Mucker's Truth

Reur's journal, dated eight days after he left the Totanbeni community of Fensedge:

"The Totanbeni are nothing like what I was led to expect them to be. As a race, they are closely related to the Vagal and Send. I'll have to admit that I knew that already.

"As a culture, they are not all the blood-thirsty, war-mongering deathbringers Raven and Hornbeak claimed, or any of her friends. We have passed through four towns since Fensedge, and at not a one were we molested, accosted or held without our consent. At each, we shared food and drink with the town's elders, heard their stories — many of which were similar to the complaints of Fensedge — and left with no problems.

"Hornbeak whispers to Raven, and Raven tells me that we have yet to see their warriors, evil to a man. Or their generals, chiefs and guiders, whose mindsets, she tells me, revolve around destroying anyone not Totanbeni. They will not listen to reason, she says.

"Tread, on the other hand, between bouts of terror at his impending trial and excitement at simply being home, tells me that my knowledge of the Kalkorae will help the Totanbeni, that there will be no war, and that I will be instrumental in saving their lives. He is even convinced that I will be able to save the lives of Raven and Hornbeak, though every town's elder has frowned and said they will die.

"Raven keeps her own counsel. What she tells me, Hornbeak told her. When I ask her what she thinks, she tells me nothing, just stares at me, as though she can read her salvation or death in my face. I must admit, it is somewhat eerie.

"Finally, Mucker remains a constant worrier. Nothing will console him. Whenever we near a town, he breaks down again. Leaving a town just reminds him that we are getting closer to Totanbin and the council. He has told me, when we share watches, that he expects they will slaughter Raven and Hornbeak outright, put him and Tread to a trial with the outcome of death, and question me until my ears bleed, then kill me.

"All in all, not something to look forward to. But I am learning these people. Somewhere, somehow, I will find common ground with the
Totanbeni leaders."

********

"How much farther?" Reur asked.

"Not long now," Tread answered from just behind him. "That hill up there, just past that hill."

"That's what you said at the last hill," Raven said.

Reur took a deep breath. It wasn't that he was tired, it was that Mucker had been carrying Hornbeak for the past half-day.

After Fensedge, the dry ground had quickly vanished. They crossed a bog and a fen, slogging through the water as though back near Send territory. There was a town on the edge of this one, with no more than a half-dozen people there, who wanted more news than they could give. They did redirect the group.

What interested Reur the most was neither Tread nor Mucker knew anyone.

"It's hard to believe all Totanbeni are the same when you cannot recognize anyone," he had said.

"We're from farther north," Tread had shrugged. "And over by the coast. I would be surprised if there was anyone out here whom I knew."

"I think I know someone in every town in my homeland," Reur said, thinking that his homeland was far more populated and everyone lived closer together.

"A lot of the people in these towns are at the council," Raven said. "Maybe Tread and Mucker will know someone there."

"I'm sure there'll be someone from our home there," Tread said slowly, glancing at Mucker, who wasn't listening.

Two days later, the ground rose rocky and sparsely treed, and Reur and Tread climbed to the top of the rocks to get a better view of the region. Tread pointed north and west.

"You can't even see the sea from here," he said, "but our village was up there."

"Where is Totanbin?" Reur asked.

Tread's hand didn't move. "Close enough to the sea that the shadelshif captains and guiders can come, and close enough to the center that no one needs to travel more than a month."

"The Totanbeni control that much land?"

"Anyone you meet if you walk in any direction but south for 30 days, that person is
a Totanbeni."

Just yesterday, they had reached another rocky outcropping. This time Mucker came up with them.

"Well?" Reur asked him, as the huge man gazed around him. The sun was setting, and here and there, all the way to the horizon, small orange lights had lit. Reur counted twelve fires. Villages, towns or travelers, it was still sparsely populated.

"I think," Mucker said, "that I just want to go home."

"What will happen to you two when we reach Totanbin?" Reur asked. "For truth."

Tread shrugged. "We won't be lauded as heroes. We're just returning. And, we brought you."

Mucker's eyes had watered. "We killed our master."

"Mucker, shut up," Tread said hastily.

"The guider?'

He nodded, his shoulders slumped forward.

"Why did you kill him?" Reur had asked. "I have asked before, and I know you have given me lies."

Tread shook his head, his face going red. "We did not lie when we said he was crazy! He killed our fellow apprentice just that morning."

"He would have killed us that night," Mucker said, slowly, thickly.

"He would have," Tread added. "Because his ship was destroyed."

"Because we destroyed the shadelshif."

Tread's jaw dropped. "Mucker, we did it to save ourselves. Reur doesn't need to know."

"I do," Reur said. "I do, if you want me to speak for you. I know magic blew up the ship. I didn't know how your magic worked at the time, but I know now. One of you must have triggered it." He paused, thinking. "I had wondered why it would explode."

"You had touched the bones of my greatfather, the source of magic for the ship."

"I had moved it," Reur prompted. "Wait. Your greatfather?"

"He was a powerful guider, who commanded a great fleet until his treason," Mucker said. "So the guiders made his bones part of most of the fleet, to add to its power."

"What treason?"

Tread spoke up. "He treated with the Seru."

"Seru?" Reur said. He had not heard of them.

"They live near where you landed, where we were," Tread said. "We were the scout ship ahead of the fleet sent to destroy the Seru."

"Totanbeni culture doesn't make agreements with people," Reur said. "Why would your greatfather go against this tradition at the risk of being a traitor?"

"He didn't do it," Mucker said. "At least, that's what I believe."

"What do people say is the reason he did it?"

Tread said, "He was afraid. The Seru were growing in power, and have a defensible position among the rocks near the mouth of the Lapis Amnis, the great river that pours into the ocean there. It is hard to row against that current, even with the tides. The delta is always changing its shape. The water is often too shallow, even for our boats. A hundred reasons it is bad."

"Greatfather didn't do it," Mucker said, swallowing a sob.

"What do you think happened?" Reur asked, and again, Tread answered.

"His captain had no love for him. He was the one who claimed the guider had chained him and his men aboard the shadelshif and left to treat with the Seru. He returned with Mucker's greatfather bound and gagged, his eyes covered and his ears plugged. The trial was short; it was the guider's word against the captain's, and captains are generally favored."

"So we blew up the ship ... I blew up the ship," Mucker said, "to stop you from harming my greatfather."

"And you killed your master so he wouldn't killyou?"

"Yes," Mucker whispered.

"This is not a hard truth," Reur said. "Why haven't you told it to me before?"

"Because," Mucker started, but Tread spoke over him.

"Why worry you with details?" the smaller Totanbeni said.

"Let Mucker speak," Reur answered. Tread stepped down, sullenly, his eyes never leaving Mucker's, his head shaking slightly.

Mucker's great cow eyes watered as he stared back at Tread, then he ducked his head to Reur. "Because we would take you to our people in place of Master, to redeem ourselves with your body."

"Body? You mean knowledge."

Mucker swallowed and shook his head.

"Body." Reur laughed. "You were going to kill me."

"Not anymore," Tread said hastily. "It's not as though you haven't survived just about everything that has tried to kill you. You've offered yourself to be sacrificed twice, and you're not dead. The boat blew up beneath you, and you're not dead. You've swam in mud, eaten peat, held snakes and spiders, and leapt through fire and you're not dead." He smiled. "Nothing can kill you, we think. We are yours now."

"You made me your apprentice," Mucker said.

"That was a lie, to get you out of the Send camp."

"It wasn't taken lightly," Tread said.

"All right, well, now that you know I'm going to survive, we'll use what's inside my head to save you. Maybe no one will be there whom you know."

"Someone will. The ship never reported. Mucker is, also, of the blood of the traitor guider."

Tears coursed down Mucker's cheeks. Reur leaned in so the large man's face filled his vision.

"Mucker, I promise, you will not die."

"I'm your apprentice," he said.

Reur almost shook his head. Apprentice what? he wanted to say. There is no magic I can teach you. But he nodded. As Ttread said, why worry him with details?

"As your apprentices," Tread said, "you will die in our place."

"That's all right," Reur said. "They're not going to kill me. I'm too valuable for what I know.

So do I become a traitor, to save them? Reur wondered what the Kalkorae would think of him.

They started down the hill, and as they were walking, Mucker slipped and fell, just about twisting his foot entirely off. His howls shook the valleys.

And now, as they approached the top of another hill, Hornbeak huffing and puffing behind them as he supported the giant Mucker, Reur stared into a forest of fires.

"I told you," Tread said. "Just over that next hill."

"By all the gods," Reur breathed. "There must be a million people here."

"Only the warriors, chiefs and guiders," Raven said, next to him.

"Only the warriors, chiefs and guiders," Tread agreed. "And shadelshif captains, warriors and guiders. From 30 days march in every direction except south. Yes."

Reur sighed as a shout rose from the camp below. They had been seen.

"Who do we need to talk to?" he said, starting down the path.

Copyright 2005-2007 Eric Zawadzki and Matthew Schick. All Rights Reserved.
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