Days of High Adventure (Part 2)

Chapter 3. The Bounty Hunter from Shambarra.  

Roused from strange dreams that had fermented with the foreign drinks of this land, Tengu grinned at the prostrate body of Seth, who was turning a shade of green as he slept inside the remains of the stewed dates at the bottom of a bowl. After returning from Bulli’s house, Tengu had drank well into the remaining hours with the tiny sprite. It had been his plan originally to loosen his tongue, but they soon succumbed to the heady drinks and passed out were they lay.
         A thin haze from the early morn awakened the world, and as Tengu washed his face over the horse trough in the stables, Leora had already left to see the same wise woman that had healed her the night before. Feeling the hunger of the wolf, Tengu left the teahouse, finding a meal with someone he had traded with in the market the on the previous day. Continuing on his way, and to all onlookers nothing more than a beggar eating some scraps, Tengu had prepared a disguise for himself and to test his act, he walked back toward the South Gate from which he had entered Ch’arlin. One side of the distant guard’s keep was still in shadow behind the rising sun, and as he hobbled closer to the main gate, he could hear the snap of the whips as a team of animal handlers stirred the giant rhino-beasts.
         Tengu watched from out of sight as the two monsters circumambulated the winding gears that raised the portcullis. It was a slow progress, but soon the gate was high enough to let in a few who had been forced to sleep outside the walls.
         One of these peoples who entered, sitting cross-legged on a war buffalo who’s horns were shod in metal, made Tengu pay attention as he walked with the red haze of the morning sun framing him, as did the gate and grinding portcullis. The eyes of this man could not be seen under the shadow of a wide and shallow hat, but a long, thin goatee trailed to his belt. Dressed in fine dark silks, the mounted warrior continued past Tengu without acknowledgement of his homeless appearance, but he (Tengu) recognized the impressive Bardiche of Shuno, a long handled war-axe that was strapped along the shoulders of the buffalo rider. It was none other than Marmo’xui, champion soldier and bounty hunter from Tengu’s homeland; Shambarra.
         Staring at the back of the soldier as his beast waddled down the procession way, Tengu knew exactly why Marmo’xui had left the borders of the Golden Triangle, and he began to wonder at the worthy price that the warlords had set on his noble head. The enameled metal head of the bardiche flashed as it caught the sun on its keen edge, as though it heard Tengu’s thoughts, maybe it had; the Bardiche of Shuno was reputed to have had a demon folded into the steel at its’ creation, summoned by the bishops that had forged it in the molten rock of lava and snow.
         Before Marmo’xui had been greeted and led to his lavish accommodation, Tengu had passed over the streets of Ch’arlin like a spirit of the air, making for the dome of scales in the slums. Without revealing  all of his past crimes, the assassin from Shambarra spoke with Bulli to hasten the raid on the House of Vultures. Nodding his head solemnly, and only knowing too well the penalties that come from organized laws and lynch mobs, the fat Bulli agreed; asking if the outsider and his own Kaia would be ready by nightfall. The arrival of Tengu into the thieves’ den couldn’t have happened at a better moment, and he feared that Marmo’xui would soon sniff out his fellow kind from amongst the bazaars and teahouses.
         “I will need leather, and something that will safely hold poison.”
         “This can be arranged.” Said Bulli, as the feathers of a fan in the hands of his serving girl passed between them.
         Tengu worked all day at his own plan, and by dusk he had dulled the ends of his darts with the supplied leather, testing them for measure at the clay mannequins. He rebound the handle of his sword so it would not slip from his hands in the dark, and with a river-stone that he carried he polished its blade to a fine edge, like the smaller moon that he would later see from the rooftops as he waited for the other burglar.
         The still waters of an oasis, lined with white stones that stepped under its’ dark surface, reflected this moon as it did the clay buildings. Concentrating on this, Tengu did not hear the approach of Kaia until she seemed to appear out of nowhere beside him as she crouched;-
         “Come on, the house should be full of gamblers and drunkards this late in the night.” She said. “Tread where I tread.”
         The thieves of Ch’arlin had worked out long ago the paths and possibilities of the many roofs without making any sounds to alert those who lived underneath. Walking step over step along the edges and balustrades, Tengu imitated her stealth through the night as though it were a dance that sometimes leapt high and wide over the breakneck streets below. Kaia’s black hair swished as she landed with ease on the other side and continued after each gap.
         She seemed almost supernatural, lithe like a jungle cat ahead of him. As they spied on the three levels of the gambling house, especially the roof garden that could only be distinguished as a dark overgrown mass inside a curved parapet jutting out from the second story.
         “That is were Fendab’s men sometimes like to watch over the entrance and the street.” After a small pause she finished; “I can’t see anyone behind the palm fronds.”
         “Is this were you plan for us to enter?” Tengu asked, looking at the gardens.
         “No, see that small window above?”
         The third story was shaped like a square bell tower, taking up the final corner of the buildings’ structure.
         “Fendab sleeps on the other side of the garden with his gold, where his men also patrol. The tower, however, holds his collection of exotic caged birds; which we will have to sneak past so we can get below.”
         Her almond green eyes observed the patrons as they tied the reigns of their many assorted beast to the large stones waiting for them on the ground, customary in a land with a few trees which were twisted and stunted. The gambling den on the lowest level glowed with the invitation of light and bought joy. The both of them waited with the thrill of the hunt in their hearts as the lay low on the other side of the procession.
         Sensing a lull of activity in the street, Kaia arched back from the roof and leapt across the way, landing on the roof of The House of Vultures’ immediate neighbour. Their was something very supernatural about that girl. Most of the human like races he had known could not leap such a wide avenue, let alone float through the air like a ghost. He himself had to wait until the street was again empty before running to the other side, using the momentum to run up the wall and catch the edge so he could haul himself up and over on the flat clay surface.
         “Are you a witch?” He whispered to Kaia.
         Putting her fingers to her lips for silence, they froze as muffled laughter came up from an alley, then the echoing footsteps of two drunks stumbling homeward.
         “Use your tricks, Shambarra man, to get us to the window.” Challenged Kaia
         Unfolding the prongs of a collapsible grappling hook that had been padded in leather to dull the sound, she watched as his pale eyes held the small shuttered window in its scope as his hand freed the rope and hook across the divide, bending in direction as it went over the tapering roof. With a flick of his wrist, Tengu sent a wave through the rope that effectively became a loop, and the whole thing expanded at the moment it was above the tower. With another whip of the rope it came tight, holding itself by one of the three hooks as it coiled back around itself.
         Graceful as the spider, Tengu crossed the length of rope and held onto the tower as Kaia now followed him, and using the thin blade of her knife as she hung from the rope by a single hand, the latch on the other side of the shutters was turned back. After she had entered the aperture, Tengu unravelled the rope from where he had tied it off on the opposite building with his uncanny manipulations, before he swung back off the remaining rope and into their window of choice. As she had described, bird cages hung from rope and chain at different heights and sizes within the small room; noble hunting birds folding their heads near spotted pigeons.
         Bending at the hips, and keeping their arms by their side encase they should disturb the cages, the space was crossed by weaving and ducking through a maze that would make the whole building aware of their intrusion if one of them should fail.
         Tengu had almost forgotten what it was like to be on a mission of loot and blood, the intense emotions and glittering rewards at the end, and also the price of failure……. .  Climbing down an access ladder, they padded along the walls of a passage with the amber light of a lamp hanging from the ceiling. An ornamental rug of many colours and patterns covered the portal of Fendab’s private quarters.
         Moving to an unsafe point under the lamp, Tengu peered down the earthen steps and listened to the sounds of mirth and sorrow from the gathered crowds. Turning his head away, he drew two sections of pipe from the windings of his boot to fit together a blowpipe. He pushed it’s end between the rug and the wall and blew out with a sudden combustion of his lungs. Kaia held back the rug when they entered, and sure enough they were in the bedroom, with the unmoving form of a guard on the floor. Holy works of art, painted on rare wooden panels adorned the walls, and the best available materials in Ch’arlin had been put together in a pile of pillows and bedclothes in the corner. Aside from the gold leaf statue of a prophet, Kaia did not see anything of interest, and she skipped to the other door frame opposite the one she had entered.
         Tengu, only just ahead, fell to the floor in the unlit corridor he was in as a loaded spring trap bit his foot. The noise of the chain at the other end brought them unwelcome attention as the garden door opened, and through its gap came another two of the house-owner’s men, drawing their curved swords. Kaia, who had almost stepped into them as they entered, tumbled out of their reach, and on landing on her feet she threw a parcel toward them that broke its outer shell and covered their faces with a stinging mixture. Hopping on his good leg, Tengu whipped his single edged sword from its scabbard and struck with the fury and desperation of a wounded animal. One of them, armed with a makeshift shield, glanced off one of the blows before he was cut down, and his comrade felt the steel run down his back as he turned to try and raise aid from downstairs.
         Limping to the end of the hall, he waited for any others while Kaia filed down the lock on the bronze and timber panelled doors that were waiting. Weak enough to break, the doors swung on their hinges, revealing Fendab’s treasury. It was a plain room to really look at, aside from some of his more sentimental items like furniture and silver opium pipes, but there were two unmistakable chests against the wall diagonally across from the entrance. Eyeing their surroundings for further traps, Tengu approached the caskets with caution, testing them with the end of his sword until he felt safe (enough) to pry open the lid and enjoy the sight of many precious stones and metals all heaped in a box.
         Moving outside, onto the garden balcony, Kaia meowed like a stray animal. Signalled, another thief that had been waiting in the black alleys opposite the House of Vultures emerged with a casual gait and a donkey burdened with empty sacks. Standing under the silhouette of the hanging garden he looked aside as small parcels fell over the edge and into the donkeys’ sacks. Above, the thieves worked in unison to bag up small amounts of the riches at a time with a great and inspired haste. Occasionally, one would miss and land in the many piles of animal shit, but this didn’t stop the assistant burglar from plucking them off the top and depositing them back with the others. As planned, he heard Kaia’s final sound, and guiding the donkey he disappeared just as he had arrived without Fendab knowing the wiser, who happened to be under the roof of his own establishment at that moment, enjoying his women and wine in the company of hired thugs and friends he had gathered about himself. Later in the night, as he would climb the outside stairs to retire, the female he had chosen for the night wailed in fear at the prone bodies slumped on walls and carpet rugs, the remaining evidence of the robbers.
                             *          *          *

         Bulli himself counted the gold obals and chromatic gems before his couch dais, sweeping away those that he counted out into a leather pouch.
         “Here is your payment, Tengu.” He said as he tied the thong strings of the purse.
         For a long time Tengu had sat patiently on the floor for the thief king to receive his due, and now that he looked at how empty the pouch was, he knew that he had been under-payed. However, he also knew that Bulli had many things inside his scavenged fortress.
         “This is not enough, Bulli san.” Said Tengu as he shifted his bandaged foot. “I will need more than gold to reach the capital, now that I have been injured in your services. I will need an animal to take me there, after all, a man of such wealth like your honourable self would no doubt own many splendid beasts.
         “You are fortunate that I am in fact thinking of selling some of my beasts. Let us go to the stables.”

         Inflating the vanity of the cunning Bulli as they spoke, he was rewarded with a riding beast and saddle, but because of the size and habits of the creature, Tengu left it in the slums until he was prepared to leave Ch’arlin. Having finished his business in the north of the city, he found his way to the faith healer, learning that Leora had been there earlier that morning. There was no permanent damage to his foot however, thanks to the poor design of the trap.

         In the light of the next day Tengu had again donned the habit of a beggar and entered the noisy markets, a river of shade-clothe between the banks of the buildings. Sure enough, Rajah was there on his stool, and Leora leaned under the shade and against a wall as they laughed together. Dried and salted meat strips hung along rows, the wares of the black vendor.
         “Honourable Rajah, Leora san, it is me, Tengu.” The beggar worded quietly.
         “Tengu? Were have you been all day and night?”
         “We don’t have enough time for the account of my travels. Listen to me, there is danger here in Ch’arlin; we will have to leave tonight.” From the loose sleeve of his dirty robes Tengu passed his half of the fare to Rajah.
         “Very good.” Said Rajah as he felt the weight in his hand. “Your haste for leaving Ch’arlin has got something to do with that man who arrived yesterday, hasn’t it!” He laughed.
         Tengu nodded his head, which was wound in a shawl to disguise himself.
         “Prepare your belongings, and I will meet you both at Jani’s Teahouse.” Chuckled the dark skinned man. “We will leave tonight through a door in the eastern wall of the city.”
                             *          *          *

         Hanging from the end of a hemp rope, the ribs and front leg of a slaughtered animal enticed Tengu’s vehicle through the streets at dusk. It was like a komodo, but of such as size as to match any horse. Its’ length, however, was by far greater than its equine counterpart, which bent and flexed as it clawed its way along with the carriage of its belly close to the ground. Mottled black and yellow scales where linked like armour. Tengu sat upright on the high back of the saddle, guiding the rope and ribs with a long, skinny bone he had tied them to. It was a macabre fishing rod to the senses of his fellow travellers when he joined them.
         Moonshadow, understandably, kept wary distance from the bulky reptile as they made toward the eastern side, taking their last look at the oasis’ and merchant buildings, temples to the gods of the earth and the sky, all left behind as Leora looked upon them with much curiosity, the hoarded wealth and misery.
         Rajah had recently used some of his payment to purchase a two-legged kokosh, and was not impressed with the komodo at all as it turned from the hanging meat to taste the air around his frightened animal. To make matters worse, they had almost been unable to pass through the eastern door, but, after the sun had disappeared in the west, the three of them rode out from Ch’arlin. The freedom of the untamed lands and the rush of the wind carried them over the erosion and dry dust of the plains.

         By the flicker of a modest campfire, Rajah told them of what they could expect during the coming weeks; raiding parties and scavenger tribes, lawless towns and the threat of the giant lizard species that was common during the peak of summer (another reason why there would be few caravans wheeling along the trade roots). 
         Three days outside the walls of Ch’arlin, a distant rider watched the trio heading east, and with this news he raced back to the city to relay his find to the hunting expedition being organized in Tengu’s honour. Looking over his shoulder at the clouds of dust the scout had kicked up, Rajah flicked his reigns on the bandy neck of the kokosh to keep ahead.

Chapter 4.  Balbados.

For a month they wandered toward the east, riding for hours in these foreign parts, from the setting of the sun until midday, when they would retire from the burning elements until the cool wind roused them to continue or search for food. During this time the lizard beast was tamed under Leora’s whip, and so Daishi accepted his new name and master, bearing him across the sand and uneven grounds that were shaped by the storms of cutting sand. Three had already threatened them during the long ride, but Rajah knew the land like his heart, and guided them to safety as he had promised. Insular communities were the only signs of intelligent life, clay huts like the buildings of Ch’arlin except for their size and symmetry; crooked towers looking over the families who had claimed their stake in such desolate fields.
         
         But the monotony was now broken by the chimney towers of weathered outcrops, the surviving core of what had once been mountains were now silent sentinels of a primeval dawn. To Rajah, they were nothing less than the dead kings of his extinct people, changed into stone so they could continue to rule with their imposing presence wherever their shadows moved in line with the sun.
         Sheltering from the unclouded glare of the sun when they reached one of the immense shadows of the rocky towers, the three travellers unsaddled themselves, patting off the layers of dirt and sand that had stuck to their robes and armour. The animals looked as though they were close to the end of their reserves, shrunken and bony from the dwindling food. Staring idly into the panorama of turquoise skies, or drawing pictures in the dirt with the end of a dagger, nobody said a word as they tried to save their strength. Once again waiting for the light to dip in the west before they continued, Tengu looked back from whence they had come from Ch’arlin. Something was moving over the edge of the horizon, blurred by the rising heat.
         “Look!”
         Lying on their backs, Rajah and Leora raised themselves to where Tengu continued to observe the approaching shapes.
         “They move too fast to be thunder lizards.” Said Rajah.
         “They’re riders, no doubt the same ones that where interested in our departure from Ch’arlin.” Leora remarked as she focused on the black shapes on a background landscape of clay and pale sand.
         On hearing these words, Tengu turned back to his sleeping komodo to prepare for departure.
         “Where are you going?” Leora asked.
         “Away from here, which they can see just as well as we could this morning.”
         “Who are they?”
         “A bounty hunter from the south, with some guides.” Tengu called back as the roused lizard lifted after he had settled onto his padded seat. “Quickly, we must hurry before they catch up!”
         Rajah also turned away from the scene and picked up his possessions. Understanding that a serious danger had befallen them, Leora took one last look at the distant riders warping in the hot air.
         They raced across the ground with all their might, overshadowed by the outcrops of balanced rock. They couldn’t help the clouds of dust that were kicked up behind them, which made them known to anything alive within sight or sound of the crashing hooves and scaled toes of the pursued.
         Rajah signalled at them to turn north with his left hand, pointing at the creeping sand dunes in the distance. Taking his decision with faith, they followed him into the wind-carved ridges, hoping that it would give them some advantage to their current flight.
         The pockets of the dunes swallowed them from view, and leaving Daishi below, Tengu climbed up the rolling sands on his stomach until his topknot and white eyes peered over the edge. Dust trails he could see as the hunting party manoeuvred over the rock strewn flats.
         “Seth!” Leora called. “Seth! Where are you, sprite?!”
         “Up here!” Came a shrill voice in the air, and there was Seth, floating in small circles as he also fretted over the unexpected company.
         “Go and count how many there are, and what they are armed with.” Leora commanded, which was not of her character except for such close encounters.
         “And take this with you.” Said Tengu, taking some clay vials from inside the folds of his torn jacket. “Drop it on them!”
         Morphing from his tiny man shape to the colours and feathers of a red breasted robin, Seth caught at the vials with his new claws and took to the air like a dart. Tengu grinned at the natural enchantments such Faerie folk kept secret, and now revealed (but there would be more up the sprite’s proverbial sleeve, he guessed).
         From the heavens, the robin-Seth flapped and struggled with his tiny wings over the outcrops and expanse of the wilds, falling in wide circles to get closer. His bead eyes counted five mounted hunters, and knowing that they would also look for the shade of the monuments and Rajah’s ancestors. He waited for them, standing inside a cleft of the rock and using his beak to keep pushing the vials from falling off the edge. Sure enough, after some time, the bounty hunters rode into the columns of stone.
         Their leader wore a triangular wicker hat, which looked like a straw circle from the robin’s height, riding a black bull with horns that shone in the light. Another man, who only appeared to be dressed in coloured robes, rode beside the leader on a fat kokosh. Catching up from the rear, the final three looked like hired soldiers carrying spears and curved scimitars that hung from their horses and rocktoads.
         As predicted, the party came to a halt within the protection of the landscape. Suddenly, a small shape flew between them as they dismounted, dropping the three vials at the man with the hat, but he could not be so easily defeated; drawing the carved handle from its sling on his back, the bounty hunter spun the bardiche in two unseen arcs over his own head with such a speed that he had returned it to his sling by the time the vials fell, rebounded off the flat axe-head without breaking the contents.
         “Tengu was here.” Marmo’xui’s bearded lips moved under the shadow line of his hat. “I am familiar with his tricks.”
         The three soldiers nodded in agreement with the Shabarrese, and after reviving themselves with their water skins, the fat man in the coloured robes commented;-
         “I am surprised they have survived so far; they must have had some help along the way.”
         “I am told that the gods will sometimes test those they have gifted with wisdom and strength to see if the recipient of their blessings truly deserved it. I feel that both Tengu and ourselves are now under such a test.”
         Marmo’xui looked toward where he had last seen the evidence of his quarry.
         “You three, ride northward and flush them out of those sand hills, Bulli san; you will come with me to finish the assassin and his friends.”

         Seth had returned with his story of the five riders, and it was obvious from his descriptions that Marmo’xui was among them. By this time Leora, Tengu, and Rajah were prone to the ridge, spying at the distant outlines and heatwaves. Three shapes drew closer toward them, one of them squat and moving with small hops along the earth. Still outside the range of their arrows, they slid back down the sand and kicked their legs over the saddle.
         “Rajah san, do you think you could outrun and hide from those three to distract them? If you are successful Leora san and myself could sneak up on the other two before coming back to help you.”
         Looking hard at Tengu as though he had been told a poor joke, Rajah thought about it before the idea of the time they were wasting pushed him to agree. Kicking his heels into the sides of his kokosh, he hurried it out and over the dune they had been hiding behind to try and attract their attention, but it is rare for any plan to flow smoothly from ideas to practical applications.
         Ignoring the kokosh and it’s waving and obvious rider, the three soldiers steered right, from where the figures had emerged. Realizing that he hadn’t been payed to die, Rajah continued on riding out to the nor-west, not looking behind himself as he abandoned the others to the their fate.
         Undaunted, Tengu and Leora reached for their arrows and plucked them against the strings of their bows, piercing the hearts of the two horse-mounted soldiers as they came galloping down the treacherous dune. Falling forward from the saddle and tumbling like flung toys, they remained motionless as the third hurled his javelin to the other side, where our two travellers were waiting in the saddle for their arrival. Without caring for it’s target, Leora drew another shaft to the cheek of her pale face, following it with her dark eyes as it cut the air between them and emptied the wind from the final scout, extending from the side of his chest were the armour was buckled.
         Hiding behind the body of the third fallen, Bulli loaded a short quarell into the crossbow that he kept on his person, custom made so that it could be raised and fired from a single hand. Taking aim, he fired back to the exposed face of the other dune. The bolt whistled over their heads, and as he fumbled to reload his mechanical trinket Tengu and Leora charged toward him, drawing their swords as they called upon all the wrath and curses of hell they had ever heard. At the last second he raised it again and pinned the komodo rider’s shoulder.
         A silhouette in the red and yellow of the setting sun, Marmo’xui waited for Bulli to run for his life before he spoke in his own language to the buffalo. It casually strode between the horse and reptile, lilting its head back and forth with the swing of its horns. Leora raised her sword and charged at Marmo’s left, but he merely bent backward as its edge passed his face. Tengu, from the right, ushered his komodo to bite at the bounty hunter with its poisoned breathe. Stamping forward, the buffalo retaliated by flicking its metal horns under the jaw of the scaled beast.
         The Bardiche of Shuno was now in the hands of Marmo’xui, and wording a menacing incantation the polished blade of the weapon glowed with an innate spirit, and without warning the outline of Marmo’xui and his war buffalo blurred and faded, jumping erratically around them as though he were a ghostly mirage. Tengu fell from his saddle as he was struck from behind, lying face down and within inches of the stamping hooves.
         Cursing at the dancing illusions, Leora wheeled Moonshadow left and then right as she chased at the blurred image of the southern warrior, squeezing out her breathe as she wielded the tiring weight of the sword.
         Tiring of his admiration for the exotic looking female warrior, Marmo emerged from the side and swung the magical axe into her direction. Her sword broke in two from the impact of the heavy weapon, but she was spared from the final deathblow as Seth used his own magic to create a shower of flashing lights before his eyes. Stunned by this chicanery, the axe of the executioner missed her neck, and Moonshadow fled with his mistress slumped in the saddle.
         Marmo’xui grinned as he stood over the notorious body of Tengu Kokura-kai, wanted in all the northern provinces of Shambarra. He twisted his moustache as he imagined the rewards the warlord Oma Shan’xioa  would shower upon him. He dismounted from his animal and kicked him over so he could remove the mask from his face. He had already seen the eyes with no pupils, and now he could observe at his leisure the black lips that where a curio of Tengu’s ancestors.
         The assassin was still alive, but he doubted that he would survive the journey home, as he only had enough food and water for himself and the miserable thief Bulli, who had guided him.
         “Tie him up.” He ordered Bulli, who had been watching from a safe distance.
         “So, when will I expect to be paid?” the fat man asked as he secured the bleeding and beaten Tengu.
         “When you safely take me back to Ch’arlin, Bulli san.” Marmo’xui replied with annoyance.
                             *          *          *

         Moonshadow  had trotted away under the guidance of Seth, who sat by the funnel of his raised ears and whispered as he hung from the long mane of his hair. The rising chill soon smothered the starlit landscape, and it was this that also stirred Leora from her unconscious wanderings. It frightened her when she opened her eyes to the cold desert night, after her last memories where of the day, but she recollected herself and thanked what powers may be that she was alive to continue her own private mission to the capital Mawran-Jeerkah. But she also remembered that Tengu was still back there, most likely dead from the master strokes of the axe-wielder.
         “After all” – she mused – “, he did give us water.”
         Seth, who didn’t understand her thoughts, looked at her with puzzlement.
         “We will go back and find him.”
         “Who? Tengu?!” He gasped. “What about mister chop-chop back there who almost left us for buzzard breakfast!”
         “We won’t survive the journey east without him, Seth.” Then, grimacing as she remembered the  battle, she finished; “ We will be more cautious this time.”

         For two nights, Leora tracked the movements of Marmo’xui and Bulli back toward the west. Unseen or heard from the two figures enjoying the warmth of their fire, she stalked ever closer to the unsuspecting animals and men. She could see Tengu bound in a painful position, hanging from the saddle of the buffalo as it knelt to sleep by the light of the fire. Sharpened as were the senses of Marmo’xui, Leora had in a sense been raised by the forests and wild animals therein, and she had learnt to move like the great hunting cats that lived in the caves and the boughs of the trees.
         Her slender fingers unbuckled the bardiche from it’s resting place in the saddle, and as a small bat (Seth) fluttered over their fire to amuse them, she rose with a serpentine bend of her body, then swung the handle with a horizontal chop. The head was cleaved from the body, and with a backward spin it littered the sands with his blood.
         Bulli, screeching like a pig, kicked up the coals of the fire into her face before fleeing. He ran into the impenetrable darkness, breathing with some labour because of his girth. As Leora untied Tengu from the  saddle of the beast, the echo of something cracking came from the night. Moonshadow came into the light of the fire as she whistled, and there was red gore and sand on his back hooves.
                             *          *          *
         It was many days before Tengu found the strength of spirit to return to his body. Dirty bloodied bandages covered the deep wounds of the axe, and their were stitches of horsehair (as Leora remembered the cunning of the midwife healer). His jacket had been reduced to tatters in the battle, so he found himself riding bandaged and bare-chested in Marmo’xui’s saddle, on Marmo’xui’s war buffalo. Tattoos of a foreign calligraphy covered his skin, inked to resemble brushstrokes that were to be read vertically.
         “Good morning, Tengu.” Leora smiled as he came to.
         “I am alive.” He laughed for joy at the mystery of existence. Then, he realized that many more things had changed.
         Leora was still riding the horse known as Moonshadow, but she was now dressed in fine chain mail , strapped to her figure by leather belts. And from a sling on her back he saw the length of the deadly Bardiche of Shuno in its’ hooked fitting.
         “It seems,” – she said – “That your god Bodan must feel some sort of sympathy for you.”
         Tengu looked at her with hidden awe, his black lips open till he asked;-
         “How did you kill Marmo’xui.”
         “I’ll answer that, after you tell me why they attacked us to get you!”

         Eating the last of Marmo’xui’s supplies, Tengu spoke of his past by a small fire of twigs they had gathered. Other small flecks of fire in the distance showed that they would soon be approaching another town.
         He told of how he had once served his master, a shadow warrior among others who were trained from orphans and the children of willing parents who were mostly peasants. Things had become unstable since the callapse of the last ruling dynasy, and it had become necessary for those who had been on the losing side to take refuge in the mountains and arm themselves as the provinces of the Golden Triangle collapsed into civil war. These fleeing retainers and disgraced families now plied their trade as spies and assassins for the wealthy warlords.
         Tengu and his secret society had been hired by the warlord Oma Shan’xioa to help end a long and costly war in the north of Shambarra, with his neighbour, Hiao Kodo. Oma, however, used the assassination attempt as an excuse for his own men to rescue another neighbouring province, so that they could begin negotiating an alliance against Kodo.
         Ambushed by retainers that were already aware beforehand of an attempt on their lords’ life, Tengu was the only survivor of the bloodshed that night, diving from the walls of the castle as arrows rained down from above, he had managed to escape. Crossing the borderlands north of Shambarra, mercenaries and bounty hunters had been on his tail ever since.
         Leora recounted her own tale of the past few days, telling him that Daishi had not returned since the melee with Marmo’xui.
                             *          *          *

         The next day, covered in dust, they approached the outskirts of the town, and it didn’t look very promising; from their distant point of view it looked like an abandoned ghost town falling in on itself. And even stranger, there were no walls around it.
         As they rode closer, there was a sign (made of wood, as their were more trees in these parts) that was slowly coming to splinters. Feathers and small animal bones dangled in the slow breeze, and though the bottom half of the end letters had fallen off, the pointed sign still read ‘BALBADOS’. Resting contently on the piled stones that kept the sign standing, two little men raised their long dangling caps, watching with lazy eyes at the horse and buffalo riders coming toward them.
         “Hail, good Halflings.” Called Leora, who had not expected to see such people so far east of the dividing mountains.
         Above the two reclined figures, a much brighter sign, painted with the words ‘Water for Sale’, clicked against the supporting post.
         “You wanna buy some water?” The slimmer of the two asked.
         “How much would I get for a gold pieces like this?” Tengu held out a coin for them to admire.
         Lifting a covered bucket each from where they had hidden them in the rocks, the Halflings produced some clay cups for the weary travellers, dipping them in the mud stained water before raising it to the larger hands of Tengu and Leora. The animals, Moonshadow and Zhing (as Leora had heard Marmo’xui address the beast) drank from the buckets, licking at the moisture as they finished it with great gulps.
         “We are in need of a priest or a healer.” Asked Tengu as he handed back his small cup. “We would be grateful if you could tell us were we might find one who has these skills.”
         “The last priest around here was taken prisoner by Halam, the Satrap.” Answered the child-height man.
         “I see, well, could you tell us where we might find a place to stay so we can rest?”
         “Most traders and caravans stay at the Golden Camel. They have stables!” Laughed the only Halfling who had done any talking thus far.
         “Thankyou.” Said Leora to the water merchants.
         
         Refreshed somewhat, the pair rode along the main street of Balbados, which looked decayed like its exterior. At the end of the street they found the Golden Camel, which was one of the only buildings around that had any stables, as the Halflings had told them.