To the east lay the ocean. She squinted through the morning haze and tried to make out the fishing village that lay nestled along the shoreline but the haze was too heavy so she gave up trying.
In the large, undulating, grassy area to the south sat the township known as Stronghold, the home of the Vada and populated with people like Thalia who lived alongside the Lind. At the western edge of Stronghold were the structures that made up the physical Vada garrison - the sleeping quarters, the cookhouse and the many other buildings necessary to run a military unit. Josei and Thalia’s sleeping area, known as a daga, was situated at the edge of this area, close to the high, wooden wall that surrounded the buildings. Thalia could see the lazy wisps of smoke rising from the cookhouse fires as the Vada cooks prepared the midday meal.
The Vada was a cavalry army made up of its fifty-one Ryzcks of thirty-five each plus support and training personnel. At Stronghold they lived and trained. It was their home. Thalia and Josei were a serving vadeln-pair in the Fifteenth Ryzck.
She looked affectionately at Josei as he too took in the vista before them. If he were a cat he would be purring, thought Thalia. It is gorgeous here, not like home but pretty tremendous all the same.
Josei caught her thoughts. Vadeln-pairs were mind-bonded as well as life-bonded and there was little they could hide from each other, or indeed, wanted to hide.
: I agree. Perhaps when we get leave we could go do some more exploring? : His mind-tone was wistful.
Thalia’s face broke into a grin. Leave-time was fast approaching and they might be able to explore their new world quite a distance further than they had done already and before the winter storms began to bend their destructive way through and over the continent. Thalia knew Josei was thinking about the proposed holiday into the Nadlians.
: We have visitors : Josei telepathed suddenly, but Thalia wasn’t worried. Josei sounded pleased. : It is Artem and Larya :
Thalia turned, a smile of welcome on her face.
A long legged Lind female was padding towards them and beside her walked a strongly muscled man of middling years with a weather-beaten face. He sported a scar along his left cheek, a constant reminder of an encounter with a sea pirate back on their planet of origin.
“I hear congratulations are in order,” Artem pronounced, grinning broadly and striding over to Thalia and Josei.
Thalia looked embarrassed but Josei was pleased with Artem’s words. He looked smug. Their joint promotion to Vadryzka (troop commander) had now been recognised by no less a person than the Assistant Weaponsmaster himself.
“Susa Malkum told me after breakfast,” she answered. “I still haven’t quite taken it in. I mean, Vadryzka! Josei and I thought Rodick and Anya would be chosen. They graduated before me and Josei.”
“You two got the promotion, didn’t you? Not Rodick and Anya, and not before time either, in my and Larya’s opinion. You’ve been leading the Second Vadryz these past twenty days and very well too.”
“We thought it was only an interim arrangement …”
“I didn’t,” interrupted Josei.
“Well I did. You could have bowled me over with a feather when Malkum told us.”
“You are the best vadeln-pair for the job,” Artem said, still smiling, “and with the changes coming and the way things are going …”
“What changes?” asked Thalia.
“Forget I said that,” answered Artem. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
Artem’s ‘soon enough’ had an ominous tone to it but before Thalia could ask him, the man began talking about something else. Thalia enjoyed talking to Artem and he managed to divert her easily.
“We didn’t expect to find you here,” continued Artem. “Thought you’d be talking to the members of your Vadryz, getting to know them.”
Thalia laughed. “I already know them Artem. Josei and I have been with the Fifteenth Ryzck and the Second Vadryz for simply ages!”
“No, but there’s a difference between being a part of and leading. Who have you got? I never got the chance to ask Malkum.”
Thalia mentally picked their names off with her fingers. “Rodick and Anya of course. I thought Malkum might have transferred them but Josei says Anya wanted to stay. Rodick’s friendly with the twins.”
Artem nodded. Rodick and the twins, Jack and Jon’s friendship was an old one, predating their vadeln-pairing and joining the Vada. The three could often be found partaking of an unspecified number of alcoholic beverages in the pub the ‘Lindar’s Paws’ of an evening so he wasn’t surprised. “Who else?’ he prompted.
“Ail stays too. He and Iya only transferred in a couple of tendays ago. Ail’s nice. I like him a lot. Then there’s Zeb and Vya.”
Artem whistled. “So you’ve inherited that imp of imps? You’ll know him pretty well after that adventure you had back on Rybak. Is old Hael staying on too? He was making murmurs about retiring a while back.”
“He’s in with the bricks. I’m glad he decided to stay. He and Mariya are just about the most experienced vadeln-pair in the entire Ryzck.”
“He’s broken in a few Vadryzkas in his time,” agreed Artem. “Listen to what he says.”
“I fully intend to. Don’t worry.”
“Who’s worrying?’ he riposted with a chuckle. “That’s seven. Who’s your eighth member?”
“A transfer in. Christel and Samei.”
“They’re not long out of the cadetship.”
“They went to the Thirteenth originally,” Thalia informed him, “but they weren’t happy there.”
“That’s a very close knit Ryzck. Takes a long time to be accepted. Not the friendliest bunch.”
“I believe she found things … difficult,” agreed Thalia. “Hopefully she’ll settle in with us.”
“If anyone can do it I’ll bet my best dagger it will be you.”
For a while they stood in companionable silence enjoying the view. The nice thing about being with Artem, and Thalia had thought this since the first day they had met, was that there was no need for her to fabricate bright conversation.
“And the other thing?” Artem prompted delicately.
“I’m starting to get over it,” she answered an instant later. She had expected the question. Her voice however, sounded brittle and it told him that she wasn’t over it yet.
“I’m here if you want to talk about it.”
Thalia looked at him. Her eyes were moist with unshed tears.
“I know Artem … and thank you but not yet awhile. Soon. Perhaps.”
She looked away and so didn’t see Artem’s face.
Why didn’t he tell her then, all those years ago, he was thinking viciously, when he started dangling two women at once instead of waiting so long? Right when she needs all her wits about her too. I’d like to get him into a dark corner. The two of us, no witnesses.
He said none of this to Thalia. Now was not the time and he knew his Larya wouldn’t approve either. He wouldn’t do anything to disappoint her.
“Let me know through Larya if you want some company, any bell, day or night.”
Thalia turned and smiled. As usual, his heart missed a beat.
“I will.”
With that nebulous promise Artem had to be content.
* * * * *
Tavin Karovitz was twenty-five years old.
He was a tall, gangly man, dark complexioned with unruly, mousy brown hair. He had always been the good, obedient boy within the small Karovitz family unit and that hadn’t changed when he grew up. The eleven-year-old Mikey was the one who got into fights and scrapes. Charles was the clever one if not always obedient. He had passed the leaving exam with top marks a year earlier than he was supposed to. Charles was leaving school at the end of this semester and was heading for the university where he intended to study science and medicine, a dream Tavin shared.
Tavin was an artificer by trade, at the moment he was working on a top-secret project for ‘those in charge’. Unfortunately for his
dream of becoming a doctor his education had, until recently, left a lot to be desired, which was why he and an aggrieved Mikey were walking home from school together. Mikey was full to the brim with news about his day and was chatting nineteen to the dozen. It was doubtful whether Tavin could have got a word in edgeways even if he had wanted to. He didn’t, being quite content to listen to the gossip.
Mikey had been the reluctant recipient of a three bell detention. When Tavin asked why he told him, with eleven-year-old relish, how he had placed no less that three small wrigglies down one of his classmate’s tunics. He had received one bell of detention for each wriggly.
“She screamed and screamed and screamed,” he laughed, doubling over with the memory. “It was really funny. Everyone was laughing.”
“Funny enough to compensate for detention?” Tavin inquired.
“Oh, yes. It was very, definitely, definitely worth it Tavin.”
Tavin rather thought that if he had been Mikey’s shoes the experience might well have been worth a detention too.
Tavin spent a number of evening bells each day at the school studying science, language and mathematics - subjects missing from his education when he had been of an age to be a schoolboy. He was hoping his studies would be advanced enough for him to be accepted by the university in perhaps three semester’s time but though he had little time for fun he had an acute sense of what was funny and what was not.
“The option choices for next semester came out today,” announced Mikey once he had exhausted the wrigglies topic. “It was so exciting.”
“What were they?”
“Just the usual,” answered Mikey. “Guess what I chose.”
“Not anything that needs you to spend more bells at your books than necessary,” Tavin surmised.
Mikey laughed.
“Absolutely,” he cheerfully agreed. “I like to be out and about.”
“Getting into mischief more like,” Tavin corrected. “So what options did you go for?”
“Botany,” was Mikey’s surprising answer.
“Botany! You? I thought you didn’t like science. It’s a difficult course; it takes up a lot of time.”
Mikey shrugged.
“I don’t need to actually pass it,” he confided, “but I thought it would fit in well with my other choice.”
“And that is?” prompted Tavin.
“Lindish Stage One.”
Tavin blinked. The study of languages, like science wasn’t one of Mikey’s strong points and there was, as with botany, a lot of studying involved in the course. For the life of him he couldn’t understand either of his cousin’s choices. He couldn’t see the connection between botany and Lindish either.
“Why these two?”
“You took a course in Lindish when we got here. Why shouldn’t I?”
“Because if I want to go on to study science, as I am going to, I need Lindish Stage One to progress on to learning the Diaglon language. They are very similar.” Tavin’s voice took on what Mikey always described the lecturing mode he had copied from his brother. Charles would adopt the same tone when he was being, as Mikey would describe it, pompous. “You need Diaglon to study at the university because most of the science classes are taught, at least partly, in Diaglon. You’ve always said you don’t want to go to the university. Honestly Mikey, why put yourself through all the trouble?”
Mikey wriggled uncomfortably.
“Because part of the course involves a visit to Stronghold and the Vada and the teachers are saying that they’re also trying to arrange a visit to the forest where the Lind live,” he explained. “I really want to go Tavin. I want to go and see where the Lind live, and how they live, and what a Lind daga is like, and, well, everything.”
Tavin sighed.
“What you really mean is that you want to go because you want to meet a Lind, become vadeln-paired and join the Vada. But, Mikey, that’s not how it works and you know it. If there is a Lind out there destined to be your life partner she’ll find you. Anyway, you’re too young.”
“That’s not what it said in my history book,” argued Mikey, his mouth set in a stubborn line. “Back on Rybak there were many children who were vadeln-paired.”
“That was there, not here,” Tavin answered. “It’s different now.”
“I don’t see why,” said Mikey obstinately.
Tavin foresaw a long and convoluted argument developing so he changed the subject.
“We’re almost home,” he said, leading the round the corner at the bottom of their street. “I’ll look out the botany syllabus and show it to you. If you don’t think you can do it there’s always time to change your mind.”
Mikey wasn’t paying attention. His gaze was fixed on their house.
“What are all those people doing standing outside?” he asked.
Boy and man broke into a run, convinced that something must have happened to Mikey’s mother.
“Let me through!” cried Mikey, forcing his way through the crowd by dint of vigorous elbow pushing.
The people reluctantly made way for them. Once through Tavin and Mikey stopped dead in their tracks, mouths identically agape.
Talking to Elizabeth Karovitz outside the door stood a Lind! Elizabeth looked worried, yet proud all at the same time. There were tears in her eyes.
Only last month a Lind had come for the girl who lived down the road, a classmate of Charles. The girl had refused the life-bonding. The Vada are a dying breed, she had said, there is no future in it. She, like Charles, was planning on attending the university. Until now Tavin would have agreed with her one hundred per cent. Now, as he watched the Lind standing there, waiting, a nebulous tendril of thought was telling him that they were both wrong. Who wouldn’t want to spend the rest of their life with such a wonderful creature?
The furry wolf-like head turned until it was pointing in their direction. Her ears were flickering to and fro and her eyes were staring straight at Tavin and Mikey.
“Looks like your wish is about to come true little brother,” said Tavin. He thought of himself as a sort of elder brother to Charles and Mikey and treated them as if they were his full-blood siblings.
Mikey knew what to do. He concentrated very hard on making mind contact with the large blue-striped female but … nothing.
Tavin felt a tentative nudging in his mind. It was a tingling sensation, like water rippling on sand.
Mikey tugged at his arm.
“Tavin! It’s you she wants,” he hissed urgently, trying not to let his disappointment show or more importantly, trying to make sure none of his friends saw him trying not to look disappointed. Mikey liked being teased by his peers no less than other boys his age.
Tavin didn’t move. He stood, head bent and stared at his work-chipped boots.
He was thinking … hard.
If he accepted what she was offering he would have to say goodbye to his future, the future he had mapped out for himself as a doctor. The Vada had the Holad, that was true, but it would not be the same. Back on their home planet some Holad and their Lind had gone to the university at Stewarton where they had become fully-fledged doctors … but not here, at least not often … and they were always Vada first and foremost.
Surely this wasn’t happening to him?
Then, as he was thinking it out, all of a sudden he ‘heard’ her voice inside his mind. It is true, he thought, they do talk inside heads!
: My name is Whufflya :
Tavin heard the telepathic words as clear as day. He risked a peek at her then immediately looked back down at his boots.
There had been a pleading, wistful look of anticipation in her eyes that was irresistible. He felt confused, uncertain but unmistakably there also existed a sense of rightness about what was about to happen.
The girl from down the road, the one who had refused the honour of a life-partnership hadn’t told him about this, this feeling that if he did not accept the vadeln-pairing he would regret his choice for the rest of hi
s life.
He risked another peek.
This time Whufflya’s facial expression was neither pleading nor wistful, it was cheerful! It was as if she was positively convinced that Tavin would not refuse, could not.
Was she his pre-ordained life partner?
Perhaps, even if he did join the Vada with Whufflya, there was a chance he still might attain a part of his dream. He was wavering. He might yet become a doctor, even though he would have to wait a while and would have to learn about things he hadn’t thought of before, like fighting.
And …
All of another sudden, he remembered … if he had stayed behind on Rybak, he would have had to learn how to fight with a sword and other weapons and he wouldn’t even have had that tiny, little, slight chance of medical training. Indeed, as a young boy the arms training had already started when he and his had been called away. Tavin and his family had been on the last space transport to leave their home planet. He remembered being glad that his grandfather had selected him to go - glad that being a soldier would not be his future. Now Whufflya was bringing it all back. The Vada was miniature army. If he accepted her he would have to learn how to fight again.
He looked at Whufflya, properly for the first time.
She stared right back, challenging him.
“Go on,” urged Mikey, putting on a brave face and giving his cousin a large push in the direction of the waiting Lind.
Tavin stumbled forward and as he did he felt his body growing warm all over as a rush of affection and tenderness enveloped him. His eyes met hers and he felt her mind blend with his. The sense of rightness, of togetherness and everything else was simply amazing.
Tavin had decided. He opened his mind to hers and nearly collapsed with shock as the warm, loving presence entered.
: My name is Whufflya. You are Tavin. No one will ever separate us. We are together now and forever :
“Your grandfather would have been very proud of you,” Elizabeth Karovitz said through her tears, stepping forward to give him a hug.
Tavin could hardly remember what his grandfather looked like - as the illegitimate offspring of the Duke of Hallam, Elizabeth Karovitz’s father, he hadn’t seen him very often, but it didn’t matter. Elizabeth Karovitz, who had taken the place of his dead mother was proud of him. His younger ‘brother’ Mikey was jealous but was doing his very best to hide it. The pride blazed out from his young face like a beacon too.