Trapped

by E J Pay

  I feel a pinch of jealousy from Pearl. She is a girl so she doesn’t get to follow the caravans when they go out to trade. She wishes she could go. She’s dreamed of it and begged for it all her life. Even after her father was killed, she wanted to go on the caravans. I feel and see it all clearly. But it’s all new to me, to Evelyn. I am not jealous of Dom. I’d rather know the history he is telling me.

  “Nyobi fell in love with a married man and plotted to have his wife killed,” Dom continues. “The man’s wife was the daughter of a magician. When her father found out about Nyobi, he gave his daughter the gift of absolute beauty. But he cursed Nyobi with a hideous face. Her skin turned green and lumpy. Her eyes drooped down her face and her ears became slits on the sides of her head.

  “His curse also made it impossible for Nyobi to live on land. She couldn’t breathe the air anymore. She had to live in water.”

  Is this how two-worlders began, I wonder? Is this Queen Nyobi Kadul the ancestor of all the two-worlders? I drift into thinking of my life in Atlantis but pull myself away from those memories. I need to learn something here in Argos, not lose time mourning for my future and past. “What happened to the princess once she was cast into the water?” I ask.

  “Well,” Dom continues, “she wasn’t heard from for years. Then rumors began. People, all men, were disappearing from the Jaffa coastline. At first, no one knew it was Nyobi. Then they realized there was a link to the disappearances. All of the men who disappeared had green eyes.”

  “What does that have to do with Nyobi?” I ask.

  “You may have noticed, Pear…Evelyn, we all have dark eyes here. Green eyes don’t happen very often. The man Nyobi loved had green eyes. She was drawing men to her to replace the man she loved.”

  “Oh,” I say. I feel uneasy as I ask the next question. “Dom, did your papa have green eyes?”

  Dom is silent for a moment before answering. “Yes,” he says. “His eyes were green.”

  “So, what happened to him? Did Nyobi get him? How did your mama save him? How was he a slave?” It is a lot of questions for a young boy to answer, I know, but Dom knows the answers and is ready to tell me.

  “Nyobi tried to get my Papa to come to her when she saw him one day fishing on the coast. She has some kind of mind control powers and draws men to their deaths. They drown as soon as she wraps them in her arms. It’s all a part of the curse the magician put on her.”

  “Then how did your father survive?” I ask.

  Dom sighs and says, “For months Nyobi tried to get him, but he wouldn’t come to her. Her mind control powers didn’t work on him. Eventually, she started luring young children to the ocean – angry that my Papa would not come. Most of the children died. Some my Papa was able to save.

  “Finally, he agreed to come to Nyobi if she would stop killing the children. But Nyobi didn’t want him dead. She had fallen in love with him. No other man had been able to escape her. She looked deep in the ocean for ancient magic. Then, one day the princess came for him in a spout of water.

  “She had a shell in her hand and told my papa that if he would drink the water from the shell, he would be able to live underwater. She wanted him to marry her and rule the ocean with her.

  “He was sad, but he knew the princess would keep killing the children if he did not do what she wanted.” Dom’s eyes are downcast and his voice is quiet as he continues the story. I take his hand in mine.

  “He drank from the shell and entered the water with the princess. She took my father to the depths of the sea and they were married by magic. That magic then lived in him, became a part of him. He was now a king of the ocean and Nyobi was his queen.

  “But Papa was miserable. Queen Nyobi was a jealous wife. Anything Papa did made her more and more mad. She started cursing everything that she thought he loved. She cursed the fishing boats that my father looked for. She cursed the colorful fish that he liked. She cursed the happy families onshore.

  “Papa grew weak and old under his Queen’s control. He knew he had to stop her and free himself, but he didn’t have the strength for it. Then, one day, as he was near the shore, floating the body of a dead fisherman toward the beach, he saw my Mama. He had never been caught covering the crimes of his Queen before. He had never been seen mourning as he rid the sea of the dead she killed. He looked at my Mama and his heart filled with sadness and regret. He wanted freedom.

  “My Mama called out to him. Her heart ached for to him. She could see that he was broken, sad, and trapped. She just wanted to help him. The strength of her yearning for good broke the spell that bound my father to Queen Nyobi Kadul. As soon as he felt the tether snap that tied him to his evil bride, a weight lifted from his chest and youth returned to his features. My Mama saw the change and her heart grew. Papa came to shore and Mama met him there. They took each other by the hand and walked away from the evil in the ocean.”

  “When did the Queen find out?” I ask. “What did she do?”

  “When the binding spell that united my father to her broke,” Dom replied, “the Queen felt it and she raced to the shoreline. But by the time she arrived, my father and Mama were gone. But in the water was the lily my mama had been wearing in her hair. Nyobi found it and knew it belonged to someone who took Papa from her. Using most of her remaining power, she cursed the flower and cursed my Mama.”

  “What did Queen Nyobi curse your Mama with, Dom?”

  Dom raises his eyes to meet mine. “The Queen cursed my Mama’s womb, Evelyn. Anything growing from my mama and papa would be cursed. Cursed with power. Cursed with ability. Cursed so that if anyone knew about the child, they would hunt it and destroy it.

  “My father was the only other person who knew about our power, Evelyn. He felt the curse the moment it was cast. He was so familiar with Nyobi’s methods. He was ashamed. He blamed himself for our powers. He loved Mama too much to tell her. He knew she wanted to have children. He didn’t want to make her sad or afraid. That’s why he and Pearl and I kept it to ourselves.”

  I pull away from Dom’s gaze, realizing what he is telling me. I take deep breaths in an effort to slow the beating of my heart. The powers he and Pearl have and share were bestowed on them through a jealous curse. He is cursed. Pearl is cursed. I am in Pearl’s body.

  I am cursed.

  Chapter 5

  “I’m living in a cursed body.” I didn’t mean to say it out loud. Dom lowers his gaze and looks down at the dry grass he is playing with beneath his legs. Guilt sweeps through me. I have hurt Dom’s feelings, made him feel less than me through my shame and fear.

  “I’m sorry,” I say. I need to make this better. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

  Dom looks away from me as he responds. His dark skin is flushing red in his cheeks. “Don’t worry about it,” he says. “I thought you would understand. It’s okay if you don’t. But you still need to know if you are going to keep safe.” Dom’s eyes are fixed on the olive orchard in the distance. “There’s more you need to know,” he says. He moves so he is sitting tall, facing me. He clears his throat and looks me in the eyes.

  “The other week at the festival,” he says, “something happened. I didn’t tell you because you didn’t know our secret yet. I wasn’t sure if I could trust you.” Dom looks down just for a moment before meeting my gaze again.

  “Pearl and I have a code of secrecy. We don’t tell other people certain things. This should be our secret.” His eyes are sad and I feel how much he misses his twin. I feel Pearl’s love for her brother. “But, it doesn’t look like Pearl will be coming back soon,” he says. I look down at the ground, too ashamed to face him. I have taken over his sister’s body. Not by choice, but by the cursed magic that lives within her and him.

  Dom clears his throat and shakes off whatever sad emotions were creeping into his young heart and continues. “Anyway, since you’re older, maybe you can help us. Help me and Pearl, I mean. That’s probably why you’re still here anyway.” I lift my head and giv
e him an apologetic look. I want to get out of this body and back into my own as much as he wants his sister back.

  “I want to help, Dom,” I say. “Maybe we can figure this out. I want to help Pearl. I want to help you.” I look down and whisper, “I want to go home.” Three tears escape from my eyes and I cannot speak. I let myself think of my mom, my father, the life I was taken from. But only for a moment. When I am calm again, I sit up and ask, “What else do you have to tell me?”

  Dom’s face is filled with the trust of a ten-year-old boy confiding his secrets to his sister. I know I will never reveal his secret. Too much of Pearl is living inside me. I cannot betray them.

  “So, at the festival, a man came up to me,” Dom says, “He said my mother was looking for me. I started to go with him, but then I saw a parade of acrobats and got distracted. When I turned my head, he grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him.”

  “What?!” I yell. “Dom, who was it?!” My heart is beating faster and I can’t breathe. Why was someone trying to take Dom?

  “I don’t know who it was. He looked familiar. He was real big and strong and was wearing a long purple robe. I kept trying to get away, but his grip was so hard, I couldn’t get loose.”

  “Wait. You can read minds, Dom. You can make people feel things. Weren’t you able to make him think whatever you wanted? Couldn’t you make him want to let you go?”

  “He was wearing gloves, Pearl. Ugh! Evelyn! I couldn’t touch his skin. He was covered. He got me pulled behind some of the buildings and tried to shove me into the back of a cart. I bit his robes and kicked him and he hit me across my face.”

  “Dom!” I yell. “Why didn’t you tell your mama?”

  “Shhh!!” Dom says. “Let me finish. It’s like I said. Mama has enough to deal with. I’m fine now, so what? I’m becoming a man. It doesn’t really matter anyway.”

  I roll my eyes at his naiveté. He is so clueless, he’ll get himself killed. “Dom, you don’t know what people can do to kids.”

  He gives me an uncomfortable glance. “I know enough of what they can do to kids, Evelyn. Theodis has told me.”

  I cringe just thinking about what Theodis has told Dom and how he knew. I feel sick inside.

  “But he didn’t want that from me, Evelyn,” Dom says. I look up into his eyes.

  “How can you be sure?” I ask.

  “Because after he hit me, he said, ‘Oh, no you don’t, you little brat. There’ll be no getting away from me. I have something for you to do.’”

  “Dom, what did he mean? What did he have for you to do?”

  Dom reaches out, grabbing me by the arms and shaking me. His eyes are large and angry. His voice grows deep as he reenacts his ordeal. “He shook me by both arms and told me he knew what I was capable of. He said he had some friends who needed some persuading.”

  My hand flies to my mouth as I gasp. How could he know? Whoever he was. I know Dom and Pearl have been careful with their secret.

  “I froze and he laughed” Dom continues. “Then he laughed louder and his grip loosened on me a little bit. I yanked as hard as I could and fell backward. He tripped when he tried grabbing me again. It was all I needed to get away. The last I saw him, he was tangled in his robes on the ground.”

  I am so upset and shocked by what Dom is telling me that I grab his arm, digging my nails into the skin.

  “You can let me go now, Evelyn. I got away and I’m fine,” he says. Dom looks away from my face and into the field behind me. I turn to see what has caught his attention and I see Theodis walking across the field, a large bruise on his cheek. He has been getting into fights lately. He hasn’t been doing a very good job of winning.

  Dom and I sit for a few minutes, watching Theodis as he walks. Then it comes to us at the same time. Theodis. Just how often has Dom used his powers against Theodis? Dom and I turn to face each other. I see in an instant a dozen or more memories where Dom has practiced his power on the servant boy. Dom using his mind altering powers to convince Theodis to get a pastry from the kitchen. Getting Theodis to sneak milk for him from Acacia’s pail before it is sieved. Making him say he broke something that Dom actually broke.

  I look Dom straight in the eye and I know that he knows what I saw and remembered from Pearl. He looks away from me and back to Theodis. We watch silently as Theodis goes into the animal pen with a container of slop for the pigs.

  “Dom, do you think he knows what you’ve been doing to him?” I ask in a whispered tone.

  “I don’t know,” Dom says. “I hadn’t thought of that before. I don’t know if anyone can tell when I’m reaching into their thoughts.”

  “I didn’t know when you were reading my thoughts, but that doesn’t mean no one can feel it,” I say.

  Theodis comes out from the pen, empty container in hand. He pauses to close the gate then catches a glimpse of us as he turns to leave. He meets our eyes and holds our gaze for several moments. The message is clear: I know what you’ve done and now I’m paying for it. He strokes his bruised cheek, shakes his head, then lets out a small huff of derision. That’s all we need to know for sure. Theodis told someone about Dom and he is still in danger.

  “Dom, we have to tell your mama what happened,” I say. “She needs to know.”

  “What good would that do?!” Dom asks. “She just wouldn’t let me go out anymore. She doesn’t know about our powers, remember? We have to keep her safe.”

  “Dom,” I say, “we don’t have to tell her about your powers. We can just tell her someone tried to take you. She needs to know.”

  “Again, Pearl,” Dom says, “Why? It’s over and I got away. Besides, what would she do? She isn’t going to know who it was or why they would try anything. She would start sending someone with me anytime I go anywhere and she’d worry all the time. It wouldn’t do any good. It wouldn’t help anything.”

  I shake my head and open my mouth to argue. Dom grabs my arm and starts messing with my head.

  “It’s going to be okay, Pearl,” he says to me. I can feel him trying to manipulate my mind. I’m still new at resisting him and he is determined. I yank my arm away.

  “It isn’t okay, Dom,” I say. “And stop calling me Pearl! I am here to help her and I can’t if you don’t let me ask for the help you both need!” Dom’s nostrils flare and he stands up, putting his fists on his hips and stomping his foot on the ground. He grabs my arm again.

  “Evelyn,” he says, “you will not tell Mama. She doesn’t need to know.” As soon as he says my name, my real name, my brain goes foggy. Dom is blurry. Theodis is blurry. Everything is blurry. I am under his control. My mind obeys his power. My will is overcome by his. I will not tell his Mama.

  Chapter 6

  For the next several weeks, Dom and I keep a low profile. We stick to our chores and our schoolwork. We spend less time talking, always nervous that Theodis will be watching or that someone will jump out and grab Dom. When his mama’s sister and her family come to visit, I spend the entire time with my eyes on Dom. There are so many people around, it is easy to lose track of him. I am afraid for him but my mind is bound by him.

  We have taken more precautions to stay safe. Dom goes nowhere alone and has stopped visiting with his friends. It’s exactly what he was afraid his mama would do to him, and he is doing it to himself. But one day, our efforts are almost ruined. We are alone together for just a few moments in the animal pen, milking Acacia. We have been giving each other quick clues when we have to talk. A tug of our ear lets the other know that we need to meet. The animal pen has been our meeting place for the past week

  “I’ve been trying to stay away from Theodis, but I feel like he is always hiding around some corner,” Dom says in hurried whispers. “I feel like we aren’t doing anything to get Pearl back. Do you have anything new? Any leads?”

  I stare at the ground. “No,” I say. “I have nothing. I tried looking through some of your mama’s things to see if maybe there was some sort of clue there, but Cook called me i
nto the kitchen to sweep again. I swear that woman is out to get me.”

  “If it’s any help, she actually doesn’t like Pearl very much,” Dom tells me. “She has been with the family a long time and has always acted like she was mad at us most of the time. I think she wishes she had some of the money we have. She thinks Pearl and I are spoiled – hasn’t liked us since we came to live here. So, at least it’s not just you.”

  I shake my head. The family servant feels more like a family enemy.

  “I’m sorry I haven’t found anything,” I say. “What about you? Have you had any luck?”

  Dom’s face grows serious. He glances from left to right, making sure we are absolutely alone. “I saw him, Evelyn.” He says in a hurried whisper. “I saw the man in the purple robe who tried to kidnap me. He was coming to talk to Grandfather.”

  My heart beats clear into my throat. “Did he see you, Dom? Did he try anything?” I ask.

  Dom leans closer, his face almost touching mine. “Evelyn, he looked me straight in the face. He stared at me with an angry look I don’t ever want to see again.” Dom leans back on his heels and shakes his head.

  “What happened next?” I ask, a cold sweat breaking through my brow.

  “I froze,” Dom says, “I didn’t move near him or try to use any of my powers. All I could do was stand there. I knew I was safe in the house. He can’t do anything to me while Grandpa’s around. But then, he reached into his satchel. I was scared. I didn’t know what he would have in there.”

  “Well, what was it?”

  “Gloves.”

  “Gloves?”

  “Gloves, Evelyn. Gloves. Because he knows how my talents work. He knows that I need skin to skin contact to sway anyone. If only Pearl were here. I could do more if Pearl were here.”

  I feel inadequate when I see the fear in Dom’s eyes. Pearl would know how to use her own powers to help her brother. She knows his strengths better than I do in ways she cannot explain to me.