The Gypsy Queen (9 page)

  Bastion watched her as they smoked together and shared the tea. His mind seemed in two worlds- one churning thoughts and plans for what was ahead, and what he would do. He would have to venture to the Lower Reach. It would surely be the most difficult mission he had ever attempted. Yet b
eyond his worry
, he just enjoyed sitting with
Yana
.

  He watched as she sipped her tea and smoked the pipe. It seemed that she did everything with feeling, that he could feel the hot tea kissing her lips, the smoke intermingled between breaths, the rise and fall of her chest as she exhaled. Bastion had seen many women before, but never
felt
a woman in this way- a connection,
even
without contact. 

  Lyubov took the tin cup, and took the last sip, closing her eyes. As she finished, she reached out and struck it on a flat rock beside her, and the tea leaves splattered onto it. She looked at them a while, and took the pipe as Luba passed it to her, spent. She rapped the pipe on the rock, and the ashes spread out onto the wet tea leaves, and Lyubov looked at them further.

  “Da,” Lyubov said. “See?” She motioned for Luba to come look, as she was always teaching her the gypsy arts.

  Luba looked to the flat rock, and then grinned to
Yana
and Bastion.

  “Emilee is alive. She is hiding.” Luba declared.

  “Hiding? Hiding where?”
Yana
asked.

  “I saw h
er early this morning in the crystal
,” said Luba, patting her satchel where she kept her little crystal ball. “It was smoky and hard to see, but she was hiding.”

  “And what do the leaves tell you?” asked Lyubov, quizzing her.

  “Three things,” said Luba. “Life,” she began, “and heat.”

  She paused, asking permission from Lyubov with the expression on her face, Lyubov nodded. Luba continued, “and desire.”

  Bastion looked at the rock, having no idea what he might be looking at. “You can tell all that?”

  Luba grinned at him some more. “I know all sorts of things,” she said.

  Bastion smiled in return. “I have no doubt of that, Luba.”

Yana
said nothing, as she watched an aura begin to emanate from Luba. It was a light shade of blue, and she could see it clearly, but it wasn’t like seeing a normal light. It was something just beyond the natural, like a faint glimmer of another world. She never looked for them, auras just seemed to reveal themselves when they pleased. Luba’s energy was beautiful, and it rang of truth.
Yana
felt relief- Emilee was surely alive.

  “You don’t fear,”
Yana
told them. “We’ll find her.” 

  Bastion and
Yana
wandered through the camp in the west meadows of the city. The city dwellers and the gypsies still quarreled over the land, as it nearly cultivated itself, with olives and
figs and berries... and had
streams running through it, with plenty of wildlife, and forested borders, except for where it approached the city walls. Tensions still ran high, as both
peoples were suspicious of the
other. T
hey encroached on each other often, when the gypsies came to the west meadows, or anywhere near the big cities.

  “I have to go find Emilee,”
Yana
told Bastion.

  “Where will you look for her?” he asked, knowing the answer.

  “The Lower Reach. If she didn’t get caught in the fire, she must have followed the thieves there,” she said.

  “It is far too dangerous for you to go there alone. I cannot allow it.” Bastion said.

  “Well now, it’s not up to you, is it?” she said, irritated.

  “I will not allow you to go there alone and risk yourself. You are too important to your caravan, the people here.” Bastion insisted.

  “I know it is dangerous, Bastion, but I have to go!” she exclaimed. “Why don’t you just go back to the city and your own people?” She stopped walking and faced him. She could feel the heat rising in her face.

  “And if I were a gypsy man,” he asked, “would you heed me then?”

  “No.”

  Bastion frowned
. “You almost got us all killed when you charged into that fire, and now you would risk it all again? Would you take other gypsies, and risk them too, just to find the one?”

  That angered
Yana
. “I...if I had not gone into that fire we would have lost the girls!” She was not careless, and did not like being accused as such. Worse yet, she was afraid, because Bastion was quite right. It was foolish indeed for her to go
to the Lower Reach
, but what choice did she have? “What about you?” she demanded. “Will you not help? Do you only look after your own?”

  She immediately felt bad for that, knowing that Bastion had just gone out of his way to save the gypsy girls
. H
e had answered the call.

  “Yes,
Yana
. I look after my own,” Bastion said firmly. He let the silence hang in the air. “The gypsies are my people too,” he finally said. “They are a part of the
kingdom
, even as they roam. Your caravan is my caravan,
Yana
.”

  “What?” she said.

  “I serve the
k
ingdom
as I will,
Yana
. I have not interfered with the gypsies, and even as I fight for them, I ask nothing from them. Yet how can I have the responsibility for them, but no authority over them?”

  “Then don’t be responsible,”
Yana
replied. “We can look after ourselves. We are not your caravan.” Again,
Yana
felt embarrassed. Clearly they needed help from the
k
ingdom
, with the growing threat... but
Yana
was unwilling to sell out their freedom for security. Yet there was no freedom, if they would be sold into slavery, either.

  Bastion ignored the insult, and took her hand, looming in close. “You are so strong,
Yana
. So stubborn.” She cast her eyes down- her mouth was getting her in trouble.

  “The
kingdom
is aware of the castle in the Lower Reach. We are aware of Kaffa. We have been gathering information to make a stronger move, bigger than the Moldavians we killed in the gulley.”

 
Yana
looked up. “War?” The word gave her chills.

  “No. The black riders exist to prevent war. We strike in the night, we strike in stealth. Entire armies can be defeated with the right strategy. Entire armies can be spared.”

  Bastion released her hand, and they began walking again. “I have yet to consult with my father and uncle, but I intend to take my men into the Lower Reach, destroy that castle, and whoever rules it. If we should find Emilee, or other captives, we will retrieve them.”

  “I am going with you!” she exclaimed.

  “No. I intend to take only the black riders,” he replied.

  “But... I... I am a black rider! I have the cloak! I rode with you!” She was angry again. “I am going anyway!”

  Bastion stopped, and chastised her squarely with the look in his eyes. Damn it all, thought
Yana
. How did he do that? Her mouth was still getting her in trouble.

  “That is true,
Yana
. You are going.”

  She looked up at him, not speaking. “You will don that cloak, and ride with m
e. We need your tracking skills,
”
he said.
Now he was smiling.

  “Wait- you already said I could not go!”

  “Since when did you hold any regard to what I say?” he asked.

  “Ugh!” she said, punching him in the arm.

  “Hear me,
Yana
,” he said. “My men follow orders. My men are disciplined. Even the horses are trained.”
Yana
nodded.

  “I know you are a gypsy,
Yana
, and you do as you please... but when you ride with us, you must place yourself under my command. My men must not see you defy me freely. It is my place as Captain. My men trust me to preserve their lives. I will preserve you, too.
Do you understand?
”

  “Yes…
Captain,” she said. That felt weird. She had never called him that.

“But,” she added, “I am the one always saving
your
life
!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  The dark halls of the castle silently echoed the firelight of Draiman’s lantern, and the wooden floor creaked and eased just slightly at his footsteps. He walked through the passages of
Tatu
Castle
, to bring report.

He knocked on the thick wooden door he arrived at, and the voice called out for him to enter.

 
Volga
finished the last few morsels of the meal he was working on, as Draiman approached him.

  “What have you?”
Volga
demanded. Draiman handed him a small scroll, and
Volga
looked it ove
r with a frown
.

  “Only seventeen?” he asked.

  “We have some resistance,” Draiman said. “Your men hunting near the
Jedikai
kingdom
are missing. You lost more slaves because your men were inept enough to set off a forest fire.”

 
Volga
was insulted. “The way I hear it, it was your damn gypsies that started the fire.” Draiman scoffed at him.

  “Only the
gaje
would be so foolish,” he retorted.
Volga
laughed at him, his big belly jostling along with his mirth.

  “You are probably right, my friend!”
Volga
said. The Moldavians and the gypsies were certainly not allies, as the gypsies did not make allegiances, and were widely hated by all
gaje
- anyone not a gypsy. Yet these two were friends, or at least partners.

 
Volga
took the scroll and peered at it further, as he began to count out coins at the table in his enclave. He gathered up the correct amount, and poured the coins into a pouch with a jingle. He handed it to Draiman.

  “Your gypsy men- can they root out this resistance?”

  “We capture the slaves- we don’t get paid to fight!” Draiman answered.

 
Volga
knew that was coming. He would consult his own men on how to deal with it, as they were soldiers first anyway.

  “Who stands against us,”
Volga
asked, “and what do they know?”

  “They know that people are being taken; people are missing,” Draiman replied. “They know Moldavians have something to do with it. They do not suspect my gypsies,” he said.

  “And who are ‘they’?”
Volga
asked again.

  “There are several cities that are resisting the problem, making it more difficult for us. But we are an invisible enemy to them. They cannot attack us,” Draiman said.

  “The black riders of
Jedikai
... they ride against us,” he added.

 
Volga
nodded. “Then I will send my men to the south, to other country, for now. There are plenty of villages to the south. We will have less resistance there.”

  “I will move my caravan south as well,” Draiman agreed. “We need supplies. I will return before the full moon, and will bring any news I can gather.”

  “Bring more captives!”
Volga
bellowed. “We will sail soon to Kaffa with all the slaves we have now. If I am not back before you, feel free to enjoy
the castle and any slaves you want
, while you await.”

  Draiman left
Tatu
Castle
, to join his men where they were encamped. He looked forward to restocking in the south. He would meet more gypsy tribes and see if he could add to his ranks. Until then, he drank with his men into the night, under the skies of the Lower Reach.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Yana
and Bastion addressed the caravan at
Jedikai
, beseeching them to stay close to the city until they had dealt with the threat. They were accustomed to following
Yana
, and she knew they would be wise enough to stay close to the city, especially after the accounts of Kizzy and Nadya. In her great love for her people,
Yana
was also saddened- they were fearful, and that sort of life was not befitting a gypsy. She hoped to set things right, any way she could.