Part 4! You'll note I'm trying to keep each part its own day. (mostly)
---------
March 24, 708 CR
When Sir Saulius learned that Charles was taking
his family to see the pageant being put on by the
Magyars he insisted on coming. Magyars art a
filthy people who dost steal children and raise
them to their trickster ways, he declared with
as much dignity as he could muster to cover the
obvious loathing he felt for them.
Oh you know how much trouble they will get into
if they try anything like that. I have already
lost one child and will not lose another! But
the momentary heat in his voice had given way to
mirth. Charles had assured then his friend with a
laugh, Besides they kept trying to entertain us
Keepers all the while the plague was scaring
everyone into hiding. And I hear that they won't
be leaving until every last one of them is
Cursed. That shouldn't take more than another day
or two. When else will my children have a chance
to see so many strange jugglers, tumblers, and the like?
We hath festivals here at Metamor with such
men, Saulius had replied with a scowl fixed even to the ends of his whiskers.
But, not only did Charles wish to see what the
Magyars could do, his children were even more
excited by the prospect of the exotic and perhaps
a trifle dangerous Magyars. Kimberly had also
told them the stories that the Magyars stole
children, especially misbehaving children, and so
they stayed very close to their parents, their
little paws holding to either their father's
cloak or their mother's skirt, when not propped
in their father's arms. Saulius walked behind
them on their way through town, eyes wary for any danger.
By midday, the air was pleasantly warm, though a
steady breeze from the south suggested that it
would rain that evening. The Magyars had arranged
their colorful wagons in ranks two deep near one
of the inner walls in the Killing Fields, while
arranging benches in a semicircle outward toward
the row. The assingh, the giant Steppelands
donkeys, were set to grazing on the other side of
the wagons from the road. Bright pinions,
banners, and streamers were hung from wooden
poles erected on all sides. They were such a
mishmash of colors, red, yellows, blues, greens,
and a cornucopia of other unnameable hues, that
there was no way to mistake this people for anything but Magyars.
Near the entrance, a lithe ferret woman was
performing a salacious dance dressed in a
patchwork vest and legging that came down only to
her shins, revealing all of her ankle and newly
clawed hindfeet. Her tunic was little better,
emphasizing a modest quartet of breasts stacked
in pairs, the edges of which were visible through
little breathing slits in her garment. She
twirled little batons around her in a complicated
dance, each one ending in a streamer that coursed
around her body in very suggestive ways, as if
they were the hands of a lover caressing her body.
Kimberly dragged the children past the beastly
Magyar as quickly as she could. Charles blinked
in surprise a few times before he felt a death
glare and hurried after his wife.
They found seats with a good view of the main
area between the wagons and the benches; they
kept the children between them, the boys next to
their father and the girls next to their mother,
while Sir Saulius sat right behind them to keep a
very stern eye on them and the Magyars performing
for them. When they arrived they found seven
Magyars, three children, two still human, and a
couple who were part beast, all juggling various
things from balls, to torches, to knives, to
axes. Sometimes they would juggle by themselves,
other times they would begin to pass them back
and forth, interleaving them through the air so
that it seemed everything should clatter in and
crash to the ground, but they always missed.
Charles couldn't help but be impressed by their
consummate skill and timing. Kimberly stared in
wonder, and his children all oohs and squeaked
their delight, especially when it looked like one
of the axes or knives was going to strike a
Magyar a fatal blow, only to be snatched from the
air at the last moment and sent skyward again.
Sir Saulius grumbled in disgust the entire time.
Other Magyas performed contortions that made even
Charles flinch in disbelief, while still others
walked about on stilts taller than a house whilst
playing various drums, pipes, and stringed
instruments. There were a good number of children
running about as well, and Charles couldn't tell
which of them were naturally young and which had
just entered a second childhood. There were a few
women and men amongst the performers who were
buxom or broad in a way that suggested they had
suffered the gender swapping Curse, but since
they were all wearing the same sort of patchwork
clothing, trading skirts for the women in place
of baggy-legged trousers for men, it was hard to
tell if they were even Cursed or not. But about a
quarter of the Magyars were unmistakeably like
the Metamorians now they were were clad in fur, scale, or feather.
Charles's children oohed at all of the displays,
and when a pair of ladies, one of whom was now a
dark blue, short-winged, long-legged bird, came
past carrying trays full of little morsels, they
squeaked and clamored to have a taste. Their
father made sure he paid for every last bite lest
the Magyars feel cheated, and even tried to buy
some for his knight who would have nothing to do
with it. Pastries with bits of meat, cheese, or
even potato greeted their noses and tongues,
while they were given to drink fresh milk from
the assingh. It had a thick creamy flavor that
Charles found a bit too strong for his taste, but
in short gulps it washed down the pastries well enough.
Keepers of all sorts came to watch, though the
few Charles knew to be well-to-do merchants were
careful not to bring much money or finery with
them. Soon enough they had an ever changing set
of neighbors on either side of them enjoying the
performances with them. Even the other rats
showed up later that afternoon though they were
forced to sit elsewhere. Charles was amused at
the way they artfully dodged the Magyars coming
to offer them vittles by moving around the crowd
even faster. As they passed behind him, he caught
a glimpse of why both Julian and Goldmark were
carrying rather sizable money pouches on their
hips. It seemed that their wagon-sleighs were rather profitable already.
It was difficult to keep the children still for
very long, as they wanted to jump off the
benches, scamper forward, and start playing with
the Magyars, especially the Magyar `children' who
were juggling and tumbling. Every time one of the
children looked ready to bound out of their
seats, Sir Saulius would say, If thou dost play
with them, thou may ne'er see thy mother and father again!
Kimberly would scold the knight for scaring her
children, but never too strenuously as it was
clear she worried about it too. Charles just
stroked his boys between their big ears, and then
did the same for his girls to sooth their excited
but suddenly frightened nerves.
By the time the afternoon rolled around, all of
the Magyars gathered together and started their
pageant. Each of them took on various roles, with
lots of intricate costumes to make monsters of
antiquity appear on the field. An older man now
sporting graying feathers and the spindly body of
a stork narrated a tale of romance, treachery,
great battles, and woe. It was set in ancient
age, out of the very legends of the Steppe, the
Åelfwood, and Vysehrad. One of the principle
heroes was in fact the great hero of that era,
Pelain of Cheskych. Suitably, the Magyar
portraying that ancient knight had been
transformed into a wolf with a regal mane of
silvery-gray fur. Charles wished that Jessica
were there so she could see this and comment on
how close he behaved to the man she met in the Imbervand.
Now that the Magyars were telling a story instead
of merely performing tricks and wild antics, the
children all settled down and watched with rapt
fascination, ears tilted forward, eyes wide with
wonder. Little Erick swung his arms as if he were
wielding a sword and he was Pelain battling off
hordes of golden monsters coated in scales and
fur. Little Bernadette and Baerle kept asking
Kimberly if the heroine, played by a Keeper who
must have been a man a week ago but now was a
svelte and stout woman with eyes as blue as a
bird's and a face both soft and stern as if
weathered by the Steppe winds and her chest was
prodigious enough that many a Keeper's eyes never
even noticed her face was going to marry Pelain
or when Pelain would rescue her from the
villainous horde or the enigmatic elves, both of
whom at one point had this radiant beauty in
their control for their own ends. Of course,
there were also Magyar characters in the tale,
mostly a brother and sister, one of whom was
played by the same four-breasted ferret that had
greeted them when they arrived; she also drew the
wandering eyes of the men, and the baleful glares of the women.
The tale and performances were so engrossing that
even Sir Saulius leaned forward in his seat to
get a better view. And when the brother Magyar
suffered a very tragic death in order to save his
sister from one of the golden demons, he had to
fight back his noble gorge. Kimberly didn't cry,
but many of the other women watching were dabbing
their faces and snouts. Little Bernadette and
Baerle were tugging on their mother's sleeve and
asking her in quiet voices if the brother would
be okay. She assured them that he would even as
the actor spent the next five minutes dying in as
dramatic and overblown way as possible.
By the time the performance came to an end,
clouds from the south had covered the sky and the
threat of rain was quickly becoming a reality.
Charles and Kimberly scooped up their children,
and with Sir Saulius and the other rats close
behind them, headed straight for the Keep.
Goldmark offered to carry the children on a taur
back, and Kimberly gratefully deposited both
girls there once their friend had changed. Which
of course meant that Charles also had to become a
taur to carry his boys. For the sake of propriety
he ducked into an alley with the other rats
forming a wall to guard his modesty. It was the
only pause on their way back through Keeptowne,
and it proved one pause too many, as less than a
minute before they reached the Ivy Causeway and
the safety of the Keep's walls, the sky opened
and poured its contents in thick sheets down across the Valley.
The Keep was kind to them and led them quickly to
Long House, where all of them gathered around a
large fire in the Matthias home there. The
children barely waited to be dry before the boys
started arguing which of them was to be Pelain
and which the brother, while the girls tried to
settle on who was the sister and who the yearning
of Pelain's heart. As Kimberly tried to get them
to take turns in each of the roles, Charles
turned to Sir Saulius who held his tabard closely
over his chest as they huddled around the hearth
drying. Neither Charles nor Goldmark had bothered
changing back to a two-legged stance and so they
reclined at either end, allowing one side each to be warmed by the flames.
Now that wasn't so bad, was it?
Sir Saulius's snout took on a disquiet moue.
They art very talented in many different ways.
He narrowed his eyes and his whiskers lowered. I
dost too love the tale of Pelain and the demon
horde of Kolovrat. I hath ne'er heard it since my
youth. In a softer voice he added. But 'twas
brother and sister from a horse clan and not
Magyars that didst come to great Pelain's aid!
The other rats chuckled at their friend's bruised
pride, but none said word against it. Hector and
Elliot turned to watch the children playing,
while Goldmark took a brush and began to work
over his long back, and Julian opened his money
pouch to quickly count his coins.
Charles noted the latter and asked, How does your business fare, Julian?
Very well, the white furred, red-eyed rat
replied. He closed his pouch and then smiled.
The plague and the fate of many of the merchants
who'd been trapped at Metamor only to suffer our
fate, has helped convince many of the foreign
merchants to use our services to ship goods into
and out of the valley. Two days ago we bought an
old Inn and stables in Laselle that had been run
down. We're converting it to apartments for our
drivers and for our factors there, and in another
few months we'll have built a warehouse as well
to store goods as they are readied for transport.
And while Keeptowne and Euper were under
quarantine, our shipments across the Valley
turned quite a bit more profit than we expected.
We just didn't see any of it until the quarantine
came to an end! He laughed and then stretched
his arms wide. I do wonder how long it will be
before many of those merchants come back here; they've nowhere else to go.
Thou shouldst not take joy in that terrible
time, Sir Saulius chided, the moue having never left his snout.
Julian lowered his arms and wrapped his paws
around the end of his tail, rubbing the tip with
his thumb. I know. I knew somebody who died from
that infernal plague. But it does no good to
castigate ourselves for the good fortune we receive even when another suffers.
That is very true, Charles said. He stretched
the toes on his forelegs, and then shifted a
little to let the warmth sink into his other
side, taking care to hold his tail to keep it
from accidentally sliding into the fire. And I
know you better than that, Julian, but it does
seem a bit unseemly to talk of how good the plague was for your business.
The frown on Julian's snout deepened and he
narrowed his eyes. I'm not going to apologize
for our success, Charles. I wish it hadn't come
this way, but I'm not going to apologize for it.
I'm excited that we have met with such good
fortune so soon. We may not fight with swords,
but merchants fight nevertheless, and the combat
is brutal and unforgiving. One day you may have
money trickling off your nose, and the next you
can be selling the shirt from your back to pay
off creditors as rapacious as sharks!
Elliot and Goldmark looked a little embarrassed
at their partner's vehemence, and the former was
quick to add, We don't want to be sharks
ourselves, Charles. The more business we can
create, the more wealth we can bring to Metamor.
Tell him what we did yesterday, Julian. That was a wonderful sight.
Ah, yes, Julian said with a nod and a renewed
smile. We took a goodly sum of the profits we'd
made and gave them to the nuns, and then we
offered a gift of supplies to Healer Coe. We may
not have been able to save any lives from the
plague, but don't for a moment think I'm not grateful to those who did!
Charles held up his paws and shook his head. I am not angry with you, Julian.
Nor I, Saulius interjected.
I just felt uncomfortable. You know what I had
to face because of that plague. He turned his
gaze to Kimberly who had managed to get the
children to finally agree. They were now acting
out some of the scenes from the pageant but
mostly just bonking each other on the head with their chewsticks.
Julian caught the glance and then took a deep
breath, the agitation bleeding from his flesh as
the dampness fled from his fur and garments.
You're right. Forgive my thoughtlessness. Is
there anything we can do for you? You are our
dearest friend, and one of the few I know I could lay down everything for.
The white rat's voice was so sincere that Charles
actually wanted to reach out and hug him tightly.
But he restrained himself to returning a broad
smile. That won't be necessary. But I do ask
that you all come visit us at the Glen more
often! We'll be returning there tomorrow and...
And you'll be riding in one of our wagons,
Julian piped up with a boastful grin. I insist!
Charles laughed. As I knew you would. We'd be delighted to accept your offer.
Sir Saulius gave Charles a curious look. Didst
thee not wish to ride Malicon back to the Glen?
I had not forgotten my steed, oh my knight!
Charles replied with a laugh. Of course I shall,
but I will be riding beside Julian's wagon if not
leaning across it the entire way back! At that
all of the rats, his dear friends and those with
whom he felt such a comfort and camaraderie that
he could not explain, broke into hearty smiles
and laughter. No more words were said, nor could
they have been, as they turned their eyes to
watch the children play while the fire dried the
last of the rain's torrent from their fur.
----------
May He bless you and keep you in His grace and love,
Charles Matthias
!DSPAM:4eff5998115401122247586!
_______________________________________________
MKGuild mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.integral.org/listinfo/mkguild
