The Faarian Chronicles: Exile

by Karen Harris Tully

  Adults followed more slowly, worn threadbare by sun, sand and life here. Most came out to the cart to get a ration of fresh fruit and vegetables per household, and another of dry staples: rice, beans, and gritty, stone-ground flour.

  Myrihn assigned Thal and me to bring sacks of food over to those people so beaten down that they didn’t bother getting up from their seats in the dust or coming out of their shadows.

  One grizzled old woman didn’t even look up when I put two bags down beside her. Thal had returned to the cart for more ration sacks, and I was turning away when she caught my arm in a leathery grip. I turned back to see her staring at me with milky-green eyes.

  “Ah, so this is the Brown-Haired who walks outside. The General’s Earthling daughter,” she wheezed with a sneer that showed a glimpse of rotting brown teeth.

  “Yes?” I replied, trying to pull my arm away, but she tightened her grip like a claw.

  “Good thing for you there are no Anakharu around these parts today. Your mother doesn’t allow their kind to settle here, but they come through often enough. Some people say she was thinking of you and that Earthan father of yours when she enclosed her compound with those glass domes. Sure, you can grow more fancy crops inside now, but it also keeps all that nice oxygen inside for the General’s pet Brown-Hairs.” Her gap-toothed smile was more of a cruel grimace as she stared at my wind-tangled hair.

  Penthe had said it wouldn’t do any good to strip the color, I’d have to wait for it to grow out. In the meantime, she’d given me vitamins to increase hair growth - which smelled like fish.

  I yanked my arm out of her grasp and turned away. “It’s black dye,” I threw back at her over my shoulder. Was this what people thought of me? My mother’s pet Brown-Haired daughter?

  The old woman cackled as I walked away. “Yes, you watch out for them Anakharu, girl. You won’t want any piece of them, but they’ll sure want a piece of you,” she called after me.

  I made a beeline for Thal back at the cart. “Thal, what’s an Anakharu?” I asked.

  “Where’d you hear that?” he asked, handing me more of the cloth ration sacks and reaching back in.

  I gestured at the old crone who still sat cackling madly to herself on her dusty steps.

  He grunted. “Yeah, well that’s an old word for the Afflicted, and mean. It’s basically calling them demons.”

  “Are they?” I asked.

  “No.” He frowned and shook his head. “They just have a disease. Most people feel sorry for them now.”

  “So they’re not dangerous? She made it sound like they would attack me, or something.”

  “Nah, they’re harmless to us. A rogue, an Afflicted person off their medication,” he clarified, “might attack a Brown-Hair in Glass City, but they’re not allowed to go there. You, you’re walking around outside. It’s obvious you have chlorophyll, no matter what crazy color you chose to dye it on Earth.”

  “Come on.” He jerked his head toward the next abandoned-looking house. “We’ve gotta get this done so we can patrol the valley and be back by dinner.”

  The rations ran out and several people went home empty-handed. I wondered why we hadn’t brought more food. I thought about the gaunt faces who looked like they were about to give up, and vowed that no matter how horrible the mush was in the morning, I would eat every bite and be thankful.

  “Thal, what are they doing?” I motioned to Myrihn and the others at front doors up and down the street.

  “Oh, they’re surveying,” he replied. “You know, to see if there are any new people, where they came from, who they’re living with, that sort of thing. Hard to bring enough rations when the number of people keeps growing.”

  “So, where are they coming from?”

  “Lots of places, I guess. Some people say they’re just passing through. Some come to stay with family. I think they’re all hoping to get a job at the Kindred, but we can’t hire everyone.”

  A scraggly, pony-tailed girl of about seven came running up from behind us and went directly to Thal, obviously a fan. She waved a drawing on funky plasticized paper, many times reused from the looks of it.

  “For Telal-ursu,” she said shyly. I’d never heard that name before. It sounded something like “the woman who fights like a demon.” I shook my head in confusion and looked at the picture. A fierce, orange-eyed woman was pictured flying through the air, her teeth bared and her scy slicing gorily through no less than four blue stick figures with black wings and red blood dripping from their mouths.

  I expected Thal to grimace and recoil from the bloodthirsty image, but instead he grinned and motioned for her to hold it up as he stepped back and took a picture.

  “That’s great! I’ll send it to her right now,” he promised.

  “Hey Ky, guess who this is,” he said, pointing at me. The girl looked me up and down and shook her head, staring questioningly at my hair. “This is Sunny, the General’s daughter,” Thal introduced me with a grin. The girl’s eyes got round as saucers. “Sunny, this is Kysa.” He ruffled her hair affectionately. “She’s our…”

  “Telal-ursu has a daughter?” she interrupted in awe.

  “Yeah, she’s been on Earth all this time.”

  Her mouth formed a silent O and without warning, she launched herself at me for a huge hug. I patted her back awkwardly and looked at a grinning Thal for some explanation.

  “Tell you later,” he mouthed at me, laughing. “Make sure you keep a copy of that for your mom to see, right?” Thal said to her. The girl let me go, grinning and nodding.

  A barefoot housewife I had to assume was the girl’s mom came up from behind us with a baby girl about toddler age who grasped pudgy hands toward us, too little to run out on her own.

  There was something strange about the mother I couldn’t quite place and I tried to study her profile unobtrusively. She was young, in her twenties I thought, her hair clipped up in a casual twist and wearing an oversized cotton shirt that stopped short at her waist. Her cutoff pants showed off slender calves covered in green hairs. Maybe that was it. Everybody had leg beard here.

  “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?” Thal asked Kysa as if this was a game they usually played, and put the little girl up on his shoulders. I was only half paying attention as I tried not to stare in open curiosity while I tried to figure out what was up with the mother.

  “A farmer! Raaar!” the girl yelled fiercely, pumping her fist into the air. The combination of farmer and fierce warrior cry caught me off guard.

  I thought of everything I’d seen so far of the people who worked for my mother. Warrior farmers. When I was being taught to fight, I’d never thought it was so that I could be a farmer.

  Thal grinned at her in approval and the toddler grabbed Thal’s hair as if it were a mane and pulled.

  “Kitty!” she squealed. “Go kitty go!” Thal didn’t seem to mind that his hair was being pulled out by the roots and galloped around in a circle.

  I couldn’t help sneaking another glance at the mother out of the corner of my eye as I laughed at Thal’s antics. Maybe it was the shiny pants she wore, so tight and low at the waist as to be indecent.

  Yeah, that could be it. I could see her hipbones above the waistline, and… Whoa! TMI people, TMI! I blushed suddenly and looked away. Holy cow, this was not the kids’ mother.

  I tried to refocus my attention on the kids, on the other people down the street, on the lack of ants on the ground… on anything but the effeminate father who was now looking at me as if offended that he’d caught me staring at his well displayed… endowments.

  If I’d seen him from the front walking towards us, I’d have known right away. A codpiece was unmistakable, on any planet. I also would have seen the intricate and flamboyant facial tattoos on the other side of his face.

  I refocused on Thal, galloping around the street with the little girl laughing and screeching on his shoulders. As soon as they were through, the kids’ father muttered some excuse and pulled t
he kids back inside without looking at us, his skinny posture stiff. The girl, Kysa, turned and grinned at us, waving when he wasn’t looking.

  “Hey Earth Princess!” Lyta said coming up to us as we started walking again. “Way to make people uncomfortable.”

  “Yeah, what were you thinking checking out Teague’s husband like that?” Otrere walked over too and punched me in the arm. Hard.

  Ugh, Teague’s husband? “I wasn’t checking him out,” I protested, glaring at her and refraining from rubbing my arm. “I was trying to figure out why he was dressed like that. Is that how he normally looks?” I gestured to my face to imitate the tattoos; most of the other men in town wore dark, tribal markings, but none were like his. His markings were like – dressy, showy. And most men here wore loose clothing. I hadn’t noticed any other codpieces; not that I was going to bring that up.

  “He’s an import from Glass City,” Thal shrugged as if that explained everything. “One of the ones with chlorophyll, obviously.”

  “Hot, isn’t he?” said Lyta, wiggling her eyebrows. Thal rolled his eyes. We’d reached the end of town now, and the road petered out into a web of trails through the desert.

  “I can’t wait until we get to go away to school and all the guys look like that,” Otrere said.

  “You both have to get in first,” Thal pointed out with a smirk. “I’ve got more chance of making it in before you two do.” Otrere grabbed him and started giving him nuggies.

  “Ow! Let go!” An elbow to Otrere’s stomach and a brief tussle and Thal was free, rubbing his head and glaring at his sister. “And I’m sure not all the guys there dress like that.” He rolled his eyes at me. “I’ll be going as soon as I can pass the entrance exam, in a few months maybe.”

  “Yeah, if they accept a little weakling like you into the warrior program,” Otrere said.

  “Hey, did you not notice the reversal he just did on you?" I asked. "Fast and light is better than heavy and slow like you two, any day.”

  Thal grinned at me.

  “What do you know about it, Earth Princess?” Lyta sneered. “You wouldn’t even fight me fairly, and Myrihn told us she saw video of you sparring on Earth and you were pathetic. And that sneak attack this morning doesn’t count. You got lucky.”

  “Whatever,” I replied.

  “I told you,” Otrere laughed and elbowed her sister, “haratchi fodder.”

  “What do you two want, anyway?” I glared at both of them suspiciously. Despite Myrihn’s order that they partner with me, I hadn’t seen them since we left the compound.

  “Oh, lighten up! You’re not still sore about us looking through your Earth stuff this morning, are you?” Otrere asked. “We would have given your dolly back. You know, eventually,” she said with an amused smirk.

  “We were just testing you. No hard feelings, right?” Lyta smiled at me.

  “Yeah, sure, whatever,” I sniffed. I wasn’t going to be stupid enough to trust them again.

  “You know Lee, I’m hurt,” Otrere whined mockingly. “I don’t think she likes us.” I snorted and kept walking, catching their grins out of the corner of my eye.

  Otrere’s phone buzzed on her hip. Her expression sobered immediately as she read the text. “A den is erupting. Let’s go.” All three of them took off running, consulting their links and leaving me to run after them, soon lagging behind, gasping in the thin air. Thal was the first to notice.

  “Sunny, can you keep up at this pace?” he asked. “The site’s only a couple of miles away.”

  I shook my head, sucking wind and unable to talk.

  “Hey, we have a problem!” he shouted to his sisters and we all slowed to a walk. “She can’t run. What do we do?”

  I winced at being the “problem.” I was in good shape back on Earth. This was ridiculous! I bent over and braced my hands on my knees while they talked over me.

  “So walk with her.”

  “Uh-uh. I’m a full trainee now, just like you two, and Aunt Vaeda promised I could watch this time. I’m not missing it again,” Thal said. His sisters huffed and sighed.

  “Fine,” Lyta said finally. “Mom made us promise to make sure you got to see this time. You go ahead and we’ll stay with new girl here.”

  Thal looked at me worriedly and started to protest.

  “Do you want to go or not, Thal? We already said we were just testing her before. No hard feelings right?” They took my silence for agreement. “See, she’ll be fine. Go on, Thal. We won’t do anything to her.”

  “Okay, but I’m trusting you two to be nice,” Thal said. They nodded innocently. “Yes! I’m so excited!” he exclaimed. “You’ll come next time, okay?” he said to me, then took off without waiting for a reply.

  No! I wanted to shout after him. Don’t leave me out here with these two! But I didn’t want to be the one to keep him from doing something cool because I couldn’t keep up. I’d never been the one to fall behind on a run!

  “So,” Lyta said, both of them advancing menacingly as Thal shrunk in the distance. “We’re the slow ones, huh?”

  “Hey!” I said, straightening as much as I could with the stitch in my side, holding up a hand. “I don’t want to fight you.”

  “Oh relax, Princess. We don’t want to fight a half-breed gimp like you anyway. You’re practically crippled out here.”

  “Yeah, it wouldn’t be any fun.” Otrere shook her head. “Can’t even run outside. You’re a disgrace to the name Katje.”

  “Good thing my last name is Price then,” I mumbled.

  “So, we’re gonna do you a favor, Princess,” Lyta continued as if she hadn’t heard me. “It’s simple,” she said, glancing at her sister. “We still want to see the haratchi den, so we’re gonna run…”

  “…And you’re gonna keep up,” Otrere finished. “Outdoor training starts now, Princess. Let’s go.”

  “But…” I started to protest.

  “We’re not missing this because of you, so get moving.” Otrere shoved my shoulder as she jogged past me.

  “I tried,” I said, running after them. “Did you not see that?”

  “Nope, must have missed it.” They grinned at each other. “And you’re wasting your breath talking. Let’s see how far you can go.”

  I gritted my teeth and concentrated on measuring my breathing. How far I could go turned out to be maybe half a mile before I collapsed in the dust and put my head between my knees as spots danced in front of my eyes.

  “That was pathetic,” Otrere said. “You’re concentrating too much on breathing.” I squinted up at her as she shook her head. “What are we supposed to do with her now? We’re gonna miss the eruption!”

  “Ugh, let’s just leave her here and come back for her later,” Lyta replied.

  I wanted to say, “Hey, I’m right here!” but couldn’t catch my breath enough to get the words out.

  “Yeah, you’re right, Lee. She’s got water. We can go watch the eruption, and she’ll be fine here till we get back."

  "Okay, go sit under that tree and we’ll be back for you later,” Lyta said. “We patrolled this valley yesterday, so it ought to be safe enough.” I just flopped my hand at them, completely gassed.

  Sheesh! I was an elite gymnast and I couldn’t even run here for crying out loud. How pitiful was that? I got up and walked slowly to the lone tree in the distance.

  When there was rain, this valley was probably a lush field of wildflowers a few times a year. Now, I ran my fingers through the tall dry grasses, all gone to seed and blowing gracefully in the breeze. Hiding all manner of evils.

  I moved the flat of my scy blade slowly to either side as I walked, as if it were a blind person’s cane, trying to see what lay a few feet on either side of me. If there were eggs here, I could walk within a few yards of them and never know.

  The repetitive motion soon had my mind wandering to Kysa and that bloody picture. I tried not to think about those fierce orange eyes as the woman cleaved her enemies in two with one swipe of he
r scy. Was that Kysa’s imagination? Or was that what haratchi actually looked like, larger than humans with huge black wings and blood dripping from sharp, serrated beaks? I shuddered from the idea that she could have drawn that from memory, from something she’d actually seen.

  Like those buildings being eaten. Had there been anyone inside? What happened to them? God, what a nightmare. What a life for a kid to have.

  But the thing that I really couldn’t wrap my head around was why Kysa called my mother “Telal-ursu”. What did that even mean? My translation, “demon-warrior,” made no sense. I’d have to remember to ask Thal later. If he and the twins ever came back for me.

  Chapter 16: Fluffy Little Fuzz Balls

  Why couldn’t I find any game apps on this thing? I needed something to do besides sit under this ancient, scarred tree in the dusty heat. If only I had a way to practice gymnastics, I could put this time to good use. Well, I could at least get in a bit of a workout, if I could survive the heat and thin air that is.

  I did a couple sets of plyometrics, lunges and squats, then dropped to the dry, cracked ground to catch my breath. I was going to do crunches and handstand push-ups too, but paused to take a drink from my bag first and noticed how light it was. I tried calling Thal on my link, but he didn't pick up. Maybe if I climbed the tree, I could spot my cousins returning, or anyone else out on patrol for that matter. The thought crossed my mind that maybe I had been left out here on the Macawi version of a snipe hunt. I scowled.

  The first branches were too high for me to reach, so I took my belt off to wrap around the trunk. I’d seen this done by climbers in logging competitions on TV. How hard could it be?

  I tried to convince myself of that as I looked up at the distance to the first branch. That’s when I saw it, almost hidden by leaves about twenty feet up, that unnatural blue color. A haratchi egg sac, and it looked like a big one. I knew I was supposed to use my link to call for help now, but I decided to try out the platform in my pack and get a closer look first. I’d been dying to try out the compact gadget all day, since Thal had explained it that morning.