by AA Lee
She collapsed on a rock, realizing with horror that the wound she had suffered was severe and meant that she might not be able to fight the townspeople. Gritting her teeth, she tried to ignore the pain, but it was too much and tears continued falling from her eyes. Villagers surrounded her, but she could not hear what they were saying. The ringing in her ears was still too loud.
Goni ran toward her. She looked at his mouth and read his lips. He was calling her name. Kenda frowned because she did not understand the rest of what he was saying. He said something about healing. Goni helped her to move to a more comfortable rock, the pain increasing with each step. She looked at the villagers, but no one was cheering. Most of them showed concern on their faces, and some were afraid.
Goni’s mouth moved, and the veins on his neck bulged as he looked at the trees beside the river. A few minutes later, Idja and the other magicians appeared from their hiding place. She smiled in gratitude. She had never imagined that the two villages would be on friendly terms after the fight regarding the marriage.
Goni poured a clear liquid on her wound from one of his bottles. He and the magicians started chanting. She wished that she could hear it. Her eyes couldn’t believe it when the bullet slowly fell from her right leg. There was no pain. It was as if she was watching someone else’s leg. She looked up and saw the magicians holding hands, walking in a circle around her, still chanting. She looked down at her leg, and the wound had started to heal. In a few seconds, the injury was gone. She stroked the skin where the wound had been, and it felt smooth to the touch, like the wound had never existed in the first place. Gunshots filed her ears in an instant as she realized that her hearing was back. She looked up to say thank you to the magicians after they had stopped chanting.
Goni squatted and looked her straight in the eye. “You should be all better now.” Sweat beaded on his forehead and his shoulders sagged, as if healing her had taken all his energy. She looked at the other magicians, and they, too, looked exhausted. She remembered her experience of healing Lucy, and she realized that these men must have experienced her pain.
“I… I’m sorry.” She bowed her head. “You should be getting ready to fight, but I took your energy.”
“It is our pleasure to help you.” Idja spoke as he sat down on a rock. “You took those explosives and disarmed some of the townspeople. That was a big help. Besides, we owe you big time …” But he did not continue what he was planning to say. All the other magicians nodded in agreement, looking as though they each shared the same thoughts.
Kenda looked at the plains below the fall, recollecting her escape when she had been chased by both Daa and Nayon villagers. Her anger toward them was replaced with understanding and compassion. How she wished that the falls would be gone to let her people find a different life, but she could not allow the townspeople to exploit their village in fulfilling her dream.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw a big bird flying toward her. She frowned as it got closer, because it looked different to any bird she had ever seen. The sound it produced became louder as it came closer. There was a rotating thing on its top, and she ducked upon seeing people riding inside it. It was no bird. It was another weapon of the townspeople.
The flying thing flew closer to the villagers. Kenda flung her arms out to hit it with water, but the people riding in it were fast in firing their guns. The gunshots erupted in very close succession, and Kenda watched in horror as the villagers started to fall in big numbers. The water turned red.
Kenda clutched the high priestess’ staff tightly. Hair rising up, she gritted her teeth and then cried in a voice that was alien to her. Water and soil rose from the ground, surrounding her like a ball, rotating with speed. The villagers ran back and abandoned their formation in terror. Kenda flew close to the flying thing. Bullets aimed at her ricocheted, and Kenda pointed her staff to the flying thing. It fell like a dead bird to the ground.
“I have warned you,” Kenda said in an angry voice. The fall echoed her voice. Every part of nature repeated her words, and all that were present heard what she was saying. There was no part of the fall that was silent. “You have sought death because of your greed. I will give it to you.”
The townspeople stopped shooting and looked at her in fear. “I will leave some survivors.” Some people started running away, but Kenda blocked the way by making a big wall of stones.
“You have a mission. Take your fancy photos and videos of what will happen. Let it be known to the world that whoever comes here because of their greed will suffer the same fate.”
Kenda raised her hand and stopped the water from cascading down the fall. She waited until a colossal body of water hung suspended in midair before releasing it, wiping the townspeople downriver. As she had promised, she spared a few people by resting them on higher ground. After the water subsided, no weapons were left under the fall.
She faced the silent villagers who had witnessed this new kind of violence. Staying in the air, she addressed the villagers. “You might think that I was too harsh, but imagine what would have happened if they had taken over! Would have they been merciful? No. Now, they will not return here ever again to exploit our land.”
The villagers nodded in agreement. Some clapped.
“Now, there is one thing that still needs to be done. We need to bring down the waterfall.”
Many of the people frowned. “But didn’t you just stop them from destroying the waterfall?” Datu Hula asked.
“No, I stopped them from exploiting our village. I have made sure that no one will come back here for the sole purpose of their greed. We need to bring down the waterfall to give opportunities for women to find other ways to survive besides getting married.”
“Yes! She is right!” It was Eva, her wedding attendant.
“Yes!” shouted other women. “We want other options, too!”
“The waterfall makes it harder for us to go to town. If the waterfall is not here, we can learn the town’s language, and it will be easier to work there.” It was Eva who spoke again. Kenda noticed that most of the vocal women were those who were already married. Perhaps, it was because they had experienced a lot of hardships. The men remained silent.
“But if our women go to town, we will run out of women to marry,” Datu Hula said. “That will create a bigger problem.”
Out of the corner of Kenda’s eye, she saw the warriors of Nayon gathering the dead from the water and carefully placing them on the grass.
“Men, who among you have been to town?” she asked. Almost all of them raised their hands. “How about women? How many of you have been to town?” Less than half raised their hands. “Can’t you see the opportunity? Men have a higher chance of getting wives in town.”
This time, the men agreed, and most of them nodded. “This is not just for women, but also for the men. Do not be afraid of changes in your life.” People clapped in agreement.
“Bring down the waterfall!” Eva shouted. Women followed what she said, and they started chanting to bring down the waterfall. Men also started chanting. And Kenda smiled.
“I will!” she said with resolution. “Move back!” Kenda flew to the front of the waterfall. She bowed with respect. “You did well in protecting the village, but it is time for you to disappear. I release you of your duties in protecting us. You must go in peace.”
With that, she commanded the rocks and soil to align, covering the lower part of the water. The mountainside shifted, adding volume to the lower part of the river. The Great Fall had turned into a serene part of river.
“Nooooo!” a man shouted. “Why? Why did you free me?”
Kenda’s eyes went wide as a face came out of the water. “Now you have unleashed the curse upon the world.”
Torch of Greed
The Priestess Trials Book Three
The Fall Guardian
A flood of memories assaulted him, and he closed his eyes in protest. He’d spent four hundred years wondering who he was, and now tha
t he knew, he wanted to go back to a time when he didn’t. He didn’t want to return to the human world. Nothing was there to return to. But the girl called him forward and wasn’t even aware of his resistance.
He wanted to tell her to stop, but his words were unspoken. His world shifted. Rocks fell, and the ground leveled. Tears streamed down his face, his flesh, as he and The Great Fall were torn apart.
Chapter 1
Kenda
Kenda closed her eyes and shook her head, refusing to look at the obscenity in front of her. “Give this man something to cover himself!” She turned away, too aware of her cheeks heating in embarrassment.
A warrior stepped into the river, taking off his shirt as he walked. Kenda waited for the naked man behind her to cover himself.
“He’s dressed now, High Priestess.” The warrior bowed as he walked back to the riverbank.
Kenda turned around and laughed at the man, who was wearing the shirt from his waist down like a skirt. The torn collar encircled his waist, and the sleeves hung limply at his hips. She raised her eyebrows as her sight rose to the claw scars on his stomach and shoulders. Her jaw dropped when she focused on his face.
“Impossible...” she muttered to herself. “I know you. You’re cursed, and now you’re free. I have undone the curse. I didn’t know you were in The Great Fall.”
The villagers from Daa, Mani, and Nayon who had gathered to fight the townspeople planning to invade their villages now gathered around the half-naked man. Having won the war, the villagers looked happy but tired. No one seemed to dare to talk to the strange man standing on a rock a few feet away from the riverbank. Since Kenda had destroyed the waterfall, the river had quieted, allowing the villagers to hear Kenda and the strange man, who’d sprouted from nowhere like a mushroom.
“I’m Kisig, the village datu from four hundred years ago… and yes, you freed me, but—”
“You look young,” Kenda shook her head. “The man swept by the river in my vision was older than you.”
“That was my father. Listen!”
Kenda jerked back at the sudden rise in Kisig’s voice.
“You shouldn’t have freed me or destroyed The Great Fall. The curse was not undone. If you leave this village, you will spread the curse.”
“But I freed you. The prophecy said the curse will be undone once you’re freed.”
“Not me. You should have freed Tala. Hurry.”
Kenda shook her head, not letting the stranger dictate to her. She had just accomplished something she’d been born to do. The villagers could go to town. They were free. Roads could be built because The Great Fall, which had separated them from town and fought human intervention, had succumbed to her power. She refused to put it back and isolate the three villages—Daa, Nayon, and Mani—in poverty again.
“Please, I beg you. Remember the prophecy,” he said.
“The Bringer of Equality will be born to make women stronger.” Datu Goni, Kenda’s uncle and protector, stepped forward and started reciting the prophecy as if he had said it a thousand times. “She will command the staff and will be the most powerful of all. She will open the door that stops women from coming to life, free the cursed, and make sure that no woman will ever be in service to men again.” Eyes fixed on Kisig, he approached Kenda. “He’s right. We cannot guarantee how each man treats women regardless of whether our women stay here or go to town.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?” Kenda asked, Kisig’s half nakedness forgotten.
“We should free Tala. She can undo her curse. The cursed named in the prophecy is her, not me,” Kisig insisted.
“That couldn’t be right.” Goni frowned. “Why would the high priestess curse herself?”
“To come here. She imprisoned herself in the torch through a curse to escape from the cruelty of an official. But I think she hadn’t known when she would be back to the world. My mother revealed the prophecy about her freedom when the priestesses and magicians summoned her from the afterlife.”
“How did you know about this when you’ve been imprisoned here?”
“Tala imprisoned me, but not in The Great Fall. She imprisoned me to watch as the villagers suffer. I couldn’t go past The Great Fall to the north nor the Daa waterfall to the south, but I could watch what was happening in the three villages. In her hurry to punish me, she hadn’t made sure it would hurt me, so I watched without caring.”
Kenda pressed her throbbing temple. Even with the high priestess’s staff in her hand, she was feeling the fatigue from having used her magic to bring down The Great Fall. “She cursed us. How can we trust her? What if she puts us in bigger trouble once she’s out?”
Unnoticed before, Datu Hula, the Nayon’s village chief, spoke. “High Priestess, I think it would be best to let the people go home and rest. It has been a long day, and they have seen too much violence.”
Kenda looked past the circle of people around her. Datu Hula was right. Women were sitting on the rocks, some men were using their spears to support their weight, and some children had fallen asleep on their mother’s laps. Their energy, spent in fighting the townspeople, was gone, replaced by visible fatigue. Kenda felt the cold promised by the night as the sun slid down the mountains.
“Datu, please relay the suggestion to our people to rest. There’s no threat anymore. I need to stay here, regarding things of magic.”
“Should Nayon magicians—”
“No, Datu. I appreciate it, but we can handle this. We owe you so much in keeping our villages safe.”
“If you were not here, we would have been dead by now, High Priestess. We should be thanking you.” Hula bowed and commanded the Mani, Nayon, and Daa villages to head home. The enemy vanquished, the villagers followed Hula, not caring that Datu Hula ruled only Nayon and not all three villages.
“If we had only managed to work together long ago, I wouldn’t have betrayed Tala.” Kisig’s eyes followed Datu Hula and the rest of the people heading upriver.
“For now, let’s put the waterfall back up until we’re sure the curse was indeed undone. Can you help me put the waterfall back?” Kenda asked.
“I can’t. I don’t have magic.”
“What? I thought people from the old times were powerful.”
“Yes, but I’m not a magician.”
“Oh, dear spirits. So we’re back to square one. I’m going to do this all alone again. This is exhausting.”
“I can help. But that would take ages,” he said.
“Never mind. Everyone, move back!”
The priestesses and magicians moved back. Kenda extended a hand, commanding the water to commune with her. She conjured The Great Fall in her mind before it fell. The ground moved beneath her feet. The water pooled, following her command as rocks moved on top of each other to make a giant wall. When she opened her eyes, the water thundered as it hit the waterfall’s base. She thought the world had started to move sideways. Arms wrapped around her waist before she hit the ground.
“High Priestess!” Kisig’s face swam in her vision.
“Kenda! Are you okay?” Goni’s panicked voice seemed too far away.
“I must have used my power too much, Uncle. I can manage,” she said, gently removing Kisig’s hands, but as soon as she began walking, dizziness swept over her again. If not for the staff, she would have sprawled on the ground.
“Let’s carry the high priestess back to the village!” one of the Daa villagers said. “Let’s grab some wood and vines. Let’s make a hammock.”
“Stop fussing. I can continue walking. This is nothing. I brought down hundreds of men.”
But the men did not listen. They created a hammock from vines and two poles. Kisig lifted her without warning and gently put her on the hammock. Four men carried the hammock, two in front and two at the back.
With every step, the gentle swing of the hammock lulled Kenda to sleep. Against her wishes, her tired mind surrendered.
Chapter 2
Kisig
; With short, shallow breaths, Kisig tried to keep up with the rest of the villagers. His body still felt strange even after hours of walking. He was used to the weightlessness of being a Guardian of the Falls. That was the name he’d called himself because he couldn’t remember anything, including his name, at the time he woke up more than four hundred years before. When Kenda freed him by destroying The Great Fall, his control evaporated into the air, and his memory flooded back.
He stumbled on a protruding rock and fell facedown. The shirt that covered him from the waist to the knees was restricting his movement. He preferred the bahag people had worn four hundred years before. He stood hurriedly, to catch up with the villagers’ torchlight, and raised the shirt a little to free his legs, making his steps bigger. Nobody paid attention to him except Kenda and Goni. He could even sense hostility in the gaze of some of the villagers. He couldn’t blame them. He was a nobody who had delivered bad news after they thought everything was solved.
Worse, he didn’t know how to free Tala. Kisig was afraid of facing her. More than four hundred years before, she held a torch so powerful that she was able to change iron into gold. She had become the most powerful high priestess, but the torch corrupted her, making her ruthless. Other priestesses had conspired to bring her down to avoid her wrath, but Kisig had the most important role in bringing Tala down.
“Faster!” Goni shouted.
He shook his head and jogged to keep up. As his stomach rumbled, he realized he was hungry—another reminder that he was back in his body.
“How sure are you that the curse was indeed not undone?” Goni’s eyebrows were drawn together in his small face. “If we analyze the prophecy, it was fulfilled, apart from what you said—that the cursed is High Priestess Tala and not you.”