Chapter 13
The men and women carrying weapons moved ahead of them, leading the way into the city, parting the crowds as they went. The four who had greeted them moved around to walk beside them while the dozen or so others went ahead or behind. The stares and looks made Rahkesh uncomfortable, but no one appeared to be hostile. The people were dressed in colored silks and a strong leather-like animal hide. Many of them wore huge gaudy necklaces and collars made of gold, gems, feathers, and a type of shell he'd never seen before.
The city rose around them, it had no real walls, but there were no windows on the first floor on the outside. It was built out of solid stone that gleamed a variety of pale colors, mostly tan. People came out onto the many balconies to watch the visitors enter. The balconies themselves had colorful laundry hanging from them and the wide windows had silk curtains. Many of the balconies had massive ceramic pots with plants growing in them, decorated with gold. It was clearly a place of great wealth.
The streets were made of blocks of a pale rosy colored stone that had been laid down so perfectly that the streets were smooth and even. The cracks between the blocks filled in with something white that seemed a bit like cement. The streets were very wide and there was plenty of room for their little procession. Every time they reached a place where two streets met, or the street was wider than elsewhere, there was large earth area, raised up by stone blocks, and filled with plants.
They passed through the city center, a circular area with many streets leading away; the walls of the circle were shops selling all sorts of things. There was one massive place where, through the wide windows, they could see people pushing levers to move looms to create cloth. In another place fish were being cleaned and strips of their meat set out to dry in the sun. The scraps were being thrown into massive clay pots, which were carried away by a group of young teenagers.
The city was not over crowded, that was the first thing Rahkesh noticed. In fact there seemed to be only a small portion of the number of people this place could probably support. All the people had the same sort of look. They were tall with a golden tanned skin and, for the most part, light colored hair. But it was the variety of eye colors that startled him. Orange, gray, yellow, black, gold, blue, green, even purple. They were clean, their clothes well made, and they had a calm manner about them that indicated that they weren't worried at all about the possibility of the visitors being hostile.
Everyone seemed to be going about their usual business and, after the group had passed, went back to what they had been doing. There were no little children. In school maybe, but they didn't see anyone under the age of fourteen. The older children seemed to be helping the adults, but they didn't see anyone around their age either. The only youngsters they saw seemed to be between fourteen and about sixteen.
Nuri was getting a lot of exclamations and pointed fingers. The panther was behaving very well and was totally unaware of the commotion he was causing. There didn't seem to be any domestic animals, other than birds being kept in cages near another butcher.
The procession came to the heart of the city where a large staircase led up to a building set back from the rest of the city. The massive stone structure was encircled with plants growing in an earth filled stone walled trench. They followed their guides up the stairs and into a massive entrance hall.
The hall was decked out in hanging wispy silks and large gold carvings of animals. A bird, a jaguar, a spider, a human face, each piece done entirely in solid gold. A few staircases led to the upper levels, but they walked between them and through another set of doors. Inside the floor was covered in a thick rug made from many layers of silk. Large silk cushions were lying about in a circle and their guides gestured for them to be seated. The cushions were shaped like chairs without legs, with a seat and back.
The guards left, along with most of the other people, leaving them with the four guides and eight others. Copying their hosts the three sat down on the cushions, and discovered that the backrests must have wood or metal in them because they could lean back in them. Nuri lay down next to Silas and the vampire scratched the cub behind the ears. Daray's bat had slipped back inside the backpack at some point, but Sygra was fairly visible around Rahkesh's neck. Fortunately she seemed to be playing dead.
The woman whose hair was going white looked around to catch their attention, then she placed one palm on her chest and spoke. "Nyacahalia." She said, and then gestured to the blond man, who made the same gesture.
"Aernethangk."
Next was the second woman, she was fairly young with her blond hair done in about a dozen small braids falling all the way to her waist. "Kuerimenichi."
The last was the second man, who was bald and wore a white eye patch over his left eye. His arms bore scars that looked like claw marks and he had a long scar that was probably a burn mark across his throat. "Kalahimran."
The other people didn't introduce themselves, and everyone turned to the three guests. It was pretty clear that those were their names, and they expected their guests to introduce themselves.
Before anyone could talk the doors opened and they all turned to look. Another man walked in and took the last empty seat, watching the guests with interest. This one was a vampire. And he was not one of the natives; his pale skin and very dark hair set him apart. Rahkesh thought that he was probably from someplace in Asia, or at least one of his parents had been. Rahkesh and the other humans watched with interest as the three vampires sized each other up warily. Rahkesh could sense the telepathic powers flowing around the room, testing each other, then finally calming into a non-aggressive state. The vampire nodded his head and pointed at himself and spoke.
"Sharahak." He said simply. Daray and Silas nodded. The three traded a look, and then Rahkesh went first. Placing his hand on his own chest as their hosts had done.
"Rahkesh." He said, Daray and Silas introduced themselves. Then Kalahimran pointed at Nuri and raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Nuri." Silas said, the cub lifted his head off his paws and looked around at the circle of people. One of the women who hadn't been introduced, pointed at Rahkesh's neck and began to talk to the others excitedly. Soon they were all peering at the three-foot long black and silver cobra coiled around him. Nyacahalia tapped her own neck and made a motion as if unwinding something from around it. Rahkesh gently lifted Sygra off of him and held her in his arms. He rested hand on her and held her out a bit.
"Sygra." That surprised them, it was a pet. Rahkesh petted the snake and then wrapped her around his neck again. Sygra, no longer playing dead, lifted her head a bit and sniffed the air. The group watched her cautiously.
The woman who had noticed her lifted one hand, with two fingers out like fangs and made a motion like a snake biting something. Then she drew her palm down over her eyes and leaned forward as if dying. Rahkesh nodded, which seemed to mean yes for these people as well as his, and astonished looks passed around the group. They talked amongst themselves for a bit, and then seemed to decide that it was best to let the snake be.
Now the white haired woman began miming something else. The three watched in confusion trying to figure it out.
"If you were her, what sort of question would you be asking?" Silas asked.
"Where we came from." Rahkesh answered. They watched again as she started again. Sharahak, the only vampire, turned to Daray and Silas and began trying languages, to see if they could find a language they all spoke. The woman stopped and the group waited while the three vampires went through a variety of languages. Sharahak must be very well traveled for he went through a half dozen languages. Silas and Daray listened and tried to understand him.
Finally Daray straightened and stopped Sharahak with a wave. He then spoke a few halting words in a language that hadn't been tried yet. Sharahak beamed and replied rapidly in the same. Daray looked confused, Sharahak repeated it more slowly. Daray spoke, carefully thinking out the words, and then held up his thumb and forefinger as if indicating a tiny amount. Sharahak nodded slowly.
"Ancient Egyptian. Grandmother taught me a bit. When I was fourteen and I broke my back and legs and had to rest a lot, she made me study ancient languages." Daray said. "I only remember a little bit, this chap speaks it fluently."
Sharahak spoke, keeping to one word at a time.
"He just asked "where?"" Daray said. "And then he said "how"".
"Do they have anything we can draw on?" Rahkesh asked. Silas held up a hand and moved his hand on it as if writing. The white haired woman sent one of the others, who returned a moment later with a few pieces of dark colored slate and something that seemed to be chalk but didn't quite feel like it.
Rahkesh drew out a handprint like the one Daray had touched. Then showed how one of them with a cut had put the hand on the print accidentally. He then moved his fingers and then covered his eyes trying to simulate a flash of light. Then he shrugged and waved one arm around at the city. They seemed to understand.
The blond man took up two pieces of slate and drew two identical sets of markings. Then he drew a few stick figures and put a small pebble on one. Watching him the three understood that he was trying to show that they had been in a magical ritual that should have moved the pebble from one set of runes to the other magically. Like teleportation, of objects. He drew a series of raindrop, and put the figures inside something at looked like the city. It had started to rain briefly and interrupted the attempt. They had gone inside, and returned to find the rain gone and two vampires, one mortal, one bat, one snake, and a panther lying in the carved runes.
Daray drew raindrop and mimed that it had been raining where they were too, when he had touched the rune accidentally.
Then the woman with the long blond braided hair took the slates and drew a man carving the runes. She then drew a large series of circles. The three frowned in confusion. Sharahak spoke.
"Years." Daray translated. The three nodded. The woman then drew her and her three companions finding the runes. Then she drew them looking at scrolls and drew a few confused faces.
"So someone once built those runes. They found them. Tried to figure out what they were. Thought that they were transporting runes." Rahkesh thought it out. The woman showed them removing dirt from the runes, and trying to activate them. She then drew one of the runes starting to glow. Then the glow stopped. Then the rain came, they went inside, came back, and found them.
"So basically they didn't have a clue what they were doing." Daray said finally. The three traded looks.
"What about going back?" Silas asked. Daray turned and said a few words that Sharahak had trouble understanding, Dray tried again, then he got it and translated quickly to the others.
"I asked "home", and, basically, "can we?" he translated it." Daray said. The four talked amongst themselves and consulted with a few others. Finally the bald man shrugged and slowly nodded. Sharahak said something; Daray shook his head and Sharahak made a gesture to indicate that it was a possibility.
"I guess that's a maybe." Silas said. The blond woman drew a few more picture of them looking through the scrolls, and then of the runes and three stick figures. "Well they are wiling to try."
The door opened and a few people came in bearing large silver platters of food. They handed out clay dishes and put the platters around where everyone could reach one. The woman signaled that they should eat.
The food wasn't bad, though Rahkesh was pretty sure there had been some odd creatures put into it. He stuck to the stuff that was probably the dried fish, and a few plants that didn't look too exotic. It would not be good to find out he had an allergic reaction to anything.
After the meal most of the people left, leaving them with the four, who Rahkesh assumed to be the ones who had activated the runes, and Sharahak. They were led on a tour of the city, their five guides doing their best to explain a few things. Often as not Daray would have no clue what Sharahak tried to describe, this was when the vampires utilized telepathy, trying to communicate the most simple concepts mentally. Opening his own mind, and startling Sharahak horribly as he did so, Rahkesh tried to feel what Sharahak was trying to get across. Being human he felt the telepathy differently and occasionally got things the others didn't. They used the slates to ask questions in drawings.
Finally they were shown to a few guest rooms. The rooms didn't actually have doors; instead they used thousands of strings of shells and beads, followed by thick curtains of some sort of cloth. The beds were actually wooden, covered with a thick mattress made of several layers of silk stuffed with feathers. After their hosts had left the three gathered in Daray's room to talk.
"So we're stuck here for the time being. We'll have to learn the language." Silas thought aloud.
"There are potions to help with that." Daray said, "I wonder if we could find the right ingredients, or good substitutes."
"Possibly." Rahkesh replied. He had his trunk in his earring and had a good selection of potion ingredients in it. His friends didn't know about the powers of that tiny obsidian earring yet.
"So what do we know about this place?" Silas asked.
"Well we did ask them a lot about their culture. It's amazing but if I understood right the whole society is literate. And they're all trained to fight if ever attacked. Children are schooled until age fourteen, and then they spend two years learning to fight and working at various things that need doing. Then they go back to school for another four years to specialize a bit more. Explains why we only saw fourteen and fifteen year olds on the way in. The children between thirteen and twenty live in dormitories, communal raising of children." Daray said slowly.
Silas unclipped a buckle from his boot and tapped it twice. It transformed into a box about the size of a shoebox. From this Silas removed a few sheets of paper and a few pencils. Rahkesh grinned, very clever. He'd have to show them his earring sometime. Apparently he wasn't the only one who thought carry certain supplies around could be useful.
Daray took the paper and pencils and moved into the single chair by the small desk.
"Okay, so if we under stand them right there's twenty or so of these cities all across the mountains, each one about the same in size." Silas began. "Population is strictly controlled, you have to get permission to have children, but that's apparently not a problem because they're all in schooling until twenty and most don't start families until they're thirty or forty. People with greater intelligence or abilities have a better chance of being allowed to have more children. All badly deformed babies are executed at birth. They don't have money, they all work together and no one takes more than they need."
"Definitely not human," Rahkesh said with a smile, "hundreds of thousands managing to live that way? I've never heard of such a thing."
"When I asked about farming Sharahak said that they're careful with the land. They have tree farms for wood and they plant crops on the roofs and in terraces, and are very careful about erosion on the mountainside. They use a few diverted rivers to power machines whenever they need to lift things to the tops of the buildings, very advanced mechanically." Daray noted, writing quickly.
"Each city maintains sixty or so full-time warriors but everyone is required to learn basic fighting skills." Silas continued from what they had been able to learn of their guests. "There are two cities deep in the mountains that operate on slave labor and are home only to warriors. They each can field one thousand five hundred whenever they're needed. Slaves are taken only when patrols are attacked. If you don't harm them they won't harm you. If you have a logical reason for attacking them they'll forgive you for it. Still apparently there are raiders from a few war-like tribes that occasionally threaten them. That must be where those hidden warrior cities get their slaves from. And they have sorcerers to protect them. Oh, and they're all capable of minimal magic."
"Everyone having magic seems a bit strange, when they also use water power to run some machinery." Rahkesh commented. "Not a bad lifestyle, in fact they all seem very content. They don't find us particularly threatening because their own fighters are apparently the best they know to exist. They're all fairly happy with their lives, no political disputes, and no apparent religion at all, well as far as we could tell. I wasn't sure how to ask that. They're every careful about the impact they have on their surroundings; they seem to know that if they're too harsh on the land they'll have to move. Despite their fighting readiness they're not a military culture really."
"And they offered us a place among the students until we find a way to go home." Daray finished.
"Don't you find that odd? A society, apparently with only the most minimal of outside contact, that is entirely magical. Obviously there are differences in how powerful they are, but they all have magic." Rahkesh asked.
"Yes it is odd. And their appearance is odd too. Their skin is obviously not like anything anywhere else, they're too gold; it's a little unnatural. They've got every natural hair color imaginable. Oh, and those eyes. I've never seen people with eyes like theirs, there's too much variety. I would think that they were a mix of several different races, but for the fact that they all have the exact same body type and facial features." Silas said. "And while I know that Daray and I don't have to worry there is a chance that there could be diseases circulating here, that they think nothing of but that could kill you Rahkesh."
Rahkesh wasn't too worried about that, he'd noticed that their hosts all appeared to be amazingly healthy, there weren't even any missing teeth in any of them.
"The only thing I'm worried about is the time. There aren't any cultures like this in our time are there? I'm not too worried about where we are, just when we are." Rahkesh said. The two vampires traded looks.
"One of them gave a date, but I don't think they're on the same calendar we are." Silas said.
"We can ask what sort of astronomers they have. Look through the star charts." Rahkesh suggested.
Daray looked up suddenly. "They said they were called the Chachapoyaro, the magical kin of the Chachapoyas, at least that's what I think the sketches meant. I know I heard the word Chachapoya when I asked. The Chachapoya culture was around for a long time, started to decline about two thousand years ago. Grandmother told us about traveling South America when she was very young, she met them then."
"Yes but she didn't say anything about a magical culture. In fact she said they were non magical." Silas reminded him.
"So those with magic left. And we've found where they moved too. But if grandmother never heard of them then it could have happened long before or long after her time. And since the Chachapoyas didn't say anything there's a good chance that this place is another part of the world that has been copied and removed from it, like Akren." Daray said.
"How many places like that are there?" Rahkesh asked.
"Thousands, every time you build something that is larger inside than it is outside you're just copying the space inside multiple times. At Akren Mountain School of Magic they didn't just copy everything - they actually copied and then permanently removed an entire mountain range. All of Australia has been copied and cut off from anything form the muggle world, there're several sites in North America where Viking mages copied small pieces of land and then abandoned them. My aunt told me that the most recent survey said that nearly half of Europe was copied between A.D. 800 and now, possibly much more than half, since some of it can't be reached unless you know the password or are a blood relative of the original owner. And a good portion of Asia has been copied as well. It's not unusual, what's unusual is a place as large as this or Australia or Akren." Silas said.
"We'll find out more tomorrow, and I want to know what the name of the city is." Rahkesh decided, he had forgotten to ask.
"And tomorrow we'll see what sort of training they get here." Daray said as the other two left for their own rooms. "If we're going to be here for a while we might as well take it as the opportunity it is."
XXX
Rahkesh woke early the next morning and spent a half hour drawing out what he could remember the stars looked like in their time. Hopefully he could find some decent astronomers to help him compare the two, since his wasn't sure how to tell the passage of time by the stars. Their hosts were not especially early risers, it was a full hour after dawn before he heard people moving about and getting up.
Master, I think someone is coming. May I come with you?
Certainly. Just don't bite anyone okay?
If they step on me I will bite.
No venom.
Fine.
There was a polite cough from beyond the door hangings, and a moment later two people stepped inside.
The first one was a young man, probably a year younger than Rahkesh was. He had short dark blond hair that was tied back with a string of small gold feathers. He was wearing animal hide shorts and a belt made from some sort of reptile that had about a dozen pouches hanging from it. The second person was a girl, about the same age as the boy, she would have been stunningly beautiful, Rahkesh thought, but for a rather interesting set of scars over the left side of her face, scars that might have been from the claws of some jungle creature. She was wearing shorts of the same material and a sleeveless silk top. She too carried several pouches on a reptile skin belt, and a set of knives. Both of them were barefoot. The girl was wearing three gold armbands, one of which looked like a small gold snake, and a necklace of silver links with tiny green shells set into the silver. The boy was wearing silver and copper bracelets on his ankles and wrists.
The two watched Rahkesh curiously. Rahkesh, who had been petting Sygra, wrapped the snake around his neck and smiled at them. The girl pointed at herself.
"Xerithiari." She smiled and then said "Xeri." Rahkesh had already guessed that these people probably did not call each other by their rather long and complicated names, using a nickname instead. She pointed to her companion, who was studying Sygra intently.
"Nicodemus. Nic." Rahkesh nodded and introduced himself, but gave no shortening of his name. He then introduced the snake, Xeri left and Nic beckoned him to follow. Rahkesh followed as they went to collect the two vampires. Sharahak joined them a few minutes later and their three hosts led them to breakfast. Nuri padding silently alongside Silas.
"I've asked Sharahak to help us with some rudimentary vocabulary. The issue is that it has to be translated from their language, to ancient Egyptian, to English, and that doesn't work very well. I think we're going to have to learn their language the hard way." Daray said. "Silas and I could learn it quicker if we fed on some of them. Vampires can mentally connect with the person they're feeding on, we often use it to modify memories or find information."
"Or we could just brew some language potions. I think I have the ingredients." Rahkesh said, ignoring the look Daray gave him. Actually he did have all the ingredients necessary, he'd checked the night before. He was going to have to tell them about the earring. But that could wait for now.
Breakfast took place in either of two large halls beside the dormitories with about fifty other young people between the ages of sixteen and nineteen. The younger children got the second hall.
The room was rectangular, nothing especially fancy; its designers had created it as an eating place for teenagers and hadn't put much effort into making it look nice. But all the doorways had arches and the walls had stone mosaics of flowers and plants. Basic things that had probably been built by the children themselves. Nic showed through miming and sketches that everyone over the age of twelve took turns at cooking.
Their entrance created an abrupt silence, followed by excited chatter and several people standing up to get a better look at Nuri. Nic and Xeri led them into the kitchen where they each took a large plate and took breakfast from a buffet style line up. It was surprisingly good, even though none of them had a clue what it was. Some sort of grains, nuts, and fruit with dried meat and what seemed to be hardboiled eggs, though not from a chicken.
They sat down with at a table and ate quickly. No one left the hall though and several adults drifted in towards the end of the meal. People eventually began calling out questions and finally Xeri stood and waved an arm for silence. The natives must have been very curious because the silence was immediate. Xeri then launched into a rapid speech to her peers. Sharahak said a few words to Daray, who, after several minutes, figured out what he was saying.
"She's telling them how we came here. And that we'll be staying for a bit." Daray told the other two. Xeri stopped and then signaled them to rise and introduce themselves. After they had done this people began talking again, finally Xeri got them quiet and pointed to the panther. Nuri saw this and leaped onto the table, startling everyone. Silas gave his name and pulled the panther down.
"You silly showoff, stop that." Nuri purred. The people sitting near then were reaching out to pet him, and, not at all shy, Nuri let them, purring away delighted with the attention.
"He is such a flirt." Silas sighed, as Nuri rubbed his head against someone's shins. He growled once at a boy petting his tail, sending his admirers scattering, but they got over the scare and came back.
Two of the adults who seemed to be supervising things called out to get everyone's attention. Rahkesh, Silas, and Daray waited while they spoke for a few moments, then some of the teenagers began to gather the plates while others gathered the wooden spoons and cups. The crowd dispersed, everyone picking up things they had left in the entrance hallway on the way out. Most of them were carrying weapons and bags filled with things they would need for the day. Their two guides stood and beckoned them to follow.
They went to a large dirt-floored courtyard where a few guards were already up and practicing with six-foot wooden staves. Simple weapons with no ornaments.
"No one here wears shoes." Rahkesh commented, "they must have amazingly tough feet."
"Shall we do the same?" Silas asked.
"Yes." Daray said. The three studied the others as they all sat down on an area covered with massive flat rock blocks and began to stretch. "You know, these people put almost no effort at all into clothing, most of the people in the city were wearing almost nothing, but they put an amazing amount of effort into decoration. The jewelry they're all wearing is incredible artwork."
"I had noticed, and I don't think that they put the same value on such things as we do, a lot of them are wearing enough gemstones to buy a small country. Then again they don't have money at all." Rahkesh said.
"Apparently weapons practice comes first." Silas said as their companions gestured that they should start stretching with them. The three traded grins. Then they sat down as well and began to take off their boots and socks, their hosts watching with interest.
"Never seen footwear before." Rahkesh guessed as Nic took one of his boots and examined it. The young man tried bending the unfamiliar material, then took out the knife Rahkesh had placed in his boot, instead of a taser (he didn't think that would go over too well). He handed the knife to Rahkesh and Rahkesh asked, by hand motions, what weapons they used. Nic looked around, then shrugged and waved a hand towards the older warriors sparring. There were a variety of weapons, staves, knives, bows, and whips. The metal was mostly unfamiliar, but some of the knives seemed to be made of copper.
"I know only a little about staff fighting, that's not until muggle weapons class, Gandmother made us learn a bit early. But Xeri had knives, and so do a lot of the others. I'm sure we can hold our own there." Daray said.
"Or with unarmed combat. Look." Rahkesh pointed, two women were going through a rapid set of attack and block drills. "They're both wearing red feathers around their necks, wonder what those are?" Silas shrugged.
"I don't think most of the jewelry has a purpose, other than magic, it seems to be mostly for show. You notice the ankle bracelet they all wear, right ankle? I sense magic around it." Silas said. Rahkesh closed his eyes, and tried to focus. He opened them again and stared hard at the ankle bracelet Xeri was wearing. He relaxed and reached mentally, there was magic there, a felt a little like a locator charm, finding people, protection against getting lost.
"Some sort of locator charm, in case they get lost?" Rahkesh said.
"Possibly, only the ones training here have them, most of the adults don't. Maybe they have some sort of patrol duty around the rainforest near the city?" Daray theorized.
Rahkesh signaled to the copper ankle bracelet Nic was wearing, the one that seemed to be magical. Nic tapped it and began to draw on a slate. First he drew a person looking lost amongst the jungle plants. Then he drew the bracelet giving off some sort of signal. Then he drew another person, holding a square piece of metal with a few gemstones on it. Then he drew a group of people finding the lost person.
"So it is a locating device." Rahkesh said. "Interesting, they must wear them permanently. I wonder-" Then he stopped, Nic had started sketching again. This time it was people holding weapons, all of them with the ankle bracelet. Then he drew people in the city, none of them wearing the magical anklets. He looked up, wondering if they understood. Rahkesh nodded.
"Only the warriors then." Silas said. "Neat idea, I wonder how they enchant them?"
"We should make an effort to learn their magics. An entirely magical culture is bound to invent a lot of useful things." Daray said.
A few of the adults had stopped sparring and now approached the group stretching on the rocks. Xeri went over to them and introduced Rahkesh, Silas, and Daray to them. The instructors asked, by miming, if they knew how to fight, the three answered with nods. The instructors began speaking to the students, while the three guests watched, not understanding a word but knowing that listening intently would help them to eventually learn the language. The students moved into a large circle and Xeri and Nic drew Rahkesh, Silas, and Daray in to join them. Nuri was left by the rocks with Sygra and Sharahak. The vampire was currently using all his vampiric senses to try and figure out Sygra's magical abilities, Sygra was ignoring him with the complete boredom that only a snake could manage.
It seemed that the instructors were intent on demonstrating the skills of their students for their guests, as their hosts looked too excited for this to be normal. The female instructor called out two names and the two students moved to the center of the circle to spar.
Rahkesh felt a great wash of relief when he noticed that the students weren't so much better than he and his two friends. Once again his time in the Room of Requirement had been well spent; he was easily as good as any of their hosts. It was all unarmed combat for now, which was even better since he didn't have a clue how to use a staff.
Finally the instructor called Rahkesh and looked around. A man who was wearing a necklace of tiny blue and white feathers jumped up. Offering to fight. The instructor shrugged and nodded. Rahkesh sized up his opponent, the young man looked eager for a fight, and as if he was sure of winning. He wasn't quite as tall as Rahkesh, but he appeared to be stronger. But that was okay, so were all of his usual sparring partners.
Rahkesh circled a few times, watching his opponent's footing, he noticed a quick clenching of muscle and blocked easily. That had been one thing Ally had taught him, the way your opponent's muscles move, and where they look, will usually tell you where they will attack. The easy block made the young man scowl, he'd clearly been hoping for an easy win over the foreigner.
Clearly no one had told this young man about the eye thing, because he was looking directly where he intended to strike. Rahkesh blocked several kicks and punches before performing a kick that hit his opponent's hip. It wasn't a hit that was going to cause any damage, but it would bruise. He followed it up immediately with another kick to the other hip and a third to the knee.
This annoyed the young man he was sparring with, and he leaped in to attack. But again he was looking where he intended to hit. He also used his fists, always, Rahkesh preferred open handed fighting whenever possible. Fingers were good for jabbing and if you hit right they could really hurt. And the side of the hand near the little finger was very strong. His opponent also tended to expand a lot of effort lunging at his opponent instead of walking up to him. Rahkesh began to move with the intent of confusing his opponent, never being quite where the other expected. At each attempted hit he moved to the side, forcing the other boy to keep turning. He didn't turn his feet as much as the rest of him. Rahkesh had learned quickly from the Akren teachers that moving the feet came before anything else. He waited until the man was turning again to get at him, then he struck. In and out, one devastating blow to the throat with the side of his hand.
Wolf tactics, Marluck often called it, get in, hit, and get out. Don't follow it up until you intend to kill. Rahkesh liked it; don't give the other person a good chance to hit you at close range. A quick hard strike would stun the opponent, hurt them, and make them a little more fearful.
It worked now, the other young man reeled, choking and clutching his throat, tears springing to his eyes. He straightened quickly enough, realizing that there was no real damage, or at least nothing serious. The two instructors traded looks, the two vampires smirked openly, and the class watched eagerly. It made Rahkesh wonder if he wasn't fighting the resident bully, since his fellow students didn't seem to be rooting for him any. In fact if the oohs at the throat attack were anything to go by they were hoping Rahkesh would win.
His opponent snarled something that must have been nasty because the students looked annoyed. Rahkesh shrugged stayed still, waiting with a relaxed, uncaring posture for his opponent to recover.
His opponent recovered but now Rahkesh was attacking. He moved in close and began a series of lightning quick punches, turning his shoulder to all the punches aimed at him in return. His opponent used only his arm to punch; he didn't put his whole body into it. Rahkesh might have years less of experience but because of that he had forced himself to learn to use what he knew to the best effect. Extra lessons with the best fighting teachers at Akren had helped him to learn to put his whole body behind every attack, and the other young man was going to be hurting a lot worse than he was the next day. Finally Rahkesh kicked, truly most experts would have said he was too close for a kick, but this time Rahkesh used the momentum to push himself away from his opponent. It added force since all of his weight was behind it, and all of his weight was also being pushed away. The kick connected hard to the man's gut and he was slammed backwards onto the ground. Rahkesh used his momentum and lack of balance to swing himself around a complete 360 and stopped with his feet planted, ready to attack again.
There was no need, his opponent wasn't going to be coming back for more, he was flat on his back. One of the instructors, who were both watching Rahkesh with interest, stepped between them and signaled an end and beckoned Silas forward to spar with another young man.
His defeated opponent struggled unsteadily to his feet and shot Rahkesh a murderous glare. Rahkesh ignored it and sat down between nice and Daray to watch the next fight.
"Better be careful about that one. He doesn't like to lose." Daray commented.
"Yeah I noticed. They seem happy I beat him." Rahkesh replied. Several members of the class were tossing what were probably insults at the man he'd defeated.
Later after they had each beaten one of the other students the instructors began leading everyone through sets of drills. With the help of Xeri and Nic they struggled to keep up with the unfamiliar movements. Nuri had attracted the attention of some of the warriors hanging around, and they were seated around the young panther, petting him and laughing when he pawed at the strings of feathers a few of them wore in their hair.
"He is like a sponge, soaks up attention." Silas muttered as the cat placed paw on a woman's head to sniff at the feathers tied into her long braid. Sharahak had vanished, and while a few of the warriors were studying Sygra no one touched her, or tried to make her move – the snake was taking up half of one of the rock benches. But no one shoves a venomous snake around.
The next stop was with the city healers. Xeri mimed that she had other lessons elsewhere and left them with Nic and Sharahak. Once again they attracted a lot of stares and curious looks on their ay through the city, by now information about them was circulating well, and that just caused more questions.
Sharahak, Silas, and Daray all stopped outside of the building that housed what must be the city hospital.
"It smells like blood." Silas said, shaking his head and backing up. "No way, I think we'll just wait out here." Daray didn't say anything but his eyes had acquired the odd glow that Rahkesh was starting to recognize as a sure signal that the vampiric feeding instincts were starting to kick in. Sharahak beckoned to the two younger vampires and began to draw on one of the slates.
"We're going hunting." Silas told Rahkesh, "could you watch Nuri?"
"All right, see you later." Rahkesh said, reaching down to scratch behind the panther's ears, he took the leash from Silas, which was completely unnecessary, and followed Nic into the building.
Whatever Rahkesh had been expecting it was not this. The front room had a lot of benches and chairs, there were a few people waiting out here. Inside was a large room with beds along both walls, it was spotlessly clean and fresh air circulated through open windows, that, remarkably enough, had actual screens. The walls were a foot thick and the windows had several layers of screens to stop insects from getting in. What exactly the screens were made from Rahkesh couldn't tell, some sort of string, and metal, and something else, but there were no insects in the room.
There were a few people in the beds, two of them appeared to have broken legs – they both had well-made splints. In smaller room two people were meticulously cleaning out a wound on a man's back. Nic pointed to one door with a black X mark on it and made a series of motions that Rahkesh assumed meant people sick with something contagious. Nic then drew a person who glowed, and then drew them opening the door. So the glowing person was caring for the sick people. Only the healers who used magic were allowed in. This made sense to Rahkesh since they could probably use their magic to keep themselves from getting ill.
Nic then led him through another door to a room where several people wearing blue feathers were working. Following Nic around what Rahkesh learned in the next hour amazed him.
The healers kept birth to death medical records of every individual in the entire city. If someone visiting from another city got ill or injured the information was sent to his or her home city so that the file would not be incomplete. After death the records were stored in the enchanted vaults beneath the city. They also kept complete family trees for every individual, so that if two people wanting to have children turned out to be second cousins they would know. Everything was recorded, including dentistry, which the healers also took care of. There were diagrams of every part of the human body, with students studying them. Nic explained that he was studying magical healing and the fighting arts.
The healers showed him a room where a massive cage-like structure sat on the floor. They explained with drawings that this was a quarantine structure that they were building, in case it was ever needed. There was another room where students were brewing healing potions.
The people of this city must be very healthy since there were very few who came into the healers building that day. And of those most of them were for minor things, a child with a skinned knee or sprained wrist. Rahkesh sent Nuri over to the children and the cub quickly settled down to spend the rest of the day being admired and pampered by the patients and healers alike.
Rahkesh joined the students studying magical healing and began studying their potion making. He'd never seen most of the ingredients they used, but he was very interested in learning what all of the plants and animals were used for. As they brewed the potions he drew a quick sketch of the clay pipe that ran along the far wall. Nic smiled and beckoned him over to a stone basin. He opened a stopper in the pipe, and cold, clean, water came rushing out into the basin.
They even had running water. Amazed Rahkesh tried to ask where the water came from, and, once he finally understood what his guest was asking, Nic spent an hour drawing out an underground spring, cloth filters for cleaning the water, and a system of clay pipes. The spring was higher up in the mountains, and by tapping into it they had a source of fresh water. Since it came from up above they utilized gravity to get it into the city with underground pipes. There was a water tank in one of the highest building to put enough pressure into the system so that they could send water everywhere in the city. It was remarkably sophisticated. And the cleaning process with the cloth filters to keep it clean was ingenious. Most of the pipes ended in dead end, so that water flowed only when they were opened. Bathing was done in a communal bathhouse and any extra water was carried by bucket and dumped into a large tank at one end of the city. Here it (and all human excrement) was washed out onto a field several hundred feet below in the forest. After a year or two the pipe would be moved to another field, three years after that the field would be planted. After two years of being planted the pipe would be moved back to that field again. The cycle kept the high quality soil, and took care of the waste problem.
XXX
That night the three gathered in Rahkesh's room to make a language potion. Rahkesh removed his trunk with everything they would need in it from his earring.
"Now that is a good idea." Silas said as the trunk expanded to its original size at their feet. Rahkesh pulled out a cauldron while the vampires got a small fire going. He found two books with a language potion in them and then got out the ingredients.
"What exactly did you hunt here?" Rahkesh asked.
"The forest animals. Capybara blood is good, so is the blood of the deer they have here. We don't drink from reptiles usually, but Sharahak says that there are some tree snakes with good blood. I'm just worried about what effect reptile blood would have on a vampire. He says there isn't any noticeable effect." Silas said, drawing a knife and beginning to chop up mere cat claws.
"Is he the only vampire here?"
"The only one he knows of, some of the other cities might have vampires, he's never been to most of them. He got chased out of his last home by a few more powerful vampires. They have since set themselves up as gods. He settled here because there weren't any vampires." Silas said. "What do you think of the other students?"
"They're nice enough but it's a little hard to get an idea of their personalities, since we can't really speak to them." Rahkesh replied.
"I liked their fighting training, Grandmother would approve." Daray decided, "and Sharahak seems nice enough, only dangerous when threatened."
"I like how clean it is." Silas said.
"We really should learn their type of potion brewing. They've got so many ingredients I've never heard of or seen. I bet a lot of the plants here have powers that have never been recorded, not where we would ever find then anyway."
They worked for most of the night, just before dawn the potion was finished.
"It certainly smells despicable enough." Daray said as he poured it into three cups.
"So long as it works." Silas said, examining the thick brown and red broth. The three drank, and then cleaned away the extra ingredients and the cauldron. Rahkesh placed the earring back in and went to bed; they still had a few hours until dawn.