Wayfarer (Wanderlust 2)

Chapter Thirty-One

It was early in the morning when Soren woke up to Ara tossing and turning. Soren and Tanden were sleeping on the floor, and they had given Ara the couch. Soren lay in the dark, listening to him. The previous evening, after Ara had fallen asleep, Soren, Tanden and Jale had quietly talked about him. Morcean slaves in Till were apparently very common. Jale explained that a few decades earlier, the Morcean city Eith had been hit hard by a hurricane. Eith was fairly close to Tallen Tiya, just across the River Nir. Desperate for money and resources, Eith had resorted to selling orphans to Till.

The first wave of Morcean orphans had opened up a lucrative, if somewhat looked down upon, trading market between Till and Eith. The city of Eith had never again been involved in the trading, but plenty of people in Eith knew they could make a lot of money by smuggling children across the Nir.

Ara's Tallenese name made Jale guess that he had been very young when it happened. Possibly sold by his family, or possibly kidnapped. Either option just made Soren feel more protective over him.

He suspected Ara was awake, and briefly thought of waking Tanden up to help translate, only to remember that Tanden had taken a dose of healer's tea before falling asleep. It would be impossible to wake him up. Soren shifted and tried to get comfortable again, then he realized that Ara was quietly crying.

Soren sat up. He wasn't sure exactly how he was supposed to help when they couldn't talk to each other, but he was going to try. "Ara?"

It took a moment for Ara to reply, whispering simply, "Soren?"

"Come here." He patted the pile of blankets beside him, hoping that Ara would understand.

Ara brought his blankets with him. He sat beside Soren with them wrapped around his shoulders. Embers still glowed in the fireplace, so it was fairly warm in the room. The blankets seemed more like a shield. He didn't look at Soren and dabbed at his eyes with his sleeve.

"You're safe here," Soren said, even though he knew Ara wouldn't understand.

Ara tilted his head. "I learn Teltish," he said carefully. Then he added something in Tallenese and slipped one hand from under his blankets. He held his thumb and finger close together, which Soren took to mean a little bit.

He smiled. "You're learning Teltish? What can you say?"

Ara looked around the room and pointed at a few things. "The fire. The chair. The... blanket." Then he pointed at himself. "Me. Head. Arm. Hand. Foot. Um... leg." He glanced up quickly like he was looking for confirmation, and Soren nodded. "Yes. No. Slow. Fast. Good. Bad. I name Arastarow. You name Soren. Him name Tanden."

Soren grinned. "That's really good."

"Me?" Ara asked, perking up.

"Yes. Tanden can help you learn more." Soren held up his hand like Ara had, but spread his fingers further apart. "More Teltish."

Ara nodded. "Tanden..." he spoke in Tallenese, opening a closing his hand so it looked like mouth.

Soren chuckled. "Yes. He talks a lot. But he's really good at talking."

"Tanden good," Ara said. "Him arm?"

"Oh, he hurt his elbow." Soren pointed at his own elbow as he said the word.

Ara blinked slowly. "Him... hurt? Hurt..." He freed his other arm from the blankets and pointed at a scab on his wrist. "Hurt?"

"Yes."

Ara shrugged off the blankets. He almost seemed more relaxed and comfortable, but he dropped his gaze to his hands. He watched his own hands fiddle with the corner of one blanket. "I hurt," he said quietly. "I bad, I hurt."