An Unlikely Alliance Ch. 02

Basmah shook her head, "I was about to tell of my trip inside the walls.

I made four stops," she said, "but I have been very busy for us, now that you are here and we are together."

"Did you find the one that you sought?" Dyla asked, "Do'Tanaht said that you were looking for the one that you protected once. Dyla heard you tell it too. How did that go?"

"Well enough," she shrugged, looking up with a smile that seemed to be stuck somehow, "From the guards at the gate, I learned that there have been others like those men here looking for the one that I was seeking out. They want to take her away to be killed. I have always known this.

From her, I learned that one had been caught and was in a cell in the keep and that the leader of them is here in Skyrim, probably not that far from here, if he knows that there was a woman like he was looking for here.

I went to see the Jarl in the keep and I convinced him that it would be best for everyone that those men be kept out.

Then I went to see the prisoner and learned where they are hidden, those men."

She tried to look sly – and failed at it completely, giving up at last to settle for laughing a little bit, "But the best thing, Dyla, the best thing is that I have arranged for us to stay here for a time and you are allowed into the city!"

Dyla was amazed, but she shook her head, "This is never allowed, other than for Khali, the master's niece. You are sure of this?"

Basmah nodded, "You have to be a good and honest one, since it was on my word, but I even have a place for us. It is not the best, no palace or anything, but it is a place out of the wind and rain and it has a small firepit to keep us warm."

Dyla laughed and hugged Basmah again.

Three minutes later the camp was truly abandoned, the fire smoking it's last under a blanket of sand. The tent was gone and they walked to the gates together.

"The city's off-limits to cats,"Heimrick said with a pleased smile.

"This cat is allowed, and I am here because I already knew that you' be the problem that you've always been, "the guard commander said as he stepped out of the shadows, "I was here and heard it as it was said to you and since you haven't failed me in being the ever-nasty fool, Heimrick is no longer a guard.

I've heard nothing but complaints about you for weeks. The only complaints that I hear these days all seem to concern you – so I'm removing the problem. I'll have your cuirass, sword and helmet now."

Heimrick drew his sword, but he found himself on his back in the road after Basmah swept his feet out from under him. She picked up the sword and the helmet, handing them to the commander before she took hold of the cuirass, unfastened the stays, and pulled it off him in one motion.

He ran out through the gates in his undergarments, shouting, promising his revenge and that the commander and the Jarl were dead men.

Basmah reached back for her bow and looked at the commander.

The commander had never seen a bow like it, black ebony and of an interesting and involved shape. He took the threats a little seriously, but what drove him more was the want to see this warrior girl actually use the bow, so he nodded.

Heimrick decided against turning right to run down the long slope when he saw Dyla already there, blocking him, her blades out and ready. He bolted straight ahead and was going to vault the low wall ahead of him.

Basmah drew back her bow and released.

The long and thick arrow caught Heimrick just in the lower back, but since he was bent forward at the time that it reached him, he was skewered from there to where the arrow came out under the chin. He disappeared over the wall and Basmah began to walk toward the wall.

"You don't think he'll get far," the commander said more as a statement.

Basmah looked at him, "Probably not. I want my arrow back. They cost a bit."

She vaulted the wall in the same place and they heard a horrific scream before Basmah climbed back over the wall and walked up to them again.

The other guard looked incredulous, "He was still alive after that?"

Basmah shrugged, "Then. Not now, and I got my arrow back, which is more important than he was to me."

The commander smiled, "I think that maybe we're using the wrong people as outer guards. I need to speak to the Jarl of this." Turning to them, he grinned, "You've given me an idea. Safe travels and welcome to Whiterun."

–––––––––––––––

"Where do we go?" Dyla asked as they walked up some stairs.

"To our little room," Basmah smiled, "I have the key and we can leave most of our things there. We can get a meal without carrying our packs and your tent."

Outside, the evening was coming on and the shadows had lengthened a time ago, so now it was just the deepening gloom. Inside the watchpost where they were to stay, it was already dark with no fire to illuminate things.

The key turned in the door and Basmah led the way inside.

"Here we are," she said with a smile, "Home for us for the next while. I was in here before for a few moments, only long enough to see the view from the windows there and for a quick look around in here. It's pretty clean, though we'll want to sweep a bit tomorrow, I think – once I find a broom somewhere."

"This one thinks that it is nice here," Dyla smiled as she set her things down against a wall, next to Basmah's. Basmah was already taking her armour off, wanting to wear something softer, like the fur armour that she preferred for it's silence – and also because it was warmer and she liked the way that it made her feel. Dyla understood it right away and began to do the same.

"And we are where no one can see," she smiled.

Basmah nodded as she stepped over and took Dyla into her arms, kissing her softly for a moment, just well enough to cause Dyla to moan softly once.

"It is a shame about Do'Tanaht," Dyla said, rubbing her face against Basmah's cheek slowly, "This one wanted to see Basmah learn about playing with a Khajiit boy."

Basmah shrugged with a little smile in the darkness, "Basmah knows about playing with Khajiit boys. This night, she hopes to learn about playing with a beautiful Khajiit girl."

They pressed up against each other and soon, Basmah had Dyla backed up against the wall, grinding herself against her slowly as their tongues danced together through their lips.

"Where did this one learn these lessons?" Dyla sighed, "About playing with a Khajiit boy, she means."

Basmah spoke softly in the darkness, "My family was a noble house in the old city of Teneth. Besides being wealthy from their business dealings, they had always been famous in the military there. I don't know what became of him during the fall and ruin of our city and the lands around in the war, but I had a twin brother.

From the time that we could pick up and hold wooden practice swords, we trained."

She leaned in to kiss Dyla for a moment, "And, "she rolled her eyes, "from not long after that, he and I were doing things that we probably shouldn't have been with each other.

One day, I looked out over the large pier that we had near our home and I saw some people – prisoners, I thought then – standing lined up there. It was unusual, so I went to see what it was about. The whole thing was from a business conquest of our parents. Everything of value came to us. The house in question kept slaves, so without an answer to what was to be done about them, they came to us also.

My house never did that, so then after hearing of it, I became even more curious and went right down there to look for myself. I was never the kind of girl who stayed inside and had no interest in the world outside.

What I learned was that the slaves had been freed by my father and he'd invited others from the larger houses to come and see – and what was happening was that the former slaves were meeting the people from the other houses and they were being offered work – paid work like anyone else as servants and staff, so it worked out well, from what I could see.

But there was one which no one was speaking to or about.

He was a Khajiit boy about my own age and he looked almost afraid, not knowing anything of what it was about. So I went to him right away. I knew very little of your language and he knew almost none of mine, but Dyla, I swear that I fell in love with him right there."

She smiled, "I don't mean like that. I mean that my heart went to him and I wanted to help.

I have always been a little headstrong, I guess. So I took his hand and told him a few times not to be afraid or worried and that everything would be alright."

She laughed a little, "Dyla, I had no idea if it was so – but I was determined that it would be for that boy. I took him to my father. He smiled at me and I think now that he was setting me a little test. He asked me what I wanted to do for that boy.

I had no answer that instant, but I looked at him and I fell even more in love with him then – and this time, I mean in a young girl way for he was beautiful to me. His ears were tall and his fur – all over him from what I could see – was black as the night, shiny gleaming black. It was something that I'd never seen before."

Dyla nodded as she held one of Basmah's breasts, taken with the smooth furlessness and beauty, "It is unusual. I have seen the little cats around in this land, black furred ones, far more than ...

I have never seen a Khajiit who was like this. Always there is something, some patch or part that is something else – even if it is a soft pattern in the fur. Never all black."

"From my lessons," Basmah said, "I learned that Khajiit are excellent sneaks, which is something that my family regarded highly in our soldiers." She beamed, "So I thought of this and said to my father that he ought to be trained just as my brother and I were.

You should have seen that boy's eyes when he found out! If a Khajiit can be happy and a little scared at the same moment, that was what he was. His name was Mu-Jinn and that afternoon, I took him to meet my brother and we became fast friends and loyal between us."

She shrugged, "So to answer your question ... We took him with us everywhere and we did everything together. He learned very, very fast and my parents never had a reason to doubt that taking him into our family was not the best thing for us all. It caused a bit of a stir, but he was adopted into our family as soon as it could be done, so then I had two brothers."

She looked into Dyla's pretty eyes for a moment, "The greatest joy of my whole life was that I knew in my heart that I already had my great loves in those two. We all loved each other very much.

We were all the same age and when we were old enough, we played together that way, all three of us. My brother and I were very close – probably too close for some, but in our family it was allowed as long as we were careful not to make babes. My parents caught us at it many times."

Dyla stared a little and then she laughed, "So you had two boys? Your brother and ..."

Basmah nodded, "And my adopted brother, for that was really what it was, but that is not quite correct, Dyla. Between us three, we were all the same. The boys played with each other too. We were that close and we all loved each other fiercely. There were some there who always tried to make fun of Mu-Jinn. Someone knew enough of Khajiit names to call him Do'Mu-Jinn as a joke."

"Oh, that sounds so good!" Dyla smiled, "This one was so lucky. What happened then?"

Basmah's eyes dimmed a little and she said, "The war happened. At the end, when I left Teneth to make my way alone, I'd lost them. They sometimes had other duties from me and one day, they were not among the ones who came back.

I ran out alone, as stupid as it was to do, but I couldn't help it, Dyla. I searched everywhere and I looked at all of the bodies that I could see and I didn't see them among the dead either."

Across the room in the darkness, two pairs of eyes were watching and listening.

Basmah's voice became rough, "I lost the most important people to me, all in a week or so. Our house fell and my parents were killed. I went from a noble daughter of Teneth to being a nobody from a shattered and torn city in a week.

I was on my way out, trying to claw my way through everything and I was empty inside of me. After a fortnight, I had no more tears left in me to cry.

I wasn't able to think clearly anymore, I could only react."

She shook her head, "And that is when the one that I have been protecting came to me to ask for my help – well, to order me to help her. She always was a complete shit in that way, always thinking herself to be so high. If I'd been myself at the time, I'd have laughed in her face, but before I knew it, I'd agreed to help her!

I've regretted that for years. If my house is gone, who the hell was she to me? Who was she to even think of it?"

Basmah groaned, "I just might kill her myself one day."

Basmah felt the air in the room shift somehow and she spun around, placing herself in front of Dyla as the pair of them watched two shadows slowly detach themselves from the inky darkness at the other end of the room and begin to approach very slowly and absolutely silently.

Basmah dove for her blades, but before she could turn, there were hands holding her wrists fast and a whispered voice said "Hold," in the old Redguard tongue from very close by.

Basmah stared up, frozen in place.

"An interesting tale," the hissing voice said emotionlessly in the common tongue, "one that few know, much less know well at all."

"Who are you?" Dyla asked, reaching for her own weapons.

"Do not move, lovely one," a different voice said softly, "This is already sad enough. Your life was spared once this day already. Do not throw it away now."

The figures seemed to loom closer to the females and in the darkness; they saw black cloaks and black hoods above them. Where the faces ought to have been, they saw only eyes shining softly.

"We were sent," one of them said, "To hunt one who has been killing Alik'r fighters for some time, all alone in lonely and deserted places. You should know that the ones who sent those men to seek for another call for your blood."

"In another part of this land," the other one whispered, "A chapter of the Dark Brotherhood was contacted to hunt and kill you. Six members were sent – the whole coven - one at a time to search in different places, looking for a mighty warrior.

We were contacted, and we take an even higher fee though it is in gold and it is before we act. We were sent to hunt you also."

Dyla had her hands on the hafts of her blades now and she was waiting for the moment when she'd pull them. She thought that it could happen that she'd die here, but she already knew that her life would go nowhere unless she was with Basmah. The hope that she had made the thought at least bearable.

She was coming to love Basmah and nothing had even happened between them, but it didn't matter to Dyla. She wanted to know Basmah, really know her and she wasn't about to let a pair of shadows come in the way of that.

"They will kill you," she hissed as softly as she could.

Basmah turned her head only a little, "I don't think so – or we'd be dead by now. Wait."

The second one heard it and nodded, "We do not speak if we bring death. What for? Why make it take longer than needs be?"

"If there is an end to this," Basmah said from behind gritted teeth, "then I would hear it now. My friend and I are hungry."

"The end," the first one said, "is that one by one, the Dark Brotherhood perished in even lonelier places in this world. You are safe – for at least the moment. How much longer you remain so is the question. We cannot predict the future."

Basmah stared, leaning forward after a moment to try to see better, "Who ...?"

"Greetings," the first one said very softly, "sister."

They sheathed their weapons and released Basmah's hands, stepping back a bit to reach for their hoods.

Basmah looked as though she might faint, thinking that she was looking at a pair of ghosts " ... O- Omar?"

Across from them, the pair stood with smiles on their faces, the Redguard one nodding, "Here, Basmah."

She flew to them with a cry and crashed against them, weeping loudly.

Dyla blinked, not understanding any of it.

Basmah tried very hard not to cry, but she did anyway, sometimes laughing at the same time.

One of the two detached himself from the others and stepped forward slowly.

Dyla saw tall ears standing up and as he came nearer, she saw coal-black shining fur and a pair of feline eyes regarding her with hopeful good humor for a moment.

"Khajiit wishes to know this one and is sad only that there is no warm sand beneath our feet in this cold land. A pleasant beach and warm blue water, a small fire and some good food would be this one's want to learn of such beauty as this one sees now."

A furry male hand came forward, seeming to hang in the air between them for a moment. Dyla reached for it.

"This one needs to know much more, sweet-talking one, but she has hopes to learn of it." Dyla grinned at last. "This one is Dyla."

"An honor to be sure," the voice purred in a low tone, "This one is called Do'Mu-Jinn."

––––––––––––––-

"So at last," Omar said, "after living very poorly and searching for you for over two months and finding nothing, we found a boat and we came to be in the service of the province of Elsweyr for a time, and there, Mu-Jinn earned his name."

Basmah looked across and smiled, "Truly Do'Mu-Jinn now.

I am so happy to see my brothers again!"

"You spoke of hunger," Omar said, "You know this place? Where can we find a good meal?"

"Only a little as yet,"Basmah nodded, "Shall we go?"

They entered the gates and made their way up the hill and reaching the top at the marketplace, Dyla looked over. "There is the place where the man this one met will be. The lights are on inside."

She turned to Basmah, "This one does not know the ways of these people well. It would be a bad thing to see if he is here? Khajiit only wishes to look at him a little and tell him that she is here so he does not have to wait."

Basmah nodded, chuckling, "Dyla still makes me laugh. You are here with two fine men and one is even Khajiit, but go on and see what you must. If the door is unlocked, that usually means that the shop – any shop – is open for business."

––––––––––––––-

They walked back out three minutes later with wide eyes between them.

The door opened after them and Janus stood there, holding up his trousers, "Dyla, wait!"

Dyla spun around and she had her hand on his throat, her claws out just enough to make her feelings known, "Khajiit does not want to wait. Khajiit does not want to know this one. Never speak to this one again."

She pushed him so that he reeled back inside and she rejoined the others.

Behind him, a female voice called, "Janus, come back to the bed. They are only cats. What do you want with them? You have a live and warm Imperial here to love with. Who could want for more?"

Janus nodded, closing the door. "I would," he muttered to himself, careful that his aunt didn't hear it.

"Not what this one thought that she would see, but she is glad to know it beforehand," Dyla muttered as she took Do'Mu-Jinn's arm again.

The others nodded, "He called the woman 'Aunt Arcadia,'" Basmah said in a low voice, "He was fucking with his aunt."

"Let him do it then," Dyla smirked, "as much as they want. Khajiit does not care what they do."

She looked a little uncertain then, "Where will this one sleep this night? She does not wish to be in the way of things."

Basmah grabbed Dyla's hand, "I think that I know just the place!

This one," she pointed to herself, "thinks that she knows where Khajiit belongs. If Do'Mu-Jinn and Omar have no trouble with it, Basmah has only one question."