The Magic Rain

Chapter Six: The Loss of Everything

When he finally awoke again, he felt different. He laid there, eyes closed. He knew this time he wasn’t dead, that his eyes were simply closed. He lay there for a long time, trying to muster the will to get on with his life – a life without Kawille, his parents, and his village. He remembered standing with Kawille on the rocky hills overlooking his village, thinking at first that he had lost everything and then amending that because he knew that at least he still had his lover, his soul mate.

Now… he knew he really had lost everything. He lay there trying to find one… single… reason… to get up. He wondered whether he could just lie there and starve to death. He considered whether he should get up and throw himself off the nearest cliff but somehow it seemed more of a… statement, a protest to the universe to just lie there and dare death to take him.

He waited, but no one, not death, not Kawille, not even Hodon came for him. Finally he sighed, feeling empty, with nothing but the whispers inside his head to keep him company.

He opened his eyes. He struggled to his feet.

Hunger and the soreness in his back and other joints told him he’d been lying on the hard ground for some time.

His face felt itchy and when he touched it he realized his beard was several days longer than it had been the last time he had seen Kawille.

It frightened him that the thought of her brought no pain, as if he had already suffered so much loss and pain that he simply had no more ability to feel it.

He sighed and glanced around. Some part of his mind wondered where Hodon was. And with that one thought came the first semblance of a real reason to keep on living.

"All right," he said out loud, and his voice sounded hoarse. "If we’re not going to die today, then let’s find some food." He grimaced. That had made it sound as if there were more than just him. There wasn’t. There was just him. And the whispers. He pulled out his hunting knife. He’d shave his beard first, he decided. Maybe he would slip and accidentally slice his throat.

***

Jo-Bri spotted the village at night, the town square lit by a communal fire. He had watched from some nearby hills, yearning for whatever company might exist down there.

He had been on the run for months. He’d almost lost track of time, though not quite. His father had trained him well in astrology and astronomy, so that he knew what month it was, down to the week, merely by glancing at the cloudless sky. In addition his mother had taught him about herbs and plants and he could tell from the local flora what time of year it was.

Nine months. It had been nine months since he had taken on the spirits of a dying village and of his doomed parents.

He sat back down on the hard, rocky ground, his back to the rock over which he had been peering at the village below. He looked up at those stars now. He remembered that his mother had once told him it was good luck to wish upon a star and he thought how silly that sounded, but he did it anyway. He wished… he wished… but he couldn’t bring himself to feel worthy of whatever it is he might wish for, not even a second chance; a chance to stay and fight Hodon instead of running and hiding the way he had nine months before.

And he was still running, still hiding, from the man he should be hunting, not fleeing.

Hodon.

He wanted to scream, but knew he might attract unwanted attention -- either the human or animal kind.

All right, I won’t scream, he thought to himself. But tomorrow… tomorrow he would go down to the village.

It would be the first direct contact he’d had with human beings since Hodon had destroyed his world.

His eyes drooped with exhaustion.

* * *

Jo-Bri walked slowly toward the village, glancing around for signs of danger. He couldn’t believe he was doing this, actually putting his life and the memories/spirits of all his family and village in danger… for what? Company?

God, yes! Company! A voice shouted inside his mind; he actually couldn’t tell if it was his own voice or one of the Others.

The first villager he spotted was a pretty teenage girl pulling water up from a well in the center of the town square. She dropped her bucket and staggered back in surprise.

Jo-Bri automatically patted himself to see if there was anything wrong with him. He suddenly remembered his mother patting his hair down with spit so that he wouldn’t look like a "Wild man."

God, what must he look like after nine months of crawling on a belly full of fear, through land that was as strange to him as he must look to this poor girl?

"It’s all right!" he said loudly -- perhaps too loudly, because his words seemed to do nothing to calm the girl.

"Father!" the girl shouted, but by then other villagers had already noticed him and were moving hesitantly forward.

One particularly large man, even larger than he remembered his father to be, was the only one to move more quickly, hurrying to the girl’s side, and Jo-Bri guessed he was the girl’s father.

Jo-Bri stopped and was shocked to realize that he was on the verge of tears. He wondered how long a man could go without companionship, without the comfort of family and friends, before he became something less than a man.

"Halt!" the large man shouted, in a booming voice.

Jo-Bri halted and wiped at his face. He realized he was probably just smearing the dirt that was undoubtedly there. He had bathed four days ago in a stream, but must smell wonderfully by now, with four days of hard hiking under the hot sun.

Jo-Bri saw the man withdraw a large knife from a scabbard at his side. He spoke words to his daughter, who stayed where she was while the man walked carefully forward.

As the man approached, a smile formed on his lips and Jo-Bri recognized it as the smile that his stature inspired in friends and foes alike. How do you take a midget seriously, he wondered bitterly.

The man stopped a few feet away, still holding the knife at his side, but loosely now.

"Who are you?" the large man asked.

"Emanuel Ashanti of Wiuel," Jo-Bri lied. He would never have given his real name, or the name of his village for fear that word from the capital had reached this isolated village, ordering Jo-Bri’s death on sight.

"Why are you here?" the man said.

"Is this how you greet strangers?" Jo-Bri countered, and immediately regretted it. He needed no more enemies than he already had.

"It is now," the man answered, but he seemed embarrassed and slipped his knife back into its sheath. The man glanced back at the town square, which was now filled with villagers waiting nervously, apparently for either the man’s approval or warning.

"I’ll leave," Jo-Bri said and turned to walk away.

"No!" the man said, and Jo-Bri stopped, turning around to face him again.

"I… please, come, let us offer you our hospitality. Dine with us, and – " the man hesitated, a smile suddenly playing on his lips, and he vaguely indicated Jo-Bri with a wave of his huge hand. "And bathe."

Jo-Bri glanced down at himself, of course already knowing how he looked, but when he looked up he was smiling too, and then laughed.

"The road has been hard," he said, "with very few inns along the way."

"Then come," the man said, and as Jo-Bri approached he held out his hand, which swallowed up Jo-Bri’s much smaller hand. "My name is Jurna. I am one of the village elders."

Jo-Bri hesitated, almost wanting to tell Jurna his real name, feeling like the liar he was, but then he reasoned he might put these people in danger as well if he told the truth. Who knew but that one of the villagers might not send out news of the arrival of the infamous Jo-Bri and bring the wrath of Hodon down on this village?

Jo-Bri followed Jurna past the villagers who smiled nervously at him, all of them wondering at his stature, the filth of his journey that showed so clearly on his face and clothes, and the simple fact that he had walked out of the merciless desert and into their village.

* * *

The water felt so good that it was as if he were washing life into himself instead of just washing dirt off. The villagers had set up a type of shower like one that his own parents had created back in his own village. It consisted of a large tub of water placed higher than a person’s head, the water seeping through a leather hose onto the bather below.

It didn’t matter that the water was cold, for the day was hot enough to make up for that.

The villagers had also created a wonderfully scented soap from herbs and the fat of the animals they hunted. He meant to ask how they had made it smell so intoxicating; almost like the perfumes his mother had created for herself and for the village wives.

At one point he had opened an eye to see the girl from the well in the village square standing several feet away, staring at his naked body. Water had then gotten into his eyes, and by the time he’s wiped them dry enough to open them again, the girl was gone, if she’d ever actually been there. He wondered if it had been wishful thinking. Then he remembered Kawille and felt a huge surge of guilt.

After the shower, Jo-Bri went seeking Jurna, who was working with several other villagers. They were dressing and tanning prey, which had just been brought to them from a hunting party that had arrived shortly after Jo-Bri’s own arrival that morning. The hunting party had been away for several days tracking a pack of Ebu, the large animals’ meat being a favorite of Jo-Bri’s.

Jo-Bri immediately pitched in to help, despite Jurna’s protestations, and soon impressed the village elder with the skills he had learned as a hunter himself.

After helping with the dressing and tanning of the Ebu, Jo-Bri found work with several teens who were helping repair a storage shed facing the village square. The building had, through natural causes, begun to sag and leak during heavy rains. They replaced several of the small logs used to build the structure, and the mud between the logs that insulated the building.

Jo-Bri found several other tasks to occupy him during the day, including helping to dig a new well, and working in a large garden the villagers kept at the far end of the village.

By the time the sun had crossed deeply into the afternoon part of the sky, he was feeling exhausted, and realized that he had not yet eaten, having instead moved from one task to another, too busy to accept the food offered.

Finally Jurna, seeing Jo-Bri’s condition, suggested he might want a short nap in a real bed. Jo-Bri had laughed at the idea that he would need or want to sleep in the "middle of the day," but Jurna had gently insisted and Jo-Bri had humored him by lying down on what turned out the be the best (and only) bed he had lain on in the past nine months.

He was asleep in seconds.

* * *

Jo-Bri awoke with a start. He sat bolt upright, glancing around the darkened room. He realized that somehow it had gone from afternoon to night.

The tea! After he had suggested that Jo-Bri might want a "short" nap, Jurna had poured him a cup of wonderfully warm, fragrant tea.

They had drugged him!

He quickly donned his clothing and emerged from what turned out to be a small hut just off the village square.

"Hello, Emanuel," someone said and he twirled about, raising his hands and mentally preparing a spell.

Jurna’s daughter sat cross-legged on a mat nearby.

"What?" he asked, then remembered that Emanuel was the name he had given her father.

“I am Lenui, daughter of Jurna,” she said. “I am sorry.”

“For being the daughter of Jurna?”

She blushed. “No. For giving you the restful tea. You seemed exhausted, I thought…”

He narrowed his eyes.

She smiled winningly. “Do you forgive me?”

He continued to stare.

She tilted her head, smiled more broadly, and shrugged her shoulders, wincing comically.

He laughed. “I forgive you.”.

"Good!” she exclaimed. “They are waiting for you," Lenui rose with remarkable grace from her cross-legged position, bearing her bodyweight on the outside edges of her feet until she was fully standing. She smiled and again Jo-Bri thought of Kawille and felt guilty.

Lenui walked up to him, at least a foot taller than he, and held out her hand. He hesitated, and then took that hand, far larger than his own, and she led him toward the village square where several fires and torches lit the assembly there.

Jo-Bri guessed that all the villagers, perhaps a hundred or more, were gathered, apparently in his honor.

Lenui led him to Jurna who sat with a beautiful, stately woman on a raised platform with several other older men and women, facing the other villagers.

Jurna smiled and nodded once at Lenui who released Jo-Bri’s hand, though he felt her reluctance.

"Come, sit by me and Lessi, my wife," Jurna said, indicating a place to his left. Lessi sat to Jurna’s right.

Jo-Bri sat. Before he could say anything, Lessi had risen and brought him a tray of the finest foods – meats, roots, and vegetables from the gardens he himself had helped hoe and weed earlier in the day.

Jurna and the villagers began eating as well, and Jo-Bri realized they had been waiting for him to join them before themselves eating.

"You have the strength of a much taller man," Jurna finally said, having allowed Jo-Bri to eat enough to regain his strength first. It was a version of a traditional compliment common in Jo-Bri’s own village.

Jo-Bri smiled. It was a tactful way for Jurna to express surprise that even a midget like him might have something to contribute in terms of work.

"I always thought I was good at dodging work," Jo-Bri said, laughing, "but somehow you brought out the worst in me."

Jurna laughed too, accompanied by Lessi, Lenui and the other villagers.

Jo-Bri noticed Lenui staring at him with the kind of longing Kawille had shown him. It amazed him now as it had then.

"Hodon," Jurna said and it startled Jo-Bri.

"Hodon is the reason I was so rude to you," Jurna explained.

Jo-Bri narrowed his eyes. "I don’t understand."

Jurna winced. "Hodon sent men here to this village, and to others nearby, to the entire kingdom for all I know. Hodon’s emissaries demanded that we report any and all strangers to him, that we capture and hold these strangers and inform him so that he can send his men to bring these strangers to him."

Jo-Bri pursed his lips. "I didn’t mean to put you in danger from Hodon," he said, and stood.

"Sit," Jurna said, "please. We cannot live our lives in fear this way."

Jo-Bri hesitated and sat, but now sent his senses out into the darkness, feeling for anything… wrong.

"Some say that Hodon is evil," Jurna said.

Jo-Bri nodded.

"I am not completely sure this is true," Jurna said.

Jo-Bri frowned. Was Jurna one of Hodon’s disciples? He glanced around. Was this a trap?

"There is another world," Jurna added.

"Another world?" Jo-Bri repeated, confused.

Jurna laughed. "I am not a wise man, nor a mage of any kind. But I’ve lived long enough to hear stories, to meet strangers, some of whom were wise men and wise women, some perhaps even wizards, and… they spoke of another world and they believed that Hodon seeks to protect us from that world."

Jo-Bri considered that. He had seen Hodon’s work, had even faced him in battle, and he had no doubt of Hodon’s evil nature.

"Sometimes," Jurna said, as if reading his thoughts, "Things are not as they seem."

"Jurna!" someone shouted, "they come!"

Jurna stood in one quick, smooth motion, and Jo-Bri suddenly knew – the big man had once been a soldier.

"You fought for Hodon," Jo-Bri said.

Jurna glanced down at him, hesitated, and then nodded. "In the end I could no longer tolerate the bloodshed -- ours or theirs. But Hodon had great magic, and he had a mission, even if we did not fully understand it, and the rumors spoke of another world and that only Hodon’s magic could protect us."

"So this was a trap," Jo-Bri said, rapidly scanning the area with his mage’s senses. It was true; they were coming. Not Hodon, but… his men. Wizards.

"No!" Jurna snapped, angry and offended.

Jo-Bri sensed several figures to the north east of the village. They were moving on Zornthback through the darkness.

"There is a woman," Jurna said, quickly, perhaps also sensing the nearness of Hodon’s men. "Far to the south west of here, in the hills. She knows of the Other World."

Jo-Bri nodded.

"No, don’t go!" Lenui blurted out and blushed so deeply that Jo-Bri could see it even by firelight.

Jo-Bri turned and ran.

"Emanuel!" Jurna yelled, and Jo-Bri knew from Jurna’s use of that name that the man did not know who Jo-Bri really was. It hadn’t been a trap after all. Hodon’s men had simply caught up with him.

He ran quickly and quietly to the southeast, away from the village, dodging in and out of the brush, sensing his way as much with mage-sight as with eyesight. He remembered his father teaching him how to see with his mind rather than his eyes, and the memory made his heart ache.

When he was far enough away from the village, Jo-Bri raised his hands and shot a beam of light from his palms into the heavens. He continued to shoot it upward until he was sure that Hodon’s wizards would have seen it.

Then he ran some more, fast enough to stay ahead of the wizards, but not so fast that they would lose him and circle back to Jurna’s village.

* * *

Jo-Bri stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down at the small group making its way up the hills toward him. He couldn’t tell if they could actually see him or even know for sure he was there.

They sense me, he finally decided. He was so tired. It had been nearly 50 straight hours of pursuit -- he on foot, they on their Zornths. The large animals had actually slowed Hodon’s wizards down as Jo-Bri sought out higher and higher ground, making a challenge for the massive canines. Their weight was too much for them to move quickly on anything but level ground.

He looked down at his sandals, which hung an inch over the edge of the cliff.

The voices inside him were screaming now.

"So what is your real name?"

He nearly fell. He hesitated a moment, almost giving in to gravity and surprise and allowing his body to be carried off the cliff. After all, that’s what he had intended to do, wasn’t it?

"Are you really going to jump off that cliff?"

He took a deep breath, finally regaining his balance, and carefully took a step back. He turned and saw her standing there. Lenui.

How distracted had he been that he had not sensed her there? He knew part of it was the exhaustion – his senses were dulled. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"What am I doing here?" she replied. "I’m not the one standing on a ledge about to jump."

"You don’t understand," he said. How could she?

She sighed and took a step forward then immediately stopped, as if afraid she might frighten him into jumping.

She didn’t understand that it wasn’t a rash decision, an idea that had just popped into his head. It was one he had carefully considered, along with the welfare of the people whose lives might be lost because of his mere existence.

"You don’t understand," he said again, and heard the exhaustion in his voice.

"You’re tired," she said. "So am I."

He realized she had somehow followed him all this way, had stayed awake as long as he had, walked and run as far as he had, dodged Hodon’s wizards as well as he had.

"And yet as tired as I am, I’m not thinking of throwing myself off a cliff," she finished.

And you’re not carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders either, he thought, but didn’t say it. After all, how did he know what she was or wasn’t carrying?

She walked forward then, right up to him until she was towering over him. He realized how much she wanted him. He could feel it like a heat coming off her, threatening to burn them both up, and again it amazed him. He had always considered himself to be a bit of a freak, being as short as he was, laughed at as a child. And yet for some reason – was it some sort of fetish, he wondered? Did women actually desire midgets for some strange reason? He had never lacked for sexual partners from the time he had emerged from puberty. It helped of course that his people considered sex a natural part of life, and a healthy choice following puberty.

Her lips, which suddenly pressed against his, interrupted his thoughts and he felt himself get dizzy. He might even have staggered backward and fallen off the cliff after all except that she had grabbed his arms with her large hands and pulled him to her.

Finally she stepped back, smiling, knowing now that she had branded him as only a woman could brand a man.

He actually forgot to think of Kawille… for perhaps an entire ten seconds. Then her memory and the guilt came rushing back, along with the voices that apparently Lenui had temporarily quieted as well.

"I – I," he stammered and she laughed.

"When I saw you," she said, "it was as if – "

"As if you were going to be attacked by a tiny, dirty stranger," he said and she laughed even harder.

"Okay," she admitted, "you scared me at first. But later – "

"At the shower," he said, nodding. He knew now that he had really seen her then, and that she had seen him – at his most vulnerable, standing naked as the water poured over his body.

The creek.

"There’s a creek down the hill," he said.

"I know," she replied, confused at the sudden turn in the conversation.

"You have to wash," he said. "In the creek."

She frowned, then smelled her own armpits and laughed. "Okay, I guess I am a little ripe," she said, "not that that seemed to bother you while I was kissing you."

"No, no," he responded. "That – that was nice. But --"

He indicated the wizards working their way up the hills toward him. "Hodon’s wizards. You have my scent on you now," he said. "You need to bathe while I weave a cleansing spell. Otherwise they’ll simply follow my scent on you and find us."

She considered that. "All right." She glanced down at the wizards who were still far in the distance. "But I think we have time for more than just bathing," she said, and held out her hand. "Join me."

He nodded and accepted her hand, which enveloped his tiny one. They descended the rocks to the nearby creek. She walked to the edge of the water, hesitated, and then slipped her clothing off, her back to him.

The voices were suddenly completely silent and he had the eerie feeling they were watching.

Wonderful, he thought, my parents and the entire village inside me, watching me watching her.

And he was watching her, the heat rising inside him.

With her back still to him, she walked into the water up to her waist. She splashed the water onto herself, her hands moving slowly, sensuously over the curves of her body, the water falling down her tanned skin and back into the creek.

Jo-Bri thought of Kawille and knew what he had to do. He muttered a spell, the ancient words ringing in the air then settling about Lenui like a blanket, embracing her. Even though he could not see her face, he knew her eyes were drooping as a feeling of sensuous sleepiness wafted over her.

He sensed her thoughts. She knew what kind of performance she was giving, and she knew how she wanted that performance to end.

She had stopped moving her hands over her skin, standing still now, her back still to him. He hesitated, letting his gaze linger on her, but all he could think of was Kawille.

He turned and walked away, climbing even higher until he stood on yet another cliff, looking down at Lenui, as she stood, still immobile, in the creek. He smiled sadly and spoke a few more words of the old language.

Lenui turned, stretching her hand out to where he had been standing.

"Join me," he heard her say, with his mind rather than his ears, and she froze, hand held out. She looked up at the sky and saw that the sun had moved at least half an hour further across the sky than when she had first walked into the water.

He had glamored her; spoken her to sleep as she had stood in the creek, naked to the world and to his magic. He sensed her wanting to hunt him down again, but he gently altered that thought, sapping her of the will to pursue him.

She stood, and he felt rather than saw a single tear roll down her cheek. She placed an arm across her naked breasts.

Jo-Bri sighed. Lenui had no way of knowing that she was safe because of him – that he had left her in order to lead Hodon’s wizards in another direction, away from her. Then he realized: she still didn’t know his real name.

He turned and walked away, sending thoughts to the Hodon’s pursuing wizards, to ensure they followed him and avoided Lenui. She was safe. And he was alone… except for the voices inside him.

He thought of what Jurna had told him of Hodon’s "Other World," the threat that world posed, and the strange woman "far to the south west." He shrugged. Southwest is as good a destination as any, he thought, and glanced up at the sky, altering his direction accordingly.

He sensed the pursuing wizards adjust as well.