After arriving in Tonad, the Chaos party had checked into the Apple-Spruce Inn and settled into their rooms, then came back downstairs to get some supper. They sat around talking for a bit, and letting the meal settle, before the Band went up on stage. Anywhere they went in the world, they had standard arrangements at various inns, restaurants, and taverns- as did many traveling performers on the Land- to play in exchange for either free room and/or board, or at least reduced rates. This was if they were making merely a brief stopover in a village; if they would be staying for a while, they would get a regular booking with full pay. Tonight, the Band would be staying free, but they would pay for their meals. The others in the party would have to pay for their own rooms, except Tiejo, who preferred to stay outside. Of course, the Band would most likely also receive some degree of gratuities from the audience.
Darius, Tom, and Tiejo stayed at their seats to enjoy the show. There were just four in the Band for now; they hadn't seen Tino since before leaving Plist. In the middle of the second song, Darius turned to Tiejo to ask, "Are you sure you don't want me to get you a room? It's no trouble."
Tiejo just kept staring at the Band and swaying. One couldn't say he was swaying to the music, exactly, for his rhythm never changed. Whenever they, or other musicians he liked played, he would go into something of a trance (though Tom would claim it wasn't significantly different from Tiejo's normal state). Still, he would respond, abstractedly, to questions. "Appreciated it is, your offer, as much as my accepted meal, kind Lonewanderer. My preference I told you."
"I know, it's just that-"
"Knowing you must be that lie I would not for any reason." Darius opened his mouth to respond, but Tiejo went on. "Likings not changing in short order. Taking months or years to change if ever. Not minutes or hours."
Darius sighed, and then smiled. "Of course you're right, Tiejo. But if you ever change your mind- in hours or years...."
"If situation suggests it, first person I talk to you will be. With more appreciations."
"Um... you're... welcome, I think."
The third song was starting now, and they all sat back and enjoyed it. Tonight the Band was playing mostly a few of their favorite songs from Earth. Emma had told Darius they might play the song God had mentioned in the book of Julia, from the O'Gas; but only if Tino happened to show up, which he didn't. Still, the songs they did play were pretty good, and most of them Darius hadn't heard before.
After a few Earth songs, they did one from a world no one in the audience had ever heard of, a place called Xallambriad, which Zephrey had once told Ginger and her companions about. Emma had said the name reminded her of one of the original fifty Elves on the Land, who was called Xallem. She said he was one of the longest-lived of them, and that among other jobs, he had been a musician. At which point Zephrey had said Xallambriad had some damned fine music, of all sorts, some of which would be right up the Band's alley. He gave them recordings (in the Land's magical format) of a few songs he thought they could perform well, and they played one of those tonight, the title of which (roughly translated from the Xallambrian) was "Bring Not a Galluzing Aktoad, My Love."
The Band always introduced their less-familiar songs, by planet of origin, and such. But this one took longer, because they felt they had to explain some words in advance, for it to be completely effective, emotionally. And because they usually sang an entirely translated song, rather than leaving in a few of the original words. However, there were a few words scattered throughout this song which seemed to be best left untranslated, in the singing itself, for they were complicated words, whose translation would be a bit more awkward than they liked. They could have relied on the audience's natural ability to automatically learn new subwords, but defining the words explicitly saved everyone some time and effort.
Introducing the song to the audience, Ginger said it might sound like a funny title, but it was really a beautiful love song. An 'aktoad,' she explained, was a kind of creature which was very much akin to toads of other worlds, but when translating its actual name (aklarik) to "toad," they left on the "ak" part (meaning, roughly, "salve") to differentiate it from other kinds of toads. The biggest difference about aktoads, she said, is that they do something called 'galluzing,' which is a sort of combination of croaking and weeping. They aren't really sad when they galluze (an onomatopoeic word), but merely releasing a chemical their bodies produce an excess of. Failure to rid themselves of this chemical, called chirinidrum, will result in great pain and eventually death for the aktoad. And yet they need to retain a small amount of chirinidrum in their systems at all times. It is an important part of their immune system, as well as a pheromone. Chirinidrum can also have several effects on Xallambrians. Mixed into food or drink, it has a very pleasant, intoxicating effect. It can be used as a salve on certain kinds of wounds, to preserve life until one can receive proper treatment. It may also be used as a kind of aphrodisiac, which not only stimulates desire, but also enhances physical pleasure. All these possible uses for chirinidrum play into the song.
With the title out of the way, Ginger now explained some of the lyrics. "To 'axtrall' means to come as close as humanly possible to one's ideal type of person. It might refer to yourself or to another. It might mean having many things in common: likes, dislikes, beliefs, personality, and more. It might mean someone is more like how you'd like to be than you are yourself. It might simply refer to how you want other people to be. It need not refer to someone you know, but simply someone you know of. You might say that a favorite celebrity or politician, someone in the public eye who you know a lot about, might axtrall. Or it could be a very close friend and confidant. In its truest sense, it means someone you can't help falling madly, desperately in love with, to a degree far beyond the vast majority of people who are ever truly in love. Most people never find someone they'd say truly extralls them, or that they themselves extrall, though they might use the term loosely (and incorrectly), simply to express a strong feeling.
"'Xarlich' translates most nearly as 'love-making,' but with a much stronger emphasis on the emotional aspect. It has a connotation of being extremely in love. It is a word people use to say that they don't ever want to have any kind of sex unless they're in love. It could, however, be used derisively. To say you don't need it could mean you're perfectly satisfied with just sex, but in the context of this song, it means that was the only kind of sex he'd ever want- but he believed he'd never have it, and didn't mind. The literal meaning of the line in which the word appears is that the speaker is celibate, and he's okay with that.
"'Olombly' literally translates as 'completely,' or 'perfectly,' but to get across the full intensity of the meaning, one would have to probably stand around for thirty centhours spouting any synonyms they could think of, gesturing wildly, taking dramatic pauses, trying to speak and stopping out of frustration with their inability to adequately express themself. The Xallambrians, Ginger said, are a people who desperately want to be precisely understood, and be able to convey intense meaning or feeling as simply as possible. Therefore they create many words whose meanings are just that: roughly synonymous with a more common word, but felt more intensely than one can possibly hope to express. Some philosophers and wiseguys say that accomplishing the purpose defeats the purpose, but most people simply try not to abuse such words, so that they retain their value.
"The word 'arryze' is another such word. It means to understand, but to do so in an absolute way, to know every single thing about someone or something, and for the whole to make perfect sense to you. Of course, no one can ever truly arryze anyone or anything, but it is frequently used artistically by the Xallambrians. It usually means to know someone better than you do anyone else in the world, better than anyone knows you, and at least as well as you know yourself. It also is used to suggest a person is a little or a lot harder to understand than most people are; to call another or oneself different, abnormal. To suggest no one can understand a particular person.
"To 'irritize' is sort of to reunite, to reconfirm, or to strengthen some bond or belief. To bring estranged friends or family back together, to come home, to recover from a long illness, or to better understand or better love someone or something you never truly appreciated. To... return to a place you've never been. In this song, it seems to mean the subject and the object have never fit in well with the world or with their families, though they have loved them. But because they've finally found each other, and make more sense to each other than anyone else does, everyone else finally begins to make a bit more sense, as well.
"'Dubrand' means... to compel one to adhere to old, routine necessities, usually considered unpleasant. No matter how much changes in life, some things can never be escaped.
"A gorlahng is a Xallambrian creature something like a dragon crossed with a bear. In the time when this song was written, hunting and slaying them was still a common occupation for people who wanted to spend a lot of time alone, and were easily bored with normal jobs. There were various other reasons to do it, but the main thing was that somebody had to do it. Here, it has two purposes, the first of which is to inject a note of humor into the song. The other is to let the listeners know what the subject's job is, as the writer soon does with the object.
"To 'kahlour' refers to fire. It means to warm very quickly, intensely, but... perfectly, comfortably. It may mean cooking certain kinds of dishes to perfection, or, as here, to ignite an irresistible physical and/or emotional passion.
"'Larent' means impossible. One aspect of Xallambrians' desire to express ideas or feelings with great intensity and accuracy, is their tendency to create unnecessary synonyms. That is, a word may already be absolute, but they feel like people will fail to fully grasp the absoluteness of the original word. So they invent a new one, to convey that absoluteness, even if so doing suggests that the original word was somehow less than absolute- which it wasn't. Impossible is impossible, simple as that. But using 'larent' makes damn sure the listener knows you mean utterly, irrefutably, absolutely impossible. (We in the Band added '-ations' to make the word mean 'impossibilities'; the actual word in Xallambrian is 'larentigin.')"
Saying finally that the song was much more beautiful, and flowed more smoothly (and rhymed), when sung entirely in the original Xallambrian, but that she'd explained quite enough words for now, they began to play:
Tell me not that I shall one day wed, Mother
Say you neither, Father, that I shall love
For such is not my way
Know you just that I am happy as I am
Know I shall not be alone, loving parents
For I have always you, my family; and my friends
But I am not a normal man
And I want not a normal bride
Far across the world have I traveled
Many strange and wondrous people have I met
But not a one has axtralled me
Friends may they be, and nothing more
Forty years did pass and I was happy
With my work, my friends, my self
Never was I slightly lonely
Never needed I xarlich to make
Then I met my dear Elzambra
And we each other olombly did axtrall
Bring not a galluzing aktoad, my love
For your company is the only drug I need
Let us walk, and talk, and simply be
The world does not arryze us
Let us each other's true escape be
And escaping, irritize us
Though the world may seem to change
Naturally it does not
Though you and I may see anew
Reality us still dubrands
And so to work we must return
Gorlahngs slay not themselves
But when the day's beasts are slain
And when you've sold your wares
Relax shall we by fireside
For rest, for sup, for talk and company
And when that's done we may retire
And find some other fun
Bring not a galluzing aktoad, my love
Our xarlich could no sweeter be
Our pure emotions flow in our hearts' blood
Which olombly kahlours both loins and love
Were Paradise half so beautiful
Ten thousand years' wait amply rewarded would be
Ten years pass and love but grows
Quite a feat, when starting from perfection
And yet love need know no sense or logic
With regularity, larentations do come true
But know we that nothing forever lasts
And know we how cruel can fate be
It comes as no surprise but this:
That our happiness this long has lasted
No mortal thing our love could end, save one
No mortal thing but death
Though your love has kept me young
In truth, old, weary, and slow must I have grown
Bring not a galluzing aktoad, my love
Though one beast has finally won
'Tis only fair, he takes me from you
As so many of his kin I took from him
And weep not, I say to you, my love
For it will not be ten thousand years
Until we meet again
They had promised to play three more songs; after the Xallambrian one, they played another from Earth, and were going to finish with a couple of their own. They never got a chance to complete their set, however, as a rather large, drunken man sitting in one of the booths suddenly hurtled the bottle at the stage. It shattered, throwing shards of glass in all directions. Ginger was hit in the leg by one shard, and though not too serious, her cut began to bleed.
The Band stopped playing at once, of course. Cameron helped Ginger to a seat, and worked on dressing her wound. Alecstar and Emma jumped off the stage and followed Darius, Tom, and Tiejo toward the man who had thrown the bottle. He jumped up and drew a dagger from his boot, and slashed about in their general direction. Luckily, he was now drunk enough that his movements weren't particularly coordinated, and he was stumbling. While the others weren't too worried about his ability to do them any great harm, they were nevertheless cautious; but Tiejo stepped right in and grabbed the blade away from him. Then Darius took hold of his arm and twisted it behind his back. The others drew daggers of their own, while Tiejo tucked the stolen blade away somewhere.
Drunk though he was, their enemy's body was trained almost to the point of instinct, and without quite thinking what he was doing, he flipped Darius over his shoulder, towards the daggers the others had pointed at him. They swiftly drew back to avoid stabbing Darius, and the stranger kicked the blade from Tom's hand. The attacker then ducked and rolled in the direction the dagger had gone, and picked it up. Rising, he backed towards the bar, picked up another empty bottle, and smashed it against the bar to make a weapon for his other hand.
Darius was back on his feet, and Tiejo had taken his stolen dagger back out and given it to Tom. But behind them, a small group of other patrons of the tavern were closing in to help the instigator of the brawl; presumably they were friends of his. From where he was treating Ginger, Cameron shouted to his friends to watch their backs. They turned to find themselves at least evenly matched. Darius shouted to the bartender to ask if he'd called the police yet. He hadn't, but that shook the man out of his stupor enough to go for a t-mail bubble to do so.
Just then, the door burst open, and in rushed several more strangers, the largest of whom moved to fight the Chaos's primary enemy. The other newcomers went to help against the rest of the combatants. With these unexpected new allies, the battle quickly turned in the Chaos's favor, and one of them escorted the Chaos party outdoors. Tom was shouting that they needed to get their things from their rooms, and Ginger added that they'd left their instruments behind, too. But their rescuer said it was more important to get out with their lives, and more enforcers from InterGang were likely to get here before the police.
"InterGang?!" exclaimed Darius. "Is that who attacked us? But why? And who are you?"
"I'm one of the people who saved your asses, back there. Name's Jasp Underground. As for your other questions, I'll explain later. Now come on!"
Sure enough, as they headed for the Band's Conestoga, they saw it was already in enemy hands. They turned back towards the inn, and the man who had been fighting the large drunkard came out, limping and bleeding in several places. He reached them and rasped out, "You... should see... the other guy." He tried to grin, but it came out as more of a wince. Then he got serious. "Gonna... talk to... Chieftain. Maybe... Primus. If..." He stopped to cough, and mumbled, "Water..."
Underground wasn't sure if he meant he needed a drink, or if he was trying to say something about Cabbit Atwater, a friend who was still inside, and for all Jasp knew could be dead. But he shook his head and said, "Don, if they knew we were watching these people, our transcommunication may be compromised. If you're going to talk to Chieftain, you should send a messenger. You're obviously in no condition to translocate."
By now, everyone was beginning to piece together that they'd somehow gotten caught in the middle of a battle between the Land's two biggest gangs, InterGang and LandOrder. Underground and his don, here, must be from the latter. The don nodded, and glanced toward the inn for a moment, before turning back to his chief spy. "Good thinking. I'll get... Woodrat. He's... in town... yes?"
"Yes. You should get somewhere safe, though, Don, and get some attention. But first, InterGang has their wagon. What should we do?" He glanced back the way they'd just come, and saw more enforcers coming, joining those at the Band's wagon and- some of them- breaking off to head towards the party just outside the inn.
"Wish... I could... talk to Chieftain... and Primus, first." He glanced in the direction of the approaching enemies, and shook his head. "No time. I'll go... back in. Get someone... to help me home. You... get them in... one of our... wagons. Go with them... report when... safe. Or await... instructions."
"Yes, Don." Turning to the others, he said, "Follow me."
They did so, hurrying up despite any misgivings they might have about going with a gangster, but then Darius asked, "Hey, where's Tiejo?"
A head popped out of the wagon they were heading for, and replied, "Here Tiejo is! Hurry! Some stuffs I brought from rooms!"
They all piled into the back of the wagon, and Underground climbed into the cockpit. Behind them, the InterGang enforcers were now running to catch them before they could take off. In the distance the police were coming, but it looked like they'd be a bit too late to help. But Cameron tossed a fireball at their pursuers, pushing them back. Those directly behind the lead enforcers fell back like dominoes, and the wagon took to the air.
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