The Beggar’s wake
A
hundred chanters chants rising in the morning mist
From
the poorest quarters towards the river
Each
tone is single, sharp and distant
A
birds flock of lonely chanting, coming nearer
The
chants are how beggars speak
Though
no others ever have waited to listen
The
language chanted is only their own
almost
a lifetime of begging is needed to speak it.
I am
a very old man, neither scribe nor monk
not
merchant, not tradesman, nor priest
Noble
once, but that is neither here nor there
and
none remember enough to judge.
My
rooms are here near the market,
Across
from the greater library,
where
I can spend my days and nights in idle thought
and
remember.
It is small effort to pass the stairs
and
cross the square to the library
The
rich reserve all but a few places there
If I
would sit I must cross before dawn
When
I can, I stop where Nor sets up , He’s
one of the peddlers
He
has a cart, some stools, cups and a charcoal pot
and
always is selling tea when I cross
in
the plaza but never in the same spot
A
group sat on the stools this morning
in our own huddles, like egrets in a river
Randomly
placed there to watch mists rise from our cups
All
still and posed among each other in the morning’s fog
Some
carriers who had tethered firewood wagons nearby
were
drinking tea neigh their unloading
One
nearsighted farmer sorted his oldest radish to top
kneeling
next to his barrow
A
laborer who set up the some of merchant’s stalls
now
finished, was clutched the meal Nor had warmed for a fee.
while
mouthing the words he read
was
another man who sold religious tracts
A
well dressed rake had his sword propped near to hand
and
was letting the tea make a night of it.
and I
hunched in my warm old cloak
was
just an old man to one side
Some
thieves, back from their own work
were
quickly sipping tea
Nor
will sell to any one, but that guild is banned by law
and
we pretended not to see them
One
was still a boy, without the braids of his companions
“It’s
Croroy the beggar, He’s died” he wondered aloud
speaking
in the cant, not normal talk causing
the
others to warn him with cold fixed eyes, take note of us and depart
It’s
a sad seeing thief children
as
their lives begins to form
They
can be your friends beforehand
and
the next day kill you for a but a coin
But
that name is one to set my mind astir
I
learned their cant in prison long long ago
and I
am likely the only soul who remembers
Croroy,
by other names before those days and the lancers
Nor
most often leaves at first light
His
customers are those who set up the market
not
the day folk and he does not pay taxes,
but
this morning he seems to have decided to wait
So we
are guarding our stools
While
the market shrugs to awaken
We
sit, not eyeing each other much
While
the thieves have gone, The rest of us are strangers
The
mists have lifted from the stones of the yardway
Revealing
newly opened stalls and a myriad choice of hand placed goods
But
we all focus on one still figure
Next
to an alley by the road to the river
On
hands and knees near the market edge
sloped
stiffly down and forward
so
all you could see were the tightly tied rags
from
foot to head covering his back
We
were still hearing a hundred wailing chants
one which was that beggars own drone
a
rolling casting out of spiteful horrid words
that
no mortal voice should have known
Now
we had other figures scattered through the market
All
in bizarre postures chanting
Beggars
often come here to beg
But
today they come in a mass, at one time
A
sharp slap echoes from the walls
followed
by a hundred more
claClaClaChaCha
ClaClap
and
all stop, paused and searching for the source
Before
restarting what they were doing
Now
consciously ignoring the beggars
Who
are chanting again
unperturbed
by being so obviously unnoticed
This
was the way of it for some time
I
forgot that place and drifted into my memories,
leaving
the beggars chanting behind me
to
mix with cries hawking good
Croroy
the beggar man was dead
I
first knew him so long ago
when
I was a student at Morino
gaining
language and the arts of polite company
He
was very young then
and
just come from some village in the countryside
driven
from it to the city by wanderlust
and
some village girl's relatives
It
was a low class and drunken tavern
we
had dared ourselves into visiting
ten
or twenty men were playing horseman’s draughts
and
I’d already lost my weeks allowance.
Croroy
was just another who had come near to us
pushing
someone else aside
and
asking the players what the rules were
and
if he could try
Just
a young man in ragged country clothes
with
no House mark of favor showing
no
trade tattoos and unarmed
not
wearing either sword or dagger
The
gamblers who ran the game
held
up their ivory sticks
One
said “You bet before on where they cross,
and
what the total is”
“But
only some sticks are thrown in each round
depending
on the round before” “It takes time to learn
to
dodge displeasure from the gods
and
the greatest skill to win”
The
youthful stranger surveyed the game for two more throws
then
tossed a copper in
After
the sticks were thrown the gambler frowned
pushing
a pile a back to him
I
decided that I would ride with his luck
and
when he bet, yelled out “the same”
and
won back my losses on the toss
and the crowd grew silent watching the game
My
partner did not win each time he bet
but when
he bet all he’d won he did
and
after only seven tosses it was over
the
gambler bowed and surrendered his sticks
This
meant that he was broken
to a
greater skill or the will of the gods
but
I’d seen his companions go out the back
and
did not like what I’d surmised
So as
we were pouched our winnings
I
whispered “We must leave now, After me”
and
we dashed through the door and on down the lane.
towards
escape and that quickly
The
expected shouts came our rear
We
were pursued by an unknown number
through
unlit alleyways and paths
and
running blind at that
My other friends slipped away from us
they
were not pursued
Though
Tisol of the Obeyons (later king Tisol)
Yelled
“If you live tell me what did you to do?”
Our
pursuit bore lamps and we did not
and I
did not know the way
and
soon in some shut off tract cornered us
My
drawn sword held them at bay
Four
of them obstructed us, all armed
three
swords and a knife
We
had but my lone sword
to
set the price for life
My
companion shifted towards one side
and
two followed to keep him there
while
the two in front of me
engaged
me, most unfair
I
danced about, they circled
One
at either hand
One
of the two facing my doomed partner
lunged
to finish it then and there
I
almost didn’t see it
It
was done during that very stroke.
A
Toss of the gambling sticks
distracted
the swordsman for that moment
Inside
of the very lunge, slipping past the flying blade
and
has taken the sword
to
run through his attacker
Who
falls
But I
have lost in that same moment
though
I killed the man who did it
He
struck my arm
and I
am without sword facing a ruffian
As my
new acquaintance appears behind him
and
cuts him down
The
headless cadaver of fourth footpad
who
had had but a knife, lies beyond
We
stealthy made our way out of that district
I
learned he had nowhere to stay
knew
no one at all in the city.
And
had arrived late on that very day
But
he saved my life in that contest
so I
would refund what was owed
and
find him a life to make with what he would
From the arrangements that I could dispose
The
city was run then by the great houses,
The
royal court and tradesman guilds
When
none of them mark you as one of their own
you
are nobody and nothing
Your
testimony can not be taken
in
the law courts
and
all may bring charges against you without fear
of
your being found innocent
I
never told Urich about it. Don’t laugh, that was his given name
but I
called in a large favor
then
from one Captain Daekome who owed my family for his position
and
got Urich enrolled in the city guard
then
guard was independent
paid
by all parties to be on no single side
but
it would give this Urich a enough of a life
and
cost me my nights winnings to pay for it.
I
awoke from my revere when the beggars clapped again
claClaClaChaCha
ClaClap
Three
of them following the Lady Mirsisa about now
making
hip gyrations while they chanted
I
laughed, she had been a prostitute
when
she was young and clean,
In
those days I was newly banished from the kings court
and
had been the leader of 1000 in the lance
But
back when I was still a student
the
man who died today as Croroy the beggar
was
Uricth the city guardsman
and
some of us would meet each evening to carouse
Uricth,
never seemed to need to sleep
worked
in the guards every day, training and patrolling
and
yet could join us at night
To
ply our wits against the others in all the brothels and bars
We
lent him apparel so he fit
and
someone had began calling him Icathon instead of Uricth
Uricth
being to common
and
he learned our ways to fast for most to have seen
He
was wining money gambling every night
and
fighting in the duelists circles
and
could dress in the gentle fashions
and
speak like a nobleman’s heir
Icathon
took on any challengers with the sticks
and
searched far for masters of the game
He
gained a reputation as one who had never lost
and
his became a well know name
The
next year he began to gather a following
amidst
the leisured and the children of the peerage
He
had drollery and regard as a swordsman
who
knew all the latest hearsay
When he claimed indisposition to escapade
His
friends and now some of his retinue
would
crowd into our student lodgings and party
Where
we confirmed that all mysteries are solved by drink
Afterward
when we all slumbered
after
the caresses of the ladies we bought were done
I
would awake to see him reading
near
the fluttering candles above my snoring guests
All
good times will end
The
years went by and that crowd went apron their way
some
of us married, some died in the duels
and
some were called to serve at one thing or the another
Either
in the temples, or at the palace for the great houses
Me, I
was required by my acquisition of
letters
to
return to my families estates soon after that year
much
better at writing and with a sword than when I reached the city
I
married and then my father and brother conveniently died
leaving
me a minor baron at two score and two
I
devoted myself to mostly local matters
and
rarely thought of my life the city
Icathon
wrote to me occasionally, much to my surprise
I had
not realized he could but the couriers delivered
his
news of his lieutenancy in the guard
and
much of gossip from intrigues
That
was when first invasion came from Primilon
and
as I had been ceded my fathers commission
I was
asked to bring a troop of lancers
to
Miros on the great road where the king’s army was to gather
I was
made leader of 100 at the camp there and given a uniform
and
some more troops to command
Most
bought scarlet and silver if they could afford it
and
would ride back and forth very
colorfully waving their lances
in
the rising dust from all the companies
Icathon
was present
He
had become a leader of ten in the king’s horse
a
more prestigious position than my own
supposedly
granted as an award for service in the city
I was good natured about it
after
all my rank was still higher
and
besides
I knew who he’d bribed
We
rode to war on the fourth day
trotting in columns betwixt the flowered trees
that
grow scattered over the lands
near
the great road for miles near Miros
For a
glorious week the army rode
In
the high summer,
when
on each warm night the camps
were
full of singing, drink and camp followers
The
last eve before we were to fight
I was
commanded to the Kings camp and pledged
amidst
all those others never presented formerly
while
the king supped
Arrayed
on the plains the next morning
were
King Wnomi and his Primilon military
Having
left a siege at Urinath
to
come to us
Bringing
thirty-thousand cavalry
forty-thousand
other troops
a
score of mages, two dragons
and
his harem
We were
sixty thousand lancers
a few
mages and sixty thousand spare horse
The
dragons were at the median of the
hostile force
with
Pike and infantry men dug in on a funnels wings to each side
Their
cavalry waited behind the pikes
all
of them within my sight
We
were arrayed in front of them in separate order
for
each company
Our
instruction came, we were to charge
down
the dragons very throats
we
must blood them with the greatest speed
and
blood them quickly into rage
Then
they must pursue as we fall back
to
the center of the field
So
that the rest of our lance would be
behind them
keeping
any of the pikes advance slow
They
would then wheel about from the dragons rear
faster
than an unhorsed army can run
We
would then kill the dragons
and
after let the battle be won
We
began our charge down the center
a
full thirty thousand horse
ninety
thousand lances weaving
in
the gallops dance
We
arrived into where dragons fire did reach
and
entire companies began to die
We
rode strait over the burning men and horse
screaming
our companies battle cries
A
dragon is as tall as sixteen men
and
again as long as seventy
A
dragons fire is quite as big the dragon
with
a range five times that size
Though
while a lancer who rides into dragons fire
will
never ride hence
A
charging lancer can progress five dragons lengths
in
one minute alone
Four
times in that minute a dragon may flame
and
his breathe reach four chosen spots
Each
breath was burning about nine-hundred men and horse
It
was only fate I was not
The
first band to reach one of the dragons
Hit
with one at least twenty lance
The
other dragon had chose to breath in close
but
that gave us our chance
Every
man in my command hit fair
and
released as our mounts scrambled away
Another
hundred lancers hit behind us
and
perished in the fires that day
The
first dragon was struck once more
after
his next flaming, while we
made
deadly choices
Selecting
when and where to ride
We
must have done what lancers do best
teasing,
almost being where the dragons
thought
we’d reach each moment
while
we were slowly slipping back
We
were lost in the call of glory
riding
to taunt and draw the dragons fire
and some rode to the fire
to
draw it away from the rest of us
Fifteen
thousand of us riding to all compass directions
but
somehow
reaching
the middle of the field
after
some time, where
The
dragons were then poked to rags
by
forty thousand lancers
who
came from all sides at once
and
planted every lance
In
dragon bone, muscle and tendon
until
the dragons did not move
still
more, till you could ride through
the
holes in the scaled hides
We
then turned on Wnomi’s troop
who
were somewhat advanced
but
were scattered in disordered groups
some
already making to the rear
If
their cavalry had responded then
They
might have stood some chance
but
they were only saber men
who
dared not face our lance
Twenty
thousand lancers died that day
our
enemy all died or pleaded surrender
We
destroyed the first of dragon hoards
which
is all that will ever be remembered
Afterwards
the king learned it was Icathon
who
gave this plan to his commander
I was
soon to became leader of a thousand men
But
he was one also, and that much faster
We
met often in the next few years
He
would visit me bringing journals and maps
He
drew full plans of entire campaigns
from
the histories with legendary armies
so he
could fight all those engagements again
Once
told me of what he called the difference
between
himself and other men
While
others might need to compute
feed
and water for their horse and troops
when
each had some different number of men
who
were to were to travel varied numbers of leagues
The
answers just came to him
It
worked the same as the gamblers sticks
He
picked out the numbers he coveted
from
the lot of them just laying around
in
anything he envisioned, including the
battleground
He
knew which card was the best play
as
soon as he saw the hand
and
in the games where everything could be seen
could choose the best move with a glance
In
those days we were often at court
and
in council with the king
My
wife visited in the summers
My
two son’s were born in the springs
Soon
Primilon had new ruler
Wnomi’s
only son
and
he determined to set all his forces against us
some
also coming with dragons
Unlike
his father, he did not wish to stop
to
siege to any cities he encountered
but
only seeking revenge and not gain
burned
each of them as they were encountered
That
war was to last only three years
We
defeated all of their armies
unwise
enough to march without the dragons
and
some of the dragon hordes
The
first year
My
own lands and my family were charred
and I
surrendered any plans for this life
but
those of a officer in the lance
Icathon
was a general after those battles
commanding
on the north
He
was never defeated in battle
but
said he could not prevail in the war
A
lancer asked him how we could win it
He
replied “There are times when
you
can only dodge the displeasure of the gods
and
hope for skills unknown to them”
He
distracted the enemy commanders
Preventing
them from sending us
all
of their warriors at one time
by
all types of trickery and misdirection
In
summer there were the battles
and
each winter hunger and great efforts before another year of war
half
of our cities had been burned by dragons then
and
those lands become a waste
only
used by the crossing armies
where
no one lived who could have mourned
The
villages and fields had been ruined and burned
and
no crops grew there
most
of us were now but children
beardless
and still called to war
these
would hold high the lance’s honor
but
after them there were no more
In
the third year we left
before
the end of winter
and
drove through the baron lands without
a
supply train, bringing only spare mounts
We
rode from before the sun had risen
until long after it had set
and
slept in the snow between our horses
melting
snow for them to drink
We
rode through the open gates of that first city
taking
only new provisions
and
killing any one who stood before us
and
every soldier that we found
It
was the same at the next place
and
the third city had no walls
An
army waited in front of the fourth
one-hundred
thousand men
But
we were nine times that
and
slew them in three hours
and
left before dusk
affably,
eating their horses as we rode
we bypassed two more of their armies
that
turned to slowly follow
while
we raced to Orinair
safe
behind. with it’s 13 mans reach walls
but
it's bridges were still intact when
came
and
we crossed their river before dawn
watching
the lanterns above the top of the wall
move
about while rode on
Primilon
was then an empire
that
stretched as far as the eastern sea
while
we were but a land on it’s edge
It’s
king chose to butcher painfully
We
were already a good two-thirds of the
way
across that empire’s lands
and
were in the heart of it
where
Sarith their capital stands
There
we stopped and waited
sending
some units to the lands around
and
soon enough twelve dragon armies
were
all Sarith bound
We
met three of them in mad dashes
ridding
out into the night
and
took them while we were unexpected
and
they were unprepared to fight
and
once after that we spit our forces
and
were victorious twice
Their
legions pulled back and banded then
approaching
us more carefully
We
were down to our last mounts
and
but a third their number
The
winter had returned again
and
now we’d no hope of going home
Icathon
was our warlord now
Our
other general died
and
he had us still, wait by Sarith
while
the enemy hordes arrived
On
that winter morning the lancers stood in rows
Each
lancer raising holding his lance in salute
As
the horde pushes slowly near through the snowdrifts
eleven
dragons coming with
Then
we were racing to them
companies
moved to break all sides
Sacrificing
much to pass the dragons
and
reach the troops behind
We
fought until they withdrew that night
not
seeing we had almost none survived
who
could fight on another morning
so we
fled that night
I
lasted to reach our homeland
early
the next year
and
was put at once into prison
such
now was our kings fear
But
no attack came in the spring
and
the next year Wnomi’s son had died
I
passed two more years in the cells
and
no battle came to our countryside
So I
was pardoned and pensioned
and
given back a minor civil rank
and
being something of an embarrassment
I
found no one to thank
So I
began to live softly
much
as I do now
and
for more than five score years since
I’d
crossed the market near this hour
It
was only a few years after that
I
first saw the beggar called Croroy
of
course I knew him as the warlord Icathon
but
it was months before we talked
I
asked him why he was in hiding
for
he the could have surely regained
much
the fame and fortunes he deserved
but
he said only two words “I lost”
many
years I found discussions in books
brought
to the library from Primilon
of
the chronicle as they saw it
most
claimed the last battle was a draw
But I
never told Croroy about it
That
was the last ride of the lance
and
who was I to gainsay the decisions of
the
man who commanded such a battle
Evan
a draw under those conditions
was
victory and I had a suspicion
that
the wining card in the game of life
had a
beggars picture on it
I
record that beggars chanted throughout that day
and
vanished come that night
as I
walked home and up the stairs
none
of them were in sight.
Saul
Scudder December 8 1998