Episode 86
[Author’s Note: This episode takes place back in the year 1127 AD, somewhere in what is now called Romania.]
(Romania, April 17,1127)
Distant sounds, distant lights, distant memories. Why did they always have to come? All she wanted was to be left in piece, forgotten.
Jakov held up his torch, carefully examining the walls of the tunnel. It almost looked as if it had been carved, but he doubted such a thing was possible. Though the Romans were rumored to have had devices which could gouge stone, he strongly suspected that those “devices” were slaves. Even if such a technology existed, slave labor would be cheaper. However, this tunnel did not feel man-made. Among other things, it would serve no conceivable purpose. Most likely, it had been dug by time and water.
When exploring such places, Jakov was careful to watch for crevices and drops. Even with his meager protections, he would survive a tumble. But it would hurt like hell, and he could end up stuck in a pit. He did not relish the prospect of being abandoned by his “friends” when they decided that rescuing him wouldn’t be worth the effort. He wondered how he would die. Probably dehydration. He had had a few close calls with that over the years. Starvation would take longer. He could asphyxiate or drown if he landed in the wrong position, with his chest compressed or his head submerged. In a place like this, a toxic miasma wasn’t out of the question either.
What was he even doing here? It felt like a stupidly dangerous place to explore. Of course, two of his companions didn’t care. They were protected from such things. Well, he would just have to be extra careful. The best way to avoid dying in a pit was to not fall into one. There were countless pits filled with the bones of explorers who were not extra careful.
That made it all the more annoying when Mihai sprinted ahead into the darkness without a care in the world. Goddamn Fours. They thought they were so superior. Well, nasty things could happen to him too. Jakov smiled at the prospect, but could imagine only the possibility and not the means. Otherwise, he would have employed those means many years ago. It was a pleasant fantasy and a necessary one. He had seen mortals do the same in the face of insufferable arrogance. They reveled in the belief that “pride goes before the fall,” but the specifics of that fall always were nebulous.
In his experience, falls only afflicted those who least deserved them. Nonetheless, he strained his ears in the hope that a shriek of agony would pierce the still air. Even if Mihai couldn’t die, the thought of his smug face twisted in agony held no small appeal.
Absorbed in this enticing image, Jakov felt the ground suddenly give way. As he tumbled forward, he could not help but note the poetic justice of suffering the very fate he had wished on Mihai. He remembered an old saying: someone who curses another digs two graves. Or just the wrong one, especially if they didn’t look where they were going.
A sharp pain coursed through his face, and he felt his nose. It wasn’t broken. As always, he wondered where the pain came from if not an injury. It seemed pointless. Maybe this was the gods’ way of reminding him what he owed them. See what would have happened if you weren’t thus blessed? Well, Jakov wanted a few more blessings and didn’t feel the least bit ungrateful doing so.
Clearly, the gods didn’t really care about him. They hadn’t even personally granted the blessings. She had, even though the gods were credited for them. Despite the priests’ adamance on this point, he entertained strong doubts. Everything he received was from her, and she had decided what that ‘everything’ was. Presumably, she gave what she felt was deserved or earned. Maybe she just decided on a whim. He didn’t even remember her face, let alone why she had bestowed this gift on him. The only thing he was sure of was that it had nothing to do with caring about him.
Aside from surprising Jakov, the fall did not amount to much. There was no pit filled with spikes and no crevice onto some violent subterranean river — but there easily could have been. He cursed himself for being so careless, and then cursed again when he realized that his torch was gone. It had rolled a few feet down a gentle slope, coming to rest on a flat and dusty floor. The light flickered out just as he got to his feet.
Jakov groaned. His personal frustration aside, this mishap would reinforce what everybody already thought of him. As a Two, he already was the lowest of the low. Not quite as low as an ordinary person, but his companions didn’t even count those in the reckoning. He had long hoped to meet a One, so somebody else would be at the bottom. But he knew this was wishful thinking. He never had met — or even heard of — any. It was doubtful that Ones would survive for long. If they were protected from aging, they would be vulnerable to everything else. If they weren’t protected from aging, they would have died long ago. As a Two, he at least had a shot at survival. But that was all. A Two had to work twice as hard to get even half the respect. Ana had, Jakov hadn’t.
His anticipation of Ana’s scorn filled the cave long before her approach. Fortunately, Vasile reached him first. In typical laconic style, he lit Jakov’s torch, handed it back to him, and suggested that he exercise greater care in the future. There was no sarcasm or criticism in this, and his concern would have been touching if Jakov didn’t know better. Nonetheless, he preferred it to the alternative.
As their leader, Vasile stood above the petty sniping in the group. Maybe that was why he was the leader, though Jakov imagined it probably was because he was a Four — and the only Four who wasn’t a complete jackass. Fortunately, Mihai appeared to have no ambition beyond being obnoxious. At least, this was what Jakov surmised. He was a recent addition to the group, and everyone had settled into their respective roles before he joined. He sometimes wondered whether there had been a lot of power struggles in the early days. Maybe he had missed all the fun.
By the time Ana caught up, Jakov and Vasile had explored the room quite thoroughly. It was nearly six hundred square feet in area and had an oval shape. Nobody had to stoop, but the ceiling was only seven feet high. Jakov sighed. So much for using the cave as a base; it clearly would not do. As if reading his thoughts, Ana shot him a contemptuous look. Glancing around, he realized why. Mihai was not among them. Clearly, there was more to be explored.
How close. How annoying. Just let me sleep.
A torch emerged from the darkness at the far end, and Mihai sauntered toward the center of the room. Between the four of them, the entire space now was well lit, revealing the small passage through which he had vanished. There were several other tunnels at various angles, but none large enough for a person to pass through. Jakov took note of them anyway. Animals or rain could come in, or they could prove useful for ventilation. That, in fact, was one of his major concerns. The place was stifling, and he doubted there would be any habitable areas. The whole venture had been a bit of a long shot, and they probably would end up making camp in the woods like everyone else.
“There’s another chamber in the back, and it looks to be much larger,” Mihai announced proudly. He added, “and the air is much better than in here,” before Jakov could voice his concern.
If the air was clean, there either was some sort of cross-ventilation or another entrance to the cave system, a possibility that did not thrill Jakov. The farmer who had told them about the cave probably thought they were looking for jewels or gold. The man was just trying to be helpful, and the perversity of this troubled Jakov. If they did make a home in the cave, his reward would be death. If they didn’t, he probably would be killed anyway. This would depend on what mood Ana and Mihai were in, and it was easy to guess what that would be after such a failure. The poor fellow was pretty much screwed from the moment he opened his mouth.
The group decided to proceed down the new tunnel. As Mihai had promised, it soon opened into a much larger chamber. The light from the four torches was easily lost in this space, and the group stood near the entrance, studying it while enjoying the cooler air.
A shadow scuttled past Mihai and Vasile and would have reached the tunnel if Ana hadn’t instinctively slashed at it with her sword. The shadow landed with a thud on the ground.
“What the hell was that?” Jakov blurted out, unconcerned about being ridiculed at this point.
Mihai shrugged. “Something dead.”
“Not quite,” Vasile observed, standing over the creature with his torch. It was a woman — feral and unkempt, but a woman nonetheless. She stood and glared at them as her hand felt its way down the long diagonal gash on the front of what looked like a coarse tunic.
The woman seemed ready to run again, but Mihai shook his head and blocked the entrance.
“She’s one of us?” Jakov wondered aloud.
Mihai smirked. “Let’s find out.” He plunged a dagger into the woman’s belly. It skidded aside, and the woman struck him in the face. Her hand slid past it, and she tumbled back to the ground.
Mihai laughed. “Bitch doesn’t know her place.”
Vasile stepped between them. “That’s enough of that. She’s one of us, and we take care of our own.”
He knelt and offered the woman his hand, but she clawed it away. He smiled. “Strike me all you like if it makes you feel better. You can’t hurt me, and I take no offense.”
The woman seemed hesitant but finally took his hand and stood.
“Well, let’s start with the formalities,” Vasile said. “I assume you speak the old tongue?”
She looked at him uncomprehendingly.
“Just beat the bitch. She’ll understand that,” Ana suggested.
“Never mind them,” Vasile told the woman, still in the old tongue. She continued to show no sign of comprehension.
“Do you understand now?” He said this in Romanian.
Jakov knew where Vasile was going with this. If she didn’t even know the local language, the woman would be too much trouble to look after. Perhaps whatever protections she possessed had failed to protect her sanity. The group would have little choice but to leave her, or maybe they would decide it was kinder to kill her. He wasn’t quite sure how far Vasile would go, though he suspected this wasn’t the first time such a situation had arisen. It probably didn’t bode well for the woman that the group remained so small after this long. Jakov wondered whether he had been luckier than he realized. For all the bullying he endured, perhaps he actually was part of an exclusive club.
Vasile probably would kill her. He wouldn’t do it out of malice, or even pity, but as a practical expedient. The woman wasn’t a direct threat, but if she made a nuisance of herself to the local population, she would draw attention to the existence of their kind. Jakov had seen this happen before, and he had seen the consequences. Looking at her disheveled state more closely, this disposition seemed increasingly likely. For some reason, the thought bothered him. It took him a few moments to realize why.
In the close light of the torch, she was incredibly beautiful. Even the grime and chaos of her hair could not mask this. Vasile and Mihai obviously had realized it too. The scowl on Ana’s face indicated that it had not escaped her notice either. If killing was necessary, he hoped Vasile would ensure Ana had no part in it.
To Jakov’s relief, the woman nodded.
“I guess we’re speaking local for now,” Vasile announced to the group,
“I thought all of us speak the old tongue,” Jakov observed.
“Well, obviously not,” Mihai snapped. “Maybe she’s a Two like you, I’m surprised you guys even know how to take a shit.” He turned to Ana. “Present company excepted, of course.” She glowered at him.
Vasile was one of those rare individuals who not only lacked a sense of humor but appeared entirely unaware of the very existence of such a thing. This was one of the traits Jakov really admired in the man. Maybe it was why he always seemed above the fray.
“We don’t know everything,” Vasile warned. “It is entirely possible that some of our kind were made in other times and places, or that she was born this way. Maybe she never learned the old tongue or forgot it. For now, we will speak local. Later, one of you will teach her.”
Mihai and Jakov immediately began jockeying for the job, but Vasile pointed at Ana. “You will do this.”
Jakov smiled. Perhaps the man did have a sense of humor, after all.
Vasile instructed the woman to sit in a corner, and Ana kept guard over her while the men thoroughly explored the room. The space was cavernous, and any ceiling lay out of sight. However, the place certainly had one. There was no sign of residue from the world above. If the cave was exposed to the sky, it would be filled with dirt and leaves and other detritus. There was no guano, so it was safe to assume that the roof was clear of pests. Jakov would have preferred to be able to see this for sure. He did not relish the idea of something dropping onto him from the deep dark above.
The presence of the woman spoke to the general safety of the place as well. Given how skittish she was, she wouldn’t have stuck around otherwise. For however long she had lived there, nothing must have disturbed her until the group arrived. Presumably, she had been in and out foraging for food, though. They would have to question her thoroughly on this point. If she had been in contact with people, and they knew of this place, that could be a problem. A problem which could easily be solved in the nearby bog, but a problem nevertheless.
A strong updraft furnished clean air and the means of venting smoke. As loathe as Jakov was to admit it, the cave was a perfect base for their little gang. With an exclamation, he leapt back and covered his face. He had discovered the woman’s sleeping arrangements, along with the attendant filth.
Mihai laughed at the spectacle. “You found it, so you get the honor of cleaning it. I’ll bet even you can’t mess that up.” He grinned. “Probably.”
When he saw the mess, Vasile turned up his nose. He returned to the woman and shook his head. “That’s no way for a lady to live.”
Jakov always wondered whether the man had started as an aristocrat. He certainly had that bearing at times, though plenty of merchants played at being gentlemen too.
Vasile called out to the others. “We’ll deal with this later. Let’s have a chat.”