse all that had happened. All he had been forced to do. How hard it was to return to the life you knew.
He halted in the crowd, like a stone on the river bed. The urchins and sellers, the labourers and crafters, all swam passed him. Moving as water around a stone. He looked above the litter of heads bobbing around him for side roads and passages. He spied a break between buildings and cut a path across the road parting the people. All but the child messengers cursed and scowled.
A man hurried passed, swearing and excusing himself in equal measure. Dangling from his belt by a poor knot was a waterskin. The knot undoing itself. Nemo walked towards the man in a slow pace.
‘Excuse me. Excuse me. Get out of the damn way!’ He pleaded and shouted.
Nemo moved at the last moment, catching the man’s shoulder and lifting the waterskin off his person. He pushed through the lines of traffic developing and towards the side of the road. He uncorked the skin and poured a little into his hands and rubbed his face clean of dirt and blood. Washing his hands and face he took a swig of water before pouring the rest over his head. Ruffling his hair as clean as could be and drying his face with a clean corner of his shirt.
On the side of the road a merchant sat under the brim of his wagon roof. He shouted out that he was still open for business. No one heeded his call, too concerned with getting home or sitting in a water cooled bar. With a pool of water still as glass and a chilled spiced tea, or beer. The merchant shouted once more. No one came. He started to climb inside his wagon and pull the curtain across.
‘Wait,’ Nemo shouted through the hoards. ‘Seller, seller,’ he beckoned waving his hand above his head.
The man turned and squinted at Nemo, ‘What do you want?’
‘Where is the Dohanlu temple from here?’
‘Directions? I don’t sell those,’ he grunted.
‘No one wants to be out in this heat and I’m far from home,’ Nemo said. Far from the truth but no word of a lie.
The merchant scratched the stubble on his chin. Groaned. ‘Alright, it’s two streets over and toward the south,’ he said.
South, Nemo looked to the sun and for the city walls.
‘That way,’ the merchant said and pointed behind Nemo.
‘Thank you. Truly,’ Nemo placed a hand over his heart and went to shake the sellers hand.
The seller hesitated at first and then accepted the gesture.
Nemo dashed down the side road near by. A clear passage. At the far end he saw another swarm of bodies bustling through the streets. He turned left onto a parallel passage. A few people milled about. Chatting in the shade and emptying waste pots.
At the third passage right he turned and carved into the hoards of people going left and right. The crowd had thickened and as he pushed through one, two more appeared before him. He pushed and pulled his way through the people. Their stench, and his, assaulting him. The din of conversation ebbing around everyone.
Air. He pushed through one more person and there were no more. A gap in the road. A trumpet and the banging of a drum. Nemo snapped his attention to the source. A guard unit marched down the road led by drummers and followed by trumpeters.
He dove back into the crowd careful to mask his face with his hand. He allowed the crowd to swallow him into the midst and carry him towards, and hopefully beyond, the guard unit. His face was known amongst the authorities at least. He kept his head down and noticed the woman to his left. Alone with a basket of food balanced atop her head.
‘What have you got in there?’ He asked turning away from the troopers.
‘Nothing for you,’ she responded.
Nemo laughed, ‘I’m looking for recipes. I need to make something later for a few guests,’ he lied.
‘Well you have left it rather late to try something new,’ she laughed.
‘I know. I have been trying things out the last few nights but nothing worked. I need a dish that delivers,’ he punched the air.
‘I have lamb hocks. They need a very slow and long cooking in a good mix of veg and spices. A cinnamon stick and cardamon pods. You can’t go wrong. The longer the better to really cook the meat. And it’s cheap,’ she winked.
Nemo nodded and made a sound of approval, ‘That does sound good. Maybe you could cook for my guests and I?’
The pair laughed and she playfully slapped his arm.
Nemo caught a glimpse of the crowd shifting. Filling the space vacated by the guards.
‘Thanks,’ he smiled curt and dived through the crowds to the other side of the road.
The woman shouted something after him he didn’t care to hear. The space in the centre of the road filled with a swiftness of water rushing into a newly dug trough. He hurried across the road and felt the cool shadow of a passage. He sighed relief. It is near, he knew.
He dove sideways around a woman marching out of her door with bolts of cloth. She gasped as Nemo hurried around her. Then cursed. Nemo spied the road with the temple on, at least if the merchant hadn’t lied.
He burst into a throng of people and recognised the buildings. The sandstone balconies, raised doors with a short set of steps up. The intricate woodcarvings on doors and window shutters.
Nemo pushed his way down the side of the road. Hopping up onto steps and dropping down the other side to dodge the thinning crowds. Blankets had been laid out between the steps of buildings. People sat, their back to the wall, holding small covers, fans, or wearing hats to shield themselves from the sun. On the blankets were trinkets, odds and ends, unfinished carvings, nails, hinges, broken locks, and a host of other objects for sale. A bazaar of the bizarre.
He leapt over the first blanket stall and attempted it a second time. Leaping from ground to the second step of a building he misjudged the height. He landed on the step, overbalanced, and planted a foot down onto a chipped pot. The pot squeaked under his weight and then shattered. The woman at the stall erupted into anger. Whipping at his leg with her parasol cursing all the while.
Nemo broke back into a run without looking back. In moments he would see them. Without chains and with good meals.
The nearest blanket stall owner shouted and bade him run somewhere else. Nemo, not wanting a fight, pushed into the crowds to avoid the next few blanket stalls.
A building to his left stood with its doors open. Wafting incense could be smelled all around. Bundles of incense sticks choked the stairs. Either side littered with streaming smoke and the curled husk of burned incense. Oil burners lined the edge of the top step and into the building lining the open doors. Dim rippling candle light pulsed and flickered from inside.
Nemo slowed to a walk and spied a look inside. The building was not quite as he remembered it, shut up and windowless, but he had left at dawn. He peered inside and greeting him was a the great statue of the Son of Heaven. His right palm flat and welcoming. His bronze and impassive expression ever staring and intriguing.
Nemo climbed the steps with a drawl. Inhaling the perfume of the temple and feeling it clear his head and replace stress with a heady fog. He coughed as a line of smoke tickled his throat.
The gloom he remembered as well as the central aisle a step lower than the rest of the floor. The low benches with which to kneel and not sit. The candles littering every surface casting strange sharp shadows in every direction. The windowless chamber lit only by the shimmering bronze statue of the Emperor of Dohanlu. His form radiance itself.
A man in a blue robe shuffled towards him, the stubble across his scalp on display as he approached with a bowed head and clasped hands.
‘Are you here to give an offering?’ He asked in a melancholic tone.
‘I’m here to see Zhuzi and others who should have arrived before me,’ Nemo answered.
‘Oh, yes. Upstairs. You will know which room,’ the monk bowed lower, placing his hands on his thighs as he did so.
Nemo thanked the monk and bowed in turn.
The monk shuffled off into the gloom and a door closed behind him.
Nemo climbed the stairs concealed by shadow in the corner of the chamber. The corridor above could have been one in any inn across the city. Pale, unvarnished, floorboards, rails, and whitewashed walls made airy by open windows and plenty of them.
His room had been in the corner overlooking the street below. The door was closed and his heart beat as fast as it had done mid-fight. He went to turn the handle, faltered, and knocked instead.
The soft padding of footsteps shuffled towards the door. The handle clicked and the door opened enough for Zhuzi to peer out from between the gap.
‘Ahh, we have been waiting for you,’ he said and opened the door fully.
‘Da!’ Avaya shouted and ran to Nemo throwing his arms his waist.
Nemo grunted as the shallow gash on his side twisted and the scab tore open. ‘You made it,’ Nemo said again and again unable to prevent the smile on his lips.
Mani lay in the bed he lay in. Her eyes closed and breathing weak. Vispa sat on a cushion on the floor observing. Her features strained and her smile swift and pale.
Delara remained crouched at Mani’s bedside. Holding her mother’s hand in a tight grip. Tears lined her face, not in a sob, but a constant stream of sorrow.
‘How is Mani?’ Nemo asked with one arm returning Avaya’s hug.
‘Not good,’ Zhuzi offered prompt and restrained.
‘How “not good”?’ Nemo asked.
‘I do not see her recovering. Death is likely and soon,’ Zhuzi said warding himself by outlining a circle around his heart with a finger.
Avaya buried his head in his fathers shirt at the news. Delara continued to cry.
‘Da, you’re bleeding,’ Avaya said pulling away with speckles of blood on his arm and cheek.
Nemo pressed his hand to his side, ‘So I am,’ his vision doubled and the room fell sideways. There was a crash and the room snapped into focus. He righted himself from the wall and blinked to clear the confusion. Zhuzi’s hand was on his arm. ‘I’m fine. I just need cleaning up. And a sit down,’ he said moving towards the other bed in the room under the windows.
‘This wasn’t here before,’ he said.
‘No. When I heard from Vispa that you were on your way I was sure you would have been up to old tricks,’ Zhuzi laughed as he carried a tray of medical supplies.
‘How can you laugh at a time like this?’ Vispa snapped.
Zhuzi placed the tree on the table next to Nemo’s bed. ‘A thing does not cease to be funny because of the time.’
Vispa scowled but remained silent.
Avaya knelt by Nemo.
‘I’ll be fine. You should be with your mother,’ Nemo told him.
‘But—,’ Avaya started.
‘No. I will be fine. She will not,’ Nemo ruffled his hair.
Avaya pouted and went to sit by his sister, Delara.
‘Vispa,’ Nemo started as Zhuzi began to work.
‘What?’ She said.
‘Come closer.’
Vispa shuffled towards him with sounds of annoyance.
‘What happened?’
‘Nothing happened. We jumped the wall, ran into the city, got lost in crowds, and asked people for directions,’ Vispa looked about the room as she finished.
‘But?’ Nemo coaxed.
Vispa shook her head and said, ’I just can’t help thinking about all those we left behind.’
‘We couldn’t have saved them all.’
‘I know we couldn’t then. But we can in the future. We can fight this. You have shown that. If one or two people can do this,’ she gestured to his family, ‘imagine what twenty, or one hundred could do?’
Nemo winced as Zhuzi dabbed the wound with cleaning spirit. ‘I don’t think they will be quite so lax with a dozen or more charging through the tunnels.’
‘Maybe not but what we have done has shown how weak their position is here. They are stretched thin across too many cities. If we can start cells in other cities and do the same again and again we can break them,’ her eyes shone and she gripped the side of Nemo’s bed with a fervour. ‘We can liberate the Free Cities. We can fight back,’ she began to shout her eyes wide with insane courage.
‘Vispa,’ Nemo spoke low, ‘I don’t think that’s the best idea. There is no appetite from the people to fight this.’
‘There wasn’t appetite to fight the war either but people did. Not all, not even most, but you did,’ she jabbed Nemo in the chest. ‘Why not again? Why not now?’
Nemo sighed. ‘I have other worries and problems,’ he watched Delara and Avaya by Mani’s bedside. Each forlorn and silent.
Vispa peered behind her, ‘Well I don’t. I have no one. And for once it seems an advantage,’ she said.
‘You said you didn’t like the Resistance before. How they had mistreated you,’ Nemo reached out to hold her arm.
She pulled back, ‘That was before. Now I have a plan and can offer something more. Something better,’ she said.
Nemo could see the same vigour that had driven him towards fighting. Age didn’t temper such spirit, experience did. With a taste of success anything seems possible. There was nothing he could do to show her. He had survived the Plains, most had not, that was too much failure for one to manage. His defeat would ring as hollow to her as his victories did to him now. No other battle or skirmish mattered after the Plains of St Iseltor. How no other victory mattered more to Vispa than rescuing three people from slavery. If three could be saved so could three thousand. If one battle was won so could all the rest.
Zhuzi stitched a small length of the wound up and applied a bandage. ‘You can move. Nothing exerting. It may be shallow but that won’t stop it killing you,’ the monk warned. He turned to Vispa, needle in hand, ‘You have to do what you think is right but don’t be surprised when others say you are wrong. Do not act in haste. Act only when necessary and presume you are wrong until you are certain it is right,’ he smiled, placed the needle on the tray, and left the room.
‘What did he mean?’ Vispa turned to Nemo.
He pushed himself to sitting, the entire left side of his body aching. ‘I don’t know. There is a lot I don’t understand when these monks talk. But don’t assume you are right is a good lesson. Ask those who know how to act. Monks, priests, paupers, learned folk, anyone with experience. It is not so clear cut as it may seem.’
Vispa mouthed something then stopped in thought.
Nemo sat on the edge of Mani’s bed. Her leg was cold in his hand. Lips white and cracked. Nemo shook her leg, ‘Mani,’ he croaked.
She didn’t respond.
He cleared his throat and shook her leg again, ‘Mani.’
Her eyes fluttered and a whimper escaped her lips.
Delara leaned forward clenching her mother’s hand.
‘Nemo? Is that you?’ Mani said her eyes open no more than a hair’s width.
‘And me and Delara too,’ Avaya said balling the bed covers in fists.
‘Oh,’ Mani strained a smile and turned to see her children. Her fingers, knobbed and crooked, closed around Delara’s hand. ‘I have missed you so much.’ Her eyes closed over.
Nemo moved closer pushing up against Avaya and Delara. He stroked her cheek.
She inhaled sharply and fluttered awake again. She smiled up at Nemo.
Nemo bent down and brushed her lips with a kiss.
Mani kissed back before a gasp of air dragged her unconscious once more.
‘Ma,’ Avaya said.
No response.
Delara tightened her grip as Mani’s fingers loosened.
‘Mani?’ Nemo asked.
Her head lolled to the side as a final breath left her lips. Her chest stilled and her body seemed to sink into the bed losing all strength.
‘Hey,’ Nemo reached up to her neck, a hand on her chin to turn her head, he felt for a pulse, ‘Not yet. We have so much to share,’ Nemo said feeling only cold skin beneath his fingers. He joined Avaya and Delara on the floor and put an arm round each of them.
‘Ma?’ Delara said, voice shaking. ‘Ma?’ She repeated broken with tears.
Avaya and Delara called for her but she lay silent.
Nemo embraced them both. They nestled into his chest. He placed his chin on the top of Delara’s head. He bit back tears and pulled his children closer.
Delara held her mother’s hand tight in one hand squeezing until the knuckles were bunched and crossed.
Nemo tugged at Delara’s outstretched arm bidding her to relinquish Mani’s hand.
‘No,’ she said blubbering refusing to break her grip.
‘You must,’ Nemo said with a whisper.
‘Why?’ Delara snapped bordering on rage.
‘Mani rests and we should let her,’ Nemo said.
Delara cried louder rubbing her mother’s hand with her thumb one last time before loosening her grip. Nemo gently brought her hand into his and held her, and Avaya, as they racked themselves with sorrow.
Vispa brushed her hand along Nemo’s back and nodded as she left the room.
Nemo, Delara, and Avaya remained on the floor till dusk.
A quiet rasp sounded from the door.
‘Come in,’ Nemo croaked. His throat hoarse. He sat on the floor. Avaya curled asleep to his right and Delara resting her head in his lap on the left.
The brilliant blue robes flashed round the door as Zhuzi entered. He bowed low and warded Mani with a box. ‘Forgive me for the crass nature of my intrusion but the other monks are keen to bury or cremate your wife’s body,’ his head remained angled towards the floor.
‘Do you do that here?’ Nemo asked unable to think of a way of leaving Tanussi with a body, let alone a coffin.
‘We have not had reason to but we are able to.’
‘What would you advise,’ Nemo could not choose. Burial was the way it was done. Returning the body to the ground to complete the ring of life. Cremation distorted this cycle by hurrying it along beyond the rights of people. But a burial is public and I can’t wait for that or be seen.
‘In Dohanlu cremation is common for most. Burial a rarity. An exception can be made as we are the guests to your land. Though we have no land of our own to perform a burial. You would have to arrange that yourselves.’
‘Cremation then,’ Nemo choked and rubbed his temples.
‘It is an auspicious evening for such a thing. The Star of Guo is high and bright.’
‘Which star is that?’
Zhuzi shuffled to the window and bid Nemo to join him with a wave of his sleeve.
Nemo lifted Delara’s head off his leg. She groaned in her sleep. He shuffled from out between his children and lowered her head to the floor. She turned and moved, bringing a hand under her head. Nemo stroked her hair as she continued to sleep.
‘That one,’ Zhuzi pointed to the sky when Nemo joined him.
‘The buckle of The Hunter?’
‘That is the brightest star in the sky and the sun has only this moment set. A sure sign as any of the rightness of action this evening.’
‘I suppose so,’ Nemo struggled to think of any reason not to. The Hunter was a character with copious stories attached but never ones of evil or malice. Always towards the need for certain action or wild living.
‘I will inform the others and preparations will begin,’ Zhuzi bowed and a smile split his mouth. His eyes widening and his hairless brow shifting upwards.
He finds the oddest things cheerful, Nemo thought as the eastern monk shuffled across the room.
Mani lay on the bed in the corner of the room. The shadow of night eclipsing most of her features. Her form was peaceful and silent. Her cheeks sunken and mouth a little a jar. This is better. She could not have travelled in that state. Even if her memory returned fully she was too weak. Nemo reasoned his way to stability.
Delara and Avaya slept on the floor. Their knees brought up to their chests and a hand under their cheeks. Delara’s other hand lay outstretched towards Avaya and his free hand to hers.
As Nemo admired the scene the door opened and in strode two monks he didn’t recognise. Each wore the blue robes but wore sleeveless long garments of white and a twist of a headband. Both bowed and warded Mani with a box like Zhuzi had done. The first unfurled a sheet of white cloth and together they laid the sheet over Mani’s body.
Zhuzi appeared behind them, with the white of mourning garb like the others and a headband of twisted white cloth, ‘Worry not. The rites are beginning. You all are welcome to join the ceremony down stairs. You won’t understand the words but I hope you will understand the meaning,’ he bowed first to Mani, then to Nemo.
The two monks tucked the sheet under Mani’s figure and proceeded to lift the body. With one hand they each held the body and the other slid over the fabric and enshrouded Mani within. The pair carried the body between them and shuffled out of the room, bowing to Nemo and to Zhuzi.
Zhuzi waved Nemo follow.
‘Hold on,’ Nemo knelt beside Delara and Avaya. He shook each in turn. They awoke with a yawn and a rubbing of the eyes. ‘We are going to send Ma off. You should be there to offer your prayers,’ he said.
‘What?’ Avaya said blinking sleep away.
Nemo waited a moment for them to wake up.
‘Oh,’ Delara said. ‘I see. Why can’t we do that at home?’
‘We can’t go home,’ Nemo revealed.
‘Why not?’ Avaya said, yawning.
‘Beargarth is gone. The buildings stand but the people are gone.’
‘You mean… the bad people drove them out?’ Avaya said.
‘You remember when they came for us?’ Delara said tugging her brother’s attention towards her.
Nemo swallowed his worry.
‘Yeah,’ he said.
‘Well they must have done that to everyone in the town,’ Delara continued.
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know,’ Nemo interjected. The topic was not one he wished to speak of. Not yet at least.
‘Can’t we go back and find the people and bring them back?’ Avaya said.
‘That would be nice but I have a better idea.’
‘What is it?’ Avaya said bouncing up to a kneeling position.
‘After we pray for your mother,’ he pointed towards Zhuzi.
Avaya looked and squinted, then he stood up and took Delara’s hand and beckoned her follow.
The monk waved and ushered them out of the room.
A monk waited at the base of the stairs with three sets of mourning robes. He handed them to Delara, Avaya, and Nemo in turn.
‘What’s this?’ Delara asked fumbling with the robe.
‘It’s mourning wear. We are in a Dohanlu temple, as you know, and this is our only option. So let’s do it their way. Okay? The gods will understand,’ he pulled the white robe on. Coarse and ill-cut, seemingly on purpose. He held a length of cloth in the other hand and began to twist it over itself then tied it around his head.
His eye adjusted to the gloom of the chamber and he saw Vispa standing a few benches from the front. She wore the white of mourning with her hands clasped. Nemo joined her.
‘What’s going on?’ She asked. ‘Only Zhuzi seems to speak good Tanussi.’
‘Mani’s funeral,’ Nemo said.
‘Oh, that was quick.’
‘The monks were worried about having a dead body around too long and there is no way we could get it out of the city so this was the only choice,’ Nemo said.
Vispa hummed in response. Staring into the distance, through the bronze Son of Heaven.
Delara and Avaya joined the duo. Avaya went to sit on the low bench.
‘Don’t sit,’ Nemo said catching his son by the arm.
‘Why?’
‘It’s not for sitting. It’s for kneeling on when you pray,’ Nemo said.
‘Okay,’ Avaya said shifting the headband higher on his head.
A bell chimed once. A high pitched whine that stretched into the future and the past engulfing all experience. As the ringing dimmed the bell chimed a second time doubling the effect as the two rings of the single bell echoed over each other and then absorbed one another.
The two monks who carried Mani out of the room returned this time carrying a thin wicker coffin. Between the rods of pliable wood Nemo could see Mani covered in white cloth. The wicker creaked and rustled as the two azure monks lowered it onto a metal grate in front of the statue. To the side where three stone slabs which had been removed to reveal the grate.
‘What are they doing?’ Avaya asked. The ringing of the bell dying out.
‘Shh. We are sending your mother across. Just watch and ask your questions later,’ Nemo patted Avaya on the shoulder.
Zhuzi stepped into view standing at the left side of where Mani rested. In one hand he held a chain at the end swung an incense burner. Under the cover of the raised hand of the Emperor. The monk turned to the statue and lowered himself to his knees and then bowed, arms stretching out across the floor. He repeated the bow towards the coffin of Mani. He stood and gently swung the incense back and forth as he circled the coffin.
He chanted and hummed in his native tongue. Another monk proceeded to the ring the bell again in a faster pattern.
A few monks had joined Nemo’s band and knelt down. Nemo copied and signalled for Avaya and Delara to do the same. He spied their lips moving and said a few prayers of his own. Murmuring them loud enough for Avaya to hear. After a moment he could hear Avaya reciting the same prayers, and Delara too.
Zhuzi circled Mani three times until the incense was like a fog. He ceased when he stood under the the hand of the Son of Heaven passing the incense burner to a fellow monk who kept his head bowed as he shuffled backwards.
The monk recited a prayer in the eastern language. The other monks followed his lead. One turned an iron wheel in the wall and the coffin began to drop into the floor. Flames licked the side of the coffin from below and soon the wicker construct erupted into tall, orange, fire. The white shroud caught and the edges of the thin cloth rippled with flame.
Zhuzi clasped his hands together and made a humming sound while he danced his hands over the burning coffin. The wicker pyre descended below the floor and two monks replaced the stone tiles over the opening in the floor.
Taking the incense back from the attendant Zhuzi walked in a square around the, now sealed, crematorium. Another monk rang the bell twice and all bowed towards the Son of Heaven.
Nemo offered a bow of his head and nothing more. Rising to his feet he could hear the flames roaring underneath the floor. The fire snapped and cracked at wood and body alike.
Zhuzi came towards him and whispered, ‘That is it. We now wait for the fire to do its work and the ashes will be anointed and blessed. You are free to take them or we can intern them here with others and make offerings when appropriate.’
Would having a jar of ashes be living in the past or an adequate way of remembering. The thought of seeing a jar filled with the remnants of a person sent a shiver down his spine. To see it everyday was akin to not burying a body. He whispered, ‘Do as your rites demand. Mani was from this land and she should stay in the land even though we cannot,’ he looked to Avaya and Delara.
Zhuzi rose his hairless brows in shock, ‘What are you going to do?’
‘I have a favour to ask of you,’ Nemo said.
‘Go on.’
‘Do you have a way I can leave the city without being seen by anyone?’
Zhuzi thought for a time. His eyes glazed and his brow glistened as the heat of the fire below warmed the stones beneath their feet. ‘There maybe a way,’ he tapped his lip.
‘What is it?’ Nemo pushed.
‘Gather your things. Leave the mourning clothing in the basket by the stairs to be cleansed. I need to check a few things first. I’ll be back in a few minutes, wait here,’ Zhuzi said.
‘Okay,’ Nemo said pulling the headband off.
Zhuzi bowed and shuffled off into the gloom of the chamber.
Nemo knelt down on the low, cushioned, bench and prayed. He prayed for nothing specific and for everything he could think of. That Mani reached the other side safely, that he would escape, the monks would be willing to help, guards wouldn’t storm the temple at any moment, Vispa rethought her plan, his children grew up in peace, and a dozen other thoughts and ideas that flitted through his head in the moment. To ask for so much could be rude. Not only rude but outright disastrous for him. The gods may choose pity or they may choose to punish the one unwilling to work for his own gain. Where was the line? Nemo finished his prayer with a rejection of aid to put his worries to rest. Instead he stood leaving his trance feeling little better than before.
‘We’ll be alright. We can build a new home,’ Avaya said.
Nemo smiled and ruffled his hair, ‘I hope you’re right. Come on let’s get out of these mourning robes,’ he said pulled his off.
His children and Vispa followed while the monks retained their own mourning garments. The one who had held the incense for Zhuzi gave a solemn shake of the head as they dropped the used robes into a basket.
‘Good news,’ Zhuzi began, he caught the eye of the other monk and turned berating him in his own tongue. The monk turned and bowed low to Nemo and his family before scurrying off. ‘Apologies. It is customary to mourn for at least a week and up to a year depending on the person who has passed. I have explained you are free of this obligation due to the… unusual situation you are in. He meant no offence,’ Zhuzi said.
‘None taken. What is this good news?’ Nemo asked.
‘Yes, that. We can smuggle you out of the city. We make large donations to the needy outside the city and in the war torn villages. We shall hide you amongst the crates. In the crates I should say, and ride the cart out. The guards know us and only do a cursory search,’ Zhuzi said.
‘How Long have you been here?,’ Nemo said.
‘I have not been here long but others have been here for years,’ Zhuzi smiled.
‘You risk too much,’ Nemo protested.
‘It is the only way we can help and I presume you have no other way or you wouldn’t have asked.’
Nemo knew Zhuzi was right. The tunnels he had used would be guarded and sealed by Thesusians or watched by Resistance. The monks of the east were his last gamble.
‘When would we go?’
‘Tomorrow morning. Before the heat and crowds clog the roads,’ Zhuzi said.
‘We leave tomorrow then. Delara, Avaya, we’ll be up early make sure you eat well,’
‘Yes, Da,’ they said in unison.
‘Vispa,’ Nemo began.
‘I’m not going,’ she said. The words fell out of her mouth at speed.
‘Why?’
‘I told you. I can’t leave these people to be enslaved and crushed with burdens of another’s choosing. I am staying to help the Resistance,’ Vispa said.
Nemo sighed. Mind racing through ways of convincing her. All paling before he had even fully formed the thought. ‘Okay. If that is your choice I pray Kethus smiles upon you and yours,’ he said.
Vispa lunged and threw both her arms around him.
He spluttered and coughed.
Vispa tightened her embrace.
Nemo relented and returned the hug.
‘I will miss you. Thank you for showing me another way,’ Vispa said.
‘I…,’ Nemo paused, ‘You’re welcome.’
Vispa released her iron grip around his torso and stepped back, ‘I pray Kethus smiles upon you too.’
Nemo nodded.
Vispa waved to Delara and Avaya, a tight awkward thing. The children bid farewell.
Vispa turned and smiled, ‘I wish you safe travels.’
‘You too. I hope the Resistance succeeds. I mean that even though I am leaving,’ Nemo said.
She nodded, waved once more, and departed.
Nemo lay in a bed in a different room. The other too full of memories and emotion to enter. Delara and Avaya shared a bed both breathing softly in deepest sleep. Sleep evaded Nemo his mind running horrid errands of the multitude of failures that awaited Vispa and himself.
He tossed in bed and lay with his eyes closed and attempting to banish the thoughts from his mind but each time the still blackness filled his mind another reared its head. This time the city guards finding Delara, Avaya, and him on the back of Zhuzi’s cart. The guard shouts that Nemo is now a kill on sight target and he jolts up as the halberd pierces his stomach.
Nemo sat up in bed covered in sweat. Pale light filters in through the curtains. Morning already? I must have slept a little. He threw the covers back and climbed out of bed. Dressing swiftly and waking Delara and Avaya.
The two coiled around the bed covers twisted and stretched between them.
‘It’s too early,’ Delara moaned pulling her section of cover over her eyes.
‘It may be but we have to go now,’ Nemo said.
Delara groaned and rolled over.
Avaya lay blinking and rubbing his eyes. He yawned and shut his eyes.
‘Up. Now,’ Nemo said.
Avaya bounded out of bed at his father’s command. Delara moaned and stretched out into the new space on the bed.
‘You will be left behind,’ Nemo threatened without meaning it.
Delara offered a weak cry of, ‘No,’ as she shifted to the edge of the bed. Her feet fell out of the covers and struck the floor with a thud.
‘Others are sleeping. You can sleep tomorrow,’ Nemo said.
‘Fine,’ she said sitting up on the edge of the bed. Her shoulders rounded and head stooped.
There was a soft knocking at the door. Nemo opened the door and Zhuzi greeted him.
‘Are you ready to go?’ The monk asked.
‘Yes,’ Nemo said. He turned to his children, ‘Have everything?’ He asked.
‘We didn’t have anything to begin with,’ Avaya said with sincerity.
Of course, Nemo thought.
Zhuzi showed the trio downstairs and into the chamber below. By the side of the stairs were three empty crates and a few sealed ones.
‘If you would get into the boxes please,’ Zhuzi said.
‘Are you sure this will work?’
‘No one can be sure of anything but trying is well rewarded,’ Zhuzi said gesturing to the wooden boxes.
Nemo breathed deep and waved Avaya over to a box. He knelt by him, ‘Now. I don’t know how long you will be in here for but I will be in the one next to you. Don’t talk. Don’t make any sound until I tell you it’s safe too. Okay?’
Avaya nodded.
‘Understood?’ Nemo said.
‘Yes, Da,’ Avaya nodded biting his thumb.
‘Good. Hop in.’
The boy lifted his legs over the side and lowered himself into the box. Knees by his chin and his head a little above the top of the crate.
Nemo turned to Delara to see her already climbing over the side of her box.
‘I heard you Da. I will be silent too,’ she said.
‘Good,’ Nemo said climbing into his own box.
Zhuzi walked over to Nemo, a hammer in his hand, ‘Well. Stay silent and I will see you on the outside,’ he smiled as he lifted the lid over Nemo’s head.
Nemo stooped as the lid settled into place. Velvet darkness enshrouded Nemo. Not even a crack of light filtered through the side of the box. The monk began hammering and the sound seemed to gnaw through his ears and into his brain. Rattling his teeth in his gums and disturbing every thought.
The hammering ceased and continued to Nemo’s right and then to his left. Zhuzi shouted in his native tongue. Nemo heard others shuffling towards him. He was tipped backwards and forwards. The base of the box creaked and yawned under his weight. His stomach turned as he rocked and swayed. He slid to one side of the box unable to lift his head against the top. With an almighty thud he felt the box land on something. The wood scratched and scraped and Nemo was laying on his back, feet in the air, and his neck wedged between what had been the top and the side of the box which was now the side and the base.
Nemo dared to twist and bend himself into a more comfortable position. As he moved he cracked his head on the side of the box and a loud knocking greeted him. Guess not, he thought attempting to find some part of his body that felt comfortable. It was useless everything either ached or pinched.
Before long he felt a rocking and heard the grinding of the wheels of a cart along the road. The snapping of a whip broke through the wooden cell every so often.
The cart rolled down the streets of Tanussi. Nemo’s neck was struck with a lance of pain on each out of place rock and nail strewn in the sand and cobbles of the roads. He lay on his back and felt each turn of the wheel. An uneven wheel it seemed. Each half turn the cart rose and dropped a little more than the other half of the turn. The crate rocked more so on that half cranking his neck further causing his chin to dig into his sternum.
Nemo felt the cart slowing. A man was shouting. A stern voice. One of authority.
‘Zhuzi, what’s with the cart?’ The voice asked.
Nemo strained to hear outside of his dark and wooden world. He closed his eyes which did little to alter his vision but it seemed to improve his concentration on hearing.
‘We have had a boon and too many donations to carry by hand so the other monks and I purchased a cart. Not that we intend to keep it beyond what is necessary,’ Zhuzi said.
‘Sensible decision,’ the man laughed. Others laughed with him.
‘Maybe. But not one for a man living in poverty,’ Zhuzi.
‘At least your back will thank you,’ the man said.
Nemo heard footsteps close by. The familiar thunk of a steel tipped halberd beating cobblestones.
‘You know the rules,’ he said.
‘Check it over. All the usual,’ Zhuzi said.
The cart rocked towards the back. Boots thudded against the bed. The scuffing sound of a box being dragged along echoed around Nemo.
‘Open it up,’ a guard said.
Nemo heard the pop and screech of nails forced out and the top of the box crashing to the floor of the cart.
‘And?’
‘Usual stuff. Clothing in this one,’ he said.
‘Great. We can tick it off. On you go, Zhuzi,’ the guard said.
‘Thank you, Thrit. This is for you and yours,’ Zhuzi said.
‘Ahhh. Very nice. We will enjoy this later,’ the guard said.
Zhuzi clicked his tongue, flicked the whip, and the cart rumbled to a start. Lurching up to a steady pace.
The cart carried on for what felt like an age. Nemo began to sweat. His neck dripped and his chin stuck to his chest. His eyelids were damp and there was no sign of the heat ceasing to rise.
After what must have been the whole morning the cart pulled to a halt. Nemo heard the monk drop from the riders bench and shuffle around the cart. Zhuzi grunted as he clambered onto the cart. A swift crunch of wood sounded and then nails squeaked and a slit of sky appeared in Nemo’s view. The slit widened. The pale blue of the sky was all Nemo could see. His vision a mess of flashing lights and floating shadows. He blinked away the stabbing pain as a breath of cool air washed into the box. He gulped a breath and struggled to worm his way to a more comfortable position.
Zhuzi appeared over the side of the box, ‘You did very well at keeping quiet. I thought you had died at one point,’ the monk laughed and offered a hand to Nemo.
‘I could have from the heat and the crick in my neck,’ Nemo said as he was pulled free of the box. His neck laced with pain and pleasure as he stretched it in a full circle savouring the sweet pain.
Zhuzi opened the other two boxes and Avaya and Delara clambered out.
‘Thanks,’ Delara said as Zhuzi offered her a hand. ‘Oh,’ she breathed, ‘that,’ she breathed, ‘is,’ and again, ‘much nicer,’ she said taking a deep breath of air. She reached an arm around the back of neck and pushed on her head a little to stretch out the stooping neck.
Nemo surveyed their surroundings, ‘There’s nothing here.’
‘No. Very safe to free you,’ Zhuzi said.
‘Thank you. I don’t think that can ever be repaid.’
‘Live a good life and avoid excess. That will be enough for me,’ the monk smiled his eyes pinching beneath hairless brows.
‘Sounds good to me after all this madness,’ Nemo said. ‘I don’t know where we will go though,’ he said staring off into the distance trying to imagine a place that wasn’t Beargarth.
‘I have heard of a place. To the east. And a little north. Out of reach of the Republic and of interest to the Son of Heaven only as a thorn in the Republic’s side,’ Zhuzi said.
‘What is this place?’
‘I don’t think it has a name. Not yet at least. A place for refugees and renegades I believe. Those that don’t want the Republic are left with little choice but to start something new it would seem. It shouldn’t be too hard to find if you make for that direction,’ Zhuzi pointed towards a twin peaked mountain on the horizon.
Nemo went wide eyed.
‘Don’t worry, it isn’t that far, it is before the mountain. You will be able to see the wall to the east and a great forest to the west and that mountain somewhere in the middle to the north east,’ Zhuzi laughed.
‘That’s a long way by foot,’ Nemo thought out loud.
‘Oh you aren’t going by foot. Come here,’ Zhuzi beckoned him to the front of the cart.
Nemo followed and noticed the overly large horse. Too large for pulling carts. ‘Atars?’ He said.
The horse’s ears pricked and he snorted.
‘How ever did you find him?’
‘Vispa mentioned she had left him at the stables. Easy enough to pick him up,’ Zhuzi said.
‘Thank you. Truly. I will have to lead a good life indeed to repay you,’ Nemo laughed and stroked Nemo’s flank.
‘The cart is yours too. And the supplies. They should see you through a few weeks or more. Definitely to the place I mentioned.’
‘How will you return?’
‘I will walk. As I always do. And before you ask I will tell the guards the truth. I donated the cart to a more needy person than I,’ Zhuzi smiled. ‘I need to be going to make it back by dusk and you should be off too. Long journey ahead of you.’
Nemo bowed to the monk in azure and he bowed in turn. He beckoned Delara and Avaya to his side and told them to bow as well. The pair did so and Zhuzi returned the bow. With a final laugh he turned on his heel and set off back towards Tanussi.
‘Da, will he be okay walking back?’ Avaya asked.
‘He will. I met him when he and a younger monk were walking a greater distance than this. He seems to enjoy it. Anyway, climb aboard we need to get moving.’ Nemo lifted Avaya up to the rider’s bench and Delara followed him up.
‘Where are we going then? Home?’ Delara said.
‘Not home.’
‘Where then?’ She squinted and shielded her face from the sun.
Nemo kissed the ring around his neck and took the whip in one hand, reins in the other. He fidgeted in the seat and clicked his tongue.
Atars took a step and nodded his head as he increased his pace.
‘Da, what are we doing?’ Delara asked.
‘We are going to build a new home. A better home.’
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