Beyond the hut, Keene stood watch. Seeing him with my heightened senses instead of my eyes, I felt his power. The heat radiating around his form transcended mere body temperature. There was something more to him—something vital. Next to him I discovered a cooler energy, the form of a woman, and her heat was erratic as she moved nervously from foot to foot, speaking in quick, demanding tones.
“In Erdlander,” I heard Keene command.
“My tongue finds it rough.” Her voice sounded familiar—harsh and without empathy.
I investigated the space around her, feeling the ripples of the air, the movement of her clothes. By the shape of her smooth head and the fierce heat radiating off her, I guessed she was the sentry who had attacked Lace, but I sensed she wasn’t carrying the bladed staff.
“You must practice,” Keene said. “You must learn. Use Erdlander words, not thoughts of fire and swords.”
“A’ai thouah.”
“In Erdlander!” Keene roared, and the woman reared away from him.
Who was this man who had been so gentle with me when I awoke, but yelled at the woman who took me prisoner?
I withdrew my senses and pushed myself up to a kneeling position. I was still wearing my tattered pants, which had burned when I tried to put out the fire around Lace. Lace! Gods, where was she? Where were Lock and Elle?
I stood too fast and steadied myself against the wall, fighting the rolling of my stomach. Once I recovered, I crept to the door and pushed it open, my relative nudity less important than the answers I wanted. Sunlight streamed in, blinding me. How long had I been unconscious?
“Serafay,” Keene greeted me, taking my elbow to steady me.
As my vision returned, I found myself staring at the sentry. I jerked my arm away from Keene and scowled at her.
“What do you want with me?” I demanded, my gaze darting back and forth between them.
The bald sentry smiled, her teeth gleaming white in the bright sun. “I is Sev.” She chewed on her words, stretching them out like thick molasses in her mouth.
I wanted to punch her in the throat. “Where are my friends? What have you done with them?”
Keene reached out and took my elbow again, his hold tight. But I saw none of Sev’s menace in his features.
“What is going on?” I demanded.
“Sev brought you here to be safe,” he explained. “Your friends are held near, but separate. The others think you dead, injured from beating. Sev only pretended, then snuck you here.”
“She set my friend on fire.” Tears welled in my eyes, but I refused to lift the membrane in Sev’s presence. They claimed I was here to be safe, but I was still a prisoner.
“Girl you know lives,” Sev said flatly. “She will scar.” She shrugged, her voice calm and distant, as if her actions didn’t matter, as if she hadn’t tried to kill us.
“Keene, she hurt us—hurt me. Why should I trust either of you?”
“All you have is we,” Sev offered, but her smile fell after one look from Keene.
“Serafay, I understand. Sev is an important A’aihea. You call them Devil’s Daughters. She guards those of the Fire.”
“Stop,” I said. “Stop talking. You aren’t making any sense, and I don’t care who you are. Take me to my friends. I need to know they are safe.”
“You cannot.”
“You said I wasn’t a prisoner.”
“You are not, but in leaving, you would become one.”
“What does that even mean?”
Keene sighed and ran a hand over his matted hair before exhaling and speaking to Sev in their native tongue. She seemed to argue with him, but when he barked at her with stern eyes, she nodded and walked away.
“Sev will get another who speaks Erdlander tongue. She may have more words for you.” He gestured to the stool. “You sit. There is food.”
“I.... Thank you.” I dropped onto the stool with a heavy weariness that threatened to undermine what strength I had pulled from my reserves.
Keene walked around the side of the hut, beyond my line of sight. While he was gone, I looked around and noted the ground was dry and barren, the grass brown and dead. Paths crisscrossed between the huts, showing untold years of traffic, but no one walked around or sat outside. Did anyone else live here? Was this some kind of prison where I was going to be left to dry out and die like the grass?
My existence was cursed. This wasn’t the life I’d envisioned back when I used to recline in the sand and dreamed of leaving the cove. I wanted to cry again, but was as dried out as the dust beneath my feet and worn down to my soul. My hands were dry, the lines in my flesh cracking. After licking my lips, I tasted blood, and realized the corners had split. Was it from Sev’s blow or the cruelty of the dry air?
Every time I closed my eyes, Tor’s face appeared, distant and hard, his eyes filled with burning passion.
Keene returned with a tan shirt and a plate of bread and nondescript mush. “Erdlander food is dust; no taste. Here. Eat this slow.”
After pulling the shirt over my tattered clothing, I ripped a hunk from the crusty roll on my plate and scooped up the food. It was the same color as my shirt, as Keene’s skin, as the dirt. After placing the bite into my mouth, my tongue lit up with flavor. The bread was soft, and the mush, whatever it was, tasted alive, filled with meat and spices and other flavors I’d never experienced before, all mixing together to create something unique.
“This is good.” I stuffed another bite into my mouth.
“Glad to see so.” When Keene smiled, his green eyes sparkled in the sunlight.
“Are my friends all right?” I asked between mouthfuls. “Where are they?”
“Others beyond stone ridge, past field. Held in arms, but safe.” He stumbled over the words more than before. Whatever he was trying to say must have been hard to translate.
“But Lace is alive? She was badly hurt—”
“So Sev said, so it must be so.”
His confidence in the sentry wasn’t much comfort. “Can I see them?” I didn’t dare hope I’d get permission, but the longing for something familiar, something safe, was too strong to deny.
Keene shook his head.
“Well, where are they? Are they in a prison?”
“Within a building—solid. Others are safe. No harm will be done.”
I ate in silence. It had been a long time since I’d had anything this good. I soaked up every drop of the flavorful meal with the bread and only stopped when my plate was empty. Then Keene handed me a bowl of water.
The fresh liquid cooled my throat, revitalizing my body. As I drank, my every cell came back to life. My nausea dissipated, and my mind cleared. I drank bowlful after bowlful until my skin felt looser and my tongue no longer stuck to the roof of my mouth.
When I finished, Sev had returned. Next to her stood a female figure draped in orange fabric. The A’aihea woman stood shorter than me, but the bright color and full-body covering marked her as different from Keene and Sev. Despite the clothing masking her appearance, I could sense her beneath it. Goodness and love radiated around her form, and the warmth of her presence struck me with its intensity.
At the top of her head, a hole had been cut in the fabric, through which long black hair tumbled down her back. The tresses were almost as long as her arms. Next to the hairless and nearly naked figure of Sev, this creature appeared alien.
“Hello,” I greeted, standing up. I didn’t know if A’aihea shook hands like Erdlanders or if I was supposed to bow or what.
Keene motioned to the strange woman. “This is Velka. She was a high priestess of the Fire for many years but has left to join the Order of the Sun.”
“It’s lovely to meet you, Velka.” I bowed my head, unsure of the right thing to do, but it seemed right. After all, respect was respect.
Sev’s body language was tense, and she kept looking around us as though worried we would be seen. Her fingers twitched, and I wondered if she missed her staff. Was there something
dangerous about my meeting Velka?
“Greetings, Serafay. You are a Daughter of the One True Moon as well as Child to the Earth, yes?” Velka’s Erdlander was clear and only slightly accented; I found it a relief to hear someone speak so clearly after trying to understand Keene and Sev’s odd phrasings and thick accent.
“My mother was Sualwet, but I am half Erdlander.”
“So, it’s time then. The war is upon us.” She turned to Keene and he bowed.
Good, I had done the right thing. But, wait, war? “Wait, what? No,” I protested. “I’m not at war. I don’t want anything to do with their war.”
Sev’s eyes flared as she glared at me. With breathy words that sounded like a curse, she admonished me. “Velka speaks of truth.”
The shrouded woman who held so much power over these two spoke in calming tones, and her A’aihean words brushed past my ears, forcing Sev to lower her eyes.
“There is much you don’t know, Daughter of the One True Moon, old things, ancient things that few are told. But you are the harbinger of war and the mother of all salvation.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. I’m a mistake. I was made in a lab. I’m just here to get Tor back, to find my friends, and then we’re leaving. We don’t want anything to do with any war.” I panicked and my words streamed from my mouth, just trying to stop this crazy talk about wars and salvation. I wasn’t special, I didn’t want to be anything other than a girl. That’s all I’d ever wanted, to be a normal girl. I should have known my life would never be simple: webbed feet and hair just weren’t a normal combination. But the idea that I could be some kind of savior chilled my blood and made me want to run from this dark place.
The high priestess nodded, and I wished I could see the expression on her veiled face. “Every story has a beginning,” she said. “And yours is much longer than you know, having been born into the end.”
Velka’s serene voice sent a wave of calm over me. Her complete faith in what she said tried to infect my mind, but I shook it away, wanting nothing more than to go home. I didn’t even know where that would be anymore, but all of this overwhelmed me, and it was more than I could take.
“The A’aihea now of the Fire,” Sev interjected, “the lost child. You and he did mate?” Her stern face focused on me in a way that made me want to back away from her. Her direct gaze frightened more than any fire she could produce.
“Yes, Tor is my... he’s mine.”
“Show Velka the eyes,” Sev commanded.
“I—”
“Now.”
“Serafay, please?” Keene implored, and while I had no reason to trust him, I complied.
After looking at the shrouded priestess, I lifted the membrane covering my eyes, showing their true color and iridescence.
Velka nodded and turned away. She walked down the dusty path, but the long shroud made her appear to float, as if the color of fire and consumption glided over the hardened earth. Sev followed, and Keene urged me to go as well.
“I just want to find Tor,” I told him.
“To find him, you must live. Velka can give answers, safety.” He peered down at my toes and raised an eyebrow. After a pause he gestured to his hut. “Or hide Within and abandon hope.”
With that he turned and followed the dusty path Velka left in her wake, leaving me to decide whether I was willing to venture further into the unknown with them.
41
Velka led us through the village, past the wilting fields where the harvest was sparse, and to a cliff’s edge. Despite her long cloak, she easily crossed a narrow path along the rock wall until we came to a cave mouth.
I followed, body pressed flush against the mountainside to keep from falling. Past the walkway, nothing but open air greeted me. It was dizzying to look out to the horizon, where the open sea appeared so vast, spanning from the shore to infinity with nothing to stop the nosedive off the end of the world.
At the cave entrance, I greeted darkness as thick and dense as smog.
“Come.” A cloth-covered hand took my wrist and guided me through the black.
My Sualwet senses offered no information about my surroundings, just like in the cave where Tor had—
My throat constricted as memories of Tor’s departure flooded my mind. The hand on my wrist squeezed gently.
Soon the mist of darkness thinned, and we entered a small room. Balls of fire hung above, illuminating the space without smoke. Velka dropped my wrist and dropped the cloak covering her body. A small and gorgeous frame stood before me. Her long ebony hair flowed down her back, its inky black color only a few shades darker than her skin. She was completely nude beneath the cloak, a state I’d come to expect from the A’aihea. Most surprising was her youth. She couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me.
Surprise must have shown on my face, because Velka laughed, a bright ringing sound that filled the stone hall. Keene and Sev stood on either side of me with heads lowered, not looking up.
“You are surprised by this body?”
“No, I mean, you’re just... You look my age. I thought... I guess... I thought you’d be older. Wiser.”
“Skin deceives. I am far, far older than you. Older than all three of your years added up. Older than even twice that.”
“But you look so—”
“Being of the Fire stops the passage of time. I was Within for many, many years.”
“That’s where Tor went? Into the lava?”
“He went Within? So, he is not only a lost child, but of the Fire. The A’aihea must be thrilled.” Velka observed Sev, who lifted her eyes.
“Lost has returned. Killed has lived.” Sev traced along her throat the line of Tor’s scar.
“Yes! That’s right.” I turned to Sev. “Tor doesn’t know who he is, where he came from, but he can do what you do, and he has a scar on his throat that’s been there his whole life.”
“Not do as I; I am not of the Fire,” Sev replied, head haughty.
“I thought—I don’t understand, you can make fire like he can. Isn’t that what you mean?”
Sev ignored my question as Velka turned her back and walked to the far end of the cave. The luminescent fire followed, as did Sev and I. Trailing behind Velka like children, her air of authority silenced my questions and demanded our undivided attention.
“Erdlanders came once,” she said. “They took our children, those too young to hide in the Fire. Most children cannot go Within until ten years pass. Some got away, some hid. The others were taken. We hunted for them only to find bodies, all with their throats slit.” She motioned to the wall before us, and one of the fireballs came closer, lighting up the images painted there. “The priestesses created this so we would never forget what the Erdlanders are. They are the killers of babies, the takers of children.”
In these beautiful paintings, words I couldn’t understand wove through pictures of mothers rushing to a wall of fire, carrying children in their arms as short, thick men gave chase. From the fire, arms reached out to those seeking safety. Orange, yellow, and red swirled together, and with the flickering light of the ball, the mural appeared to be moving.
Farther along, a darker image depicted trees filled with birds and owls looking down on a pile of tiny bodies. Women knelt, holding limp children to their breasts, heads raised as they wailed. The echoes of our breath carried their keening through the cave, bringing their pain to life.
“Few survived.” Velka’s voice was heavy with pain. “A whole generation slaughtered.
“But you survived,” I said to Keene and Sev, pain clutching my heart at their loss.
“I am of the Fire and went Within,” Keene said. “Sev is not. She creates the flame, but cannot hold its embrace. She hid.”
Sev grimaced. “I survived.”
“You were right to hide, to run. It is how you live today. If you had not, I would be alone without you.” His smile was sad but full of love. It shone in his eyes and softened my heart.
“All w
ere thought dead,” Velka continued. “If your Tor has returned, he is precious. It has been a very long time since any of the lost ones rejoined the A’aihea, and if he is of the Fire, able to walk Within, he is rare. Fewer and fewer are able to enter with each new birth.”
What was happening to the world? The A’aihea couldn’t go Within their Fire, the Erdlanders were on some kind of breeding program, and the Sualwet long ago abandoned live birth for the ease and practicality of laying eggs.
The crumbling pain of the women painted in the mural reminded me of Elle, another victim in the long line of atrocities the Erdlanders had committed. She may not have been tortured physically like my mother, but she still suffered under the rules of their society. Their lack of compassion for her loss and pain only proved that they certainly had the capacity for the kind of evil depicted on the wall. I was evidence of their cruelty, my very existence a tangible example of how twisted their minds were, but me—me personally? I had nothing to do with this insanity.
“What does any of this have to do with me?” I asked.
“The priestesses wrote many things here, things from times forgotten, things from days when one moon hung in the sky and the races matched its number.” Velka glided farther into the cave, into another opening and down a long corridor. The flames followed her and illuminated walls covered with illustrations, script, and portraits of generations.
I wanted her to stop, to tell me the story of every image, to share their secrets, but despite her tiny frame, she moved swiftly. Images of celebration, fire, and erotic coupling filled the walls, streaming past me as we hurried along.
“I’ve not been this far,” Keene whispered beside me.
“Women only, not eyes like yours,” Sev replied. “Initiation happens deep.” Her shoulders straightened with pride.
The ground dropped as we followed Velka down a steep decline that twisted through open caverns and underground springs. The scent of fresh water and moss filled my senses, clearing my mind. When we were deep inside the earth, possibly at the center of the mountain, Velka stopped, bringing all the fireballs close to illuminate one image.
Two Moons of Sera Page 26