Outlanders

Chapter 13: Maulbears and wordmages

DUVAL

CHERNY FOREST

OLD REPUBLIC

When i finally reach our camp and Sedar after doubling back multiple times to make sure I was not followed, I am almost completely dried off after my swim in the Elbe. The Old Republic's late spring evening air is cold on my skin, and I long for my tunic and trousers, abandoned by the Elbe. I know the citizen protection unit will find them with the woman I left there. I can't help but feel another pang of guilt when I think about her, guilt and wonder.

How did she learn Jemya? Officially it's one of the dead outlander tongues so painstakingly vanquished by the Citizen Republic. Unofficially it is a powerful tongue for wordmages, especially those seeking mastery over water. But of course even the strongest of wordmages who've absorbed the tongue can't match with a native Jemya wordmage born into it... so what is she? She clearly had no mastery over water, song of my island or no.

It's somewhere between very late at night and very early in the morning but of course I do not find Sedar sleeping at the camp I left behind me a few hours ago. He simply detaches himself from the trunk of a tree, suddenly becoming visible before me. Sometimes I forget how strong he is, especially in a forest. Even though he's never told me what outland he came from I've seen enough to know he's a wordmage strongest in forest magic. Case in point = disappearing and reappearing out of a tree trunk to scare the bejeezus out of me. I do my best not to show my surprise, or fear, but even a few years of training cannot fight my natural instincts - I think I flinched a little, despite my best efforts.

"Where ye been? Ye meet a she-wolf an go savage out dere?' he looks pointedly at my clothing, or lack thereof.

"There's a she involved, though not a wolf," I say, trying to keep the lightness in my voice.

"Ye were seen? How d'ye know ye wasn't followed?"

"Don't worry Sedar, I made sure to disappear before the citizen protection unit caught sight of me. And I made sure I wasn't followed."

"If ye was seen then somewhat somewhere knows we's in dis forest. For a smaht deputy, t'd be enough to git findin."

"She was an outlander, she won't tell them a thing." I do not know how I know this, where my absolute certainty comes from, but it's there.

"How d'ye know? She a close friend or somesuch?" Sedar's incredulous expression is difficult to bear.

"She fell in the Elbe and I fished her out. After I saved her fool life, I don't think she'd thank me by ratting me out. And she spoke Jemya to me, sure as my mother did."

"So ye tink she won't tell cause she's Jemya?! Don't ye know history? Outlanders save dem own skin, no more no less. Jemya, Russalki, Allenka, none of dat exists no more. Der's being survivin' the Republic, no more no less."

"But she wasn't Jemya," I try to explain before he cuts in-

"What in de hills d'ye mean she wasn't?"

"She wasn't. I tell you, I can pick out a Jemya in a crowd from a mile away. She wasn't. She looked... Suri, maybe Daleki even."

"A Daleki in de Cherny Forest speakin' Jemya after fallin in de river? D'ye know how many Dalekis is left in dis word after dere liddle revolt fifteen years ago? You sure you din't hit your fool head?"

"I know it sounds crazy but it's true. I'd have asked her myself but I didn't have time. About as soon as I fished her out I saw the lamps of a control unit on their way. She could barely breathe with all the Elbe in her lungs so I couldn't take her with me. I hightailed it out of there before I was seen."