A/N
Thank you goes to everyone commenting, favoriting, following, and reading. I want to give special thanks to bykim0120 and MogaroMutis, two other writers you'll see on this site whose works "Ashes Begin Anew" and "The Green Tome" are worth checking out. Also another special thanks to RandoFox for the comments. I hope everyone continues to enjoy this world and look forward to hearing about what you guys think. Stay safe, and if this helps you stay indoors, comment me and demand more. I'll find the time to keep the pages coming.
36
"He can't be far. Split up in groups of two, I'll set out on my own. When we find him, subdue him, but try not to kill him." Shevrohn ordered, taking control of the search. Not only was Aegon somewhat to blame for the prisoner escaping on his watch, there was a suspicion among the others in their group that it was someone else's intention to either allow or facilitate the escape.
"Who will watch his wife? She's likely to warn him of our approach," Chekka said, referring to Nahknani who Chekka and the twins were blaming. "It's the only reason she'd sleep with a tiny pink man like him. To distract him from his watch."
Aegon responded sternly, "Watch your tongue. I was with her the whole time. She did not do this."
"How do you know? You were love drunk since she slithered to the fire. Where was she before that? She freed him and told him to wait for the moans."
The twins sided with Nahknani, though Aegon didn't understand what they said. Chekka's face reddened, and replied in anger in their tongue.
Shevrohn intervened in Valyrian, "She was fit to fuck him before we made camp, before the gray backs. It is their fault he's gone, but out of negligence and stupidity, not intentional sabotage."
For minutes, the squabbling continued as Aegon tried to come to terms with the situation in his own mind. He had begun to develop a friendship with Chekka, though still in its fragile early stages. The Brindled Brother didn't necessarily mean to say anything other than what he thought was his truth, though slightly offensive. His thought had some merit though, as he was the only other one there.
She did come out of the darkness to the flames as silently as if she was sneaking. Whose to say she didn't free him? She also kept me from checking on the noises we heard. Was that to allow her former lover to escape?
On the other hand, Nahknani had been attracted to him since they'd met. The timing of when they came together was more on Aegon's now willingness to do so, than an opportune moment for a treasonous spy. Like Shevrohn said, there was no secret that Nahknani wanted him. And as Aegon thought about the moments before everything happened, he thought about the things they said, and the looks she'd given him. Was she manipulative? Sure, but when she opened up to him, not just before they laid together, but even before, there was honesty in her eyes. She truly felt for him.
"Stop it, all of you. This is my blunder, not hers. I was on watch. I allowed Chekka to rest and the responsibility to guard him was mine and mine alone. Once and for all, I will ask Nani to speak her truth and you judge her answers to come to your own understanding." Aegon said, blurting through the rabble and shifting focus from whom to blame to the more important task of finding the prisoner.
"Nahknani, did you set the prisoner free?" He asked.
"No. I would never. If he reaches anyone from his clan, we and the rest of our clan could surely die. Yes, I once laid with him, but so did the twins, if I remember correctly. Why aren't they to blame?"
"Stop," Aegon said, "before we blame anyone else, let's just come to terms with the fact that he is gone and we were all ignoring him. Five were asleep, as you were all in the tent together and Neenee was in the trees. Nani and I were fucking near the fire. None of us helped him escape." I think.
"What is important now," Aegon continued, "is that we find him. He cannot have gone far. Hopefully Lem,"
"Who," Chekka asked.
"The dog, idiot," Shevrohn replied.
"Lem," Aegon trudged on, ignoring the brothers. "can hopefully find his scent. He's not trained to do so, but I've seen common dogs used for the same thing. Also, Shevrohn can help track him. You said you are a good tracker, yes?"
"Yes, but in this darkness, it will be near impossible."
The twins spoke up in their tongue to the group. They all began to respond back in forth in varying lengths of sentences. Nahknani quickly translated the important bits, saying, "The twins can also help, they too can find his scent. If we all work together, we should be able to find the path he took and catch him before he reaches anyone that can help him."
"Good. Get Lem. Let's get to work."
Aegon could tell the group, which was still groggy from being roused mid sleep, and angry at their pseudo leader. The twins seemed jealous, as they too wanted him sexually. Chekka seemed jealous too. He'd spent most of his adult life in exile with only men. He thought this was his chance to sleep with a woman too, or women, but it was his grace getting the action from the most beautiful woman of their kind. Shevrohn wasn't jealous, he was irate, though he tried to subdue it. Watching a prisoner is a simple task. Simple enough that Chekka could do it. He verbalized the stupidity in sending Chekka to bed if they meant to fuck. "You should have told him to stay on watch while you did what you had to do. It couldn't have taken more than a half of an hour." Aegon only replied to him with, "I didn't know we would go there."
Shevrohn responded, anger still wrenching his face, "How? We all did."
Neenee stayed mostly silent. She didn't know Valyrian, and even when the group spoke in their tongue, she stayed mostly in the background of the bickering. Her sober face seemed to be waiting for the inevitable task. As Aegon grew to know her, she never talked about things. She did them. And as the rest of their group readied themselves to search, she stood waiting, already prepared for whatever action need be done.
They gathered around the tree they tied him to and searched for answers with make shift torches held dangerously close to leaves and tree branches. If the rest would survive, they could just set the whole forest ablaze. Then, I could find him. Or the fire would.
JaHahn's arms were bent and broken. His hips seemed to pop out of socket when they stretched him around the trunk. He couldn't have gone far, but his feet were not bloodied. There would be no blood trail, save for a random bits from the cut near his ribcage, but it was the ground Shevrohn searched for tracks and disturbed foliage. The twins and Lem were smelling. The twins more than Lem, who yelped excitedly at the new game they were all playing. He didn't get it.
Suddenly, Shevrohn hooted at the sign of something. "Here," he said. "He must've gone this way."
The twins agreed. They spoke in their tongue, but the nods from their heads as they began to answer the question, "Is he right?" said all Aegon needed to hear.
With a torch for each of them, they set out in groups of two, save Shevrohn on his own. They didn't trust Nahknani and Aegon together, so they split them up. Nahknani went with Neenee. Chekka with Trihknah. Aegon with Trihknee. They followed the edge of the cliff where JaHahn's path and scent seemed to follow, but they spread out to cover as much ground as they could as a group.
Aegon followed Trihknee's lead, though she skulked through the brush much lower to the ground. It seemed she spent half the search on all fours, sniffing the ground and air for clues of his trail. The forest was dark around them. He could only see the four feet around them and the other torches off flanking them. Aegon looked into the canopy and noticed yellow orbs blinking back at him. They seemed to be a smaller tree monkey, but he could only see their eyes. There were seemingly hundreds of them, all intently watching him, like an optical illusion, still focused on him no matter where he moved through the forest below them.
Here and there the forest sounded in the abyss beyond the orange glow from their torches. Twigs snapped. Leaves rustled. But all the sounds seemed unimportant. They needed to find their captive, for the sake of the clan, but also for his own sake. How could he still be the Drahkness Kahn after such an irresponsible blunder? Especially if JaHahn were to reach reinforcements.
Minutes stretched into an hour, as the search continued. Along the way there were shouts from the torches in the distance either finding something or thinking they did. The progress was slow, but still quicker than the armless legless thing that JaHahn must be now. So, where was he?
Aegon began to realize, as time continued to wane past them, two competing truths. One, that as sunrise approached, the prospect of a lit forest seemed a relief spending so much time fighting through the thick dark. But the other, the more ground they searched, the closer they were to the slavers old camp.
Upon their departure from the exploding boat battle, Aegon wasn't sure if the slavers had all left the camp or not. If some stayed and JaHahn reached them, any number of terrible fates awaited. Aegon thought to ask Shevrohn multiple times during the search, but he was too far to communicate to. He only had Trihknee, who only knew to talk about the sex he had with Nahknani, or the sex she continued to offer for herself.
In the distance, he heard an excited commotion from one of the torches. He and Trihknee looked and turned to each other. They didn't need to say a word, and moved toward the noises. Trihknee got on all fours and bounded through the dark. Aegon followed close behind her, or as close as he could wondering How does she keep the torch from igniting the ground and avoiding low branches, thick brush, and the occasional root.
As they grew closer, they could start to hear the voices. It sounded like Chekka and Trihknah, calling out in the Brindled Tongue. "What are they saying?" Aegon asked the twin in front of him.
"I don't be knowing to say this. Come fast." Trihknee said in broken Valyrian.
The rest of the torches drew nearer as well, seemingly all about to converge on the same point. Aegon and Trihknee were the furthest away, reaching the point last.
"He's here, near death. I tripped over him," Chekka said with a laugh and a smile. His body was lying face down on the forest floor, his gnarled arms twisted in an unnatural way. Shevrohn flipped him over, gruffly, and spoke to him in their tongue.
Neenee held her torch down toward his face to illuminate it. Her long arm stretched so close to his face, he grimaced away slowly from the heat. He mumbled something inaudibly, which Shevrohn replied with a kick to his side. A yelp, like Lem's, erupted from the broken man's mouth, followed by a brindled word, a cough, and the rest of a short brindled sentence. His voice was more breath than sound, as he struggled to do much more than barely breathe.
Nahknani slunk around Neenee and next to Aegon, gripping his hand with hers and pulling herself into him. "I did not do this. But I did not heed your warning either. I am sorry, my love," she whispered. He felt a warm flush course through his veins. The translation for "my love" in the Valyrian he knew, was more a term of endearment like, "Dear," or, "Sweetling," in the common tongue, but it sounded sincere and sweet in her thick brindled accent. "I am sorry for anything having to do with him."
Shevrohn continued to interrogate JaHahn as he lied in a growing pool of his own blood, shaded in the amber glow of the torches, his eyes almost too heavy to open at all. Certainly too heavy for him to open fully, as his eyelids seemed to quiver between closed and half raised.
Aegon whispered back to Nahknani, "Be sorry for nothing. I am both glad we laid together and not upset of what you had once did before me. I should have still checked on the noise, but after, I would have still come over and taken you."
With the last bit of his energy, JaHahn sat up and cursed at the two of them in their tongue. His desperate facial expression from earlier turned even more pitiful and defeated. He seemingly sobbed, as he spit out the rest of his curse, only to fall back down to the floor with another yelp.
"What did he say?" Aegon asked.
"He cursed his wife a harlot and threatened the wrath of the Great Chahka on you both. He says you've ruined him, taken everything from him. He pleas to kill him now, he will only say what he's already told us," Shevrohn said.
"What did he already say." Aegon asked.
"He told us where he was going. Who was there. And what their plan is." Shevrohn replied. "You seem to have been right again, though you were still a fool in this."
"I can get him to speak, your grace." Chekka said, looking down at JaHahn. "What do you want him to say?"
"He seems close to death. How bad is he, Shevrohn?" Aegon asked.
"He will soon die. He knows it too, that's why he's said what he's said. He just wants the shame to end." Shevrohn replied. His tone had softened again towards Aegon. Whatever JaHahn said must have corroborated Aegon's beliefs.
"So, we can't move him?" Aegon asked. "I mean to take him alive. Where I'm from, you keep the family of your enemies close to force them into concession. If we keep him alive, we can use him for a token to trade with, or a hostage to command obedience for."
"Just like his father did with my mother," Nahknani injected with some malice in her tone.
"Yes, but he's more likely to die if we move him. Best finish questioning him here now. Or stop to heal him." Shevrohn said.
"Kill me. Do not heal me. I've been shamed enough already. My father will not treat for me," JaHahn said in Valyrian, broken as it was, "just end me. Nothing you do will be worse than what he would do if I were to return the loser again."
"What more can you tell us? If this is how your father would treat you for risking your life for his purposes, why protect him or his plans?" Aegon asked the man directly.
"His plans are for himself alone. He believes the best will prove themselves. My younger brother already has. It was up to me to finally end your uprising. 'Surely you can defeat a pink man,' he said. 'And if you don't, all the same. Better to not have you ruining my legacy."
"What are his plans with the slavers? Where did they sail when the left east? What are they trying to mine?"
"What do the slavers ever want?" He asked, coughing and spitting up blood. His sliced face gruesome to look upon.
"Slaves." Aegon said gravely as all watched the exchange, their eyes fixated on the enemy on the ground.
"He looks to enslave all the Brindled Men. Every man, woman, and child save his select favorites. He's even turned on our own clan, promising false lands and titles to those willing to work freely. That was the first round. The rest, he had them all rounded up and put under with the yellow flower. They woke up chained and on boats."
"Where are they being taken?" Shevrohn asked.
"They're being brought to the mines at the base of the fire mountain. The slavers keep running out of pink men and black men down there, too weak. They need stronger, harder slaves to mine what they need."
"What are they mining for?" Chekka asked. Behind him, Nahknani was translating to the twins and Neenee. All were relatively amazed at how easy he was telling them everything.
"I don't know," Chekka kicked JaHahn in the rib where he'd been cut.
"Tell me what they're mining for!" Chekka roared.
"Enough, Chekka. Good ser," Aegon smiled in the light of the torch. "Your strength is much appreciated, though unnecessary. A simple follow up question should do just as well. We don't want to kill him, yet."
JaHahn rolled in agony, spit blood and replied, "You will kill me. Won't you?"
"Why not live and see your father fall? Why not assume rule of his people?" Aegon asked.
"I'd rather die than betray him. There is only one thing worse than a loser. And that's a traitor."
"Your terms are agreeable and honorable. Answer all of our questions and we will grant your final wish." Aegon almost admired the man. In truth, he was no different than many other sons. He was following the orders and ways of his father. Taught from a young age, the man broken below him was more honorable than his father would ever be. There was something very chivalrous in his pleas for death. The shame of defeat too much, he wanted an honorable send off. Aegon would be happy to oblige.
His strength waning fast, they peppered him with more questions about the specifics of the numbers JaHarle controlled, the size of the slavers host, and the locations of all troops, supply depots, and the mines. JaHahn obliged them with all he could, even going as far as to add additional bits when he wasn't directly asked. When Aegon asked him, at the end, why give him everything, a tear began to form in his sliced open eye.
"Despite my actions, I want to ensure my wife's safety." He looked up at Nahknani and spoke to her in their tongue. She coldly glared back, apathetic to his words and current state. He walked over next to Aegon, in front of JaHahn and kneeled down to his eye level. She responded to his plea in her own words, in her tongue. Her syllables hissed and sizzled, like venom or dripping wildfire, seemingly burning through his ears as he heard them, almost audibly moaning. The harshness of her words must've matched her tone, as the understanding on-lookers twisted their own faces hearing them.
She switched to Valyrian, saying, "And as for your wish, you don't deserve it. Your shame is not from the sins against your father. Your shame is from the sins against my people. You tried to have me believe that every time you laid with another girl I used to play with, or another distant cousin, that they were yours by right. That you earned it in battle. That it built the strength of our community for all the women to know you as I did. When I was first promised to you, I was only a child. You molded me into your bed slave, yet still raped and fucked anyone who caught your glance for even the slightest moment. You beg for my forgiveness. I had it easy. Your father taught you never to lay your hands on me, only your dick. You need beg for their forgiveness. All the girls who you forced yourself upon. All the women you beat in front of me because you couldn't touch me. All the men you and your family ripped away from their lives, just so you and your father could pluck us like ripe fruit, those are the ones whose forgiveness you seek. They, I promise you, do NOT forgive you. Or your fucked up family."
JaHahn tried to respond, stuttering. She turned quickly toward Aegon, unsheathed the dirk from his hip and plunged it down into his pelvis. He roared as she rotated it around, then pulled it out. Aegon reached for Nahknani as the beast on the floor reached for her neck. The three all tumbled together on the ground in the darkness, the two torches falling into the crumbling dry brush of the floor. The others raced to stamp it out as the dying man snapped his jaws at the air around and in between the three of them.
Aegon pushed Nahknani away, and rolled away from JaHahn. He felt the spill of something on his chest. The dirk nicked him deep unintentionally as they rolled. He still couldn't see it, but he could feel it start to burn. Still sharp.
He reached around for Nahknani, found her face and she gripped his wrist with both hands. "Hurry, bring the light over here," he called out.
They did and held it down to see where JaHahn was. For the briefest of moments, they all thought that he had somehow disappeared again. He didn't. He had just rolled a bit further down the slight hill.
He had nothing left, spending the rest of his energy on the counter attack. The rest of his vital blooded spilled from the wound in his lap, a misshapen representation of butchered meat, and he laid there, lifeless, his eyes open and his mouth and brow twisted in anger.
Trihknah turned to Nahknani and said in Valyrian, "Well said."
After a quick debate about what to do with the body, they begrudgingly decided to dump his body off the nearest cliff. It wasn't too near. By the time he, Chekka, and Shevrohn returned to the clearing they decided to resettle, the sun was beginning to peak over the horizon. They unceremoniously dumped him over to the eerie whistle from the wind off the crags, and the thunk as he splashed down into the water below. "In your lands, is this considered a proper burial, your grace?"
"No ser, we did not promise that. We promised him death. May the gods do with him what they will."
When they returned, the women were all back asleep. Lem too, curled up next to Nahknani, a pelt pulled off of her and draped over him.
"Join her," Chekka said to Aegon, looking longingly at both the empty space next to Nahknani and the empty space between the twins. "I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I was burning with anger."
"Apology accepted, good ser. I myself am sorry for letting him escape in the first place."
"Your grace," he bowed, accepting the apology. "I would have said, 'Fuck it,' and fucked Nani-"
"Don't call her that," Aegon quickly growled.
"My apologies, your grace. Nahknani. I would've fucked her too. By the way. How was it?"
"You mean how was she? To be honest, I'd rather not talk too much about it. It's private." Aegon said, shyly. He almost felt himself blush. Then he thought of Lem. Aegon would ask him that in a very similar way after his conquests. The difference was Lem was more than willing to tell, in great detail, all and everything he did.
"I mean. . . how was, it? You know. How was it at all? I've never had a woman. Was it all it's said to be?"
"That and more, good ser. That and more."
The three retired, Chekka and Shevrohn to the larger tent, Aegon to the smaller tent after a few more chuckles at the expense of each other. Aegon thought it is good to have friends again.
He crawled next to Nahknani, shoving Lem over the best he could. For such a compact fellow, Lem could take up space sleeping. He was also five times harder to move asleep than awake, but Aegon managed to find a spot close to Nahknani and nestled into her, wrapping his arm around her. She mumbled, turned, and laid her head back down, murmuring something in her sleep. Aegon gently slid his fingers through some stray red hair and brushed it back behind her ear. He thought he could see her smile and he rested his head down and closed his eyes.
