The Heart of Oldra

by Georgina Makalani

  ‘Not very much. Why?’

  ‘He can see into my dreams. When I think back over my dreams, he has been in each one. I have only dreamt of my mother, except...’

  Henda waited. Cora could feel the intense gaze of Teven, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to share what she would with him in the room.

  She sighed and looked only at Henda. ‘I have dreamt of Teven.’

  ‘My past?’

  She shook her head. He stared, and she tried not to look at the floor.

  ‘Once, the night before I came here. And then recently, I dreamt of you in the trees with the dragons.’

  ‘Merik was in those dreams as well?’ Henda asked.

  ‘Only the first one, before I left.’

  ‘What did you dream?’

  Cora shook her head again.

  ‘Please tell me.’ He stepped closer.

  ‘It was us at a hearth; that is all.’

  ‘It scared you,’ Henda said.

  ‘I had never dreamed of something that had not happened before. He was different. I didn’t know him, and yet I did.’

  ‘Like I knew you,’ he whispered. She looked up then, but before she could ask what he meant, the curtain was pulled back and a man stood in the doorway.

  ‘It is time,’ Henda said sadly. She took Cora by the hands. ‘You will come again, and show me what you can?’

  Cora nodded. If they could, she would love to get to know these people better. And they were so close to the other cavern. If someone were to take part of a tribe and run, she would have thought they would travel a lot further away. Maybe it was part of what Merik wanted, that he needed to be close, or that he would take control some day and hadn’t yet been able to.

  She didn’t think she would be able to ask him, she realised as she followed Teven out into the main cavern. The people didn’t look at them like they had before, and the dragons had gone. The man led them out through the space. Too soon, she was standing amongst the trees.

  ‘Don’t come back,’ he said, then disappeared back inside the leather curtain.

  Disappointment washed over Cora. It had seemed so much like home—a chief like her father, an Ancient she could talk with—and yet she was being sent away again. But then, being out on her own in a world she didn’t want to be in had exposed her to skills she hadn’t known she had.

  Teven surprised her by taking her hand and pulling her through the trees.

  ‘How do we explain to Merik where we have been?’ she asked, and he stopped.

  ‘You can’t call him that. He likes to be called Chief. That is what we call him, and that is what you will call him.’

  ‘Do you know who he is?’ she asked as he tugged her along.

  He didn’t answer. Then the dragon blocked their way. Cora pulled from Teven’s hold and raced forward, throwing her arms around the dragon’s neck as she had wanted to do before. ‘Hello,’ she said, pushing her face into the pale green scales.

  You are always welcome, Cora of the Penna.

  ‘I’m not sure everyone agrees with you.’

  It has been a tenuous peace. He is not what he was. The little chief wants more; he has always wanted more. He thinks that you will give it to him.

  ‘I’m not sure what I should do.’

  You will find your place.

  ‘Can you help me get home?’

  That is something for another day. Take the boy and go for now.

  ‘The boy,’ Teven murmured.

  Cora smiled as she took his hand and then ran her other hand over the nose of the dragon. She bowed her head, and they walked back towards the cliff.

  Beware of the shadows, Oldra.

  Cora turned back, but the dragon was gone.

  Chapter 18

  The climb back up the cliff was as hard as it had been in the dream of Teven’s mother. Cora didn’t know the woman’s name. She wasn’t sure it was something she could ask, or even something he could answer. He had been isolated because of her, paid for what she had done, and he hadn’t been given the chance to know who she was.

  Cora paused and looked back to see that he was finding the climb harder than she was. ‘Can I help?’ she asked. But he shook his head.

  She moved down the path to meet him as he leaned into the stone. ‘Let me support you.’

  ‘It isn’t safe. If I nudge you, we could both go over.’ She raised her eyebrows, but he didn’t smile. ‘A dragon may not be able to save you every time.’

  ‘I understand that,’ she said. ‘But you are not as well as you think you are.’

  ‘You healed me. Maybe you aren’t the healer everyone thinks.’ He smiled finally, but she could see the sweat beading on his forehead.

  ‘Sit down, let me check,’ she said hurriedly. He was right. She wasn’t what they thought she was; she had always said that. She had told them repeatedly that her mother wasn’t right.

  ‘Maybe you should sit down,’ he said softly.

  She looked at him then. He used the cliff face to lower himself to the ground, then motioned her down beside him.

  ‘You look as though the whole world is crumbling.’

  ‘Let me at your chest,’ she said.

  He sighed and pulled at the material, bloody and torn down the middle, exposing most of his chest and, with the movement of his sitting down, the mark of Oldra. She reached forward quickly. Closing her eyes, she tried to focus, but she struggled to see.

  He pressed a hand over hers, and she looked up into his pale brown eyes. ‘Breathe,’ he said. ‘You’ve done this before.’

  She shook her head. ‘Henda put her hands over mine. She might have healed you.’

  ‘You did this,’ he said.

  ‘I can’t see.’ She felt the panic close her throat. ‘And now you aren’t well enough to make it back.’

  ‘I’m just tired,’ he murmured.

  Cora touched her hand to his forehead. ‘You are burning.’

  ‘It is a steep climb. It is hard going.’

  Cora felt suddenly out of control, as though things were even harder than they had been before, unsure of why she couldn’t pull together what she thought she could. ‘I’m too far from the snow,’ she whispered.

  ‘Cora,’ he said loudly, grabbing her by the shoulders. ‘You have to come back from wherever you have gone.’

  She stared at him.

  ‘I’m fine,’ he continued.

  She nodded but leaned into him, feeling a little more centred. Then she stretched out her hand and pressed it to his chest.

  ‘That is so cold,’ he murmured.

  She closed her eyes, now able to see again as she had the day before. There was bruising, but the damage was repaired. She pulled her hand back and nodded. Then she stood and looked up the path. ‘You need some rest, and some water. How far to the stream?’

  ‘You’ll get lost on your own.’

  ‘No,’ she said.

  ‘Don’t go.’ He grabbed at her again. ‘I just need to rest. Then we can make it to the stream together. It flows across this side of the cavern.’

  Cora leaned out over the path.

  He laughed, and she turned back with a frustrated groan. ‘Does it flow right off the cliff?’

  He shook his head. ‘It disappears into the ground.’

  ‘We don’t really have water that flows where I’m from.’

  ‘I guessed as much.’

  She sat back against the hard, rough rock and looked over the trees.

  After some time, he cleared his throat, but she maintained her stare.

  ‘What are you thinking?’ he asked.

  ‘That I’m not sure how I can get you back to the cavern, or how I can get home.’

  At his silence, she turned and found him looking over the trees.

  ‘I have to go back at some point.’

  ‘Do you?’

  ‘Should I wait until the chief wants to take this healing ability from me?’

  Teven pushed himself up slowly, groaning a little from
the effort. ‘Henda said that he can’t.’

  ‘But is she certain? No one else seems to have been right about what I am.’

  ‘I think everyone has a very good idea of what you are. It is only you who doesn’t seem to believe it or understand it.’

  ‘I certainly don’t understand it.’ She reached for him, but he waved her off. He stepped slowly along the pathway, and she followed behind.

  It took a long time to reach the top. Although it was still early morning, she feared it would be dark before they reached the cavern. She wondered if the dragons would help her out. If they could.

  ‘Why are they different?’

  ‘Who?’ Teven wheezed as he reached the top of the path. She was sure he should sit down, but he kept moving, slowly making his way towards the trees with her following closely behind. She wasn’t sure she could hold him up or stop him hitting the ground if he fell, one way or the other.

  ‘The dragons,’ she said, concentrating more on his weaving gait.

  He stopped and looked back. ‘They are the same.’

  ‘They are leathery here, and down there...’ She pointed back down towards the trees.

  He shrugged and turned back to the trees.

  ‘Do you not know, or do you not care?’

  He laughed, but it was a strained, wheezing sound.

  ‘You are not well,’ she murmured, coming up beside him and wrapping her arm around him.

  ‘I need to walk in there on my own.’

  ‘But you can’t.’

  ‘I need to. He might not care what happens to me, but I must walk into the cavern.’

  Cora nodded and continued forward. He pulled against her, but she was stronger than him. ‘I will allow you to walk into that cavern as though there is nothing for anyone to notice, but until then, I’m helping.’

  He sighed and continued on. It was only as they neared the entrance and she allowed him the space to walk on his own that she wondered whether people would question that they had been out of the cavern all night. If members of the Penna were to do that, everyone would be talking of it. Particularly a man and a woman. There were times when young couples tried to sneak away. If they wanted private time, they tended to use the birthing chamber when everyone else was asleep. But even then, chances were high that someone would see.

  The chief would see Teven as a threat the moment he realised that Teven was Oldra. He must have some idea of what he was, and Cora didn’t know how he had managed to hide it for as long as he had. Now she wondered what other skill he might have. He might be more like Arminel, with the healing abilities she had guessed at when she’d first arrived. But then he might have some sight like her mother.

  She watched him closely, wondering if he had seen her coming. Did he really think she would stay? Teven teetered a little to the side as he walked down into the cavern, and she clenched her fists to stop from reaching out for him. No one appeared to look up as they entered, but she was sure these people watched far more than she realised.

  The cavern was still dimly lit. Cora looked up at the pale orbs and wondered for the first time in her life what powered them. In her world, as in the cavern she had recently left, they were clear and bright and reflected the outside light. But even in the overcast world she lived in, they shone brightly of a day.

  It was one of those aspects of her life that she didn’t question. She might have questioned her own abilities and her mother’s motives, but for most of her life she had survived without questioning very much at all. Yet, no matter what others thought she was or hoped her to be, her life had been mapped out. She knew where she would be and what she would become.

  ‘Cora,’ Teven whispered. She focused on him as he stood by the fire. ‘Did you notice the water by the door?’

  She shook her head and then turned swiftly to walk back the way they had come. There were still several baskets filled with water. Teven did so much, she wondered what the clan would do if he left. She looked around, standing by the doorway and trying to see into the dark edges of the cavern to determine how many people lived within it.

  Would the others take them in? It had only been for Teven’s lifetime that they’d been away. Even though his uncle was not keen to take Teven in, he may be willing to take the others. She walked slowly back towards Teven. She wondered if these people really knew just how close they were to family.

  ‘You can’t say anything,’ Teven whispered, as though reading her thoughts.

  She nodded once. ‘There is enough water,’ she said.

  ‘They will need wood soon enough.’

  ‘Rest. We can head out later today, or even tomorrow. Would you like me to see what people need?’

  ‘The chief won’t like you talking with people.’

  ‘It won’t really change what he wants, or whether I can go home. If he were any decent sort of man, he would check on them himself.’

  Teven opened his mouth to protest, but then he bowed his head and turned away instead.

  Cora turned to find Merik behind her.

  ‘Another night out of the cavern. I would think you were plotting against me—or are you simply trying to find the snow?’

  ‘She is too far away,’ Cora said. ‘Would you let me go if I could find a way?’

  He shook his head. ‘But you appear stronger every day. Have you found your gift?’

  ‘I can heal.’

  He glanced over her shoulder towards Teven, but he said nothing more. After a moment too long studying her, he turned towards his cavern.

  ‘Why is it so dull in here?’ she asked after him.

  He turned back, but said nothing.

  ‘The orbs should be brighter during the day.’ She pointed up to the ceiling above her.

  ‘They are what they are.’ He turned back and picked up his pace.

  ‘But what are they?’ Cora asked quietly as he walked away. She turned back to Teven, who appeared paler. He sat heavily by the fire. ‘Do you have a fresh tunic?’

  Teven nodded, but didn’t move.

  ‘I think you should turn from the people,’ Cora said, moving to the wall of the cavern. She knew they were still visible to everyone, although with the dim light she hoped they weren’t too clear. He moved carefully, too slowly. Cora found what she was looking for and returned with it. He waved her away, but she had already begun to worry. He needed to keep the mark a secret, and he needed her help whether he wanted it or not.

  He groaned when she helped lift his ruined tunic over his head. But he nodded slowly as she held the fresh one out. He groaned again, despite biting down on his lip, and Cora found herself looking around the cavern to ensure not everyone was watching them. They might just assume Teven had been injured while they were out.

  She ran her hand over his forehead, brushing his dark shaggy hair from his face. ‘Rest,’ she said.

  Teven actually went off to sleep quite quickly, once she got him to lie down. Then she sat back by the fire and wondered just what Merik really thought he could get from her. Her hand tingled when she thought of what she had done for Teven. The burning he had felt as a new baby was so sharp in her own chest. As was his mother’s pain. What she must have feared to do such a thing to her baby, just to keep him safe.

  And despite what he was, he had managed to hide it from his father. Although he had never really been given the chance to think of Merik as a father, and he had managed to find his kin. Although they cared for him, they could not take him in.

  It was such a different world, she struggled to get her mind around it. If such a thing had happened in the Penna, the people would have come together to help. They would not have allowed it to get to the point where a new mother could think such actions were her only choice. And if something had happened and she had died, they would have all helped with the child. A family would have taken him in, but the clan as a whole would have supported them. As they did all the Penna.

  She smiled at the idea. Her mother would have made sure of it. Cora wiped q
uickly at the unexpected tears. She missed her mother so desperately, far more than she would have thought. Gerry would have so many ideas as to how she could work with the people of the area, how to not annoy Merik while keeping him from what he wanted. She would have understood the pain Cora felt when she put her hand on Teven’s chest. And she would have found a way home.

  But Cora didn’t have her mother, and Merik would do what he wanted as he had always done, whether it harmed his people or not. Teven would continue to sacrifice himself for those people. Cora looked up and wiped again at her face. She didn’t know these people at all, and she had been here for so long already.

  She glanced over her shoulder at Teven sleeping soundly. He had been healed, but it had taken a lot from him. Rhali was nowhere to be seen, but she always did as she pleased. Cora only hoped the girl was safe. As she looked into the flames before her, she realised there was someone on the other side.

  She waved them forward, and a young man moved around to stand before her. Then he smiled and sat down beside her.

  ‘How is life here?’ she asked. ‘Is there anything you need?’

  ‘We will need wood soon,’ he said, glancing across at Teven. ‘Is he ill?’

  ‘A small injury while we were out. He just needs some sleep.’

  The young man looked at the pile of leather than had been Teven’s tunic.

  ‘I hoped that Rhali would help me mend it,’ Cora said without moving. ‘Have you seen her?’

  He shook his head. ‘Would you go for wood?’

  Cora nodded. ‘I can.’ She waited a moment, but he didn’t move or say anything else. ‘Should I ask others what they might need?’

  ‘Wood,’ he said again, standing slowly. He bowed his head to her, then disappeared around the fire.

  Cora was tempted to visit with each hearth anyway, just to see who they were and what they might need. She might be able to learn so much more about them.

  But she didn’t. Pushing Merik would only cause more problems and make them less likely to talk to her. She didn’t want to cause any more problems for Teven, who was sleeping more soundly now. She wondered if there were different rules for him because of who his father was—or was it because of his mother’s death?