Dagono's Gatekeeper

Taylor

Taylor's vanguard was himself, his five guards, Riculta, and Anisca. Taylor needed someone to speak for him and didn't have a lot of choices when it came to women who were trained diplomats. He wanted Kasryn, the former prelate of Lavradio, but she claimed to have fouled her reputation so memorably with doyennes her face would not be welcome. Indeed, when Taylor asked Iraj if he knew the names of past Enclave ambassadors, Kasryn was the first name on his lips.

"There was this Kasryn, the worst in twenty years," he said, "typical outsider. She thought her job was to rule over us, but we don't have outsider kings. If we did, they wouldn't be like her, insulting our doyennes. The rest were not as bad, but they were all alike." He went on to list several more ambassadors and what they were known for (nothing ever good), an impressive feat of memory that confirmed Kasryn's story. So he was left with Anisca, a woman whose skills came with a poor personality.

Taylor had set off in his party of eight, before the predawn hour, mounted on well-rested appalons. They wore their headscarves close to their faces to keep out dust as they rode, and almost they could be mistaken for Calique from a distance. They had dressed themselves in desert robes, turbans, scarves, and even makeup. They had decided on ruby and topaz for women, and brick red and amber for the men. The red was for Red Tower, the new name of Lobat's Tears, and the yellow colors were for the sun at dawn. Iraj explained Calique often wore their garden's colors when mixing with other gardens.

As fighters, Mila and Inez were dressed in men's clothes, with men's colors on their faces. Anisca and Riculta were playing doyenne and gardener respectively. Alice would keep notes for them, making her something like a tabla. The three of them could dress as women, but Alice would be a secret bodyguard for the other two. ("Good thing, too," said husband Otavaio, "she would never pass for a man in a thousand years.") She didn't need a weapon to be dangerous but she kept small blades handy just in case.

They were confident enough in their map to ride cross-country but stopped in places to make notes. A wadi here, a strange kind of ground there, a sudden fold in the land, or a field of tall cacti. They went far past the sentinels, well beyond what could be seen from trade roads, onto barely sloping ground of bare cracked earth. That gave way to a stretch of fist-sized pebbles, as smooth and closely packed as cobbled road. Some kilometers later they passed into typical red earth again, supporting scattered shrubs and the rare desert animal.

An hour after sunrise there was a change in all the mounts, starting with Ben. He could smell water on the air and quickened his art-enhanced pace, leading all the others. Their riders gave them leave to speed, as eager as the animals to find the garden. All of them were bulwark-trained and fairly floated over the desert.

They saw the mischus first, several square kilometers of it. They came over a rocky rise and all the land before them fell downward, a bowl of mischus over three kilometers wide surrounded by a rocky ridge. Perhaps some prehistoric meteor had pulverized the ground, brought it low to near the water table, and meanwhile thrown up a protective barrier of rock. However it had formed it was a welcome sight. Appalons, hundreds of them, grazed in their summer-paled coats.

An oval wall sat precisely in the middle of the mischus, its long axis aimed east to west, the same color as the ground. The wall was almost featureless, the exceptions being a large gate at the western apex, and a smaller one at the eastern. All of Dagono's houses were made from local adobe, two or three stories tall, adjoined and facing inward towards the garden. The houses' backs and roofs made up the garden's wall, like an armadillo curled up to present its armored back to predators. The inside of the oval was green, too distant to make out details from the ridge, but green as any forest in Lavradio at springtime.

There were no outposts, no patrols, and no military, but it was impossible to approach and not be seen in that part of the desert. They picked their way through the mischus, watched by a crowd growing on the wall and at the west gate. Most Calique wore simple white robes and scarves on their hair in Dagono's colors of yellow and green. Women covered their hair where it fell, while men piled it on top of their heads. Hunters wore leather armor under their robes. The gathering grew excited as Taylor and his party came nearer, enough to raise a rumble of words.

The tallest Calique with the longest spear barked loudly at their party. "I think you're lost, outsiders. Sand Castle is that way," he pointed southwest with his spear. "Good luck getting a reception there." The hunters on the ground jeered, joined a heartbeat later by the people on the wall.

Taylor took a relaxed attitude against the man's hostility, mounted and at ease on Ben's back. "My name is Phillip the Younger. I heard Sand Castle was empty of people. Did I hear wrongly?"

"Oh, you heard rightly. If you're intent on dying, then get on with it! Ride off to Sand Castle and leave us alone. The desert isn't a place for outsiders."

"I came to ask about your monster, so we can hunt it."

"It is too dangerous for religious fatheads. The doyennes have forbidden us from speaking of it."

"Then let us speak to your doyennes," suggested Taylor, in his most reasonable tone. Some voices on the wall jeered and laughed at him.

"He's beyond little children. You think your holy star makes you powerful? You're nothing to the monster that haunts us. Go home, beardless whelp." More laughter.

Taylor raised his voice and magically enhanced it. "Does it have an aura of darkness? Is it poisonous to touch? Is it impervious to normal weapons?"

"If it is, that's more reason for you to go home, heretic!"

"I have killed such monsters before. In Lavradio, Gallia, and Dace. The disciples who came before me had no experience and were unprepared. They rushed in like fools and died like fools. I'm not here to repeat their mistakes!"

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Another of the Calique spoke up, this one dressed differently in dark leather armor and a headdress in Satoma's white and purple. "You're a liar! Three of Enclave's best couldn't kill it together. They could only feed it!" Rough laughter arose from his knot of people, but none from the audience. "I'll send you packing, little rat!"

The gatekeeper took exception. "This is not your garden to defend, Kourosh."

"If you won't, then maybe Dagono should get a maul who will."

"You are not Dagono. If you don't like your place here, go back to Satoma where you belong! Or are your beds too cold now that you've lost your women?"

The gatekeeper of Dagono and the Satoman hunter glared at each other and started to exchange insults. (Hothead! Servant of old women!) Taylor groaned with impatience. Whatever their unfinished business was, it had to wait. But Taylor was no good at this bragging and couldn't keep their attention: he was more adept at showing off than telling off.

"Since you two girls can't pay attention properly I'll show you the strength of Nexus, by fighting you both. At the same time." He knelt Ben down and slid easily off the appalon's back, bringing his spear and shield with him. He stalked towards the two men. The people around them, suddenly aware that a fight was about to break out and not wanting to find themselves in the center of such a clash, especially when a better view could be had from the wall, cleared a roughly circular space near the gate. The two men looked at him in surprise.

"Prepare yourselves. You can't afford to underestimate the disciples of Nexus!" They barely had time to raise their shields before he was on them. Taylor charged the gatekeeper first, because he was ready. The other man, Kourosh, was bigger but he was flat-footed. And something, a tingle in his spine or a raised hair on his arm, told Taylor the gatekeeper was more dangerous than the Satoman hunter.

Taylor took the man's spear on his shield and turned it, while his own prayer-enhanced point of mobeen alloy slid easily through his opponent's shield and into his armor. Taylor kept his momentum going and rammed the gatekeeper with his shoulder. He pushed the bigger man into the gate, and pinned him there with his spear. If he had pierced him right, it should only be a flesh wound. If not … Taylor wasn't a healer for nothing. The gatekeeper dropped his spear and tried to grapple, but the lad batted his attack away.

"Hang out here for a second, will you?" he asked the older man with a grin, "I'm going to play with the other guy."

Kourosh wasn't one to let such an obvious opportunity go to waste. He attacked while Taylor's back was turned. The disciple left his spear (and the gatekeeper) stuck in the gate, and faced Kourosh with only his shield. He dodged twice and backed away, led him onto more open ground where the gatekeeper wouldn't get hurt by accident. The audience's voice rose to a frenzy, urging them to escalate their violence.

The calique man was even bigger than he had seemed from a distance, towering over the young disciple. He thrust at Taylor with his whole weight but was easily deflected. Kourosh charged at the boy, but the younger man was far too fast and avoided him with ease. As he passed, Taylor spanked the big man on his ass with his free hand. The crowd jeered at the hunter.

The hunter took some distance, his face furious and red. "You're nothing, little boy! You wouldn't be so hot without your arts! Face me on equal terms!"

"Oh ho, equals terms you say?" The boy crowed. "Will you fight on your knees so we're the same height? Will you tie one arm behind your back to compensate for my age?" The crowd was clapping and nodding. If Taylor read them right, they didn't like this Kourosh fellow and would revel in his humiliation. "When I beat Gustave of Ullidia, he didn't complain about how unfair the fight was. Of course, he had skill. After him, you're a bit disappointing!"

Then, Taylor threw away his shield. To the crowd it seemed a daring move, but his enhancements were tuned so high it was neigh impossible for Kourosh to harm him.

"You're an arrogant one." Kourosh threw away his shield but kept his spear. His next attacks were staff moves, striking Taylor on both sides from the point and butt of his weapon. Taylor blocked him with his bare arms. Kourosh pivoted, stabbed with a surprising thrust. Rather than back off or dodge, Taylor turned the point aside with the palm of his bare hand. Instead of recovering for another attack, Kourosh advanced enough to grab the young man.

What Kourosh didn't know was Taylor had been taught to wrestle by the Tabua family, Alice and Otavio, who were fanatics of the sport. Taylor avoided the grab, got behind the huge man, grasped him by the ankles, and pulled on them hard. The hunter went on his face, with his leg held in a breaking hold. When he tried to rise, Taylor bore down on him until the bones creaked in his grip.

"Say it!"

"No! I won't give up to you, outsider!"

"Do I really have to break your leg, just so you'll admit the obvious?"

"I am a Satoman! No outsider child can beat me." He tried to push up with his arms but didn't have the leverage. Taylor leaned harder on the man's leg until the bone began to fracture. Kourosh felt it too, because he yelled with pain.

"I'm getting sick and tired of people who won't learn their lessons. Yield now, or I break both of your legs."

"Get him!" The call didn't come from Kourosh but from his fellow Satomen. Three of them rushed at Taylor's back with swords drawn. A wind swept through the nearby spectators, across the impromptu fighting ring, and raised a wall of dust into the Satomen's faces. It wasn't prayer, but a messy application of raw spirit. The men charged onward, blinded, angry, but didn't find their enemy near their leader.

A dire voice reached out to them from the cloud of dust, which had begun to roil in a miniature storm. The voice thrummed promises of lightning. "Honorless men deserve no honor."

A red blur shot out from the dust -- a spike of stone pierced the thigh of one interloper. Another one traveled too fast to see and skewered the second man's thigh. Both men collapsed and groaned in pain. The third one ran away and left Kourosh to stand alone against the enemy. Taylor stilled his roiled spirit and let the dust fall around him, revealing himself. Kourosh and the spectators had gone very still: Taylor counted six silent heartbeats.

"Attack me, or yield," he told the Satomen hunter, "but stop wasting my time."

Kourosh mustered a half-hearted sneer. "Tricks for children." He retreated from the fight without admitting defeat, carrying grudges on his shoulders. He also left his wounded men where they were.

"I can heal them, you know!" Taylor shouted at his back, "but it'll cost you!" People jeered at Kourosh as he shouldered past them.

The gatekeeper was still pinned to his gate, his hands pulling futilely at the spear that held him there. A small amount of blood was pooled beneath him.

"What's your name, Gatekeeper?"

"I am Amadis, maul of Dagono."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Amadis. Do I need to make a big show of asking, or … "

"It's fine," he said with a toothy grin, "I concede this fight. But I won't underestimate you again."

"That's going to be tough when you haven't seen what I can do."

Amadis barked a short laugh. "Ha ha! A fine boast! Think you can get me off this thing?"

Taylor put one hand on the gate and grasped the spear using the other. "Hold still." The spear came out of the door and through the man. "Do I have your permission to heal you?"

"No! It's only a flesh wound. I might want to keep this scar." He reached down and ruffled Taylor's head like he would a child. Taylor didn't like it, but he didn't feel any malice in it either. Amadis raised his voice. "He's a fine hunter indeed! Let him in!" Laughter and applause rose from all around the gate.

To Taylor he said in a lower voice, "That's all I can do for you for now, little disciple. Leave your mounts here and carry your saddles inside. The children will make sure your beasts are cared for. Your guide awaits you."