XV
‘Abih!’ Reih cried as she burst in, ‘Come, quickly, the boy Harlek is waking up!’ Me and Rasm looked at each other in surprise, and together we rushed out of the room. The rush of adrenalin had completely stopped the dizziness.
I came into Majy’s room to see the Harlek sitting on the edge of the table, holding his head in his hands. He looked up as we entered the room. A look of astonished recognition swept over his face. ‘Áōū!’ he said, ‘Áōū ∑ē®ē īn †˙ē Òō†ē¬!’ which sounded something like ‘Ew! Ew erew ni et lotel!’
‘What did he say?’ Majy asked, and Reih answered, ‘He said “You! You were in the Hotel!” Was he talking to you, Abih?’ I nodded, ‘Yes, he was a manager in the hotel I was staying in.
His eyes flicked down to Reih, and he smiled a little. His smile faded as Majy told everyone excluding me to leave the room.
‘Can you understand english?’ I asked him, (in english), and he nodded. ‘Can you speak english?’ I asked him, but this time he shook his head, then said ‘Small. . . er- small- bits.’
‘OK, maybe just talk in your native tongue,’ Majy said, ‘and Abih can translate.’
And so, the interrogation began. (Although we didn’t gain very much information, because the Harlek himself didn’t know much.)
His name was Kaj, pronounced Cage. He was sent here with a small group of others to document who had what powers. Why, he didn’t know. The other Harlek’s name was Zara, she was the most skilled Harlek warrior in history.
When I asked him about the notebooks writing themselves he laughed and said that they had a spell on them so that whenever somebody wrote in one, all of the others updated themselves. He even gave us an example: he flicked through the notebooks until they were both open to Hezeg’s page, then, in one of them he wrote Í˚ī¬¬: ıō≈īn© (Skill: Boxing), as he was writing it, the same words appeared in the other one!
‘Ew es?’ he said, ‘Tat si we et koobtons eva et leps no met.’
‘You see?’ I translated, ‘That is why the notebooks have the spell on them.’
‘I do see,’ Majy replied, ‘That’s a very clever way of letting each other know what powers we have without having to rediscover it all over again if one of the notebooks is lost.’ he observed
There was a groan behind us. Kaj looked up and a huge smile spread over his face. ‘Zara!’ he cried, ‘Oh, Zara, raw ekawa!’ Me and Majy watched as Kaj ran over and they embraced each other in a tight hug. When they eventually broke apart Kaj explained, ‘Zara si em retsis.’ Which meant, ‘Zara is my sister.’
I eyed her nervously. Who knew if she had any more weapons hidden away on her. Zara looked at me with unimpressed recognition.
‘Zat “Hezeg” haz a very good punch.’ she said, her accent slurring her words, ‘And az I have seen, and still can see, he broke my brotherz noze.’ then, to Kaj, she said, ‘Yal nowd, an E liw skif ti.’
‘What did she say?’ Majy whispered in my ear. ‘She told him to lie down so she can fix it.’ I whispered back.
Kaj lay down on the table and Zara held her hand over his face and said, ‘Peese,’ which is the harlek way of saying sleep, which is ironic, since it sounds like peace. Immediately Kaj’s eyes closed and he fell asleep. Zara placed her two forefingers on either side of his nose and gently slid them down, straightening it in the process.
When she had finished straightening his nose Zara gave Kaj a slap on his cheek to wake him up. He woke with a start, and almost instantly put his hands to his nose to feel it. When he felt that it was straight and back to normal he sighed and said, ‘Ahh, that feels much better!’ only, it sounded more like, ‘Ahh, tat sleef chum reteb!’
I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly. ‘Sorry if Hezeg hurt you. . . or anything, Zara.’
She dipped her head in thanks. ‘Thank you. I am grateful for your concern, but no, he did not. Although I vould like to have my Swobsorc back.’ she said, pointing to her crossbow that was sitting on the desk behind Me and Majy. I glanced at Majy, who sighed and said, ‘As long as you promise to do absolutely no harm.’
Zara nodded in respect. ‘E esimorp nopa em rotsecnas tat E liw od on mar. I give you my vword of honor.’ she said. Majy stepped out of the way and Zara came forward. She picked the bow up with loving hands and whispered quietly to it, ‘Nekawa!’ Which meant ‘Awaken!’
‘Thank you.’ she said, ‘Now if you dont mind I vould quite like to meet some ov zese people.’
Majy sighed and said hesitantly, ‘Well I suppose so. If you don’t brake anything.’
Zara nodded. ‘Emoc no, Kaj, tels’ og.’
Kaj was sitting on the edge of the table flicking through his notebook. ‘Kaj!’ Zara said again when he didn’t hear, ‘Tel’s og!’ Kaj looked up with a start. ‘Huh?’
‘Tels’ og! Ewll’ ees emos vo et sretho.’
He glanced uncertainly at Majy then stood up and followed Zara out of the room.
When they had left there was a moments silence then Majy was asked me, ‘What was she saying when she gave me her “Vword of honor”? It sounded very formal, but I have no idea what she said.’
‘ “I promise upon my ancestors that I will do no harm.” ’ I answered.
‘Oh, well that’s good. For all I knew she could have been saying “Because if this I have an eternal grudge against you” and than lied about the “word of honor” part.’ he laughed.
‘That certainly wouldn’t end well.’
There was another moments silence then I said, ‘Do you really think they should be roaming around with all the others unsupervised? You never know if someone will get offensive.’
‘True,’ Majy said, ‘I hadn’t thought about that. do you want to trail them for me?’
I nodded, ‘I suppose.’
