Falling From the Tree (Darshian Tales #2)

by Ann Somerville

  “I’ll never speak to Jos again,” Meran said, her eyes bright with anger. “He had no right to do that.”

  “No one has, dear,” Myka said. “I don’t understand where he gets it from. His parents will be horrified.”

  “I d-don’t want trouble,” Karik whispered. “It’ll j-just make it worse.”

  “Yes, it might do, you’re right. But we can’t let something like this pass. They could have crippled you, and if you’d not been wearing your winter coat, they might have done so.” He’d never seen Myka look so angry before. “I think we all could do with some tea. No, Meran, you sit with Karik. Let me put the water on, and then I’ll just go up and see how Jena is.”

  Meran sat on the floor and took Karik’s hand. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “Jos is angry with you because of me, I think.”

  He raised a hand and touched her cheek. “N-no. Because I’m Pr-Prijian. He said.”

  “Then he’s an arse,” she said. “I’d much rather have you as a friend than a dozen like him. What if I hadn’t stopped him?”

  “You d-did. That’s all that m-matters.” Gods, he was tired, but he didn’t want to fall asleep before he’d spoken to Ma again, and Pa was right—this chair was rock hard when your body was already sore.

  He saw Myka slip up the stairs to find his Ma. He couldn’t hear his parents talking. What had his mother remembered? Was it the deaths of her friends? Or something worse?

  “Karik?”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re squeezing my hand really hard.”

  “S-Sorry.” He shifted, but was quite unable to get comfortable. “H-Help me sit, M-Meran.”

  She thought he should stay down, but if all that was wrong with him was some bruising, he could sit. Besides, he hated the feeling of helplessness that being prone gave him. He couldn’t help feeling a little fearful of a new attack, even here in his own home. Would Jos wait for him to emerge and try again? He shivered—Jos could have killed him, and if he and his friends had been full-grown, they would have done. Was that what Arman had been like when he’d killed people? Was that how soldiers were?

  The kettle boiled and Meran got up to make the tea. Karik pulled the sheet and blanket tight around him, still shivering. Jos reminded him of Mekus, the way he despised someone for just what they were. Mekus couldn’t see past the colour of the Darshianese, and Jos was the same about the Prij. All that mattered to them was the difference.

  The tea was made and Karik clutched a mug between his hands, glad of the warmth on them and in him from the tea. Myka came downstairs again, followed a few steps behind by his parents. His Ma’s eyes were still red, but she wasn’t actually crying as she came to sit on the long chair with him. “I’m sorry, Ka-chi. I didn’t mean to fall apart on you.”

  He leaned on her. “It’s all right, Ma.”

  “How are you feeling? Why don’t you lie down again?”

  “Because it hurts,” he said simply. “But I’ll be fine.” He wanted to be strong and brave for her. She’d had so much worry lately.

  Myka handed out more mugs of tea, then Pa cleared his throat as he took a seat on the other chair. “Karik, while Meran’s here, I’d like you to tell me what happened. I’ll need to report this to Fedor. It’s too serious not to.” The two women nodded at his words. “I saw you at the meeting. Then what happened?”

  “I wuh-went for a w-walk. Juh-Jos s-stopped me. S-said he wuh-wanted me to leave the v-village for good. Th-then he...he and the others....” Karik shuddered, remembering the way the boots had thudded into his body, and how terrified he’d been.

  “And you said nothing to provoke him, or did anything?” Karik shook his head. “I didn’t think you would have. Fedor will ask, that’s all. Meran, what did you see?”

  “I was looking for Karik in the stables and I saw the other boys. I didn’t know what they were doing until I got closer and saw they were kicking Karik. They had no right to do that,” she said indignantly. “I shouted at them and made them stop. Then I helped him to the stables.”

  “Thank you for doing that, Meran,” Jena said. “That was brave of you.”

  “I was just angry,” Meran said, looking at Karik. “Ka-chi’s never hurt Jos, and Jos is so stupid, some of the things he says, always going on about the Prij and how he hates them. He doesn’t even know any Prij, so how can he say that?”

  She was forgetting what he was, Karik thought, which was rather sweet of her.

  “Thank you, Meran. Myka, you and I should go and talk to your father. Karik, Fedor will probably come and see you after that. Do you want to stay down here or shall I carry you up to your room?”

  While the chair was hard, it would be awfully embarrassing to have to talk to Fedor lying in bed. “Stay h-here.”

  “All right. Jena love, do you mind staying here with him?”

  “Don’t be stupid, Reji. Meran, will you stay too?”

  “Sure, aunty Jena. I can look after Karik for you,” she said a little cheekily. She bounced back fast.

  “Thank you, dear. Go on, Reji. Find those damn boys.”

  “We will,” Pa said with a grim expression. Karik wouldn’t want to be in Jos’s boots when Pa caught up with him.

  He was still very cold. “M-Ma, can you help me g-get dressed?”

  She started—she’d clearly been lost in her thoughts. “Are you sure?”

  “Please?”

  “All right, dear.” She picked up his trousers, but at the sight of the boot marks on the cloth, she gave a little sound of distress. “Oh, gods,” she whispered.

  “Let me, aunty Jena,” Meran said, taking the clothing from his Ma. “Ka-chi, do you want some clean trousers? These are filthy now.”

  Karik was very grateful Meran had taken charge. He told her where to find a fresh pair of pants, and she carefully helped him dress, then wrapped the blanket around him again and put the pillow behind him. She ended up sitting on his Ma’s other side, holding her hand. “It’s all right, aunty Jena,” she said gently.

  “I’m sorry, Meran. I just....” She smiled painfully. “When it’s your own child...and when it’s just pointless violence.... I think I just got another crop of grey hairs. Look,” she said bending her head down to Karik to check.

  “Y-Yes,” he said solemnly, playing along. “F-five more. R-Right there.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Meran said. “Only three at the most.”

  “Three’s bad enough,” Ma said, giving Meran a hug and then putting a careful arm around him. She was softer than the chair so he had no conscience about using her like a pillow. “This shouldn’t happen. Not in our own village. Not our own people.”

  But that’s the point, Karik thought. Jos didn’t think of him as ‘our’ anything.

  He was falling asleep, leaning heavily on Ma as she and Meran talked quietly, when Banji and Meran’s little brother came looking for her. Outside it was getting dark—it had to have been a couple of hours since he’d been hurt. “Myka told me what happened, Jena,” Banji said, taking a seat. Keiji sat on the floor near his sister, and gave Karik a worried smile. “I’m sorry.”

  “Not as sorry as Jos and those other boys will be,” Ma said. “Where’s Myka?”

  “Coming along in a minute. Karik, are you all right? You look like you should be in bed.”

  Karik mumbled that he was fine but he’d like some tea. As Banji got up to make it, the door opened again, this time to admit his Pa, Myka and behind then, the clan head. Meran and Keiji brought chairs over from the kitchen table—it was getting really crowded in the little room. Fedor was given the best chair in deference to his position and his age. Karik tried to sit up straighter to show respect, but winced as his bruises complained.

  “No, you sit still, son,” Fedor said. “Sorry we kept you waiting here so long, but I wanted to speak to Peit and Urki, and then to Jos and the other boys. Karik, I’m sorry this has happened, more than I can say. No child should suffer this way, and certainly not at the hands of o
ther members of the clan. I apologise for failing to protect you.” Karik swallowed nervously, rather overawed at Fedor apologising to him.

  “Now, I know Jos and Asa and the others are still children too, but it’s not the first time they’ve hurt you, and from what Myka told me about your injuries, I can’t regard this as just a childish quarrel. If they had been grown men, I would banish them—but if they’d been grown men, I think I’d be talking about the first murder this village has ever known,” he added, his mouth turned down in a grim line. His mother’s arm around Karik’s shoulders tightened slightly, and his Pa’s expression became a match for Fedor’s. “I don’t mean to upset you, Jena.”

  “No, I understand. What are you going to do?”

  “Peit and Urki are upset, as you can imagine, and very sorry this has happened. I think they’ll call on you tomorrow to apologise in person. I thought about making the boys themselves do that, but I don’t think they’d mean it, and I doubt you’d believe it, would you?” Karik shook his head. A forced apology would do nothing. “That’s what I thought, and really, this is too serious for that. The boys have admitted the attack, so there’s no need for a clan court. My judgement is that the five of them shall do dirty work for a month, and they’ll also be shunned for that length of time. I’m going to call a meeting tomorrow morning to announce it.”

  “Sh-Shunned?” Karik looked at his father.

  “It means that no one in the village other than their parents will speak to them, or help them, or interact with them at all,” Pa explained. “When they’re not working, they’ll have to stay in their houses, in their bedrooms. They won’t be allowed to talk to each other either. With any luck, they might come to realise that the harmony of the clan and cooperation between us all is more important than their imaginary grudges.”

  Karik thought about it, then shivered again. While he liked his solitude, to be ignored by everyone.... “But ah-afterwards?”

  “Well, son,” Fedor said, “I hope they learn their lesson and leave you alone. But I can’t make Jos like you, and your parents know that when you were first brought to the village, it was this kind of thing I was most afraid of. You’ve always made your own course, and you’re a fine lad. I have no doubt you’ll achieve more than they ever will, which I think is one of the reasons why Jos is so jealous of you.”

  “J-Jealous?” He stared in frank astonishment at the idea of anyone being jealous of him.

  “Of course. The boy feels threatened by you, although I know you’ve done nothing to him. Unfortunately you’re all at the age when the males start circling the she-animals, and he thinks you’re competition. Most of us dealt with that competition in rather less violent ways, of course, but Jos thinks with his fists. It’s a habit he needs to unlearn, and fast. I’ll have no thugs living in this village.” Fedor stood. “Are you all satisfied with this judgement? Jena?”

  “It’s really Karik who needs to be satisfied, Fedor.”

  “Well, son?”

  “It’s f-fair.” Karik couldn’t think of what else Fedor could do. Banishing boys that age would mean their families would have to leave, and twenty or so people leaving a village would be a heavy blow. Besides, there was a lot of satisfaction to be gained from the idea of his attackers being set to work on the really filthy jobs in the village for a month. People could be really inventive about finding things to do when there was a punishment needed for some offence or other, rare as they were.

  “Good. Now you rest and get well. We’ve only just got you home, son, and I don’t appreciate one of our valued workers being laid up through stupidity.”

  Reji showed the man out. Banji poured out the tea he’d been quietly making as Fedor delivered his news. “Shunning for a month, that’s pretty hard. I feel sorry for Peit.”

  “Then he should have taught that boy better manners,” Reji snapped. “If that boy harms my son again, there really will be a murder in the village. You should have heard him, Banji. You’d think Karik was the source of every ill in the world just because his skin is pale.”

  “Well, he’s not the only one who thinks like that,” Banji said, sitting down again. “If Arman wasn’t so well-known here, it would be even worse. People don’t like what’s not like them.”

  “I like Karik just fine,” Meran said stoutly.

  Her father smiled at her. “Yes, Merichi, because you’re a very intelligent girl.”

  “Yes, she is, and she saved Karik’s life today, I’m sure of it,” Reji said. “Meran, I will be forever in your debt.”

  “As will I,” Jena added quietly. Meran blushed and looked down in embarrassment. So sweet, Karik thought.

  “I think we can both be proud of our children, Jena,” Myka said. “Now, my patient looks like he needs to go to bed, so I’m calling a halt to these proceedings. If he can sleep without the pijn, I recommend that.”

  “Yes, agreed. Thank you, Myka. Your family has been a blessing to mine today.”

  “As yours has been to mine for years. Don’t be silly, Jena,” she said, grinning at her friend. “Banji, let’s get everyone home.” She bent and kissed Karik on the cheek. “I’ll come and see you tomorrow, Karik. Try not to fret about it too much.”

  “I wuh-won’t.”

  Keiji solemnly offered Karik his hand to shake. “I’ll come visit you tomorrow, and I’ll show you the stones I found in the mine.”

  “Th-thanks, Keiji-ki.”

  Meran bent to kiss his cheek as her mother had done. “Th-thank you,” he whispered.

  “Can I come and visit you too?”

  “Yes. I’d l-like that.”

  “We can all come over then,” Banji said, “but the lad needs his rest. Come along, you lot.”

  Banji herded his family out the door and not a minute too soon. Karik was at the end of his energy, and he really felt awful now. Tired, in pain, a little sick to his stomach, and depressed at the thought of being injured and in the way he had been. Jos would really have it in for him now.

  “Right, son, let’s get you to bed. I won’t even think about suggesting you sleep down here.” Pa bent to lift him up, but Karik insisted on trying to stand up. His legs gave away immediately, and he cried out from the pain the sudden movement caused him.

  “Like father, like son,” his mother said tartly. “Now, Karik, I don’t want to put up with what I did when Reji got injured. You’ve got more sense than him, so show it.”

  His father gave Karik a strained smile. “Now you see what you’ll have to put with—they just wait for us men to be helpless and then you find out what they’re really like. Up you come, son.” He picked Karik up easily, while Ma gathered the bedding Meran had brought downstairs.

  Karik was carried up the staircase with no more effort than if he’d been a pillow, then placed carefully on the stripped bed. Pa helped him undress again, then covered him up with the sheet and blankets. By the time it was all done, Karik was shaking with pain and exhaustion but at least his bed was soft, and once he stopped moving, the worst of his hurts stopped making him want to scream.

  “I’ll leave you two alone. Karik, don’t you even think of getting out of that bed without help—you call me if you need to get up to piss or anything.” Pa brushed his hand across Karik’s hair, and patted his head. “A good night’s rest will do you a lot of good. Just relax, son.”

  Ma sat on a chair beside him and took his hand. She didn’t speak, but she stayed with him until he finally dropped off into an uneasy sleep. His dreams were dark that night.

  Seeking Home: 6

  “So it’s agreed?” Lord Peika asked his companions. “The nomination is accepted.”

  The other Rulers nodded, but Arman wanted them to be sure. “The vote is not unanimous,” he pointed out.

  “It doesn’t need to be,” Lord Meki said. “It’s only three villages, and I think, considering the circumstances, that’s better than we could have hoped for.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Arman,” Lord Peika
interrupted. “One would think you didn’t want this nomination after all.”

  “I do...I just would have liked a stronger mandate.”

  Lord Meki snorted. “You have all of us, the Gifted, all the city leaders, four out of the seven clans, and an endorsement from the Rulers of Urshek. Don’t be greedy.”

  Lady Nera gave her colleague a serene smile. “You’ll have to start speaking to him a little more respectfully than that, Meki. Arman, in time even those villages will see you are worthy of this. Don’t worry about them.”

  “As you wish, Lady Nera.”

  “Now, now, you have to drop the ‘Lady’ if you’re one of us.”

  “Well, with respect, I’m not one of you, not yet.”

  “Soon have that fixed,” Lord Peika said cheerfully. “We can have the ceremony in a week, and then you and Jiv can pack your bags and head to Andon.”

  “You don’t need to sound so pleased about it.” Two months away from Kei.... And the worst thing was that there was no realistic way to bring him along. Neither of them wanted Kei to be treated just as a companion, and although he had many talents, planning seaward defences wasn’t one of them. Kei would be far more useful at the academy and they both knew it. At least the Andonese weren’t hostile hosts.

  “Come, Arman, you’ll enjoy it. Put that military mind to its proper use for a change,” Lord Jiv said.

  “Thank you, my lord, but I rather thought I’d been doing that all along.”

  “Don’t argue, you two,” Lord Meki said peaceably. The man had been looking very smug since the last results had come in from the rural clans. “Arman, you don’t have to leave for a month or so, but you and Jiv should start work immediately in preparation. The ceremony will be as soon as we can decently arrange it, and then you will have the proper status to deal with the Andonese officials.”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “Right,” Lord Peika said, clapping his hands together. “I’m off to my family. Meki, are you still coming to dinner?”

  “Of course. Arman, I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”