Discordance Among the Songseers
A Fantasy One Shot
Luthel paced aboard the deck of the ship as it sailed into harbour. The journey had been three days shorter than it should have been, a testament to Kaskan's skill. Kaskan stood at the prow of the ship, hands resting in the small of his back, the four long tails of his cloak rippling in the breeze. He had stood there, motionless, since the harbour had come into sight. Luthel looked to the captain behind the wheel grinning wildly. To him three days meant coin, to Kaskan and Luthel it meant a free voyage. Luthel stepped around a sailor haranguing a length of rope, then another rolling a barrel across the deck, and then a third shouting orders to someone up on the rigging.
'Master, what are we to do when we step ashore?' Luthel imitated Kaskan's stance but he lacked the older man's balance and kept swaying and stepping side-to-side.
'We shall step ashore first, then decide the correct course.'
'Yes, Master,' Luthel said, his hands worried each other in the small of his back.
'Relax, Luthel. Our villain does not know we are here, not yet. The initiative is ours,' Kaskan remained as still as the desert roses.
Luthel felt a pressure on his mind, one he did not recognise. 'But Master...'
'I feel it too but it is not directed at us, it is more general than that. A malaise that afflicts the whole city, it is why we are here.'
The captain bellowed for sailors to leap ashore and secure the ship. Kaskan turned, his long, white eyebrows, curling in the sea wind. Without a word he headed for the gangway and just as a bald burly sailor set it down Kaskan crossed it, a long, thin shimmer dancing beneath his billowing cloak. Luthel hurried after his Master.
The city of Yi'tang bubbled up from the land beyond the harbour, a cascade of emerald rooves and chimney motifs screeching, roaring, cawing, and chirruping, up to the heavens. A line of merchants, “merchants”, workmen, and assorted sea peoples awaited the attention of the harbour master on one side of a gao gate while the city awaited on the other. It was not a long line but Yi'tang forbade foreigners for the majority of the day, until it came time for them to spend some silver. Kaskan strode along the line as if he never noticed it. Luthel scanned each man and woman there, meeting eyes for fury and belts for danger but most averted their gaze from the pair of songseers. Those that met Luthel's look stared in awe.
The harbour master held out his hand to stop Kaskan, and to Luthel's surprise his Master stopped. The harbour master had not looked up yet as he scrawled down the cargo of a vessel that, according to his log, had arrived over four bells ago. His charcoal scratched the paper in small, even marks, forming characters slowly but precisely. Luthel had never had much success learning the Yi'tang script, though mostly because he had never expected to be sent there.
'Join the line,' the harbour master said, without looking up. He spoke in a flurry of languages common to the harbour.
Kaskan remained where he was, so Luthel did so too.
'I said,' the habour master looked up and his eyes bulged. He went to speak but his tongue lapped impotently in his mouth.
'Guild business,' Kaskan said, in the Yi'tang tongue.
The harbour master barked in the musical language and the gao gate swung open. Kaskan and Luthel passed through as the four men who manned the great sea gate bowed to them. 'I was unaware the Guild was held in such high esteem here, Master.'
'Amongst the low born, yes. Do not expect the same reception from the high born, they have their own guilds and sects here.' The gate closed behind them.
The sounds of the city washed over Luthel, the sounds and the smells. His nostrils curled at the mix of spices, various smokes, dung, and people, 'I had forgotten the... intensity of the fortress cities.'
'Keep close,' Kaskan said. He turned left and marched down the street as if knowing exactly where it would take him, his hands resting at the small of his back. The sea lapped against the stone walls of the harbour, the few ships in port rising and falling languidly, their sails hoisted up. The sailors continued to wait in line for the harbour master to open the gate for an evening's frivolities in the wine dens and brothels of the foreigner district. The stench of sour wine wafted out into the street from a den Kaskan and Luthel passed by, a number of Yi'tang sailors stumbled out of it laughing and chiding each other. The oldest amongst them grappled to compose himself before the songseers but the wine had too strong of a hold and laughter bubbled out of him anyway. Beyond the wine den the street veered inland and was lined with storehouses and workshops, all closed up and quiet. The street was empty.
Luthel felt that pressure again, it had the same print as it had on the ship. 'Master...' his voice was a whisper. A pain surged through his mind and he fell to his knees.
Kaskan stopped and without turning drew his curved handled sabre, the blade like white porcelain. From the shadows came three warriors, dressed similarly to Kaskan, each with their own thin bladed sabres. Sweat covered Luthel's face as he tried to stand, but the pressure was too great. Kaskan was a blur. He leapt from one enemy to another with three slashes and a backflip to land before Luthel. The air rippled around Kaskan and Luthel felt the pressure begin to ease but before he could reach for his own sabre the enemy attacked. Two attacked Kaskan at once while the third attempted to edge around him. The two attacking Kaskan did so in unison. Kaskan blocked the sword to his right with his own and held his hand to the left to catch the other against his palm. Kaskan grimaced and the air grated with tension.
Luthel struggled to stand just as the third came at him. He drew his own sabre in a rush and deflected a wild charge from his assailant. Luthel was knocked backwards by the blow. Kaskan twisted into a high kick, catching both of his attackers in the jaw, he landed behind the third and sliced both of his legs off below the knee. Kaskan's expression was impassive as he turned on the other two. He threw his sabre through the chest of one, leapt after it and as he freed it found the third fleeing. 'Wait here,' Kaskan said, giving chase to the enemy.
Luthel felt the pressure against him weaken. He focussed his mind, blocking out the screaming of the now legless man. Luthel heaved the pressure off himself, concentrating his mind to the task at hand.
A fourth attacker emerged from the dark alleyway between brewery and wood workshop, his dark green robes fluttering in the breeze. He wore his long black hair in a tail. His eyes met Luthel's and rage burned behind them, 'You should not be here,' he said, thick with the Yi'tang accent.
Luthel felt the green robed man questing with his songseer's vision. Luthel concentrated his own energies, repelling his enemies. The wind grew thick and began to swirl about Luthel. With a thought he quelled the attack, then he raised his curved handled sabre.
The dark robed man grunted and flew across the street into a barrage of attacks. The parries and deflects were a blur as the swords rang out in harmonious notes filling the empty street with the song of battle. Luthel felt his opponents sword pass by his neck, the white shimmer a stain on his vision. He spun, letting his sabre twirl about him, and halted three feet to his left, thrusting outward. The enemy hopped out of danger, tapping Luthel's blade with his own, and leapt into the air where he floated and then dove at Luthel.
Luthel fell to his knees, his sabre overhead, as his enemy sailed overhead in a phthalo blur. A stinging burned his hand. His opponent landed and continued his assault, his breathing laboured. Luthel spun, kicking dirt from the road into the air, a thin trail of blood painted the air around him. He parried the man's attack as the dirt hit his eyes and then punctured him through the throat. The green robed man fell limp on Luthel's sabre, his porcelain white sword clattering on the street. He lowered his blade, his enemy slipping free. The blood and gore slid from the blade leaving it pristine. He sheathed it, reaching out with his songseer's vision and finding the street once again empty, and caught his breath.
A few minutes later Kaskan returned, calm and impassive. 'They know we are here, no point in subterfuge. We go straight to them.'
Luthel felt his stomach knot. The Guild had sent them to root out discordant teaching but if the man he'd faced was an example of their skill he didn't see how two songseers were enough. 'But Master...'
'We will succeed. Remove the head and the body shall fall,' Kaskan said, delving into the shadows between the storehouses. He tore through the city of Yi'tang as a gust of sonorous wind, weaving through the streets and back alleys, between homes and shops, courier relay stations and wine dens. He climbed up to the emerald rooftops, jumping from roof to roof. Luthel struggled to keep up.
Luthel caught his breath upon a chimney, the green slate roof glimmering in the afternoon sun. He held onto the tiger that adorned the chimney, forever roaring at the Heavens. Kaskan was three buildings ahead, close to passing over the wall that separated the harbour district and the noble district. The old Guild building was situated at the heart of the noble district and had, presumably, become the home of the discordant sect many years before.
'Do not lag behind,' Kaskan's voice echoed in Luthel's head, gentle but firm.
Luthel rushed along on the wind.
Kaskan stood before the circular door of the old Guild building. The sign above it had been painted over in red yet the characters remained the same. Luthel dropped onto the street, 'Why have we not entered, Master?'
'That would be rude and presumptuous,' Kaskan strode up to the massive double doors ebony with age. He wrested the brass knocked hanging from a lion's maw and swung it thrice. He stepped back and ran a finger along each of his drooping, white eyebrows. The door opened with a groan and a lone man stood on the other side.
'Kaskan, I thought your ship had only recently arrived,' the man said, with barely a trace of the Yi'tang accent. He wore a red cloak in the same style as Kaskan and Luthel, a silver scabbard on his hip.
'It had,' Kaskan marched through the open door. Luthel hurried after him, bemused.
'I hope you have come to join me, Kaskan, that you have seen the Guild for what they are,' the man caught Luthel's eye. 'You must be his apprentice, you are welcome also. A student of Kaskan must be very capable indeed,' he smirked.
Luthel kept a step behind his Master, unsure who this man was or why Kaskan knew him. The pressure returned but this time he knew its print and how to ward it off. The man who knew Kaskan made a sound of recognition.
'Jin, I have not come to join you,' Kaskan said. The trio walked through an orchard of peach trees that ringed the entire compound. 'I have come to put an end to your discordance.'
Jin turned, his dark almond eyes regarded Kaskan as he reached for a peach, 'That is a shame. I will not retract my teachings, nor will I forgive The Guild for its actions. They have fallen from truth, you of all the Master's must see it.'
'It is not my place to say. That is the purview of the Elders,' Kaskan said.
Luthel noted four other robed men approaching from the east. Another three had emerged from behind a dense copse to the north. He suspected more lay in wait in the few summer rooms dotted about the orchard, and even more in the main temple tower in the centre. This was suicide.
'Surrender yourself and the Elder's might grant you peace.'
'I have attained peace, which is more than I could say under your tutelage,' Jin reached for his sabre. He drew it in a slow, measured, arc of his arm, the white steel singing a note every second it passed over the brass of the scabbard.
'You always were my most troublesome student,' Kaskan's sabre slipped from its scabbard in a high-pitched blur. A cantankerous note that made Jin stumble. Kaskan surged forward, a harsh gust of wind on his tail. Peaches were ripped from their branches and a tirade of leaves smothered Jin. The discordant Master wrestled with the leaves, and the peaches, for a moment. A moment long enough for Kaskan to reach him and slice into his leg. But the sabre never drew blood.
The leaves fell to the ground, the peaches too, their skins burst, the juice running between the roots. Jin flicked his wrist and Kaskan was blasted backwards. Luthel's Master flipped in mid-air, arms wide, and landed softly on a high branch. He stepped off and drifted to the ground. 'You sing the notes well,' Kaskan growled.
The others of Jin's rogue songseer school hurried through the grove, their swords shimmering in the late afternoon glow. Luthel drew his own sabre, his mind reeling with revelation. Seven men raced towards him as he gathered his energies and channelled a deep well of haste. Jin advanced on Kaskan, the pair straight backed and as determined as each other. Their sabres clashed, a symphony of steel.
Defence was not an option. Luthel flew at the three furthest away, slicing one in half as he passed by. The other two yelled and the air grew tense. Luthel twisted around and hurried back but the surprise had been spent and he was drawn into a duel with the two discordant songseers. Both were young, younger than he was, and both wore black full length cloaks. The swords sang and Luthel wondered if Yi'tang produced so many skilled songseers or had Jin travelled far to find them. It didn't matter, The Guild could not brook rival teachings, the fabric of the Heavens would crumble after too long. Luthel feinted left, drawing one enemy off balance, and struck right with an open palm strike. He struck the man's chest and felt his bones become dust.
The other four had reached their Master and the six songseers created a tenebrous orchestra, Kaskan at its centre.
Luthel channelled his haste and overwhelmed the lone black clad songseer in a matter of minutes. His arms tingled as he hurried back to his Master's side, fretting he'd drained his own well too soon. Without time to centre himself he rushed in to the melee and drew two of Jin's apprentices away. The pair were further along in their training and Luthel dodged more than he deflected. A foot struck his knee and he was sent crashing backwards, only his will had prevented the bone from breaking. The pair hunted him down.
Kaskan raged within the three person assault, wounds blooming on his legs and arms. He struck the ground with his sword and blasted straight up into the air, the shock wave snapped the trunks of numerous nearby peach trees. Kaskan fell as fast as he'd risen, sword first. Jin sidestepped the attack but one of his students was less fortunate, less skilled, and was pierced head to groin. Kaskan balanced on the tip of his sword and flipped over, freeing the blade and corpse, to land amidst fallen trees, his breathing laboured.
The pair hunting Luthel circled him. Luthel struck left, blocked right, and as both swiped high he surged forward in a blur. The swords clashed over his shadow and Luthel took the arms of one in a single strike. The other did not blink and rushed Luthel, his sabre flaring bright with every strike. Luthel was forced to back step as he defended himself.
Kaskan began to sing.
Luthel's heart plummeted and he felt his opponent's sword slice his left arm. He heard Kaskan's melody stretch through the peach orchard, a lament to the Earth and the Heavens. The song emboldened Luthel, not by will or want but by knitting him together, bringing back that which had fallen away. In three strikes Luthel had severed his opponent's neck. He rushed to his Master's aid.
Kaskan decapitated the last of Jin's students, his own hands sheathed in blood. 'You were my second-best student, Jin,' he sang the words and readied himself for an attack. Blood sluiced down his leg and out of his sleeves. His cloak was in ribbons about him, his aged skin a motley of scars and fresh wounds beneath.
'Liar,' Jin rushed forward and with a streak of light silenced his Master's song.
Kaskan stood, one leg forward, his curved handled sabre in both hands and coughed once. A river of blood cascaded from him and he slumped to the ground, to die among the peach trees.
'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!' Luthel shouted. He gathered the drifting notes of his Master's song about him and charged at Jin. His assault was discordant, mistimed, poorly tuned, but Luthel would not, could not, centre his mind. Rage for Kaskan burned and Jin's arrogant grin fed the fire.
Jin parried, blocked, and side-stepped with a calm and balanced demeanour. 'Kaskan has failed you. Join me, Luthel, and become a greater songseer than The Guild could ever make you.'
'Never.'
'Then fall,' Jin parried hard, knocking Luthel's sabre from his grasp, and skewering his stomach.
Luthel gasped feeling the cold white steel slip between his innards. He smelled the sweet peaches, the musk of Jin's cloak, the stench of their sweat, and tasted the iron of his blood.
Kaskan lay on his back, splattered peaches around him, his lips still moved.
Luthel focussed himself and drew upon the whispered song of his Master. The energy flowed through him and he gathered in his palm, and then in his fist. He struck Jin in the chest.
Jin staggered backwards, eyes white, mouth lolling open unable to sing. His hands left his sabre and he reached for his heart, but it was too late, he was dead.
Luthel fell to his knees, Jin's silver white sword buried in his abdomen up to its guard-less hilt. He wrapped his blood stained hands around the grip and pulled it free in one long agonising motion. Blood seeped out, staining a pool about his knees. He drew on the last echoes of Kaskan's song and his own energies to seal the wound. He staggered to his feet, the wound sealed but not healed. He knelt beside his Master, Kaskan, amidst the ruined peach grove, and lifted him up to rest on his knees.
'Luthel,' Kaskan coughed. 'You have done, what I could not. Return to The Guild, inform them of what transpired here, of my failure to tame Jin.'
Luthel could not prevent his tears, 'There was no failing, Master. I will record your song, you will be remembered.'
Kaskan died with a smile.
Many thanks for reading! Do please share with friends and enemies alike.
Good story