by Alicia Fabel
“It was good that he learned his lesson young. He could have caused irreparable damage as he grew older. I’m shocked that Healer Kuwari allowed the boy into his home, with his daughter.”
Screw decorum. “You people are disgusting.”
That wiped the smile from the woman’s face. “Disgusting is how that boy used to hang around the scorpions when they visited. Like a dung beetle. Pawing after those females.”
“I don’t care what people say about the scorpions. If they welcomed him, even though he was different from them, then they are better people than you are.”
“You would fit in well among their kind,” Ishtar said. “They welcome any stray half-breed into their beds. Kargadan, on the other hand, do not need half-breeds here polluting our bloodlines—weakening our people.”
“Lady, you don’t have to worry about me diluting your precious kargadan bloodlines. Unlike Nisaba, who has no choice, I won’t let a kargadan near me.”
“You could only dream of being so fortunate as my daughter. She will be protected and provided for by a good male.”
“Yeah, but will she be happy? Will she be loved?”
“Those are concepts created by lesser beings. Something to look forward to while you root around in the filth of your lives.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Oh? You have known love, have you? No doubt experienced at the hands of every man you’ve let between your legs.”
“Hold up. So since I’m a half-breed, I’m a slut?”
Ishtar spread her hands out. “Those are the calling cards of your kind.”
“And your kind are self-righteous, bigoted bullies. Have you thought that maybe that’s why you’re dying out? Maybe the world or cosmos or whatever it is, is doing us all a favor by allowing your kind to die.”
“No.” Nisaba stood in the doorway. “You are both wrong. My mother is wrong about half-breeds, and you are wrong about my people.” She braced a hand against the wall. Her lips were pale. “Vera, my mother judges your kind based on the worst of them. The ones who caught her alone while she was foraging for her family and took from her what they had no right to take. And you are no better. You judge my entire people based on my mother’s prejudices and sharp tongue.”
“Not just that,” argued Vera. “Your kind beat a young boy for being different. They killed a young woman because she couldn’t have a baby.”
“You know the story of Addamas’s sister, then,” said Nisaba. Ishtar hissed at this, but Nisaba pushed her shoulders back and said firmly, “Seri was his sister in every way that matters. They loved each other with the love of siblings. Seri’s husband, like those who took advantage of my mother, was the worst of our kind. I am not sorry that he is gone. There are bad among every group of people, but there are good too. What happened to Addamas was also terrible. He was caught trying to sneak a kiss from a girl in our class. The girl’s father wanted to castrate him. Literally. The public whipping was Kuwari’s idea to save him that. None of it should’ve happened, but scared people make bad choices. That doesn’t excuse it, but it also doesn’t mean they are bad people. It means they need to be shown that there’s nothing to be scared of. And that won’t happen by you two bickering and pointing fingers.”
“But what about you?” asked Vera. “You are being forced into a mating that you do not want.”
“Maybe I will never find the love that you imagine with Ashur, but I am willing to enter that mating because I love my people. As do all kargadan daughters. Don’t turn us into victims as an excuse to hate my people. It may not be your way, but do not judge my people because you do not understand it or agree with it.”
Well damn. The girl has a point. Even though I kinda hate it. “You’re right. I…”
Vera didn’t get to finish her thought because Nisaba hunched over with an agonizing groan. Ishtar leaped to her feet to catch her, settling her on a cushion. Nisaba slumped against her.
“Daughter?” Ishtar threw Vera a dirty look. “I’m afraid I was right. Apprentice Vera is not good for your nerves.”
“Mother, I love you. I do. Please shut up.”
Ishtar gasped with insult but didn’t speak.
Nisaba held out a hand for Vera. “How has your training gone?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m just worried about you right now.”
“Is that your way of saying it’s not going well?” persisted Nisaba.
“Kuwari says I have to be able to close off my mind better.”
“Finding your magic is important to you,” Nisaba said.
It was not a question, but Vera nodded.
“I still cannot teach you how to direct the magic,” Nisaba said hesitantly. “But I think it is important that you know how to call on it. Come here.”
Vera leaned in. Nisaba pressed a thumb to her forehead like before. This time, Vera knew what was going to happen and focused on the thread Nisaba called forward. She followed it deep into her void where it led to a door, opened only a small gap. Vera tried to pry it open, but it didn’t budge. When Nisaba released the magic, it retreated behind the door and slammed it closed. There was no knob, nothing to pull on. Vera’s kargadan was behind an impassable door. At least she knew which one now. She felt around for any sign that her siphon was ready to strike. The world-thread was still tucked away, along with the scraps. Her siphon was blissfully quiet.
“That help?” asked Nisaba.
“Yes,” breathed Vera. She mapped out where the door was so she could find it again. Whatever it took, she’d figure out how to get it open.
11
Vera flopped back onto her bed and pounded the mattress angrily with her fists. What she wouldn’t give to let out a nice therapeutic scream, but that would just summon Kuwari. She was supposed to be meditating. Instead, she’d been trying to break out her kargadan. So far, nothing had worked. The magic refused to come out no matter how she begged, pleaded, coaxed, threatened—okay, that was probably not the best tactic.
“Vera, someone is here to see you,” Kuwari said through the door.
She propped herself up on one elbow. Who’d visit me? Unless it’s Nisaba. She can show me how to get that kargadan to come out. Vera jumped to her feet, straightened her headscarf, and rushed out her door. She stopped short when she rounded the corner, her excitement evaporating. It was Brown-eyes.
“Hutran came to see if you would like to go on a walk,” explained Kuwari. “I was telling him how busy I am with my work, and you are cooped up here all day with me. He offered to get you out to see the village. If you would like.”
Is “no” even an option? Yeah, that’d probably be a no. Then again, a break might be a good idea. Maybe I can get some new perspective. And patience. “A walk would be nice.” Vera remembered belatedly to lower her head.
Hutran led her down a side street, avoiding the populated village-center gardens. “It must be difficult to see the village staring at your sandals,” he said.
“I was told swinging my head around to gawk would seem rude.”
“I admire your efforts, but in private company, it is fine. There is no one around to see you looking around like a shedu.”
He was right, around them were just a bunch of empty huts. No one around to hear me scream. She was surprised to realize that she hadn’t thought like that in a while. It was strange to have her old paranoia suddenly resurface.
“What’s a shedu?” she asked politely.
“A fairytale. Once believed to protect the homes of good kargadan families. It stood at the threshold, unseen and swinging its head from side to side, on the lookout for threats. It was something parents told their children to help them sleep at night.”
“Oh,” she replied absently.
She analyzed Hutran side-long. He walked calmly, hands clasped behind his back. He didn’t seem threatening, but man, he was huge—shorter than Kale by only a couple inches and much broader. It was all muscle too. Vera summoned her self-defense training and ran through what
she knew about fighting a larger opponent. Basically, it all boiled down to not letting that person get their hands on her. With that in mind, she took what she hoped was a stealthy step away from Hutran. It probably wasn’t necessary, but it made her feel more at ease.
“Where are we going?” Vera asked.
“I thought you might enjoy seeing the river. There’s a path down to the bank on the other end of the village.” He pointed at a stand of trees in the distance, the only ones among the relatively sparse landscape. “Unless it is too far? If you are tired, we can take a shorter loop back to the healer’s.”
Vera considered her options. The loop back to Kuwari’s sounded like the safest bet. But she was curious about this river, which Nisaba snuck off to swim in. If she was honest, she also didn’t want to appear pathetic by choosing the shorter route. That’s all kargadan guys seemed to think girls were.
“Let’s see the river,” she said. “Do you use it to water the gardens?”
“Not anymore. It was a great struggle to carry water up from the river each day, requiring many males. My grandfather designed a system of wells to provide water for drinking and maintaining the gardens. It was a good thing too. In addition to not having enough workers to transport the daily water, in the last year, the ocean is invading the river. Even the fish we catch are salt-water varieties.”
“How far away is the ocean?”
“A week’s walk. Downstream.”
“The ocean is flowing upstream?” Vera was sure that went against the rules of nature. Then again, she was a siphon with kargadan magic and Lite-Brite hair.
“So it seems.”
“Could that have anything to do with your struggling population? Is the change in water affecting your people?”
“If it had happened sooner, we might suspect that, but it has only been in the last couple of years that the water has changed. The amount of salt also varies by the location in the river. There’s a pool I used to swim in as a child, where the salt water is so dense that varieties of coral have moved in.”
“That sounds kinda beautiful.”
“I can show you if it would please you.”
“It would.” Why am I blushing? One minute I’m prepared to poke out his eyeballs and the next, he mentions pleasing me, and I’m all girly about it?
“For a while, we wondered if the salt water was originating in the pool, but it seems that it just collects there,” Hutran continued, thankfully oblivious to her discomfort.
“As long as it doesn’t collect sea monsters,” Vera said, to have something to say. “I’ve seen enough of those.”
“Nibiru is not a home to sea creatures. After the Unraveling, kargadan discovered some sea beings in our oceans, but they were hunted out.”
“Beings? Like people?”
“They were not like kargadan,” he assured, like that made a difference.
“Why hunt them if they’re so far away?” The more she learned of kargadan, the less she could stand them.
“They were not natural to our kingdom and could’ve shifted the entire ecology of our realm.”
“It seems like that’s happening anyway.”
“That is true. I do not think it was necessary to destroy them, but I was not alive during that time to have a say. Many kargadan lost their lives. It was a waste. Especially since I do not believe they would’ve survived anyway.”
“That’s sad.”
“Yes, well, at least their species lives on in their home realm. Meanwhile, the kargadan who belong here cannot seem to hold on.”
“Kuwari thinks he might have a way to save you all.”
“I was there when he petitioned Marduk Enlil to let you come here. Your blood will provide us with new insights as you learn our ways.”
“Hopefully it will help.”
“Are there other kargadan half-breeds where you came from?” he asked. “Others like you?”
“If I didn’t know I was part kargadan, then I’m sure there are others.”
“Perhaps we can arrange a trade with your kind. Others like you can come here, and we can learn how your kargadan blood is so strong, even though it is not pure.”
“Like an exchange program?”
Hutran frowned. “That is not a term I am familiar with.”
“It means you send a few people to my realm to learn our ways, and we send a few of my kind here to learn yours. It’s an exchange of cultural learning that we do, um…among covens in my realm.”
“I will suggest it to Prince Ashur.”
“Oh.” Smooth, Vera. What happens when they approach the witches about that. They’ll have no idea what these guys are talking about. “Truthfully, I don’t know that my realm would be open to something like that,” she backtracked.
“Witches are like kargadan, then? Protecting the last of their bloodlines.”
“Actually, I hadn’t thought about it like that.” She hadn’t been thinking about intermingling on an intimate level. Just cultural sharing and tolerance-building. She shouldn’t be surprised that the kargadan’s mind jumped right to bumping uglies and making babies. Of course, plenty of humans would not be opposed to that plan. “My kind would probably be afraid that kargadan would destroy our way of life. I don’t think they’d allow a trade of people.”
“That is unfortunate.”
Vera sighed. For all she wanted to judge the kargadan for the genocide of the sea beings, humans would react just as violently if magical-horn-wielding creatures showed up on Earth. Humans protected their territory fiercely when they felt threatened. Even if the threat was more of a lack-of-understanding.
“Watch your step.” Hutran clasped Vera’s elbow as they approached the ledge.
The river was below. Waaaay below. A rope bridge stretched over the chasm and looked as weathered as the huts in town. Hutran didn’t hesitate to move across it. He made it about a quarter of the way before turning back to check on Vera’s progress, which was non-existent. She was trying not to die this week.
“I thought there was a path down to the river?” She kept away from the edge.
“This is the way to the coral pool,” he explained. “If it is too frightening for you, we can stay on this side of the river.”
Is he kidding me with this right now? It’s absolutely too scary. But she refused to admit that out loud. “Are you sure it’s strong enough?”
In answer, Hutran jumped into the air.
This guy is nuts! Vera covered her mouth with both hands and cringed in anticipation of the man plummeting to his death. The ropes and boards creaked and groaned but held when he landed. Logically, she knew if it held him while doing stunts like that, it would probably hold her. But logic didn’t play in when traipsing twenty feet over a chasm filled with rushing water and boulders perfect for bashing in her head if she fell. Just get it over with. Vera took a step, then another. Hutran looked impressed. He waited on the opposite bank while Vera shuffled across. Anyone who says don’t look down, is a moron. Who doesn’t look down? She was almost across before it occurred to her that she’d have to cross it again to get back to Kuwari’s.
Mother Trucker.
“Well done,” Hutran praised. “Not many are brave enough to cross that bridge. Not even many of our males.”
Vera felt her chest inflate. Then she realized he never thought she’d do it. He thought she’d turn tail. The manipulative, sexist jerkwad.
“The pool is just past those trees,” Hutran said.
Vera turned her head to hide her anger, just in time to see Nisaba dive behind a bush and pull a man along with her. Not the prince. Vera was pretty sure the man was not even kargadan based on the pale green tint of his skin. Was it me, or did they look a little too chummy to be friends? Girl’s got some explaining to do.
“Did you hear something?” asked Hutran.
“Huh?” Vera asked, thinking fast. She couldn’t let Nisaba get busted. “No. Maybe a sheep? Are there sheep out here?”
“No,” he drawled,
scanning the trees.
“Maybe one got out? I don’t know. Hey, look!” Vera pointed at the river. “What is that? Do you see that?”
Hutran was only half-listening. “Probably a fish.”
He thinks I’m so dumb I don’t know a fish when I see one? Vera simmered. Hutran turned to lead her on to the pond, right past Nisaba’s hiding place. There was no way they could walk past the couple without Hutran seeing them. Vera had no doubt that would bring her friend devastating trouble. Greeny would quite likely not be breathing much longer.
Vera swayed. She threw a hand to her head. “Oh,” she moaned. “I don’t feel so well. What’s wrong with me?” She squinted against the clang of bells at her lie. All the better to help sell her crock of bull.
“Apprentice Vera?” Hutran hurried to her side and supported her under one arm. “Do you need to sit and rest?”
“Yes. No.” Vera increased her breathing, trying to look like she was swooning. If she kept hyperventilating, she actually might. “I think I should go back to Kuwari’s. Right away.”
Hutran shifted to get a better grasp. Vera grabbed his arm, pretending to need it for balance, so he didn’t look behind him. Nisaba and Green-boy-toy crept through the undergrowth.
Hutran was the model of a perfect gentleman as he guided Vera across the bridge. She didn’t have to fake feeling ill for that part. Hutran’s added weight made the ropes jump and sway harder beneath her feet. He better not have weakened anything acting like it was a bouncy house earlier. Lady, save me. Crap, crap, crap…
Kuwari looked concerned as Hutran ushered Vera into the cool hut. As soon as the man was gone, though, Kuwari’s salt and pepper brows disappeared beneath his turban. “You’ve suddenly developed a delicate constitution?”
Vera shrugged. “It’s complicated.”
“Did he treat you poorly?” Kuwari twisted his hands with concern while looking Vera over.
“Oh no,” Vera waved him off. “He was fine. A bit chauvinistic, but that seems to come with the territory around here. All in all, he’s not so bad.”
