Lavé au Rivage – Chapter II

(Carnation)

While the soldier reluctantly made his way back to the scene, Han knelt again to the side of the victim, who had begun to stir. He could see nothing of the figure through the thick, black robes, drenched though they were, and was unable even to identify the material that they had been made from.

Sensing his return, Han glanced up at the soldier, “Where should we take him?”

The stranger kept his distance from the victim, remaining a good five paces away. “Here would be the best place, for the moment,” he said, “moving him now would avail us little.”

Han leaned in closer, trying to get a better look at the victim’s face. When he began to cough and sputter, the boy was met with another spray of seawater and was forced to lean back.

It was when the victim began to flail and kick at his imaginary captors that Han saw that he was, in fact, “A woman!”

“It’s a woman,” he repeated, aghast.

The soldier took great caution in stepping over to her again, approaching their delirious charge from behind, “Aye, and it seems a rather young one, at that,” he remarked, taking a firm hold of her arms.

Han had taken several steps back, but now that the girl had ceased her struggling, he peered over to the man again. “What are you doing?”

“Restraining her,” he said, not letting go even though she had calmed, “perhaps you had best come see about getting some information out of our friend, hmm?”

When the boy hesitated, his more enabled company produced a sly grin, “I see this troubles you.”

Han stuttered and made a remark about whether or not the wench was in any state to be informative or helpful whatsoever. “B-besides – I don’t know your name, and we seem to be getting along just fine.”

It was then that the girl let out a rasp, “Let go…”

The man ignored her, sighing at the boy’s sudden lack of cooperation. “My name is Nelkim Waïs.”

“Let go!”

Han sniffed, “And I am Cadfael Han, but you see, that does us little good,” he countered.

The girl stiffened and made an attempt at opening her eyes, though the seawater still stung at them badly. “You’re a cad, is what you are,” she said, hoarsely.

Nelkim lifted one of his eyebrows, glancing down at his charge with an air of amusement. “Now, that’s not the way to go about things.”

At length, Han sighed and implored, “So what might your name be, Woman?”

Sanguye had finally managed to release her eyes from their hold and found herself looking into the dirty face of a boy who looked to be not even a year older than she was. There was something unusual about him, and that of the man holding her – though she had not gotten a good look at him, yet – but she could not put her finger on it.

Han scoffed and asked for her name, again. “Have you forgotten it?”

Nelkim chided the boy, “Be easy, young Cadfael,” he was saying, “perhaps she’s suffered a blow.”

Sanguye frowned to herself, working through the fog of her mind as to how she had arrived in her present situation. Where was Aiyennat? All she knew was that, somehow or another, she had been on a boat, and now she was being held down in the middle of a flooded street.

The boy was making yet another remark, something about her suffering one blow too many, and she had the mind to suffer him an injury of his own. It was then that she realized that there was something about his voice, in particular, that struck her as being unnatural.

While the two strangers exchanged conversation, Sanguye allowed her eyes to wander about the road she had found herself on. There was the boat, not even twenty paces away, lying demolished on its side. But where was Aiyennat?

Dimly, she recalled the men who had kidnapped her and her younger sister, but, as she looked around, she saw none of them. Granted, she could scarcely remember their faces, but there were very few people around and she was sure to have recognized at least one of them.

Unless the man restraining her now had been among them.

“Let go!”

Han knelt beside her, again, “Have you remembered your name?”

Clearly, she would go nowhere until she had answered this forsaken question. Having since assessed that she was in a foreign territory, and her country had no allies, Sanguye had determined that it would have been foolhardy to go about giving people her title.

Instead, she made a long, strangled noise that was supposed to resemble something plausible.

Nelkim was puzzled, but Han appeared to have interpreted it well enough. “Audrey?” he said, “An unusual name.”

Finally, the soldier spoke up again, “It sounded more like Asrie, to me.”

Han shook his head, “But that’s not a name at all.”

Sanguye put the two together to create a pseudonym, “Auisrée,” she repeated.

Nelkim contemplated this, finally releasing her, “Might there be another to go with that?”

Auisrée mumbled again, not knowing if she could get away with another stunt like that.

The man nodded to himself, “Perhaps not.”

Han stretched, appearing to have at least gotten over the fact that Auisrée was of the female breed. “And how might this ‘Auisrée’ have found her way here?”

She paused, not entirely sure how to respond. “I… was shipwrecked.”

“Apparently,” sniffed the boy, gesturing to the craft. “Though why you were traveling in a fishing boat is beyond me.”

Nelkim watched him, waiting for a comment about how women being on boats were bad ideas, anyhow. It went unmentioned, but the soldier was sure that Han was thinking it, regardless.

“Perhaps I was fishing,” she snipped.

Han rolled his eyes, “In all my life,” he began, “I’ve never once heard of a woman on the sea, much less fishing, without the very next word being ‘disaster!’”

Nelkim repressed a snort; it was only a matter of time, after all.

Auisrée was about to retort when the soldier clapped them both on the shoulder and announced that if they stayed out in the rain any longer, they would all be dead by the Sabbath.

The boy set his eyes to the fish still wrapped in his jacket before agreeing with him. “Finally, someone showing some sense!”

Whatever Sir Dol had been expecting his lad to bring him, it certainly did not involve company that looked and smelled as though it had been bathing for weeks in the sea.

He sat behind his desk, staring up at the boy, who had apologized about the bread, but still held up a stinking pair of fish for all to see. The two guests, he saw, were standing at the back of the room, awaiting his decision.

“M’lad,” he began, looking up through heavy eyebrows to stare the boy down, “It seems tha’ you’ve brought me s’me comp’ny.”

Han nodded solemnly, waiting to hear more from the man.

“An’ to top i’ off, those fish there won’ do me a bi’ o’ good to ea’.”

The boy glanced briefly at the fish, then returned his gaze to his master. “But I’ve kept them fresh, sir!”

Sir Dol shook his head, “An’ tha’s fine ‘n good, M’lad, but those fish be pois’n.”

Nelkim felt the old man’s eyes on him and looked up to meet his gaze.

“You, there,” he began, “I know v’ry well who y’are. Wha’ I don’ know is why you’ve gone abou’ masquer’din’ as a merch’nt.”

Nelkim knelt at once before the old war leader. “Aye, I was once what you know me to be,” he murmured, “But the sun has set on that day.”

Sir Dol nodded to himself, “V’ry well, then.” He now turned to Auisrée, whose blue eyes met his fearfully. “An’ you,” he started, “I’ve e’en less idea o’ what you’d be doin’ h’re.”

The girl, try as she might to resist it, shook terribly at the thought of being found out by the Embrys Dol.

Regardless, his all knowing eyes passed over her as he looked over the scattered contents of his desk. “Ne’erth’less, child,” he muttered, “I s’ppose it’d do no good to send eith’r o’ ye away.”

Han took this as his cue to send for the preparations of their stay, leaving to fetch Damion at once. As he rushed to the fields, the boy found himself wondering with great intensity about the history of Nelkim Waïs, and the truth about that Auisrée girl.

What had his master meant by all that?

Author’s notes: A bit of a short chapter, but I had fun writing it. I’ve grown particularly fond of Nelkim Waïs’s character. I have no idea as to why.

Next chapter, we’ll find out what has become of ‘Auisrée’s’ younger sister and have an audience with the king and queen.