Valente Valerie
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The Road to Thendara
Summer had been pushing up behind them, from back home; Vali was sure she could smell the sea, sometimes and she ached for it. They'd been out of sight of the water, for the first time in her life, for weeks now. Without the sound of the waves, she could hardly sleep - that and worry for Val. She stole a quick glance at him, he was hunched on the back of the chervine, wrapped in his blanket. Still sick, from the sweat on his face, like he'd been sick since they'd left home. She'd like to blame it on Miklai and his heavy hand but Val's black eye had faded days ago and it wasn't like the two of them hadn't fought before. Vali clenched her fist around her money pouch, where three pearls and a handful of coin remained. They were nearly to the city and she'd buy a healer for Val, if he didn't perk up with a few meals and a real bed.
"What're you looking at?" he said irritably. "I'm fine, Vali, just …tired."
"Sure y'are," she said and tucked her chin down into her collar. Nearly summer or not, it was colder here than back home. Val was lying to her and she to him and they both knew it. He wasn't fine.
They'd bought the chervine, blankets and food three days from home and two weeks after that, Val had paid for a place on a caravan with work and Vali with cooking. It saved them money, even if Val had to face down the guards who thought a girl alone was nothing more than a grezali. Vali's face burned at the thought, it wasn't like she was flaunting about in … in trousers like an Amazon! But folk on the road didn't have any courtesy at all, it seemed and Vali had talked to - and driven off - more strangers than she'd ever talked to back in Fairlyn.
"What d'y think Thendara will be like?" she asked her brother.
"Work," he said. "Just the same, hard work, and not much to show for it."
"We've done well on the journey," she protested. "Work for food and still money at the end."
Val only grunted. He'd pull himself together when they were talking to strangers and sink into silence when they were alone. Vali wasn't used to it, not from her own twin, and she wondered if he'd even wanted to leave home.
She'd woken up, that second morning married to heavy handed Gregi, that he was back to land, that he was coming for her. That she'd have to be ready, so she took her dowry and packed a travel kit and slunk out of town. Val had been waiting, half his face blackened and swaying on his feet. They'd put the only home they'd know behind their backs without a word and maybe a few words would've been a wise thing.
"It's too late now, Vali", Val said, as if she'd been talking aloud the entire time. "And it's an adventure, isn't that so?"
"Aye, and adventure, right enough," she answered. And what would they do with it?
TBC
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Valente and Valerie of Fairlyn
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10/25/2005, 4:32 pm
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Valente Valerie
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Re: The Road to Thendara
He'd never seen Thendara before and now he was pinned like a bug to the sky. The city spread wide below him, streets twisting like dull yarn between the puzzle piece buildings. The Terranan spaceport sat strangely along one edge, glinting in the morning light, alien and disorienting while Comyn castle crouched at the other side of the city, glaring across at the unwelcome visitor. He could see ... he couldn't stop seeing and he was falling .... Down like a dead bird, screaming voicelessly as he swept into the rich houses on the hill, flashing past walls like a ghost and had he died? Still falling, tumbling down through rooms and buildings, seeing the faces of strangers; a man with a restless horse between his knees, a woman in a bathing chamber - Valente writhed in helpless, aroused, shame at her bare body - and she looked up to see him, to his horror, before he flashed away again. He couldn't stop, couldn't stop, didn't know where he was, faces, places, passed across his seeing eye without mercy and he ached, he ached with seeing until he was afraid he would die of it...
***
Valerie jerked awake in her unfamiliar bed, straw rustling, heart pounding and she was half out of bed and across the narrow, dark little room before she'd cleared the sleep out of her eyes. Terror shook her to her bones and the strange room, dank and unfriendly, felt like a trap. "Val?"
Val lay in the other bed of the tiny room they'd rented, half-buried under all the blankets they owned and motionless. His eyes gleamed bright and blank, open and unseeing in the dimness, and for a horrified moment, Valerie was sure he'd died .... "Val!" She shook him, scattering blankets and he drew a shocked breath, letting it out in a scream. "Val, Val ... hush," Valerie braced herself as her brother lunged out of the bed, into her arms, clutching her with his face buried against her neck. She could feel fear sweat spring out on his skin and the shudders that wracked him.
"I was falling ... f-falling," he gasped, hands scrabbling at her back as if he couldn't gain purchase on the world. "I couldn't - couldn't stop."
"Na, Val, just a night-fear," Valerie muttered, patting his back then pushing him away to shake him gently. "A dream, nothing else, see? The world's where it should be."
He leaned away from her, swiping a hand across his face and looking away from her, embarrassed. "Ah, you're r-right, sister. Nothing but my own ...."
He stopped, shaking his head. "And now I stink, worse than before."
Valerie wrapped her arms about her knees, curling her bare toes into the edge of her nightgown. Her brother had never looked so fragile in her eyes, he'd always been her protector, no matter that he'd only been born a handful of moments before she drew her first breath. Now, shadows lay dark under his eyes and the sickness he'd carried since they'd left home had stolen color from his face and strength from his body. "How's your head today?"
He only shrugged tiredly. "Not so bad as sometimes, maybe the ... nightmare was good for something after all."
"You need to see a healer," Valerie said.
"Here?" Valente gestured out where they could hear the strange city noises as the world moved on beyond the shutters of their room. "And where would we find one? And to pay them how? We need our money, Vali, for something beyond nice words and telling me to get some sleep."
"You've been sick for weeks," Valerie touched the back of his hand anxiously. "What if Miklai's fist did you some harm? Something to your brain?" What if her running away from her own husband had cast some ill-luck on her brother?
Val grimaced. "If he'd knocked my brain lose, we'd know it by now. And I'm not getting worse, Vali."
"Not getting better either, are you now?"
Val only let his head fall back onto his bed with a long sigh. "Please, Vali, I'm tired still."
"It's early yet," Valerie told him as they scrambled off the floor. "Sleep more."
"And what are you out about?"
"I'll find us some breakfast, we passed a market square on our way in and I'd best get used to the city, yes?"
Val scowled up at her for a moment and Valerie could see him thinking he should go with her. "Go on to sleep, it's broad daylight out there and no harm to me - the Comyn keep this place safe, do they not?"
"Mmm - that's what they say," he muttered, eyes already fluttering closed. He squinted up at her again, for a moment. "Don't go far, Vali, and keep to the wide streets."
"I will," Valerie held her breath and dressed as quietly as she could, winding her hair up in a low bun at the base of her neck instead of a girl's braid. Like it or not, she was married, and she might as well get respect for it. She slipped out of their rented room and down the crooked stairs, out into the city.
Cont: Thendara - early morning
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Valente and Valerie of Fairlyn
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10/29/2005, 1:00 pm
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