Selena’s heart sank. Killing an enemy in cold blood is hard enough. But what if she is no longer my enemy? She put a gloved hand over her heart, feeling the cold draft through the leather.
A silence fell that was eerie in its completeness. No wind, no water lapping on shore, no creak of timber. The only noises were what they made, and after a few moments, Julian pushed himself from the bench with a loud scraping of wood on stone.
“Well, we’d best head back before Ilior gets anxious and comes searching for Selena.”
“Who is Ilior?” Byric asked. “The name sounds…foreign.”
“It is a Vai’Ensai name,” Selena said and the librarian’s eyes widened so that the whites seemed glow in the dim light of the cavern.
“A Vai’Ensai? Here?”
“The cold has kept him from accompanying us to your library.”
Byric rose from his seat, moving faster than Selena thought him capable.
“I know you aim to get back, but please…You must see this.” He hurried to another shelf and perused its contents until he drew forth a slender book bound in leather and loosely tied with strips of hide. He returned to his seat, lowered himself down, and set the book on the table.
“We spoke of so many things—Accora and I—that I hadn’t remembered this until you mentioned a Vai’Ensai. This book set her thoughts aflame, though I never could figure out why.”
Selena examined the cover. Markings that looked like animal scratches were pressed into the leather and below the markings was a title in Tradespeak.
“Vai’Ensai Culture, Rituals and Tribal Life,” she read. “A Journal of One Year on the Cloud Isles.” She looked up at Byric. “A human? On the Cloud Isles?”
“Aye,” Byric said. “Jorman Lancaster. A Guildsman from the Order of Explorers. The first and only human, as far I know, to be allowed in to the Cloud Isles. Now, this was way back during the Age of Sedition. According to Lancaster, a tribal elder, a dragonman—pardons, a Vai’Ensai— by the name of Omni’ir, had radical views that were in keeping with the turbulent times but that violated Vai’Ensai law. He decided to let the human live for one year amongst them, documenting life of the dragonkind.”
“That is remarkable,” Selena said. “But what about this history fascinated Accora?”
Byric opened it to the page he sought and turned it so that Selena could read what was written.
Day 278, Junir month
Hurani has been most generous in tutoring me in the language. My mouth, tongue, and throat are not formed in the manner of the dragonkind and so cannot reproduce the sounds with any degree of accuracy, but the attempt has yielded some humorous results. But I will not expend my precious time or energy on a fruitless endeavor. Instead, I have asked Hurani to tutor me on the Vai’Ensai language itself, as some of the words and phrases the dragonkind use have no exact translation in Tradespeak. For example, they have no word for mother or father, as they begin life as eggs laid into a communal nest, tended by caretakers, and raised by the village as a whole. The closest word they have to ‘mother’ is karui’ka, which means ‘egg-layer’. As one can see, such a moniker hardly distinguishes one female from another in the village, and carries no familial or maternal weight. The connection between parent and offspring is therefore altered: many of the attendant words we humans use to denote such deep relationships do not exist in the Vai’Ensai tongue or are almost clinical in their description rather than emotional.
Selena shrugged. “I fail to see how this would be of use to a Bazira or why it would set her to questioning her faith.”
“Have you got to the last bit yet? “ Byric tapped an ink-stained finger to the bottom of the passage. “Here. This is the meat of it.”
Selena read aloud for Niven and Julian’s sake.
“The seclusion and isolation the dragonkind have lived with (until now) have caused a rather interesting error among us humankind. The very name, Vai’Ensai, has always been translated into Tradespeak to mean The Children, with the obvious extrapolation that they are the descendants of the dragons who ruled—and nearly destroyed—Lunos so long ago. But Hurani tells me this is not so. Verily, they are descended from those mighty beasts, but she says that the word ensai means more closely brother or sibling,(nest mate) rather than child as the title is commonly ascribed.”
Selena returned the journal to Byric. “I don’t understand.”
Byric shut the book and lay his hand over the cover. “The dragonkind are the dragons’ children, that is undisputed. But Vai’Ensai, in the most direct translation means The Siblings. Why? Who are they siblings to?”
“Seems rather vague,” Julian said. “It’s possible there was no actual translation for ‘children’ and so human translators chose the next best thing. The Guildsman himself writes that there were such anomalies.”
“Aye,” Byric said, “but there is a word for ‘children’—or ‘offspring’—in the dragonkind tongue and it isn’t ensai.”
Selena pondered this, wishing mightily that Ilior were with them. It felt wrong to discuss such things without him. As if there were talking behind his back.
“Ilior would know the truth to the translation, I’m sure.”
“Aye, and I would love to hear it,” Byric said. “I may be tempted to leave my little nook to see him. I’ve been feeling a bit tired as of late. Not so young as I was once, I suppose. Perhaps in a day or two…?”
“We leave Isle Nanokar on the morrow,” Julian said, rising.
Byric frowned. “That is too bad. Perhaps, Lady Paladin, you would ask your friend the truth of the matter, and once you do, please tell Tunney to pass it on to me. Then I might satisfy this curiosity that has been awakened in my heart like a bear from its hibernation.”
“I will,” Selena said, and for once the lie slipped off her tongue with ease. In the beginning of their acquaintance, she had been curious about Ilior’s past and people. Losing his wing made him an outcast and it pained him to speak of it. Out of respect for his privacy, Selena had stopped asking.
An old translation is not worth waking that pain in him.
They roused Tunney who awoke with a snort. “Time to go?”
“Aye.” Selena turned to Byric. “Thank you for sharing your library and your knowledge with us.”
“Of course. Please give Master Ilior my regards. You won’t forget, will you?”
“No, I will not forget.” They turned to go when a thought occurred to Selena. She turned at the door. “I was just thinking that my companion, Ilior, seems to me like a brother and has since the very moment I met him. I feel so close to him…as if we were bloodkin. I wonder if that holds any meaning.”
“Maybe so. Maybe not. But unless she’s finally satisfied her own curiosity, I’m sure Accora would be itching to know.” Byric’s smile had a melancholy twinge to it. “Perhaps you could ask her when you see her.”
Bard’s Songs and Bloody Memories