The Saga of Hai-Cherrir Tah Kee

By Nancy Hand

Kee, born in the highlands of Sanna Toh, crosses the Great River to freedom in Ekka Ka. There he meets Ai El and accepts her as his rider. As he joins her in battle he learns much about the war, Therins, and Beasts. His efforts to help his people lead to an end to the war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nancy Hand
• Release date: Jul 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005401764

Nancy Hand

In the course of years I've held a number of jobs (bookkeeper, sales clerk, computer network engineer) while trying to launch a career (jeweler, sculptor, knitter). In the process I've heard a lot of stories, read a lot of stories, and discovered I like to tell stories. My books were written "for fun". I hope you enjoy them

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The Saga of Hai-Cherrir Tah Kee

by Nancy Hand

Copyright 2022

Published by Nancy Hand at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either fictional or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is coincidental.

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Aeah was tired and hungry. The pregnancy had been difficult. In comparison, the birth had almost seemed easy. Now she lay on the stone floor of her room recovering, hoping the tashtk would arrive soon with food and water.

She looked at her new infant. It was a boy, with pale blue-gray skin and dark blue eyes. The tiny scales along his back were a clearer blue than his skin. Her own skin was darker, mottled from lack of care. She hoped this child would fare better in life.

The tashtk arrived just as the infant struggled to his feet. He watched as the infant began to explore the room. Then he disappeared. The tashtk returned with buckets of food and water for mother and child. Then he left again.

Aeah shoved herself to her feet being careful not to roll onto the child. She began to gulp down the food. It tasted terrible, rotten leftovers from the bershak's kitchen, but it helped to fill her belly. She watched the child as he poked his nose into things and chittered like a Therin. She thought of names for him. None seemed adequate to convey her hopes. Finally she shook her head, I'll call you Kee because of that terrible noise you're making.

The child stopped what he was doing and came over to look up at her. He didn't understand her words but the sound in his head was fascinating. She continued to talk to him as she ate. Nothing important, just a mother's hopes for her child. Probably nothing he'd remember.

The tashkt returned with the bershak. Aeah didn't like the bershak, the owner of the farm where she lived. As near as she could tell, the tashkt was no more fond of him. They were both considered part of the bershak's property, unable to leave or change anything about their situation.

The tashkt and bershak were both Therin. They walked on two feet and wore clothing. Otherwise, they were very different. The tashkt was a telepath. He didn't realize that's what it was called, but he understood when Aeah talked to him. He liked Aeah and her children far more than he liked most Therins. The bershak, owner of the farm and everything on it, had no ability as a telepath. He thought the tashkts were crazy, not quite people, fit only for caring for the animals on his farm.

Aeah and her child were Beasts. Though capable of walking on two feet, they usually walked on four. The only clothing they wore were saddles and harnesses. The bershak thought they were called Beasts because they were animals. He didn't know the real reason was because Therins were incapable of voicing the correct sound for what the Beasts called themselves. He also didn't know one of their words for Therins was far less polite.

The bershak was excited to see Kee. The pale skin was unusual and would garner attention at sale. And the child was large, giving promise of an imposing mount for some fighter. Yes, he'd get a good price for this one. He just had to feed him for the next ten years, until he was old enough to saddle.

Kee spent the next five days in the barren room with his mother. He learned a bit about talking from his head as he experimented with making sounds with his mouth. Aeah laughed when he scared himself with his own bellows.

On the sixth day after his birth the tashkt tied a rope around his neck and led him out of his mother's room. Kee was led down a darkened hall and pushed into an empty room. The floor was stone, the lower parts of the walls were stone, the upper walls and the ceiling were wood. It was cold. Aeah's room had been warmer perhaps because her massive body produced so much heat.

The door was slammed shut leaving the child to cry alone. Kee used his head-voice to contact his mother. She offered sad but soothing sounds. She couldn't get out of her room to help him.

The next morning Kee's training began. He was taken out of the empty room by the tashkt and led in circles around an empty yard. Then he was taken back to his room and left alone until the afternoon when the process was repeated. In the evening he'd be given food and drink. The process was repeated each day.

In the quiet times he'd hear his mother talking to him. Gradually, he learned to understand her words. He also felt things - she was hungry, she'd been beaten, she was being forced to bear another child - that she didn't speak of and he didn't quite understand.

At the start of his second year, another voice entered his head. This voice was deeper and stronger. It spoke of those things he might expect in the years to come - a bridle on his head, a saddle and Therin rider on his back, the sounds and smells of battle.

At the start of his third year, the rope around his neck was replaced by a halter on his head. There was no bit in his mouth but the halter was never removed. Now, instead of walking around the empty yard he was taken to a larger field where the tashkt held the halter and ran beside Kee. They ran across soft blue grass when the weather was nice. When the weather was cold, they ran through snow. Often they ran through pouring rain. There was a single tree in the middle of the field. The leaves changed from blue to purple before they fell off in the fall. Sometimes, on warm days, they rested under the canopy of leaves.

Shortly after the start of his fourth year Kee heard his mother screaming. The sound bounced off the stones in the building. He tried contacting her but there was no answer. The other voice told him to wait and try again in the morning. He spent the night pacing his room, trying to find her with his head. He felt a ball of pain hanging in the air around him but it had no voice.

By the time the tashkt arrived Kee was frantic. He lunged for the open door. The tashkt grabbed the halter and tried to restrain the child but couldn't. The child was taller, heavier, and much stronger than the tashkt. He had four large feet with heavy claws, the tashkt was an old and skinny Therin who walked on two skinny feet. Kee dragged the tashkt down the hall to his mother's room.

The door was open. The bershak and two other Therins were standing in the room near Aeah. She was lying on her side, unmoving. There was a bloody gash running the length of her belly. One of the Therins was holding an infant. Kee didn't fully understand what he was seeing. It was his first experience of death. It was his mother.

The bershak yelled and gestured at the tashkt and Kee. His anger was obvious. Kee pushed forward anyway. He wanted his mother to wake up, to talk to him, to tell him this was a bad dream. Instead one of the Therins hit him across the face with a stick. He pulled back and started to attack only to have the stick jabbed into the soft skin of his throat. The tashkt and another Therin fought to pull him out of the room. It took three Therins to push, pull, and prod the child back into his room. Then they locked the door and left him alone.

The other voice contacted him with words of comfort. Kee knew the voice as Bwuer, an older male. He'd never seen Bwuer but there was something cold and uncaring about the voice. Something that made the comforting words feel false. Still, it was the only other voice he knew.

The tashkt didn't deliver food that night. In the morning there were two Therins at the door. One was a younger tashkt the other was the bershak's son. The son, Tuir, was a few years older than Kee and had dreams of becoming a fighter and joining the war against Ekka Ka. He decided to start his training by beating Kee into submission. As the tashkt held Kee's head, Tuir used a stick to hit him. He stopped only when his father arrived and pulled him away from the frightened child. The bershak was afraid Tuir would damage the child enough to lower his price in market.

The tashkt waited until Tuir and his father left before tending to Kee's injuries. He offered comforting sounds, words Kee didn't understand, as he worked. He also managed to sneak in some extra food, to make up for the missed meals.

Over the next five years Kee learned many things. With the help of the tashkt he learned to understand the chittering sounds of the Therin language. He learned to tolerate weight on his back and a bit in his mouth. He learned those like him were called Beasts. He learned a little about the war between Ekka Ka and Sanna Toh. And he learned to hide his anger.

At the start of his tenth year the tashkt introduced him to the saddle. It was a strange thing made of leather and wood with straps and decorative studs. It was far heavier than the worn out furs he'd carried on his back before. When it was put on his back, Kee stood up and let it slide to the floor. The tashkt explained what it was for and that Kee needed to accept the saddle or Tuir would beat him. Kee liked the tashkt and didn't want either of them to be beaten.

Kee wasn't yet full grown. Still, he was tall and muscular which made him look older. The scales that ran down his neck, across his shoulders and back, and across his rump had grown thick and heavy. They offered some protection against Tuir's repeated beatings. The skin on his legs and feet had thickened. The bony crest that ran across the top of his skull behind his eyes had grown wide and deep.

It was at the start of Kee's eleventh year that Tuir took ownership. Tuir's father had resisted giving him the Beast. Kee's pale color and massive build had piqued the interest of a number of buyers and the bershak wanted to make back some of the money he'd spent in raising the Beast. But Tuir was insistent. He used some of the skills he'd developed by beating Kee to convince his father.

Tuir was not a good rider. Instead of using his legs to hold on, he used the reins, tearing at Kee's mouth. If Kee made a sudden turn Tuir would fall out of the saddle. Then he'd beat Kee for throwing him.

Tuir used some of his father's money to buy himself a fancy sword and bow. Then he went to the closest army camp and enlisted as a fighter. It was early fall when they arrived at the camp.

Kee found himself surrounded by other Beasts. He'd never shared a room, now four Beasts were crammed into one room. At twelve he was the youngest in his room. The oldest was forty-five. They were polite but not patient. They told him about going on long trips, of battles, and other things.

The Beasts had limited freedom in the camp. There weren't enough tashkts to care for all of them. Army officers demanded special care for their mounts which meant others got less care. Tuir was a new recruit so Kee got little care but was able to wander the camp and watch the fighters.

As he watched the recruits practice with their weapons Kee realized Tuir was no more proficient with his bow and sword than he was at riding. He heard others, Beast and Therin, laughing at Tuir's pretensions. Some were making bets as to how long he'd last in battle.

Late in the winter, when the snow was at its deepest, a number of fighters were ordered to go to a camp far to the southwest. Since they needed to be there before the spring thaw they left immediately.

Kee and Tuir were among those sent south. They left the snowy highlands and trudged south. There were perhaps a hundred mounted fighters followed by seven supply wagons. The supply wagons were drawn by freumms; large, stupid mammals with long orange fur. There were almost a hundred Therins to take care of the Beasts and freumms, cook food, and maintain the food supplies.

Most of the fighters were new recruits. There were a few older Therins, seasoned fighters, who tried to keep order. Tuir kept pushing Kee toward these older men so he could talk to them. He was intent on painting himself as an excellent fighter worthy of their attention. He hoped to be made an officer before they reached the southern camp.

Kee apologized to the Therin's mount, I'm sorry. I have a fool for a rider.

The response rumbled in his head, You should be careful young one. A rider as foolish as yours can get you killed.

Could you offer any advice?

If he freezes in battle you have two choices: bring him back to our side, or freeze with him.

What is the other side?

Ekka Ka, across the Great River. A Therin realm said to be ruled by females.

What would happen if I went across the river?

That I don't know.

Kee would have continued the conversation but the other rider whipped his mount to get away from Tuir. Kee slowed down and rejoined the new recruits.

The weather was already warming when they arrived at the new camp. The Beasts were shown to their new rooms as the Therins were directed to theirs. Kee couldn't see much difference between this place and the last one, he was still crammed into a room with three other Beasts.

The new camp was larger than the previous one. There was a Therin village nearby where fighters went to drink and cause trouble. Some of the recruits lost their lives in the village before ever making it to the battlefield. Their mounts were then given to someone else. Somehow, Tuir managed to stay out of such fights.

Kee was always polite to Beasts just as he was careful around Therins. His quiet manner and knowledge of Therin language made him helpful to some of the other Beasts. A few days after arriving in camp Kee found himself teaching Therin to several others.

They stayed in the camp for two weeks before they were given orders to travel to the river. It was only a three day trip.

As they rounded a bend in the road Kee looked up. They'd been traveling through a forest where it was cold, damp, and dark. Suddenly it was much lighter. Kee could feel warm sunshine on his face as he looked ahead. The road continued down a barren slope onto a broad, flat plain. Far ahead he could see a river glinting in the bright sunshine. Beyond the river he could see tall, craggy hills.

Below them, on the plain, was a massive encampment. There were tents and rope pens filled with freumms and other animals that would be killed for food. There were a hundred or more supply wagons. There were hundreds of Therins and Beasts, yelling, talking, singing. There were no permanent structures of wood or stone. The place smelled of mold, dead animals, and dirty Therins.

Tuir and the others led their mounts toward the edge of the encampment. Saddles and bridles were removed and put on racks nearby. Then the Beasts were tied to a long rail. The ropes led from their halters to the rail which gave them little room to move. A row of Beasts on the eastern side of the rail faced an equal number of Beasts tied on the western side of the rail. Tashkts pushed between the beasts with buckets of food and