ROAD TO CORDIA (13 page)

     “Since when am I an adult?” Ja'Nil argued back.

    
Don’t be such a slacker.

     “I am not…” Oh Lord, she was arguing with herself and losing!

     “I’ll come with you,” she heard herself offer. “Not that you can’t get there on your own,” she assured a bristling Sa’Ari. “Just to keep you company.”

     “If you really want to,” said Sa’Ari, looking relieved. She turned to Little Piet. “Get in the wagon,” she ordered.

     “I wanna walk. I wanna walk.”

     “Get in the wagon,” said Sa’Ari.

     “You ain’t the boss of me,” screamed the previously adorable Little Piet.   

     Sa’Ari picked up the squirming rebel and deposited him in the little red wagon.

     “I wanna ride, too,” whined the previously sunny Jari.

     “It’s too small. You gotta take turns,” yelled an exasperated Sa’Ari.

     Ja'Nil looked on in amazement, as the three siblings transformed into deadly enemies who glared at each other with hate filled eyes. She was afraid they would come to blows at any minute.

     Sa’Ari solved the problem by grabbing the wagon handle and starting off with such a violent jerk that Little Piet was almost thrown out.

     Jari ran to catch up. Ja'Nil closed her mouth with a snap and followed.

* * *

     They stayed close to the river. The way was fairly flat, but the track was rough and some detours were necessary. After two hours, Jari was seriously tired and Little Piet was whining that his butt hurt. Sa’Ari, who was pulling the wagon, kept changing hands.

     Ja'Nil called their little troupe to a halt. “Here,” she said to Sa’Ari, handing her the remnants of her old tunic. “Tear this up and wrap it around your hands.”

     Sa’Ari just looked at her.       

     “To protect them,” explained Ja'Nil. “Like gloves.”

     Sa’Ari nodded and immediately began ripping strips off and using them to wrap her hands. “I’ll carry Little Piet on my shoulders,” continued Ja'Nil, “and Jari can ride in the wagon.”

     “No, carry me,” begged Jari. Luckily, she was too tired to stage a real tantrum.

* * *

     They walked for hours. At one point, after wrapping up her own hands, Ja'Nil, still carrying Little Piet, took over pulling the wagon. Sa’Ari was too tired to make more than a token protest. 

     It was Little Piet, perched high on Ja'Nil’s aching shoulders, who saw him first. “Doggy,” he announced.

     Doggy? “Where?” asked Ja'Nil.

     “Overs there,” he said pointing.

     “I don’t see any…Oh, my Lord.”

     Trotting briskly in their direction was a huge golden wolf.

     In all the fourteen years of her life, Ja'Nil had never seen nor heard of a golden wolf, but now every time she turned around there was a…”Oh my Lord!” Clutching Little Piet’s leg with one hand to keep him anchored on her shoulders, Ja'Nil looked around frantically for something to fight with. “Take the wagon,” she ordered Sa’Ari, who was staring in open mouth fear at the giant beast. “Take the wagon!”         

     Sa’Ari unfroze, and grabbed the wagon handle. Ja'Nil swooped down and picked up a nearby rock. It was nowhere big enough to do real damage, but nothing else was available.

     “Here wolfy, wolfy,” coaxed Little Piet from atop Ja'Nil’s shoulders. Ja'Nil started backing up. “I think wolfy is hungry,” said Little Piet.

     Ja'Nil thought so, too.

     “Can we give him some bread?”

     “No!” said Ja'Nil and Sa’Ari simultaneously.

     In the meantime, the wolf, having spotted them, trotted closer.

     “Is he supposed to be that big?” whispered Sa’Ari.

     “Why are you whispering?” Ja'Nil whispered back.

     When the wolf was about three lengths away from the four humans, he stopped and sat down. Then he licked his lips. Jari started to cry. Ja'Nil wanted to.

     “He’s got really, really, really big teeth,” said Little Piet.

     Still seated, the wolf slowly moved his tail back and forth, obviously anticipating a splendid meal.

     “I’m going to throw this rock at him,” said Ja'Nil, “when I do I want everyone to start yelling and screaming at him. Wave your arms, stamp your feet but stay close together. Ready?”

     “Ready,” said Little Piet.

     “Ready,” said Jari.

     Sa’Ari nodded her head up and down like a broken Cina doll.

     “Lord of the Circle, please protect your children,” prayed Ja'Nil, and threw the rock. She was aiming for the wolf’s nose. He ducked. The rock went flying over his head.

     “Do we still yell?” whispered Jari.

     “Yes,” screamed Ja'Nil and started jumping up and down and waving her arms around. The other children looked at her in amazement and then joined in the fun. “Get out of here,” Ja'Nil screamed.

     “Dirty, rotten wolf, move your butt,” yelled Sa’Ari.

     “Please, please, go away,” said Jari, who, although jumping around, was still whispering.

     “Here wolfy, wolfy,” called Little Piet, but at least he did it at the top of his lungs.

     The wolf, still seated, looked at them in amazement.

     “Look,” yelled Little Piet. “He’s got a ring on his toe.”

     “Wolfs don’t have toes,” shouted Ja'Nil still waving her arms.

     All of a sudden, a deeper voice joined their clamor. A rock whizzed past Ja'Nil’s head. It was going to hit the wolf right smack in the eyes! The wolf simply moved his head slightly to one side and the rock landed harmlessly behind him. A man in Mummer clothes ran past Ja'Nil waving a club. The wolf stood, lowered his head, showing all his very big teeth in a petrifying snarl. The man skidded to a stop, apparently not willing to have a close encounter with those razor sharp teeth. The children went silent.         

     Head down, lips skinned back in a saliva-dripping snarl, the wolf stalked the man. Closer and closer. The man took a step back, another, and another. The wolf seemed to be enjoying himself. Suddenly he sprang. The man yelled, dropped his club, and turned to run. Ja'Nil had found another stone. She threw it at the wolf and this time it hit its mark. Right smack in the wolf’s chest. He looked at her reproachably. Then turned and walked off with quiet dignity.

     “Yea!” shouted Sa’Ari. The man also threw a stone but missed. The wolf ignored him.

     The man, Oh, Lord, it was O’Keeven, turned to the children with a grin.

     “Ja'Nil, sweetheart!” He seemed delighted to see her. “My plan worked.”

     “What plan?” asked Ja'Nil through gritted teeth.

     “Why sweetheart, my plan to gain our freedom.”

     Little Piet slid down from Ja'Nil’s shoulders and tugged at O’Keeven’s sleeve. “Are you a kinsman?” he asked.

     Ja'Nil could feel herself getting red in the face. Being sentenced to death, being whipped, being almost pronged by that guard, attacked by a vicious mastiff, falling in the river and practically drowning, that was his plan?

     “Another woman died in my place,” she said. Her voice was cold and flat.

     He instantly looked contrite. “I know, I know. But I couldn’t save everyone.”

     “Mister, where’s your clan badge?” asked Sa’Ari.

     He looked at her sadly and in a voice heavy with emotion said, “I lost it when I was fighting to save the lives of seven small children and their old Granny.” Then he turned back to Ja'Nil. “Are you joining the Mummers, sweetheart? That tunic looks very attractive on you.”

     “I am not--” began Ja'Nil, but Little Piet cut her off.

     “She was all holey,” he said.

     “And almost not alive,” added Jari.

     “And almost naked,” added Sa’Ari for good measure.

     O’Keeven’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

     “Do you know this…this goomer?” Ja'Nil asked Sa’Ari.

     “Goomer?” O’Keeven put his hand to his heart. “Sweetheart, I’m wounded.”

     “Stop calling me sweetheart!” She wanted to throw a rock at him. “Do you know him?” Ja'Nil asked Sa’Ari again.

     “We have never met,” O’Keeven answered for the girl. “But we are all Mummers, and therefore, de facto family.” He smiled his charming smile at the three children. Naturally, they smiled back.

     “What’s defo?” asked Jari.

     “It means we’re as good as family,” he explained. “You children can consider me your uncle.”

     Ja'Nil actually snorted; something she had never before done in her life. O’Keeven ignored her to concentrate all his charm on the children. Within minutes, he knew they were headed for the Lady’s Keep, were expected, and went there every year. “And your family?” he asked.

     “Da’s in Cordia,” said Sa’Ari.

     “Ahh, so you have no one to protect you, take care of you, as you travel to the Lady’s Keep?”

     “Only her,” said Sa’Ari jerking her chin toward Ja'Nil.

CHAPTER 14

     Somehow or other, it was decided that O’Keeven would accompany them to the Lady’s Keep. “Just to protect you from the evils lurking in the darkness of the forest.” His voice had dropped to a hissing whisper, which seemed to embody all the evils that could possibly lurk.

     Jari’s lower lip began to tremble and she clutched Ja'Nil’s hand. Little Piet stuck his thumb in his mouth. Sa’Ari looked around anxiously.

     “We left the forest an hour ago, O’Keeven,” said Ja'Nil. “Both suns are shinning, there is no darkness. Stop scaring the little diggers.”

     “Wonderful,” he said with such good cheer that Ja'Nil wanted to kick him. “Let’s go.” He swung Little Piet up on his shoulders and started down the road. Jari climbed back into the wagon.  Sa’Ari, that most suspicious of children, seemed to have no doubts. She walked beside O’Keeven, looking up at him with adoration. O’Keeven focused most of his attention on her. To her shame and disgust Ja'Nil actually felt jealous of all the attention that O’Keeven (that dirty, rotten traitor) was paying the little girl. With a sigh, she took hold of the wagon handle and joined the procession.

* * *

     Both the suns had set and Bright Moon was high in the sky when they finally stopped for the night. Little Piet and Jari were asleep, Sa’Ari was dead on her feet, and for the last hour, only pride had kept Ja'Nil moving forward. O’Keeven had insisted they not stop until they found the perfect camping spot, and since he was carrying Little Piet, they had no choice but to keep moving with him.

     They stopped at a place that was no better than many they had passed.

      O’Keeven quickly started a fire. The three children curled up in a heap like puppies as soon as they lay down and were instantly asleep. O’Keeven produced two gundi bird legs, which he shared with Ja'Nil. She couldn’t get the children to eat. They were too exhausted. Finally, she gave up and let them sleep.

     “So how did you get away from Lord No’Sila?” she asked between bites.

     O’Keeven just waved her hand. “A long, boring story,” he said.

     Ja'Nil was too tired to pursue the subject but she vowed to herself to get a straight answer in the morning. After drinking deeply from a small, nearby creek she curled up on the far side of the fire. O’Keeven was sitting cross-legged, strumming on an oddly shaped stringed instrument, and humming to himself. Ja'Nil had no intention of sleeping. She was just going to rest her tired body and maybe close her eyes against the glare of the fire.             Remember, she told herself, you can’t trust O’Keeven. For once, she and her inner voice were in agreement.

     She was asleep within minutes.

* * *

     A child was screaming.

    
It’s Yonny. Yonny is screaming. The storm rages. Daddy’s boat is sinking. Ja’Nil crawls over to Yonny. He clutches at her, causing her broken ribs and arm to hurt so much she almost screams too.

     “Look,” yells Yonny, over the storm. He points back over Ja’Nil’s shoulder.

     She looks. The stern of the boat is underwater. Her father’s body has disappeared. Soon they too will be dead. Yonny clutches her, crying. He is too young to die. So is she.

     Did she scream? Was that what awakened her? Ja’Nil opened her eyes to observe the stormless sky strewn with shining stars. So very tired. She turned on her other side ready to sink back into sleep.

     “What about the pretty bird?” a man’s voice said.

     “Now she’s a different story altogether,” answered O’Keeven’s voice.

     “Give ya three hunner Queens for all four a thems,” said a third male voice.

     “She’s worth three hundred all on her own,” said O’Keeven.

     Ja'Nil opened her eyes just a slit. She saw two scrawny horses in full tack, tied loosely to a large tree at the edge of the clearing. O’Keeven and two strange men sat around the fire. They were passing a leather flask around and drinking deeply. The men were mostly in shadow, but they wore no insignia that she could see.

     One of them spat into the fire. “Three hunner and fifty Queens for the lot of them,” he said. “Final offer.”

     O’Keeven was staring at Ja'Nil. He motioned for the man to be silent. Ja'Nil closed her eyes tightly and tried to breathe evenly.

     “I know you‘re awake, sweetheart,” said O’Keeven. Now he was standing right over her. She kept her eyes closed.

    
Go away. Go away
, she silently prayed.

     O’Keeven knelt beside her and stroked her cheek with the tip of his fingers. She reacted as if a snake had bitten her. “Get away from me.” She jumped to her feet and looked around wildly. The two strangers had moved close to her, one on either side.

     “Ya’re right, O’Keeven,” said one of the men. “She’s a pretty, alright.”

     “Too skinny,” said the other. “I likes ‘em with meat.”

    
Were they intending to eat her?

      “O’Keeven, what’s wrong with you?” she asked in horror.

     He looked at her in astonishment. “Nothing’s wrong, sweetheart. This is just how life is.” He was still smiling gently at her. “No one’s going to hurt you,” he assured her.