local settlement date 35,988
This almost did not happen.
King Namor Zujahrah
06 learning to fight
Barbaralba new when she left the ocean that she was becoming a different creature. She was still who she was but Castle City was no longer the story that one tried not to talk about, it was her destination. It meant she would have to be prepared for a world with different rules. In the villages murder and rape was a seldom event. Several times a year the tax collectors came to rape and pillage. In Castle City is was a daily event. Their entertainment.
The journey from the ocean to Castle City took many days. So many days that Zauqir never counted the days. He saw no advantage in knowing one day from the next. They traveled with one animal. Its burden was mostly dried plants. Plants that held magic in the smoke. A plant that gave Zauqir a safe passage with tax collectors.
He preferred, however, to avoid them except when he was in the village around Castle City.
"Tell me about the city again."
"There are many sides to the city. There are the sides inside the city and the sides outside the city wall. The wall goes all around the city. There are many gates to the city that are never closed. Inside the city, in the castle, live the royal family and the Draves who serve them. Outside the city, inside the walls, live the tax collectors. They don't go inside the castle. They often travel outside the city to the coastal Drave villages and cities to collect taxes and Draves. But outside the city walls and inside the desert, the tax collectors don't collect taxes or Draves."
"Why not."
"Because the Draves outside are very poor and most have already served long in the city and are no longer young enough to serve the royal family."
"Too old. But you are not too old to do all that you do."
Zauqir smiled at Barbaralba and admired her magic. She smiled back at him.
"I have much life left in this life. But I can not serve inside the castle because I have reached the age where being told what to do, when not by an angel like you or Russam, rubs me in a sore spot. And it makes me unsuitable for the royal family."
Barbaralba looked at Zauqir so that he had to look at her again.
"I said no to a royal family member once and that was the end of my time of service. No noes."
"What do they ask you to do."
"A sexual request. A normal sexual request. But I couldn't obey anymore. I had run dry of my obedience."
"And then they send you to the games."
"Yes. They sent me to the games as they do so many."
"Like they will me if I say no."
"Yes. Like every Drave that does not obey."
After many days they came to the river. The first part for those leaving Castle City. The last part for those going to Castle City. The first or last paradise after or before the very hot and dry desert.
"We are here. Before we go to the city, this is the last place for us to stay. Last place to be eating fresh meat from land or water."
"It is a beautiful place, is this your home."
"It is one of them."
It was a small hut with a clay stove and a table and a bench. The floor was wooden and the walls as well. They were three and a half walls. Most of one side of the hut looked out over the river that sprang out of the dessert not so far away. It was protected by a few large trees and it was far enough away from the tax collector's route that it was never seen.
"How do you like it."
"I love it. Can we stay here as long as it takes me to learn how to be a fighter."
"Barbaralba, the queen of the fish. We will stay here and I will teach you what I know and you can show me what I must yet learn. Then we will go to Castle City."
There had been no fish since they left the ocean. For Barbaralba a very long time. For Zauqir not so long. There were other things to eat and he knew where to find them and how to cook them.
"If we are going to stay here, you should learn to hunt creatures with arrows of wood. The are many birds and animals when the fish don't come."
Barbaralba took the bow of Zauqir and followed his instructions how to string it. He help her tie a bit of animal skin on her arm.
And they walked very quietly around some trees and saw an animal. Zauqir shook his head and they kept walking slowly. Very quietly. After what seemed to Barbaralba a long time, Zauqir pointed and Barbaralba looked in the direction. She would not have seen it. It was still except for its chewing motion.
Barbaralba pulled back on the string like she had countless times with her own bow. And she took aim as Zauqir had instructed her. And she watched the arrow go and hit the animal.
"You are amazing, Barbaralba."
Barbaralba watched the animal flip about with an arrow through it until it flipped no more. Then she went and picked it up.
It was not the same as cleaning a fish but with patience and instructions from Zauqir, Barbaralba gutted and skinned her first rabbit. Zauqir turned the raw meat into food over the fire.
"Tell me about the Drave village outside the wall of the city."
"The Drave village is backwards to inside the walls. The royal family are actually being kept in a cage with their love of luxury and fear of life. Outside the wall there are no luxuries of the castle cage. There is life with all its raw beauty and a gentle fight to stay alive. Almost everyone is a Drave that has served in the City or children of those Draves. Most everything is made from waste from the city over many generations and there is a magic that holds everything together. And some hard work. But the most beautiful thing is, no royal family member is there to tell anyone what to do. There are few tax collectors and those who come, come for a place to drink. It is both a little ugly and a little beautiful. And it is one of the many places I love to be."
Zauqir looked up from the roasting rabbit to see Barbaralba smiling at him.
"Yes, old Zauqir is still a boy at heart. But you will see. It is a place to call home and my home is your home and they will welcome you and love you."
"It sounds strange and wonderful."
"It is like a big crazy family."
"I want you to teach me how to use a sword."
"After we have eaten and rested."
Zauqir was one of the few Draves that owned a sword. Royal family often carried swords as a tradition. They even learned the art of fighting. Tax collectors and tradesmen were the only persons with swords outside the city. Zauqir had payed for his with smoke.
"We will make wooden swords. And I will show you. Or perhaps, you will show me."
It took the rest of the day to make two wooden swords with both Barbaralba and Zauqir working on them. Zauqir watched Barbaralba's movements with her fish knife. How she cleaned the wood to formed her sword. She saw him watching her.
"I have cleaned many fish with Russam. And I make my own arrows. I am good at making things."
"I can see that. You have arms and hands like a worker. It is hard sometimes for me to see you as a young beautiful woman. But you are that as well. And this will be most dangerous for you. They will want to have your beauty. To own it as theirs."
In the evening, under the light of the two nearly full moons, they fought slowly and precisely.
"The most important thing in a sword fight, which I hope you are never forced into, is do not get hit. Wait as long as it takes for your opponent to leave an opening."
Zauqir made a few quick moves to show Barbaralba that she had lost her head, then he showed her his metal sword.
"May I."
"Go ahead. Move it slowly and get to know its weight. I will make a fire and cook a soup. Tomorrow you will start your training."
Barbaralba smiled. She knew Zauqir intended to drive her as hard as she could go. And after swinging his sword in the moon light for a while, she returned it to its sheath and sat down to watch the soup cooking over the fire.
"Did you know your parents."
"I knew my mother. And I had uncles. But like most of us, my father was a royal family tax collector."
"I don't know why they are permitted to own us like that. We are so many more and they come with their tax laws and their swords and no one questions them."
"Oh, everyone questions them. Just not when they are around."
Zauqir told Barbaralba about the castle and their laws of unquestioned silent obedience. He told her how to avoid eye contact. How to look busy. How to look like she was fulfilling her obligation and taking the burden of the yoke with humble determination. It seemed like a fantasy children's story but Zauqir was not talking her to sleep like a little girl. He was preparing her for entering the castle without having been selected by the tax collectors and trained by the tax collectors. She would have to act as if she had been broken by them if she hoped to get out again with her mother. Zauqir did not like the idea of a young woman walking into the castle. The danger was too obvious. She was determined and all he could do to help was to prepare her for all events.
So he told her of the games and his fights and the Draves he killed for his freedom. The freedom that the royal family had taken from him.
______ . . ______
Zauqir woke beside the ashes of the cold fire and looked around for Barbaralba. He saw that her fish bow was not where it had been so walked down to the river.
Barbaralba burst gently up through the surface. Smiling up at Zauqir.
"You move like the fish."
"It is my favorite place to be. I like the way the water hold me in slow motion."
"Today we will try some land slow motion. It is the best way to learn. The fastest way to become fast is to practice slowly."
"Okay."
"Did you shoot any fish."
"Not yet."
"Later, then. I will warm up some soup and you will practice moving your feet how I show you too. Go get your wooden sword."
Zauqir showed her how to move with balance, how to go forward and back and move her sword in a straight down swing. She watched Zauqir closely as he showed her how she should move. Not moving more than necessary and not swinging out of control. Control was most important. Forget the mind and the world and know only the movements.
Zauqir watched her for a while telling her just a few minor details, then he set about making a small fire and picking a few berries and watching as Barbaralba moved without looking to see if she was being watched. Moving to understand the moves. Moving to teach her body the new motions.
"Come, your breakfast is ready."
After breakfast the training continued. And it went on and on day after day until the days turned into moon cycles and Barbaralba infected Zauqir so that he trained day after day with her until he started to believe there was a chance that something could be done to chance the way of the royal family. Ultimately, to rid the land of the burden of their myopic greed and brutal violence against Drave and land.
Each time a caravan came by, Barbaralba and Zauqir hid in the trees and watched them approaching over the desert. The tax collectors had no fear. The world outside the castle was theirs and when they came to the river there was no hesitation to lead the animals into it. The tax collectors bathed and rested in the shade and camped.
Caravans coming from Castle City over the desert were without Draves and stayed long enough to rest and continue on toward the coast. Caravans coming from the coast were usually enjoying drunken madness before taking their goods back to the castle. It was not easy for Barbaralba to watch the young Draves being raped. Raped until they got used to it. Because that was what young Draves were for.
"If we had enough arrows when the tax collectors came over the dessert, we could likely kill them all before they knew what hit them."
Zauqir did not answer. He wondered only why it had not happened before. How long had it been since there had been any resistance to the tyranny of the royal family. How long had it been since anyone even questioned the ways of the royal family. The royal family that almost never left the castle to see what tax collection was. To see what it was costing.
"You are right to be angry, Barbaralba. The crime is so obvious that it does not matter how dangerous it is to stand up against it. We will learn how to fight them. And when we are ready, we will start fighting back."
The next morning, after a caravan left for the coast, Barbaralba and Zauqir left for Castle City.
chapter 07
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