Ribbons and bells

Charyic spent hours kissing Esus and enjoying being close to him before they snuggled up to sleep. When he curled close and softly sang against her skin, “Birds in flight on the winds of war, joy on the wing, love forever more,” she shivered and reached for the staff. He laughed and pulled her hands back. “My beauty, you won’t have that staff to use for much longer. You want to ask about the song?”

She kissed his hands and nodded.

“You sang it the first time I saw you.” Esus kissed her shoulder where his tunic had slipped. “I was watching over you and you were falling asleep.”

Half turning, Charyic chirruped at him in Iskesh wanting to thank him for singing it to her. His baffled expression made her smile wryly and reach for the staff again.

Sitting up and smiling down at him with the staff in one hand she spoke softly, “I need to teach you Iskesh. I was trying to thank you for singing it to me.”

“Iskesh?” Esus looked curious.

Charyic laughed. “Thieves can carry on a conversation without a word being spoken. Small gestures and large ones, sounds…” She chirruped, chittered, and clucked, sucked air over her lip and between her teeth.

“That’s a language?” He sounded almost impressed.

She sucked air over her lip and between her teeth in response and laughed as his crooked smile graced his face and reflected in his eyes. “Do you want to learn it?”

“I do, my beauty. But, in the morning?” He reached out and she returned to her place under his arm contentedly.

“In the morning.” She laid the staff aside and smiled, his breath on the back of her neck tickled.

Charyic woke to Esus’ hand lightly moving her hair from her face. “Time to wake, my beauty. We have a distance to walk today.”

She smiled up at him. Malav had never looked at her like that, as if she were the most exquisite thing he had ever seen and he wanted to memorize every line of her face. She tried to pull Esus back down next to her. He laughed and covered her face with soft kisses.

“Up, my beauty. We want to reach Gaelel before the heat of the day.”

She sighed and gave him a nod and a chirrup of agreement, allowing him to help her up. She had half hoped he would go hunting for another hare for breakfast but instead, he shared the last of what was left from dinner with her. After their cold breakfast, and a long drink of water, they began to walk toward Gaelel. Charyic chattered to him in Iskesh, helping him get a grasp on some of the more important sounds and gestures as they walked.

The sun was nearing the middle of the sky when they reached the city wall. Esus insisted they stop at the bird cotes before they did anything. She needed to wear something more than his tunic to walk around the city, he looked at her dirty bare feet and she wiggled her toes at him.

“I can always steal something, Esus.” She grinned at his reproving look. “I can teach you that too, you know.”

He looked as though he was going to argue and then began to laugh. Finally, he shook his head and gave his charming crooked smile, “With your luck, my beauty?”

Charyic’s jaw dropped as if she were shocked and she clapped a hand over her heart. “Light Bringers! So hurtful!”

She watched his mirrored eyes sparkle with amusement and laughed as she stepped forward to touch Esus’ face and kiss him gleefully.

“Is this your ‘joy on the wing’, Esus?” An amused voice came from behind him and Charyic looked over his shoulder at a wiry old man with pale eyes and a knowing smile.

Esus turned with a smile and, she noted with pleasure, reddening ears, “Zius! This is Charyic.”

She grinned at the old man as she held onto Esus’ arm and the staff. He frowned as he noticed her bare feet.

“I hoped we could find something for her to wear, you always seem to have something on hand.” Esus looked hopeful.

Zius smiled and nodded, “Bring her in!”

Charyic let the two of them talk and look through what were apparently heaps of old clothing, she was more interested in the sounds coming from above. She was stroking a grey moldase when Esus came up to find her.

“She was with your birds, Zius” Esus smiled as he brought her back down. “She liked your grey moldase.”

“I liked yours too.” Charyic smiled at him. “I hadn’t seen a brown one before I-” She blinked, Zius was grinning.

“Keep her. My first wife hated my birds, miserable woman. My second spent all her time with me caring for them.” He looked wistful. “My Hethel.” Zius sighed and then took a hard look at her. “You’re small like she was.”

Charyic grinned and nodded, “My mother’s name was Ilsevel.”

Zius nodded, recognizing it as another Alaimel name like his wife’s. “I still have a cloak of hers. I don’t think she’d mind if you took it.”

A quick rinse in a basin and Charyic changed out of Esus’ tunic and into the clothes and boots Zius gave her. The cloak was light but still warmer than she really wanted to be wearing during the warmest part of the day. It would be nice in the evening, though, she took it with her gratefully.

After leaving Zius, they went to the markets. Charyic kissed Esus’ cheek and left him looking at things while she went to offer the staff. She grinned as she saw the old beggar sitting alone chatting happily to himself.

“Would you like a staff, grandfather?” Charyic spun it and offered him one end as his rheumy eyes settled on her. “It belonged to a King, I thought it should again.”

He grinned and laughed as he took it. “Ribbons and bells, ribbons and bells. Mischief is kind to songbirds!” He tapped her playfully with the staff on the head. “Gifts for them all. Stole the sky. Wives and lovers!”

Her smiled faded and she clucked sceptically.

The beggar laughed and jabbed her with the staff. “Ribbons and bells, ribbons and bells.”

Charyic chirruped and nodded, heading back to where she had left Esus. Gifts for them all. Ribbons and bells. This was going to get expensive. She eyed the people as she wound her way through them. She lifted four fat purses effortlessly. Luck, at least, was with her for the moment. Esus was being scowled at by a merchant as she rejoined him.

“I think the instrument you’re looking at is more expensive than the temple will pay for.”

Charyic held up a purse with a smile. The merchant blinked and told her the price which she counted out without hesitation in front of a wisely silent Esus. Before he wrapped it up, she held up a finger and made a writing motion.

“You wish to write something?” The, now very accommodating, merchant inquired. “I have paper and ink here…” He gestured for her to come behind the display to his desk.

He watched curiously as she jotted down a song.

Fools of the gods

Bowing and scraping

Give one an offering

Another is taking

A dark game is played

Each piece is a life

Each move they make

Brings only strife

They curse and bless

You beg and plead

A fool tries to stand

Put the gods on their knees

There’s no ignoring

Or escaping

Reach to the sides

When your heart is breaking

To look to the sky

Is to look to the ground

What reaches up

Also sinks down

He coughed and looked nervously at Esus when she finished it, but set the ink with fine powder and folded it, carefully tucking it inside the hollow body of the fifteen stringed instrument. She gave him some extra coins and a smile. Anyk at least had an offering now.

She let Esus carry it as she sought out the rest, expensive poisoned sweets, a wickedly sharp silver handled dagger with blade of black volcanic glass, the finest honey wine from Alaimel, delicate lace flowers with wheat colored pearls, an exquisite gold and glass bird of prey with wings and talons outstretched, and an entire roasted boar that would be carried to the temple for them.

All of the money was spent.

Esus looked stunned as they made their way to the temple. “Lavish offerings, my beauty.”

She nodded and chirruped. Ribbons and bells. It would have been nice to be able to tell him that.

“You still don’t wish to give anything to Isemal?” He sounded a bit dejected and she bumped him with a smile and gestured to him with her chin. He smiled faintly. “I have one of your feathers I plan to give him.”

She smiled ruefully and nodded. He didn’t seem to understand that it wasn’t just the feather he was giving. She would be giving herself over and giving him the songs Anyk had intended him to have, and Esus was delivering her. At the temple, Charyic began to distribute her offerings, to the surprise of the watching priests.

The expensive poisoned sweets were left for Malies, deadly and somehow sweet as he had been. For Ayil, the wickedly sharp black glass dagger, Charyic had thought of the Maiden of Mischief the moment she saw it. Anyk got her instrument and a song, however blasphemous it would be in the eyes of some. The roasted boar was left for Laeros, no celebration is complete without food after all. The gold and glass bird of prey on the hunt was left for Iotl. And finally, the honey wine and delicate lace flowers with wheat colored pearls were left for Ynis and Umis. Her mother would have cherished them, and she hoped they would please the sweet sisters as well.

She sighed and pulled the cloak around her, feeling a chill that might not have had much to do with the air in the temple. Isemal. She followed Esus toward the altar and stopped a respectful distance away from the Light Bringers kneeling in front of it. Esus, however, approached and drew the brown speckled feather from his sleeve. Charyic watched as he smiled and kissed it before laying it on the altar.