vii.
"She will not speak!" Baron Arald said slamming his hand down on the desk days after their arrival. He might have just as well remained silent since there was not a single flinch from the four cloaked figures sitting at his study. "She just...she just sits there and looks at us like if we were mere cockroaches. It's outrageous; it's..."
"Perhaps it's time to take harsher methods." Rodney said grimly. "Up until now you've just had her in the dungeons. I'm not saying anything about torture but maybe she has to learn she's the prisoner now."
"I'm not sure that will solve anything." Will said standing up and pacing in front or the desk.
"Maybe Maiah knows how to make her speak?" Gilan said looking at the girl sitting to the right of Halt. The gazes of the men turned to her waiting anxiously for an answer.
"I'm not sure." She said a frown settling into her soft features. Halt couldn't help noting how young she looked even when the words she spoke were as serious as those that came out of his own mouth. "I mean, they teach us to keep our mouths shut even when our survival depends on it. Our training consists of a full year learning how to mask our feelings."
"But surely something has to overpower her will to remain silent." Arald said running a hand over his face. "Perhaps, as Sir Rodney said, we need to use some variation of torture—though let me say I am completely against such punishment."
"Variations won't do." Maiah said with a sigh. "Unless is some extreme practice I doubt she will utter much but a growl."
"I understand she can stand pain and hide her emotions but..."Gilan's voice trailed off as Maiah shook her head sadly.
"So it is concluded she is a lost cause and we might just as well quit our attempts." Arald said annoyed at the impossibility of the issue he faced.
"Could you tell us more about your training, then?" Will asked Maiah. "There might be a way we can figure this out."
"And not to pressure any of you but every day we waste trying to figure this out is less time we have to plan and get defenses." Halt said with a clear of his throat.
"I'll try to be brief." Maiah said as the others took their seats again and listened. "In reality, our training starts when we are six years old. Our family must give us up to the academy where the survival skills and initial values are taught: there is a social hierarchy in which elders should be respected and therefore have the last word on decisions; likewise, women have proven themselves so that
the supreme rule in the family unit is the eldest woman in the house. While the academy emphasizes these ideas students are also required to learn the geography of the empire—both regarding culture and population as well as landmarks—so that after two years of training any eight year old from the academy can draw a full map of the empire and adjacent territories stressing potential battlefields and weak points. Once this is done the children are presented to the seventeen Master Seers; each master chooses their apprentice not necessarily based on merit. Thus around nine you finish at the academy and move in with your master and for the first year you can pretty much say you are their slave." Maiah did not pause in her account as she tried filling them in with as much information as she thought could be valuable. However, she still noticed the smirk Halt shot in the direction of his former apprentices who smiled faintly.
"It is during this year that your master can decide whether or not she will adopt you or if she will hand you a woven blanket a loaf of bread and send you on a donkey to the mountain; but that is a different story and I find no connection with Prowessa and that. Anyways, after that first year with your master comes the hardest one in your training. Seers are characterized by their ability to withstand pain and mask feelings; during the second year with your master, apprentices undergo series of tests where this ability is sharpened and perfected; it isn't until the tests are passed completely that one is allowed to continue to the next level. At age eleven we are taught camouflage; there are no weapons but simple hiding and learning to blend in and move unseen. To perfect this we are initially trained to go without a cloak and we must find ways of concealing ourselves with our surroundings. After nine months of this we are given a cloak though it really isn't necessary for something other than protection against the weather; with the cloak it is just made ten levels easier. Finally, after a year in camouflage comes the final level of apprenticeship, the four years of the simpler training, weapon handling, healing, unarmed combat, and all that. Each year as a Seer one must pass a test to keep you in shape. At Prowessa's age she has had enough testing to be able to keep her mouth shut; she has been in training for over fifty years."
"Then is there anything one can do to make her speak?" Rodney asked earning a sour look from Halt at his abrupt intervention.
"You won't do it by force;" Maia said quietly. "However, you can always out smart her."
"Doing what, you suppose?" the Battlemaster insisted.
"Well, she's getting somewhat old and cocky." Maia said.
Will noticed she had abandoned her confident tone and instead now had shrunk to blend into the office—she was quite good at it considering they usually had to use that skill in the outdoors. He wondered if perhaps she was now reluctant on helping them.
"Any suggestions, though? Perhaps a special tactic? Maybe a weakness you know of?"
"I..." now it wasn't just his imagination; Will saw it was more obvious than ever that she was hesitating in providing further information. "Well..."
"Come on, girl, we need to get done with this. Time is ticking." Arald pressed leaning forward in his seat.
"Are you going to say anything at all?" Rodney said after some silent minutes.
"I'm sorry, would you excuse me for a second." Maiah said finally, standing up and heading to the door; however, she did not go out but instead faced the wall next to it and remained there with her arms wrapped around herself.
Arald turned to the Rangers with a questioning look asking them about the strange creature they had brought. He was expecting some kind of explanation or even a shrug of the shoulders but was surprised when Halt gave him a harsh look—one of his numerous ones—and the younger ones didn't even aknowledged him.
With a nod towards the girl, Halt sent Gilan to get her out of the room so that he could talk with the other two knuckleheads. He heard Gilan's soft whisper as he pulled Maiah out of the room but Halt didn't say another word until he calculated enough time had passed for them to be out of earshot and not come back.
"I will truly appreciate it if you were a little more...tactful." Halt reprimanded the Baron and his Battlemaster. And tried ignoring the soft snort he heard come from the apprentice in the room.
"Look who's talking now, Halt." Rodney said only half joking.
"Or at least stop being so pushy." Halt said bitterly.
"She was the one who offered to help us. Now she backs away and is hiding information. If that doesn't make her a spy—"
"A spy, really?" this time Will could not hold it any longer. Even Halt was surprised at the sudden burst but seemed to be able to hide his expression.
"Well, if there is something we didn't see and you did..." The Baron hinted.
"She just told us the system that is drilled into them since they are children, the loyalty to their country that has to be developed for them to withstand so much pain and keep their mouths closed. It's too much to just simply make her forget it all and spill the beans. We have to give her time."
"They are not giving us any, are they?"
"But they still believe they have the surprise factor. As long as we have that against them we have something." Will put in.
"Duncan doesn't even know about this invasion and you say we should give her time. Do we even have a plan now?" Rodney mumbled annoyed.
"Time." Halt answered curtly sitting back in his seat and laying back in a relaxed manner; if there had been a chair in front of him he would have put his feet up.
The Baron tried his best to hold back his anger in the face of such dismissive action in such times; however, he had known the Ranger long enough now to know no matter what he did nothing would change his position now that it was set and the same applied to every Ranger in the kingdom for that matter.
"I am sorry about all that." Gilan said closing the door of one of the anterooms in the same floor as the study. He had tried to at least hold her shoulder comfortingly but she had shrugged him away
unconsciously.
"It wasn't your fault;" she answered without turning to face him. Apparently the window and the rain outside were more interesting than he was. He waited trying to see if she would say anything but she simply remained quiet with a blank mask that would not allow him to see anything that went on inside her.
"I don't want you to think I am still with her." She whispered after a long time. "It's just hard to spill everything that has been secret for so many years from so many people. Not even all the people in Mazoniria know everything about us and to give it out to foreigners is..."
"I knew you weren't trying to hide it, I totally understand what is happening and I'm sure Halt..." His voice trailed off when he saw her shoulders shiver with the effort of holding a sob. Right then, the strong girl that had fought Prowessa in the forest was gone replaced by a tiny figure that wouldn't be able to hold a bow if her life depended on it.
"Come here," He said pulling her into his arms and feeling her resist at first until she eventually gave in and allowed her body to mold to his, the top of her head under his chin with her soft blond
hair brushing his face.
"I'm scared, Gilan." She broke under her breath. Her tears had soaked the front of his shirt, running after so many years of holding them back.
The Ranger didn't say anything but communicated his understanding by soothing her hair. He knew it wasn't easy for her to betray her own country for the sake of some foreigners she had never even heard of. And if the time came when they had to fight her countrymen he had no doubt she would stay on Araluen's side even when it meant that losing was sure death for her without a way out.
"You are under Araluen's protection now." He said knowing no one would let the invaders touch her. "And I will not let them do anything to hurt you."
She quietly nodded and remained there, unsure of whether she felt ashamed or relieved at allowing somebody to see her cry. However, she was glad that it was Gilan and knew he wouldn't tell them about it, even when it wasn't a crime to cry among Rangers.
"You won't be able to black mail her." Maiah said after some time had passed and her tears had dried. "But there exists a code that we must follow regardless of how much we want to cheat. If we break it others will make sure you are done."
Gilan had dropped Maiah at her chambers after she had explained what it all was about and immediately headed to the Baron's study hoping the others were still there. As he had expected, they had remained in their places, waiting for him to bring any information he had found in his time with Maiah.
"She said torture or blackmailing wouldn't work." he said finally after the others had sat straighter. "But, she said the way to make Prowessa speak is by applying the code on her. There is a competition where the captor must prove they are better than her at something; after that she is forced to speak the truth to everything we ask."
"Is it some kind of duel?" Will asked frowning.
"Along those lines."
"And does it apply to anyone?" Rodney asked obviously thinking of the knight's own codes.
"According to her, anyone as long as they belong to a country in which she has crimes or they have an upper hand at the moment; and she can't refuse to accept it."
"And how can we trust what she says after is true?"
"She's bound to it just like knights." Gilan answered looking at the Baron and Rodney. "They have great respect for this."
"It all seems good, young Gilan," The Baron said leaning back and shaking his head trying to comprehend. "However, there is always some kind of down turn, isn't there?"
"There are perhaps two." Gilan sighed knowing eventually he would have to bring it down by adding rules. "The most important one is, she has to pick the weapon—" immediately a roar came from the knights present as such outrageous statement "—and the second is that once she says everything we ask for—in case we beat her—we have twenty four hours before she can leave without anyone following or else our part of the treaty will be violated."
The Baron and Rodney were too outraged to even speak and opened and closed their mouths trying to formulate words. On the other hand, Will and Halt seemed to be analyzing his every word both with the same furrowed expression.
"What if we lose?" Will finally said but Gilan knew there was more than just a simple pessimistic question.
"We have to release her as well." Gilan answered and started to see where Will was going.
"And if we release her she will be running back to the place where they will be meeting?" the Baron asked seeing some hope.
"Then you could follow—"
"Battlemaster!" A young guard came bursting into the room startling even Halt who had forgotten to listen outside in the heat of the moment. "Battlemaster, there—My Lord Baron, Rangers—" the guard caught himself and bowed quickly to the rest of those present before continuing with a hurried ruble of words that wouldn't allow him to take a breath. However, they had already recognized his tone and waved away the formalities as they got to their feet in a swift move. "She's running loose."