The Schoolhouse

 

Fallon wanted to carry Erthen to the schoolhouse, but the Fae teacher would have none of it. All students were to be treated the same. “It’s only his second day,” Fallon protested to Alithea.

“Do you want to argue or find out what they are feeding Erthen?” Alithea used the same brusque tone she used with warriors who took their bandages off after the pain went away. “I just want to get there and sit down.” Fallon held her hand, noticing that the palm was cool and clammy.

They arrived at a low building nestled behind trees a short walk from the beach. On the far side of the building several large animals stood in a corral. Alithea and Fallon followed the group of children into the building, but the Fae teacher motioned them to stay back along the rear wall of the large room. Alithea slid down the wall and sat on the floor next to Fallon.

The teacher repeated the word “sit” as she gently pressed each child into a sitting position on a raised bench. “What did she say?” Alithea whispered.

Fallon squatted down. “Sit,” Fallon told her.

“What language is that?”

“Fae.”

“If that bitch sticks her finger tendrils in Erthen’s ears –,” Alithea’s whisper was cut off by the teacher, who stood up and wagged her finger at the two of them. Her terse impatience only made Fallon worry more about her condition. A Cawthingi guard – a male – came into the room from an entry on the far side and handed a tray to the Fae teacher. Alithea put her hand on Fallon’s arm to get his attention.

He stood up and spoke in Fae, using the sentence construction of the Listener and the Fae warriors who fought with the Glade. “The queen wants a baseline test so that she can see the effects of the –“, Fallon paused, not knowing what they were giving the kids, “medicine.”

“I was not told,” the Fae teacher said. “Some of the children have been in the program for a few days.”

“We will do the best we can,” Fallon said.

“You speak a mountain dialect. Where did you learn our language?”

Fallon went with his instincts. “Concordat. Bargain before butchery. Far north.”

She was unfamiliar with the name he had made up but bid him to come forward. “What do you propose?”

“What words do you teach?” Fallon asked her, motioning with his hand for Alithea to stay still.

“A hundred common words so they can work together.”

Fallon reached into the tray for one of the white squares. “This helps join their minds?”

“Yes, the queen knows.”

“Not what they give the mining prisoners?” He appeared to set the square back in the tray but deftly palmed it.

She shook her head. “My, no! Those poor souls.”

Fallon had never heard a Fae express sympathy. “You are a teacher, not a warrior.”

She held up her two hands, pointing the fingers to show the stunted tendrils on her forefingers. “I got sick as a child. They had to cut them to save me.”

It improved your character, Fallon thought. “I will test them, note their language and level. Then we will have some firm results at the end of your program.” Not knowing how to write, he said to Alithea in the Fae language, “Doctor?” When she stayed seated on the floor, he repeated the word in their own Jade language. She stood, steadying herself against the wall and he continued, “You can write some?”

“A little,” Alithea replied in a weak voice. “Enough to make it look good.”

Fallon turned to the Fae. He wasn’t sure what the words were, but the teacher had reached behind her and held out a stylus and wooden board with a lump of soft clay on it. Fallon turned to Alithea, who took the board. Seeing the slight tremor in her hands, Fallon motioned to the container of water that the guard had set down. “May I get the doctor some water? She ate something that did not agree with her.”

The teacher poured some water into a clay bowl and handed it to Fallon. Alithea had taken the opportunity to rest, sitting on the far end of the bench, the board with the clay on her lap. She set it next to her and took the bowl, drinking greedily. With her lips she voiced a thank you to Fallon, then picked up the board. “I’ve seen Bebe do this,” she said, flattening the clay into a rectangular flat shape. Picking up the stylus, she looked up at Fallon. “Test away, Mr. language expert.” The touch of humor was an encouraging sign.

Fallon spoke to each of the 14 children, telling Alithea their language. When one little girl spoke the tongue of the Dallesa tribe, he asked, “Sisseku?”

The girl’s eyes lit up with recognition. “Sisseku sail away.”

Fallon glanced at Alithea. “Mellen?” he asked the child.

She shook her head. “Death hole.”

Fallon stole a glance at the Fae teacher, not wanting to extend the conversation with the child and make her suspicious. “When?”

“A moon time.”

“Thank you.”

There was another Dallesa child, but she did not know Sisseku.

“All children of the tribes?” Fallon asked the Fae. “No Fae, other species?”

“Your species is the fastest growing. Ideal labor. Are you done with your tests?”

He nodded. The teacher reached into the tray, then paused to count. She turned to the children and repeated her count. Fallon’s held his breath, fearful that she had noticed him take the medicine square.

/////////////////

The teacher spoke in crude Cawth to the guard, motioning to the tray and mimicking a count of the children with her finger. The guard took the tray to separate room, then returned. After counting the squares, she was satisfied and began to give them to the children. Fallon interrupted, took the stylus from Alithea, and used it to measure the size of a square. Turning to the teacher, he asked, “Precise dosage is important for the study. Do all the children get the same size medicine?”

“Yes,” the teacher answered, a note of annoyance in her voice.

Fallon turned to Alithea. “Say something, anything that sounds doctory.”

“I don’t know. I’m tired. I don’t want them giving a warrior drug to Erthen. He’s too young.”

Fallon replied, “Yes, thank you doctor. I will ask the teacher.” Turning to the teacher, he said, “The doctor has noted different weights of the children in this age group. She is concerned that the drug might have more effect on smaller children. Could we vary the dosage?”

“No, this is the way we do it. The queen put you up to this?  Do you challenge my methods?” Her eyes narrowed and Fallon worried that she would become suspicious. 

He held up his hand in a gesture of pacification. “I meant only to do what is best for the program. The queen needs workers – compliant workers.” He urged her to continue.

She handed out the medicine squares to the children, then the Cawthingi guard went along the row, offering a bowl of water to each child, then peering in each mouth to make sure they had swallowed the medicine. Fallon turned to the window opening and swallowed the square he had palmed. He knew only one way to see what they were giving the children. Take some himself.

When they were finished, Fallon handed the rest of the water to Alithea. The first bowl of water had improved her color. More water couldn’t hurt.

The teacher began her language lesson, holding up one finger. “One.” She had the children copy her gesture and the word. She did this several times with each count, up until five.

Fallon could feel the effects of the drug, though they were at the bare threshold of his attention. There was a slight tingle in his toes and fingertips. He wanted to curl his claws in soft dirt or grass. Fallon suspected that it might be a small dose of energy. Alithea studied Erthen intently for any alarming reaction, but he followed the counting prompts with the other children.

The teacher turned to the window opening, then swung the wooden gate shut. “Close the window.” She opened the window. “Open the window.” She repeated this several times, urging the students to copy her words. Fallon wished Bebe were here. Perhaps the Jade should introduce this method of instruction. If they ever escaped, he reminded himself.

The teacher walked to a box along the wall and opened the cover. “Open the box.” The children repeated the words. She closed the cover and said, “Close the box.” She repeated this with her eyes and her fist. “Now children, let us go outside. We have lots of toys.”

In single file behind the guard, the children filed out of the schoolroom, then behind the building. In a pile were small shovels and a pile of dirt as high as Fallon. Each child was taught the word for shovel, then the word for dig. In a circle around the dirt pile, the children dug, lifting a shovel of dirt, and releasing the dirt back into the pile. After several times, the children became more coordinated until they acted in unison.

Fallon could sense their unison. He didn’t know if energy enhanced a warrior’s peripheral vision, but it widened the scope of perception. A warrior became more aware of his surroundings after consuming energy. Although the effects of this dose were slight on an adult warrior, Fallon felt sure that the medicine was energy.

“Two piles,” the teacher said, holding up two fingers. “One here,” she pointed to the ground several feet away from the edge of the dirt pile. Walking around the pile, she pointed to a spot opposite the first spot. “One here.”

The guard handed the teacher a larger shovel. The teacher dug into the dirt pile, saying the word “dig” as she did so. Then she turned, using that word and released the dirt onto one of the spots she had pointed out, saying “down” as she did so. One more time. “Dig…turn…down.”

The children again circled the dirt pile and started to dig but ran into each other as they turned to transfer the dirt on their small shovels. Alithea had been leaning against the wall of the but building but Fallon noticed that she was gone. He hoped she was not sick. When the children spoke to each other to sort out their difficulties, Fallon realized that the children had been carefully arranged so that those who knew the same native language were not on the same side of the dirt pile. Quite clever, he thought.

By gestures and that peculiar sense of group awareness that energy gave, the children soon sorted out the sequence of their digging. They giggled when they met in the center and there were just a few shovelfuls of dirt left. The teacher clapped and said, “Good!” She urged the children to copy her. Clap and good, clap and good.

The bellow of an animal and Alithea’s shriek of alarm interrupted the celebration.

 

The Rock Pile

 

Pausing to survey the curve of beach, Drindl said to Alpen, “Where are they taking us? I’ve never been this far south.” The whisper of the Sprint’s barbs near his legs caused him to stumble forward into Alpen’s back.

Alpen flexed his knees, taking Drindl’s weight and steadying him. He looked left toward the road up to the queen’s palace and the cliffs above them. “I’m worried about Bebe. How could she be so rash? It’s not like her.”

As they continued south along the beach, the height of the cliffs decreased. The sand became smoother and they rounded an outer curve of shoreline. Looking ahead, Drindl tapped Alpen’s arm, “Look at that!” he whispered. Ahead of them was a long pier jutting out into the ocean and forming a breakwater against the waves.

Alpen was distracted, looking up the slope of beach to the trees. He pointed to the Sprints along the tree line, their gray bodies disappearing in the shade cast by the tree line. “Why so many Sprint? Drindl, have you been this far south on a work gang?”

“No, I’ve heard there is another prisoner compound down here.”

Alpen turned to him. “You think that’s where they are taking us?”

Drindl shrugged, glancing behind him. The Sprint bringing up the rear guard veered away to the left and the tree line up the slope. “There’s no one behind us,” he whispered. “We could escape.”

Alpen urged, “Go!” then reached out to grab Drindl’s arm when he saw another Sprint and Fae rider following further behind the prisoner column. Looking up the slope, he saw another Sprint coming down the hill. Alpen pushed Drindl to the ground.

“What?” Drindl protested.

“You fell. You weren’t trying to escape,” Alpen explained. “Limp when I pick you up.” Drindl did so. The sudden movement had caught the attention of several Fae riders guarding the prisoner column. Alpen pretended to help Drindl along. “Get better now.” Drindl faked a slight hobble, then seemed to regain his footing and resumed walking in a normal manner. Coming alongside the column atop a Sprint, a Fae warrior peered down at the two of them for a moment, then slowed and took a position behind them.

“If you falter, the barbs will cut you down,” Alpen warned Drindl as they kept pace with the column.

They came to an inlet where a river met the ocean and their task lay before them, a mountain of dirty rock, gray and black, some streaked with yellow or red. Several prisoner gangs were already loading boulders on wooden platforms that they floated to the end of the pier. Alpen pointed to a limp body snagged on a rock along the length of breakwater. “Our job is to survive today. I must find my brother.”

//////////////

Drindl's younger musculature endured the backbreaking work of lifting stones better than Alpen, but the older warrior was better adapted to working in teams with the other prisoners. After loading the wooden rafts, they pulled them out into the ocean, where Fae warriors sitting atop sea lions pulled the rafts out to the point of the pier.

“Is there any animal that those devil Fae cannot control?” complained Alpen, but he studied their interaction with the sleek animals. He told Drindl about killing the pup on the beach further north. “We were hungry. Our babes were hungry. But our lives have been miserable since then, as though these sea creatures had wished a curse on us.”

“Do you think they have that power?” Drindl asked his mentor.

“Who knows what gods dwell at the bottom of this vast ocean? They breathe air like we do and water like the fish do.” Stepping through the lapping water back to the rock pile, he turned back to watch the sea lions. “They were like big lumps of clay on shore. So graceful in the water. If only…”

A prod stick jabbed him in the side. A Cawthingi guard barked, “Work. No talk.”

The hardest part of the day was not the strain of carrying rocks or wading through water but walking back to the prisoner compound after the long day of work. The edge of the sun’s disk had just touched the watery surface of the ocean when they began the long journey back to the compound.

They stayed in the middle of the column of prisoners, afraid that a slow step would earn them the scalding sting of a Sprint’s leg barb. “I’m too tired for patrol tonight,” Drindl complained but Alpen shooshed him.

“Behind us. Our language.” Tired as he was, Alpen never forgot that he was at war. Drindl listened as they walked on the sand. “Melangi?” he whispered.

“Patois,” Alpen said. He fell back one row, deftly inserting himself between two prisoners. Now he was in front of two prisoners who looked as haggard as he felt. He turned his head to the side so that they could hear him. “You speak Jade?”

A voice from behind said, “A little.”

“My brother Mellen. His wife Sisseku. Do you know them?”

“Sisseku, yes. Cousin.” the voice said in a loud whisper. “She south where bees are. Mellen dead.”

Alpen turned to see the voice. He was about Fallon’s age. The tip of the whip lashed the back of Alpen's head and he turned forward again.

/////////////////

“Alpen!” Drindl whispered insistently. Alpen rubbed the whip sting away and fell in next to Drindl. “Someone up there on the ridge.” Alpen’s gaze went right, following the nod of Drindl’s head.

Seeing the shadow on the ridge, Alpen glanced ahead at the prisoner in front of him. “Not Fae. People?”

Drindl murmured, “Hard to tell in this light.” Drifting in the twilight air came the cooing of a burble bird that mixed with the gentle sound of waves. In the distance came the barks of sea lions. “For a moment, I thought I heard a burble bird. I can’t remember seeing a bird since we came south.”

“That’s not a bird,” Alpen said. “Warrior call.”

Drindl glanced behind him. Should he question his mentor? “It doesn’t sound –“

“Eyes wide,” Alpen cautioned. As they rounded a curve, he looked through an opening in the trees toward the slope of hill. He saw a fleeting shadow moving along the tree line, perhaps a younger person? The voice and the movement of the figure in the dim light stirred whispers in his mind. “Bebe!” he whispered.

“What?” Drindl asked. “She’s probably at the compound already.”

“No, it’s a female making a warrior call. We’re not used to that. Off to our right I saw...” He was interrupted by the soft cooing again. Alpen answered with the sound of wings flapping, then fell forward onto the prisoner in front of him and they both sprawled in the fine dirt. At the crack of the whip overhead, Alpen helped the other prisoner to his feet and the column moved forward again. Next to Alpen was another haggard prisoner, head hung forward, shoulders slumped, his torn rags and fine fur cloaked with sand.

//////////////

 

 

 

Intrusion

 

Her focus on the tablet, she bent forward, trapping the tablet before it hit the ground. Clutching it to her, she turned as a deep grunt came from over her shoulder. As she crouched against the wall, a large figure with reddish hair loomed over her. He stood over her, arms akimbo, his face in what looked like a snarl. She noticed that he had brown mottled stains on his upper teeth.

He held out his right hand to her. Did he want the tablet? She held it up to him, but he shook his head. She secured the sacred tablet close to her and held out her hand. Feeling the rough texture of his palm as it wrapped around hers, he lifted her from the crouch and pulled her towards him. She took a step back, but her heel touched the base of the wall.

Her first duty was to the safety of the tablet, the mind that was not mind. She could not reach to put the tablet back where it belonged. Stooping quickly, back against the wall, she slid the tablet along the stone floor. The creature snarled again as he held out his arms to encircle her. Was he the guardian of the tablets? She dodged sideways under his left arm, then felt the tug as he pulled her skirt away from her. When he paused, she shifted her shoulders, shimmied sideways and out of his encircling arms.

Although he was an alien creature, she had no doubt what it wanted. What he wanted. Alien or not, he was the male of the species. Was he in musth? She looked frantically for a way out. He blocked the passage back where she had come so she darted for the doorway where the Fae warrior had gone, shouting as she ran. 

He stepped sideways and lurched for her, catching her leg, and sending her sprawling on the stone floor. She rolled then sprang up ready to face him. She looked to the doorway for a rescue or at least a distraction but the doorway was empty. The creature spoke to her as he came forward, his right hand held down in front of him, palm up.

To work around warriors, she and Alithea had both been taught the kick that disabled a male in musth. As a growing girl, Bebe had been repulsed by it. Tying up a dead Ibik by its forelimbs, the trainees practiced the kick that crippled or tore the muscle between hip and knee. Sulces, their trainer, seemed to delight in the bloody mess. “Animals have different knees. You can’t be certain that you will down an animal with a kick to the knee. But we all have a muscle that joins the hip and the knee.”

They practiced until each muscle was ripped from the bone and they brought out a fresh carcass to hone their skills. Bebe had only used the technique twice with warriors in camp. As soon as she went into the killing crouch, the warrior’s fear overcame their lust and they backed away.

She looked past the creature’s arm at the outside muscle below his hip, picking her spot. He would grab for her leg so she needed a distraction, the very personal part of her that he wanted. From out of her crouch, she stood halfway, legs apart and turned partially to him, jutting out her buttocks at him. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw him raise his arm as he rose into  a position where he could mount her.

Quickly she dropped into the killing crouch. She needed to whip her leg with enough momentum to deliver a crippling blow. Twisting her body, she found her center on her left foot as she swung furiously with the right. Launching off her left foot she sailed through the air two feet above the ground. Her aim was less than perfect; she was out of practice. Her claws caught his leg bone, then her momentum carried her and she held her pressure as the claws tore through muscle and ligament.

He fell toward his wounded leg as she careened across the floor away from him, her head narrowly missing the wall. He bellowed with anger and pain as he lurched onto his right side and curled his body on the floor.

Bebe was distracted by a figure in white rushing from another entryway. She prepared to fight this creature but the white figure bent over the creature and pounded his shoulders and back with her fists.

Bebe jumped up, realizing that she had weakened her foot when making the blow. She rushed forward, gathered up her skirt and turned to the hallway where she had come. The tablet! She picked it up, then raced toward the hallway. From the side of her vision, she saw the Fae warrior rushing from the other doorway.

She ran down the hallway and out to the portico, thankful when she saw that the elephant and the Fae attendant were gone. She turned left, rushing past the colonnade to the corner of the palace that faced the ocean. When she turned the corner, she saw a stairway that disappeared inside the palace. With little choice, she took it. At the bottom of the stairs, she turned and was outside again. Hearing cries of alarm from within the palace, she paused. North or south?

“Think like Alpen,” she thought as she tied her skirt around the tablet. If it broke, the skirt would at least preserve the record. What would a warrior do? They would expect her to not act like a warrior, to go north along the beach and back to the familiarity of the area around the prisoner camp. Clutching the tablet to her, she hurried into the stand of trees to the south. Once inside the tree line, she paused to catch her breath and see if there was any immediate pursuit.

She followed the slant of slope and emerged from the trees near a cliff that was not far above the beach. The dirt was soft and strewn with boulders and rocks that would eventually roll to the beach below. She dug a hole deep enough, unwrapped the tablet and placed it in the hole. She stared at the top line of symbols long enough to see them in her mind, then filled the hole with dirt and set a rock.

Looking north and south along the beach, she stood and used the location technique she had been taught. Hearing sounds from the north, she crouched again. Looking over a scrub bush on the embankment, she saw several Fae warriors clambering down the path she had first come up that morning. Glancing at the sky, she guessed it was midday. Still crouching, she turned and headed south along the steep slope.

 

The Palace

 

As the elephant neared the ridge at the top of the cliff overlooking the ocean, Bebe studied the plant and animal life along the steep path. As a child, she had been taught to catalog many details by sorting their qualities and arranging them in boxes in her mind. Calvea, her teacher, had shown her how to faithfully recall a series of events using the “valley of time” technique.

“The river of time follows a valley to the past,” Calvea had told her. “Many small streams flow into the river. Many People can remember the course of the river, but the historian also remembers how the flow of the streams changed the river.”

Her childhood training began with the rivers and mountain streams, cataloguing the minute changes during one season. Calvea then trained her to recall the births, deaths, and life events of some of the Jade tribe. She learned to observe the river of events in the swirl of battle, but also the streams that caused a battle to go one way or another.

“See that warrior,” Calvea pointed as they watched the Jade and Cawthingi battle over access to a road to the southern valley. “He favors his left side. His companion is loyal and stays closer to him but that leaves a gap, a vulnerability in their line. When you say that story of the battle, that is one of the streams.”

“How do I see it all?” Bebe had asked.

“You can’t, of course,” Calvea said. “Either side of your vision is like the tips of a bow. Draw back your focus like the string of a bow, then shoot the arrow of your focus at a detail that stands out.”

When the elephant crested the ridge and the queen’s palace came into view, Bebe surveyed the flat plain, the various stone and beige plaster buildings, keeping her focus on the mid-range point between her and the landscape. When she noticed the detail, she unleashed her focus on that spot at the corner of the queen’s palace.

She recognized the dark green sheen of jade stone from the mountains east of the Melangi tribe. This was the emblem plaque of Marten, the great one, ruler of all the tribes before the civil war.

//////////////////

Hearing Calvea speak the stories of the ancient king, Bebe had imagined a grander palace. Looking to her left she recognized what used to be the garrison where the king’s soldiers trained. The queen’s race of people did not build this palace city as Alithea had thought. They had taken it from the Dallesa tribe who had called this area their own after the civil war.

The elephant ambled up alongside the palace. Like Alithea, Bebe was surprised when the Fae opened the side of the tent to reveal a passageway on the second story of the palace. Did Marten have elephants?  She searched her memory but could not recall any mention of them.

As she set foot on the landing, she paused to admire the veranda and colonnade. She wanted to turn right toward the ocean side of the palace. She could imagine the pride the king must have felt as he stood on his portico and admired the ocean. She wanted to inspect the ancient symbols on the king’s emblem.

Calvea had taught her all the symbols, carving them in the dirt and testing her memory. “Why do we need to make symbols?” she asked Calvea. “We can make symbols in our minds so much faster.”

“When I teach you the stories of the People, I must read the symbols in my mind, and translate them into speaking. You hear the words, then translate them to symbols to store the stories in your mind. The story changes slightly from historian to historian. When the symbols are written in stone, the story stays the same.”

The Fae snapped her reverie with a bark and an urgent motion to follow. The bright sunlight faded as she followed the Fae through the passageway shadows. After a turn she found herself in a large room. The Fae warrior signaled that she should wait. When the Fae warrior left, Bebe took a few steps forward, inspecting her surroundings. Where was the surgical table that Alithea had talked about? Maybe this was a separate room.

She walked to the nearby wall to inspect several knobs protruding from the plaster wall. Pushing one, the wall opened. A door! These were clever craftsmen. How many skills had the People lost after the tribes split? There were hard clay tablets stacked in the compartment. Bebe picked up the top one, surprised at the weight of it. The dust filled the depressions but Bebe recognized the symbols. These were the symbols that Calvea had taught her. What was this place? She pushed a knob to the right and another door opened. More tablets! A short sharp sound behind her caused her to flinch and the tablet she held tumbled from her hands.

Morning Surprise

 

“Alithea!” Fallon’s urgent whisper as he shook her. She opened her eyes partway, squinting against the morning light. “They’re outside. They want you up at the queen’s, I guess.” He put his arm under her shoulders, raising her head up. “We’ve got double rations for you. You need to eat something.” He held up a small container with water and whispered, “Drink.”

The guards had let him bring in the morning’s rations into the sleeping quarters so she could sleep a while longer than the others. They knew she was the doctor now at the clinic on the hill. 

The ration biscuits revived her energy and Fallon helped her toward the door. She held up her hand, still quivering slightly, to show him. “I can’t do surgery today.”

“I’ll go up with you and explain to the queen,” Fallon said. “Shield your eyes.” They walked out into the sun. The Sprint was gone. Alpen and Drindl argued with the Fae teacher who wanted to take Erthen to school for the day. “Alpen!” Fallon shouted.

Alpen turned just in time to block a blow from one of the guards. Fallon hesitated, not wanting to leave Alithea alone. “I’ll be right back,” he said to her as his hand trailed along her back, feeling her sense of balance before leaving her side.

The guard and the Fae school guide spoke two different languages. Fallon addressed the Fae, acting as though he knew only a few words of her language. Pointing to Alithea, he said, “Doctor for children.” The Fae shook her head. “Queen,” Fallon added, then pointed to Alithea. “Doctor.” Pointing again to the children, “Children.”

Turning to Alpen, Fallon asked, “Where’s Bebe?”

“She went as Alithea,” Alpen said under his breath. Fallon’s eyes went wide and Alpen shrugged.

He turned to the Fae, extending his arm to Alithea. “Doctor,” he addressed her in the Fae language. She didn’t understand what he wanted until he motioned her to come along.

With a quick motion, the Fae warrior raised her walking stick and blocked him. “The Doctor. Not you.”

“Speak words for children and doctor,” Fallon replied, keeping his voice calm. He must find out if they were feeding Erthen the same stuff that had poisoned Alithea. When the Fae did not lower her staff, Fallon gambled. “Queen looking for Listener.” The Fae challenged him with her eyes, then lowered her staff and waved them to come on.

“Where are we going?” Alithea asked, falling in beside him, her walk tentative.

Fallon steadied her with his right arm. “To school,” Fallon said. Extending his other arm, he gathered Erthen into his arms.

A New Plan

 

“Where is he?” Alpen leaned close to Alithea and Bebe tugged him back.

“At the mine,” Alithea said. She turned to Drindl. “I think it’s a mine. You’ve been here longer than we have. What are they mining?”

Drindl shrugged. “That must be where the energy comes from. The elephants transport it down the coast.”

Alithea turned back to Alpen, reaching toward him with sympathy. “Oh, Alpen, at first I didn’t recognize him. He looks old and beat down.”

“What was wrong with him?” Alpen asked. “Injured? Will he be OK? Where is – oh, I forget her name – Sisseku? Surely, they have a few children by now.”

“Slow down,” Bebe laid her hand on his arm. “Let her answer.”

“He said he not seen them in a while,” Alithea shook her head. “It was like his family had disappeared from his life and he had grown used to it.”

“That’s not Mellen,” Alpen said. “They’ve done something to him.”

“We need to find his family and get him and get us out of this place,” Alithea insisted, then remembered. “Mellen had the same blue tinged eyes as Erthen. Only more so. Is it that white stuff they give them?”

Alpen looked over Alithea’s shoulder to the guards. “Keep your voice down. How are we supposed to get out?”

“You’re the warrior,” Alithea answered. “I thought you and Fallon would have a plan by now.”

Alpen looked to Fallon, who shifted Erthen to his other arm. “We’ve learned a lot. We thought about capturing a ship and taking it down the shore.” 

“I need a few days,” Fallon said. “I’m hearing a lot of conversation but how do we sail the boat down the shore? We would need rowers.”

“The prisoners at the mine?” Alithea asked.

“Can we trust them? Are they all Jade?”

“Different tribes, but all People,” Alithea answered.

Fallon shook his head. “Can we trust them?”

The guards made a loud tapping on a gourd, the signal for lights out and prisoners down. On the first night, they had seen what the guards did to prisoners who did not obey.

“Erthen can sleep with me,” Fallon offered to Alithea. “You need to quiet down.” She agreed.

/////////////

The first pale light touched the darkness of the sleeping quarters and Fallon opened his eyes. Resting on his dad’s stomach, Erthen stirred but kept sleeping. Hearing his stomach rumbling with hunger, Fallon wondered how Erthen could sleep with his ear next to that growling noise. Turning his gaze to Alithea, he saw that she was agitated. “Can’t sleep?” he asked.

When she rolled over to face him, he realized that the sound was coming from her stomach, not his. Her hands were quivering. Careful not to move his torso, he reached for her hands and held them. “Have you eaten since yesterday morning?” he whispered.

“I – I can’t remember.” Her teeth chattered as she spoke. “If I had a little more of that stuff, that would help. Does Drindl have any? Can you ask him?”

Erthen started talking gibberish in his sleep. “He’s at that stage,” Fallon said.

She was more interested in satisfying her hunger than Erthen. “Can you ask him?” she repeated.

Wanting to let Erthen sleep, Fallon spoke in a loud whisper, “Drindl, you awake?”

Bebe spoke up into the gray darkness. “He’s sleeping next to us.”

“Ask him if he has any energy,” Fallon said. “We’ll be waking up soon anyway.”

The rustle of sound, then the low voice of Drindl in the quiet. “No, he doesn’t have any,” Bebe said.

Fallon gave Alithea’s hand a squeeze. “We need to get some food in you.” He reached to transfer Erthen to Alithea, but stopped, not wanting to burden her.

A touch on his shoulder and Drindl’s voice in his ear, “Give her some of this. Tell her to chew and suck.” He pressed what felt like some leaves into Fallon’s hand.

“She needs to eat,” Fallon whispered.

“This will help. We won’t eat for a while. The light is still dim.”

“Take Erthen, will you?” Drindl gathered the boy into his hands and lifted him from Fallon’s belly. Erthen grunted, then curled up against Drindl’s belly.

Fallon sat up and turned to Alithea. “Chew and suck, chew and suck.” He touched the leaves to her trembling lips, which grabbed one leaf and drew it into her mouth. She moaned a soft satisfaction at the taste, then reached with her lips for another small leaf. He wrapped his other hand around her clasped and trembling hands to steady her spirit. “That’s good,” he repeated, mimicking the soothing tone that she used with prisoners.

In a few moments, he felt the quivering in her hands quiet as she took the last leaf from his hand. Even though his hand was empty, he held it steady at her lips, an intimate connection between them. He felt her lips surround one of his fingers and he let her suck for a few moments until she fell asleep.

Starry Night

 

A shaft of sunlight crept up one wall of the clinic while she saw more patients. Always the same. Bodies broken by overwork, the crystalline blue eyes, and the passiveness of these prisoners. Most were young, of warrior age. Why weren’t any in musth? Where were the women and children? What were they digging? If Fallon and Alpen did not know, Bebe would have heard the stories of such a place as this.

The Fae babysitter handed Erthen to Alithea. He said some gibberish to her, then laid his head against her chest. She had been tired earlier in the day but seemed to have found a new energy in the afternoon. Holding Erthen in her arms, she was surprised how light he was. She got the attention of the Fae babysitter and motioned eating to her mouth, then to Erthen. The Fae nodded. Alithea remembered that she had not eaten. Why wasn’t she hungry?

Carrying Erthen, she followed the two Fae out the upper entry and into the tent that sat on the elephant’s back. Had it stood here all the time? Surely not. What had killed the elephant by the side of the road? She settled herself and Erthen and the elephant surprised her by backing up the hill a few dozen steps before it found a place to turn around. They were remarkable creatures. Where had they come from?

They moved along the road until they got to the edge of the large pit and the darkening sky and stars above the ocean was visible through the window. “Look, Erthen!” She pointed out the window and held him while he stood on a crate below the window. She felt as though she could reach out and touch the points of light as they reflected on the black water of the ocean. She wanted to be a fairy or better yet, the great winged Alsace bird that sped through the sky.

The people, the Fae, the Ibik and Sprint were all bound to the earth. Only the faeries and the birds could soar from the earth to the sky. And the spirit of her precious Alamea. Oh, baby girl, I wish you here with me and your brother, Erthen. You were taken too soon!

Erthen pointed out to the sky then said some gibberish to her. It was Alamea! She had not left. Her spirit had fled into Erthen and she was trying to speak to her mother! She held Erthen by both arms and looked through his eyes into the soul of her Alamea. “I hear you little girl. I will never let you go again!”

//////////////////

Her instincts and training woke in her. Before each surgery, she tested her alertness by naming the bones of the foot, beginning with the four toes. It was the first piece of anatomy that she had learned from Altiss’ mother. “If you don’t have the presence of mind, you’ll do more harm than good with your doctoring.”

Erthen held her gaze, his jaw tight with fear. “Ma?” She had waited months for it, but the word sounded strange to her. He reached up and put a finger on her lips. She released her grip on his arms, kissed Erthen’s finger and held his gaze, seeing the flecks of pale blue in those eyes.

The tears flowed as the loss of Alamea surged inside of her. Always she had coped, putting aside her own emotions to be there for Erthen, for Fallon, and the rest of the group. They trusted her to stay calm in any emergency because she had been trained to do that since she was young. She turned to look out at the night sky, wary now of herself, her own perception.

Erthen repeated “Ma?” His voice was scared, and she opened her arms to gather him in, humming the lullaby tune that helped calm him and her. As the road tilted, she saw the wash of moonlight on the ocean. Were they not returning to the queen’s dwelling?

“Erthen, look!” The moon glistened off the swirl of dark bodies rising to the water’s surface, then disappearing. He repeated the word “look” and pointed, copying her gesture and she gave him a quick hug. “This marvelous place, my lovely boy. So beautiful and so dangerous.” They turned to the north and between the trees to the prisoner’s village.

When the elephant stopped, she looked out the window, recognizing the barracks across the street from them. She waited, holding Erthen close, expecting that they would lower them to the ground. She was surprised when the opening on the other side unfurled and the Fae warrior bid her to come. Holding Erthen, she stepped through a stone doorway. Ahead she saw two guards lit by several small fires.

She recognized the entry outside their sleeping barracks! One of the guards motioned her closer and from around the corner Fallon and Drindl appeared. The guards stepped aside as she rushed to Fallon, then handed Erthen to him. “Take him. There’s something wrong with me.”

She turned to Drindl. “What are the white squares they give the prisoners?” Fallon looked with concern as they turned toward the sleeping quarters. She leaned toward him, putting her hand on Erthen and Fallon.  

“The white squares?” Drindl asked.

“Like the ones you gave the guards when we buried our babies.”

“What prisoners?”

“There are prisoners in a big hole in the ground. They dig. They are exhausted, old before their time. I spent all day handing out white squares to them. I think I absorbed some of it.” The words rushed out of her too fast. Fallon shrank away from her with Erthen. She turned to Drindl again, then remembered and turned back to Fallon as they entered the sleeping quarters. “Alpen’s brother, Mellen, is here. I spoke to him.” In the dim light, Alpen and Bebe stood. She faced Alpen. “We need to get away from this place. There is something very bad here.”

/////////////////

The Patient

 

Still more came up the stairs. None needed surgery or a bone set. One poor fellow had lost part of a hand in an accident, but it had healed. There were minor cuts and bruises, but most suffered from overwork and exhaustion.

Alithea noticed that her breathing was more labored, then reached up to remove her mask. Noticing the faint flow of many minute specks on the mask, she turned to the Fae assistant and motioned for a new mask. She glanced at Erthen, not wanting to awaken him to replace his mask. He was playing with the Fae warrior’s four fingers. Was she teaching him to count? That was her job - hers and Fallon’s.

The Fae assistant retrieved some gauze, but that was too coarse to filter the air. Why didn’t the Fae wear masks? She tore two more strips from her gown, tied one around her mouth, then motioned to the Fae to give her Erthen. Sitting him on her lap, she inspected the mask over his face. The same tiny specks although his breathing did not seem labored. She replaced the mask and held him to her chest. The sun was drifting below the edge of the great pit far above. She wanted to be gone from this place.

The Fae assistant brought another patient up the stairs and Alithea handed Erthen back to the Fae babysitter, then stood up. As the patient turned toward her, she gasped. She tried to remember his name, but couldn’t, so she said the name of his brother, “Alpen.” The bent figure looked up and the outer edge of his left ear stiffened. Then she remembered. “Mellen?”

///////////////

He looked at her and asked, “Bebe?” He had the same pale dusty blue in his eyes that the others had.

Alithea took his hand. “Alithea. Bebe’s friend. Fallon’s partner. Alpen has told us so much about you. We thought we might settle down with you and your family. How are they?” He was a year older than Alpen but looked drained.

“I haven’t seen them in a while,” Mellen said, hanging his head.

“You’ve been here how long?” she asked. He shook his head. Out of the corner of her eye, the Fae assistant made a gesture for her to hurry along. “Are you hurt? None of the patients I’ve seen so far have any wounds.”

“That’s not today and not here,” Mellen said. “This is the medicine clinic. They take us somewhere else for surgery. Much cleaner. Can I have my medicine?”

“Do you come here everyday for your medicine?” she asked.

Mellen nodded. “As long as we work, we get our medicine. It helps us work.”

The Fae assistant extended the tray to Alithea and she took a square. Mellen dutifully opened his mouth and closed his eyes. She placed the square on his tongue. Like the others, his teeth had a pale gray tinge to them.

“Tell Alpen not to come to this place,” Mellen said and let himself be led down the stairs.

Alithea glanced at Erthen, glad she had kept him out of that school and away from whatever they fed him.