Shenanigans

Tricks and Traps
 
Jennifer Brozek

The two hertasi watched the courier Change-Child with anticipation as they went about their chores of cleaning up the campsite. Tersen stifled a giggle as Kitha shena Tale’sedrin reached
for her boots. Serta gave him a look, but he was too young to care. Forewarned, Kitha looked into each boot before she put it on. A boiled egg rolled out of the second one.
 
She held it up and looked at the hertasi.
 
Hadara, the large gryphon Lifebonded to Kitha, spoke for her, “A boiled egg in my boot? Rrrrreally?”
 
Tersen erupted in laughter. “Funny, yes? Raw would have been mean.”
 
“And wasteful,” Serta added as she plucked the egg from Kitha’s hand. “At least now we can still eat it.”
 
Kitha shook her head and whistled in annoyance. Caught in a Mage Storm, Kitha, once of the Dhorisha Plains, had been melded with a hawk within a Change Circle. She was now part human, part bird, and no longer able to speak. Instead of hair, her head was covered in the mottled feathers of a young red-tailed hawk from brow to neck. The left side of her face from
cheekbone to brow had the feathered face and golden eye of a bird. Her right half was of a lovely young woman with a green eye the Tale’sedrin was famous for. Her nose and mouth were a blend of beak and lip. These, and other internal changes, prevented her from speaking.
 
She had been rescued from the Pelagirs Forest by Hadara, who had heard her distress call in Animal Mindspeech. Somehow, Kitha and Hadara had Lifebonded at that first mind-touch. Through their bond, Hadara, blinded by a magical trap, could see with Kitha’s eyes. Their mental link was strong enough that Hadara could speak for Kitha as needed or wanted between the pair.
 
Right now, the gryphon did so because Tersen was still learning the sign language Kitha used.
 
Hadara spoke as Kitha signed. “Even if I had put my foot on it?”
 
Serta eyed Kitha. “I don’t think you’d walk around with an egg in your boot. Also, you aren’t that dirty. We see to it. We discard the shells anyway.”
 
Hadara laughed, her tongue lolling out of her beak. Kitha glared at her bondmate and signed to her. Serta, still watching, understood. Why do the hertasi prank us so much? I don’t remember this happening in the Vale. What is it about this trip?
 
“They did back in the Vale too,” Hadara said. “They werrre jusssst kind to you.”
Amused, Serta turned away, knowing that unless you were hertasi, you would never understand the skills trained into the young by challenging them to prank each other and the Vale inhabitants. The ingenuity, planning, and improvisation these tricks imparted. Skills that could and would be used in other parts of life. This was a time of learning for young Tersen.
 
This trip from k’Leysha Vale to k’Veyas Vale was the perfect time to instill some good instincts into the young, using the natural surrounds of the forest. It was fortunate that she was the one who set him the challenge. He hadn’t yet thought to prank her. That would be an interesting day indeed. She looked forward to it.
 
--
 
Kitha always took the lead with Hadara right behind her. Serta and Tersen walked alongside, sometimes close by, sometimes farther out. Tersen had more energy than the rest of them combined. Letting him wander in the Pelagirs was both necessary and dangerous. It was why Serta paid attention when he called to her.
 
“Serta! I found something. You should see it.”
 
The elder hertasi turned back and wondered if this was the day he tried his hand at fooling her. She didn’t think so. Something in the tone of his voice said not. It was both curious and wary, as though he had found something interesting but didn’t know what it meant.
 
Moving from the path through the underbrush toward where he’d called from, Serta came upon an odd scene. Tersen stood in the middle of a patch of broken and split branches. It was clear they had not occurred naturally. He held one branch, looking at its end. “It looks like it was cut.”
 
Serta looked back and forth, her experienced mind picking out details. Broken branches, cut bits of twine, torn leaves . . . Everything pointed to someone having created some sort of trap designed to be camouflaged by the forest surroundings. Alerted, she turned back to the path. “The Feathers!”
 
The two hertasi took off running, but from the sound of something snapping and the cries of alarm, Kitha and Hadara had been caught in the trap. Serta grabbed Tersen and motioned for him to follow her as silently as he could.
 
Weaving through the forest and staying off the path, they heard the humans before they saw them. Rough laughter accompanied by jeers of triumph froze her heart. Bandits. Their charges had been captured by bandits. They peeked out of the forest to find Kitha and Hadara tangled up in a net that hung a good ten feet in the air.
 
“Well, bless my hairy ass,” a red- haired man said. “We set a trap for a kyree and got a gryphon and a . . . whatever you are.”
 
A short, squat man peered up at them. “Suppose we could sell the gryphon’s feathers instead of a kyree pelt.”
 
The third man, bearded and tan, stroked his beard. “What about the other one? You anyone special?” He paused, waiting for an answer. When she didn’t respond, he poked her with his staff. She gave a bird’s cry of surprise and indignation. “What the hell?” he exclaimed and jumped back.
 
Serta, who had dubbed the three as Red, Shorty, and Beardy respectively, whispered “Meek. Mild,” to Tersen, whose hackles had raised. Then she ran out from the underbrush, her hands raised, calling out. “She cannot speak. She has no voice.”
 
The three bandits reacted like stung cats. Jerking in surprise, they pulled weapons on the little hertasi and shifted into fighting stances. They relaxed a little when they saw who had spoken. They relaxed more when Serta gave an exaggerated squeak of fear and cowered.
 
“Please, sir. Please.” Tersen mimicked her, cowering by her side.
 
“Who are you?” Beardy asked.
 
“Servants to Lady Kitha.” Serta peeked out from behind her raised hands. “She is valuable. More valuable alive than dead.”
 
Red’s eyes widened. “I know ’em. They’re the ‘Lifebonded Couriers’ from that song. You know, “Feathers in love . . . the girl who became a hawk, the gryphon who saved her life.” You’ve heard it. What were their names. . . . ?”
 
Beardy scowled. “You’ve gotta be kidding.”
 
Red looked at the ground. “Head . . . something and Kitha . . . something.”
 
“The Feathers, Hadara and Kitha,” Serta supplied. Knowing Hadara and Kitha hated the songs the Bards had made up about them once they began their work as couriers who were willing to cross borders, she kept her amusement to herself. Also, now was definitely not the time for laughing.
 
Shorty narrowed his eyes. “What do we do with ’em?”
 
Beardy gazed up at the captive pair, greed dancing in his eyes. “You heard her. That one’s valuable. We ransom ’em.”
 
“What about those two?” Shorty nodded at the little lizardfolk.
 
Tersen spoke up. “We are hertasi. We are servants. We will serve you.”
 
Serta straightened. That was what she had been about to say. Her young charge was learning fast. It was important that they not be killed or sent away. They had to remain close to the Feathers to keep them as safe as possible.
 
--
 
It had taken a little more discussion between the bandits for them to come to the conclusion that their best bet would be to ransom the pair back to k’Leysha Vale. The problem was how to do it without the Tayledras killing them outright before they could make their ransom demand.
 
Kitha and Hadara had been taken down from the net trap, but both had been bound, with Hadara’s beak tied shut and Kitha blindfolded. Serta and Tersen had made themselves useful at the bandit’s camp, which, in Serta’s opinion, wasn’t much more than a piece of flat ground that didn’t have adequate protection from anything. Still, she did the best she could. As she worked, she listened.
 
The bandits couldn’t come to an accord. Who was going to take the ransom note to the Vale? She sent Tersen to clean up nearby, right in the line of sight of Beardy, the one she considered the smartest of the bunch. With luck, an idea would spring to mind.
 
“Hey. Hey, you, hertasi. C’mere.”
 
Wide-eyed and fearful, Tersen scampered toward Beardy and waited. Serta set herself within his eyesight so she could give him cues if needed. His eyes flicked over the bandits, then to her, then back to Beardy’s face. She thought he was overacting, but doubted these humans had the skill to read hertasi as well as any of the Tayledras.
 
Beardy loomed over Tersen. “Do you know the way to k’Leysha Vale?”
 
He nodded.
 
“How many days from here?”
 
Serta held up two fingers. It was three, but she thought the bandits might be too impatient to wait any longer, and they needed time to save themselves.
 
Tersen knew this as well. He said, “Two days, sir.”
 
Beardy nodded. “Can you read?”
 
Tersen shook his head even before Serta could cue him.
 
“Good. I’m gonna give you a letter to deliver to the leader of the k’Leysha Vale. You have four days to get back to me . . . or I’m gonna start plucking feathers . . . from both of ’em.”
 
Tersen gasped in only partially feigned horror and nodded frantically.
 
“I will get him prepared for the run,” Serta said. She walked up next to them, looking at Beardy in the face. “If I may?”
 
He waved a dismissive hand. “I’ll let you know when I have the letter written.”
 
Serta took Tersen out of the camp. They didn’t speak until they were out of earshot and she was certain they hadn’t been followed.
 
“I’m not actually going, am I?” Tersen asked, looking stricken.
 
She shook her head. “But they have to believe you are. So, we need to get you ready. You will leave but not go. You will hide until nightfall and meet me here.”
 
“And then?”
 
Serta smiled a feral smile. “Then we will get to work, and you will learn a thing or two. In the meantime, I have tasks for you . . .” She leaned in close and began whispering to him.
 
--
 
Hours later, after the sun had set and a sliver of moon had risen, Serta made sure the bandits were asleep before she snuck out to the meeting spot. Tersen was already there and waiting. She resisted the urge to startle the young hertasi, but she wasn’t sure if Shorty would remain asleep. He was supposed to be on watch duty.
 
Instead, she rustled leaves as she crept up. He still twitched in surprise and whirled about. By the dirt covering him from head to toe, he had done the job she’d asked him to do, and looked exhausted from the effort. Not only that, but it also seemed he’d done it in near silence.
 
She raised her hand in a calming gesture. “It’s me.”
 
“I know. I heard you.” He paused at his snappish tone. “I’m sorry.”
 
“No need. Is it done? Everything I asked?”
 
Tersen nodded.
 
“I never heard you at all. I’m impressed. Well done.”
 
He puffed up at the compliment, some of his tiredness leaving him. “Wait until you see it! It’s huge.”
 
Serta cocked her head and listened to the night sounds. They seemed muted. Perhaps it was their movement that quieted the forest. Perhaps not. Perhaps there was something large on the prowl. You never knew in the Pelagirs. “I will. Soon. I put sap in their drinks tonight. They will all sleep. Even the guard on watch. I will wake him, and then we will see.”