Once a King Pt. 10 - Pia Fidelis

Once a King

Part 10 Pia Fidelis

"Faithful and loyal"

Very good, skryba, you are well versed in the old empire tongue! Let me tell my story. Hirek was scouting an hour ahead of the rest of the enhanced squad.

Within easy bow range Ludek and Jurek followed. Close enough to cover Hirek if there was danger, but far enough back to not be detected by enemies to the front.

Hirek was an excellent scout and spy...at any distance, he could be invisible to any hostile eyes. None of the rest of us had that power of invisibility.

Well behind Ludek and Jurek, were 'the council' of which I, Pawel, was an equal member. Along with Jadzia and Nik, we would make the big decisions for the group. Jurek and Ludek would lead the fight, if there was to be one.

Jacus followed close to us with Filip and the horse with the sanki, Adira.

Jacus' march companion of the last day had faded back to be with Godek. This would prove to be an interesting development.

The terrain uphill of our camp of the bathing was not steep, but moderately wooded.small streams flowed down through mostly-green lands. There were mosses in the shade, and tall grasses in the open area. Small game trails wound their way through the grasses to thicker cover, near the little streams.

Small, muddied areas on the banks of the streams showed signs of the game that had watered there. Jadzia, with a sputtering expletive, stepped in another sign that there was game on this hillside. Over her sputtering, Nik reminded her that the hunters regarded this as a good sign of luck on the hunt.

';Bah! I am no hunter...it would have been better if someone else had this 'Luck'".

At this Nik and I both laughed. Filip, who was solemn on most occasions, looked up in interest at the sound of laughter but did not respond. He held Jadzia in some high regard and did not want to displease her.

Adira snorted, as she pulled the sanki. Not from effort, as the hill was not steep and she had no additional burdens. No, we guessed, the horse had more humor than the horsemaster.

Soon, the slight slope leveled to a small, open plateau. The grasses were shorter here,as though they had been grazed by sheep...but there were no sheep on the stypia.

"Wildfire," Nik intoned. "Or a campfire left untended," he added more seriously.

"Last year. After the last time I came this way."

Nik could see the residue of ash under the new grasses.

"Gustek may have come up here looking for one of his strays. But Gustek is not a careless man." Striding a long bowshot through the low grasses, Nik looked relieved not to see any signs of recent activity. Of course, Nik was not a scout. Hirek would have returned to the council and the war leaders if there were any signs of someone prowling this area close to the Pia Fidelis store.

My questioning glance was noted by Jadzia and Nik. Only Nik spoke, "We will soon be there at the Pia Fidelis store." Nik said this softly, so only I, Pawel, could possibly hear, since Filip was close by with Adira and was obviously not to be allowed to know about the store.

Ludek and Jurek had continued beyond the open grassy area and had disappeared down the far-sloping side of the hill closing on Hirek. They would find a spot from which they could see Hirek's hand signals, and yet not be visible from any eyes in the stypia below us.

Properly, however, the land was not stypia...it was ragged land true, but more fertile than the stypia. How much more fertile, I would learn soon.

Just above where Jurek and Ludek lay hidden, was a small kolky of birch behind which the council gathered, Filip tethered Adira in a hollow just below us.

I could see Jacus approach and stop by Filip. Minutes later, Alla appeared with a triumphant look on her face. I noted the braided grasses she used to belt her shift was missing. Then I saw Godek, fresh blood on the front of his tunic. Then I saw the rabbits

he carried. Skryba the scientist frowns, YES, skryba, I know that they must be hares and not rabbits, but our word was the same because we rarely see the smaller rabbit on the stypia.

Now the story was clear. Godek was not a hunter, at least not a good hunter, from the state of the beasts he carried; he did gut them, in his less-than-neat-and-meticulous manner, in winning a look of scorn from Jacus.

Jacus, who noted as more important, the poorly-treated game. Alla was the killer, the hunter with her sling. Jacus did not seem to notice her missing cincture of grass. Skryba smiles broadly at my use of symbolic language. Ha Ha!

The triumph of getting a normally-nocturnal beast returning to its burrow in the early morning light. Her sling-rock pouch looked full; she had recovered all her projectiles; likely meaning she did not miss.

The meaning of the missing braided belt I could guess at, but my thoughts were interrupted by a hand on my shoulder from Nik, and a look and nod from Jadzia.

"It is time for you, Pawel, to know more of the clan secrets, and ancient heritage."

This was Nik's voice, but I felt the same words were silently coming from Jadzia. It was not strange...it was the way of the council. I came to understand that the council met to share ideas. These ideas did not have to be verbalized.

But I, Pawel, was new to the council; so some things must be heard, especially if they were new ideas. We would go to a place of solitude, where the elders of the council could speak in words to me. When I understood more fully, words would not be necessary.

I followed, Nik and Jadzia moved silently as one. They had already cautioned Ludek to watch our path...no one was to follow. The others knew to wait.

The ways of the council were not to be common chatter for the enhanced squad.

As we left, Jacus had taken charge of the rabbits--yes, hares--skinning them easily.

Someone had started a fire and the people we had in our care would eat while we conferred.

Nik and Jadzia's way was down back the way we came, until we were out of sight of the group. They then slowly angled down the hill following no path I could see.

Shortly, we turned abruptly...my mind was clear. I no longer followed them and walked with them to a place I had never been, but somehow, I knew the way.

The ground grew soggier, marshy, as the water reached Jadzia's knees, she removed her shift. I understood that wet clothing would alert the others we had traversed water to our secret place.

As the water reached our knees, both Nik and I removed our tunics.

We carried nothing else, only Jadzia had her spear/walking staff.

Gradually, the marsh dried out and we walked through a narrow, but deep, fast-flowing stream. The water grew colder. We were climbing...coming up near where the others had camped, but from a different direction. I could tell from the sun and the look of the

terrain ahead.

Why this circuitous route to arrive back with our people? The council's collective mind corrected me. The secret place was near the camp, but invisible and inaccessible from that place. It could only be reached this way NOW. That meant...YES,years ago the secret place was convenient to the campsite. But the earth had changed.

The way was now blocked from that direction, so blocked that not the best scout would ever guess that there had ever been a path.

The stream now passed through a deep cleft in the hillside, rocky and moss-covered on all sides. The stream flowed ever swifter...The rocks in its bed, slippery.

We stopped as one. As one, we looked up to a spot a minute's hard climb above us bathed in the sun...

'Pia Fidelis,' the poetry of the words, echoed in our minds...but the narrow space was quiet, except for the rushing waters.

As we climbed, memories flooded us. An eagle; a bull; short, strong men dressed in metal and cloth, stained blood red. The Eagle Clan!

The Eagle Clan at its birth.

The men shed the metal, the blood-red cloth faded, torn, and disappeared. They learned the ways of the stypia. Not many survived.

Those that lived loved the Eagle, those that loved the Bull were gone...our memory knew not where.

The Clan of the Eagle needed to--HAD to--live on, but there were only men of the Pia Fidelis, so they stole women...it was called another thing in those days.

The women taught them a new name. The women tamed them, so they no longer did the thing that they now knew was shameful.

I was exhausted by the flood of memories. Nik and Jadzia moved as one, further up the treacherous slope. They disappeared into a place I was not ready to follow.

When they returned they carried a thing I knew, or like a thing I knew.

It was like what Alla carried to hunt...but longer with a heavier pouch.

I knew...a memory came to me, why the pouch was bigger, the stones were larger, heavier. But the projectiles were not stone, they were made by the Pia Fidelis and the Eagle was their sign.