New Wings:
Summary: Jouster-fic. With tensions rising between the male Jousters in Aerie and the female messenger Jousters in Mefis, the decision is made to accept a female Jouster to be trained in Aerie in order to demonstrate the level of commitment and strength of Nofret's Female Jousters. When Mayat, the daughter of a scribe, finds herself unwittingly a part of she thought this turmoil, she must learn to cope with both bullying and pressure to succeed. With the army of the Nameless Ones not quite as decimated as believed, Mayat must use all her learned cunning and skill in order to protect the fragile alliance between Alta and Tia.
Disclaimer: Don't own. Don't sue.
Chapter Four: Assistance
Mayat woke up the next morning to a pounding headache and a novice shaking her awake. "Bwuh?" She looked up from her pallet, her hair in disarray from sleeping on the Altan-style pillow rather than the neck rest the Tians preferred. She squinted in the darkness in the general direction the person stood.
"Wake up, milady, dawn rites begin soon, and Lady Aket-ten told me to make sure you are out of the temple so as to not disturb the priests," came the whispered reply. Mayat suppressed a groan; when allowed, she would sleep in until noon, but she definitely did not want to draw the ire of her hosts. At least they had had the good taste to allow a girl to awaken her. "Lady Aket-ten also wanted me to make sure you got up early enough to beat most of the boys to the butcher's and have enough time to practice saddling." The girl sounded anxious to make sure her job was completed.
"Thank you for waking me up," Mayat managed to act suitably perky, so after a moment of indecision, the novice left her. Mayat groaned and stretched, sorely tempted to flop back down on the pillow and sleep the day away, but the thought of Jouster Akhom-ba-kari's self-satisfied smirk gave her the will she needed to pull herself to her feet.
Luckily, months of living in Aerie had gotten her used to getting dressed solely on touch, as the only source of light in her room was whatever filtered in through the thin windows near the ceiling, and the sun was not even peering over the horizon. Mayat dressed in a linen kilt automatically, pulled a comb through her hair, and applied a rim of kohl around her eyes. She would have thought that the Jousters would forego even the most basic of make-ups, but from listening to Jousters in the inn with her brother she found that the black paint helped improve vision in the desert.
Still yawning and not fully awake, Mayat stepped into her sandals before walking out her door and into the temple proper. She managed to avoid any priests and stepped into the street. Looking around, Mayat encountered the first problem of the day. Everything looked very different in the dark, and she was not altogether sure where the cold room was. If she could get there, she would be able to find her way to Kemnebi's pen, but besides that…
Hearing voices behind her, she jumped into the shadows cast by the carvings on the temple walls. Peering around the statue of a cat-headed goddess (presumably Pashet), she saw two boys walking down the street. Now that her eyes were adjusted to the darkness, she made out the figures of two boys. From the height, she could see one of them was the Akkadian she had seen yesterday, and his shorter, but much slimmer companion was the weedy Tian boy who had been the last non-Akkadian chosen yesterday. They were arguing loudly, though it may have just seemed loud because the only other people on the streets were the servants.
"You don't like getting up early any more than I do, Anteros. We could have gotten up with the rest of the Dragon Boys and 'borrowed' some meat from the others." The Tian whined.
"And put myself on the line, again, to get you out of trouble? Not going to happen, Jahil-ja-bar. Until you build up enough muscles to be able to cut your own meat in a decent amount of time, I am going to get you up early and we are going to fill our barrows before everyone else." Anteros said.
"I am not that weak Anteros, and I object to you automatically treating me like I'm a child." Jahil-ja-bar said.
"I'll stop treating you like a child when you stop saying things that make everyone around you make strangling motions in your direction." Anteros said wryly.
"All I said was that it makes more logistical sense to have the largest boys sleep near the door to stop the drafts."
"Honestly Jahil, if you weren't my best friend I probably would have punched you as well."
"Which is exactly what I mean. The more imposing boys should sleep near the door so scorpions and snakes won't-"
"See, that is the sort of thing that got you thrown out of your temple in the first place."
The weedy Tian sniffed. "Please, I had far out-grown them. My ideas were perfectly logical and they were just being plain daft."
"And stringing up that bucket of water to hit the Head Priest on the back of the head was just honey on the flatbread. If you did not have the Gift of Animal Speech, you would not even be here."
Mayat had to stuff her knuckle in her mouth to stop from laughing at the two's bickering. Oh, I'm glad I'm not in that one's barrack. Since they were clearly heading to the butcher's she made the executive decision to follow them, so before they rounded the corner she stepped out from her corner and followed the boys to the cold room.
When the cold room was reached, Mayat faced the next dilemma of the day: should she wait until the boys left with their first load, and possibly face the larger group of boys when she took her meat to Kemnebi, or face the two on her own? The two seemed friendly enough, but she hadn't seen how they would react to her. She didn't feel like enduring rude stares or swinging cow carcasses pushed in her direction.
She had forgotten about what Wingleader Gan had said about leaving the body out to thaw before starting to cut the meat, so her situation was resolved when the two boys each took half a bull carcass (Anteros carrying it with much more ease than Jahil-ja-bar) and placing one in each barrow before waiting for it to thaw. While she was debating about the likelihood of them noticing her if she tried to carry a dead cow in a barrow behind their backs, another pair of Dragon Boys came up the path. While they exchanged greetings with Anteros, they ostentatiously did not speak to Jahil-ja-bar.
While they stood around and talked, the vague lightening of the horizon goaded Mayat into action. I'll just walk forward, with determination, and dignity, and calmness, and ignore them. After a few false starts, she began striding across the street, trying to act composed. However, the closer she got to the boys the shorter and quicker her steps became. She looked down and avoided the gaze of the boys, as they shot glares in her direction.
The frigid cold room stung her eyes, making her aware of the tiny bit of moisture outlining her eyes. Oh don't cry, Mayat, you'll only make things worse. Come on, you've got to make yourself numb to all that. She told herself over and over as she cut down half a carcass.
She wasn't ready for the weight, so she didn't catch the meat so much as act like a cushion for it when it dropped. At least all the blood froze so you don't have redness all down your front. The unhelpful voice in the back of her head pointed out. Ignoring the louder guffaws of the onlookers, she began dragging the meat toward and door. Stupid weak little girl arms. She thought angrily.
"Here let me help you with that." She looked up to see Anteros picking up the other end of meat and sling it over shoulder, pulling the feet out of her grip. He carried it out the door, with her following feeling very much like a duckling as he dumped it into the waiting barrow. "Are you going to need any help cutting that?" He asked.
Flushing, Mayat stammered, "N-no I'm fine, thanks very much, I used to carve wood and-" A moment later she realized she was babbling and finished lamely. "No, that's fine."
"Okay, just tell me if you need any help." Mayat kept her eyes on the ground as he walked away to rejoin the other boys.
Sighing, she picked up a knife and began sawing away at the meat. By the time she reached the inner organs, the meat should be thawed enough to cut through. Soon, her arms were covered in blood and entrails up to her elbows and Mayat was fighting the strong urge to retch. She looked away for a few moments and made gagging faces facing away from the boys.
"Going to throw up, princess?" One of the boys shouted mockingly.
She forced her face into a pleasant expression and turned to say, "No, just, looking at-" She searched for something to point out in the direction she had been facing. "That boulder. That is a nice boulder." She gave them an unconvincing smile and turned back to her barrow while the boys repeated her remark in various tones of scorn.
Breathing in through her mouth as much as possible, Mayat finished cutting the meat, filling the barrow to a little over the mark, and looked for a place to brush the blood off her hands. Spotting one of the boy's cast-aside mantles, near the entrance, she briefly toyed with idea of going over there and wiping off her arms on his cloak, but decided she was not that confident. She settled for scraping off the worst of the muck against the sides of the barrow.
With a grunt, she lifted the barrow experimentally to find that although the chopped up meat meant that the weight was distributed over a wide area, it still meant that half a cow was sitting at the bottom of the barrow. With effort, she managed to get it moving, but with only one wheel it was very precarious. While passing the boys, in her hurry to get away she lost her balance on one side and almost dropped the barrow.
A steadying hand reached out to grab the side of the barrow before bits of animal splattered across the street. She looked up to see Anteros holding the barrow while she quickly regained control. "Are you sure you can carry this much weight?" He asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Yes, I just need a little assistance every now and again." Mayat said, giving him an uncomfortable half-smile. After a few seconds of awkward silence. Mayat cleared her throat and pushed the barrow forward a little bit. "If you don't mind…"
"Oh, yes." Anteros stepped aside while Mayat ducked past. A few blocks away, her heart began to resume a somewhat regular rhythm.
xxx
In the kitchens, Mayat sighed as she wiped a sweaty strand of hair away from her face before continuing to scrub the pot she was working on. The day had proceeded as well as could be expected up to this point. After a brief panic attack of seeing a hungry dragon bearing down on her, Mayat found the best way to feed Kemnebi was to throw him a few pieces of meat to take the edge off his hunger before approaching with a barrow. Jouster Akhom-ba-kari did not say anything beyond, "Have a jar of date wine ready for me when I get back," which Mayat took a sign that her job of saddling was decent enough to pass muster.
After getting a lesson in rudimentary dragon keeping with the rest of the Dragon Boys (during which she stood toward the back of the group and patiently tried to ignore the fact that everytime the group changed locations there was a mad scramble to push her out of the way and stand at the front of the line), Mayat ate a small meal of flatbread and beer with the rest of the Dragon Boys before afternoon chores were given out. Kitchen duty wasn't that bad a chore, but as she took off toward the kitchens, she heard a few shouts of "Go back to the kitchen where you belong, girl!"
Face the facts, it is probably the reason you got this assignment. She took out her anger at the injustice by scrubbing the pot with new vigor.
"If you keep scrubbing like that you will wear hole in the brass soon." Mayat looked up to see an elderly servant woman looking at her from her position sitting at a table across from her, chopping vegetables. "I can assure you that whatever the pot did to deserve such treatment was of no fault by it."
Mayat winced. "Sorry m'lady. I meant no offense to said kettle." She looked down at her work and proceeded with gentler strokes.
"Well said, young miss." The woman nodded and continued cutting vegetables. Mayat looked up to examine the servant. Long gray hair was braided into one long plait and thrown carelessly over one shoulder, but the heat in the kitchen was causing a few strands around her face to escape and curl around her head. There were more lines on her skin than Mayat could count, and sharp hazel eyes were staring determinedly at the cutting board as she chopped roots and tubers with quick, efficient strokes.
Mayat now realized the dire need for more help around here; the old woman was one of only a handful of people that were cooking the meals for the entire Jousters Compound. I suppose I should be flattered that they clearly need me so badly, but if they really needed more workers they could have assigned a few others beside me. Musing on that thought, Mayat remembered the few times her father and brother had tried to cook meals when her mother had been too ill to work. The results had been anything but edible. They're not desperate enough to try to eat anything a pack of adolescent boys threw together. Mayat thought wryly.
As the woman whacked a slow kitchen boy as he walked past, Mayat had to stifle a laugh. Any Dragon Boy assigned here would have been thrown out on his ear within a sennight. While she had been introduced to the official Kitchen Overseer, this woman was clearly the true leader, as she barked orders from her place at the table.
When the two of them were once again alone, the woman spoke. "So you're the new girl who is trying to show those Jousters what a real woman can do, hmm?" Mayat looked up to see the woman measuring an amount of herbs while glancing up at her at the end of the question.
"I suppose so…" Mayat began.
"About time." The woman dumped the herbs into a large cauldron. "You should have heard them the first few sennights here. 'Why can I not have honey with my flatbread?'; 'Why is someone not waiting for me with a jar of wine when I return?'; 'Why must I serve myself?'; on and on! And they say that we are the delicate flowers."
That startled a laugh out of Mayat. "Is that not the truth!"
The woman continued measuring out ingredients while she spoke. "I am glad you seem to not be afraid of hard work. Some of the boys were sent here earlier to help, and if I have to sweep up the remains of one more pottery bowl, I believe I would have walked right up to Haraket and told him exactly what he can do with his uppity Jousters and Dragon Boys. You think it is easy running a staff of a dozen for a compound of scores?" Mayat quickly shook her head. "You bet your last honey cake it's not easy. But try telling that to a hungry Jouster who is full of more hot air than a Bedu tent in the middle of a kamiseen."
Mayat groaned. "I am probably assigned to one of those Jousters. Aren't I lucky?"
The woman made a rude noise. "I do not envy you that position. Perhaps in my youth I would have been one of the contenders for your position, but I have had enough of working for a person with less sense than my dog and more wealth than my entire extended family combined. Not that we had much, being serfs, but that is beside the point."
"Were you born a serf?" Mayat asked curiously.
"Yes; my family was one of the first taken by Tia when the treaty was broken so many years ago. But, my family has never been one for laying down to be walked over, and my mother taught me that sometimes a sharp tongue and words unspoken are the only ways one can fight back." The woman picked the pot off the floor and transferred it to the fire, surprising Mayat with her apparent strength. After setting prodding the fire into submission, she turned around and wiped her hands on her apron. "So what is your tale, Dragon Girl?"
She shrugged. "My father is a scribe who used to work for the Temple of Thet. We escaped Alta City when the two false Twins took the throne and went to Sanctuary before coming here. My younger brother is training to become a Jouster as well, though he is separated with the young boys. I was told about the position for a Dragon Girl, and thought I would take it."
"There is a lot more to that story than you are telling, young missy." The woman's eyes twinkled with amusement. She sat down heavily. "So, do you have a name, lass?"
"Mayat. I'm apprenticed to Jouster Akhom-ba-kari and his dragon Kemnebi."
The woman made a rude noise. "If I ever saw a pair more suited to each other. Your road is not going to be made smooth by either of those two. At least Haraket had the decency to put you here with old Hanna." Hanna gave Mayat an appraising glance. "I like you Mayat, so here is what I am going to do. You let me deal with Jouster-" here she inserted a rude word variation on Akhom-ba-kari, "while you work here for the rest of your apprenticeship. The kitchen is one of the few places the Dragon Boys will not dare to enter without permission, namely mine, and you are ten times more competent than any one of them."
"Agreed." Mayat said quickly, before Hanna had a chance to say anything else. "If I only have to see them at meals I should be fine."
Hanna held up a hand. "You should not disappear completely outside meal times. The boys will think they have you on the retreat, and rumors may start about how you spend your time if you stay in the shadows. No, always show up at a meal and eat something. It does not have to be much, but enough to show that you aren't afraid of them." Hanna gave a wry look as if sharing a private joke with Mayat. "Like hyenas, they can smell fear. If there is a game in the open, hang around the periphery. Finish your morning chores quickly and quietly. You can stay at the back of any group, just make sure you are there. Eventually they will get used to you being there and ignore you or maybe even start up tentative friendships."
Mayat's face must have shown how she felt about subjecting herself to weeks of psychological warfare, as Hanna continued. "Oh, it won't be so bad. You'll always be able to talk with me, and as a woman, you know that your emotional stamina is much greater than theirs." Hanna reached over and patted her shoulder. "Think of it this way, things can only get better."
Mayat snorted, giving her opinion on how likely that would be.
"Come now, let us move to other things. Perhaps you would like to tell me the full story of your flight from Alta."
The pair spent the rest of the afternoon swapping stories and eating the best bits of the meals before they left to the Jousters.
Author's Note: Wow, this chapter is longer than I expected. I just realized that all of my chapters so far have hovered around seven or eight pages in MS Word. I hope it's of decent length and not too wordy.
So yeah, sorry for the delay, yadda yadda yadda, I'll try to get up another chapter this week because school starts next week and I don't know when I will have the time to finish this. Eh, I'll update when I can. At least I actually have a plan of sorts for this story, unlike with Circle Remade. Thanks to ya'll who reviewed; it is so great when I log onto my e-mail and see a little "Review Alert" letter.
I thought I would address concerns over Aket-ten potentially becoming involved in Mayat's life, making her Mary-Sueish. I would like to ease those concerns now; the purpose of that scene is to close off any of Mayat's escape plans and raise the stakes.
Other questions? Concerns? Critiques? Kudos? Leave them in a REVIEW and I will address them as best I can.
Oh, I would like to point out the character of Hanna is in fact that of reviewer Hannahtheplante. Let's all give her a round of applause!!! *claps in a circle pattern* I might have a contest like this in later chapters when I need a few good villains, so keep reviewing and I'll keep you posted on that front.
Alright, I think I'll sign off now. Jess-Jess, end review and ROLL OUT!