Vann’s signature. He had seen many iterations of it in his time. “Do you have a tattoo on your left shoulder?”
“Yes,” Val said. She dropped her shawl into the crooks of her elbows and pushed the neck of her dress down. This bared her shoulder, and a considerable portion of her ample breast. At least the nipple remained discreetly covered. A great black bird, obviously of corvine kind, was inked on her shoulder. She flexed her shoulder, and the bird spread its wings, as if about to take flight. She flexed again, and the bird folded its wings. Dickon gaped at the woman’s shoulder. He had never seen so active a tattoo before.
“What brings you here?” Ben put the note in the envelope and handed it to Dickon. Val’s eyes followed the paper. She watched it while she replied to Ben.
“I’m the only one available to teach Hyacinth,” she said. “There is much need of haste because the child cannot learn everything it should know on its own in time. Also, I need a refuge, for a time. There are those in the City who would hurt me.”
“Hyacinth has parents,” Dickon said. “They are in charge of her education.”
“And you, Dickon, along with Ben, are responsible for the village, and for the mission La Señora had to lay aside.”
“We’re what?” Ben asked.
“We're responsible for completing La Señora’s mission. Vanna won’t be frozen in limbo forever.”
Dickon spoke. “Don’t be too quick to trust this ‘lady,’ Ben,” he said. “Her shoulders are awfully broad for a woman, and her hips are uncommonly narrow. I don’t think she’s a she, at all. Who knows what else she’s covering up.”
Val looked Dickon up and down. “I am anatomically and emotionally female,” she said, “and it cost me a pretty penny to be physically female.” She advanced on Dickon. Her height became almost menacing to him. “I was male, once upon a time, until I met a surgeon with compassion, and a clever knife.” She turned back to Ben. “That note’s the only evidence I have of my good intentions.”
“Here’s a how-de-do,” Ben said. Harry Pitts came from behind the café with Butter. She had been sharing a hamburger patty with the taciturn waiter. When she saw Princess Val, she approached her immediately, tail wagging. It was plain to Ben and Dickon Butter approved of this odd person on their doorstep.
“Butter likes you,” Dickon said.
“Dogs usually do,” Val said. She stooped to pet Butter, her skirts billowing out around her. Butter licked her cheek. The dog’s tongue left a long track in the powder that liberally coated Val’s face. The dog didn’t repeat the licking, but she went on wagging her tail and accepting Val’s petting.
“You say there are those who would hurt you,” Ben said. “Who are they?”
“Members of my Native American community,” Val said. “I am of mixed heritage, Chippewa, Seminole, and Chemehuevi. There are many others, like me of mixed tribes, who have gathered in the City. Some of them recently converted to a radical brand of Christianity. Their leader has urged them to kill me, because I am not the gender I was.”
Ben turned to Dickon and Harry. “What do you think?” he asked them.
“I think we give her shelter for a night or two,” Harry said, “and test her further.”
“Yes,” Dickon said. “Let’s see what the folks up the hill think, and the rest of the village should have something to say, too.”
Ben rubbed his chin with his hand. “Butter likes you. That’s in your favor. We’ll see where we go from here. About teaching Hyacinth, that’s up to her parents. I won’t speak for them. Same thing goes for any ‘disguised one’ on the hill.”
In the cove, the Crablord sampled the waters. The darkness in the desert still tainted the flow. A new brightness ran alongside it, wild and free. Its flavor stirred the Crablord’s interest in ways he had not encountered before. On the hill She-Who-Smells-Like-Violets lifted her head and tested the spice on the breeze.
Approval Rating
It was the first gathering of the entire village since John Diss had explained the terms of La Señora’s will. Ben and Dickon had asked the villagers to come together to interview Princess Valiant Crow, and decide if they should accept her request for sanctuary. The village met on the beach. Princess Valiant had been staying in Donna’s old rooms over the Café of the Four Rosas. All the human villagers were there and, at Dickon’s suggestion, Butter, Prime Pussy, and Ermentrude also attended.
Ben had put Butter on her leash because so many people around often excited the sociable dog to loud barking and dervish-like whirling among the people. Butter stayed quiet on her leash. The villagers had gathered around a table Willy and Rosa had set with simple fare, potato salad, macaroni salad, baked beans, green salad with avocado dressing, and a salmon mousse. Urns held hot and cold tea, coffee, and lemonade. Three-year-old Hyacinth sat demurely with Notta and DiConti. She yawned often in the sunshine, drowsing against her mother’s shoulder. Ermentrude was on a leash, as well. She sat, self-contained, next to Hyacinth, with her tail neatly wrapped around herself. Not far away Prime Pussy, grown old with Emma and Haakon, stretched full length on the warm sand. She also wore a leash.
Harry brought Princess Val into the gathering from the Café. Val’s silhouette in the summer sun was more than ever visibly masculine, despite her flowing gown of sea green edged with dark green lace. She wore low heels, and walked on the sand with a steady dignity that exuded self-assured strength. Ben marveled that she could pass herself off as female so skillfully. Her glossy black hair was braided and wound into a bun on her head. An eagle feather protruded at a jaunty angle from the right side of the bun. Harry introduced her to each villager in turn, led her to the table to select a beverage (she chose hot tea), and guided her to the only empty chair.
“Val,” Ben said, “we’ve brought you here to meet everybody. Maybe the best way to start is for you to tell everybody your story.”
Val smiled at all of them, somehow including each of them as an individual and also addressing the group as a whole. “I’m transgendered,” she began. “Do you all know the word?” Everyone nodded. Harry’s face twisted with distaste for a brief instance. If Val saw it, she ignored it. “That as a long and difficult road to travel, but I have made a successful journey of it.”
Butter whined. Ben stroked her. He felt her tremble with an unexplained eagerness. He scratched her behind her ears.
Val continued. “My former community, a motley collection of mixed-breed Native Americans, iconoclasts all, has threatened my life. A radical fundamental Christianity has clouded their minds with hate. Or, maybe it’s more accurate to say it has shaped the hate they had in them for all the perceived injustices and oppressions of the society around them.” Val shrugged. “I will not judge them.”
Ermentrude stood and stretched. She pulled against her leash, and pulled it from Hyacinth’s hand. She ran toward Val and leaped into her lap, curled up on it, and fell to purring. The villagers took in a collective gasp of breath. It was an uncommon display of affection on the young cat’s part. Val smiled down at Ermentrude and stroked her under her chin.
“I am one of many in the universe,” she said, “who help to keep the balance between dark and light, male and female, strong and weak particles, and a host of other things. Ben’s friend, Minnie Vann, whom I knew in the City,” she looked at Ben, he nodded at her, “was another such. She told me about your La Señora, who was a grand mistress of Balance Keepers.” The villagers murmured among themselves. Prime Pussy pulled herself to her feet and arched her aching back. She had encountered arthritis in the last winter, and its stiff joints and pain plagued her now, even in the sunshine. She pulled herself forward, dragging her leash, and went to Princess Val. She began rubbing slowly against Val’s stocking-covered legs. Patches of her winter coat stuck to the nylon weave.
Val bent over and stroked Prime Pussy gently on the head. She looked up at the villagers. “I have come here to he
lp,” Val said. “There is much for me to teach your young Keeper of the Balance.” She nodded toward Hyacinth. “Your hour of trial will come upon you before long. Vanna has escaped her prison, both the one of her mind, and the walls of El Serrucho Oxidado. She will come here when she can. She seeks vengeance.”
Butter pulled her leash from Ben’s loosened grip and raced to Val to sit beside her. Val caressed Butter’s head. Butter leaned against her leg and closed her eyes in contentment. Shock and loss marked Ben’s face. Butter had never been so quick to abandon him for anyone before, not even Dickon.
“You none of you have any reason to trust me to be who I am,” Val said. “I am open to your questions.”
Willy saw her first, stepping delicately down the side of the mountain. He said nothing to the others, waiting to see what she would do. The sun sparkled on her flanks and drew glints of gold, silver, and pearl from her horn. It was the first time she had used it, Willy was sure. The older llama who had borne her followed, at a distance, bleating softly. Willy guessed that She-Who-Shuns-Males did not understand what this strange cría was doing.
The young unicorn approached the winding log and sand staircase at the seaward end of the beach and, placing each foot with great care, descended to the sandy strand.
Ben Soul Page 153