Neophytes of the Stone

by C Lee Tocci

  “Well, look what the latrine coughed up! A smelly runt!”

  Pushed face first into the dirt, Lilibit heard Nov’m’s taunt before she realized that he’d snuck up behind her. She rolled to her feet, and then backed away when she saw Nov’m and Ginger Greene, standing in the shadows, laughing at her. Two other Tigers stepped out from behind the trees and one dropped down from a nearby branch, forming a jagged circle around her.

  Panicked, Lilibit thought hard about being a wolf, about being larger than Nov’m and being able to knock him down. She closed her eyes and bit her lip, trying as hard as she could to think about changing.

  Nov’m must have guessed what she was up to. “Hey! None of that!” he snapped as he struck her across her face. She fell back to the ground and rubbed angry tears off her bruised cheek.

  “Big tough Nov’m,” Lilibit muttered. “You’re a real hero when it’s five against one.”

  “Shut up, runt,” spat Nov’m. “Don’t go thinking you’re special and that you were the first to faunamorph. I’ve been able to do it for weeks. I just don’t show off like you do.”

  “Then why don’t you practice morphing into a human being. That’d be a stretch for you.”

  A kick to the ribs sent Lilibit doubled over in pain.

  “Scrawny rat,” said Nov’m as he crouched down to grab the hair on Lilibit’s head. “You don’t belong in Kiva. Why don’t you go just home. Your aunties are calling you!”

  “Moron! You don’t know what you’re talking about,” gasped Lilibit as she twisted her head out of his grasp. “What makes you think I have aunties?”

  “I have connections.” Nov’m smirked slyly as he leaned back. For a moment, it looked like he was going to leave it at that, but then he bent back down and whispered into Lilibit’s face. “My father is very important, not just here in Kiva, but outside as well. He has very powerful friends. They’re the ones that told him that there are two women looking for their niece, a girl named Lilibit, and they tracked her as far Alamos Tierra.”

  Lilibit wasn’t looking at Nov’m. Her eyes were locked onto a small white piece of paper that he was waving in his hand.

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  “What? This?” Nov’m looked at the paper with phony surprise, like it had appeared on its own. “This is just the business card of my father’s associates, the ones that know your aunt.”

  Lilibit’s hand stabbed out to grab it, but Nov’m’s was faster.

  “Give it to me!” she hissed.

  “Not so fast. Why should I give it to you? What have you got to trade?”

  Lilibit narrowed her eyes to stare at Nov’m. She didn’t trust him at all. “I don’t have anything to trade,” she muttered.

  “No?” Nov’m reached for her pant’s pocket.

  “Hey! What are you doing?” Furiously, Lilibit backcrawled away from him.

  “Let’s just see how cocky you are without your guide stone.”

  “You can’t touch my stones!” Lilibit cried. “Hihomay said no one is allowed to touch your stone ‘cept the Stone Voice.”

  “That doesn’t count for guide stones.” Nov’m jerked his head at Ginger. “Hold her while I get it.”

  With an unpleasant grin, Ginger stepped behind Lilibit and grabbed her arms, pulling back her elbows roughly. Panic made Lilibit twist and kick like a fury, but two more Tigers stepped forward and grabbed her legs.

  “May I ask what you are up to?” spoke a cool voice.

  Cohanna stepped from the shadows, a column of white against the darker trees. She didn’t look angry, but something in her voice made everyone freeze, even Lilibit.

  Nov’m recovered first. “Drop her!” he ordered, a sudden cold fury in his voice.

  His clansmen obeyed immediately and Lilibit scurried to her feet.

  “I apologize for my clansmen, Elder Cohanna.” Nov’m bowed slightly. “They were upset at Lilibit’s actions yesterday and they intended to retaliate for the insult against their chieftain. Of course, as soon as I heard what they were planning, I rushed over here to stop them. I only arrived a moment before you.”

  Lilibit’s mouth dropped open at such a bald-faced lie. Cohanna eyed Nov’m but Nov’m was staring at Lilibit. In his right hand, a small square of white paper slipped from his fingers and fell onto the carpet of leaves.

  “Well, Lilibit?” Cohanna asked. “Is that what happened?”

  Lilibit stared at the card on the leaves, then at Nov’m and finally at Cohanna. She didn’t know how to answer, so she shrugged and looked back down at the card. She shoved her hands into her pocket, finding comfort as her fingers touched Ewa-Kwan.

  The silence seemed to last for minutes before Cohanna spoke again.

  “This will be discussed in council. Nov’m, please report to Gil-Salla’s hearth before the evening meal. Now go.”

  It wasn’t necessary to tell the Tigers twice. They scurried into the shadows, disappearing as fast as they had appeared. Only Nov’m walked away slowly, pausing to shoot a look back at Lilibit.

  Lilibit quickly bent to pick up the card. She would have left as well, but Cohanna stopped her.

  “Lilibit, do you want to tell me now what happened?” Cohanna’s voice was calm, but for some reason, Lilibit felt guilty anyway. She just shook her head and hid the card behind her back.

  Lilibit fidgeted while Cohanna stared, but in the end, Cohanna only sighed and shook her head.

  “Very well, you may go. Your bruises should be attended to. Visit Old Marigold, the healer, at her cottage. She will look after you.”

  Lilibit nodded a thank you before scampering off through the woods. This time, she kept her ears open, alert for any sign of ambush, but it looked as if Nov’m and his bullies weren’t lurking around to finish the job. She climbed a tree and sat hidden in the top branches as she caught her breath.

  Her ribs ached and the side of her face throbbed. Her arms and legs were scratched and bruised but she pushed the pain away as unclenched her hand, exposing the crushed and smudged business card that Nov’m had dropped.

  Serafino Sexton, Esquire

  Consultant

  Endrune Corporation

  Satellite offices at 660 Main street

  Alamos Tierra

  Lilibit shoved the card into her back pocket, shimmied down the tree, and headed to the healer’s cottage.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Old Marigold

  Lilibit took the longways path to Old Marigold’s cottage, not because she didn’t want to go there, but because the longways path was more interesting. The trees arched overhead in a leafy tunnel and birds that didn’t live anywhere else in the valley perched on the limbs and chattered to each other. Patches of wild flowers, even in the chill of late winter, peeked through the brush.

  If you didn’t know where to look for it, you might just walk past the cottage. Big leafed ivy crawled up its walls, covering the windows and even the doorway. It looked like a huge squat bush with a ribbon of smoke rising above it. As the path approached the cottage, it wound between the well-tended garden plots that teemed with the herbs and medicinal plants that Old Marigold needed for her healing.

  Lilibit knocked on the door frame, pushed through the ivy drapery and stepped inside.

  Against the far wall of the cottage, a pinion pine log glowed hot in the adobe fireplace. The white walls looked greenish as the daylight filtered through leaf-filled windows. White swaths of linen, hanging from the ceiling, were anchored against the walls. Shelves were laden with unmarked jars, filled with all kinds of interesting powders and liquids.

  Lilibit didn’t really need to see the healer. It’s true that she ached all over, but she had always healed very quickly. Already, the pain was fading. But Lilibit liked visiting Old Marigold. She liked the smell of the herbs hanging to dry and she liked the way the old woman fussed over her.

  But there was another patient in Marigold’s cottage this morning. Jeff lay on a corner mat, one arm and one leg band
aged, his hair and brows singed. He pushed himself up on to his good elbow as he glared at her warily.

  “Try to make it out through the Bluff again?” Lilibit guessed.

  “Yeah.” Jeff winced as he turned. “Tried to swing over the lava pool but the heat nearly burnt through the rope. How ‘bout you?”

  “Nov’m and his peons jumped me in the woods. Probably would have been worse if Cohanna hadn’t shown up.”

  “Jerks,” said Jeff without heat as he collapsed back onto his mat.

  Old Marigold bustled in at that point, tutting at the sight of yet another bloodied neophyte.

  “Poor little thing,” she buzzed as her fingers fluttered lightly over Lilibit’s cuts and bruises. She clucked as she found the bruised ribs and had Lilibit sit on a cushioned bench. “Not too bad. Let me finish up with this young rascal and then I’ll get you bandaged up.”

  She had brought in a handful of dagger shaped leaves, which she quickly broke apart, rubbing the clear sap onto Jeff’s exposed burns. He sighed in relief.

  “And what happened to you?” The old woman asked Lilibit, not looking up from tending Jeff.

  “Fell out of a tree,” Lilibit answered quickly.

  Out of sight from the healer, Jeff rolled his eyes. Lilibit replied by sticking out her tongue at him.

  “Hmph.” Old Marigold snorted skeptically. “Don’t know what it is with all you Ravens. You seem to get more injuries than the other three clans, combined.”

  Lilibit looked down at her toes as she swung her feet guiltily.

  “Well that’s all I can do for you the moment,” Old Marigold said, setting the last of Jeff’s bandages. “You sit there and rest for a few minutes while I take care of your clansmate, then the two of you can head out together and hopefully get back to your hogan without any more accidents.”

  A half hour later, Lilibit’s cuts were cleaned and bandaged and her ribs were tightly bound. She tried not to look too happy as she left the cottage with Jeff, but it was hard since Old Marigold’s parting words had made all the morning’s mishaps worthwhile.

  “Both of you take it easy for the next week or two,” Marigold had said as they left. “Lilibit, I’ll let the Old Stone Warrior know you are not to take part in Quaybo practice until those ribs are completely healed.”

  Once clear of Old Marigold’s cottage, Lilibit began to skip merrily. “No Quaybo! For maybe two weeks! Remind me to thank Nov’m next time I see him!”

  “Maybe you should stop ragging on Nov’m so much.” Jeff walked slowly, his arms and legs still sore from his burns. “He’s got a nasty streak bigger than his mouth and there might not be someone to bail you out next time.”

  “You sound like Todd,” said Lilibit and then giggled and ducked when Jeff took a half-hearted swing at her.

  It was quiet for a few minutes and Lilibit’s thoughts wandered back to how Jeff got hurt. “Why don’t you just ask Gil-Salla if you can go to Alamos Tierra. Maybe she’ll let you go with Jojoba next time he goes over Red Rabbit Ridge.”

  “I did ask her.” Jeff kicked a pebble sulkily. “She doesn’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “Did you tell her why you wanted to go? So that you can get your stuff for your computer thingy?”

  “Yeah, but she still said no, that the Valley of Kiva has survived thousands of years without it and that I should focus on learning the skills that I need to be a stone warrior and not worry about what the outside world is up to.”

  Since Lilibit didn’t really understand much more about computers than Gil-Salla, she mostly agreed, but today, with that business card burning in her pocket, she was more curious than usual about the outside world.

  “What kinds of things could you find out about?”

  Jeff’s eyes lit up with a slightly manic excitement. “You can find out almost anything with the internet, and with Dave, I could go places that no one else can!” He fiddled with the gold ring that concealed his stone.

  Lilibit’s face puckered with confusion. “What do you mean you can go places with Dave? Do you mean that you can disappear and reappear someplace else?”

  “No,” Jeff said, disgusted. “It’s just that Dave can get into files and databases that most people can’t access.”

  “That sounds boring. Who cares what’s in files and databases?”

  “You can find almost everything in databases!”

  “Like what? Can you find people? Can you find your parents?”

  Like a candle in a rainstorm, the excitement in Jeff’s eyes disappeared, replaced with a cold glower.

  “Yeah,” he mumbled and then, even lower, he added, “if I wanted to.”

  “How? Can you see them? Can you talk to them? How do you find people?”

  Lilibit was so excited that Jeff’s sulkiness seeped away. “Well,” he answered. “You can search for them, and then you can see what they’re up to. You can check their credit cards and see what they’re buying, what restaurants they go to, what trips they’re taking. You can check their e-mail and see what they’re saying to other people.”

  Lilibit watched Jeff’s face closely. “You want to use the internet to spy on your parents?” she guessed.

  “No!” Jeff answered quickly, then after a minute, he shrugged. “Well maybe. Sometimes I wonder if they think I’m dead, or if they’d even care that I’m still alive.”

  “Would you write to them? You couldn’t tell them where you are, but you could tell them you’re okay.”

  “No!” Jeff shook his head so hard, he jarred his bandages and winced. “They don’t want me. They made up their minds months and months ago. Sometimes I’m just curious, that’s all.”

  They both fell silent again. Lilibit practiced “earthwalking” on the soles of her feet as she thought about what Jeff had said.

  “Is there anyone else you’d write to?” she asked quietly. “If you could? A friend? An aunt?”

  Jeff’s jaw jutted out as he thought about it. “Nope. Maybe Gil-Salla’s right about that part then. But just because there isn’t anyone outside the valley that I need to know about, that doesn’t mean there aren’t things outside the valley we shouldn’t know about.”

  “Jeff?” Lilibit’s voice sounded weird, even to herself. “If there was someone outside the valley that cared about you, that worried where you were and how you were, would you try to find them?”

  “Well, yeah.” Jeff’s barriers were slamming shut as he spoke. “But if there had been anyone out there that had cared about me, I probably wouldn’t be here now.”

  Lilibit didn’t try talking to Jeff for the rest of their walk back to their hogan; she could tell he was all closed up. But as her fingers stroked the card in her pocket, she thought about all the things he’d said.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Stupid Nov’m

  The following week hadn’t been nearly as much fun as Lilibit hoped it would be. Keotak-se accepted the Healer’s advice with an unsmiling nod, but even though Lilibit was excused from sparring, she wasn’t completely excused from Quaybo class. She sat, squirming in boredom, forced to watch the others at practice. And, unlike prior classes, there was no opportunity to escape. Keotak-se watched her like a like a python, not seeming to pay attention, but as soon as she started to creep away, his staff would flick painfully at her arm, herding her back to her spot. And so she sat, bored and sulking.

  At one point, in between practice bouts, Todd had come over to sit beside her. He had been surprisingly quiet when she had returned from the Healer’s, but instead of scolding her like she expected him to, he seemed to blame himself. She didn’t understand how he could think it was his fault that Nov’m had ambushed her, but she wasn’t going to argue with him.

  As soon as Todd had settled on the dirt beside her, even before he could mumble hello, they were invaded by the ubiquitous Sylvie Silverstone. Ubiquitous was one of Lilibit’s new words. It wasn’t exactly accurate. Sylvie wasn’t everywhere since she hadn’t been invited into their hogan, but sh
e did seem to be anywhere else that Todd was. Besides, Lilibit thought the word ubiquitous was an ugly sounding word and, as such, fit Sylvie perfectly. With a grimace of apology, Todd allowed Sylvie to drag him back onto the practice field. Lilibit glared at their backs as they walked away.

  Lilibit probably would have sulked through Faunamorph class as well, but by the time they’d finished their laps, she’d forgotten about her funk. Besides, she had a lot of questions to ask and it was difficult to maintain a dignified brooding when she was waving her hand.

  “Mr. Tree--,” Lilibit broke off at a look from the Old Stone Warrior. “I mean, Keotak-se, sir. Why, when you say ‘chee-ot-say toh-gee-na sha-be-kah,’ you turn into a condor, but it doesn’t work for us?”

  Oops.

  Keotak-se stared at Lilibit for a long moment and she squirmed. The only way she could have known that it wouldn’t work for her is if she’d been trying it on her own. Which she had. And while Keotak-se hadn’t actually forbidden them from experimenting, he did look down at her disapprovingly. Oh, well. Too late now, she bit her lip as she met his eye.

  “Experienced stone warriors,” Keotak-se said, “may use such a phrase as a trigger, to recall the sensation and structure of their morph-form. I recommend that you first master traditional transmutation before attempting shortcuts.”

  Lilibit pocketed that tidbit in the back of her mind and started to ask another question, but Keotak-se quickly cut her off.

  “Enough questions,” he said, stabbing his staff once on the packed ground. “Today, we have a visitor who will help us in attempting one of the most basic faunamorphs.”

  A flicker of movement from the top of a nearby hill drew their attention. They caught their breath as the large furry figure of a giant grey-black wolf pattered calmly towards them.