Twilight of Ivory

A/N: heh, title is due to one of the reviews. Also, to answer some questions, some people in the story are magic-capable, but only a selective few. Magic abilities are dispersed randomly throughout the population; it's something that you're born with. Also, the term "darra" refers only to the "child-bearing male" descendents of the magician and his lover. Anyone with their blood--that is, any of their descendents--can have darra born to them, but it's very rare for a daire to be born. Hypothetical example: Erik is a daire, his brother James is not. None of Erik's descendents are born darra until five generations afterwards. None of James' descendents are born darra until three generations afterwards.

It's random and the chance is rare, but as long as a family has the magician/lover pair's blood in them, there is always that chance. Hope that answered your questions everyone. Also, this chapter might need some editing, I apologize for mistakes.

Someone was shaking him by the shoulders. "Wake up sunshine, you've been sleeping for hours and hours."

Something wasn't right. Naru opened his eyes blearily, and the hazy scene he was met with soon delineated itself as his vision cleared. There was a face looking over him, a familiar-looking face--the Isormine soldier!

"Argh!"

Naru scooted back as far as he could on his back, wallowing like a fish. He realized then that his hands were bound and that beneath him, the ground was--it was moving. "What'd you do to me? Where are we? What's going on?"

"Whoa, whoa, calm down. No one's going to hurt you, boy." The soldier had short, sunstreaked brown hair and pleasant gray eyes. He looked in a good humour.

Naru sat up and looked around. They were in a caravan of horses, wagons, and soldiers marching on foot. He was on one of the wagons. Naru scanned his surroundings again and felt slightly panicked. It was the Aryaun countryside, but he didn't recognize anything.

"Hello, boy. My name's Prith." The soldier's tone was congenial. "And now that you're awake, get off the damn wagon please. Old Penelope's gonna have a heart attack if she has to keep this up."

As if in response, the mule brayed loudly. Besides Naru, the wagon was filled with supplies, that was probably all Penelope was used to pulling... Naru registered all of this hazily, trying to grasp the situation.

He had been captured. He was being taken away from his village.

Captured! The fuck!

"Hey, did you hear me? What's your name, anyway?" Prith bent over to look him in the face.

An idea occurred to him. He looked up at Prith. "How do I get down?" he asked.

Prith scratched his chin. "Actually, I don't know. I don't want to stop Penelope; I won't get her to go again." Penelope made a snorting noise. "Ah, well, nothing for it." Prith suddenly reached over and picked him up, lifting him easily over the edge of the wagon and setting him down on the ground.

Naru made a run for it. He didn't even get five yards before a strange, pulling sensation around his feet--like a lasso tightening around his legs--felled him.

"Uh!"

A strong hand pulled him up by the arm. "Hey now..." Prith brushed some dust off Naru's clothing.

Naru shook his hand away impatiently. "What happened?" he demanded in a cutting voice.

Despite Naru's hostility, Prith remained placid. "Milord had his apprentice put a spell on you. It's to stop you if you start moving with the intent to escape," he explained. He put a hand firmly on his shoulder and started to steer him back to the road and the Isormine caravan.

Shit! "Where's the rest of my village?" he asked. He had to work a little to keep up with Prith's stride; Naru was nearly a head shorter than him.

Prith shrugged. "We left them behind with half the men. You're the only one we took."

Naru's stomach felt like it had dropped to his knees. "What? Why?"

"'Cause you're darra," Prith replied, like it was obvious. Naru halted.

"Wait. What are you planning to do to me?"

Prith shrugged. "You shouldn't ask me. Milord--Lord Eulovanic--said to bring you. He's the one who put you out yesterday."

Naru remembered the surprised voice from before. "Where is he?" he asked.

"At the head of the caravan. I expect you'll meet him tonight, when we make camp." Prith clapped him on the back. "Don't worry about it. He's not a cruel guy, is milord. He even made me your bodyguard."

"I need a bodyguard?"

"You're darra, after all. There're already rumors spreading around. Someone might want to hurt you."

Whack perverts. "Where are we going?"

"To the Isormine capital, where the King is awaiting us." Prith grinned now, looking extremely pleased. "Home sweet home, man." He looked down at Naru. "Oh yeah. Come on, boy, what's your name? I've asked you plenty of times already."

Naru shelved his other questions and took a deep breath. This was his situation now, and he had to adjust. He needed...needed some time, and so he'd better take things...slowly. Once he adjusted, he would figure out something. Naru cleared his throat.

"My name's Naru," he told Prith.

"Cool. That a common name in Aryau?"

"It's mostly a nickname, but for me it's my given name."

"I see. Your surname?"

"Iventhal."

"Come from the mountains then, do you? My surname's Shiprin; my family's old seastock."

"Yeah? So you've seen the ocean?"

"Hell yes. Nearly drowned in it, too. You haven't?"

"Nope. Been to a lake, though."

"Aryau's a landlocked country, innit?"

"Uh huh." All of a sudden, Naru looked uneasy. "You treat all your prisoners look this?"

Prith looked straight ahead as he answered. "Are you pissed?"

"You are...invaders..."

"Would it be so bad to be united under one flag?"

"Sure is, when Aryau doesn't want to."

Prirth shrugged. "I don't feel good about fighting your kinsmen either. We speak the same language, got the same customs. I've got more in common with you than with my second cousin in Turkmenia." His tone was honest.

Naru looked down at his bound hands briefly. There were red marks where the knots had dug into his skin.

"You know, I never thought we'd win. I don't really care about politics, but my village did. I just wanted to protect the people there." He lifted his hands helplessly, as if trying to make him understand. "They were important to me."

There was a moment of quiet.

"That was real noble-sounding, just then," Prith said solemnly.

"Aw, shut up."

"Nah, really, that is. I joined the army because I liked Princess Rainie." Prith's voice was serious. Naru gave him a look.

"No, for real, man. Just wait 'til you see her. She makes me melt." Prith smiled lopsidedly, but then he looked up towards the sky and his expression went grave. "God," he said, "please let her figure out that I'm alive. By winter, if that's possible."

"You don't even know her?"

"No, but I'm okay with that." His dreamy, cross-eyed expression slowly faded. He turned to Naru. "Ever been in love, Naru?"

"Sure."

"Yeah? Boy or girl?" Something seemed to occur to him. "Hey, are darra always harues?"

"Dunno." Naru looked thoughtful. "I know I've never thought about women."

"Yeah? So the person you liked was a guy. How'd it go?"

"Pretty bad. I told him while we were out in public. Stupid idea." Naru grimaced. "He bugged out and started yelling crap at me. After that, I didn't have much of a choice except to beat the crap out of him. And...well...we never talked much again."

"Aw. You sure it was love?"

"Yeah."

"You were young, though," Prith reasoned.

During his relatively short life, Naru had been involved in several romances. None of them had ever gotten very serious, and after several experiences--real trips they were--he remembered very little of the details. But it had been different with Jeremiah. As friends, he had actually loved him, had wanted to spend every hour of every day with him, had wanted to give him his loyalty, affection--even now, it still hurt, if only just a little bit. Naru had always been the kind of person who angered slower and forgave quicker and loved deeper.

Naru shook his head out of his feelings. He cleared his throat. "Well, being older doesn't mean you think better," he intoned. "Just look at you, Prith, you're hot for Her Royal Highness--"

"Aw!" Prith punched him in the shoulder, Naru started laughing.

It was dark and they had made camp in a tall-grassed field. After the tents were pitched and the horses and mules were taken care of, it was dinnertime.

"Oi, everybody. This is Naru Iventhal of Aryau. Say hi to him and steal his cornbread." Immediately after this, Prith snatched the hard chunk of bread from Naru's plate. "Too slow, I beat you guys," he told his compatriots, chortling.

"You're the only one who wants it," a young man with a long, lean body and short brown hair commented, digging into his beans. "Hullo, Iventhal," he greeted Naru. "Don't let him get one over you like that, even if this is some crap grub."

"It's okay. I already spit on it," Naru replied.

Prith, who had already devoured the whole thing, choked. "No wonder it was wet!"

"Your fault."

"Why'd you spit on it?!"

"You ate yours in two seconds and started looking at mine."

"You tricky bastard," Prith accused, slapping him on the shoulder. The men--there were about six others in the circle--laughed. Prith looked around at them, his eyes full of eager amiability. "Hey, introduce yourself, guys. Naru's going to be traveling with us for awhile."

"Djahn," the brown-haired man from earlier said, looking up.

"Serick."

"Anatole."

"Revin."

"Formael."

"Oaire."

"And that's my company," Prith finished. "We've been humping it like this since we were fourteen."

"Started training, he means," Djahn commented.

"You all the same age?" Naru asked.

"Pretty much. Oaire over there is a year older; he's twenty-one," Prith replied.

"How old are you, Iventhal?" Oaire asked. His eyes were a very light shade of blue, and he had blond hair.

"I'll be sixteen in three months," Naru said.

Oaire and the person sitting next to him, Formael, exchanged glances. When they looked back at Naru, Prith was flashing them a warning look of his own.

"So you're coming of age soon," Oaire said carefully.

"Yep." Naru looked up and frowned, glancing from face to face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Prith interrupted. "It's the beans. Every other Wednesday they give you indigestion."

"Aw, why'd you tell me that?"

"What?"

"Now I'm going to think they give indigestion."

"But they do!"

"Yeah, but I didn't think so before."

"Does that matter?" Prith looked confused.

"Sure it does," Djahn interjected. "If your brain wasn't so separated from your body, Prith--"

"Alright, cut that, we're having a spar tonight!" Prith declared, hefting his empty plate and standing up.

"Just don't throw up all over me," Djahn rebutted.

Prith ignored him. "It's still light out. Who's in?"

Five of the men raised their voices affirmatively. Naru looked up at Prith, confused, but it was Anatole--a young man with brown eyes about Naru's stature and height--who pulled him up and explained things to him. He had a quiet, lilting voice.

"We're going to go to an enclosure and have an unofficial sparring session," he said.

"Yeah?" Naru looked from Djahn to Prith to Anatole. "What do you mean?"

"They're going to practice fighting."

"Why?" As soon as the question left his mouth, Naru knew the answer, and along with it a sudden itch. "Wait, can I join?" he asked.

Anatole was perplexed. "Aren't you a daire?"

"Yeah, but I learned hand-to-hand and how to use weapons and stuff from my pa."

"I expect you're rather good, then," Anatole noted.

Naru scratched his neck again. "Do all Isormines know so much about the darra? It's not this bad in Aryau."

"We learn about your kind in General Studies," Anatole clarified. They followed after the group of soldiers--which was constantly getting bigger--that was headed for the enclosure. "There's also a rather famous novel about darra that's been circulating for some time in Isormine. It's required reading for anyone training at Court."

"Wow, a book?" Naru had only seen several books in his entire lifetime; they were a rare commodity in the Aryaun countryside. "Are there lots of books in Isormine?"

"Sure, in the capital city." Anatole thought for a moment. "You've never been out of that village?"

"Well, I went as far as fifteen miles away once, but that was it."

"Hm," Anatole said. They were slowing. The tall grass had thinned and sloped down into a tiny clearing of sod and dirt pebbles. Prith was scratching a circular enclosure into the ground with his knife. When he finished, he stood up.

"Alright. Djahn and I are going first. Winner takes challenger. Who's after Djahn? Numbers!"

"One!" a man with a heavy-set brow and dark eyes called out.

"Two!"

"Three!"

Naru quickly fell into rhythm. "Four!" he shouted.

His voice and Aryaun accent didn't go unnoticed. Several of the soldiers immediately turned to look at him.

"Uh--Naru--" Prith began.

"That," a firm voice interrupted, an unyielding grip closing around Naru's upper arm, "will be enough."

Naru turned around and came face to face with flint-colored gray eyes. He stared. In the background, Prith's voice sounded distant and weak.

"Lord Eulovanic!"

Eulovanic?

Slowly, Naru wrested his arm away from the man, never looking away from his face. Eulovanic was taller than Prith, but his shoulders were less broad and his body was less thick. His skin was pale and his hair was short and black. Eulovanic let Naru pull away from the grasp on his arm, but then he calmly replaced it with a firm grip on his shoulder. They stared at each other, and faintly Naru perceived some enigmatic purpose behind those eyes.

Finally, Eulovanic broke eye contact and turned to his soldiers. "Captain, I'll be taking the daire for the night. Report to my tent in the morning for a debriefing." There was a ripple of movement through the crowd. Eulovanic swept his steady gaze over them. "Carry on. A silver crown to the winner here tonight."

There was a moment of silence and then a raucous cheer spread throughout the crowd. Only Prith didn't join in, watching with trepidation as Eulovanic led Naru, stumbling after him, away.


Next chapter should be out soon, maybe even in the next 24 hours, I'll work hard.

edit again, 9/12/07: sorry I couldn't hold up guys, very busy lately, but I do have the chapter after the next chapter written, and I'll post those two up in a doubleheader soon