Chapter 20
20
As they rode, heading toward the homestead, they knew they weren’t going to miss Doyen. “If I never see that place again...” Tanek muttered.
Kaley was behind him on the horse, her head against his shoulder. She was also glad it was over, and she was pleased that they were going “home.” She was confident that the prince would find Nessa, send him to them—under lock and key?—then they could return him to his father.
She refused to think past that. All she knew was that soon, she’d be able to go to her real home, to her real family.
With her cheek pressed against Tanek’s broad back, snuggled between the ridges, she looked around. This planet is certainly beautiful , she thought. And I’ve made some good friends here. Sojee and Mekos were riding beside them, one on each side, as though they were protecting them. Me , Kaley thought. They are protecting me.
When she tried to readjust the yards of her dress, she saw that there was blood on it. It was fresh blood and there was rather a lot of it.
“Halt!” she said loudly, and the men did. She held out a handful of fabric for them to see. “Whose is this?” All of them looked at Tanek.
“It’s nothing,” he said. “We must go on.”
Kaley looked at Mekos. “Can you do something with him? He’s been hurt and I’m sure he needs to be treated. Is there a doctor’s office near here?”
The men gave her a blank look.
“Medical?” She leaned back and looked at Tanek. There was no sign of injury on him, but when she ran her hand over his arm, it came away bloody. “Let me guess. Your shirt is made of swan feathers and it magically hides great, gaping wounds.” She was being sarcastic.
He gave a slight smile that let her know she was right.
“Daln’s place is near here,” Mekos said.
“How do you know that?” Tanek snapped.
“Who cares?” Kaley said. “Maybe his mother told him. Will you lead us there?”
Mekos looked at his father.
Tanek nodded in agreement, but they could see that he didn’t like turning over leadership to his son.
“Who is Daln?” Kaley asked as they followed Mekos.
“He was the head swansman for my grandfather. They were friends.”
She felt the rigidity in his body. They were the people who’d been run out when the homestead was attacked. An entire village full of workers was uprooted.
If it hadn’t been for Mekos, they would never have found where Daln lived. It was like a survivalist compound, hidden and private. A twelve-foot fence with an enormous double gate was so well camouflaged that it looked like an impenetrable forest. There didn’t appear to be a human in the area.
Mekos gave a whistle of four notes and out of what looked like a tree stepped a man wearing a vest of dark metal. He was holding a sort of crossbow, but one that could bring down an army tank.
The man saw Mekos, raised his hand in welcome, and the gate opened.
Kaley could feel the tension in Tanek’s body.
“How does he know you?” he asked his son.
“From his fox cousins,” Kaley answered. She didn’t care who or how. “Your arm is covered in blood. Why didn’t you say something?”
Sojee moved his big horse beside them. “Do we go in or do you two want to stay here and bicker?”
“Don’t ask him that,” Kaley said, “or we might be here all night. I wonder if they have any girl-size shoes here.”
They went through the gate and entered a very pretty settlement. The dozen or so houses were a mix of American farmhouse and the subdued Victorian style of Australian homes. They all had deep porches furnished with wide wooden chairs. There were barns and storage sheds. To the side was a long, open building with a green roof. Inside were tables and troughs and hand-cranked machines. At the end was what appeared to be a giant stove with burners and an oven. In the opposite direction, she could see the sparkle of water. She didn’t see any swans but she had an idea they were there. Nearly a dozen men came toward them.
An older man, probably the age of her grandfather, came out of the largest house. He glanced at Mekos, nodded in familiar welcome, then turned to Tanek. “You look just like Haver,” he said as he came toward them.
Sojee got off his big horse, then reached up to lift Kaley down. Tanek swung his leg around and when his feet touched the ground, he swayed a bit.
The older man’s face lost its smile. “Come with me.” It was the tone used with a child, loving but firm.
But Tanek hesitated and turned to Kaley. “You were given a white feather?”
The men, all former swansmen, drew in their breaths sharply.
“It’s...” Kaley turned her back to the men. She’d managed to save the white feather by tucking it inside her bodice. She pulled it out and handed it to Tanek. “Is it magic?”
He gave a half smile. “It’s rare and it’s powerful, but it’s not a blue feather.”
It was the first she’d heard of that. “Like Indienne?”
“No. Pure blue. It’s—” When he swayed on his feet again, Daln led him into the house. More men came out of the buildings and followed them.
“They haven’t seen him since he was a boy,” Mekos said. “They’ll have a lot to talk about.”
Kaley looked at him. “ You are going to have to do some talking. Why doesn’t your father know you’ve been here before?” She clasped the necklace to let him know she wanted the truth.
“Because I never told him,” Mekos said cheerfully, then walked away.
Sojee laughed. “I don’t think you’re going to get anything out of him that he doesn’t want to tell. Here.” He was holding out Kaley’s backpack. “I thought you might need this.”
Kaley thought maybe she’d never felt such happiness. Inside her bag was a change of clothes and even some shoes. “You are a saint.” She looked around for a place to change and saw that a couple of men were staring at her. But she didn’t blame them since she was wearing a flamboyantly gaudy dress that left a lot of her top exposed.
Daln returned and she asked, “How is Tanek?”
“He’s being sewn back together and questioned within an inch of his life. The men want to know about the swans and about his father. I sent word to Noba—he’s Prince Nessa’s uncle—that we’re looking for the boy.”
Kaley was curious. “You sent it via Arit?”
Daln looked puzzled. “I don’t know that Earth term. We sent a man on a fast horse. Would you like to see the home we’ve built here?”
“I would love that.” She held up the backpack. “But first I’d like to...” She stuck out a bare foot.
He led her to a small building that had a bathroom attached, and she made use of all its facilities. “Flush toilets but no computers,” she said to herself. “Crossbows but no guns. Spaceships but no cars.” She didn’t think she would live long enough to understand the planet.
When she was dressed in trousers and a T-shirt, she stepped out. Daln was waiting for her. In her hand were the dead camera batteries. “You wouldn’t know how to recharge these, would you?”
He took them. “We have someone who can do it.” He handed the batteries to a man and a nod was all he needed to tell the man what to do. She and Daln started walking. “You used to work with Haver?” she asked.
He was obviously pleased by her question. “So you know of him?”
“Tanek speaks of him often.” She lowered her voice. “He was very upset when he saw the old homestead. No one told him of the battle. He thought his family left voluntarily.”
Daln nodded, but didn’t explain.
“I saw the empty village,” she said. “Are all the swansmen who lived there here?”
“Some are, but they spread out as much as was allowed.” He hesitated, as though considering what to say. “The attack was unexpected and...violent. Fire was shot from above, out of small ships. The deaths were instant for people and swans. Haver led us to fight all that we could but...” He shrugged in helplessness.
“A surprise attack wouldn’t leave you time to plan. Tanek didn’t know he had an uncle who was killed in the battle.”
“Wellan. He was Roal’s twin brother. They looked alike but they were opposites. Wellan was the swansman. Roal was the planner. Wellan was bigger and he could soar like no one else. The ridges on his back were even bigger than Haver’s.” Daln stopped talking and looked away, probably to calm himself, then turned back to Kaley. “Sorry. We all loved the boy, but I understand why Roal never speaks of his brother. He blamed himself because he wasn’t here when we were attacked. Roal was on one of the big ships.”
“Right. The ones that go back and forth to Earth. I think Tanek was with his father.” They were by a long white fence and she stopped. “Can you explain to me what’s going on? Why was the place attacked? Tanek just tells me pieces and it’s hard to understand.”
“It’s called The Rightings, meaning the Righting of Ancient Wrongs. The Yuzans—”
“Who?”
She watched Daln swallow in a way that told her that what he was telling was difficult for him. “The Yuzans come from the third planet.”
“Yes, the three that are alike in atmosphere,” she said.
He nodded. “They are a very advanced civilization and they said they wanted to help us. They believed we were too warlike and it was because we had no uniform language or habits or even holidays. To them, we had a caste system. They said that certain groups couldn’t achieve because of other groups. They wanted to make us more equal, so they put matching people on different islands. The idea was that everyone would be comfortable and at ease. After a lot of exploration, it came down to separating women from men.”
Kaley was thinking about what he’d said. “But it hasn’t worked. You should have seen those poor young women in town. They were cutting off parts of their feet so they could stay with their families.”
“We heard they were trying to win a prince.”
“That’s what the story says, but that’s not true. Or not all of it, anyway.” She paused. “I assume the people told the... What is their name?”
“Yuzans.”
“Have they been told that this separation isn’t working? That the people are miserable?”
“Of course, but they say it’s going very well because the people are quieter now, less angry.”
“ Less angry? They’re depressed ! They’re miserable. You should have seen the men wanting me to photograph them and send messages to the women they love.” She halted. “Didn’t anyone protest when this was first done?”
His eyes showed that he agreed with her. “Yes. The majority of people didn’t want the separation, but the ones who did want it, mainly people without families, were loud and violent. There were burnings and threats. It was all stopped when we, the entire Order of Swans, were broken apart. Our homes and families, our way of life, were wiped out in one day. When people heard what was done to us, they gave up. But by then, we all wanted peace so much that any solution seemed good.”
Kaley shook her head. “And my guess is that it was all financed by the Yuzans.” She looked at him. “What made them think they had a right to rule Bellis?”
“That’s a question we don’t know how to answer. We have some minerals they use, but we think there’s more to it. We just don’t know what it is.”
“Because no one is allowed on Empyrea to find out.”
“Right.” He was pleased at her understanding.
“And now people believe that the only way it can be changed is through a revolution.”
Daln grimaced. “That’s what Haver said, and look what happened to him.” He paused, staring hard at her. “A revolution needs a leader.”
She understood. “You mean someone like Haver.” She glanced back the way they’d come, toward Tanek.
“He’s like his grandfather. Haver Beyhan was a man with a deep sense of fairness—and a great sense of what was right and wrong.”
“And he loved the swans as much as Tanek does.”
“More,” Daln said.
Kaley smiled. “Were the ridges on his back bigger?”
Daln smiled. “They were. They were great, thick things that we expected to sprout wings at any moment.” Daln’s eyes twinkled. “His wife loved those ridges.”
She could tell he was teasing her. Was it considered an intimacy that she knew about Tanek’s ridged back? “I’ve heard little about her, but her clothes fit me.”
“They would. She was beautiful. Tanek went to her when he had problems. When tiny Mekos was handed over to him, Tanek was so scared. He ran to his grandmother, asking her what he needed to do.”
Like me , she thought, he didn’t have a mother.
“Tanek takes care of the feathers now, but Mekos isn’t as attached to the swans as he is.”
He seemed to be trying to tell her something, but she didn’t know what.
“Perhaps Mekos will have children.” Daln smiled suggestively. “Or perhaps there will be another child of Tanek’s. He’s a young, healthy man.”
Kaley took a step back. What he was thinking was clear—and it made anger rise in her. “Quit looking at me like that. You know I’m from Earth. But then, everyone knew—except me. I didn’t think, Everything here is so weird that I must be on another planet . Nope. That never crossed my mind. What I did think was that Jobi liked me. Instead, he was training me to... I don’t know for what, nor does anyone else seem to know why I was brought here. I haven’t done one thing that’s special or important.” She took a breath. “Sorry. All this is new to me.”
Daln was calm. “I hear you saved some children from being murdered. And you stopped girls from mutilating themselves.”
“Those poor girls. They exposed themselves from their hiding places and now they’re being sent away from their families.”
“Did you cause that?”
“No!” She looked into the distance. “But I should have shown up earlier and stopped it. I was on a mountaintop feeling sorry for myself and...” She trailed off.
Sojee walked past them carrying a bow and arrow, and said something to Daln in a language that wasn’t translated by the chip in her arm. Smiling, Daln turned to Kaley. “He said that when you get agitated, I’m to give you an animal and that will calm you down.”
“That’s a terrible thing to say. I’m not such a simple person as that. I—Wait! What animals do you have? Do you know what a tabor is? Have you seen Nessa’s dragon? Why does no one know what a cat is?”
Grinning, Daln answered her questions, then added, “We have a two-day-old elephant.”
“Nice,” she said, but she was a bit disappointed. After you’ve seen a dragon with glistening green scales, an elephant seemed rather ordinary. “Do you have a herd? It must take a lot to feed them.”
“Since none of them are taller than this, it doesn’t take much.” He held his hand down to about three feet off the ground.
Kaley’s eyes widened. “Show me.”
He glanced over his shoulder and she knew he wanted to get back to the others, probably to see how Tanek was doing.
“Go,” she said. “I’ll be fine. Just point me in the right direction.”
“Follow the fence,” Daln said, then hurried back toward his house.
She went just a few yards, then, inside the fence, to her utter disbelief, she saw two elephants, one about three feet tall. Nuzzling it was a baby that couldn’t be more than twenty pounds. She stood by the fence, eyes wide and staring.
“He was just born,” said someone close to her.
She turned to see a man. He appeared to be older than the others but that might have been because his face was scarred and half his left leg was missing. He had a clumsy wooden peg on it, and a cane in his hand. She wanted to tell him about Earth tech for such injuries but she didn’t. “They’re beautiful,” she whispered. She was half over the fence before he could speak.
“The mother is very protective,” he called in warning. “She won’t let even me touch her baby.”
Kaley heard him so she was cautious. She stood a few feet away and watched the little creatures. The calf looked at her curiously, then at its mother in question.
Kaley said nothing, but sat down on the ground and waited. The little elephant awkwardly ambled over to her and seconds later, they were hugging and rolling in the grass, with Kaley’s laughter spilling out. She looked up to see the man standing over them.
“I’m Carn.” He was shaking his head in disbelief.
“I’m Kaley and I’m from Earth.”
“We know. You’re all anyone talks about. Now I’ll have a story to add to theirs.” When he reached out to touch the calf Kaley was holding, the mother made a sound of protest.
Kaley stood up. “I bet you’d like to have a scratch.” With the elephant calf by her side, she walked to a tree by the fence, then rubbed her back on the bark. The little elephant did the same thing and gave a look of ecstasy. Kaley plucked some weeds and knelt to rub them on the calf’s skin.
Carn leaned against another tree and watched them. “My daughter went to Earth.”
“Did she? I hope she liked it.”
“She did.” He paused for a moment. “Do you mind if I ask you something about Earth? My daughter told me something before she was...taken away.”
“She was sent to Pithan?”
He nodded, as though it was too painful for him to answer aloud. “She said the young Yuzan trainees used to practice driving in the small ships. They carved designs in the mountains and in cornfields. But she said that one time they made big cone-shaped stone structures and they’re still there. Are they?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“The kids made a lot of them on your planet but the three that won the contest were in a place called Eglin.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“She said it’s near a large river that flows backward.”
“The Nile?” Kaley was shocked. “Are you talking about the pyramids?”
“Yes! That’s what she called them. Are they still there?”
“They are. The outer covering is gone and no one is sure what they were built for, but they’re there.”
“It was a graduation contest. The winner was made a high commander.”
“That was a very long time ago. What do you mean about carving designs on mountains?”
“She said—” He was cut off by a half scream from Kaley. She was looking across the big pasture at what was walking toward them. “Is that a...a...?”
“I think your people named them dodo birds.”
“They’re extinct.”
“In your world, they might be. My daughter’s job was to collect animals and eggs of Earth creatures that were about to die out and bring them home. Bellis has done this for centuries.”
“Do you have dinosaurs?” She was half joking, half serious.
“I don’t know what they are so I guess not. There are many rules about what they can and cannot bring back with them. Bird species are highly favored.”
“How about cats?”
“I’ve heard of them, but if they’re predators, they wouldn’t be allowed on any of the islands.”
“I know they wiped out the birds on New Zealand so...” She looked at him. “I want to see every critter you have on these islands. Do you have unicorns?”
He raised his eyebrows in question.
“Horses with a horn in the middle of their foreheads. They’re usually white.”
“I think Prince Bront has some of those.”
Kaley groaned. “Of course he does. Mind if I...?” She nodded toward the big dodo coming toward them.
“He is very friendly and loves attention. You can—” Kaley had already reached the large bird and was stroking its frilly, hairy feathers. Beside her was the little elephant and at her feet was... Carn had to blink. By the earthling’s feet was a tabor. “No one will believe this,” he said softly, then left them. He was dying to tell what he’d just seen. A tabor!
It wasn’t long afterward that Kaley was led to a bedroom in Daln’s house. The pretty room with its flowered wallpaper and canopied bed was a young girl’s dream. “Your daughter’s room?” she asked, and Daln nodded. She wondered how long it had been since they’d seen each other. Years?
“Help yourself,” he said, motioning to the closet and the chest of drawers.
On the walls were beautiful paintings of flowers and animals. When she got closer, she saw that they weren’t paintings but needlework of exquisite beauty and precision. On the little desk was a sign, also sewn, that had what appeared to be words, but not in an alphabet she’d ever seen. “Yet something else I know nothing about,” she said softly.
She showered, put on a nightshirt she found in a drawer and got into bed. The moment she relaxed, her body gave up all its energy, but she struggled to open her eyes. Her lids were so heavy that she only half succeeded. “Arit,” she whispered. Instantly, a pale circle of light appeared.
The tiny woman knew what Kaley wanted to know. “He’s well and sleeping. He asked about you. He worries.”
“I can take care of myself,” Kaley managed to say before sleep overtook her.
“I know,” Arit said. “Neither of you need help from anyone.” When Kaley’s necklace turned dark pink, Arit said, “I guess I lied.” Her laughter filled the little room.