Surrender (9 page)

8-The Valtanyana

There was a bustle of kinfolk around her, trying to cook dinner. Kaliel took a spot away from the commotion and began cutting up the herbs she had collected.

“How did you manage to take so long finding these?” Luenelle asked.

Kaliel looked at the chamomile flowers and winced. “To be honest, I don’t even know if I have the right ones.”

Luenelle cringed and went to work sorting the herbs. She helped Kaliel add the ingredients to the pot. When they were finished they hung the pot over top of the flames. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“I hope so.”

The water boiled and Luenelle took it off the hook with a rag. She set it on the counter and took out a clay pitcher and two cups from one of the cupboards. “You can steep it now.”

Kaliel took the pot and steeped the tea into the pitcher, then poured herself and Luenelle a cup. She took a deep breath. “Do you want to try it first?”

“Together,” Luenelle said. Both girls held the cups to their lips, blowing the steam off the hot liquid before taking a sip.

“Blech!” Kaliel exclaimed as she swallowed a mouthful of rotten tea.

“Blech!”

Kaliel sighed and looked at her friend. “I didn’t get the right herbs.”

“Gah ... it tastes like bindweed!” Luenelle exclaimed. She took the cups to the door and dumped the liquid back into the land at the tree line.

“I’ll never get it right,” Kaliel said as she fled from the kitchen. She ran down the corridor towards the common room. All she wanted was to escape to the depths of the lake, to swim with the merfolk and to feel the way she had when Krishani’s eyes were on her as they had been that night in Orlondir. However, as she turned the corner she noticed a small old woman in the common room. Desaunius had returned. She gasped and doubled over in shock. “Elder!”

Desaunius had a forlorn expression on her face. “I must speak with you, Kaliel.” Her eyes darted towards the kinfolk that trickled through the room, playing with toys. “Can we go to your quarters, please?”

Kaliel nodded. She followed Desaunius up the stairs to her room and tried to avoid the curious expressions of the kinfolk around her. When they were upstairs, Desaunius sat on the bed and motioned for her to sit as well. She reluctantly obeyed.

“There comes a time, Kaliel,” Desaunius began. She looked afraid; faint redness circling her eyes as though she had been weeping. She took Kaliel’s hand in her own; it was trembling. “There comes a time when a glorious opportunity comes to us.”

Kaliel only gave her a hard stare, allowing the words to sink in. Desaunius wasn’t allowed a chance to continue when the anger within Kaliel crashed against the fear and sadness she had been feeling all day. “You’re sending me away,” she shouted at the top of her lungs. She sprang to her feet. “I knew it would change everything, that wretched tree, it’s vile!” She looked at Desaunius, who was taken aback. Before her elder could speak another word she dashed out of her room and clambered down the stairs.

She couldn’t even think except how much she needed Krishani. It wouldn’t be so hard if she knew she would see him again. But being sent away meant the Lands of Men, and that scared her most. She broke into a sprint when she reached the meadow and continued until she hit the forbidden path. She skillfully skipped over roots and crevasses, as fast as her feet could carry her she wound her way down the path until she found the dead end.

“Let me through,” she commanded.

“Such anger, child,” the tree said.

Kaliel’s heart ached. She wanted to pound her fists against the tree, but she knew it would do nothing. She sunk to her knees. “Please, I beg you. I want to see them one last time.” She touched the tree to share her torment and it received the message. The hole appeared between the trunks and she disappeared through it.

Kaliel stared briefly at the magnificence of the late-afternoon sky as she ripped off her green dress and stumbled into the water. Anger bubbled in her veins as she felt for the ledge of the sandbar. Her toes curled around it as she plunged herself into the depths. She called out to the merfolk with her thoughts, but they were muddled and instead of the usual cooing it came out scrambled. She peddled on like a frog, using her legs to force herself deeper. Even when the pressure in her ears built up she continued on. They burst and her head swelled with pain. None of it mattered if they were to send her away to the Lands of Men, if everything she had ever known was going to change.

Her mind drifted to Pux. He would be so angry when he found out. What was so important about the Great Oak’s message? Why did she need to go anywhere?

She fought to control herself as the water became unnaturally cold. Almost at the bottom, she pushed further, wondering why the merfolk hadn’t come yet. She was sure they would notice her presence. Her hand curled around something at the bottom of the lake—packed mud. She smiled to herself—reaching the bottom was something she had always wanted to do. It reminded her of the shimmering rocks underneath the waterfall in Orlondir. Kaliel smiled as she turned around and prepared to swim to the surface.

Something crept around her foot. She pulled away, wondering if it was her merfolk friends, but it wrapped her leg tighter and something slimy pressed against her skin. She panicked. The mysteries of the deep weren’t something she had considered before this. She paused, allowing her body to go limp. She thought about the language of the merfolk, hoping they would arrive soon.

Kaliel contemplated her options: wait longer or do something to free herself. She cringed at her decision and opened her mouth, letting a loud
coo
roll off her tongue. She knew she would lose almost all her air in doing so, but she had no other choice. Unfortunately, her idea didn’t pan out the way she had planned. Her call must have frightened the beast that shackled her leg because instead of loosening its grip on her, it tightened. She tried to scream, but her lungs filled with water. She began to kick and bat at the creature frantically trying to free herself. It only gripped her leg harder in response. Kaliel felt faint. She fought until she had no will, and then passed out.

The blackness was like the thick mist that surrounded the island. It made her feel weightless and free. The pressure in her ears subsided, and everything grew quiet. All she could think about were the warnings she had been given, and how she hadn’t listened. There was a roaring sound from far away and something warm hit her cheeks followed by something cold. Kaliel gasped, coughed and sputtered as she splashed around in the lake, her head above water. There was a hand clamped to her forearm, holding her in place. She shook it off, and the slick black merfolk dove back into the lake, leaving her to find the shore on her own.

She paddled clumsily to the ledge and fell on her knees. She took deep breaths in the waist-deep water, trying to catch her breath. Shaking her head in disbelief, reality crashed down on her. There
was
something to fear in the lake. She turned towards the shore and saw a parade of kinfolk from the House of Kin staring at her with mixed looks of disbelief and disappointment. Her stomach churned; she was in more trouble than ever this time.

• • •

Desaunius waited for Kaliel in the morning. She wouldn’t allow her to walk through the forests unaccompanied any longer.They made good progress on the way to the cottage, both of them remaining silent while they walked. Kaliel hadn’t said a word on the way back to the House of Kin the night before, and she was ready by the time her elder had arrived to pick her up.

“There is no lesson this morning,” Desaunius said. Kaliel hung her head. They entered the cottage and Desaunius led her into the common room, two cups of tea already waiting for them on the small wooden table. Kaliel sat and looked at the floor.

Desaunius sighed as she inspected the girl. She looked too proper—her dress unwrinkled, her hair combed at its sides, and her face clean. “You have been summoned by Lady Atara of Orlondir. She wants you as her apprentice.”

Kaliel turned green. “Is that because of my trespassing?”

Desaunius frowned. She didn’t want to talk about the merfolk. Why Kaliel risked her life was beyond her. “Nay, it is due to the Great Oak.” Her voice was low.

Kaliel seemed scared as she took a sip of tea. Desaunius figured she was trying to avoid another outburst, drifting in and out of the conversation. She couldn’t blame the girl for barely listening.

“How long until I must …?” Kaliel choked.

Desaunius looked at the girl with compassion. “We have until Beltane to prepare you.” She reached for the tea and took a sip. No matter what Kaliel had done in the past, she was still saddened by this turn of events.

“That isn’t long at all.” She looked at the solid wooden slab of the tabletop. She put her tea on the table and twisted her hands in her lap. Desaunius followed, turning towards the circular window behind her. Strips of sunlight dimly lit the room, casting Kaliel in shadows.

“I will still see you at the Fire Festivals,” Desaunius said.

“Twice a year,” Kaliel mumbled.

Desaunius let out an exasperated sigh. “This shouldn’t be this hard,” she began but wasn’t sure who she was talking about—herself or Kaliel? It was hard to let such a fragile girl go to Orlondir to train with an elder like Atara. She feared what would happen to Kaliel, the girl had become like a daughter to her.

“But it is,” Kaliel said, her voice choked.

Desaunius resisted the urge to pull her into her arms and instead smoothed out her royal blue dress. “What have you learned about the parable?”

Kaliel made a noise that was somewhere between a burp and a hiccup. She glanced at the floor and shifted her weight. “I don’t know why me.”

“Why you?”

“Why would it tell me that?”

Desaunius shook her head. “I don’t understand what you mean. The parable is yours; I cannot tell you what it means. That is for you to discover.”

Kaliel let out a frustrated breath and dropped her hands at her side. She pushed a lock of snow-white hair out of her face and let her green eyes fall on Desaunius. “It scares everyone, including me. Why would the Great Oak do that?”

She tore her eyes away from her apprentice and glanced at the floor. “Do you remember the stories about Avred?”

Kaliel pulled her eyebrows together and shook her head. “Who is Avred?”

Desaunius kept her eyes on the floor, shuffling her slippers back and forth against the dirt. “He was—
is
—the male spirit of the land. When Avristar was under attack by the Valtanyana, he became the difference between salvation and destruction.”

Kaliel went rigid. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because some of us have a great purpose in life, Kaliel, and whether you choose to see it or not, the Great Oak was only telling you the truth.” She opened her mouth to continue, but closed it and shook her head. “I cannot tell you more. You know how it used to be.”

“The Valtanyana ruined everything,” she whispered.

“Yes, they did. They began in Avristyr and its sister realms and spread to Avrigard, and eventually to Avristar and its seven Lands of Men. There was no stopping their unnatural destruction.”

“But Avristar won. They beat the Valtanyana,” Kaliel said, her eyes shining with a false sense of pride.

Desaunius nodded. She had told stories of the First Era to every apprentice she had counseled since those tarnished times. Many of them had gone to the Lands of Men, others had stayed in Avristar, escaping to Nandaro in the north and living with the secluded tribes. She wanted a simple life for Kaliel because there was something about her that made Desaunius feel overprotective. Kaliel wasn’t like the other apprentices. Sometimes she was too naïve and other times too curious for her own good. She was as delicate as the bed of flowers they had found her nestled in. She eyed the girl’s appearance, a thick red bruise on her left shin just under her knee cap. Kaliel was obviously trying to conceal it by crossing that leg behind the other one, but part of it still peeked out.

“Avristar needed Avred to win that war. She also needed High King Tor and the Flames. He trapped them in Avrigost,” Desaunius said.

“The place nobody speaks of,” Kaliel said, her eyes meeting with her elder’s.

“Yes, because that is an ugly fate. Nobody ever comes back from Avrigost. It is a wasteland.”

“You told me the Lands of Men were a wasteland,” Kaliel pointed out, with an uncomfortable expression on her face.

Desaunius softened. “The Lands of Men aren’t like Avrigost. The Lands of Men are simply in need of our help. After what the Valtanyana brought …” She looked troubled. “The kinfolk of Avristar have been charged with the task of restoring the Lands of Men to their former glory.”

“You mean bring peace to them?”

“Yes, I’ve told you this many times, Kaliel. You don’t have anything to be afraid of. You won’t go until you reach the age of maturity and marry the land.”

Kaliel quickly grabbed her tea and took a long sip, followed by a deep breath. She seemed put off by the entire conversation, but was handling herself rather well. Desaunius noticed her knee was shaking, and her fingers trembled against the cup. At least the girl hadn’t run off to the lake again. It was a start.

“How did you end up on Avristar?” Kaliel asked. She put the cup on the wooden slab and wrung her hands out along her sides, pressing them under her thighs to avoid the trembling.

Desaunius shook her head. “Maybe I will tell you another time.”

“We don’t have that much time.”

Desaunius let out a haughty laugh and glared at her. “I escaped from Tempia and came here for refuge. I hid in the rainforests of Nandaro in the Village of the Shee until the war was over. Then I came to Orlondir and asked Lady Atara if I could stay.”

“What about your other life?” Kaliel asked. It was a bold move.

Desaunius sucked in a breath; the glare not leaving her face. “Tor … he was mine until the Valtanyana came for him. They wanted him to join them.”

Kaliel’s eyes widened. Desaunius never told her that before. “He was what?”

“My betrothed.”