Out to Sea

 

“We shouldn’t be separated,” Bebe stated, but there with a note of pleading in her voice.

“In war we take what the winds and the enemy allow,” Alpen said as he raised her hand to his lips. He glanced over her shoulder at the Cawthingi guards who gathered and sorted the prisoners into work crews.

“Darden, Bella gone. That tore my heart apart. I told myself we can have more children. Now Alithea, Fallon, Erthen. We have to stay together.”

Alpen kept his voice down. “Women only on the pier crew. The women work the river crew. It’s easier work. We won’t be too far away.” He hoped.

Bebe stepped behind Drindl, blocking her from the guards as they jabbed their prod sticks at the prisoners. Facing away from him, she unwrapped her sarong, tore it and rewrapped it to give more freedom to her legs as male prisoners did.

Drindl stammered, “Bebe, what…”

She  turned to Drindl, shouting curse words at him, then backed away in wide stances, then gestured to him as though she were ready to fight.

Drindl was shocked, looking first at Bebe then sideways at Alpen. Alpen rushed forward to control and protect Bebe, afraid that the guards would punish her for acting out. She pushed him away, keeping her arms out from her body and making threatening gestures. Two of the guards came forward and one rapped Bebe on the back of her calf. She made a last aggressive gesture to Drindl, then turned to join the male work crew. When Alpen paused in shock, the other guard hit him in the butt with the point of his prod stick. Drindl and Alpen joined the same crew, bringing up the rear. The guards yelled to the Fae warrior atop the elephant and the Sprints joined the parade down the sandy road to the south.

Walking behind Bebe, Alpen glanced at Drindl, pointed to her exaggerated walk and whispered, “Don’t overdo it.” Bebe reached behind her with one hand and signaled her acknowledgment.

Drindl whispered, “We all look the same to them, I guess.”

Again, Bebe repeated her acknowledgment.

Breaking for lunch at the midday, all three of them sat together and ate their cakes. Bebe flexed her right arm which was cramping from the weight of the stones she had to carry. “You get bigger portions that the women do,” Bebe commented.

“This takes more work,” Drindl said.

Bebe laughed and nodded. “I don’t know if I can do this all day.” Holding the flat slab of pressed food to her nose, she said, “It tastes different. Not bad. Different.”

“Maybe they give us the same stuff as the miners?” Alpen asked.

Bebe stared closely at both. “Your eyes would be speckled blue. You don’t feel strange, do you? Alithea said she felt really strange after handling the miner’s medicine.”

Alpen looked to Drindl and shrugged. “It’s maybe a little bit like the energy before battle. A lift. A communion with the other workers, with the rocks.”

Drindl echoed that. “Yeah, solidarity. That’s a good term. Maybe they put just a little bit in our food.”

“Let me see if it helps me with more energy this afternoon,” Bebe said, swallowing the last of her portion. She looked to Alpen, following his gaze toward the end of the rock pier jutting out into the ocean. A Fae rider on a sea lion had snagged her empty pallet on the jumble of stones that made up the pier. The pallet sank partially below the water. Alpen turned left, closer to shore where a sea lion pulled a pallet fully loaded with rocks.

“Drindl, you’ve been here longer than we have. How do these rocks float?”

“They skin the sea lions,” Drindl said. “Then they blow them up with air.”

Alpen looked at him. “Those heavy rocks float on air?” His voice was incredulous, then he took the last bite of his lunch.

Bebe added, “That’s why we sometimes see a dead Ibik floating on water. But who blows them up with air? Alithea would know all this.” Her shoulders dropped and she reached out to Alpen.

“Don’t touch me,” he warned. “They’ll notice.” She abruptly drew her arm back, then swatted her face as though bit by a bug.

“You and I will have more children, I promise,” Alpen said as he stared out to the sea. “You will act out wonderful stories.”

She lowered her voice as best she could. “Tell them about the day their mom was a warrior.”

            Alpen gave her a sidelong look while Drindl laughed. The sound signaling the end of lunch echoed across the waves. Bebe lowered herself into the knee-high water and turned to the shore where more rocks waited to be loaded.

She worked with Alpen, Drindl and one other as they loaded the sleds, then held on to the rear as a Fae warrior mounted on a sea lion pulled the load out to the end of the pier. On the first load after lunch, Alpen reached under the sled, feeling for the skin bladder that kept the load skimming the water’s surface.

On this first afternoon load, they had to wait while another crew unloaded their pallet. When it was their turn, they worked in pairs unloading the rocks onto the breakwater while the Fae warrior waited. When done, Drindl and Bebe got onto the sled with the other prisoner. They waited while Alpen pushed the front of the sled clear from the rocks. Without warning, he jumped astride the sea lion, just behind the Fae warrior. Bebe was thrown onto her back as the sled jerked forward. She grabbed for the other prisoner as he slid into the water, not realizing at first that Drindl had pushed him off.

The Fae commanded the sea lion to submerge but the air bladders beneath the sled limited the sea lion’s depth. As they got beyond the protection of the southern breakwater, Bebe and Drindl held on as the sled bounced on the waves. Sensing the danger of capsizing, Drindl motioned to her to take a position that would help balance the sled. Glancing toward the shore she saw that Alpen was taking them further south around the curve of land.

As the wind tore at her fur, Bebe dared not twist her head and torso to see Alpen. She was deathly afraid of disappearing beneath the surface of this great body of water just as a flash of light winks out in the night sky. As she sensed the sled’s slowing speed, she was hopeful that the terror might end soon. She wanted only to plant her feet firmly on the sand, and to hug her partner. Feeling more balanced on the sled, she twisted slightly to look at Alpen. His frame hid the Fae warrior, but his elbow jutted out the side. Bebe guessed that he held a sharp object to the Fae’s body.

Drindl looked at her and she signaled she was unhurt. The coastline curved and the waves came toward the shoreline at an angle. Drindl tapped her on the leg and pointed to the coast. She glanced quickly, not wanting to lose her balance, then took a second and longer look at the vista before her. She looked sideways at Drindl who squinted in the sunlight reflecting off the water. As they drew closer to the shore, she leaned over to him and asked, “Are those Ibik?” She had never seen that many animals together.

Village of Ovens

 

Fallon stayed close to the trees as they moved along the furrowed plateau, alert for predator movement. He and Alithea spoke in whispers as she carried Erthen close to her. A chill breeze from the ocean rustled across the plateau and she wanted to keep him warm.

Just past sunset, Alithea looked to the sky, searching for the figure of an Alsace bird on its evening hunt. “Why are there no birds here?”

Fallon scanned the sky as they continued south. “I haven’t seen any birds since we got here. No faeries either. Maybe they hunt them?” His gaze moved to the ground in search of shelter, a cave perhaps.

To their left was an outcropping of rock and beyond that an open field that would hold several hundred warriors in battle. He nudged Alithea and limped toward the outcrop, wanting to rest his knee. The staff would be a poor weapon against a predator. Perhaps he could find some rock flakes that he could fashion into a slashing knife.

Nestled behind some smaller evergreens he saw an area below a rock overhang. Not a cave and somewhat protected. The curve of the cliff would bring the sound of pursuit to their ears. A place to rest his knee.

“We can’t talk here. Our voices,” she motioned with her hand, indicating a bouncing from the rocks.

He showed her the curve of the rocks ascending above them. “They will think we went north, but we can hear them coming from here. Our backs are protected. Not a predator’s shelter. I need to rest.”

She nodded, demurring to his tracking instincts. Erthen was hungry, making a “unga-unga” sound to inform his parents of that fact. Alithea held the boy close to her face. “Listen to you and talking in the Jade language.” Turning to Fallon, she said, “I don’t want him learning prisoner language.”

Fallon was sure that “unga-unga” a universal language, but he was pleased to see her pleased. “Let me find him something to eat.”

“First your knee. Sit.” Alithea handed him the boy and inspected the knee, prodding and probing for pain.

When Alithea hit a spot on the side of his knee, Fallon yelped an instinctual “Oww!” and Erthen echoed him.

“That’s five words he knows,” Alithea smiled. “Nothing serious but you should rest it overnight. I’ll find us something to eat, I hope.”

In the last of the civil twilight, she searched for berries. Periodically scanning the area, Fallon taught Erthen the “ow” family of words in a soft voice. They had practiced bow, pow, cow, and how when Alithea returned with a handful of berries.

“It’s late summer. They will be sweet.” She placed a few in Erthen’s mouth and he made a bouncing motion as he chewed. She pried his lower lip down to inspect his teeth in the dim light, then waited until he had finished chewing and felt the length of his teeth. From inside her sarong, she gave him an anschloss leaf to chew on.

“He’s too young,” Fallon protested, knowing the pain relief of the plant.

“Late summer leaf. Not as powerful. It will help his hunger. We need to rest.” She handed Fallon several leaves, then ate some herself.

Sitting back against the rock alcove, they drifted into the starry sky as Erthen fell asleep on Fallon’s lap. The plant insulated them from their anxiety and tiredness, freeing them to feel a sense of peace that rose from their minds like smoke into the dreamshadow sky.

He clutched Erthen in his arms as the grunt rumbled over his face. The low rumble reminded him of the sound of his dad’s sharpening wheel as Fallon pumped the treadle with his foot. His dad would draw a leaf down over a blade he had sharpened, and the leaf parted as though by magic.

In the near light, he realized he had rolled over on his side. Opening his eyes, he saw a shaggy mountain of brown and white hair sniffing at him. He drew back against the rock, kicking Alithea in the process. “Shush,” he urged as she awoke.

“It’s a cow,” he heard her say, with no fear in her voice. Erthen echoed the word “cow” and Alithea ran a gentle hand over the top of his head. “Six words.” Fallon had heard the word but never seen one. As he sat up, the cow swung its large head to the side.

“Ooh, a calf,” Alithea said. Seeing the young animal, Erthen pointed and said, “cow-cow.” She leaned toward him. “Calf,” she repeated twice, but he only bounced his arms and said “cow.”

The small animal bleated and reached under his mother’s belly to drink. “Can Erthen drink milk?” Fallon asked.

“He can. We can’t.” On her knees she came around on the other side of the cow, then took hold of a teat opposite the one the calf sucked on. Squeezing a little liquid into her hand, she returned to her position next to Fallon and Erthen. Reaching out her palm to the boy, she let him lap up the warm milk. He clapped his hands at the taste, and she squeezed out two more palmfuls until the cow turned and ambled back into the pasture.

“These animals are used to People. There must be herders nearby,” she said.

In the growing light of early morning, they found a greater supply of berries. They ate greedily, careful not to get the berry stains on their clothes. Alithea picked some more anschloss leaves and tied them into the cloth of her sarong. They stayed on the edge of the pasture, ears alert to the sounds of herders over the occasional grunts of cows and the bleats of anxious calves.

They approached a ridge cautiously, inching forward on their knees until they peered out on the valley below. The most distinctive buildings of the town were a series of tall beehive shaped buildings, smoke curling out of the tops. White bodied figures moved among the buildings and Alithea saw an elephant waiting, a sled harnessed behind it. The smell of food awoke their hunger.

Fallon looked behind them at the cows feeding in the pasture. “I could steal down there, get something for us to eat,” Fallon suggested.

She shook her head. “Too dangerous.”

“We need to eat. We’ll get lightheaded. It’s the only way to protect Erthen.”

She looked at Fallon, her face clouded with doubt. “We can’t survive on late summer berries and anschloss leaves,” she agreed. He kissed the top of Erthen’s head, then took Alithea’s hand. “Go, before I change my mind.”

“You two,” he said. “Out of sight,” and pointed to the cover of the trees. Glancing around him, he hurriedly made his way to the pasture edge and followed the tree line to the village below.

The bustling figures were divided into two groups, those who brought kindling to feed the beehive ovens and those in white coats who handled the food ingredients. His stomach ached at the smell of food cooking and he waited a moment to quell his instincts.

Two People clad in white emerged from a larger building, carrying a pallet of food between them, and set it on the sled behind the elephant. The head of the great beast moved from side to side and it lifted its trunk and grunted. A Fae warrior who sat atop the beast looked behind her, glanced around, then jumped down to the ground and ran to get a cake of the freshly baked food. She placed the warm morsel against its lips and Fallon saw it disappear into the large mouth. Using the curled trunk of the elephant as a stepping stool, she jumped on the beast’s forehead, then settled in behind his head, leaned forward and inserted her finger tendrils into the beast’s ears. The same two people came again with another pallet and set it on the first.

Seeing a white coat draped over the fence, Fallon walked casually from his hiding spot to the fence and donned the coat, relieved that it fit. He scooped up several cakes from the pallet and walked over to the elephant, offering yet another cake to the animal. The long eyelashes blinked as they looked at Fallon and he thought he was looking into the eye of a Person.

“Stop, what are you doing?” yelled the Fae warrior. “I gave him something already.”

Fallon patted the trunk of the elephant affectionately and backed away, bowing to the anger and authority of the warrior. She made a sharp whistle and the elephant stepped forward. As she rode past Fallon, she looked down at him with scorn. In the white coat, he was an anonymous worker. Seeing a large pot nearby, he picked it up and turned to the nearest beehive oven. He paused outside the entrance, listening to two voices, letting the sounds and rhythms wash through his ears. The language of the Washiti people, a southern tribe who lived inland from the Dallesa that Alpen’s brother had gone to live with.

“Water?” Fallon asked as he stepped through the entrance. He assumed that cooks would use water.

Holding a long handle, a Person turned toward him. His companion held some green shoots in his hand.

“Water?” Fallon asked again.

The companion looked down to a nearby container and motioned with his elbow. “Thanks, we’re good. Are you new?”

“Yeah, I was helping the guys load the sled. They said to make myself useful.” Fallon held up his pot.

“Which load?” asked the person with the handle.

“Pier building crew, I think. Lunch meal.” Fallon felt like he was dancing on sharp stones, about to give himself away as an imposter with his next word.

“Check with the crew next door,” long handle said. “We’re both cooking up the medicine for the miners. We’ll be done in a little bit.”

Fallon took a chance. “The school has its lunch rations?”

Herb in his hand shook his head. “Not today. Something happened there yesterday. No school today. Those are the last two ovens. You don’t need to check on them.”

Fallon nodded, remembering everything they had said as he continued onto the next beehive oven. “The guys next to you said to check if you need water.” Two white gowns turned toward him. Fallon’s mouth dropped. It was Sisseku.

 

Hungry Belly

 

Bebe woke up in the darkness, aware that Alpen was not lying next to her. She whispered his name into the shadows and felt the touch of his hand on her thigh. She sat up, then followed the length of his arm as she stood up. “I thought you could sleep through anything,” she whispered in his ear.

“Battle plans,” he whispered back. They both turned to the sound of Drindl very much asleep and the sound of the others, some asleep and some making fitful movements within the blackness of the sleeping quarters.

“I’m hungry,” Bebe whispered. She had received her evening portion but had missed the midday food bar because of the events at the queen’s castle. Marten’s ancient castle, she reminded herself. The pier, the immense hole in the ground. What were these strange creatures building? Why were there so few of the northern tribes taken prisoner?

Her stomach growled and Fallon placed his hand on her belly, a comforting gesture that reminded her of more intimate moments in the darkness. Where did the food come from? There were no smells of cooking here at the prisoner compound. Why were there no male prisoners in musth? She tried to remember Drindl’s last musth, his hormone crazed battle with the Sprint on their journey south. So long ago.

Returning the gesture, she touched Alpen’s belly, feeling the ridge of a battle scar.  Alithea had assisted in the surgery with Altiss’ mother while she was in training. “How long until first light?” she asked.

She felt the sound through his belly muscles as he whispered, “Not too long. Let’s rest.” He sat alongside her, then the two of them lay back, arms touching, hands loosely clasped.

She was surprised and grateful that she had fallen asleep when Alpen woke her. When the guards opened the doors to the sleeping quarters, she felt relief at the anticipation of eating the breakfast portion. Instead, they ushered the prisoners down a hallway and into a room with little light. Prodding them forward with pointed staffs, the prisoners descended into a pool of cold water that came up to their knees. She followed Drindl’s lead, lifting her tunic above her shoulder A commotion in several languages combined with the physical crowding in the cold water made every muscle inside Bebe tense with an aching for some comfort.

“Washing away the salt of the ocean water yesterday,” Alpen said. Both he and Drindl were rejuvenated by the fresh cold water, but she wanted breakfast.

When they were done, the water felt thick with the salt and the dust from the prisoner’s bodies. They were led outside and given their breakfast portion. Drindl came up alongside her and pressed a half portion into her hand.

“No, you need it,” she protested.

“Someone owes me a favor,” Drindl said. “Alpen said you missed a meal yesterday. They only feed us enough to sustain us and to keep us hungry, so we won’t run away.”

She looked to Alpen, who nodded. “You need to keep up your energy levels if we are going to escape this place.”

“We can’t leave Alithea and Fallon and Erthen. Where are they?” she asked.

“After the bellowing last night, I listened for the wolfbear patrol,” Alpen said, then shook his head. “Every morning before first light. Today, nothing.”

She looked around, seeing only the Cawthingi guards and the elephant moving slowly towards them. “Where are we working today?”

“I hope it’s the pier again,” Alpen said, looking at Drindl. When Drindl nodded quietly, she knew they had planned something and looked north up the road to the school.

The guards lined them up behind the elephant pulling a sled of digging tools and provisions and they set off on the road south. Bebe was sick at heart, fearful that she would never see her friend again.

Pursuit

 

When Fallon wheezed a grunt, Alithea stopped and turned. Reaching out to touch his arm, she said, “Thank you. Let’s stop for a minute.” She looked past Fallon for any signs of pursuit, then stroked Erthen’s cheek with her finger. He blinked, passive in the swaddle of her sarong. For the first time since she took the sarong off, she felt exposed.

As though reading her mind, Fallon said, “When we get to the crest up there, we can undo the swaddle.” He looked up at the darkening sky. “I’d like to find some shelter before too long.”

As they neared the crest, loose rocks on the steep slope slowed their progress. At the sound of a commotion below, Alithea peered into the hazy shadows but could not see anything that far away.

Fallon urged her to continue and they crossed the crest. “We’re out of their line of sight now.” Scrub bush and a mixture of evergreen and leaf tree dotted the plateau. To the north, the ground rose gradually. That direction would take them back to the forest where they had first camped weeks ago. To the south lay all that had caused them so much sorrow. “We can’t leave the others.”

Alithea unwrapped Erthen and tied the sarong around her, feeling protected by the feel of the cloth on her short fur. A scuffle of sliding rocks on the slope below alerted them to the pursuit.

“Can a wolfbear see in the dark?” Fallon asked.

“No better than we can, but its sense of smell is acute. A Fae warrior will use that to follow our scent.”

“You think a Fae can ride a wolfbear up this slope?” He lifted a fist sized rock in his hand, then discarded it. “We have only rocks as weapons.”

“Quiet!” Alithea urged. “If we can hear them, they can hear us.”

Fallon found a broken tree limb that he could use as a staff. He jabbed forward with it, practicing a stroke against the wolf bear. He glanced down at Erthen resting against a rock that jutted up out of the ground. The boy was too close to the cliff edge for Fallon’s peace of mind. He set the staff down, then lifted Erthen up and handed him to Alithea.

“Let’s go,” she whispered. “Maybe we can find a defendable shelter.”

Fallon picked up the staff, then paused. “Wait.” Squatting down he used the end of the staff to dig a small trench next to the rock where Erthen had been sitting. He turned to Alithea. “Set the boy down over there and help me dig.”

“He’s upset. I’m afraid he’ll cry out if I put him down.”

Fallon had forgotten about the sound of the digging. He would have to chance it. If the wolfbear had their scent, it would follow them to this spot anyway. He used his foot claws to widen the trench, then dug further with the staff, pausing to listen for the pursuit. They were closer now. More than one wolfbear. He heard a Cawthingi guard complaining about the climb up the shifting rocks in the loose soil.

“Shadows!” Alithea whispered in an urgent voice.

Fallon would have liked a few more minutes to dig deeper but he had no choice. Setting the end of the staff into the center of the trench, he leaned back, putting leverage against the rock. As the rock moved within the dirt holding it, Fallon was able to get the end of the staff deeper.

“There they are!” a Cawthingi guard yelled.

Alithea grabbed Fallon’s arm. “We have to go!”

Fallon stepped forward to look down the slope. In the twilight, he saw two wolfbear, the Fae riders leaning close over their backs and two Cawthingi guards behind them. Tightening his grip on the staff, he urged Alithea to stand back, then leaned all his weight on the staff. The rock moved again and slid forward slightly. He set the end in deeper into the soil above the rock and grunted with the effort, hoping that the staff would not break.

The rock slid, then tilted out and broke free from the dirt. Without the support of the rock, the dirt above the rock sagged and Fallon almost lost his footing. Alithea screamed out his name, but he found his center and avoided the fate of following the rock down the slope.

The rock caused other smaller rocks to loosen as it bounced down the slope. One wolfbear scrambled to avoid the large rock, but it struck him in the side and the beast let out a bellow of pain. Its Fae rider screamed with the agony as the beast rolled to its side, crashing into the other wolfbear. They tumbled into the Cawthingi guards whose screams of pain echoed off the cliff.

Fallon turned toward Alithea, realizing that he had hurt his knee. Grabbing the staff to help him navigate the ground, he asked, “Can you carry Erthen for a while?”

 

Higher Ground

 

Fallon held Erthen in his arms as they rushed down the road toward the prisoner compound. The frightened grip of the young boy was so strong around his neck, that he struggled to breathe. “It’s OK,” he repeated in a grunt, looking toward Alithea. “We need to get off the road,” he breathed hoarsely.

“The beach,” she said. Unencumbered, she had adopted that stride of her youth, knees together, pumping high, the gait that ate up long distances in a steady pace.

Shifting Erthen to his other arm, he replied, “No cover.”

She looked left toward the rising cliffs that looked over the ocean. “You can’t. Not with Erthen.”

In a ragged breath, “No choice.”

She knew she could not carry the boy up that rising slope, but there was more cover in the trees and bushes. Glancing toward the ocean and the setting sun, there might be a chance. “The wolfbears.”

“The Cawthingi behind us.” He shifted the boy to his other arm as Alithea turned left and followed a crude path up the slope. As he bent forward, Erthen clung harder to his neck and dug his foot claws into his dad’s chest. The nails were still soft, but they felt like daggers in his skin. Shifting the boy would only cause him to extend his claws further. He stopped, panting hard.

In the dim light, Alithea looked back at them. “You’re bleeding.” She looked past Fallon toward the road they had left. She whipped off her sarong, then reached toward Erthen. “Give him here,” she said, then handed the sarong cloth to Fallon. After hoisting the boy astride Fallon’s shoulders, she took the cloth, swaddled Erthen with it, then wrapped it under Fallon’s arms and around his chest, making a knot. She stood in front of Fallon and reached up to Erthen. “Hello, baby boy.” Reaching up to Erthen’s shoulders, she rocked him to and fro, content that he was secure.

“He won’t fall?” Fallon sounded doubtful.

She looked at the boy and rubbed her forefinger on his upturned nose. “No, he won’t. He’s a plugger.”

Erthen flexed his knees, bouncing on his dad’s shoulders. “Dig!” he said.

She hated the word. It was a slave word, a prisoner word, but she did not show her distaste. “Yes, we dig deep!” She kissed one of the claw wounds on Fallon’s chest. “Dig deep, dad.” Then she turned and started up the path.

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

In the darkening shadows of the sleeping quarters, Bebe stomach wrenched when she learned that Fallon and Alithea had gone up to the school posing as the queen’s advisors. “They should have been back by now.”

All three of them turned to the street on the other side of the wall, alert to the commotion outside. “That’s not the usual patrol guard,” Drindl said. He looked up to the air inlet near the top of the wall. It was a bit more than the size of a head. He turned to Alpen. “My back can take your weight, I think.”

Alpen glanced at the entry. The guards had closed the door and taken up their overnight watch. Bebe helped Alpen up onto the younger warrior’s back, then held on to his legs as the stood to look out the air inlet. After a moment, Alpen shimmied down to the ground. “You all right?” Bebe asked Drindl as he straightened and stretched his shoulders. He thanked her then turned to Alpen in the darkness.

“At least two wolfbear patrols, maybe a third,” Alpen said. “The sun had not fully set so I was partially blinded. They’re heading up the road to the school.”

“Any Sprints?” Drindl asked.

“Not that I saw but they are barely visible in low light.”

Bebe turned and sat on the bench, then looked up to Alpen. “Could you and Drindl overpower the guards?”

Alpen looked to Drindl. “The door is closed. Maybe create a commotion. If we get out, will the other prisoners follow? That might cause such a ruckus that it would draw off resources, I suppose.”

As he talked, Bebe realized that the scheme was a long shot. She reached up for Alpen’s hand. “I feel so helpless. I hope I can sleep tonight. I…” She was interrupted by a low bellow from far off.

Long Day's End

 

Drindl looked down at this evening food packet with disgust. “Rotten?” Alpen asked.

“No,” Drindl sighed. “I thought we would get extra after working all day building that breakwater pier.” The sun dipped its lower edge into the water. He looked up the road from the prisoner’s compound. “Fallon and Alithea are not back yet. Where’s Bebe?” He looked over his shoulder at the two Cawthingi guards patrolling the road. “We need to find them.”

Alpen patted Drindl’s knee as he tore a bite from his evening food ration. “Slow down, D.” He rarely used that nickname since the first week of Drindl’s training long ago. “Bebe’s here already. Fallon hurts before he gets hurt. That’s a warrior. If Alithea and Erthen are still with him, they are probably safe.”

Drindl turned to him, a surprised look on his face. “Bebe, where?”

“She was beside me the last part of the journey home. I told you it was Bebe.”

“I thought you had sunhead,” Drindl admitted.

“Sunhead?!” Alpen pushed at his elbow and Drindl rocked to the side. “Old men and children get sunhead.” He tore another bite from his ration as though it were a fresh kill.

“How? Where?”

“The prisoner next to me,” Alpen said.

“That was a man,” Drindl insisted.

Alpen laughed. “Good disguise. She’s a fine storyteller with the young ones. Rolling around in the sand. How did she think of that?”

Drindl looked back. “Where is she?”

“She ‘accidentally’ got in with the group behind us. That Jade prisoner said he knew Mellen. She’s going to find out. We need allies from our tribe.”

Drindl jabbed himself in the chest and fell backwards, laughing. “I was worried about my aging mentor out in the sun! I am the burble head,” referring to the bird’s bobbing head as it walked. “I see nothing!”

The guards came toward them, prod sticks urging them back to their part of the prisoner compound. In the sleeping chambers, Bebe waited for them, her fur fresh and clean.

Drindl rushed forward, embracing her before Alpen had a chance. “How did you get clean?” he asked. “Where were you? At the queen’s palace?”

Bebe laughed as she stepped back from Drindl’s embrace and held out her arms to Alpen. “Queen’s palace,” she scoffed as she hugged Alpen close to her.

“You’re all right?” Alpen stepped back to look at her. He sensed something lurking under her gaiety.

“That’s Marten’s palace,” she said. “I saw the crest stone plaque. These creatures took over the city that Marten built before the civil war among the People.”

“Marten?” Drindl interrupted. He had not heard the name.

“The old king, the sea god,” Bebe added and Drindl nodded.

“Did Sarten take his name from the old king?” Drindl asked, sitting down in the darkening shadow.

Bebe laughed. “His grandfather did. Sarten is named after his grandfather.” She turned to look toward the entry. “Are Fallon and Alithea with you? Is she better?”

Incident at the Corral

 

Fallon rushed around the schoolhouse, following the bellowing trumpet of the animal. Alithea was lying prone on the back of a young elephant. Fallon stared at the two-tailed beast, then realized that she was facing the skinny tail at the rear of the animal, digging in her foot claws to prevent her falling off. The pain of her claws only enraged the beast, causing it to rear up on its hind legs and throw Alithea off.

Fallon vaulted over the two-rail corral fence, then paused in the soft dirt to find his balance. As soon as Alithea turned her head to him, he launched forward toward to the side of the animal. Knees flexed, he somersaulted high over the beast, gathered Alithea close to his chest and pulled her free. He hit the dirt hard, her weight pressing into him. He rolled sideways, letting the dirt take her momentum, then turned to keep her close.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the beast turn toward them. “Get up!” he yelled at Alithea, scrambling backwards on the dirt to put distance between them and the elephant. The Fae rider leapt on the beast, reached into the ear flaps, and stilled the shaking head.

Fallon clutched Alithea to his side as he stood. The Fae teacher motioned them out of the corral with an impatient gesture of her arm and Fallon hurried toward the schoolhouse with Alithea. Erupting out of the group of children, Erthen rushed to their side and Alithea reached down to pick him up. “Dig!” he cried as she hugged him.

The Fae teacher sat comfortably on the young elephant, staring hard at the family. “You are not from the queen!” she accused. Turning to the guard, she yelled in Cawth, “Kill them!”

Fallon glanced at the spiked weapon at the side of the guard. Too risky. He grabbed Erthen and yelled, “Run!”