by C J Benjamin
“Wow, that sounds pretty serious,” I said with concern.
“It was! You almost died, Geneva. From what Remi said, you probably got hit by the falling debris when you initially fell into the cavern and that’s why you almost drowned. Then when you fell trying to climb out, Vida said you broke your arm and your collarbone. Vida is amazing though. She’s been teaching me a lot about healing and different potions that can help heal without using powers. She set your bones and healed them, and knew what herbs to mix to help relieve your pain.”
“I wish she could do something to help the bump on my head heal faster,” I said massaging it.
“Oh, Vida said she doesn’t mess with the mind. She said it’s best to let the mind heal itself. You had a concussion, Geneva. It’s going to take a little time to feel right again. I’m just really glad Remi was with you. I’d hate to think what would have happened if he hadn’t been there.”
“Ugh, Remi,” I muttered, feeling shame flush my cheeks as our awkward kiss came rushing back to my mind.
“Geneva!” Sparrow scolded, sounding appalled. “Remi saved your life! If he hadn’t given you life’s breath . . .” she trailed off, but her eyes said the rest.
She looked genuinely frightened. I hated seeing her look this way so I threw my arms around her neck.
“I’m okay, Sparrow. I promise, I’m okay. I’m going to be more careful. I already promised Nova that I’d try not to be so foolish and . . . Wait . . . did you say Remi gave me life’s breath?” I asked, as her words finally registered. I stared into her earnest amber eyes.
“Yes,” she said, but then looked away distractedly.
“What else aren’t you telling me?” I asked.
“I had to heal Remi too.”
“What? Why? He seemed fine when I was climbing . . .”
“Nova punched him.”
“What? Oh no . . . Does he . . .”
“Know about the kiss? No and you’re lucky he doesn’t or it would have been a lot worse than some bruises for Remi. But, I do know about the kiss. Remi told me what happened.”
“He told you?” I hissed. “What was he thinking?”
“Don’t worry. He told me not to mention it to anyone and I won’t. But I don’t like to be involved in these sort of secrets. They never end well.”
“Sparrow, it’s not what you think. I mean, I don’t think it is. I don’t even know why he kissed me!”
“I do. He has a crush on you, Geneva. He’s had a crush on you forever,” Sparrow said sounding slightly annoyed. “Do you like him?” she asked.
“Yes! I mean no, not like that. I like him as a friend. He’s my best friend! Why did he have to complicate this? Ugh, I just wish it never happened!” I whined.
“Wish what never happened?” asked Nova as he slung his arm over my surprised shoulders.
“Nova! Oh, hey. What’s up?” I asked, trying to sound as even as possible.
“Nothing much. Just came to check on my girl. Gotta make sure you’re not falling into any more holes. What were you two talking about?” he asked with his devilish smirk.
My girl? My cheeks flushed and my heart leapt!
“Nothing,” I stammered.
“She was just saying how she wished she hadn’t fallen into that cavern and how she’s going to be more careful from now on,” Sparrow said, coming to my rescue.
“You got that right!” said Nova with a laugh. “Well, you ready to go, babe? Eja said the chief heard you’re awake and wants to talk to you.”
“Oh, okay,” I said, doubly stunned by the fact that Nova had just called me ‘babe’ and that the chief wanted to see me.
“BABE?” Sparrow silently mouthed to me as Nova steered me away from the others and over to a group of Beto horses that were busily nuzzling their way around the mossy forest floor. I looked back at Sparrow and raised my eyebrows to convey that I was as shocked as she was that Nova was calling me babe. I turned back to look at Nova. He swiftly mounted a horse and was smiling down at me with his arm outstretched.
“What’s this?” I asked Nova.
“Tippy, it’s a horse. How hard did you hit your head again?” he joked.
“I know it’s a horse! I meant what’s going on? You just called me babe. Are we . . . is this . . .” I stammered. “What I’m trying to say, is that we should probably talk if you want to officially call me babe.”
“Oh we’re definitely going to talk, babe, but I know that we’re officially going to be late to meet with the chief if we don’t get going.”
“Fine,” I sighed. “What am I supposed to ride?”
“I figured you’d ride with me,” he said with a wink.
Oh that smile! It made me want to melt into him and agree to anything he said. I shook myself from his spell. “Well, you figured wrong. I know how to ride a horse on my own, thank you very much.”
It took all my will power to turn down his outstretched hand. But I needed some time to think and if I was clinging to Nova’s waist, I know I would only be thinking about him. I needed to sort out what Sparrow just told me about Remi. I needed to talk to him. I didn’t want to hurt him by gallivanting around with Nova right in front of him. Especially if the two of them were already fighting. He deserved to hear it from me, if Nova and I were going to be an item. But I didn’t even know if we were! Nova can be so cryptic. One minute he’s calling me babe, kissing me atop a tree and the next he’s flirting with my sister! It still felt so weird to be calling Jemma my sister. Sparrow was more of a sister to me than Jemma had ever been.
I shook all these mind-boggling thoughts from my aching head and marched past Nova to another horse, lazily basking in the shade of the rainforest trees. He was a small dabbled gray with long whiskers and bright Beto symbols painted on his hindquarters in yellow and red. I grabbed a tuft of his coarse charcoal mane at the height of his withers, expertly vaulting myself up onto his back. He lifted his head in surprise and I nudged him forward softly with my heels.
Nova looked on, his eyebrows raised in amazement. His mouth curved up into a grin, highlighting his chiseled cheekbones as I rode up next to him.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Where’d you learn to ride a horse?” he asked.
“I’m full of secrets,” I said quoting him, with a wink.
Before wheeling my horse around and digging my heels in, I flashed Sparrow a smile over my shoulder, as she and my friends looked on. I couldn’t help being amused by their bewildered looks as Nova and I galloped back toward camp. It was nice having some secrets of my own, I thought to myself.
14
The wind licked my hair as I prodded my horse alongside of Nova’s. The feeling of being on a horse flooded with memories of how I’d learned to ride.
It was a few summers ago. Remi and I had the misfortune of being sentenced to work as stable hands at the Troian Center. The Grifts usually did this job on their own, but they were shorthanded, so a few of us ended up assigned to the stables. At first, I was excited to ditch boring laundry duty, thinking I’d get to groom the horses and maybe even ride them. But I had been wrong. They saved the really awful jobs for us, which mostly consisted of mucking out the stalls in the hundred-degree weather.
I was determined to make the most of working in the stables though. I talked to the horses as I fed them and cleaned their stalls, and whenever no one was supervising me, I’d sneak them treats that I’d smuggled from the dining hall. I couldn’t help it. I’d always shared an affinity with animals. Looking back now, perhaps my animyth powers were serving me before I even knew it.
The horses at the Center were as thin and malnourished as us orphans were. I felt it was my duty to make their day a little better whenever I could. They came to trust me after a few weeks and I worked my way up to climbing onto their backs. It was an exhilarating feeling, being on a horse’s back. I have fond memories of wrapping my arms around long necks and winding my fingers through coarse manes, whispering imaginary adventures into telescopi
ng ears, listening to them rhythmically chew their sweet hay.
One afternoon, while Remi and I were mucking stalls, I heard the Grifts yelling in alarm. We poked our heads out to see what was going on and almost got plowed over by a stampede of panicked horses. Someone had left the paddock gate open and a tarcat sauntered in, causing chaos as the horses reared up in fear, calling warnings to each other. The Grifts were doing their best to corral the horses toward the stables, but a few slipped out and made for the open fields. Remi and I stood by, flattening ourselves against the warm stable walls, trying to stay out of everyone’s way.
Once the Grifts got the tarcat out of the paddock and stabled the rest of the horses, Jest, the Grift in charge, ordered us to go back to the Center. “What about the horses that got loose?” I asked. “They’re lost to the island now,” had been the answer. I was appalled and about to say that we should go find them when another Grift spoke up as if reading my mind. “I can retrieve them, Sir.” It was Mala. She was one of my favorite Grifts. She was younger than most of the Grifts at the Center and very kind. She would often look the other way if it meant not making life worse for us orphans. There weren’t enough Grifts like Mala if you asked me.
“I think you’re wasting your time, but suit yourself. If you’re going after them, take these two with you to help wrangle them in,” spat Jest, pointing to Remi and I with disgust.
I perked up, blue eyes twinkling, ready for adventure and flashed Remi my ‘can you believe we get to do this’ smile. He answered with a gulp and a feeble nod. Poor Remi, always so timid, I thought as I looked back at this memory. I remember trekking through the sunbaked fields for quite a while before we found the loose horses. They were grazing peacefully, as if they’d already forgotten the ordeal that caused them to flee. They looked up when they saw us approach, but continued grazing and swishing their tails complacently. Before I knew what was happening, Mala was hoisting me onto the back of one of them.
“What are you doing?” I squealed.
“You know how to ride, right?” she asked with a wink.
When I didn’t reply she said, “Oh, come on, I’ve seen you on their backs in the stalls.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered shamefully with my eyes averted.
“It’s okay. I ride them when no one’s looking too,” she said with a grin.
“Oh!” I smiled, my kinship for her immediately growing. “But I’ve never actually ridden one anywhere,” I said.
“Well, this is Bastian and he knows the way home,” Mala said and with a hard smack on my horse’s haunches we were off!
I didn’t know what I was doing, but every instinct told me to hold on and let the horse take control. Bastian seemed to be on track, because I knew we were heading back toward the Troian Center when I felt the salty headwind fighting me. After I realized we were traveling in the right direction, I decided to stop being afraid and take it all in. The warm, velvety fur bouncing beneath me to a rhythmic gate, the coarse, dark mane lashing at me in the wind, the sun on my back, the breeze lapping at my hair and grazing my cheeks. I sat up straighter and soaked in the moment. It was so wild and freeing to be riding this beautiful creature. I felt like I was soaring above the world on the broad shoulders of this horse. I let go of Bastian’s mane and held on with my legs, lifting my arms up over my head and howling into the wind! It was the most liberating moment I’d ever felt and after that I was hooked.
I couldn’t wait for Remi to get back so I could tell him how amazing my ride was and to hear about how much he’d enjoyed riding as well. I was already busy coming up with plans for how we could do it again. I was the first one to return and decided to wait for Mala and Remi in Bastian’s stall while I groomed him, slowly detangling burs from his long tail, while he munched on hay. I heard Mala return and was about to go greet her and thank her for letting me ride, when I heard Jest yelling at her.
“Real convenient how you found all those horses, Mala. Are you trying to make me look bad? Did you think you could return and be the hero? How do I know you weren’t the one to leave the gate open?”
“No! Jest, you know I didn’t!”
“Well, if I tell the headmistress you did, then you did! There ain’t no one here to say any different. Don’t think I don’t notice how soft you are on these horses and orphans. You probably let them out on purpose so you could go for a joyride. The headmistress will hear about this! I think I’ll tell her that your behavior is irresponsible and unacceptable.”
“Wait, please don’t, Sir,” Mala pleaded. “Headmistress Greeley will fire me and I have a family. I need this job to provide for them. Please!” she begged.
I couldn’t stand to let her lose her job. She’d told me of her family before. She’d lost her mother in the Flood and her father had been badly injured, losing his leg. That left Mala to care for him and her younger sister all on her own. I didn’t know what would happen to them if she lost her job at the Troian Center, but I didn’t want to wait to find out. I ran out of the stall and skidded to a halt, blocking Jest’s path.
“It was me! Sir, it was me. I left the gate open. I’m really sorry,” I said.
“Ah, so you have an accomplice,” he said as a slow, wicked smile spread across his rotten face.
Mala still lost her job even though I’d said I was the one at fault. Greeley decided that Mala had put us in danger by allowing us to ride the horses and that she would have to be dismissed for endangering us. I was so mad! We were orphans—no one ever put our safety first. Especially not our Headmistress Greeley—not unless it was of benefit to her anyway. I knew Greeley was gone, but I still shuddered when I thought of her.
I never saw Mala after that and I never got to ride a horse again. That’s just how things worked at the Troian Center. Nothing was ever fair.
That was how I earned my third trip to the locker. Or perhaps it was my fourth? It was hard to say. I guess I had lost track, surprisingly. Each visit to the locker was terrifying. While I was there, I felt like I’d never be able to shake the feeling. Yet as soon as I left, my mind thankfully had a strange way of blocking out such horrible experiences. The only time from the locker that I could truly remember with vivid clarity, was when I’d been locked down there with Nova. When I thought he might be dead, when I saved his life, when he kissed me . . .
Oh that kiss! Just the thought of it brought all my feelings for Nova rushing back to the surface. I glanced over at him riding next to me. He looked like he was having fun and it was nice to see him smile. The handsome cheekbones of his tan face weren’t stretched with worry for a change. They looked rounder, and full when he smiled like this. He looked younger, more his age, like Remi did . . . Oh I had gotten way off track. I was supposed to be figuring out my feelings and what to do about Nova and Remi. I sighed, hoping I could procrastinate these decisions a bit longer.
I could have ridden alongside Nova for hours, but our ride ended abruptly when the path we were on narrowed and the Beto campsite came into view. I followed Nova’s lead, slowing my horse and dismounting. I patted my horse thankfully as I left him to nose around for something to graze on.
I noticed that all the tents I’d seen last night were gone and the few Beto people that remained were hurriedly breaking down what was left of their campsites.
“What’s going on?” I asked Nova.
“They do this every morning. They break everything down and travel by Bellamorf trees to a new area. They don’t like to stay in one place too long. It helps them stay hidden.”
“What about that tent?” I said gesturing to the large tawny structure that loomed in front of us.
“That’s the chief’s tent!” came a voice from behind me.
I jumped and glared at Eja when he popped up next to me.
“Eja! How’d you get here? Why do you always sneak up on me?” I scolded.
“Sorry, Geneva. Perhaps you should pay closer attention?”
I rolled my eyes and looked past him to the intimidating ten
t, made of skinned and stretched animal hides. Beams of light softly filtered out of the spaces where the hides had been seamed together with some sort of primitive twine. I took a deep breath trying to steady my nerves.
“Do you know what the chief wants with me?” I asked Eja, trying not to sound nervous.
“He wants to talk to you about the Book of Secrets.”
“Oh,” I said. I felt my stomach flip flop. I felt unprepared and underdressed to be meeting the mystical leader of the supposedly extinct Beto tribe.
“Do you want me to come with you?” telepathed Nova.
“For once I’m glad you’re reading my mind,” I telepathed back to him. “Yes, please.”
“Um, I know you’re going with this new rebel chic look, but you may want to change before presenting yourself to the chief,” Nova telepathed to me with a smirk.
“I know,” I replied taking in how ragged I looked. I looked down at my dirty hands and tattered uniform and suddenly felt very young and vulnerable. I was definitely not fit to be meeting with the chief of the Betos. I doubted even my healing charm could fix the threadbare garment I was wearing that barely resembled a shirt anymore.
“Is there anywhere I can clean up?” I asked Eja timidly.
He pointed to a nearby tree. It had a large knot that had sunken in, giving access to the cool rain water that collected in the center of its trunk. I walked over and shrugged off my shoulder bag, letting a sleepy Niv wobble out. I smiled at him and scratched his head affectionately and then began running cups of cool water over my face and hands and arms. The water was refreshing, but it was doing little to improve my overall appearance. I was trying to comb my hair into submission by raking water through it with my fingers, when Niv came flying up the tree and leapt onto my shoulder, angrily chattering.
