54. Goodbye to the Tuatha’an
Written by: Sakan al’Galrodan
Edited by: Matthew Garland
“There’s a glimmer on the horizon,” Sakan said, “To the Southeast.”
“We should investigate it,” Chrys said, cradling Aegius’ head in her lap.
“Stay and take care of your husband, Chrys,” Tovan told her. “Sakan and I will check it out.”
Sakan and Tovan walked southeast at a fast pace, and as they neared the shining light, familiar figures began to coalesce. Sakan stopped.
“Do you see what I see?” he asked Tovan.
Tovan stopped and squinted. “It might be a different caravan,” he replied gently.
Sakan shook his head. “No, I see Tili’s mother’s van. It’s the blue one with the yellow and green flowers. No other camp could have a wagon like that.”
Tovan sighed. “Well, come on. We have to at least see what they’re doing here. Perhaps you will be able to get them to help us.”
“I’ve told you before, they’ll help anyone. And it would be better if I wasn’t here. If any of them recognize me, they will not look kindly on us. They look at me as a traitor.”
Tovan shook his head as they neared the camp. “If what you have told me before is true, they won’t recognize you, because they won’t want to. Besides, it’s been a long time. Your hair has more grey now than it did then. And maybe they won’t think you a traitor, since you weren’t born into the Way of the Leaf.”
Sakan just stared at the caravan. “We’ll have to find out.”
As they approached the camp, huge mastiffs bounded over and barked loudly, but stopped and drooled all over the two of them as they passed by, nearing the wagons. Several people, behind a large, graying man, approached them.
“I am Sakan,” he announced.
The older man looked at him carefully, and replied, “I am Atol Pinter, the Mahdi of these camps. Do I… know you?”
Sakan paused for a minute. “No. You knew another, Robin. He died, long ago.”
Atol shook his head sadly. “It is as I had feared. Still, I am forgetting myself.” He bowed slightly, hands clasped to his chest. “You are welcome to our fires. Do you know the song?”
Sakan bowed in return. “Your welcome warms my spirit, as your fires warm my flesh, but I do not know the song.”
Atol straightened up, “Then we still seek. As it was, so shall it be, if we but remember, seek, and find. Please, join us. There is always something on the fires.”
“I know,” Sakan smiled grimly. “Mahdi, forgive me, but we have an injured man in our party, who needs nourishment and bedrest. We lost our horses several miles back, and we have long to journey.”
“Are these your horses, Sakan?” Atol asked, gesturing some men to bring the horses. “We found them outside a watchtower a day’s ride from Corafan, wandering loose. Some of my people took them, to feed them.”
Sakan counted six horses, recognizing Horse and Arrow, as well as the other mounts and their packhorse. “My thanks, Mahdi. We would be in trouble if not for you.”
“Why don’t you bring your injured friend to the camps, to rest for a few days?” Atol asked, turning to briefly quell some rumbling that followed stark stares at Sakan’s sword and Tovan’s staff. “I think you know how well some time with the Tuatha’an heals illness.”
Sakan’s eyes caught the Mahdi’s, and Sakan buried the flickers of recognition. Finally he nodded. “Thank you, Mahdi, that is a generous offer. I do not think he is well enough to travel even this short distance, an hour’s walk. If you can go the short distance to our camp, we will join your party for a time. When we practice our weaponry, we will go apart from the camps a short distance, and I must ask that we be left alone for that time. I do not wish to disturb or be disturbed.”
As the two of them mounted their horses and rode back to their party, Tovan said to Sakan, “You must have said the right thing. He looked very relieved when you told him we’d keep the weapons away from everyone.”
“They hate weapons, you know that. It was the least I could do.” Sakan looked straight ahead. “Did you see her?”
“Tili? No. Wait, I think I might have. Was she the one in the bright green shirt with the yellow roses, and the red vest?”
Sakan nodded slowly. “She has not aged the way I have.”
“Your lifestyle is bit more stressful than hers. And she was younger than you to begin with,” Tovan commented wryly.
“Not by that much. And time seems to have barely touched her.”
Tovan looked at his big friend uncertainly. “Sakan…take care of yourself, okay?”
Sakan gave him a withering glance. “I am fine, Cairhienin.”
Tovan grinned, and sniffed, putting his nose in the air. “Taking on airs, are we, Malkieri? It looks like someone would take his head out of the clouds if a certain female were to ask him.”
The bantering continued until they reached Chrys.
“Tinkers,” Sakan dismounted and pointed towards the southeastern horizon. “They found our horses at the watchtower. I wasn’t sure you’d be up to travel, so they’re coming to us. I performed their greeting ceremony with them, since I am… familiar… with it, ” he said to Aegius.
The column of brightly colored wagons was clear in the distance. “I’ll have to thank them for their consideration,” he answered.
“What happened?” Chrys aided Aegius to his feet
“I started a simple Delve,” Aegius said with a pause. “A way to use the One Power to investigate the properties of a certain object. I was curious if this was indeed a ter’angreal, when a hidden ward triggered and nearly killed me.”
Sakan gathered supplies and began to load gear on Horse’s saddle. He asked Aegius, “Does this ward mean that it is ter’angreal?”
“Possibly.” Aegius replied. “I’ll have to be more careful next time I look into the piece.”
“Next time?” Chyrs asked incredulously. “Are you kidding?”
“I’ll wait until we are back in the Tower. Once in the Lab, I’ll be able to investigate it with little risk to my person.” Aegius smiled at Chrys, and nearly lost his balance. He waved her away. “I’ll be fine, I just need some food and some air.”
***
An hour later, the Tuatha’an arrived, the caravan of wagons and horses and denizens of the peaceful society, all brightly clothed and cordial smiles. Mastiffs charged from one end of the caravan to the other, three of them pausing near Aegius to smell at the Asha’man.
“Greetings,” Atol descended from his caravan, walking over to Aegius. “To where to you travel?”
“East to Cairhien,” Aegius supplied.
“We travel east as well,”Atol responded with an even wider grin. “Though not so far as the city. Perhaps our companies can be shared for a time?”
“I see no reason why not?” Aegius glanced towards Sakan, who nodded in acceptance. Only Chrys seemed uncertain of Aegius’ decision.
“I am Atol Pinter,” Atol held out a hand which Aegius quickly accepted.
“Aegius Castion,” he offered in return. “Thank you for your hospitality.”
***
The next few days were spent with feasts, dancing and music, the usual life of the Tuatha’an. Surprisingly, Sakan felt as if he had regained something he had lost.
“It’s an odd way to live, isn’t it, Master?” Chrys asked him once, after a long period of time with the women.
“It is from our perspective,” he replied. “But it is a very hypnotic one. It is also very idealistic. If it were not for the Shadowspawn, this would be the perfect life. Sometimes I think that it is how people lived in the Age of Legends, before the Shadow touched the world. The Tuatha’an might be our last connection to a better world.” He glanced down at her flowing, rapt face, the light from the many campfires flickering on her face. “Has Tili been teaching you much?”
“What?” she asked, somewhat startled. “What do you mean?”
“You spend many hours with the women, and Tili seems to lead the group that you are with so often. They love to dance, and Tili was an expert at certain dances, like that tiganza and the sa’sara,” he held up a finger as he ticked off the points.
“The sa’sara?”
“Hmm, perhaps it’s better if I don’t go into that one,” Sakan looked down at her, with an amused look. “Or, since you’re married, perhaps I should. Tili will teach it to you. Mention it to her.”
***
Sakan sat in the shadows by himself, leaning against a caravan whose colors dimmed in the early dusk. The sounds of tambors and flutes and a harp floated out to his ears amidst shouts and laughter and songs, but he could not make himself join them. He sat with a small knife in one hand and a branch in the other, halfway done his carving of a small bird.
“Chrys is very interesting,” a low, soft voice came from behind him, as a beautiful woman approaching her middle years sat down next to him. “She said you told her to ask about the sa’sara.”
“She is my disciple,” he explained.
The woman nodded. “That explains much. She is very much like you, in some ways. In some ways, she is like Robin, too. She plays the harp beautifully, just like her Master.”
“You haven’t changed a bit, Tili.” A sad smile broke his face, and then left.
She laughed ruefully. “Everyone changes, Ro…Sakan.”
“Some more than others,” he sighed. “You are every bit as beautiful now as you were then.”
“And you just as handsome,” she replied seriously, looking into his eyes. “But that changes nothing. You are who you are, I am who I am.”
“‘Duty is heavier than a mountain’,” Sakan quoted. “The mountain has never been heavier than right now. I feel the same for you now as I did then, and I don’t think that will ever change. You should know that.”
“I love you, too, Robin,” Tili whispered, touching his cheek.
“Robin is dead!” Sakan harshly protested. “He died long ago.”
Tili smiled, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “Robin is still alive, inside you. I said everyone changes, and I mean it. You don’t become a new person every time something happens to you. You change, you grow. Robin, fine, Sakan, if you insist – although I think Robin is a prettier name – Sakan, you are who you used to be. When we met, you were trying to die. Your heart had been broken long before your bond snapped. Then something healed inside of you, and you learned to love again, and found reason to live. And then… you lost something again. You became hard. You need to be strong, not hard. If you’re hard, you’ll shatter. If you’re strong, you’ll withstand everything. Be a knife, not a rock. I know that you love me, as much as I know that nothing can come of it. You have your life to live, I have mine. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, Sakan. Your life is not for me, and my life is not for you.”
After a long silence, Sakan replied, “After I left, I thought you hated me, for ceasing to be the man you loved.”
Tili nodded. “For a time, I did. Then Papa taught me that not everyone can accept that the Way of the Leaf is for them. You were not born into it, so we can’t make you accept it. I became thankful to you for the times we shared and the feelings I still have to this day. I know more about you now than I did then. Tovan has explained to me some things that I had only barely understood before. Sakan… Sakan, please look at me. If we can’t share each other’s lives, let us at least share the times we had together.”
Sakan nodded. “Leaving you a second time will not be easy.”
“But you will do it, because you have to. Life is never easy, Sakan. But it is easier, knowing that someone, somewhere, loves you.”
After what seemed like an eternity, they heard footsteps approaching. “Hey, Sakan! Sakan? Are you…? Oh, I’m sorry, did we interrupt anything?”
Tovan and Chrys appeared, holding a bowl of steaming stew.
“This stuff is good, for not having any meat,” Chrys grinned at him.
Sakan raised an eyebrow at her. He knew full well that she hunted for small game to prepare for herself and Aegius every day while out scouting. He looked at Tili, who nodded. “No, we were about to come join everyone.”
Tovan laughed. “Join everyone? Join who? It’s so late, almost everyone is asleep – that’s impressive, considering how long into the night these people party.”
Tili stood up, adjusting her bright red vest. “Remember, Harper Robin, the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills,” and she slipped off towards the camp.
***
After a few days spent pleasantly by practicing forms, long walks with Tili, finding Chrys finishing up dancing lessons, and hearing Tovan and Lorrico laughing together, with Aegius back on his feet, Atol approached them.
“We’re heading north now,” he said, “and Cairhien is to the east. I fear this is the place where we must part.”
Aegius nodded. “Thank you for all your help, you have been most generous hosts.”
After all the hugs and handshakes, Atol approached their party, and Sakan stepped forward.
Atol bowed to him, his hands on his chest. “You came in peace. Depart now in peace. Always will our fires welcome you, in peace. The Way of the Leaf is peace.”
“Peace be on you, and on all of the People,” Sakan called out in his deep voice. “I will find the song, or another will find the song, but the song will be sung, this year, or the year to come. As it once was, so shall it be again, world without end.”
The Tuatha’an replied as one, “World without end.”
As they turned to leave, Sakan saw Tili smiling to him, tears streaming down her cheeks. He saluted her, and, to his surprise, she saluted back.
He would continue with his friend and his disciple to Cairhien, and from there he would find Marion. She was there, muted, in the back of his mind. Perhaps she had been right to have him make this journey alone, after all.
Malkieri Musings 