Daughter of Ninmah

by Lori Holmes

  “Do you?” he said sadly. “I wouldn’t be so quick to give a promise you may not be able to keep.”

  He had no idea of how making promises she could not keep had become the story of her life of late, but she frowned at his words, unsure of how to respond.

  Baarias sat down upon the ground and motioned for Nyri to sit next to him; he was silent for a long time, deciding upon his words. At last, he spoke. “I had a couple of… encounters with the men we call Woves when I was a foolish young healer,” he said, speaking like a man picking his way over stony ground. “This was back even before the raids began. These encounters convinced me that the Woves were as mortal as we were. Certainly there was nothing to indicate they had the power to manipulate the Eternal.”

  “And how were these encounters were enough to convince you?” Nyri said skeptically. There were few of her people she could name that had not had an ‘encounter’ with a Wove at some unfortunate point in their lives and they were still convinced that these men were the embodiment of evil, tendrils of Ninsiku, stalking the land and unbalancing all that was natural.

  Baarias shifted, for the scarcest of moments, he was uncomfortable but it was gone so fast Nyri thought she must have been mistaken. He rubbed his scarred jaw tiredly. “You do not remember my sister, do you?”

  The question was not what she had expected. Surprised, Nyri shook her head. She only knew little pieces of what Juaan had told her and that wasn’t very much.

  “No you wouldn’t, she died when you were very young,” he said. “But you already know that because that is how Juaan came to join your family. What you do not know is that Rebaa was taken by Wove raiders when she was a young girl. You have never been told this, the Elders forbade anyone to speak of it.”

  Nyri’s shock reverberated through the air. Rebaa had been taken by Woves?

  “She was taken many Blessings before you were born. The Woves… had taken up their special interest in our people by that time.” His lips twisted briefly. “I thought I had lost her; all that was left of my family. I grieved, I was sure she was dead. But then… in the depths of a Fury, she returned to us. Half dead, she stumbled back into the trees carrying a green-eyed baby in her arms.”

  Juaan.

  Nyri struggled to find her lips. “How-how did she escape from the Woves?” Juaan’s father must have rescued her. The Cro must be a powerful people indeed to be able to defeat Woves. She thought of Ariyaana. A Forbidden. A Kamaali.

  “She didn’t escape, Nyriaana. The Wove chief fell in love with her. He took Rebaa as his mate.”

  “B-but…” Rebaa hadn’t escaped. The implications of what Baarias was saying dropped like a rock inside her belly. She had been a Wove chief’s mate. And that could only mean- No! The air had become too thin. “J-Juaan’s father…”

  “Was a Wove, yes.”

  Nyri shot to her feet. “No! That cannot be!” she denied. She could not accept it. “Juaan told me his father was part of a Cro clan. He can’t-couldn’t have been half Wove!” The thought was too horrifying to comprehend. “Juaan never lied to me!”

  Baarias gave a humourless laugh. “My dear Nyriaana. The Cro are the Woves. He didn’t have to lie. Wove is simply the name we bestowed upon them. They do not name themselves so.”

  Nyri put her hands out to steady her balance. Nausea rolled through her empty belly as the truth of what Baarias was saying crashed down upon her. The enormity of it was too great to take in. The Cro. The Woves. One and the same. Shades of Ninsiku, their bitterest enemies, the men who slaughtered her people by the hundreds. Juaan was one of them. The man she was trying to save. Ariyaana. The Kamaali of the future. Woves.

  Why did you never tell me? But the answer to that was clear. Would she have been his friend if she had known he was a Son of Ninsiku? The same as those who were murdering her tribe, who had murdered her family? She did not know the answer to that question.

  “Did Rebaa hate him?” Nyri finally forced between her teeth. “Did the chief take her against her will?”

  “No,” Baarias’ eyes were bright with unshed tears. “She loved him back. She loved him with all of her heart.”

  The words were another stunning blow. A Ninkuraa falling in love with a Wove raider? It was not possible, an unnatural thing that went against everything her people believed in. It was a Forbidden act above all else. Nyri regained her voice and ran with the unbelievable scenario Baarias was painting. “Then… why did she leave him and return? Surely she knew what our people would think of her baby?”

  “I learned after she stumbled back to us barely alive, that the Wove tribe she was with had been attacked by monstrous beings that came from the distant mountains. Juaan’s father got Rebaa to safety and told her to run. She begged him to escape the blood bath with her but he was the clan’s chief, he could not leave his people. Rebaa escaped and after an horrendous journey that nearly killed her, she returned to the only other place of safety she knew.

  “The Elders wanted to kill Juaan of course and tried to tear the baby from her. Dying though she was, she hung on to him. The Elders threatened to cast her back out if she did not give the baby up. They were adamant there could be no such stain on the tribe. She screamed for my help but I could not. I could not. I was afraid. The beliefs of our people are too strong. The baby was sentenced to death.”

  “So what happened?” Nyri breathed. “Why were Juaan and his mother allowed to stay?” It seemed unbelievable now that Juaan had ever been a part of her life.

  The ghost of a smile touched Baarias’ mouth. “Sefaan. She waded in with all of her might and threatened to leave with Rebaa if she was thrown from the tribe. She bent their will to hers and forged a promise that the boy could remain until he was old enough to fend for himself. Aardn has never forgiven her actions from that day and has done her best to undermine Sefaan’s influence ever since.”

  “Is that how the rumours over her state of mind started?”

  “Yes.”

  Nyri’s respect for Sefaan increased ten-fold. The Kaamali had always been especially kind to her and Juaan, slipping them food, making sure they were cared for at a distance. Now all of that made sense. But beside the respect, she felt a stirring of anger. Sefaan had known Juaan’s heritage and that of the girl in the vision. She had known and she had not told her. The anger grew in strength. Hadn’t she deserved to know the truth? Didn’t she have the right to make up her own mind?

  “But that’s all even Sefaan could do.” Baarias continued. “Our people will not tolerate such blasphemous insults to Ninmah’s creation. Rebaa might have been allowed to stay with her abominable offspring but the other Elders forbade anyone from helping her under the threat of the same treatment as the child. She was shunned to the fringes of the tribe. During the first long Fury, she nearly starved trying to keep Juaan alive, I did not have the courage to stand against the Elders and I feared the sin she had committed. I did not help her and she never recovered. You don’t know how much guilt I have had to carry through all these years, knowing I did not have the courage to save my own sister. Sefaan, certainly, has never forgiven me nor let me forget my weakness.

  “Even after Rebaa was gone, I turned my back on her offspring. I was terrified of what he might become and angry for the loss of my sister. I blamed him for it and he hated me. Your mother was the only one who reached out and showed true courage.”

  “My mother knew what he was?”

  “Yes.”

  Nyri felt sick. The most important person in her life was a half Wove and it seemed everybody had known it but her. He had lied to her; everyone had lied to her.

  “It was through studying Juaan at a distance that I was forced to reconsider certain things. He was strong, with no hint of physical deformity. He never got sick apart from the time he was bitten by that spider. Such a poison would have killed a Ninkuraa; he managed to recover with hardly any treatment. There had to be something in that.” Baarias frowned, frustrated. “Nobody else sees the possibiliti
es.”

  They were silent for a long while. Nyri did not know how to go forward from this moment. She was angry and heartbroken by the terrible truth that Baarias had just revealed. But in doing so, he had given her the answer to the very truth she had come here to seek. Juaan was a Wove by blood as well as by upbringing. She had healed him and when healing, it was impossible for her to be any closer to a person. Their body became hers; there was nothing that could be hidden.

  Baarias had been right all along. The Woves were not evil spirits; they possessed no dark power. It was incomprehensible but undeniably the truth. Of that one thing, Nyri was now certain.

  One question forced itself to the forefront of her mind. “If you could speak to one of them, would you? Do you think they could ever be reasoned with?”

  Baarias’ reply came swift and sharp. “No, Nyriaana, never! I might be certain that the Woves are not wholly responsible for the dire changes to our people and the greater world, but they are still a dangerous, bloodthirsty race. You have no idea how close an eye I kept on you with that boy. I could never be certain just how much Wove savagery he might have inherited or when it might begin to surface. To trust a Wove is to entertain danger and death.”

  Nyri bit her lip. She was trusting one with her very life. “But what about Rebaa?” she asked desperately. “How could she fall in love with such a being?”

  Baarias’ face clouded. “I do not know. He must’ve been a rare thing, this Wove, to earn the love of a Ninkuraa and make her defy all she was ever taught.”

  Nyri drew a shaky breath. “He must indeed.”

  Their quiet contemplation was interrupted by Pelaan. “Baarias,” he said as he pushed into the chamber. “I am to watch our borders until Ninmah sleeps. I am taking my daughter with me.” His tone was final; he was informing Baarias, not asking. Aardn must have truly been desperate for Nyri to finish her teaching to get Pelaan to agree to put Kyaati into her care.

  Baarias did not look at all happy but could do nothing. He nodded his assent and Pelaan left without another word.

  “Do you think he heard us?” Nyri asked in sudden concern. She had been so wrapped up in what she had learned; she had not been paying any attention to her surroundings.

  Neither had Baarias, he looked worried. “I do not think so, I don’t think he would have been able to hold his tongue if he had. I would be wandering the wilderness already.” He shrugged.

  “What can we do, Baarias?” Nyri looked to him, like she had so often in the past. “How can we convince others of the truth you have found? The Elders are killing us. We cannot just sit by and do nothing.”

  He looked back at her sadly. “We must. I have tried, Nyriaana, but it is impossible. Unless we are sent a miracle, we are doomed. All we can do is stand by our people until the very end.”

  Nyri thought of her vision and the mysterious green-eyed girl that Sefaan named Ariyaana. Was this half-Wove child their miracle? She did not know what to believe anymore.

  Nyri blinked back frustrated tears. “I don’t know how you have endured this for so many years. I don’t know how I am going to bear it. I am so sorry for how I acted, Baarias.”

  “I have done it because I had to. It was not all down to cowardice as Sefaan believes. My people needed me. You needed me, akaabi. I have tried to make them see what I do but, as you have witnessed for yourself, they do not take kindly to my words. I could not risk expulsion, or the undermining of respect that Sefaan has suffered, when so many depend on me. They would have taken you from me, too, if they had even a hint that I was imparting my heresy upon you. They will still do so if they realise I have now accomplished that. You must find a way to bear it, Nyriaana, as I have. You must keep this to yourself, for my sake if nothing else. At least my burden will be easier to bear now that I know I am not alone and I have you on my side.”

  Nyri smiled a bittersweet smile. “I have always been on your side Baarias, even when I was being stubborn.”

  He smiled back. “Then we will bear our burden together and pray to Ninmah we will not always be alone.”

  Nyri was so desperate to tell him in that moment. She didn’t know why Sefaan had forbade her from confiding in him. She did not know why she was holding to her promise when the Kamaali had deceived her so badly. Who could she trust if not her teacher, surely she owed more loyalty to him?

  “Baarias…” she started. “I need to tell you something-”

  “Baarias.” Now Imaani appeared in the doorway. “Javaan has fallen and broken his fingers. Can you attend him, master healer, he does not want to leave his watch?” He rolled his eyes disparagingly.

  Baarias shook himself out of the little bubble they had existed in and forced a smile onto his face. “Of course,” he told Imaani. The sentry left at once, avoiding Nyri’s gaze. Baarias got up to follow. “You don’t have to come for this, Nyriaana. You can do what you will for the rest of the day. Rest. You look exhausted.” He touched her cheek and then paused. “Oh, you had something to tell me?”

  But the moment had passed. Nyri opened her mouth, unsure, and then changed her mind. Maybe later. She smiled reassuringly. “It’s nothing important, Baarias. You go. I may go to visit Sefaan. I haven’t seen her for a while.” She and the Kamaali were going to have a talk.

  “Nor I,” Baarias frowned once more. “She has been acting very strange lately.”

  “Yes, hasn’t she just,” Nyri grunted.

  Once Baarias had disappeared, Nyri headed out into Ninmah’s light. She was so lost in thought that she nearly ran straight into the back of the crowd gathered around the foot of an eshaara tree.

  She looked up and her heart sank. It was dying. Disease marked the red-gold trunk. The branches that twisted into the nest-like chambers above were rotten and weak; the thick leaves that crowned and covered them were thinning. Gaps in their protection were beginning to show, revealing the skeleton of the structure underneath. She knew what must be done now and she moved to take up position with her people.

  Aardn was closest to the massive tree and Nyri was careful to keep her head down. The Elder had her hand pressed against the ravaged bark, eyes closed. When she finally turned to the rest of them, her expression downcast. “She is weak. She will not survive another Fury. Already she is preparing to give her essence to her brethren.”

  Moving closer, everyone placed their own palms against the old tree and Nyri felt clearly what Aardn had. The golden thread of the Great Spirit within ebbed, her days were done; it was time to pass her strength to the rest of the forest. In this harsh time, those of the living needed all the strength they could be gifted.

  Along with her people, Nyri began to draw the life force of the eshaara. It came willingly, glad of the assistance, and they helped channel it to where it needed to go. The rest of the trees around them came alive as they received this final gift from their sister. The leaves whispered, becoming greener and more vibrant. They danced on the wind, in celebration, in final farewell.

  Then the work was done. When they opened their eyes, they found themselves up to their ankles in shrivelled brown leaves. Nyri shook a few from her hair and lifted her chin. The tree stood naked yet proud somehow, even in death. Nyri felt the poignancy of its passing keenly. The cold wind rattled through the now bare branches and Juaan’s words echoed in their voice:

  The world we know is dying and there is nothing that you or I or anyone else can do to stop it…

  36

  Learning

  “You need to concentrate, young Juaan,” Sefaan admonished gently.

  The breeze stirred as Nyriaana sat beside her friend. Sefaan had taken them under her wing and was trying to teach them how to merge their will with a group of maamits. They had been allowed to venture out on their first Gathering and Nyri was feeling very important. The target was some berries at the top of a tall, tall tree.

  Nyri grinned proudly at her growing pile of fruit. This was easy! Any task that was presented to her, she took effortlessly in stride. S
he knew her father had often boasted of her talent to the Elders. Her smile broadened. The maamits she worked with jumped back and forth willingly at her bidding.

  “Don’t exhaust him, Nyri,” Sefaan scolded but her rebuke was interrupted by a hiss of frustration and a stone bouncing off a tree. Juaan eyed the fruit of Nyri’s efforts beside his own woeful pile with an envious scowl. He was finding this hard. Nyri was secretly pleased by that fact. Juaan was better than her at nearly everything else physically.

  Sefaan tutted at his outburst of temper. “That won’t get you very far, boy. I told you to concentrate. Do as I say and it will come to you.”

  Pelaan’s angry voice cut in. “Don’t be foolish, Sefaan! He is no Ninkuraa. He does not bear the Gift. He will never help feed our people; he will never grow an eshaara. I don’t know why you are wasting your time. It’s not like he’ll be—”

  “Pelaan!” Sefaan cut off whatever he had been about to say. Her gaze was fierce and Pelaan fell silent. Nyri was growing to like the ancient one more and more. She grew tired of everyone picking on Juaan. Sefaan did not pick on him. She picked on the Elders.

  “I’ll help you, Juaan,” she said, upset by his downcast face. She wished they would leave him alone. She would show them all that Juaan could do it. She sat down beside her friend and took his hand. Together, they turned their eyes towards the canopy and the maamits that danced there.

  * * *

  “Nyri!”

  Daajir was pushing his way towards her, his face alight with excitement. She stiffened at the sight of him. She still had not come to terms with what she had seen last night, the curl of triumph on his lips as he had wounded that Wove. She clutched her pebble tightly in her fist, letting it give her strength.

  “Nyri, I did it,” he grabbed her arm.

  “Did what?” She kept her face blank.

  “I drove the Woves from our forest last night.”