44. Lina
Lina
“ W elcome, Lina!”
My brow pinches at the bright eyes and smiles that greet me when I enter the meeting hall. I blink to process the new reality and shed the heaviness of sleep.
They don’t usually use my name here. I am Drahkita. Not Lina.
Helena squeezes my arm tightly.
“Would you like some juice?” a woman asks. “Or would you prefer a hot beverage?” She is wearing a tan crocheted dress like Helena.
“I don’t think she yet knows what she enjoys most,” Helena answers, squeezing my hand. “Let’s try tea today, what do you say?”
I swallow and shrug. I’ve had tea before, but I remember it as a boring adult drink.
“Sit here!” a young girl with curly hair says. She is small, but her belly is swollen with child. My stomach tightens, but I obey and slide onto the bench beside her.
Her eager eyes are a lovely shade of blue.
Across from me is one of the other new Drahkitas I’d sat with a few days ago. Her under eyes are dark. She keeps her gaze down at the table.
No one seems to pay her much mind.
“Tell us about you, Lina!” another Drahkita asks. I lose track of who is who. There is a swarm of well-dressed women around the room, gathering drinks, chatting, and several of them are now leaning over me. I am unsure who even asked the question.
“Yes,” another agrees eagerly. “Tell us where you come from.”
Helena sets a cup of steaming liquid in front of me. “I made it sweet for you. Let me know if you like it. And here.” She sets a pastry in front of me with yellow and white icing. “And take all the fruit you like.” She gestures to a basket in the middle of the table.
“Do you like bananas?” the curly haired girl asks, grabbing a long yellow fruit.
“I don’t know.”
“She enjoyed the banana muffin, so I suspect yes!” Helena chimes in brightly.
“Eat!” another says. “You must keep your strength up.”
“I’m not the one eating for two,” I mutter, resisting the urge to eye the young woman’s belly.
She giggles loudly. “Oh yes, that’s true, but you never know when that can change.”
I cannot control the grimace that flashes across my face, and the whole room breaks out into laughter.
This is bizarre. And such a shift from the last week. They were generally friendly, but I was treated as a stranger.
Now, I am a welcomed guest with all attention pinned to me. Why? What has changed so drastically from even yesterday morning?
Last night, I was nearly thrown into the dungeons. Almost torn apart by rabid lizard beasts. They don’t know that, obviously, but the fear still clings to me.
“It is not so bad,” an older woman says with a click of her tongue. “It is a blessing to serve the Drak.”
Suddenly, I’m less inclined to eat breakfast.
“Did you come from the desert?” someone asks.
I blink and force my eyes up, searching for whoever asked the question, but each set of eyes is as eager as the next.
“Look at her stature! She’d have been eaten alive in a moment.”
“Don’t be rude, Lyana.” Helena nudges the girl standing beside her with an elbow.
“She does not have the complexion of a desert girl. Surely she is a farmer’s daughter.”
“Don’t assume, Runita. Folks travel all over. Besides, I saw the sand she dragged in when she first entered.”
A few girls chatter to each other, debating my origins.
“End the debate, Lina,” the pregnant girl says. “Are you from the desert or a farming village? Or the mountains or anywhere else?”
I force an awkward smile. “My home village was several miles from the desert. My family were herbalists.”
A redhead cheers. “Close enough! I win.”
“Yes, yes.” Helena waves her off. “Keep going, Lina.”
“When I was still very young, the desert grew closer to the farmlands than we’d ever thought possible, and… well, things got very hard. My village is now under the sands.”
A few girls gasp. Several quiet down entirely.
“See, she’s from the desert! I win.”
They begin arguing anew.
“That must have been many years ago,” a freckled woman says softly. “Where have you been since?”
The girls in the corner continue their chatter, ignoring the question and my answer.
“Many places,” I admit. “There are other villages nearby that I frequented. Some friends I met along the way, but they all perished in one way or another. I was in the process of traveling south when…”
“When the Drak saved her and gave her new hope!” Helena says for me.
The women murmur in agreement. A few smiles slip, and I wonder if those are the women who were also taken against their will.
Many come here begging for aid. But certainly not all.
“What a blessing,” the freckled woman says, reaching across the table to squeeze my hand. “You will live a full life here,” she says intently, like she knows I won’t fully believe her just yet, but she wants me to know she believes it for me.
A strange emotion wells up in my chest. My bottom lip trembles. I wish I did believe her.
“Did you ever make it to Hudgeson?” a girl asks. “My cousin was from there. I always hope she’d be okay in all that chaos.”
My lips part. “No,” I say softly. I don’t have the heart to tell her Hudgeson was even farther east than my village and is undoubtedly under the sands.
“Did you ever travel into the desert? I’ve heard such awful tales.”
“No,” I answer quickly. “I believe that is why I am still alive.”
Murmurs of agreement surround me.
“A wise girl.” Someone pats my shoulder.
“What about the forest? I heard the villages on the edge of the northern part of the desert were trapped between the cursed sands and the cursed woods!”
“Oh! Yes, did you see any scelps?”
“Those are not real, Birdy. You shouldn’t believe everything you hear.”
“Oh, they’re real,” I blurt out before I think better of it.
Suddenly, all attention is intently focused on me again. All other side conversations and laughter has faded, waiting for my tale.
I take in a long breath. “We lived on the edge of the forest, my family and I. It wasn’t so bad, really, but you did have to be careful. The shadowscelp only ever comes out at night, or when called, so you can travel when the sun is up with no real worry.”
“That’s so scary.”
I shrug.
“It could still be just a legend. You’ve never seen it, surely? Otherwise, you’d be one.”
“You don’t need to see one to know it’s real. Hearing it is enough. And I’ve not seen the shadowscelp myself, but I have seen a scelped man. That was… awful.”
I blink away the image of the drooling pale man, his arm bent wrong, eyes sunken, and skin deathly pale.
“What happened?” Helena asks.
“A hunter was caught out too late at night, and he didn’t return for several days. Our village sent out a search for him, but somehow, they missed him. Since we lived on the outskirts of town, right on the edge of the forest…he found our house first.”
The group gasps as one.
“My father was out with the search party. But when the man came after me, it was my mother who… put him down.”
“A warrior,” someone says in a hushed tone. “What bravery.”
“You know we would all do the same for our offspring,” the freckled woman says. “Your mother was very brave. In the way most mothers are.”
After breakfast, a few of the younger girls invite me to bathe with them. The cascades have quickly become one of my favorite parts of this den; although, now, my cheeks redden at the memory of last night.
I accept their invitation, but before the group of young women exit, I pull Helena to the side.
“What is happening?” I whisper. “Why am I the center of attention all the sudden.”
Helena giggles. “You don’t know?” She looks around like someone might be listening in. “You were seen with your Drak last night…”
I jerk back. “What?”
“The women here give the newcomers a little space in the early days until they’re more established. You being in the cascades with Haze? And he verbally defended you against Ivar?” She blushes.
Ivar? I’ve heard the name in passing, but I’m uncertain of the significance.
“They should have known you would be long for this place, given how you came to be here. But even so, some were scared Haze would lose his command, it being so new and all. Now, he’s Nihilian, and you and he were seen together. The girls are now confident you’re here to stay!”
They—they didn’t want to get to know me better because they thought I might not make it long? Meaning… I’d be cast off and sent to the dungeons.
“Gilly is a bit of a concern still.” She nods to the blond girl with sunken eyes.
The thought of that girl heading to the dungeons makes me sick. Though I suppose I can understand why some girls are hesitant to befriend someone who could be forced to face such a horrible fate at any moment.
The constant heartbreak would be awful.
More proof that despite the comforts, this community is facilitated by evil. We are surrounded by it. The women shield themselves from the ricochets of cruelty.
My heart is heavier as I walk with the other Drahkitas to the cascade pools. Helena stays back, walking with the other guides.
The three girls are near my age, but they’ve been in the community for years. Annabella has been here for three years. Julian has been here for two. And Cordy for three and a half.
I cannot imagine living here for that long. But then again, time is a strange thing. I could not have imagined traveling without a home for over a year either.
“It gets better,” Annabella tells me. “The first few weeks are the hardest. But now that you’re really welcomed, you’ll make friends, and you’ll be comfortable and safe.”
I bite the inside of my cheek.
I am welcomed, but I am far from safe.
“Helena did a lovely job on your hair,” Julian says. “It is so lush now!”
“Yes, I am so jealous of those curls.”
I am tempted to tell them how terrible the curls are when you don’t have access to soaps and oils, but I decide against it. I don’t need more reason for them to tell me how much more wonderful it is here than out there.
Maybe if Astella were here, I could consider relaxing enough to enjoy it.