Telesa - The Covenant Keeper

by Lani Wendt Young

  “Ugh.” A grimace at the sour taste in my mouth and I prepped for the possibility of another spew. It didn’t come. Instead, a knife-like pain cut through my head, jerking a moan from me before I could stop it. “Ow arrrgh.”

  I tried to raise my hands to my head, but something held them captive behind me. I jerked against the restraint uselessly. Wet. Water. I was standing in salt water and tied to a post of some kind. The water was cold and stopped just at my chin. I looked around. It was a beach I didn’t recognize. A rocky shoreline jutted. The dim light didn’t give away many clues. Where was I? I could hear the ocean, feel it lapping around me. What had happened? My last memory was of downing a big glass of Matile’s freshly squeezed lemonade, hoping its sweet coolness would help me sleep. Grimacing at the unusually bitter aftertaste. Then … nothing. No – wait. Blackness. But not before faces came into view. Smiling triumphantly. Nafanua. Sarona. The realization hit me. I had been drugged. The bitches had somehow laced my lemonade with something strong enough to knock me out so they could bring me here. Where was ‘here’? I strained at the bindings that held my arms at my back and the sound of my struggle brought voices.

  “I think she’s awake. Get Nafanua.”

  The voices came closer and with them came light. I looked around me for clues as to my whereabouts. Anything that would give me answers.

  “Don’t bother wasting your energy. There’s no way you’re getting loose from there.”

  That was a voice that needed no introduction. Sarona. I glared upwards. She stood on the rocky shelf a few meters away holding aloft a fiery flare. Her eyes sparkled with malice. Her voice was gleeful. Instinctively, I thought about flames. Heat. Anger. But nothing happened.

  She laughed. “Oh, are you trying to knock me out with a fireball, silly girl? Not going to happen. You see, one very important piece of information about your ‘gift’? It doesn’t work when you’re in water. The only telesā who has any power at all in rivers and oceans is Vasa Loloa. And oops. You’re not one of those. Tell me Leila, do you know what happens when lightning strikes someone who’s standing in water? Do you want to find out?” A lazy wave of her hand and the skies crackled threateningly. A voice from the darkness behind halted her.

  “Sarona! Stop that. We have a plan to follow and that isn’t part of it.” Nafanua walked out of the forest darkness and joined her on the rocks. The other telesā joined them. Sarona wasn’t fazed. A careless shrug and a roll of the eyes.

  “Fine. But I don’t see why we need to use these methods anyway. You know my feelings on the matter. We should bring her over here so we can ‘persuade’ her to co-operate. A few choice samplings of my lightning and she’ll be begging to join us.”

  My glare dared her, begged her to release me. To raise me up out of the water so I could show these mistresses of air who really possessed the choicest gifts of Fanua. I called out to the gathering of women. “Yes, Nafanua you should listen to her. Get me out of here, and then we will hear pleading for mercy.” I taunted them. “Are you afraid of me? A child? You telesā who have ruled here for how many hundreds of years? Come on, let me go!”

  Nafanua held out a hand for silence. She looked tired. “Don’t be foolish. We are not going to hurt one of our own. No. That is what men are for.” She turned to the other women with an imperious gesture. “Bring him out.”

  A coldness of dread pierced me. No. This couldn’t be happening. Please, don’t let it be …

  It took two telesā to drag Daniel’s inert shape out of the bush. Manuia and Fouina strained with the effort to carry him. His head hung limply and his legs dragged over the cutting rocks. They cast him on the ground and he didn’t move. At that moment, the moonlight peered through the clouds and I could see clearly. He was half naked. His chest and back were covered in cuts and blackening bruises. Blood trickled from the side of his mouth and his hair was matted at a deep wound at his temple. He was breathing but that was the only sign of life. I screamed.

  “Daniel! No Daniel.” I strained at the ropes, cursing and shouting. “What have you done to him? Daniel?! Please answer me. Daniel!” I paused, turning pleading eyes at Nafanua. “Please, Nafanua, don’t do this. Please don’t hurt him any more. Please.”

  All the women smiled. Sarona spoke scathingly. “Pathetic. See sisters?” she turned to the others. “This is why we don’t give ourselves to men. See what happens? It makes us weak.” She looked back at me and laughed. “You – you are supposed to be the most powerful telesā that has walked this land in over three hundred years and look at you! Reduced to tears and begging, for what? For this?” She nudged Daniel in the ribs with one perfect foot. There was no response. She smiled at her sisters again, “Now, let’s see what she does when I do THIS!” She flicked her wrist. I felt the energy coming before I saw it. The way it ripped through the air, crackling and spitting as it came. The lightning bolt sat perfectly in the palm of her hand and she paused deliberately for a moment, holding it aloft as she gazed over the water at me with a maniacal glint in her eye. Then she stabbed at Daniel as if with a knife. Only this knife carried with it megawatts of power. Gut-wrenching, electrifying power.

  I screamed again and this time, my scream was merged with Daniel’s shout of agony as he jerked and writhed on the ground. “Arrrgh!”

  “Stop it! Please, stop it. You’re killing him. I’ll do whatever you want. Just stop it please. Daniel!”

  I had never wished so hard for fire. I had never prayed so fervently for the gods to hear me. I begged the earth to hear me. But the ground was wet, cold, and silent beneath my feet. I kicked and strained, but my pitiful strength was no match for the bondage of the telesā. And in that moment – as I watched the man I loved light up in electrifying pain – I realized. I didn’t want to be a ‘regular girl.’ I didn’t want to be just Leila Folger. I wanted to be the chosen one of Matavanu. Pele incarnate. Because never again did I want to stand by uselessly and watch while someone I loved suffered this way. Sarona paused in her lightning strike and looked down at Daniel as he clawed his fingers against the rock, trying to kneel.

  I stopped crying. I stopped struggling. When I spoke, it was with clarity and calm strength. I ignored Sarona. “Nafanua, call off your dog. I am ready to be what you want me to. I am ready to do whatever it is that you want. Let him go.”

  At my voice, Daniel turned his head and my heart tore to see the confusion in his eyes. His voice was ragged. “Leila? Baby, what’s going on?”

  I smiled, with my voice full of tears. “Daniel, it’s okay, everything’s gonna be okay. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I got you into this. Please forgive me.”

  Sarona groaned, “Oh please, enough. You two are sickening. Silence fool.” She gestured to call down another flash of lightning – but not before Nafanua grabbed her hand.

  “Enough Sarona. See?” she pointed at me, “Leila’s ready. We don’t need this boy anymore. Let him go.” Nafanua called to the others. “Cut her loose. Get her out of there.” Sarona’s face clouded over in disbelief. “Are you crazy? We can’t let him go, not until she’s done what she’s supposed to. Besides, he knows too much about us anyway. Manuia and Fouina, take him to the boat. And make sure you keep giving him reminders of who we are and what we are capable of.”

  The women half lifted Daniel again and began dragging him to the water’s edge where a large double hulled canoe swayed slightly in the tide. This time he tried to struggle as he looked back over his shoulder at me. “Leila. Let me go. Leila! Don’t you hurt her. Leila!” He shoved against Manuia’s restraining arm and tried to free himself of Fouina’s grip but a single jolt of her lightning response stopped him in his tracks and he slumped weakly to his knees. Working quickly, the women got him onto the boat and began paddling some distance from the shore. I shouted his name, but this time there was no response.

  Sarona smiled and spread her arms expansively. “Now, see Nafanua? Isn’t my plan so much better? Now we can cut her loose and not have to worry that she will try an
y silly fire tricks on us.” The smile faded and she addressed me with ice in her tone. “Now you listen very carefully, Leila. Manuia and Fouina have strict instructions. If you defy us, if you try to escape, if you try to attack any of us – they will slit that boy’s throat. And throw his body to the fishes. Show her your knives ladies.”

  Moonlight glinted on silver blades as the two telesā on the boat waved cheerfully at me. Sarona spoke again, “Now, do we have an understanding, Leila?”

  I nodded, my eyes only on Daniel as he lay unconscious on a creaking wooden canoe with two insane women bearing knives.

  Nafanua tried to reassert some authority on the scenario. “Alright, enough of the theatrics. Get Leila out of there so we can set the plan in motion.”

  I took a deep breath and tried to calm the frantic beating of my pulse, the shaking of my hands. This was no time for panic. Daniel needed me. Focus, Leila. Think. Fotu and Netta made their way through the water to where I stood, cutting the ropes, and pulling me back to shore with fingernails digging into my arms. I stood on the sand, wet and bedraggled, with my thoughts running a million miles a minute. Think. I needed a plan. Daniel needed a plan. Before I could take a step forward, however, lightning sparked and I was hit from behind. Sarona laughed, even as Nafanua called out “No!”

  I had never experienced telesā lightning while in my flesh form. Excruciating didn’t even begin to describe it. It seemed as if every fiber of my being was being shredded apart, as if a thousand hot knives were stabbing every available inch of flesh. The pain drove every sane thought out of my mind and all I could do was sink to my knees, convulsing and writhing against the agony.

  As soon as it had begun, it ended, leaving me a shattered husk. Dimly, I could hear the women’s hushed tones as Sarona laughed some more and Nafanua rebuked her. “Sarona, the girl needs no more persuading. That’s enough. She may have been an unwilling sister – but she is telesā and deserves to be treated as such.”

  “Oh please, you think we don’t know about the sisters you have put to death in the past? The ones who dared to oppose you? Nafanua, don’t pretend to be so nobly committed to sisterhood now – just because this girl is of your blood. Oh, and speaking of your blood, does she know how you disposed of the boy child?”

  Nafanua stood rigid with barely-contained fury. “Don’t. You are forbidden to speak of it. Stop it Sarona. Stop it I say! I am the Covenant Keeper here.”

  Sarona’s eyes danced gleefully in the moonlight and realization dawned on my pain-fried brain. There was something going on here that didn’t involve me. Sarona was challenging Nafanua for leadership of the sisterhood and I was just a bystander in a power struggle that had roots in several generations.

  Still lying on the ground, shaking my head to clear away the clouds of pain that still lingered, I seized on the thought triumphantly. This is it. This is my chance to escape, to save Daniel. Divide and conquer. Let the bitches turn on each other.

  Nafanua and Sarona stood facing each other with the other telesa gathered in a semi-circle around them. I lay in the center, like some chewed-up piece of mouse that cats were spitting over. Sarona turned her gaze away from Nafanua and again addressed me. “Ohhhh, so she hasn’t told you then, has she? Tell me Leila, what happened to your twin brother? How did he die?”

  I shook my head slowly, every word hurt to utter. “I … don’t … know.”

  “This is priceless. Leila, telesā are forbidden to have male offspring. Did you know that?”

  My eyes told her no.

  “Do you know why they are not allowed to have sons?” She didn’t even wait for a reply this time. “Because it is forbidden for our gifts to be wielded by men. Makes sense really. Fanua is our mother. Man is her child who continually turns against her so that is why women are needed. To keep things balanced. If men could have our gifts … well, the thought of what THEY would do with them is too awful to imagine. But sometimes, there is an aberration and one of us gives birth to a boy and so that boy must be disposed of. Leila, you know your twin was a boy. Do you know how he died?”

  I swallowed and shook my head, dreading her reply.

  “Nafanua killed him. She waited until your father had left the house and then she took a pillow and smothered your brother. While he lay beside you.” Another smile in the white gleaming night. “But you don’t remember that, do you? You were just a baby, a tiny defenseless, weak baby. And so was he.”

  I shook my head, shifting my gaze to Nafanua who stood silently to my left. “No. You’re lying. I don’t believe you. Nafanua, tell me that’s not true?”

  She said nothing and that was answer in itself. My world reeled again and I slumped to sit on my knees, laughing joylessly. “Of course it’s true. I don’t know why I should even be surprised. You’re telesā. You’ve done nothing but lie to me from the beginning. You’re murderers, you run around killing people with the insane idea that you’re saving the earth.” I looked up at Sarona. “Thanks for that. You’ve done me a big favor. You see, I was still clinging to that tiny little bit of hope that Nafanua was really a decent person. Misguided perhaps, but still with some fragments that I would be proud to call my mother. Well, that’s all done with now.”

  But Sarona wasn’t finished. “Oh, but you don’t know the half of it, Leila. You want to hear the really interesting part of this sordid infanticide story? Your brother was telesā. You and he were complementary halves of a truly perfect whole. He was Vasa Loloa. Ocean. Potentially, the most powerful one to ever be born. Tell her Nafanua, tell her how you knew that. Go on.”

  She didn’t wait for Nafanua to respond, rushing on to reveal everything. “I was there, you know, throughout your mother’s pregnancy. Yes, we were ‘sisters’ even then. Even before her body started swelling with child, the ocean moved to him. When we walked by the shore, the ocean would rush to bring her gifts. Casting oysters rich with pearls at her feet. The water would spin and dance, scattering foam patterns of silver mist. Dolphins came as close as they dared to dance in the shallows, calling to her child. Every night she longed to go swimming and she would never swim alone. Fish would come and swim in circles around her. Stingrays, eels, even sharks – they would keep their respectful distance but they would come. There was love in the water. We had never witnessed such a thing before, to carry a child with gifts strong enough that they called from the womb! Oh, Nafanua was so excited about the possibilities. About the child that would be born. The powers she would have – because of course she never dreamed for a minute that the child would be a boy.” Another malicious laugh. “And then came the night you were born. She was on the beach, giving birth in the shallows, wanting you to immediately embrace the ocean that would lift you up to be a shining messiah for us all. You came and Nafanua rejoiced. Here now was the telesā that would bring this land to a remembrance of the respect they owed to us. But something was wrong. The birthing was not done. Another child was born. A boy. And he bore the mark of Vasa Loloa – the wave crest on his hip. All water telesā have them. Just like all matagi telesā bear the lightning mark on their bodies. But you? You had nothing. Nafanua refused to believe it at first, but there was no mistaking it.” Her eyes took on a faraway look. “We carried you both into the ocean that night. I held your brother in my arms, just like this. It was amazing, I released him into the water and he laughed. This funny little gurgle filled with so much joy. And then, they came. The dolphins. They had been waiting for him. One lifted his head up out of the water, another supported his little body and he waved his arms about and just laughed in the moonlight.” She shook her head at the memory and my breath caught in my throat as I thought of the brother I never knew, a baby swimming in a black velvet ocean shimmering with silver. “But you, they ignored. And Nafanua had to catch you up before you drowned. We took you both back onto shore before your father came back with the midwife, before he could suspect Nafanua’s disappointment. It was too late to kill him that night. Your father had already seen him.” A shrug of dis
gust. “Men, they are so pathetic when it comes to new life. Probably because they can’t give birth. Your father was so excited. He had hoped for one healthy child and instead was given two! By his beautiful, loving wife. Such a stupid man.” The entire circle of women cackled with laughter at that.

  “Don’t you dare speak of my father that way, he was worth a thousand of you.” Without thought, my right hand ignited with a fire ball, but Sarona was quicker. Lightning ripped through me again, only long enough to have me shuddering on my knees. Then she called out to the two women on the boat.

  “Fouina, this fool needs a reminder why she has to show us respect. Cut him, now!”

  “No!” I screamed and, as I screamed, Fouina and Manuia pulled Daniel to an upright kneeling position. One held up his head while the other swiftly slashed a knife across his upper chest. Even from this distance, the red spurt of blood was clearly visible in the moonlight before they tossed him down again in a ragged heap.

  I was frantic. “No, please, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I won’t do that again. Please, don’t hurt him. Please.” I shouted out across the uncaring ocean. “Daniel? Daniel!?” Back to Nafanua, “Aren’t you supposed to be in charge here? Since when was SHE running this show? Do something! Say something. He’s going to bleed to death if we don’t do something to help him.”