Feathers

by Rose Mannering

  “You be awake four days in a row now,” he said, entering the house covered in flecks of white that clung to his closely cropped hair and long beard. “Perhaps you be trying to sit up?”

  Ode had known that he would not be able to get away with laying silently in bed forever, and as his body grew stronger, he was beginning to feel stale and trapped. He needed to escape his thoughts, but summoning the energy to move was proving difficult.

  “That throat be good enough to talk yet?” asked Erek.

  Ode nodded and shifted himself into a sitting position. His body still ached from some bruises that had yet to heal, but he could withstand the pain now.

  “So, let be starting with how you got here,” said Erek.

  He took a stool from beside the fire and placed it next to Ode’s bed.

  “I walked here,” said Ode.

  “But why? Where you be coming from?”

  Ode shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. The foreign language sounded strange in his mouth, but he spoke it without thinking.

  “You nay be knowing how you got here?” echoed Erek with a frown.

  “No.”

  “You nay be knowing where you born or nothing?”

  “No.”

  “You nay be knowing how you can speak mountain language?”

  “No.”

  “Seems you be lying,” said Erek.

  He did not say it unkindly, but Ode felt nervous all the same. He swallowed and looked around the room. In the days he had been bedridden, its contents had become familiar to him. He had discovered that it was not a house but a “hut.” Erek spoke of the room as if it were small and bare, but to Ode it was large and cluttered. He could not work out why one individual needed so many buckets, furs, and knives. Erek had five times more items than Ode had ever owned in his lifetime.

  “Strange to nay know where you come from,” persisted Erek.

  “Where do you come from then?”

  “I come from Shadeet originally. Most people be telling that from looking at me, but nay you, I guess. I’m a Kin though, you understand?”

  “A Kin?”

  “Means I be a Kin of the Scarlet Isles,” said Erek, motioning to his red cloak. “I went there when I be a boy and became a Kin of the Castle Temple in the mountainous islands,” Erek paused. “I be seeing this nay mean much to you.”

  Ode rubbed his head.

  “If I be looking at you and guessing your origins, I be thinking maybe a boy from a tribe,” said Erek. “You nay look like much tribes I be seeing around here, though. Skin the wrong color.”

  Ode looked down at his bare hands. “I don’t remember anything,” he said. “I woke up in the forest in the winter and that’s it.”

  “What about that wolf?” asked Erek.

  “I don’t know where he came from.”

  “What about the feather around your neck?”

  “I don’t know,” said Ode, fighting to keep his voice steady.

  “I nay believe you.”

  The fire crackled. Erek was about to say more when a knock sounded at the door, which meant that someone was delivering the stew. It seemed that a man called “a cook” made the food for this tribe and they ate separately in their different huts. Ode had yet to meet the other members of the tribe properly, though some had come to the door once or twice to speak to Erek and he had caught glimpses of red cloaks and long beards.

  “Best be eating this up for strength,” said Erek, handing him a bowl.

  They finished their dinner in silence, both staring into the fire, deep in their own thoughts.

  “You be knowing why we here?” asked Erek suddenly.

  “No,” replied Ode. “Why?”

  “To tell the tribes about the gods. We be here five seasons now, but still they reject us. They run from us, and they attack us, and they nay want us here. You be the first we got to speak to.”

  “Maybe they don’t want to hear it.”

  Erek snorted with laughter. “Well, no,” he said, before his face became tense and distant once more. “But we be here for no reason then. This nay a kind land to us—this winter is … a test. This place be flat, and there is nay beauty.”

  “Are the Scarlet Isles hot?”

  “They be the same as here, but it be mountain country and it be beautiful. The air be different, and well, I suppose it be home. You be knowing what it like to have a home?”

  Ode shook his head, trying not to think of the flatlands and the forest.

  “I be thinking me and the Kins will be leaving this place once it confirmed from the Castle Temple. There be no point staying longer. We wasted enough time. What you be doing then?”

  Ode blinked; he had not thought that far ahead. His days had been spent in an aching, sick haze, and he had planned nothing. He had been too busy thinking about the past.

  “I think I must follow you,” Ode said, because he did not know what else he would do.

  Erek gave him a searching look. “You be sure you don’t remember where you come from?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “So be it.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The Great Great Lake

  A letter from the Castle Temple sanctioning the return of their missionaries arrived two days later, carried by an eagle. Erek rushed to tell Ode the good news and it was clear from his wide smile how eager he was to go home. Ode wished he could share in the excitement, but it all meant very little to him. He was following the Kins because he did not know what else to do. Anything was preferable to wandering in the wilderness again. He knew what it was like to try to fend for himself and he would go anywhere before he was forced to face the cruel loneliness of the Wild Lands.

  “My prayers be answered!” Erek cried, bursting into the hut with a scrap of parchment gripped in his hand. “We be leaving right away!”

  He was so thrilled that he did not elaborate. Turning around, he ran back outside to share the news with the other Kins, leaving Ode to accept that his period of healing was over. It was time to move on.

  While the arrangements were made to decamp from the settlement, Ode attempted to regain his strength before he was faced with another journey. He did not know how far away the Scarlet Isles were, but his struggle through the thick snow of the Wild Lands was all too vivid a memory. He knew he needed to build up both his health and his confidence before setting out.

  At first, Ode slid out of bed and wobbled around the room, leaning against Arrow’s head for support. After a few days, once he could manage several laps around the hut without tripping or losing his breath, he piled on some of Erek’s furs and stumbled outside.

  The cold bit into him the moment he opened the door. With his chest rasping, he shuffled through the snow and studied his surroundings. For almost a whole moon cycle, he had seen nothing but the inside of the hut and at first, the whiteness of the snow was startling. There were eleven huts bundled around him and that was all. Everything else was snow, and folds of it stretched away on every side until they disappeared into a forest at the horizon. Out of that forest, Ode could see three red dots bobbing toward him. He waited, huddled against the chilly air, until they were closer, and when he recognized Erek leading the group, he waved.

  Erek smiled and called out a greeting.

  “You be out of there, I see,” he said, when they were closer. “That be good. You be needing to be strong enough to travel.”

  Even the thought of traveling made Ode feel sick. “How far is it to go?” he asked, his voice making clouds.

  “There be a sea to cross, so it be far.”

  Ode thought of the sea he had seen at the settlement of the New People and he wondered if it was the same one.

  “This be a good time for you to meet two special Kins,” said Erek, gesturing to the men beside him.

  One was short and squat with fair skin and blue eyes, while the other was tall like Erek, but thin and with a mop of red hair. They greeted Ode with kind curiosity.

  “All t
he Kins be dying to meet you,” said Erek. “I be fending them off ’til you strong enough. Many be wanting to talk to you.”

  Ode tried not to seem nervous and smiled.

  “We be in the forest there trying to meet Wildlanders, but they nay seem to want to see us,” said Erek, shaking his head.

  “Many moon cycles and still we nay be gaining their trust,” added the Kin with red hair, who then introduced himself as Molash. “We be meaning them no harm,” he added.

  Ode almost felt responsible, though he did not know this tribe. He hung his head, not knowing what to say, and shivered.

  “You be looking worn,” said Erek. “Perhaps you be going and laying down now. You be joining us tonight for planning instead?”

  Ode nodded and retreated to the hut gratefully. His excursion outside had made him tired, and he climbed back into the bed, his eyelids already heavy. Next to him, Arrow settled himself on the wooden floor with a sigh.

  As Ode drifted into sleep, he heard the Kins outside discussing him. His knowledge of their language baffled them, and they could not agree on how it could have come about. It baffled Ode, too, and he could not explain it either except that Magic must be involved. But he sensed that this would be dangerous to admit. As far as he could tell, no one spoke of such things here.

  As his strength returned, Ode began to practice the fighting drills he and Blue Moon used to perform together. He no longer spent days tucked up in blankets inside the hut, and he started to feel like himself again. When he could be of help to the Kins, he offered his services, often chopping wood for the huts or slicing vegetables for the cook’s stews. The Kins treated him with respect and gentle interest, welcoming him into their clan instantly. They were not like people Ode had ever known before; they were not suspicious or demanding or cruel. They were quiet and dignified. It was only Erek who chattered so much.

  “But I suppose they do not know about me,” Ode whispered once to Arrow on one of their solitary walks through the snow, collecting firewood. “If they knew what I could do then they’d think differently.”

  Ode was surprised that he did not feel the urge to shift. Since his Magic had all but deserted him in the wilderness, he had not felt its force again. He thought back to his time with the Taone, when he had crept away daily to transform. Now, he did not feel the need. It was like his Magic had almost disappeared.

  Ode was just beginning to understand the daily running of the Kins’ settlement when another eagle arrived, announcing that the clan were to leave right away. Belongings were strapped onto horses that were slighter and, in Ode’s opinion, not as strong as the mustangs from his homeland, and everything was made ready for departure. The huts were cleaned and shut up for their next residents, the messenger eagles were set free to travel back to the mountains, and the area around the settlement was cleared.

  On the last night, the Kins gathered and drank a strange liquid they had been saving for a special occasion. Ode was allowed a sip and he had to stop himself from spitting it right out. The bitter taste made his eyes water.

  “There be plenty of this wine waiting for us at home,” announced Erek, and the rest of the Kins smiled and nodded with pleasure.

  Ode was surprised by their quietness. He compared it to the Taone, with their drums and their dancing and their feasting, and he wondered how these men could show their happiness simply by smiling and nodding.

  “Let us sing a song,” said Erek, breaking the silence.

  He began to clap his hands in a simple, steady rhythm and to chant warbled noises. His voice was soft but clear, and one by one, the rest of the Kins joined in until they were all singing. They crooned mournfully and their eyes stared off into the darkness around them, seeing a land that was far away.

  Ode listened and tapped his foot to the beat, thinking of the flatlands and the forest that he would never see again—with a mixture of relief and regret. He did not know what mountains were, but they sounded different and exciting. Squashing any longing for his lost childhood home, Ode stared into the nearby fire and told himself that there was no point looking back. The Taone as he had known them did not exist anymore. They were the New People now.

  The next day, the Kins rode out into the snowy whiteness. Erek led the party and when Ode asked how he knew where he was going, the Kin replied, “I feel those mountains pulling me.” Then he took out a piece of parchment from his cloak and added, “The map be helping me, too.”

  Ode looked at the parchment longingly, urging on his dun packhorse so that the two men were abreast of one another.

  “You be seeing a map before?” asked Erek.

  “A few times.”

  “If you be knowing there’s a realm out there, you nay be like other tribe boys.”

  Ode shrugged, but did not take his eyes off the map.

  “All right then,” said Erek, handing it to him with a chuckle.

  Ode examined it closely, scanning the shapes and sketches for something he recognized, but it was not like Cala’s scrolls.

  “I be thinking we be about here,” said Erek, leaning over his saddle and pointing at a spot.

  Ode realized he must be looking at a small section of the Western Realm’s map in detail. He traced the shapes for meaning, but gathered little.

  “You read?” asked Erek.

  “What does read mean?”

  “These be words,” said Erek, pointing at the tiny markings dotted over the map. “They be names of things, like this one say the Scarlet Isles.”

  Ode stared, fascinated. “How can you tell?” he asked.

  “Because I read.”

  “How can I read?”

  Erek smiled. “I be teaching you,” he said.

  But that night a heavy snowstorm came and there was no time for reading lessons. Huddled in one of the shelters, Ode’s mind was drawn back to his days spent lost in the wilderness. He buried himself in his furs, longing to forget the fear and the loneliness of that cold, starving time, but it throbbed through him anyway. Arrow curled into his side, and together they lay shivering until morning.

  In the light of day, the storm did not seem as bad and Ode chided himself for being silly. Some of the Kins also looked a little shaken as they emerged from their shelters, but everyone smiled when they saw the morning sunlight. After breakfast, they all packed up and pressed on, forming a wiggling snake that slithered across the white land and went on seemingly indefinitely.

  The journey to the sea was hard on all of the Kins, and Ode wondered how some of them could stand it since they were far older than he. They had insisted that he use a saddle because their horses were not used to being ridden bareback, but Ode found it stiff and awkward. The saddle gave him sores and the relentless cold was unbearable at times. But Ode never heard the Kins grumble. He saw them wince in pain and he heard them gasp in agony, but they did not utter a word of complaint. Even when the eldest developed a hacking cough and had to be ministered ointments by the others, he never moaned. Their endurance rubbed off on Ode and he found himself also shrugging away aches and pains.

  One evening around the fire, Molash asked Ode if he regretted accompanying them on their journey, and Ode answered truthfully that he did not. He felt there was a lot he could learn from these people.

  A few of the Kins even won Arrow’s grudging affection. The wolf sometimes nuzzled up to those he liked, offering his head to be petted or his back to be rubbed. The Kins were not scared of him and they fed him tidbits of meat and tickled his chin. On one occasion, Arrow managed to warn the group of a nearby mountain lion and thus received a sort of honor status among them.

  As the days stormed by, the clan edged closer to the coast until one morning, Erek announced they would reach it by sundown. He explained to Ode that they were heading toward a small harbor town with merchant ships that could take them to their island, Holli—one of the islands of the Scarlet Isles. When Ode finally saw the harbor town with his own eyes in the fading light, he could barely comprehend it. The huts
there were large and tall. They were so close to each other, packed into tiny spaces, and built so high they soared like trees. There were many people walking about, and Ode saw cobbled paths that wound around and in between it all like threads sewn into a tunic. There were dogs, cats, and horses everywhere. Children scurried about and a salty breeze blew in off the sea. Ode could hear the crash of the waves and the constant murmur of many voices. He was terrified and thrilled all at once.

  Erek led the Kins through the cobbled streets and Ode noticed that people paused when they passed and ducked their head in a respectful greeting. The party finally stopped before a huge house that the Kins later explained was an inn. Erek disappeared inside and arranged for rooms for the night and a place on a merchant ship leaving tomorrow, while Ode waited outside with the others, trying not to show how uncomfortable he felt. Finally, Erek reappeared and the party unloaded their horses, stabling them in a nearby barn.

  Inside the inn, Ode looked at everything with round, amazed eyes. The rooms were too large, and there were so many of them. The amount of furniture bemused him, as did the people who sat inside drinking foul-smelling liquid. The owner tried to make him leave his wolf in the stable, but Erek gently insisted that Arrow must stay with them.

  “I never seen a tame wolf,” said the owner in a different language, backing away. “Not a big one like that. If he do damage, you have to pay.”

  “It’ll nay come to that,” replied Erek with a firm smile.

  By the next morning, news of the tame wolf had spread. There was a crowd gathered outside the inn as the Kins departed in the direction of the harbor, and Arrow shied away from the people, unused to such attention. Ode, too, felt himself trying to duck out of view. This town was strange and scary to him. He had not slept well in the uncomfortable, lumpy bed at the inn and he was starting to worry. It was becoming clear to him that life in the rest of the realm was nothing like his past with the Taone.