Welcome back to Silvanus and Empire, the only serialized fantasy novel on Steemit featuring naked men kidnapped in the middle of the night and dragged through the forest! I'm your host and humble writer @beowulfoflegend, better known in meatspace as ultra-small-time author David M. DeMar, and here I am ready to serve up another chapter.
Last time, we saw Mousestep get a little Daddy-Daughter time with Hammerfist, followed by the tribal leader having a heart-to-heart with long-lost Lyrinn. Today, we'll pick up right where we left off, with Caddoc finally waking back up. What's in store for our poor schlub of a protagonist? Read on to find out!
Silvanus and Empire
Chapter Nineteen
image from Flickr user DaIva
The first thing Caddoc felt was the pounding between his ears. I must still be alive, he thought, or I wouldn’t be in pain. Either that, or this is some sort of punishment in the afterlife. His legs were splayed out on the ground; his back was propped up against what felt like a wooden pole, and he could feel rough leather thongs binding his wrists together behind the pole. He opened his eyes and blinked myopically at his surroundings. Shaking his head to clear his vision and instantly regretting it, he moaned as pain blossomed behind his eyes.
He was in a large pavilion-style tent. Light streamed in from a smokehole in the roof directly above a firepit. There was a sleeping pallet of animal skins in one corner, an unstrung longbow and crude quiver leaning up against the wall, and a collection of hand-stitched leather traveling packs along another. Looking down, he was relieved to see his captors had at least given him a breechclout.
How do I get out of this mess? Caddoc thought, testing the thongs binding his wrists. They were tied loose enough to not cut off circulation to his hands, but too tight to slip them off. Giving up, he sighed. Well, if they were going to kill me, they would have done it by now... maybe.
The tent flap was pushed aside, and Caddoc’s eyes grew wide. He tried to back up, scrabbling against the ground, the pole rooting him in place. Oh Emperor, not her, anyone but her, I’d take a thousand Orens over her. Mouse, the psychopathic Bloodhair girl from last night was leering at him. He eyed her balefully.
“Oh look, his holiness is awake,” she said, slipping inside and letting the tent flap drop down behind her. “You’re lucky I’m not allowed to kill you, Stoneheart,” she said, caressing the bone-handled knife at her hip. She grinned wickedly at him, then sighed. “Oh this is no fun, you can’t understand a damned thing I’m saying, can you?” Shaking her head, she turned her slim body and strode back to the tent flap. “Father! He’s awake!”
Caddoc shook his head again, trying to clear his mind. I don’t know why I can understand them, but I’d better not let on if I know what’s good for me. He blinked as a tall, older Silvani strode into the room, followed by Mouse.
The man looked at Caddoc for a moment, then hunkered down to eye level. “I’ve got so many questions for you, my young friend. So many questions and no way to get them answered.” He sighed, and then haltingly spoke a few words in Imperial Standard. Somehow, Caddoc could tell the difference. “You.... speak... yes? You speak. No harm to you. You... guest.” He motioned to the pavilion. “My... guest. Speak, yes?”
Caddoc swallowed, and made sure he was speaking in Standard before opening his mouth. “Yes. I speak. Lyrinn? Where is Lyrinn? She is my friend. No harm to Lyrinn?”
The Silvani smiled. “Not awake for barely a moment,” he said to Mouse, “and already he’s asked if Lost One is safe.” He turned his head back to Caddoc. “No harm to Lyrinn,” he went on in his pidgin Imperial. “Lyrinn... home.” He pointed to his hair, and then to Mouse’s.
Caddoc nodded. “I understand,” he said. “Silvani?”
The man smiled. “Yes. Silvani!” He turned back to Mouse. “He’s a smart one,” he murmured. “Go see if Lost One is ready. We could use her to translate.” Mouse nodded and slipped out.
The Wildfolk man smiled at Caddoc and stood up. He walked over to one of the traveling packs and rummaged around a bit. He came back with a leather thong and some dried jerky. “I’m going to free your hands,” he said in Silvani,” but your legs, I’m tying together.“ He quickly lashed Caddoc’s ankles, then reached around to untie Caddoc’s wrists. “That way you won’t run off on us before we can ask you just who in the world you are.” He looked into Caddoc’s face and laughed lightly. “You don’t understand me anyway,” he said, “but I’m sure you understand this.” He dropped the jerky in Caddoc’s lap and stepped back.
Caddoc rubbed his wrists and looked up at the man with gratitude. “Thank you,” he said in Imperial, before picking up a piece of jerky and biting into it. It was salty, and tough, but at that moment it was the most delicious thing Caddoc had ever tasted. He devoured it and tried not to look too relieved when the older man gave him more.
At that moment the tent flap opened again, and Mouse slipped back inside. A moment later, Lyrinn followed her. She was clothed in a deerskin dress about a size and a half too small for her, judging by her bare calves, but she didn’t seem any worse for wear.
“Hello, Caddoc,” she said in her accented Imperial, kneeling down next to him. “Are ya feelin’ all right?”
“I’ve been worse.” He smiled at her. “Your rescuers were a bit rough with me, but I think I’ll heal. Are you all right though?”
Lyrinn nodded. “Yes, I’m fine. Everything’s fine. For the first time in a long long while, everything’s just fine.” She smiled, and pointed to Mouse. “This is Mousestep, Caddoc. And this man here is Hammerfist, her father. He’s the Silvani chieftain. So don’t be givin’ him any of your lip, Sonny Jim.”
Caddoc smiled wearily at his friend. “Looks like whatever that woman made you drink hasn’t done anything to you. I thought she was trying to poison you!”
“Poison me?” Lyrinn laughed. “I don’t think so! She’s my mother!”
“Your what?” Caddoc feigned surprise. “But I thought-”
“Yes, I know, isn’t it wonderful?” Lyrinn beamed at him. “Yesterday, I was an orphan. Today, I’ve got a family again. And that drink... well let me show you.” She turned to Hammerfist and switched to Silvani. “My friend’s name is Caddoc,” she said. “He’s the only one in that whole Stoneheart village that ever showed me any manner of kindness. You can untie him.”
Hammerfist nodded at his daughter. Mouse knelt down and undid the thongs around his feet. Caddoc leaned back against the tent pole he’d been so recently lashed to and tried to act surprised. “Lyrinn, I don’t understand - how can you speak their language?”
“I can speak their language because it’s my language, too,” she said. “The potion my mother gave me, it... it was supernatural, Caddoc! It let me learn Silvani!”
“But that’s impossible. How could it?” He paused, as if thinking. “Could your mother make some more? Maybe I could use it to learn Silvani as well? Then maybe we could-”
Lyrinn shook her head. “No, Caddoc, it wouldn’t. I’ve already asked her. The potion only worked because I was... because I am Silvani. In fact, it would only work fer me. It was m’blood that made it work, from what my mother told me. I.... inherited a gift, from m’father. It’s got to do with th’birthmark I’ve got on my arm.”
“Birthmark?” Caddoc blinked. “What’s this about a birthmark?” I know she mentioned one before... or at least I think she did... I don’t remember earlier so well, I was kind of naked and bleeding at the time.
Lyrinn took a deep breath. “It’s better I just show ye, Caddoc,” she said. She rolled up her right sleeve to the shoulder. Caddoc gaped. There on her shoulder was emblazoned in perfect outline the same mark that his father’s medallion bore.
“I don’t understand.” He looked at Lyrinn, then to Hammerfist, and then back to Lyrinn. “Why would you have the same mark... it is the same mark, isn’t it?”
Hammerfist looked at Mouse. “Fetch the medallion he was found with,” he told his daughter. “Now would be the best time to ask him. Lost One, please tell us all that he says.” Lyrinn nodded as Mouse went to another pack. Picking through it, she brought back a small package wrapped in leather and handed it to Lyrinn. She unwrapped it.
“Why would I have the same mark as this, y’mean, Caddoc?” She held up the medallion. They were a perfect match. “Now you know why I was always starin’ at it whenever y’had it out.”
Caddoc nodded. “I... I don’t know what, or how, this could be. That was something... that’s my father’s. Or it was sent back with him when he died. I was... I was very young when he died, I don’t remember. He... he was a caravan guard. Died in a bandit attack. My mother... she couldn’t bear to live without him. She took her own life, or so I’ve been told, shortly afterwards. That’s when I became an orphan. I don’t know where he got it from.”
Caddoc watched while Lyrinn handed the medallion back to Mouse. He lost himself in thought as she relayed what he’d said into Silvani. My father must have found it somewhere out here, he thought. *I know the supply caravans came into Imperial City every harvest season. * He felt a sudden chill. This could be where he was killed.
Hammerfist turned pale as Lyrinn recounted what Caddoc said. “Longwalker? It can’t be,” he murmured. He glanced sharply at Caddoc, frowning, then shook his head. “Lost One, that’s enough for now. I’m sure Caddoc is tired from his ordeal. Why don’t we let him rest?”
Lyrinn nodded. “I’m tired as well,” she said. “Mother’s lesson took a lot ouf of me. Can I come back and see Caddoc after the Great Moot tonight?”
“Of course, child.” Hammerfist smiled at her. “Mouse, could you?”
“Yes, Father.” Mouse walked to the tent flap and opened it up, waiting for Lyrinn.
“I’m goin’ for a bit, Caddoc,” Lyrinn said. “I’ll be back tonight. You get some rest. Y’look like you were dragged through th’forest all night.”
Caddoc smiled wryly at her. “Thank your little friend there for not stabbing me full of holes.” He let out a sigh. “Come back soon, Lyrinn. You’re the only familiar face around here.”
“I will, Caddoc. Get some rest, will ye?” She waited for him to nod to her before leaving with Mouse.
Hammerfist waited until the tent flap fell back into place before turning to Caddoc once more. “Silvanus help you if you really are Longwalker’s son,” he said quietly. Then he switched to Imperial. “You stay. Food. Water. Stay safe.” He pointed down to the ground. “Not safe.” He pointed outside. “Stay.” He pointed down again.
“Yeah, I get it,” Caddoc grumbled. “I’m not going anywhere." Hammerfist looked at him quizzically; the scribe locked eyes with him and spoke plainly. "Yes. I’ll stay here.”
Hammerfist nodded, seemingly satisfied, and left himself.