by C F Rabbiosi
Within minutes, Vaerynn ushers us out of bed, her jaw set more on edge than yesterday. Without looking at us directly, she demands we dress in leather garments that criss-cross over our breasts and matching shorts that tie closed in the front. They’re similar to what I’d seen other Koridon females dress in when I was with Kassien. “Where are we going?” I ask, noting Glenda’s small form as she cinches the long strings at her waist to the extreme.
“Trimanus zer varnot,” she replies with a smirk.
“So helpful.” I shove past her. I might as well take on whatever waits down there first, before it eats my friends.
Descending the stairs, I don’t see anything formidable but instead smell an array of scents that make my stomach jump for joy. In the dining hall, a shiny rectangular table steams with plates of food, and I stop in the doorway, unsure of what the catch is. “Sit and eat,” Vaerynn says loudly into my ear as she moves past me.
Digging in, as I’ve heard it called, doesn’t begin to describe how we assault our breakfast this morning. I don’t know what this all is, but it tastes how I’d imagine breakfast with Marie Antoinette would. Breads, butter, meats so salty and sweet, vegetables that should never taste so good…
Gerakon appears and slips Glenda a bowl of something green, telling her it will strengthen her lungs. With a full belly, I sip on purple X2 tea until it’s gone, and then we move out to the land, my bones feeling strong, my blood rushing.
Blond Alice’s feet sink into the white sand as she limps with purple discoloration newly blooming upon her arms. I don’t know how far Kjartonn got in her last night, and several times I’ve wanted to say something about it, but I can’t bring myself to. I already know how it feels to be forced by a real-life monster, and honestly, I don’t want to relive it.
Treading across a wooden trail ascending across the sand, we follow Vaerynn along a snaking river that leads to the ocean, and a tall tree line looms in the distance. The smell of pine and redwood drifts through the air, making me think of home during the cold season. Human slaves in torn clothes pass us as we make our way to the shore, their baskets and cages full of small brown creatures with claws. Their weathered faces and thin bodies remind me of the people back home, the wear of relentless years upon them.
“Today, you begin training,” Vaerynn says, the salty breeze blowing her hair back. “You are all thin and weak, but to be Koridon, you must emanate strength. You must have strong bodies to deliver strong children.” She points to the great water. “We will start by fighting the cold, unforgiving sea waters.” She steps into the frothy water and spins around, diving backward. Her body glides effortlessly beneath the surface until she disappears. Kassien took me to the lake once, but like me, none of the girls can swim. Finally, Vaerynn reappears, water shining down her olive skin as she moves with the grace of a sea goddess.
“The cold will pierce your skin at first, but as you fight the waves, it will numb. You must feel it wash underneath you and use it to propel yourself along the surface.” As she swims, I watch her arms float out beside her like a butterfly, and her feet kick furiously. “You will get tired,” she says, “but you will not stop lest the deadly undertow pull you down. Go out into the deep until you hear me call you back. Then and only then may you swim back to shore.” She then repeats it in Koridon as part of our learning to be one of them.
"Vaerynn, wait.” I speak without thinking and touch my belly, a need to protect my unborn child a new and surprising feeling. “What if—”
She puts a hand up to stop me. “You sometimes forget that you have Koridon in you. You will survive a rough swim, and you will be expected to face every challenge the others are in order to strengthen and condition your body to both carry and deliver a large and unnaturally strong being. However,” she gazes past me and I turn around to find Brekter at my back, “the child will never be compromised. Should you fail, one of us will save you.” Her unforgiving expression warns me of far worse consequences than death if I do.
I take Scarlet’s hand. “Don’t fight the training. If nothing else, building our strength will help us fight them.”
She passes on the message to black-haired Alice, and we all stand hand in hand, empowered, our unique life forces flowing from one another.
The water is liquid ice against my feet, but the memory of floating euphoria from my swim with Kassien drives me forward and I run. The waves lap over my waist, and I suck in a breath.
“Go now, all of you!” cries Vaerynn. “Give your bodies to the sea!”
I wade out until I can no longer touch the murky bottom and kick my legs to stay afloat. “Swim!” Vaerynn’s voice echoes and I move farther out, watching out for Glenda. Waves knock me about, and, breathing hard, putridly salty water creeps past my lips.
“You are all stronger than you can imagine!” Vaerynn’s voice drifts from the shore. “It will hurt, but you will push past the pain! Survive!”
Turning around to float on my back, I toss my head around to check for the others. Heads pop up through the water, moans infusing the air. “Go out farther!” Vaerynn yells. “Come back before I say, and I will swim you out even farther and leave you for the sharks!”
“Help,” comes a weak voice to my left. Jane’s head bobs under, the water washing over, and I reach out to bring her back up. “I can’t do this, I’m going to drown,” she chokes into my face as I hold her up by the hair at the nape of her neck.
“No, look.” I float how Kassien taught me, and after struggling and thrashing, she finally steadies upon her back. Each inhale levels me in the cool air, each exhale drags me down a bit too far, but my limbs rest, my lungs relax.
A rough pull on my ankle drags me under and water floods my throat. As I fight the bruising grip, everything’s black, the world cold, and my lungs scream. Finally, the grip loosens and I break the surface with a gasp. Vaerynn floats effortlessly beside me. “No resting. You will swim. You will swim for your life, or I will take it from you.”
“Die slowly,” I fight to say, coughing out salt water violently. “Or you kill me quick.”
“Yes! Now move.”
She hits me in the side, and for some reason a laugh inappropriately bursts out. “Hold on, I’m thinking.”
Time moves by in slow motion, minute after agonizing minute of yearning for dry land and soft sand to collapse onto. Both Jane and Glenda are dragged back up from a watery death over and over, at the brink of failure time and again, and I’m sure someone is meant to die today. The sun hangs in the middle of the sky by the time Vaerynn stops preventing us from dragging our useless bodies back onto the shore, and Vaerynn throws the two weaker girls out beside the rest of us. We’ve all made it back alive. I put my fingers near Glenda’s mouth to check for breath. Yes. All of us made it out of there somehow.
As Vaerynn chased us around the ocean, I hated her, and planned to conceal a kitchen knife somewhere next time to pull out and paint the water red with her sliced open flesh. But I also longed for her strength. A part of me wants to train hard and see what I’m capable of, to discover what parts of me are Koridon. As I replace the nutrient X2 from the purple flower tea, I could become the thing I was always meant to be. I want that part of me so badly. I’m a hybrid, so what am I, really? Could there be a synergistic effect between the two different sets of genes mingling and sparking within that I’m not aware of?
Beside me, Scarlet’s cheek presses into the wet sand and she smiles through ragged breaths.
A slave lays a blanket on the sand and sets down a basket. At first, I believe it to be a man, shaved head peeling, red from the sun and fingers cracked as they serve us each a plate of food, but it’s a woman. She’s probably too old to breed or deemed to be barren. I can’t wrap my head around having slaves, and the books I read containing such poor souls always seemed like pure fiction to me. I could never be so selfish or lazy to do this to another person. Vaerynn stands motionless over us, not eating, not resting, a goddess-like silhouette with her back t
o the sun. Unless they really pissed me off, I revise, becoming quite entertained by thoughts of that Koridon bitch bowing to me.
“What is this?” Mary-Shelly asks, holding up a piece of white meat with red skin. “It smells sort of like the fish our men bring back from the river but—”
“I don’t care,” I say and bite into mine. “I’m starving.”
The others eat too, their eyes rolling back, juices splashing the sand. Blond Alice picks at hers, staring past her lunch into nothingness.
My muscles screaming, I sit next to her. I have to say something about last night, even if it hurts me, because this is bigger than me. “It doesn’t hurt as much if you accept it.”
“Get away from me,” she says, tossing the white meat into the dirt. “I will never accept it. I would rather let him tear me to shreds than open my legs willingly. To any of them.” She scoots away from me.
“Maybe the mean one won’t be chosen for you after all,” says Glenda.
“Right, maybe you’ll get him instead,” blond Alice says back to her.
Last night, when Kjartonn visited us, my anger and desperation boiled to the surface. Exhausted and fearing the life growing inside me, I couldn’t sleep for hours. Upon morning’s arrival, I thought hope would find me again, that I’d be able to imagine a world where they coexist beside us. But I don’t feel hopeful right now. I only feel hate. Kassien saved me from death but then took me from my home and forced me to wed him. I fell for my captor, but now that the harsh day bathes me in its light, he is still just that: the enemy. Isn’t he? I’m so confused about how I’m supposed to feel, one emotion stomping me into the ground and the next elevating me above the clouds.
I just want to sleep.
“I thought we could make the best of this,” I say heatedly toward blond Alice. “They’re going to force us. These beings will do exactly as they have said, so I thought we could find a way to deal with it.” Black clouds move in and shade falls over the land.
“I see no other choice either,” says Scarlet.
“There isn’t,” I say, “but don’t betray yourself.”
Blond Alice lifts her chin.
“Don’t let them change you. We are magnificent, and we will show them.” If we’re ever going to find peace for our race, we cannot be weak. We have to prove ourselves their equals. They’re brutes, and we’re only a shadow of the great race we descended from, but that’s enough.
Brekter and Arek tread through the sand on each side of a cage, and a low growl permeates its cover as something scrambles around within. The girls look to me and aren’t comforted when I turn white, the familiar whining and snarling from this morning finally explained.
“Now you will prove yourself worthy enough to hold within you the life of a Koridon child.” Vaerynn laughs cruelly. “Survival of the fittest, I believe your own books teach. A concept I fully agree with.”
“What’s in the cage?” I ask Brekter.
He stares straight ahead.
“You will run into the forest and be pursued by this transformed animal.” she says. “Kill it, before it kills you.”
“Without weapons?” asks Scarlet.
“Out in the forest you will find everything you need.” Vaerynn lifts the cover, and the snarling resumes. The feet look human but gnarled and discolored as they shift and claw up the bottom.
Glenda pales and takes a step back. “You can’t do this,” she says, her breath quickening. “Why would you risk killing us when you need us?”
“Why did you protect us from that beast last night, just to throw us to our deaths today?” I add.
Vaerynn pats the cage top. “I would rather you were dead than be impregnated and bring a weak child into the world. She tips her face up toward the sky. “You don’t understand what it is like out there.”
“Fuck you!” I yell at them. “You have no right to do this to us!” I slam my weight full-force into the cage, and the Koridons lose their footing and drop it. I come face to face with the gruesome creature as I land on all fours. I shake my head slowly at it, and Vaerynn throws me backward.
“What are you trying to do, stupid human?” she asks, and the truth is, I have no idea. I spring back up and tackle her, bringing rock-hard fists into her face.
“Caly!” shouts Brekter, and steely fingers dig into my shoulders and drag me off Vaerynn.
“Run, all of you!” cries Arek as Vaerynn gets back to her feet. “Meet your destiny!” The click of a key turning in a lock jerks my senses back and sends me tearing across the land. I’m faster than the others and am determined to find something sharp or blunt to hurt that thing. Small rocks and a few twigs litter the ground, so I continue on into the trees.
Light footfalls approach, and behind them a steady bu-bump, bu-bump, and then the animal leaps. Brown needles scatter the ground as the snow white creature with a blood-splattered coat jumps onto Glenda’s back. She screams and hits the ground, its hideous teeth locking into her shoulder. The other girls continue running, and with gooseflesh riddling my back, I flip around searching for something, anything I can put up a fight with. I grab a huge stick next to a fallen tree and strike the monster in the head. It turns on me, big as a horse, and stalks forward, pain in every movement, its vocalizations twisting into frightening sounds. It’s mad with suffering, and it will be my pleasure to end it.
Glenda whimpers, and with a damaged arm, tries to crawl. The creature sniffs toward her blood. “No!” I scream, and its head snaps toward me. Hauntingly human looking, it stares at me through the mangled face of a wolf.
“Whoever’s in there, listen to me. I will kill you!” Thunder cracks overhead, and the thing jumps, hair on end. Its eyes roll around and its tortured cries ring out as it leaps.
12
Blood-stained fangs sink into my leg and I cry out, one hand beating into its skull and the other searching for the fallen stick. It growls as it devours. Brekter leaps next to me, sweat gleaming from his forehead, and reaches toward the creature. Vaerynn appears and hits his rescuing hand away. She shakes her head vehemently, demanding him to wait, but his eyes are as wild as the beast’s.
I take hold of the stick and drive it through the creature’s eye. Black blood gushes, and it jerks backward with an eerily human cry beneath the animal howl. It shakes its head violently back and forth, slinging blood in my face, and I wield the sharp stick once more, aiming right for the other eye. He looks right at me, and my weapon stops dead. A pang of dread shoots through my belly because I’ve seen those ocean eyes before. The servant Jonah appears in the forefront of my mind, helping an exhausted Glenda up from the ground. They had embraced each other, a human connection he so desperately needed. The briefest interlude, yet he will forever be endured to me. Teeth snap wildly at my face and I turn my head, his strength breaking through my hold. Brekter shoves Vaerynn away, preparing to take Jonah’s head off. Shove the stick through his neck! I will myself to prove my worth. End this!
Blond Alice appears, a sharp rock braced above her head. “Wait!” I cry before I can stop myself. The poor creature shakes with pain and confusion. Blond Alice pauses and I shake my head, so torn I can’t breathe. He’s a boy, one of us, and I could sense his deeply seeded kindness the moment we met. How could they do this to him? One precious life of so few, and this is how it must end? Tragedy. Heartbreak. Damn them. His teeth drip bloody saliva and his back arches, spine popping and his body bulking abruptly, growing bigger before our eyes.
Dr. Jekyll transforms into the worst form of Mr. Hyde and twists his head toward the fallen Glenda. But there is no compassion for her this time as she lays hurt upon the ground.
Blond Alice smashes the rock into his head, and a hideous crack echoes through the trees. The creature spins around and stumbles toward her and she hits it again and again with blood and insanity splashing her soft features. I quickly move to help, but she doesn’t stop, not even after the creature stops twitching.
The others shamble slowly back to us an
d we stand in a circle around the beaten and bloodied monster.
“Glenda!” I fall to her side and move red-stained hair from her face. “We need help!” My screams crack the forest open. Slash marks tear across her ribs, blood dripping into the dirt, and her chest moves erratically.
“Take her,” says Vaerynn from behind, and Brekter snatches Glenda into his arms.
“She’s going to die,” blond Alice says casually. She lies on her side next to the dead creature, her hands cupped under her head.
I remember the instrument Kassien used to heal me after being wounded deeply by the men in the forest. “No, she won’t.” The tissues are healed by tiny enhanced particles so the bleeding stops. She’ll hurt like the dickens, but she’ll live.
Vaerynn studies the dead creature, and I realize his body’s shrinking. She stands and shakes her head. “The two that stood to fight our creation, you will come with me. The others, with Arek.”
“Wait, why? What’s going to happen to them?” I ask.
“They must pay for their weakness with blood.” Arek and Brekter round them up with the speed of lightning and take them away, and all I can do is watch as they abscond to another hellish event. But this time, I can do nothing.
I swallow hard and ask, “What about Glenda?”
She turns her cruel quicksilver eyes on me. “Come. We still have a long night ahead.”
The passing storm casts an eerie glow on the mansion as we walk back. Blond Alice still glows with a spark of madness, and Vaerynn glows with something else. She’s a mix of what their people hold in highest regard and doesn’t lack for innate cruelness either. Like all the females, she walks how I would imagine a panther does in the Jungle Book: graceful, predatory, preternaturally.
My muscles cry almost as loudly as my heart as we move toward an event that will be of true Koridon fashion, I’m sure, as Vaerynn loves the job she’s been bestowed with: Torture the lower beings into a form that’s more appealing to a warrior race.
