Page 110 of Tiger's Trek
“Give up?” Veru said. “But don’t you wish to be free?”
“Of course. But such a thing isn’t possible. In the centuries we have been enslaved, none, not a single trapped soul, has gone free. At least not in the sense you mean.”
“I don’t understand,” Veru said.
The knight sighed. “Have you heard farmers call barren fields a ‘devil’s garden’ or ‘bare bones’?”
Veru shook her head, but Danik nodded. “I have,” he said. “They consider it cursed.”
“That’s right,” the knight replied. “Where a thriving farm, one considered vernant and flourishing, might be what most seek, that’s not the case with our mistress. She flouts every rule, sows the tares with the wheat, and breaks ground on Fridays using iron plows. Instead of gardeners, she uses pollincters who practice foul fetidities such as grinding the bones of the dead to use as fertilizer. Because of this, anyone setting foot on the field is at risk of the most despicable chicanery. I fear her intention is to undo the two of you utterly until you are completely riven.”
“Why does she want you to hold the sesame seeds?” Veru asked.
“Sesame seeds?”
“Yes. A jar of white and a jar of black.”
The knight paced, stroking his short black beard. “I’ve only seen her harvest once. She sent me away and didn’t think I watched, but I hid and saw... something.”
“What?” Danik asked. “What did you see?”
“She scattered something white. I thought it was rice at the time. Thousands of white mice appeared. I don’t know what they did exactly, but when they were done, the tares were gone.”
“What happened next?” Veru asked.
“Then it was time for the other stuff. It was dark. Must have been the black sesame seeds. After scattering those, blackbirds came. They gathered the rest. She never had to set foot on the field.”
“So she wants us to do the same but without the sesame seeds? How? Why would she even give them to us, then?” Veru asked.
Danik said, “Maybe she thinks the game wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t have all the pieces to play with.”
“Somehow I don’t think she’d care,” Veru said. Turning to Sumerki, she asked, “Do you know where we could buy more sesame seeds? We do have your brother’s mirror. Maybe we can replace them, and she wouldn’t notice.”
“It might work,” the knight agreed. “But I don’t think the two of you have the time. She’ll be returning tomorrow. My brother has been watching her comings and goings. We need to finish tonight.”
“Then it’s over,” Danik said. “We’ve lost.”
“Perhaps not,” the knight said, putting his hand on Danik’s arm. “I have heard you know something of music.”
Danik nodded. “I do.”
“Then perhaps there is hope. Come. We must hurry.”
He instructed Danik to climb on the back of his own black stallion, and then he gave Veru a leg up behind him. Once they were in place, he slapped the horse on the rump and a portal opened, taking them to a distant field that grew under a gray moonlit sky. The portal opened again, and the knight soon joined them.
Never had Danik seen such a sickly, stunted field. The wheat looked half dead, and he wondered if there was any to harvest at all.
As if reading his thoughts, the knight assured him, “There is more than enough to fill her purposes, I promise you.” After helping Veru down, he opened his saddlebag and produced a pipe. “Here is what I was looking for.” He handed it to Danik.
“What am I supposed to do with it?” he asked the knight.
“It is said to contain magic—the ability to summon aid to those who need it. I have never been able to coax the right song from it to do so, but seeing as how you are a musician, I thought perhaps you...” He smiled and held it out, gesturing that Danik should try.
“Pipes aren’t my strong suit,” Danik said.
“It couldn’t hurt though, could it?” Veru said.
“Just remember: Don’t step on the field,” the knight warned. “At best, you’ll get sick. And at worst?—”
