Alarik's Crusade

Chapter 21: Jathi's Gambit

It wasn’t long before Jathi found Inaya hunting through the rainforest. She was an expert at camouflage and moving with stealth and secrecy, but a hunter rarely covers their tracks. A few footsteps and broken branches led right to her.

To her credit, Inaya noticed her first, before she was spotted. Of course, Jathi’s long, multi-coloured, vibrant robes and her towering height did little to hide her. She had a bow levelled at her chest the moment she came into view.

“Not as warm of a welcome as we provided for your crusade the first time we met,” Jathi said with a wry smile on her face, confident she wasn’t about to release the arrow she held.

“You warned us of the dangers of this place and hinted we’d all be dead before we left it,” Inaya replied flatly.

“That warning was a sound one. You should all have listened.”

Inaya shook her head, turning back towards the endless rainforest. “Is your purpose here just to taunt me?.”

“Now, now, that isn’t why I’ve come. I wished to speak with you about your companions.” She lowered her voice. “More specifically, your relationship with them.”

Inaya stopped and turned back again. “And what would you like to know?”

“I’d like to know why you’re willing to rob them at a moment’s notice when you’re such an integral part of such a… joyous crusade.” She inspected her fingernails like some vain, aristocratic noble in Vanda. “Or, at least that’s how I’ve interpreted it.”

“Our history is long,” she replied coldly. “You could drown in the blood of it.”

“Yet, here you are, in our wonderful rainforest, hunting their breakfast.” Jathi shifted her weight to one long leg, and put her hands on her hips. Inaya felt she was the kind of woman that didn’t need her height to look down on you. Not unlike the Vanderik.

“I do not work for them,” Inaya snapped, “but in spite of them. They’ve left me with little choice, so I might as well break what I can when they let me in the door.”

“A fighter to the end, then,” Jathi said.

Inaya didn’t respond. Didn’t so much as flinch. Might have stopped breathing, for all she knew. She did, however, look so very tired; tired of the rainforest, tired of the pain, tired of the crusade. And she was beginning to grow tired of the intrusions of the Hashadi.

“I won’t waste any more of your time,” Jathi said, putting her hands behind her back and looking far more regal than she had a moment ago. The woman was shifty, switching tones and demeanors at will - something Inaya felt she had to be wary of. “I mean to ask you what you plan on doing with the potion that was given to you.”

“Whatever I so please,” Inaya snapped back.

“Of course. But it is our rainforest, our gift to you… is it not fair to inquire how it is to be used?”

“For what purpose?”

“Call it… confirmation.”

Inaya raised her eyebrows. She stepped closer, like moving in for the kill. There was a weakness here. Something wrong. Something off. It’s in a hunter’s blood to sense these things. “Confirmation of what I plan on doing with the elixir. Well, I’ve already told your man that. Does he know you’re here? Does he know you’re checking his work? In Khorsul, that would be quite the insult.” She found a slight elevation to stare at Jathi eye to eye.

Jathi only smiled back. It was almost mocking, like a warrior sparring with a child and the latter landed a lucky blow. “I don’t believe I need Majad’s permission to see you. Perhaps I’d just like to share in your company.”

“Not likely. Never been much of a conversationalist,” she said with a wince as a thought of speaking easily with Shalmanesser crossed her mind.

“Well, perhaps I just needed to give it an honest try,” Jathi said with a hand raised into the air, long fingers outstretched. Again, a regal, dignified pose, the kind one would not expect while in the heart of a rainforest, but even Inaya would admit she had an ability to make it look natural even here. “So back to the question. The potion. Your plans.”

“Oh, I’ll tell you gladly. But if there’s one thing I learned in the markets of Theolar, it’s that nothing is free. Not even words, let alone information. So first, I have questions for you. Call it an exchange.” Inaya waited for Jathi to respond, but all she did was raise her eyebrows, and almost indecipherably, smiled. She was impressed. Inaya took it as a tacit agreement. “The potions you’ve given - they were meant to kill.”

“Certainly not!” Jathi exclaimed. “If we wanted you dead, you’d be dead. There are a handful of you, and we’re an entire civilization. You’re here due to our hospitality, and those of you that live have your heads on your shoulders strictly because of it.”

“Believe it or not, I trust you on that,” she said after carefully weighing her options, but doing so quickly as to not appear unsure. “So why did you provide them to us?”

It was Jathi’s turn to sweat a little. Quietly she scolded herself for her lack of preparation. She came here on a whim, frustrated by Majad and choosing decisiveness over care. She thought on her feet, and in a move that was often unlike her, she chose honesty. “We’re testing you. And the Vanderik. We wish to see if you’re worthy.”

“And those that have died…”

“Sadly, they have not passed the test we have given them.”

Inaya’s hand went to her bow. Her eyes narrowed and her muscles tensed. “Then my friend… he failed your ‘test’. And now he’s dead.”

“An unfortunate casualty,” Jathi replied, as cold as Inaya had always been to the Vanderik. “But it was his doing, not ours, and-”

Inaya released the bolt from the bow. It missed, striking a tree directly above the tall woman’s head. The arrow’s thump into the tree scared a number of birds into a quick ascent to the clouds, screaming their warnings all the way. Jathi could do little to prevent the shame of her strong reaction, gasping and ducking in spite of the fact that neither action would have done anything if Inaya had taken aim at her.

“I don’t care if this is your rainforest,” Inaya said, doing everything in her power to keep her voice steady and calm, but a small breaking in her tone belied her anger. “I don’t care about your ‘test’. I don’t even care about what will happen to me now. But listen to me, as this will - I promise you - be the last time we speak. I will give you two warnings. One, is to cleanse the Vanderik from your home if you wish to keep it in your sovereign rule. And two, is if I see you or Majad again, or your little wart of a husband, I’ll aim one foot lower. Now, you remember; your head is on your shoulders, because this time I’ve allowed it.”

Jathi gathered her wits about her and steadied her hands from shaking. It took a moment, but she found her way. She always did. She twisted the arrow free from the trunk of the tree from which it still wobbled, and tossed it at Inaya’s feet. “A fine arrow, made from the rock of this very rainforest. I’d like to remind you that everything here - everything - is ours. And it will remain ours. I was hoping that this would be a meeting to unite us rather than divide us, but I see now that’s impossible. I wish you luck, Inaya of Khorsul. And I have two warnings for you, as well. One is to be wary of the elixir, and to heed our warning on using only a taste to achieve what you’ve come to do.” She tilted her head downwards, allowing the scant traces of light from the canopy to turn her face from a royal visage to a threatening glare. “And the second is to let you know that should you place an arrow in that bow with intent towards a Hashadi again, you will see that our potions are used for more than just blessings.”

The women parted without another word.

Jathi desperately clawed to regain her composure and to assure herself that she was still the skilled diplomat she had always been. Her arrogance in coming here so brashly and without a detailed, cohesive strategy was unlike her, and she had paid dearly for it. She would not make that mistake again.

Inaya, meanwhile, was not at all bothered. There was nothing for her here. There was no Khorsul to return to, no life in Theolar worth living, and above all, no Shalmanesser to find comfort in accepting these truths. The viscous fluid in the flask at her side called to her. What warnings from these people could be of any value now?

She returned to find the camp dreadfully sombre. She knew it in their faces before she saw him. Shalmanesser, her partner, her friend, her confidant, had passed from this world to the next. Alarik tried to speak with her, but she wouldn’t look at her captain, instead opting to head straight to her camp and shield herself from the prying eyes of her enemy.

Covering herself under the thin drape that served as her tent, she finally let the emotions she had kept within herself for so long rush out of her in an unrelenting wave. She cried until the wells of her sadness ran empty, coming then to a feeling of grim, cold resignation.

It was then she took the first taste of the elixir.

What pain could she endure that she had not already taken?