Chapter 10
10
Kaley was reluctant to wake up. There was something sticking in her back and her foot was so numb it seemed it may have been cut off. She kept her eyes closed as she tried to remember what happened during the night. Tanek and Sojee, heavy and rain-soaked, had been hard asleep. She couldn’t imagine what she would have done if she hadn’t had the little light that led her to Collan’s house. He and his sons, the wagon, the horses, saved them. She remembered crawling into the back. Tanek and Sojee had acted like she was a teddy bear, but after that, she didn’t remember anything.
Slowly, she opened her eyes. She was still in the wagon but she was alone. Over her head was the canvas covering. It had water on it but it wasn’t leaking, and it was daylight out. There was an old blanket over her that smelled of horses, and under her head was something wadded up to use as a pillow. She pulled it out. It was Sojee’s shirt.
Life was coming back into her body and she wondered where she was. Her clothes were damp as she scooted down the wagon bed and climbed out. She pulled out her backpack and Sojee’s shirt and set them beside what looked like part of a wall.
She wanted to call out, but she was too cautious to do so. The horses had been unhitched and she wondered if they and Collan’s sons were still there.
The first thing she saw was what had once been a village. There was a downhill road that was paved with large stones. Wagon tracks were worn into the rocks, but much of the pavement had been uprooted, leaving deep holes. There wasn’t much left of the small houses that lined the road. Roofs were missing or falling in. Doors hung open. Windows were broken and bare. The place had an eerie feel, with no sounds, not of birds or animals or people.
At the top of the hill was a very large two-story house—or what was left of it. Most of the upper floor was gone, and it didn’t take being a soldier to see the house had been blasted apart.
As she got closer, she saw holes in the walls and shattered windows. Doors had been torn off. She’d seen no evidence of guns since she’d been in Bellis, but only gunfire could have done this to the building. She walked along the front of the desecrated structure. Through windows and doors that had been ripped apart, she could see inside. There were uprooted mosaic floors and partial walls that had once been painted. “Swans,” she whispered. Every picture showed swans.
This belongs to Tanek’s family , she thought.
When she reached the end of the big house, she saw a lake in the back. For the swans. It would have been beautiful if it didn’t have ruined pieces of the house in it. The upper part of a dome stuck up. Was it once a lookout tower? By the lake was part of what had been a fountain. Carved stone swans lay in pieces around the circular base. Kaley picked up a stone head and looked at the back of the house. It was worse than the front. The huge holes in the thick walls could only have come from heavy artillery.
Had Tanek’s family fought the invaders with swords and daggers? she wondered. If so, there must have been a lot of deaths.
She thought back to the conversation she’d overheard. Tanek had sounded happy when he talked of going to the homestead. He spoke of seeing the old place . Would he have been looking forward to it if he knew he was going to see a battlefield?
If Tanek was just seeing this, how was he doing? she wondered.
She carefully put the stone head on the side of the fountain and slowly walked along the back. Under the destruction, she could see the beauty of the place. Near the water was a round gazebo. Three of the six pillars that held the roof up had been shot away. The domed roof was covered with tiles of emerald green, and on the top was a sculpture of a swan, its wings raised as if it was about to fly away. One wing was half-gone.
She stood there for a while, looking out over the water, imagining what it had once been. Iridescent swans on the blue water, Tanek’s family calling to them. It must have been a magical place.
When she heard a slight sound, she turned to it. At the side of the house she saw Tanek. He was sitting on the steps of a small separate building that may have been a chapel. Since the roof was gone and the windows torn out, she couldn’t tell what it was. He was sitting there staring at the side of the house in silence.
Had he been a close friend, she would have asked him to talk to her, but she didn’t. She sat down beside him on the steps. She didn’t have to know him well to see that his face was a study in devastation. In grief and shock.
She said nothing, just waited. If he wanted to talk, she was there.
“I was lied to my whole life,” he said softly.
It didn’t take much to figure out what he meant. The happiness she’d heard from him at the idea of visiting his family’s old home didn’t match what they were seeing. She waited for him to continue.
“My family told me they left here for the swans, that it was a voluntary move. The swans would be better off on Eren so they went there.” He nodded behind him but he didn’t look over his shoulder.
Kaley turned and saw that lying on the floor inside the little building was the broken statue of a man. The head had been hacked from the body; one leg was crushed.
“That’s my grandpapá, Haver. He was a brilliant man. He taught me everything I know. He was the one who discovered more of what the feathers can do.” When Tanek turned to her, she saw that his eyes were red from crying. “By the time he was my age, he’d learned more than all our ancestors had. His discoveries saved lives.” Tanek stood up. “The feathers. Did you know that they have healing powers?”
“No,” she said softly.
“They do. Crush them, blend them, make lotions, capsules, and they’ll heal sickness.” He took a breath. “But there’s something few people know. The swans have to give their feathers. If you take them, they don’t work.”
He turned away and ran his hand over a window frame that had once been beautiful.
“I understand,” she said. “They only give the feathers to people who love them. To your family, to the Order of Swans.”
He leaned back against the stone wall. “Yes. My grandparents told me great stories about this place. I’ve dreamed of it all my life. I didn’t know...” He waved his hand to indicate the destruction. “Why did no one tell me the truth of why they left?”
“They wanted to protect you,” Kaley said. “My father used to sugarcoat every bad thing that happened. It’s what parents do.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, and his lips were tight. “When we got here last night and I saw what had been done to our family, I talked to my father.”
“Did he tell you what happened?”
Tanek took a few moments to calm himself. “He did. The government said the healing powers of the swans made them belong to ‘the people,’ not to just one family. We had no right to keep them to ourselves, so they would take over the care of the swans. My grandpapá protested that it was more than one family, that it was an entire village. It was the industry of hundreds of people. But the government didn’t agree. They took it all.” He moved his hand to indicate the village. “It was a violent overtaking. The town and our homes were blown up. Many swanherders and artisans died.” He paused. “Grandpapá only gave up when his youngest son was killed. My uncle. Until today, I didn’t even know he existed.” Tanek looked away, not wanting her to see the tears in his eyes.
“And after they took the swans, they found out that the feathers they stole had no power,” she said. “I can believe that. Your swans are loving creatures.”
Tanek worked to get himself under control. “It took the government two years to realize their error, then they set up a new homestead for our family. It’s on the water on Eren, at the top of the island, with high walls and guards and absolute privacy. We are protected.”
“Protected from the people who did this to you?” Kaley didn’t conceal the bitterness in her voice.
When he looked at her, he seemed to be pleased by her understanding. He started to say something but they heard Sojee call out. He was near them.
Tanek had a look of panic. “I...” When he rubbed his eyes, she understood. Machismo. That male creed. He didn’t want Sojee to see that he’d been crying.
Kaley didn’t have time to think of a lie to cover Tanek’s dilemma. Instead, she picked up a handful of sand and threw it into his face.
“What the farkel!” he said—or at least that was how the translator in her arm made it sound.
When Sojee came around the corner, Tanek was spitting out sand and trying to clear his eyes, which were very red. “I stumbled and got sand in his eyes. So sorry.” Kaley looked at Tanek. “Do you need any help?”
“Not from you,” Tanek said with a grimace.
“Collan’s boys took the horses back.” Sojee was looking at Tanek hard, as though he was trying to figure out something. “Did you know this place had been destroyed?”
Kaley took a step toward him. “Where did you get those boots? I didn’t see yours at the inn. Too bad as we could have used them as boats in the rain.” She smiled sweetly at him.
Sojee stopped staring at Tanek. “I found them in a stone chest. They fit me.”
“Stone?” Kaley said quickly. “I bet it had a heavy lid. Did you move it?”
He looked down at her with amusement. “I did.”
“I’m proud of you. Why don’t we go see that chest?” She was giving Tanek time to regain his composure.
Tanek was brushing sand off his face and out of his hair. “Those boots probably belonged to my grandpapá.” He spit out more sand. “He was a big man.”
“Then why are you so small?” Sojee asked.
Kaley knew that was a male-to-male insult and she started to protest. Tanek was anything but small . But then, she was glad to see that he smiled.
“He had a small wife and my mother is tall but thin,” Tanek said. “Generations of women cut me down.”
Sojee grinned. “They do that to all men.”
“Give me a break!” Kaley said. “I saved the lives of you two whiners and you haven’t even thanked me. It took a lot of strength to pull you two out of the mud.”
“Who did you lift first?” Tanek asked.
She knew he was making fun of her, but she was so glad he was smiling that she didn’t mind being the object of ridicule. “Why, Sojee, of course,” she said. “Then he picked up little you. Only took one hand.”
The men laughed, but their eyes lingered on her. There was gratitude in them.
“My pen,” Sojee said softly. “It was taken from me. I...”
She saw that he was embarrassed at having been attacked in the room.
Tanek looked at Kaley. “Didn’t they go into your room? They didn’t use the pen on you?”
“They did, but I blocked them.”
The men’s eyes widened. “With your mind?” Sojee asked.
“No! I don’t have any power like that. I used nail glue.”
“What?”
“I put nail glue over that scar on my forearm. I hoped it would block the signal and it did.”
“What is nail glue?” Sojee asked.
“Obviously, it’s very potent stuff. I’m just glad it worked and I didn’t go into a deep sleep. It would have been bad if at least one of us hadn’t been awake.”
The men looked at her for a long moment and she could see the puzzlement in their eyes. “Why don’t we go see that chest you found? Any normal-size clothes in it?”
“There were some for children. Young Tanek here could fit them.”
“If they have shirts for you,” Kaley said, “we can use them as sails on your boots and float over to Eren. I have a few things I’d like to say to the king.” She held up her arm. “Is there any money left on these things?”
“Very little,” Tanek said. “Your king wasn’t pleased when we told him we couldn’t get his son. He took away all he’d given us and most of our personal credits as well.”
“He’s not my king!” Kaley said.
Tanek gave a sound like “Hmph!” and walked ahead. He seemed to know where he was going in the derelict house. He stepped over a fallen wall, then disappeared through an open doorway.
When Kaley hastened to follow him, Sojee moved beside her. “You stumbled and accidently threw that much sand directly into his eyes?”
Kaley didn’t reply to his question.
“You’re protecting him.”
She stopped walking and faced him. “Yes, I am!” She was fierce. “And I’d do the same for you, so pretend you believe every word I say. Got it?”
Sojee blinked a few times, then said, “Aradella will like you.” With that, he strode ahead and caught up with Tanek.
“Aradella?” Kaley said. “The young woman whose nickname is Princess Bitchy? I’m not sure I like that.”
Ahead of her, Tanek stepped out of the doorway. “Can’t you keep up with us?”
She wasn’t fooled by his question. He didn’t want her to be alone even if it appeared that no one else was there. And the truth was that Kaley didn’t want to be alone. She didn’t trust appearances any more than he did.
Tanek and Sojee were standing in what had once been a large room. What was left of the floor was blue-and-white tiles showing a flock of swans. The walls were frescoed with more pictures of swans. There were tall, empty spaces of what had been a wall of windows that looked out at the water. Remnants of a bathroom were to the side.
“My guess is that this was your grandfather’s bedroom.” Kaley looked at Tanek and he nodded. “Did he draw a floor plan for you?”
“He did.” They exchanged smiles.
Sojee had gone to the corner to a beautiful stone chest that was the size of a sarcophagus and was pushing the heavy lid back.
“There isn’t a...you know...inside, is there?” Kaley asked. It did look like a coffin.
“No,” Tanek said. “Grandpapá didn’t want the children who ran in and out of his house to get into his weaponry, so he made it so only he could get into the chest.”
“There are no weapons in here now.” Sojee was leaning over so far he was half inside it.
“I’m sure that what was in there was used,” Tanek said so softly only Kaley heard.
Sojee pulled out clothes from the chest and tossed them onto the lid. The shirts and trousers, even the socks, were old, but they were in excellent condition.
Kaley picked up a soft, cream-colored shirt. “This feels like cotton but it’s not.”
“It has swan feathers added,” Tanek said. “The fabric isn’t made anymore.”
“Whatever it is, I like it.” Sojee began to remove his dirty, torn clothes.
“Should I leave?” Kaley asked.
Tanek pulled his shirt over his head. “There’s nothing you haven’t seen before. Tell us what happened last night. Every word of it. Was it the king’s guardsmen?”
As before, Kaley was staring at Tanek’s bare chest. He was what men were supposed to look like in fantasies!
Sojee put himself in front of Tanek. He, too, was mostly nude, but he didn’t have the same effect on her that Tanek did. “Was Garen involved?”
“I don’t think so.” She turned her back to the men and looked at the pretty blue wall. “I didn’t see them but I heard their steps. They were light. It could have been two of the men who came with Garen. Do you think Garen sent them?”
“I have no idea,” Sojee said. He pulled on a shirt, and when she turned around, he smiled warmly at her. “You did a good job. No soldier could have done better. We thank you.” With that, he picked her up and hugged her, making her laugh.
When he set her down, she looked to Tanek for his thanks, but he said nothing, did nothing. “Do you find me so repulsive that you can’t touch me?” She was half serious, half teasing. “And after last night when you wrapped yourself around me?”
Sojee gave a loud laugh. “That is the problem with ol’ Tanek. He wants to wrap and wrap and wrap—”
Tanek said something in a language that didn’t translate for Kaley, but she understood it. The gist of it was that if Sojee didn’t shut up, Tanek would hack him into small pieces. Kaley smiled broadly, and Sojee slapped him on the back so hard he almost fell forward. He put his foot out and stayed upright. “Thank you,” Tanek said to her.
“Maybe I’m not so useless after all,” she said.
“We would have awakened,” Tanek said.
“Boooo,” Kaley said, and the men laughed. She went to the few clothes left on the stone lid and looked through them. There were two more shirts and one big pair of trousers. If she put on any of it, she’d trip. She looked down at her sweat-suit set. It was torn, dirty and all around hideous. On the other hand, the men looked clean and cool and comfortable. “No clothes for your little grandmother?” she asked Tanek.
“There was a wooden cabinet over there.” He pointed to the far wall that was now empty.
That he knew so much about the place made her see even more how much the homestead meant to him. He’d waited all his life to see the place and was now standing in the ruins. “Oh, well,” she said. “Maybe something will show up.” She hesitated. “I don’t mean to be bossy, but if we’re to leave this island, we need to plan how to catch a dragon and its rider. I know a bit about training a dragon but not catching one.”
They looked at her blankly. “Sorry. That’s an American joke.” She paused for a moment. “I want to say that I think it’s right of you to keep the islands of Bellis hidden. If it were known to the world that dragons—or I guess lizards—as big as Perus existed here, people would kill each other to catch them. Do-gooders would go crazy trying to ‘save’ them, but the truth is that people here are taking care of them quite well.” The men were staring at her. “Are there many like Perus?”
Tanek answered. “He’s the only one I’ve ever heard of. I don’t know where he came from.”
“There’s not a nest and breeding parents anywhere?” she asked.
“Not that I know of,” Tanek said, and looked at Sojee, who shrugged.
“No Order of Dragons?”
“No.” Tanek was so serious that Kaley felt she was offending him. Or, more likely, they were keeping secrets from her. Kaley was about to, yet again, tell them what she thought of that when Sojee said, “Is anyone hungry?”
“Starving,” Tanek said. “But if we find any food here, it’s probably ancient.”
“Come with me,” Sojee said. “I did find some food this morning, and it’s extraordinarily delicious.”
Kaley wanted to try to get the men to tell her whatever they were hiding, but her stomach won over. As filling as beef was, even it wore off after hours of struggling through the rain and being thrown about in a wagon.
Close to where Kaley had left her backpack, Sojee picked up an old bag, opened it and pulled out three really cute decorated gingerbread people. There was one girl and two boys. He held out one of each to Tanek. “Which do you want?”
With a glare, Tanek took the boy.
Kaley took the girl in her pink skirt, with her golden hair, and began to eat from the bottom up. It was the best gingerbread she’d ever had. Soft but crunchy and not too spicy. “There’s nothing like an overload of sugar to lift a mood. Where did you get this? Is someone in the village selling it? It would be nice to think this place is coming back to life.”
“It never will,” Tanek said. “It’s ensourced.”
“What does that mean? Oh! That it’s haunted?”
Sojee frowned. “That word doesn’t translate. What do you mean?”
“Inhabited by the spirits of people who have passed on.” They looked blank. “Died.”
“No,” Tanek said. “Tabors.”
“Are they ghosts?” Again, she got blank looks. “I think Jobi is going to have to explain the words for this. Where did you get the gingerbread kids?”
Sojee seemed glad to change the subject. “While you were sleeping in the wagon and our Swan Boy was bewailing his ancestral home, I did some exploring.”
Tanek looked at Kaley, but she shook her head. She hadn’t told Sojee about his tears. “What did you see?” she asked.
“A house made of these cakes. Even the roof is cake.” He held up the foot that was left of his gingerbread man. “There were a couple of kids there picking off pieces and filling their pockets. I joined them.”
“Children?” Kaley asked. She could feel her face draining of blood. “Hansel and Gretel?”
“Never heard those names before but it was two girls. I don’t know how they’re on Selkan. Anyway, one called the other Sira, then they ran off.”
“She prefers boys,” Kaley whispered. “Did you see who was inside the house?”
“No.” Sojee didn’t sound interested. He looked at Tanek. “How does a house made of cake stand up to the rain?”
“Maybe you didn’t see a bigger roof covering it,” Tanek said.
“There wasn’t anything over it. The house is in the middle of the woods, with a trail leading to it. I didn’t see anybody but there were toys around it. Dolls and slingshots and—” He stopped because Kaley had stood up.
“We have to go,” she said. “Now. This minute. We’ve got to go to that house.”
The men didn’t move. “I’ll go hunting,” Tanek said. “There’s deer around here so we’ll have something to eat. We can—”
“No!” Kaley said loudly. She took a breath, then looked at Tanek. “Remember how I knew about the wolf and the little girl in the red cape? The wolf was dressed as the grandmother, right?”
Sojee looked at Tanek in disbelief. “That’s true?”
Tanek shrugged. “It is. We vowed to tell no one. It was too strange.”
“Like I know about that, I know about this,” Kaley said. “The woman who lives in the gingerbread house captures children so she can...” She didn’t want to say out loud what the witch did.
Sojee didn’t move and his smile seemed to say that he thought her story was amusing but there was probably no danger.
But Tanek stood up. “We’ll go.”
Kaley was grateful that he believed her.
They looked at Sojee and he nodded. “If there’s any danger to children, I’ll help.”