Naondel

by Maria Turtschaninoff

  “The time has come, little wife.”

  There he was, standing in the doorway. We had waited too long. I cursed them all internally. They had slowed me down. Had I been alone I would have already been on my way.

  Had I been alone I would never have found Naondel.

  “Look what we have here,” he said slowly as he entered. As he approached us he stepped into the moonlight. I found it hard to look at him with my new sight. A dark power was glowing red and black throughout his entire body. There was little human left about him.

  I had to cover my eyes from the terrible light. His white trousers were black with soot. His hands and face likewise. Behind him raged the roar of the inferno, but quieter now. It was coming under control. “A little gathering. A midnight gathering.” His voice was drawling and smug.

  Nobody spoke.

  “What sort of intrigues are you plotting now? Conspiracy, betrayal—there is always someone.” He shook his head. “Imagine if you all burned to death in the great fire.” He looked at us thoughtfully. “All together. You rushed out to help and a burning roof came crashing down on top of you. Yes, so it was.” He sighed. “It will be an inconvenience to replace you all in one go. Costly. And yet, so it is.”

  Esiko stood up. She walked over to him.

  “Father.” She held her hands outstretched with her palms facing upward. “I have been here the whole time. They took refuge here, for fear of the blaze.” She gestured to all of us. “These women are not even friends, Father. They barely converse with one another.”

  “Esiko.” He said the name uncertainly. It was still unfamiliar on his tongue. “My daughter.”

  Esiko bowed her neck humbly.

  “When have I ever put my faith in the words of women? If they are not all planning some wickedness together, then at least some of them are individually. Or if they are not doing so yet, they soon will.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I am tired of them anyhow. It may be a boon to get some fresh blood into the dairahesi.”

  “Permit me to lead Mother to safety first,” Esiko said quickly, without looking at us.

  “Kabira.” He turned to his first wife, the old woman. “If anyone is plotting wickedness against me it is she. Anji knows.” He spoke in a gentle hush. “Anji has shown me everything.” Kabira stood watching her daughter. Something was passing between them. I don’t know what. Kabira turned and looked away, her arms hanging limply. She was a woman who had lost hope a long time ago.

  The man turned to Iona. Swift as a hungry shark.

  “You. Are you part of the conspiracy? Will you murder me as I sleep in your arms?”

  “You possess my death.” Iona looked at him, unafraid.

  “I possess you. The time has come.” Iona hesitated.

  “The monster summoned me,” she mumbled, to convince herself. She moved the fabric at her hip, unwrapped a bundle and produced an object. The skull. The one I had seen when I visited her room. That was the source of the dark energy streaming out from her. She held it up for all to see.

  “My predecessor. My protector. Her name is Mizra.”

  Garai

  I bowed to the skull, the offering, the priestess. She had offered more than I ever had, and in death had gone beyond where I ever could. Her power was greater than I could have imagined. Greater even than that of the spring.

  Clarás

  Iona laid Mizra on the ground. Unbuttoned her jacket with unhurried, dignified movements. Exposed her throat.

  Now she was powerless. Helpless.

  “I am ready. The circle shall be completed. Life and death, one and the same.”

  The man laughed, took a few steps towards Iona and began to untie his trousers. She shook her head violently.

  “You know that you cannot desecrate the offering by defiling my body,” said Iona.

  Sulani

  She had stood up to him, that girl. So small—how had she succeeded in opposing him with his desires and threats and violence? I looked at her. Skinny limbs, black hair like a torrent of rain over her shoulders. Iskan before her, full of the pulsating dark power. How could she withstand it?

  She pressed her back up against the wall. We were all standing around her, and we all looked on, but none of us intervened. Not even I. Though my arms were throbbing with their new-found strength, and though I had a knife in my belt. This has filled me with shame ever since. We were many, and he was one, yet his power over us was so great that we dared not do anything. For several years he had owned us, and controlled every aspect of our lives. My body had not forgotten the pain he had inflicted on it. He shall kill us all, I thought, and there is nothing we can do to stop him.

  Clarás

  The man licked his lips. “Little bird, you know I never cared about your sacrifice. However, I do have a great interest in your body.” He exposed his member and I heard Esiko gasp.

  “Father, not here.”

  He did not respond.

  I laid my hands across my belly. We were so close to succeeding, to escaping, and now he would kill us all. I was convinced of it. So what did it matter what he did to Iona’s body first?

  It was nothing he had not already done to the rest of us. I looked around. Could I steal away without anybody noticing?

  Iona reached for the skull, but the man kicked it out of reach. Kabira bent down and picked it up. She held it in one hand, in wonder. The man ignored her.

  Iona flattened her back harder against the wall, looking around wildly, all composure gone. “I would rather die!”

  The man tutted and wrapped his hand around her throat. “How obsessed you are with your own death.” Then he let go, laughed, re-clothed his member and brought out a dagger. “Here.” He handed the dagger to her. “I can take you afterwards just as well. Yet somehow I highly doubt your desire to die would remain were the decision your own.”

  Iona stared at the blade as if she could not understand how it had got into her hand.

  “I was waiting for death. I was ready for it. I have been trained for death my entire life. The monster and the offering, that is the foundation the circle is built upon.” She laughed. Looked straight at Iskan. She no longer appeared dainty and slight. All of a sudden she seemed to tower above the man.

  “The story of the monster and the offering has another possible ending,” she said. She held Iskan’s dagger in a steady hand. She touched the tip to her throat. Pressed it against the exposed skin. Iskan smiled that smile we all knew too well.

  “Not for me.” He lifted his hands and held them out towards her. “For a monster one death is as good as another.”

  “One death is as good as another,” repeated Iona. “So be it.”

  She turned the dagger lightning-quick and thrust it deep into his chest.

  In the same moment Kabira threw the skull into the spring.

  Esiko screamed.

  Kabira

  When I picked the skull up from the ground and felt its extraordinary power in my hand, I understood what I must do. For Esiko’s sake. I looked at her, my beloved daughter, all I had left in the world, and my eyes blurred with tears, knowing that she would despise me. Knowing that to save her I would have to lose her for ever.

  “I love you,” I whispered, but nobody heard, save Anji and the skull.

  As Iona thrust the blade into Iskan’s breast I turned and cast the skull into the water.

  I can still hear Esiko’s scream. At first I believed it was due to seeing her father injured, then due to seeing what I had done. But she collapsed to the ground, her face contorted in pain.

  “It burns!” she screamed. “Father, help me!”

  Garai

  The spring was dying. It was seething and simmering in its opulent prison of marble and gold. It was the best outcome. To imprison such life force is wrong. It goes against all natural harmony. But I could feel its death throes course through my own body, and the pain was excruciating. It was only thanks to the new power inside me that I could withstand it.

&nb
sp; Esiko had lived all her life with the power of the spring inside her. Hers was a struggle between life and death.

  Kabira

  I rushed to my daughter where she lay on the ground. Despite her pain, she recoiled from me.

  “Don’t touch me!” she gasped. “Don’t touch me! Be gone! I never want to see you again! You have killed her, you have—” she arched her body in pain like a bowstring, “you have taken away from me the thing I love most! Go!”

  I stepped back. I knew this would happen. Nevertheless the sense of loss was so piercing that I could hardly breathe.

  Everyone I had ever loved. I would lose them all. And the fault, once again, was mine to bear.

  Clarás

  “Fool,” said the man. “I have been most careful to protect my own death. You cannot reach it with a mere dagger.” But he was sweating. He groaned. Maybe Iona couldn’t reach his death, but she had caused him pain and injury. He glared at Iona with eyes as dark as a bottomless chasm. She cowered, flailed her arms helplessly, and suddenly fell backward with a scream.

  “He is drawing her death nearer,” whispered Garai suddenly in my ear. “Now is the time.”

  At first I didn’t understand what she meant. But then the child inside me kicked. Run away. Run away.

  The man was groaning with a cavernous rattling sound. He was conscious, but barely.

  There was no time to talk. No time to make plans. We had to get away, away from the man, away from his control. Before he drew all of our deaths closer. Sulani and Estegi were holding sacks and rope, Orseola and Garai pulled Iona along with them. I took Kabira by the hand and pulled her along with me.

  We left the man and daughter behind us, lying at the side of the dead spring.

  Sulani

  T WAS FOR ESTEGI’S SAKE THAT I DECIDED to flee. Everything I have done since meeting her has been for her sake. She wanted us to join forces with Clarás and Orseola: I did as she asked. Then she wanted to include Garai and Kabira, and she did not want to leave Iona behind. Her wish was my command.

  On her say-so I lifted the others up onto that pagoda roof in Ohaddin, and helped them escape from the wrath of the captain. They were practically weightless; my arms were stronger than ever before. Not even Iona’s barely conscious body caused me strain. It was as if the life force from the River were rushing through my veins once more. Though it was not the same. This power was distinct. It smacked of something different. It commanded me in a different way. I was no longer an agent, an avenger. I was only myself: Sulani.

  Why had I not picked up the blade and plunged it deeper inside him? When the last woman was up—Clarás, with her heavy belly—I looked around. I could have run back and killed him. He could claim whatever he liked about his death, enough stabs and he would be done for.

  There was no one to be seen. I was only a few steps from the door.

  “Sulani.” Estegi’s face appeared over the edge of the roof. She reached out her hand. I took it, felt its softness, the short fingers, the bony wrist. With her help I hoisted myself up until I got a hold on the edge of the roof and swung up onto it.

  We walked, crouching, across the roof. I glanced eastward. The Palace of Tranquillity was no more than a smoking pile of debris. The fire that had spread to the Temple of Learning was under control. At the roof’s edge I stopped and scanned our surroundings. We were directly above the outside wall that enclosed the palace. Heavily manned. The guards had barely even left their posts to help with the firefighting.

  I did not like the thought of escaping along this wall. I had neither planned for it nor mapped out the route. I knew that the captain’s men were well trained and hardy. Terror had made them become so.

  “Wait here,” I said. “Keep quiet and still.”

  Estegi nodded. I swung down onto the wall. How glorious to be able to move again—to run, sneak and dodge. I located the first patrol with ease, came upon one of the guards from behind and slit his throat before my presence was even noticed. The other had no time to so much as draw his sword before he too was silenced. No other guards could be seen on this stretch of wall but I was not familiar with their routines or patrols. Perhaps another patrol was soon on its way. Perhaps they had a system of regular signals to confirm all was well. I pulled off one of their helmets and stuck it under my arm. Then I peered down over the wall, to see what lay outside. It was dark below, but I could make out small houses built up against the wall. That was good. It meant alleys we could hide in. I ran back along the wall and whistled quietly up to the pagoda roof. Estegi threw down one end of the rope I had left there, and I fastened it to a ring in the wall. They slid down, one by one. A simple escape with Estegi. That was all I wanted. She had accumulated one wing-clipped woman after another. That was her way. She could not turn her back on someone in need. When she came sliding down the rope, a little clumsily, I caught her in my arms, and for one brief moment I held her close. I breathed in her warmth and scent, then released her to catch Iona who was being lowered down by Garai. Iona was conscious now, but very weak.

  “Is everything well?” I asked.

  “My death,” she wheezed. “He has brought it so close, it is snapping at my heels.” She smiled a crooked little smile. “And now I no longer welcome it like a stray dog.”

  Garai untied the rope and jumped down without it. I led them part of the way along the wall, but not all the way to the dead guards. I re-tied the rope and fed it down towards the roof of a little house below us.

  “Now is the greatest challenge. If we can reach the city without being discovered, we can head west under cover of darkness. Quickly and quietly now.”

  Garai descended first, without making a sound. She was lithe and strong for her age. She helped the others down while I kept a lookout. Kabira was clumsy and slow and made a lot of noise as she came down the rope. She fell the last part of the way. I looked around. Held the blade in readiness as Estegi went down to the roof, followed by Clarás.

  Orseola looked at them. Without a word she pointed east along the wall. Moonlight flashed on approaching spearheads. I beckoned to her to climb down. They did not seem to have discovered us yet, or if they had they were without bows. I hoped that Estegi would understand that she must take the others with her and move on immediately. Iona could not manage the descent on her own. I set her down. Her little body buckled into a grey lump, barely discernible in the shadows. I quickly put on the helmet and ran to meet the guards. They must not discover Iona, or the rope. Or sound the alarm.

  They probably did not believe their eyes at first. There were three of them, and they simply stood there awaiting my arrival. They thought I was one of them, on my way with a message. The black of the night worked in my favour. I was already in close range when one of them raised his spear in doubt. His grip was weak, and I easily tore the spear from his hands, turned it around and pierced his heart. He bent double with a howl. The guard on the right launched at me with his spear, but the third guard was forced to hold back as the top of the wall was too narrow for three men. I kicked the spear to the side and brought out my knife. It was short, I had no range, yet he had no chance to draw his sword before I stuck the knife in his throat. He fell to his knees at once, but the first guard remained standing, the spear still protruding from his wound. The third guard at the back charged at me with a roar. I groped for my knife but could not get it. I dived at his legs and managed to bring him to the ground with all this new strength—my old strength, once so familiar, which I had thought was lost for ever. His heavy kit limited his movement. Before he could get back on his feet I crawled from under his legs, spun around and jumped on his back. His chain mail did not stop me knocking the wind out of him. I tore the sword from his hand and thrust it in his unprotected neck.

  Then I slit the throat of the first guard as well. Out of mercy.

  I took off my helmet, pulled the knife from the other guard’s throat and gave it a quick wipe on his trousers. The sword was good, but would be impossible to hide
during our escape. One of them had a dagger, much longer and better than my knife. I stuck both knife and dagger into the waist of my trousers, and ran.

  Iona was waiting exactly where I had left her. I lifted her up on my back and she wrapped her arms around my neck. I swung down from the top of the wall holding the rope in both hands. Carrying Iona made it harder to climb, but only slightly. Soon I reached the roof of one of the houses below and looked around. Nobody in sight.

  Good. Estegi had had the good sense to take the others with her and move on.

  I let the rope dangle and walked across the roof. I readjusted Iona on my back, held onto her legs and jumped down from the roof and into the narrow alley that ran along the front side of the house.

  I felt a hand on my arm. I spun around, both blades at the ready.

  “Shh,” came Estegi’s husky voice. “Over here.”

  She led me through a labyrinth of alleyways where I would surely have got lost. The moon was obscured by clouds and the darkness had intensified. I had never been in the city beyond the palace before, but Estegi had been there often on errands for the dairahesi. She led me to a doorway where the others were waiting, quiet as mice. Without a word we continued through the city. Now it was Estegi’s turn to lead us, Estegi who knew what to do.

  Ohaddin had no city walls—the captain had not gone to the trouble of defending anything other than the palace—so it was easy for us to escape unseen. Naturally we encountered some nocturnal wanderers: drunken men, errand boys, bakers already on their way to their shops to begin the morning’s bread. But if anyone tried to speak to us, Estegi simply looked at them and held up her palms, the words died on their lips and they left us in peace. It was as if they could no longer see us, or they no longer cared. In this way, we passed through the city and onto the highway leading westward from Ohaddin to Ameka, the town which serves as a trading point for the great Sakanui River. Goods imported from overseas are transported along the river to the capital.