FireSweet

A new ring of power

            “He is yours anyway.  It is a law that spans the worlds.  This boy is your problem now.  Most debts occur in battle, providing you a protector.  This situation seems to have given you a student.  You can either train him or toss him out.  Without your protection the men will kill him; law or no law.”

            “Can you stop them?” I asked.

            “No, they know what he is Gittoran.  Tag-a-longs are despised in this world, and male tag-a-longs…. They are a disgrace,” he sighed.  “It is the way of this world.  If the boy was smart, he would have hidden it, felt out the world first instead of running around like some errant prick of a knight.”

            “So which way is your room Flame?” Flint piped up.  He sat up suddenly and shifted Mají to the opposite side of him, away from me.

            I opened my mouth to respond but my captain beat me to it.  “You may belong to her, but Gittoran is forging a name for herself.  There is no point in sullying her reputation for a boy like you, how old are you again?  You will be staying in a room behind my own, safe until Gittoran calls for you.  If she trusts me with you that is….”

            “Of course I do Mají,” I said. 

            “Then it is settled,” he continued.  “You will go to my cabin and I shall show you to your room in a few minutes.  There has been too much in this day.  We all need to sleep until we can go to tonight’s conclave.  You will enjoy that boy, even if you are a tag-a-long.”

            Flint looked to me and I nodded, watching him scowl darkly at my captain before retreating and slamming the door behind him.  Mají winked at me and beamed. 

            “Don’t worry about him.  He has an excellent teacher, though not as excellent as me of course,” he said.

            I laughed and climbed to my feet.  “How would I know what kind of teacher you are?  You haven’t done much in way of my training lately.  When do I get to pillage, burn, and plunder?  The fun stuff?”

            “After Conclave, find the rogue camps and do as you please.  Show them that even without me you are to be feared and respected.  Send them a message before they return to camp in their drunken state.  Take the boy.”

            I rolled my eyes and nodded.  “Yes my king, your wish is my command.  Though I trust you will inform him of this?  He needs to be at the girls’ exit point before I leave.  If he is not, then he will be left behind and I will hear nothing more of the matter.”

            Mají-jalio opened his mouth, and then snapped it shut, nodding slowly while I tried not to smile.  Leaving him, I went above deck once more, noting how low the sun seemed to hang in the sky.  The party had finally halted; men slumped all over the ship and the grass below.  I didn’t doubt that they would be sporting headaches when they arrived for the conclave. 

            I slipped off the ship around the back, dangling from starboard rail before dropping to the earth near the forest, away from the men.  It was an easy matter to run around the masses undetected, heading out across the common and to the compound that would hold the conclave tonight. 

            I paused for a moment before the little pine door, trying to remember how Briamy had opened it.  I tugged on the iron ring halfheartedly, but I knew it was not that simple.  I reached out slowly and twisted the ring instead of pulling on it, rotating the ring clockwise until it was inverted.  I pressed the top right corner of the door.  It did not budge.  I tried again, twisting the counter-clockwise in a circle before pressing the top right hand corner.  Again it did not move.  Growling softly, I rotated the ring back around clockwise so it was inverted once more and pressed the top left corner.  I was rewarded when the door swung inward and revealed the short hallway leading to the lounge.