Ch: 72 Dead Man’s Hand
Shai’s roundhouse had grown a bit of a hot spring issue while Gary borrowed it, though Shai did not seem to have any complaints.
Streeka slithered up the outflow where it now emptied into the river. She slipped through the garden so sneakily it felt like a shame to disturb the young couple enjoying a late breakfast in their garden.
What a meal it was, grilled skewers of crawdaddie, fresh eggs poached soft in seawater with citrus juice, bread and biscuits with honey, milk and tea. Human coffee and dryland fare drew her close, nose twitching in interest.
“This house was gone, then it returned, but it is different. There is far less aura of… menace, of the alien about it now.” Streeka chittered softly in common. “I am Streeka of the otter clan of the waters, seer and shaman. You are Garyward, otherling sorcerer…”
“Sorry, so close. Gary Ward, luthier and Adventurer, this is Shai, my mate, she is a journeyman smith and Adventurer. We come as a package deal… mostly.” The pair pulled her close with welcoming smiles and a delicious array of scents.
“Welcome miss Streeka.” The male said happily, while radiating chaotic energies that soothed and unnerved the sensitive whiskers on her muzzle. “Join us, if there is anything you would like that you don’t see, just ask, we have a bit of a surplus right now.”
“The Sparrowhawks tell me your guild hall and your band are in very good odor with the town, this bodes well.”
She scampered sinuously up to the table and wriggled into a chair with obvious pleasure, nose twitching happily. The furry, slender mammal curled up and propped half her body up to put herself on human level.
“You are new to my council so let me instruct you as to the rituals. First, you feed me, if you eat with me I appreciate it, but some humans cannot abide this. I will not judge.” She sniffed deeply at the aromas drifting from the table.
“This will certainly do!” She murmured, eying a pan seared crawdaddie claw wrapped in wallowbear bacon.
“Tuck in mistress seer, tis nae fer the guest tae restrain themselves in this house, be welcome.” Shai said through a beatific smile. “I did often hear rumors of folk wi other faces and skins. Pleased I am tae meet thee, I do count some few peoples among my friends.”
“And now one more.” The man said with finality. “Welcome to the club Streeka, I am really digging your vibe.” His wide brown eyes held a look she recognized.
“He has been stung by the sugar wasp, has a healer been sent for? I have no art to clear his mind.” She sucked at her canines and chittered sadly. “The poor dear will be driven to work tirelessly on selfless acts of community labor, until he burns his life out. In the wild victims become slaves of the hive, working themselves to death.”
She chittered again. “How ever is he sitting still at all?”
“This be a gift of Beast, some sweet tinge tae his aura and nature.” The woman said calmly. Odd since this seemed to be her mate. He cheerfully held up a bare arm, displaying the strangest tattoo.
A queen sugar wasp guarding her sweet golden lure, ready to plunge her stinger into the man’s pale inner arm bringing bliss, labor and death, in service of the hive.
“So be it. Second point, when we have eaten, I will deal the cards or tell the runes. You may ask questions if you must, but it is better to listen and learn.” Her ever moving and nimble claws snagged that crawdaddie morsel and whisked it to her muzzle with lightning quickness.
“Third point, you may tell that you consulted a seer or discuss my insights and readings as ever you wish, save this, do not reveal my nature. Not to anyone.” She twitched her nose at the duo. “My kind are oft mistaken by men for monsters, we do not enjoy killing, nor dying over nonsense and paranoia.”
The man smiled and nodded happily. “Very well, your Secret is safe with me.” The simple phrase, spoken calmly, shook and rang off the stones, echoing for a short time. He stopped, smacking his gums and swishing his tongue around his mouth as though tasting something new and odd.
“The hell was that?” He asked, while sticking his tongue out in an attempt to look at it.
“Tongue of the rhymer, part of this world’s magic. When the spirits are paying attention, truths spoken can ring out like bells, while lies stutter and lisp. It is a sign that the spirits and perhaps even the gods are interested.” Her tiny, round ears twitched in amusement.
While her hosts tidied up, Streeka prepared her ritual space.
A tiny scatter of salt, another of sugar, one of her own tears drawn into a circle and a whisk made of her own hair to sweep the table clean, after a short invocation of her patron spirit. She was brisk and quick, scooping her mix of tears, salt and sugar into a handkerchief and bundling it away. “I will be roasting some tubers for lunch…” She said with a wink.
When they were seated across the table she smiled and handed him her cards. “Look through them, become familiar with the images and the art boy. Each deck is unique, each deck sings in a different key.” He perked up at that and she smiled.
“Yes, one of Joy’s musicians, I see you, child of man…” She expounded her thoughts while he looked through the cards and shuffled them at her instruction.
“The images are a direct route to the soul, since art, like music, touches our higher selves directly…” She purred and chittered.
“As you shuffle, your own Will, Mind, and soul will conspire to arrange the cards to tell you what you need to know. The answers to all of your questions can be found in your soul, if only you could go inside and look for them.”
She cooed, as they giggled. Humans are odd creatures. “Yes, that is a silly idea, but if you could… you would find all you have ever seen and heard, all you ever were or could be, waiting to aid you.” She smiled as the strange couple giggled again.
“Now we deal the cards, young human, let us see what you will become.” She took them from him with both paws, reverently preparing to deal her ritual onto the table.
With a fumbling thump, the cards scattered across the table top, settling in a wild spray of colorful images.
“Oh…” She said, looking at the perfect spiral of cards, evenly spinning to the center, where the hanged man crossed the fool. The hermit holding the two of cups, strength, the lovers, all the characters were there.
“Bother. You are the ones Kai of the waters has been so excited over, she even said that the dryads were rustling their twigs in the winter wind about you.”
The pair looked abashed and a little embarrassed. “We have some stuff going on, we are working on some cultural issues with our law and government. Unfortunately, we are going to be noisy neighbors for a while.” He said smugly, while the woman nodded along.
“May I?” Gary asked, gesturing at the cards, still neatly spilled across the table. The otter nodded and shrugged her complete lack of shoulders with a chittering purr.
“My mother taught me a little about the cards, they came from her grandmother, who I never met. My family, they all came from different places.” He swept the colorful pasteboard cards together and began gently shuffling the well worn deck.
Shai settled in as his voice took on a singsong cadence and flow. She smiled and watched eagerly, eyes following every flick of the cards.
Streeka also seemed rapt. She slipped into his rhythm, speaking softly while he shuffled. “Many peoples come to this place from other worlds. My own grandmother says she slept beneath a fruiting pear tree and woke in this place, lost and confused.”
She sighed, seeming sad. “Humans no longer seem to come here from… wherever they came from… they have forgotten that they ever traveled here from afar.”
“Aye, we hae found this, we work on a knotty tangle an would dearly value yer wisdom. Tis the dryads brought men here, perhaps yours as well, this we hae learned.” Shai said quietly. “He does shuffle on, does he not Streeka?” She giggled watching her fool shuffle again and again.
“No child, he shuffles to fold us into his ritual, and the wisdom we each bring. The cards hold no magic, it is the magic of sentients, sitting together, speaking and sharing their hearts that opens the mysteries of the soul.” She said with a touch of pride.
“This is a strong bond between you two. It touches everything around with your essence. We may learn much from each other this morning.”
“Shh… it begins.” Streeka whispered.
“The hermit, inverted. A solitary seeker of truth, lost in a mystery, his candle lights the way, but reveals only brambles and trackless forest. This crosses him, the hierophant inverted, a priest of wisdom and guile, wise and old, but perhaps he's also lost?” He drew another, placing it above the two crossed cards.
“Strength, a woman holds a powerful lioness by a collar too thin to hold the mighty beast. She restrains it with her will alone…” On impulse, he flicked another card. It flew and landed directly atop strength, covering it completely. “The lovers, interesting, let's see what comes next.” He chanted in the still morning air.
With a flick of his fingers, another card sailed, landing to the right of the first pair. “The two of cups, like the lovers, a mated or passionate pair, embracing duality, while savoring their differences and similarities… I like that one.” Shai bumped his shoulder and smiled.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Another card flew, landing below the first two. “The ten of wands, this is an important one.” A figure walked across desolate plains, bearing a mighty load of wooden staves in his arms, long and heavy, they bent his back as he struggled with his burden.
Perched on the small of the bent laborer’s back, a dark figure of shadow wielded a whip, flogging the laborer on. “Tis a dark sign, I dinnae like this one.” Shai said, still whisper soft.
“Look closer love, the man accepts the burden, see? If he drops his load and stands up, that tiny demon will fall to the earth. He is a deception, a whip wielded by a shadow from the darkness behind us. Let’s see what the cards say.”
He drew and placed another card, at the feet of the burdened man and his tiny demon. “The hanged man.” He said softly. A muscular young man, shirtless but wearing the trousers of a fool’s motley and curl toed slippers, hung by one foot from a withered and barren tree. Below, verdant grasses and flowers spread, as the tree’s roots turned and enriched the soil.
Above, the branches were blasted and bare, a cold winter moon sailing through the empty boughs lit the scene, while a raven looked down on the dangling figure and his beatific smile.
“He changes his perspective in order to change his reality. If you live your life upside down, turning things over can be a revelation.” He prepared to draw again, but Streeka stopped him.
“The next card will tell you something very clearly, do not let the obvious answer deceive you. There is more to be seen here.” She said, clicking her fangs and claws in agitation. “Some deeper secret lies in this.” She clicked her claws again, and he drew.
A beautiful and voluptuous woman danced beneath a tree with a smiling skeleton in her arms, beside an open grave to the left. To the right, a verdant garden grew, ripe with life. The tree grew high, with birds, fruit, flowers and small animals flocking in its branches. Below, its roots reached into the dark soil, where worms and beetles dwelt. Fungus and mushrooms spread and dark crawlies devoured each other in darkness while the pair danced without a care.
“Death, the card of endings and beginnings, in an eternal dance. Swirling and twirling into the end of all things, only to begin its endless dance again. The alpha and the omega, everything in balance.” He sighed over the card, enjoying its symmetry.
“Oh, he has eyes to see after all…” Streeka chuckled darkly. She winked at Shai, who had paled when the card appeared. “Death comes for all, child. For some it comes several times, do not fear it, for we will never be free of that fear if it takes root. This one seems to have learned that lesson early…”
She peered at Gary again and shook her sleek, furry head. “Carry on young one, let us see what else comes.”
“The moon, guardian of dreams and the bridge between the waking world and the world of dreams…” He said. “This one is important too…”
Two villages stood across a winding river from each other, one lit by the crescent skull moon high above, over the river. The other lay in shadow. A dog, sleek and happy sat, guarding the open town gate on the lit side, watching over farms and fields of ripe grain as light poured from every window.
On the other, a lean and hungry wolf prowled through a dark forest. The gates were closed tight and all the windows shut and dark in that town.
Streeka took up the tale when Gary faltered.
“The moon watches over, but does not know the difference between the worlds of waking and dream, both are real under his cool light. We choose whether we dwell in the realms of hunger and cold, or walk free in the light.”
The two sat still, as though waiting for more. She sighed sadly. “I see. The moon, unlike the sun, his sister, sheds his light without warmth. Cold and dispassionate. Secret and Beast share the moon, as Healer and Light share the sun. The moon will aid a traveler in the night, or pull the tides up to wash away a town.”
“Just as Beast will hold love for both predator and prey in their long battle for survival; Secret holds some truths close to his breast while others fly freely across the land.”
“What, why are you looking at me that way? Have you children been dipping into the duskmoon pollen?” She asked as they giggled again.
“In any case, here the moon is not any one person or choice, but a collective one. Some great or small working or movement could change the course of the river, or shift the moon in the sky, bringing light to the darkness…” She hummed and purred in pleasure. “It all balances on a knife’s edge, sharp as moonshadows but as impossible to touch.” She paused for a moment, lost in thought.
“Give the cards to Shai boy. She is in this to her neck as well.” She said with finality, as he swept the cards from the table into her paws. “Deal, human woman, let us see what you bring to the table.”
Shai tentatively drew a card, and placed it in the center of the now empty table. “The tower, interesting. Draw again, place it at the tower’s feet girl, quickly!” Streeka chittered with excitement. “Changes are coming, great and terrible change, for good or ill, perhaps both.”
“The Chariot! Movement and change again! Draw, draw again!” Shai flipped another, in increasing agitation and discomfort; the wheel of fortune, then judgment. “Changes and changes again!” The otter woman chattered exciredly. The two of coins appeared, bringing her to a halt.
“So much change, the mountains lift their skirts and dance to the tune of new things.. Or old things returned after a long absence… this card though.”
She took the two of coins, bearing two figures in hazy silhouette, one dark, one light. No gender or details of the two could be seen, though between them lay two coins, one gold, one shining silver. The figures held each other's faces in their hands tenderly, an intimate and loving gesture.
“These two share more than their hearts, more than their flesh… Whoever they are, they will have much work to do. Draw again child, the changes we hope for and fear, rest between them.”
Shai drew another card. “The fool, he is always near these days, though lately he has been snuggling with the hanged man, I thought them to be one and the same…”
Shai dropped another pair of cards to the table as she fumbled with the deck. “The six and the seven of swords… there he is again.” She chirped with satisfaction.
On one card, a small boat with five swords thrust through the hull, into the water below was being paddled along by a man holding a compass and looking to the horizon in deep thought. Not realizing he was rowing his leaking boat with the hilt of a sixth sword, while gripping the naked edge in his bleeding hand.
The next bore the image of a young smiling man, fleeing from a group of shadowy, angry figures. He ran with seven naked swords held by their blades in his bleeding hands. He fled, looking back at his pursuers, taunting them, never seeing the precipice he ran towards so heedlessly.
“These two both seek their goals, without heed for the price they will pay. Six wishes for a home port, and calm waters, he will row and paddle his leaky craft until he finds it or sinks, consequences be damned.” She tapped her claw on the man’s face, so focused and intent on his goal.
“Seven has pilfered the weapons of his foes at great cost to himself… his friends will be victorious in the coming battle, but he need not perish in his task. That is his own foolishness and prideful inattention.” She tapped the two of coins again. “Draw for his partner or mate, this tale has two sides.”
Shai’s strong, steady hand drew another and placed it across the small stack of cards. “The princess of coins! Interesting, she is a huntress and worker of crafts. She has the earth beneath her feet and the tools of her crafts in hand, see? Her sling spins about her head in preparation to cast, but what is her prey? A goat leaps from the crops nearby, does she defend her pet from some predator? We shall see.”
“The five of swords? A debacle, a setback, some trouble descends for which she is unprepared. Look, her crops and garden are in fruit, but a swarm of locusts comes. She stands with her family to defend, but what use are swords against the swarm? All will be lost unless a different solution is found.” Streeka tapped her claws again. “Draw. see what comes next. A solution perhaps?”
The simple, balanced scales of justice dangled from an androgenus figure’s hand. Blindfolded, they seemed to be peeking and a single sly pinkie touched one arm of the scale, subtly unbalancing it. Their sly smile suggested a naughty child, getting away with something.
“Justice, not a card my people enjoy seeing, particularly when humans are involved. Humans seem to always have a reason why their rights weigh more heavily than those of other kin and kith.”
The human duo seemed to not only take her mild rebuke in stride, but nodded somberly themselves.
“I see. We have come to an understanding, but what is the answer… draw a final card woman.” She placed her final card down with steady fingers.
A plump venus figure, exaggerated in breasts, belly and hips, sat enthroned on a cube of stone. Across her expansive pregnant belly, a stylized turtle drawn in ocher swam. On the turtle’s shell, in intricate detail sat the image of an infant in a pose of meditation, smiling in toothless joy.
“The world… eternal source of life and rebirth. That does nothing to clarify, but brings hope, nonetheless.”
She tidied up her cards and packed them away neatly in a clever waterproof bag made from some kind of fish skin.
“Together you have a talent for the cards… perhaps less individually. We shall watch and see how things proceed young humans. I hope to see more of you soon.”
The creature slipped into the water with hardly a whisper and was gone, out the overflow and down into the river like a shadow.
“I like her!” The fool chirped happily. “There were otters in my creek back home sometimes… they liked it when I whistled for them. Sooooo cute!”
Hand in hand they skipped back to town. He whistled a cheerful tune while she sang a wordless song of joy. At the gate they were greeted by tall, scarred Tony the knight of Order.
“Gary, Shai, good morning, I have summons for you. After the performance you have been putting on over the last few days I’m sure that comes as no surprise.” He said calmly, handing over a sealed scroll.
“Shai can read it to you I’m certain, or if you wish I can read it to you now.” He announced soberly. “A ducal summons is no joke my friend, merchant Angbold has put some effort into his case against you.”
“No problem, his dukeness can rely on me to annoy and confound his noble backside whenever he wishes it. I live to serve.” Gary said with a wink and a bow.
“Something is different about you… I expected a big scene and maybe a musical number, I am relieved that…”
The madman’s guitar was out and jangling along aggressively, he was already two bars and three pelvic thrusts in when Shai’s Violin joined.
Breaking the law-breaking the law…
Breaking the law-breaking the law…
Breaking the law-breaking the law…
Breaking the law-breaking the law…
“Gary… Shai… Please, not here in the gate..” Tony sighed before surrendering, he began tapping his toes. Sometimes it was easier to just go with it.
They wrapped up on ‘I fought the law (and the law won)’ with a big flourish.
“Thank you thank you we will be around putting on shows till I get sold into slavery… enjoy!” The pair took flourishing bows to the confused onlookers and strolled off with a very stressed Tony lumbering along behind them.
“Really, you two are going to my office right now?” He complained, as the realization dawned on him.
“No, but that feeling, when you have an awkward interaction with someone, and then it just goes on and on, cause you happen to be headed the same way… Like when you ask a question and the answer just drifts all around the issue like a leaf on the wind. Until you find yourself wondering what hell you even asked in the first place?”
Gary smiled inanely and stood in front of the door. Blocking it with his annoying stupid body.
“I really don’t like you sometimes, Gary.” Tony moved him aside gently and went inside, closing the door firmly afterwards.
“Well that was an exciting morning!” He unrolled his summons and had a quick read. “Today, fourth bell at the ducal residence… Oh! Tawny’s house, we get to see how the other half live.”
“Boy, I dinnae like the cards ye dealt, nae one mite of them. Tis all of death and endings I would nae be left wi out thee.” She whispered, as they walked through the winter streets together.
“Death came for me twice already, love. We are pretty chummy now, ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ darling.” He said, grinning in his half mad way. “So far I have pretty good track record for doing what can’t be done.”
#
“He is mad, doomed and perhaps a useful tool. If we use him it will be shameful, if we do not… it will be both shameful and wasteful.” Streeka puffed on her pipe, sending gray clouds up into the lodge.
“So Otter recommends we use this poor creature? Use him up?” Beaver asked, chomping nervously on a few fresh twigs.
“Sadly yes, Beast has some plan, other gods have been stirring the soup as well. I could make no sense of his magic beyond this.” She leaned forward, drawing the other council members closer to the fire.
“Imagine a kettle filled with all things, good and vile, delicious and putrid. Lid it tight and put it on to boil.” She peered from one face to another. Beaver, Fox, Raccoon and Badger all looked away.
“The pot is boiling. We can abandon our hearth, fleeing the mess to come, or we can hurl that pot where its results will do no harm… or perhaps help.”
She clacked her claws against her fangs in irritation. “He seems strangely resigned to his fate, though his mate is justifiably suspicious. Let us wait and see what our human friends can tell us.”
Wolf and Coyote sat together, considering. “We would prefer to keep our paws clean in this. Our patrons are unsure as to his actual nature. Something about the moon.”
Streeka chittered with pleasure at that. “Interesting, that did come up a number of times… my cards still carry his essence, I will retire to contemplate this. Brothers, sisters, good morning.”
She slipped out of beaver’s lodge by the waterway, swimming to her own temporary lodgings alone. In her burrow in the woods she curled up to rest the day away and dream.