Keeper of the People (Book One)

by Karah Quinney

  Pressing her hands against her mouth she tried to stifle her tears and her own fear. She had no way of knowing if her efforts would be in vain, the feelings that overwhelmed her now, stemmed from the fear of the unknown. What if she had failed?

  Finally she was able to gain control of herself and closing her eyes she looked inward and replayed the events of the last few moments in her mind. Why had she stepped forward to help the child? She asked herself, again, not for the first time. The dead were dead and should not be brought back to the living. Yet, here she was a healer, with the ability to understand and treat various ailments.

  Taikiuu could barely remember a time when her mind had not worked to find a new way to heal or prevent sickness. She wondered why she couldn't simply explain to the elders that she had learned a way to bring a person back from the brink of death. Taikiuu abided by the principles that her people held dear. However, a summer long ago had taught her something, a lesson that she never wanted to forget.

  Drifting to a restful place, Taikiuu's eyes fluttered closed and she remembered...and the memory gave her vindication. Power.

  It had been a cool spring day and she was walking along the water path, solitary as was her way, coming upon the water hole, she found one of the village children, little Ma'ik kneeling by the water’s edge. Cradled in his arms was a little puppy. Taikiuu smiled at the way the boy and his puppy looked together. She had never been able to have an animal as her own. She felt a stab of envy but quickly pushed it away, she would not wish this puppy as her own when little Ma'ik deserved him so much more.

  As Taikiuu started to walk by the child, she noticed that something was very wrong. She wasn't sure what it was exactly but something felt wrong, in the center of her chest. She immediately scanned the area for danger and moved closer to the little boy, carrying her walking staff parallel to her waste unconsciously taking a fighting stance.

  Ma'ik looked up and he was startled to find the Ada'na standing before him. He tried to hold back his tears and still his tongue, but his grief won out and he spoke, "My puppy drowned.”

  Taikiuu regarded the child with some degree of disapproval, it had been drilled into her that the People must have her permission before speaking directly to her. But as she watched the tears form on Ma'ik cheeks and travel down to his quivering chin, she felt only sadness.

  Taikiuu's face did not change, but something in her eyes shifted, she went to her knees next to the child, careful not to touch him. She gently took the puppy from Ma’ik. He was still warm, but his body was limp and wet from the water. Taikiuu brought the puppy's chest up to her ear and listened for the heart tones. She did not hear any sound at all. Sadness again welled up in her soul for Ma'ik. He had already lost his mother and infant sister not three moons ago.

  Anger welled in Taikiuu's breast and she thumped the puppy’s small chest with both of her palms. Ma'ik made a startled sound, but he dared not interfere with the Ada'na. Leaning down Taikiuu listened again to the pup's chest and this time was startled to hear his heart tones drumming weakly. She glanced at Ma'ik and his brown face held a look of hope. Looking down at the dog, Taikiuu wondered briefly how drowning happened.

  The villager’s believed that the water serpents came and stole the breath from your body. Yet that belief did not ring true in Taikiuu’s mind. As she looked at the puppy who was the runt of his litter and an idea came to her. Before she knew it she was cupping the dog’s snout in her hands and forcing life giving air into his small body.

  She did this several times, hoping that the dog would wake up and live. Unsure of how much time had elapsed, Taikiuu kept pushing her own life breath into the animal until finally she felt his heart tones grow firm and speed up. Gently she shifted the puppy onto his side, as water seeped from his mouth, and he started to wiggle and choke. Taikiuu massaged the pup's stomach and watched as he expelled water from his belly.

  Ma'ik let out a strangled whimper of sheer joy but he did not touch his puppy. He thought that the Ada'na had breathed her own spirit into the animal and now perhaps the puppy was hers. Taikiuu took the hem of her parka and scrubbed the puppy all over, warming him as he wiggled in her lap. The puppy tried to lick her and she did not turn her neck away. Saving the puppy from death was something she had never thought she would do.

  She looked to Ma'ik expecting him to hug the pup but he seemed to be waiting for something, and then Taikiuu's heart sank as she remembered. She had not given him permission to speak or to touch her and since she was holding the animal, he could not touch it either. She placed the puppy on Ma'ik’s lap and motioned to him that it was fine to speak. Ma'ik swiped the tears from his eyes and laughed excitedly as the puppy wiggled and licked his hands and neck.

  Ma’ik did not speak, for he had not done so since losing his mother and sister. It was only out of fear and grief that he spoke to the Ada'na before now. Ma’ik could not find his voice. Taikiuu’s heart saddened at the look of bewilderment on the child’s face. Reaching forward she lightly clasped his hand, feeling the warmth of contact with another person. Ma'ik's chubby hand felt wonderful in her grasp and he did not pull away.

  Taikiuu looked at him with her dark brown gaze falling lovingly upon his face. She smiled encouragingly and then touched his throat with the back of her hand, imploring him to speak. Ma'ik opened his mouth, and said, "Thank you, Ada'na, may I keep my puppy?" Taikiuu laughed without sound and nodded her agreement.

  Since she was not ready to release contact with the child she lifted Ma’ik onto her lap along with the puppy. Taikiuu gave Ma’ik the hug that his mother would have at such a moment. Ma'ik held very still, he had never in all his six summers seen the Ada'na touch another person. Perhaps she meant to hurt him, for some of the villagers called her a witch but her hug was that of a mother. His mother.

  Ma'ik eyes opened in wonder as he felt the peace of his own mother’s hug envelope him. He closed his eyes briefly snuggling deeper into the fold of the Ada’na’s arms. Although he knew that his mother was gone, it was as if with her embrace, Taikiuu had answered the question in Ma'ik's soul. After his mother and sister died, he had been fearful that their life spirits were trapped alone forever. But in Taikiuu's arms he felt peace and a sense of wonder. His question was answered without ever being voiced aloud.

  Without thinking at all, Ma'ik turned and kissed the Ada'na on the cheek as he had his own mother. Taikiuu's eyes closed as she felt the kiss of a butterfly upon her face. Tears welled in her eyes, for she had seen many children offer just such a kiss to their mothers over the years. It was a supreme act of love, it was not given from mother to child, but from child to mother. This kiss embodied all that there was between mother and child, because it was given freely and from the heart.

  Taikiuu blinked away her tears as she listened to Ma'ik's retreating footsteps. She watched him run up the footpath back towards the village with the puppy at his heels. She held the memory of her first child kiss deep within the recesses of her heart.

  Knowing that she would never see her own children born, nor feel the kiss of her own child caused sadness to swallow her heart. Yet she could not marry a man of her own choosing while she held the position of the Ada’na. Taikiuu would not be forced to marry a man that the elders chose for her, so she would remain a solitary figure for the rest of her days.

  Waking in the present Taikiuu smiled slightly as she thought of young Ma’ik. He was seven summers of age, strong and growing tall with his dog beside him. He had been adopted into a good family from the Island of the Sun, they had been blessed with only girl children, and Ma’ik had become a cherished son. Ma’ik always hid a special smile behind his hands whenever he was in her presence; his family visited the island of Hetmos often to trade.

  As expected, he had not spoken to her since that day, and she wondered if he had been in the group of people today. Perhaps he witnessed her breathe life into the child just as she had first learned to do with his dog. From what she could discern, Ma’ik had never told an
yone about her actions that day at the watering hole. Taikiuu sensed that the elder Doud knew of her actions before this day and she felt chilled by the thought.

  The respected elder had looked at her with contempt in his eyes, although even he had not dared to speak directly to her without permission, but hostility gleamed in his malevolent gaze. Taikiuu shuddered at the memory of Doud, grandfather to the vicious warrior named Marad.

  She knew that the villagers mistrusted her as their Ada'na. Her soul withered inside because of their mistrust. Today in the square she had heard the slanderous word someone had spoken. Witch. Everyone knew that witches stole the souls of babies and children, old and young, and where a witch was found among the People she was stoned. The witch’s body would be left to rot for days until the elders gathered up the bones and burned them in the fire.

  Taikiuu closed her eyes, unwilling to think further over such a falsehood. She was no witch, and this she well knew.

  Chapter Two

  Jon'lan wandered through the village, reluctant to return to his trading post. He knew that Hawk would alert him if anyone came near his supplies and wares. Jon'lan smiled at the irony of the name he had given his hawk. It was the only name the bird would respond to and so Hawk had chosen his own name with no help from Jon'lan. Again Jon'lan's mind drifted back to the warrior that had challenged him the previous day, Marad.

  Most of the people in the village even now looked at Jon'lan with excitement dancing behind their eyes. He had brought something new and needed to the People and they were well pleased. Everyone was pleased except Marad which caused Jon’lan to ponder the man's audacity and domineering nature.

  Jon'lan was one to sense patterns in life, and what he felt coming from Marad was an extreme sense of evil and malice. Jon'lan took this thought and spun it around like a precious stone in his mind, tucking it away for later contemplation.

  Taikiuu knew that tonight was the giving ceremony. Her heart hurt at the thought of what she had allowed the village elders to do. It wasn't that she had a choice in the matter, or at least not one that she could see. Each new moon the elders gathered the people together with their girl children. Each family presented the girl child in front of the elders and then song and dance followed. At the end of the ceremony the elders would choose the child that would be given to the gods in the mountain.

  Most families were honored to give their child for this cause. It was a ceremony that the elder named Doud had instituted after many seasons had come and gone with little food. Old ones died before their time and young ones did not live past their second summer. The people began to moan and complain until Doud stepped forward to lead them. Doud’s wife had died season’s ago and his daughter, Sirion, dwelled with him in his Haik. Sirion was the mother of Marad, the lead warrior of the Hetmos people.

  Taikiuu felt an involuntary shudder pass over her. She shook herself as she avoided even the thought of Marad. Her focus had to be on the ceremony taking place this evening. Although this was not a ceremony that the Ada'na would participate in, she was forced to sit at attention throughout the proceedings. Taikiuu knew there must be a way to make this madness stop but her wisdom seemed to have deserted her. She could not think of a way to avoid sending innocent children up the mountain to appease these so-called mountain gods.

  Taikiuu recognized that the fear of men could lead ignorant people to do awful things. Taikiuu shuddered at the thought of her people turning to this type of worship. Now their people worshipped gods that she had never known or heard of before. The elder Doud and his daughter Sirion had begun to change the ways of the Hetmos People, by lifting up Marad as a sacred son, a warrior amongst warriors.

  It was said that the sun gods lived in the great mountain. They alone caused the sun to rise and caused rain or drought. Taikiuu had not been raised to believe in this way, she had not been raised to believe in any deity, except nature and the Great One of All Things, a divine being that created the world.

  The Great One of All Things was there, whenever she searched for him. Turning her mind’s eye inward she realized that she had always believed that through the existence of the One came the comfort of knowing that she was never truly alone. Her heart felt as if it twisted inside her chest as she realized that what the people were doing could be considered false worship.

  By appeasing these other god's, not of her people, they were in fact giving worship to them. A heavy weight settled upon Taikiuu's shoulders at this realization. It was not her place to decide spiritual matters for her people. But perhaps she could save a child tonight. Her dark obsidian colored eyes blinked open and pure determination shown from their depths.

  Several villagers greeted Jon'lan as he made his way back to his trading post. Hawk acknowledged him with a gentle flap of his wings. Jon'lan smirked in return and offered the bird a bit of dried meat. He laughed outright when the bird pecked at the meat with his beak and then tossed it aside. The hawk preferred his prey fresh. Jon'lan silently apologized for offending the hawk's sensibilities, Hawk seemed to hear his thoughts for he looked directly into Jon'lan's eyes for a moment and then away over his shoulder.

  Jon'lan turned having learned that the bird sent silent signals with his body language and eyes. There was a person standing behind Jon'lan, even with his keen hearing he had not heard the stranger approach. The person was draped in an old cloak, of some indistinguishable material. Gray hair hung in wisps from a wizened old face. The old one finally looked upon Jon'lan and he felt a chill as he met her gaze, although he wouldn't describe it as a menacing stare.

  "May I help you with something?" Jon'lan asked respectfully. Jon'lan waited as the old woman raised herself to her full height. The old woman only came up to Jon'lan's shoulder but she appeared taller somehow. He felt himself begin to open his mouth to repeat the question when the old woman spoke.

  "You tread where few will in these times, do you dare attend the ceremony of the People?" The words were said in a raspy whisper but still Jon'lan heard them easily as the woman spoke to him in his own tongue.

  "Ceremony?" Jon’lan asked as he waited patiently for a response. He was unsure where this conversation was leading. Hawk’s loud sqwauk broke the silence and Jon'lan turned to admonish him to be silent. Turning back he found to his surprise that the old woman was gone.

  Jon'lan ventured forward to look for tracks or a trace of the woman to appease his troubled mind. Certainly she had been there before him but a few moments ago.

  Now he realized that he had heard her speak to him in his own tongue. His curiosity grew all the more. He was interrupted from his musings by the approach of several elders. He recognized them by the color of their robes, dyed a red darker than fresh blood. He bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment and waited for them to speak first as was the custom.

  "You may continue trading this day, you may attend our ceremony this night, but upon first light, we ask that you leave us and go on your way." One elder spoke for all. This one Jon'lan had learned was named, Doud. His words were not a suggestion but an order. Jon'lan could not think of an excuse to stay. His stock of trading supplies had slowly diminished to but a store of treasured items. He had barely enough to last the rest of the day, let alone the next, although he had saved some of his best trading supplies for last. But the image of a silent woman who would not suffer his touch flashed into his mind. The elders watched him closely, almost with suspicion. He replied with a simple "As you wish.” The elders turned and walked away. Jon'lan smirked again to himself for he had not said when he would leave. Hawk squawked again as if he too had caught this small deception.

  Sirion observed the trader from a distance. He did not seem to sense her presence and she enjoyed watching him. He was finely made with broad shoulders, muscular arms and a narrow waist, strong masculine legs supported his frame and she knew that his back was well used to lifting heavy loads of supplies and rowing his canoe. She looked down at her own body, still supple with youth even though she had seen twice as
many summers as her son Marad, twice as many summers as the trader if she were any judge.

  She walked towards him with purposeful intent. He would not be the first man that she had welcomed to her bed furs and he would not be the last, regardless of her status as daughter of the elder, Doud. She knew that the elders would allow her son Marad to challenge the trader as he had done to countless others provoking them into a fight that they could not win. Her son would take this man’s life and then give the trader’s wares to those that he favored. The people looked on in greedy delight as Sirion approached the trader; perhaps they would have a chance at his supplies before Marad got to them.

  Jon’lan glanced up as the woman approached; he looked away though he had to admit that the way she dressed accentuated each curve and sway of her hips. He could tell from the amount of jewelry that she wore and the length of her hair that she was possibly a leader of these people or someone of high rank.

  “I am Sirion, daughter of Doud, an esteemed elder of our village.” She spoke in a silky voice meant to entice any man. Jon’lan met the woman’s gaze directly but did not give in to the inviting pout of her lips. He feigned ignorance of all that she said, even though he recognized the name of the village elder that had permitted him entry.

  He was slowly learning the language of these people. The more he heard the more easily he recognized phrases and common words. It benifited him to let the woman think that he could not understand her words.

  He spoke back to her in trader’s pigeon which was a common language amongst the People. Trader’s pigeon represented trade value and with much pointing and gesturing people generally understood one another.

  Sirion leaned upon the booth that had been loaned to him, giving him ample time to view her breasts which were bare for all to see. Still Jon’lan kept his eyes directed at the woman’s face, even if the hairs on the back of his neck did stand up when he looked into the depths of her dark gaze. Jon’lan did not doubt what his eyes told him. There was something cold hidden in the woman’s eyes and he refused to be moved by her efforts to entice him.