After the handsome warrior had posed for Z'eke and before leaving the village, the artisan wanted to give Masu the yellow quartz talisman representing the generating member of the Great Father of All Things, that he had finished carving.
They were going to the capital of High-Coast, Ooreeve'-Wafu, climbing up the long staircase that was carved into the mountains, with sharp bends and high rock walls, interrupted occasionally by clearings for resting places. Some were small and had just a few seats cut out of the rocks, other were larger and had shelters where one could stop to drink or eat something.
The long flight of steps was divided into several ramps. It was said that it had eight thousand one hundred and ninety-two steps, a magic number. Certainly it was long and tiring. At some strategic points, marked by Ooreeve's flag - a blue square with two or four crossed swords - there were garrisons of warriors who controlled the stairway.
The three travelers had stopped in a small empty space for a short rest. Ja went to fill their leather water bag from a spring which bubbled behind a rock. Masu was lovingly sharpening and polishing his sword to make it shine, and chatted cheerfully with Toma who, taking advantage of the momentary absence of Ja, extolled to his friend his praises of the boy.
From the stairway emerged a warrior. Masu understood by his clothing that it was not a man from Ooreeve' but from Hikureeve', the territory that they yet had to visit. It was a big man, powerful and good-looking, but with a frown and a hard expression. Masu greeted him cheerfully.
The newcomer gave a sort of grunt, then said: "Get out of there, I want to rest!"
"Sorry pal, we arrived before you, so you have to look for another place, or sit on the ground," Masu said.
"On the ground, me? I am a warrior! I am a Su!" the other replied in a tone of haughtiness.
"The same as me, I too am a Su, and he is a Tu. Therefore..."
The warrior slowly took his sword from the sheath that was askew his back. Making it shine in the sun he threateningly said: "You are a Su and he's a Tu, but I am a Su and this is a Taota! Get lost!", while brandishing his sword.
Masu laughed: "And how do you know that this is not a Kaoka!" he said, standing up and brandishing his sword too.
"We will soon find out!" the newly arrived warrior exclaimed, releasing his purple cloak and kicking it far away.
"We will soon find out indeed. By the way, my name is Su Masu-Yari from Sanisu'," Masu said. accepting the challenge and assuming a fighting stance, after getting rid of his coat.
"And mine is Su Rave-Suki' of Hikureeve'!"
For a moment Masu had a doubt. He touched the ruby dangling around his neck, but it felt cold, so this really was a warrior. He was simply a bully who needed a good lesson. The two warriors held their swords firmly upright in both hands, a little to the right, parallel to the body and with the tip upwards. They were moving in a circle, facing each other, looking into each other's eyes.
At that moment a humming Ja returned with the dripping leather bag. Toma immediately went to stop him and, almost protecting him with his body, drove him back into a corner. Rave's eyes flickered for a moment to weigh up the newcomer and Toma's movement, then they fixed again on Masu's eyes.
"Till the last drop of blood..." Rave announced with a sneer. "And then I will fuck those two."
"Till the first drop of blood..." Masu said. "And then I will fuck you in public three times, once for me and twice for my friends," he added cheerfully.
"Till the last drop of blood," Rave countered.
"Till the first drop of blood will do, because before you see a drop of my blood, you will lose your sword, and you'll be in my hands."
Rave laughed: "OK, if I see one drop of your blood, you have lost and I will disembowel you, and those two will be my reward. If you make me lose my sword, I'll be in your hands and you guys can do to me whatever you like."
"I cannot decide for them," Masu said, while the two were still facing and studying each other.
"But you will not be able do anything for them, once I killed you," Rave said with a smirk.
Suddenly Rave threw himself at Masu, who cleverly dodged the blow and resumed a defensive position before his opponent could turn around and face him again. A series of feints, assaults, pirouettes and clangs of heavy steel blades were alternated by long periods of time when the two men were facing and observing each other.
It was as if each of them accumulated energy and then released it suddenly in a vigorous and brief confrontation. It seemed that each of the two warriors always knew when, how and where to attack the other. It seemed that they were of equal skill, strength and value. Toma watched them fascinated, but the young slave even more so, because he had never seen two warriors in a real fight.
Sometimes the two warriors attacked while launching strong and dry shouts, sometimes in perfect silence broken only by the clash of their blades. Sometimes they seemed to launch an attack with the full weight of their bodies, sometimes they just made the blades twirl around their arms. But nothing seemed to really happen. It felt more like a series of skirmishes of a training, as Toma had seen many times, than a real duel.
Sometimes the clashes consisted of a rapid series of alternating attacks and defenses, in which the swords were whirling with such speed as to become almost invisible. At other times it was like a melee of gigantic strength but of short duration, after which the two men separated and continued running around the other one with measured steps.
With a shout Rave threw himself on Masu, lowering his sword from top left to bottom right in a strong blow. Masu moved away less than a step, arching his body. Then he righted himself, his sword flashed briefly, and everything seemed to stop for a moment.
Rave turned slowly toward Masu, watching the trickle of blood running down his right forearm.
"It's just a scratch. And I still have my sword," he said, but with a slightly shaken air.
"Yours, not mine, therefore..." Masu said, while he continued to study the other.
Again Rave threw himself on him with a yell, downing the sword again with violence, and with both hands. Masu answered with a blow from the bottom up, suddenly lowering his body to give more power to his strike.
The two blades clashed with a strong ringing sound, with sparks springing from the steel. Then Rave's sword flew away, rotating high in the sky, and fell behind Masu with a loud clang. And suddenly all came to an end.
"Down on your knees!" Masu ordered, bringing his sword vertically to the right of his body, as in the beginning of the battle.
Rave's eyes were wide open, he still seemed incredulous. Then, as he knelt slowly, he asked: "How did you do that?"
"Don't you see? Didn't you know that in a downward stroke the hands necessarily loosen the grip on the hilt, while from the bottom up, the grip becomes stronger? The strength of a downward stroke is entirely initial, that of a upward stroke is entirely final. I'm surprised you do not know, Di-Re! "
The defeated warrior tensed his muscles and eyes: "What did you call me?" he asked in a roar.
"Di-Re. You said that if I won, I could do with you what I wanted, right? Good, I make you a slave, a Di. And you can thank the gods that I don't make you a Du, an animal..."
"You cannot, I'm a Su!"
"I can, I won. And now I'll first butt fuck you, then I'll take you to the city where I'll sell you. This is my right of war and the pact of the duel we made."
"My land has not declared war with yours, so you can't..." Rave said with a look of horror in his eyes.
"We're both in a foreign land, and this is a war between you and me. You have declared it, so now you will have to accept the consequences."
"Rather... kill me!" the defeated warrior protested.
"I don't like to fuck a dead man's ass. Undress!"
"Kill me!" the warrior insisted.
"A slave has no right to give orders or make requests to his master. Naked!"
The man slowly obeyed. Meanwhile Toma had gone to pick up the heavy sword of the defeated warrior.
Rave took off his armor's breastplate and Masu kicked it away from the man with a stroke of his foot. Ja picked it up and took it far from the two warriors.
When Rave was naked, other travelers had appeared. They stopped to watch the scene, and inquired about what was happening.
Masu freed his member from his clothes, knelt behind the defeated warrior and, in front of everybody, began to fuck him in the ass with strong thrusts. Rave closed his eyes to endure in silence that well deserved humiliation. After Masu had emptied himself into the man, he stood up and readjusted his clothes. He looked at his opponent, who was still on all fours.
"Ok Rave, I'll save you the other two fucks. Your sword and breastplate are mine. You can get up and put on your clothes. Go away from here, and make sure that I don't ever have to meet you again."
"Didn't you say that... you were going to sell me as a slave?" the man asked him uncertainly.
"No, although I would have the right. I'll leave you your freedom, man. Your name is still Rave, two syllables only... It's up to you to see if you can be accepted in one of the classes of free men. You will become a merchant or a craftsman, or maybe even a producer, if someone wants to adopt you. But never again a warrior. In that case I will claim my rights over you."
"But what can I do if I can't be a warrior? I am forty-five years old, I cannot do anything else," the defeated man said. Finally clothed, he was standing up and looked Masu in his eyes, imploring: "Why don't you kill me?"
"Because I want you to think for the rest of your life about how dangerous it is, to be as arrogant as you were with us," Masu replied dryly, shoving his sword into its sheath.
One of the bystanders came up to the two men: "I am a merchant. It would suit me to have this man in my service. He is strong, even if you've defeated him. Give him to me, warrior!"
"I said he's a free man, I cannot give him to you. But if he wants to follow you, if you offer him a fair deal, I have no doubt that he will come with you."
Rave agreed to follow the merchant. The knot of people broke up and the three friends were alone again in the small clearing. Masu drank in abundance from the water bag. Then he looked at the things he had kept of the defeated warrior: the breastplate was beautiful, the sword well made. He took the big topaz from the hilt and entrusted it Toma.
"Keep this beautiful stone. You can sell the sword and the breastplate to some warrior in the city. Let's go!"
Ja approached him. "You're strong, Masu... and also generous," he said while they resumed to climb the long flight of steps cut into the rock.
"Strength is not everything; Rave relied too heavily on it, so he lost. As for being generous... Rave has been humiliated enough, without making him also lose his freedom. The winner must never win too big."
"But it was your right to make of him a slave," Ja said.
"So it is... In war, the warriors who are defeated and are still alive become slaves to the victors, it is true. For this reason a warrior usually prefers to fight to death. But are you happy to be a slave, Ja? "
"I always have been a slave, but since my master is Tu Toma-Bekere, now I am very happy..."
"Because you're in love," the beautiful warrior said with a smile.
Ja blushed and said: "A slave has no right to fall in love... to fall in love with his master."
"But you're in love, you can't deny it," Masu said with kindness.
Ja did not answer, but his eyes shone and answered for him.
Then said: "You know, Su Masu, when that Rave said that he is forty-five years old, I was thinking about your story..."
"My story? I don't see the relation."
"Well, what did the sorceress say to you? The first blessing was that you had to win four ages, and you have convinced or defeated the fifteen years old farmer, the thirty years old merchant, the warrior of forty-five and the craftsman of sixty, the four ages of man, 15-30-45-60... Then the third blessing said that you had to join four colors, and they are your ruby, Toma's lapis lazuli, the yellow quartz talisman, and the topaz from the hilt of the warrior... Then, you have won three of the four elements, the iron of Rave, the fire of the dragon, the water of the storm... what you still need is only to win the air. And of the four points that you should join, you already have three: in fact you were born in the west, Toma in the north and I in the east, so you only miss the south..."
"And the four problems to be resolved?" Masu asked, amused but not very convinced.
Ja scratched his head for a while: "Those are probably yet to come... They are the last of the five blessings, right? But the two blessings that are already completed have certainly canceled two of the curses: now you can love and you can stop in some place. With the other two you can also have wealth and your own home..."
"And the fifth blessing?" Masu asked again, to see how far the imagination of the young slave would go.
"I don't know... The one that will tell you who you really are... so I really don't know," Ja said, slightly puzzled.
Masu shrugged and smiled, giving no weight to the words of the young slave.
At last they arrived at the gate of the capital city. Beyond this, after the warriors on guard let them enter, they found themselves at the foot of another long staircase leading straight to the castle of the Shiti of that territory. The castle stood slender and elegant, the facade adorned with a decreasing series of graceful arches and loggias. For each arch on the ground floor a double lancet window corresponded on the second floor, a triple lancet on the third and four on the fourth. The stairway was interrupted by a number of large squares, from where parallel pathways branched out to the various parts of the city.
The three friends began to climb the flight of stairs and saw that every step was adorned with a different mosaic of white and blue stones, representing various human activities, from domestic to war, from crafts to the game of love, from the work of producers to parties...
Each square, from which branched off one road to the north-west and one to the south-east, had a well in a corner and four trees, two on each side. Ja noted that one well, two streets - each with an elegant entrance arch - and four trees, were magic numbers. Toma then pointed out that there were also eight stone benches, two next to each tree, so the series 1-2-4-8 was complete.
They had come to the fourth square when they saw, sitting on a bench, a blind bard who was singing and playing a horizontal harp. There was a knot of people around him: children sitting on the stone floor, young people on one side, the elderly on the other, adult couples in the center. All were in complete silence, engrossed in listening to the blind singer's sweet voice.
The three friends went to the young people's side and slowly managed to move to the front row.
The blind bard announced: "Eighth poem, eighth section, seventh canto, first stanza: how the journey was nearing its end." Then he began to play his harp and sing.
Masu looked at him attentively, even fascinated. The boy was slightly younger than himself, wearing a short tunic and tight pants in the color of green leaves, and a lilac cloak that set off his fair skin nicely. His blond hair was like gold, his eyes of an intense blue that, apart from their immobility, didn't make one think that the young bard was blind.
His long slender fingers were plucking the strings lightly, almost caressing them. He was regularly moving the bone bridges that stretched out the strings, sometimes to get mild and pure notes, sometimes for a ringing sound, sometimes whispered, sometimes the purest, and sometimes dampened. The beautiful voice of the blind singer chanted the lyrics, while he accompanied the music in harmony or in counterpoint, with one foot lightly tapping the rhythm.
His face was serene and of great beauty, the nose perfect, his beautiful soft lips in the color of light coral.
Masu felt his heart beating in his chest with increasing force, unable to take his eyes from the blind bard, who seemed as beautiful as an apparition.
The singer played a final chord and his voice fell silent. The people who had been listening began to put coins into a bowl, that was placed in front of the blind bard's feet. Slowly and quietly they dispersed to resume their business.
Masu still was frozen in his place, watching the beautiful singer. Then, when the three of them were left almost alone in the square, he stretched out a hand to Toma. His friend understood, took some coins from his purse and put them onto the palm of the warrior's hand. Masu looked at them and slightly moved his hands as if to ask for more. Toma added a few.
Masu then approached the bard and put the coins into his bowl.
"Thank you, warrior. You are very generous," the singer said.
Masu looked at him with surprise: "Are you not blind? How do you know that I am a warrior?"
"Yes, I am blind. But you see, when someone loses his sight from a tender age, the other senses acquire greater power. Moreover, you certainly know that bards have some of the powers of white magic. So, what the light of my own eyes can not grasp, my senses of smell, hearing, taste and touch know how to see. And the eyes of my soul know how to admire."
"So what in me told you that I am a warrior?"
"The smell of your leather clothing, the rustle of your moving body and your steps, the faint tinkling of your cloak against your armor, and your sword in its scabbard. And now with the sound of your voice, I also know that you must be a couple of years older than me, that you are strong, vigorous... you're relentless and determined..."
"And what else do you know?" Masu asked in a courteous tone, increasingly fascinated by that beautiful boy.
"That I would like to know you better. You're not from here, you are from Sanisu'. Your accent tells me that, nothing mysterious," the singer said with a smile.
"And do you know also my name?" the handsome warrior asked.
The singer had a little pearly laugh: "No, not that. But... I know that you have black hairs and dark skin, or better tanned."
"Yes... and how can you tell?"
" The smell of your skin and hair tells me. It is mild, but now I can feel it, although it is mostly covered by the smell of your clothes."
"My name is Masu-Yari, I am a Su... and you?"
"My name is Suja-Li-Kuda, but I am known as the bard Kuda. You can call me that. Why do you not sit here next to me? And also your friends, the Lord and his slave... Are you going to introduce them to me ? "
"How do you know that I have two friends and one is called Toma-Bekere and is a Tu and the other is his Di by the name Ja?" Masu asked sitting down beside him and even more amazed.
Kuda smiled again: "I heard the sound of their feet on the stone floor, and I smelled them. One has leather shoes and brocade clothes, so he's definitely a Lord. The other is barefoot and stands behind the Lord, his clothes smelling of hemp..."
"He could have been a producer..."
"No, I would have smelled the fields and cattle, or the sea and fish, or that of the mines... he can not be a producer. Merchants and craftsmen never go barefoot, artisans have the smell of their activities, so..."
"It's really amazing! You are amazing... and very beautiful!" Masu said, almost in a whisper.
"Can I... touch your face, Su Masu ?" the bard asked.
"Touch my face?"
"Yes, to understand how you are... My fingers will allow my mind to paint your portrait," Kuda explained.
"Yes, of course..."
The singer raised his hands and placed them on the face of the handsome warrior without missing it a single inch. Then he touched him in a slow, long stroke, almost like the hands of a potter who molds the shape of his work.
"You are very beautiful, Su Masu..." murmured the bard. "And also your heart is beautiful..."
"My heart? How can you say that?"
"The quality of a man's heart is reflected in his face and in the sound of his voice, as well as in the meaning of his words..."
Masu trembled slightly under Kuda's fingertips. Those light touches exploring his features were arousing in him very deep emotions of incredible beauty.
"You want me, Masu..." whispered the bard.
"Yes..."
"But you don't only want my body... You also want my heart and soul... You want all of me," Kuda added, his voice even lower and slightly quivering.
"Yes," Masu murmured, completely won over by the boy.
"And I want you as much, and in the same way," the bard said. "I have waited for you all my life..."
"You... were waiting for me?" the handsome warrior asked. He felt his heart was singing.
"I didn't know when, how and where I would meet you. But I waited for you, and now I know that you are the one whom I hoped to meet in my travels some day."
Toma and Ja looked at them and listened in silence, motionless, hardly breathing, because they felt that something prodigious was happening before their eyes.
"Kuda, you're using your magic on me..." Masu said.
"No, Masu, not me. It's our souls that are doing wonders, pushing you to me and me to you. Our hearts are singing together."
"Yes, singing..." the handsome warrior confirmed, feeling overwhelmed with emotion. "And I... I have never felt so naked, so defenseless, so helpless, yet strong as now, here, beside you."
"Love is what makes us so... strong and helpless."
"Kuda... do you want to be mine?"
"I am."
"And I yours?"
"You are."
"Do you love me, Kuda?"
"I've always loved you, even before I met you..."
Ja had a little restrained sob.
"What's up?" Kuda asked with a smile, turning his face towards him.
"Can I ask you a question, bard?" the young slave asked in a whisper.
"Sure you can, Ja."
"Where were you born?"
"To the south, on the border between Ooreeve' and Hikureeve'..."
"You see, Su Masu, he's the fourth! He is the south amongst the four of us," the slave exclaimed triumphantly.
This time Masu began to believe the interpretations of the boy and nodded.
Kuda asked what they were talking about, so Masu told him his whole story.
Kuda nodded and said: "Now I understand... Yes, I now truly understand..."
"What?" Toma and Masu asked almost as with one voice.
"You know the Epic of the Lords of Lords?"
"Yes, I've had the opportunity to hear various pieces, by some singers," Toma said.
"And you know how this epic was born? How it is stuctured?"
"As far as I know it was written by several generations of blind singers, and not yet complete," Toma said.
"Exactly. When it is complete, the epic will consist of 32768 lines, gathered in 4096 stanzas of eight lines each, which constitute 512 cantos, organized into 64 sections, making the 8 long poems. It was not really written by the blind singers... each stanza, the words and the music, miraculously appeared on the wooden bottom of the bards' harps, like they were etched there by lightning... The singers learned them by heart and handed them down from master to pupil. Each teacher received from the Gods some more new lines, little by little, sometimes a few stanzas, sometimes even a full canto. And I received the sixty-fourth section, that speaks of the new..." The blind bard's voice became unsteady, and he fell silent.
"Of the new what?" Toma drove him.
"Of the new chapter of the epic," Kuda concluded.
"Do you know more than thirty thousand lines by heart?" Ja asked with admiration.
"With blind bards, also the memory has special characteristics," Kuda explained. He continued: "But there's one thing I do not understand, that I cannot figure out... The day that my teacher sent me into the world by myself, he made me learn a sequence of eight notes, without words and strangely dissonant, and told me to never forget them... He told me that if I forgot some part of the epic, it would be a serious problem, but if I forgot those eight notes, it would be a tragedy. This he was told by his teacher, who had learned it from his teacher. But I don't know what sense this makes..."
After a brief silence the beautiful bard added, thoughtfully: "Another thing my teacher told me: that I should not look for a pupil. When I asked him why, he told me not to worry, that one day I would understand."
"Are you blind from birth?" Ja asked.
"No, when I was three years old, a black harpy sat down on the side of the bed where I slept. His urine splashed on my face and I lost my sight. When I was eight my parents, who were artisans, confided me to my master, who wanted to take me with him. I was a useless child for my parents, because without sight I could not continue their work, and there were seven other children. So my teacher was to be my father and mother, my tutor and teacher, my comrade and support, until I had to take his place when he died in Chuma, in the great desert of Hirosawa. There I had to leave him..."
"What was the name of your teacher?" Masu asked, stroking his hand lightly, feeling the pain that accompanied Kuda's last words.
"Baz'e-Li-Suja. And his master was Shee-Li-Baz'e..."
"Therefore each of you has in his name the name their master," Ja remarked.
"Yes, this is so, because each of us continue their work when we take their place."
"Where do you live, Suja-Li-Kuda?" asked Toma.
"I am a guest of the Shiti of this land, and he will certainly host you too. Do you want to follow me? Come with me to the Zafu-Kaida, the Castle of the Stairways."
"Can we share a room, you and I?" Masu asked, lacing his fingers with those of the bard.
"Certainly yes," Kuda replied with a smile. Then he added, almost in a whisper: "But I'm still a virgin, I never slept with a man..."
"Were you not your master's lover?" Masu asked, while they were climbing the stairs side by side.
"No, I never slept with a man, and neither with a woman," Kuda softly replied. "Maybe it's because... I was waiting for you, Masu."
The handsome warrior felt even more moved than before. Almost ashamed he said: "I however... maybe I did it with too many men..."
"Good. Therefore you will guide me, Masu," the blind bard replied, carefree, his fingers clutching those of the handsome warrior.