Calliope’s face was purple with rage. “How dare you? How dare you speak to me in such a manner?”
Reena was afraid that Lucas had gone too far. He was right, though she was reluctant to back him up. But he had always backed her up and she was going to back him up now. She stepped forward and said in her calmest voice, “You sent them West. Your people sent out into the world dangerous criminals, and you did it in order to prove that you were merciful and good.
I know you aren’t personally to blame but neither are we, but we bear the brunt of the rage that is come ot the lands because of the actions of this land.
I know it sounds hard to believe and that you don’t think it’s your problem but it is.You sent them out there without ever considering that while you might have thought that those lands were lost, that they might not have been to the people within them.”
“We had no way to know that there were people in those lands,” Calliope said angrily. “Besides that is a rather moot point. Before we sent Barkley West, there likely were no peoples in those lands.”
Reena said, “Yes, there were. The nomads, and they are still there. Barkley and his tribe coming across the desert is one of their greatest legends and stories. They tell it to their children to remind their children why they should never follow evil men. Barkley and his followers kidnapped a great deal of the nomad’s peoples and enticed others to follow them.
“Your mistake in sending Barkley to the west did indeed impact people in those lands. The lands are not lost and never have been. But they will be one day. If the prophecies are correct those lands will eventually be no more one of these days. Or at least that’s what the nomads say; I have no idea. All I do know is that Lucas is right: you helped start this, you helped build the arena whether you intended to or not.
“When your ruler Arthur stood across from Barkley sword to sword and chose not to kill him, when he bested him in one-on-one combat, he instilled in Barkley a need to create a place where he could reenact those scenes over and over again, but this time with him always as the victor.
“Even though Barkley is dead and long since turned to dust, his bones have scattered across the desert and everywhere else in the lands, or wherever it is the bones drift to after they crumble, despite all of that, his bloodlust lives on. His lineage still remains and none who have come from it have been kind or strong enough to break the tradition that Barkley started, the tradition that was created when your ruler challenged him to a face a dual and then let him live.”
Calliope said, “I am ruler here yes. But decisions like these are not in the hands of one person. To allow one person to make those types of decisions is not only dangerous, but it gives more power than should ever be given to one person. I’m assuming you know that because of the way things run over there in the lost… I’m sorry, in your lands.”
Reena nodded. Hope had begun to surface and her heart was beating faster than it had for a long time. Her hands clenched together and she had to suppress the smile that was threatening to break out across her face as she said, “Yes, I understand that exactly.”
Calliope said, “I have one more question, but it is not for you Reena. It is for you, Oak.”
He looked around at the others and then at Reena. She could only nod, she had no idea what it was that Calliope wanted to ask him, but she had a feeling that whatever it was Calliope’s willingness to help hinged on his answer.
He stepped forward. “Yes?”
Calliope asked, “Did you miss the red robin?”
“I missed the red robin in the morning, and at noon. I missed the red robin in the evening and by the light of the moon.” Oak stopped, a look of puzzlement crossing his face. “I’m sorry, I don’t know where that came from.”
Tears poured down the faces of both Calliope and the judge. The judge said, and it showed in his hushed voice, “That was a nursery rhyme, it was created for our son. It was not a known rhyme or one that was told or taught to anyone else. Calliope had made it up and it was a private thing between her and our child..”
Oak said, “I’m sorry if I’ve offended you. I swear to you I have no idea where I learned it from. Maybe I heard it somewhere…”
The judge said, “You have not offended us. Our son was taken when he was very young, younger than the boy that is your own son. He was taken by a man who was given a death sentence but escaped somehow, the man who stole the sword of Arthur and ran to the West.”
Deal said, “Hey! Hey Father, does this mean that we have enough money to buy cheese now?”
**
The tribe was put into a large home with many bedrooms. It was near the city center and after a bath and a change of clothes Reena stood at the window of her bedroom. She chose a room whose windows looked out over the streets below rather than a room in the back which looked out over the gardens. She wanted to see how different the city was than Aretula; she wanted to see its people.
Servants bustled around, bringing into the house provisions and fresh clothing for the guests. Oak and Deal were both still stunned, and while it was not easy to know if Oak was indeed their long-lost son, Deal’s resemblance to the child that their son had once been was obvious and unmistakable.
There was a knock on her door and Reena said, “Come in.”
Lucas entered, his feet barely making a sound on the heavy carpet. Would she ever get used to that? She had never known softness beneath her feet such as that, except for the loamy soil of the woods. It seemed odd and despite its comfort she didn’t like it.
Lucas asked, “Do you think we will be able to convince them to help us?”
Reena said, “We don’t have a choice. If we have wasted all this time coming here, then we have lost everything.”
“I hate to say it, but using Deal and Oak as leverage is not a bad idea.”
Reena turned to look at Lucas. His face had aged in the last few weeks, as had everyone’s including her own. She leaned against the window sill and asked, “Would you have allowed someone to use your child as leverage Lucas?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Did you find that fair?”
Lucas said, “It is not just us here Reena. It is not just our tribe either. There are many many innocents out there in the city. In our lands. The Governor kills indiscriminately and he is never going to stop. His father was more just, but he was just as bloodthirsty in his own way. Until the line of Barkley is broken there will be no peace and there will be no justice there.”
“Are you saying that it doesn’t matter what means we use as long as we achieve the results we would need?”
“Yes.”
Reena asked, “Lucas, can you not understand that that is how the Arena was allowed to come into being. If people would stop believing that the ends justify the means, no matter how bad the means are then perhaps things on this earth would be so much better.”
Lucas said, “I can’t argue that with you, Reena because it’s true. But right now we don’t get the luxury of feeling sorry for other people or for ourselves. Right now we have to fight for what is real and what is honest and that is the people who need our help. It is time to break the stranglehold of Barkley. We have to have their help, no matter how we get it, we have to take it with us.”
Reena looked away, not wanting to answer him. She picked at a small section of the windowsill before she managed to say, “There are people in the city I love. I don’t want to see them harmed, and I would do anything to save them, but I don’t know that I can use a parent’s pain and hope against them.”
Her own words startled her a little. Who did she love within the city? Her father, of course but who else? Praxis? Or Talon…
Sweet and kind Talon, he had always hidden small little treats in the woods just for her. She closed her eyes tightly remembering how delighted she’d always been to follow his little clues: bent reeds near the pond’s edge, a flower tucked behind the cow’s ear and many other things that would lead her eventually to either a slice of still w
arm bread wrapped in an old piece of cloth or a homemade candy rolled into a leaf to keep the bugs from biting it before she could get to it.
And what about the priestess, Nemia? Did she not love her to? She had never had a true friend before, at least not a friend that was a girl. In the woods girls her age were few and far between and most of them were already married, or dead. A few had even decided to leave the woods and go to the cities on their own, to make their way as a citizen or at least to try to. None of them had ever been seen again and Reena had no doubt that he might have gotten lucky and found a real life or at least a life that didn’t involve the taverns, but she was equally sure that many of those who had left of their own volition had found exactly that life and no other.
She and the priestess weren’t close but they had shared a lot already. She longed to see her again, to share secrets with her and it was not something she was used to. She was not used to missing things she had never had, like close friendship.
And then there was her father of course. Liam, the man who had always sheltered her and protected her and kept her safe. Had become an outlaw to protect her mother and protect his daughter as well, no matter what the cost. She had wondered where he was and she knew that that was a bad thing, a terrible thing. No matter how difficult what she was going through was, she should keep her father in mind and remember that he was going through worse things.
Praxis had insisted that he would help her father as much as he could, and she did not doubt that he would. And what about that? Was praxis just as bad in his own way as the Governor? Was praxis not really in his own way helping to hold her hostage by using her father against her?
What Lucas was suggesting was the same thing that everyone had done to her so far. The Governor, Praxis… All of them had kept her father from her and they had used her love for him as leverage to get her to do what they wanted her to do. It wasn’t fair and she was not going to do that to Calliope and the judge.
“Lucas, have you ever considered that Lauren likes you?” Those were not the words that she had intended to say, but somehow they were the words that came out of her mouth.”
Lucas flushed a bright brick red. Reena could only gawk at him, completely thunderstruck, as he began to stutter and shuffle his feet. He could not even get words out of his mouth; they stuck in his throat and when he did manage to get something past his lips it was a strangled series of guttural sounds.
Reena began to laugh wholeheartedly. She couldn’t help it; it was funny. She said, “You know she likes you and you like her too! By the gods, Lucas — you are shy!”
Lucas made a few more choking sounds in his throat and then he finally got out the words, “It’s not that I’m shy. I lost my wife and child and I never really wanted anyone else. It’s hard for me to tell her that I find her to be pretty and that I want to spend time with her because… Well because I haven’t done that in a long time. Stop laughing at me!”
Lauren had been standing in the doorway, unseen by either of them, and just then she stepped through that doorway and said, “Lucas, you don’t have to tell me that I’m pretty. You don’t have to tell me that you care about me, at least not yet. But now that I know you like me, I can say quite freely that I like you as well.”
Grown-ups. Lucas looked like he was about to faint on the floor and Lauren was standing there with her hands on her hip and a weird smile on her face like she just won some great big contest. Why were grown-ups so weird? Reena could not figure that one out and she wasn’t sure she wanted to either.
“I also tend to agree with Reena on this one Lucas. It’s not fair to use somebody’s missing child as a way to make them do what you want them to do. Even if Oak is their child it’s wrong. And if they discover that he is not — it would be even worse. Think if somebody brought a woman to you and said to you, this is your child all grown up and you put your love and energy into that child, into that woman, thinking that she was your own, how would you feel if you found out the she was not? You would feel betrayed and angry and you would seek revenge.”
Lucas protested, “But we never said that Oak was their child! They think he is because of the resemblance that Deal has with their son.”
“Everyone has a twin, or so they say.” Lauren dusted her hands off as if that were the end of the matter. “We have to find another way to convince them. We can’t use that. We won’t. It is not fair.”
Reena looked at Lauren and smiled. It was nice to know that she had an ally even if it was one she had not expected. To know that Lauren did like Lucas and that there may actually be something in their future together made her happy, but that happiness was not long lived.
If they did not succeed in their mission, they would have to return to their own lands empty-handed. And none of them would live very long once they stepped foot back into the woods.
**
The Council was meeting. Reena and her tribe were sitting on the first row of benches. All of them were nervous, Reena most especially. She was going to have to speak today and there were literally thousands of people behind her. None of these people knew about her land and they didn’t care. As far as they were concerned that small island, that continent as they called it, was empty — devoid of life.
But it wasn’t, and it wouldn’t be. Not if she could help it. Her fists curled and her pride rose up. She was the daughter of Liam. He had not raised her to be a coward and he had not raised her to stay silent in the face of injustice. He had raised her to fight back, and she had fought. She had bested people in the arena and perhaps the fights had not been fair and perhaps her wins had not even been by design but by accident, but nonetheless she had survived far worse things than this.
Calliope called the Council to order. Immediately below the high bench that she sat on for more seats, also behind the tall wooden barrier. As soon as she called for the Council the door to the right in the room opened and they began to file in, men and women alike. So this was the Council; they all looked like ordinary human beings except that they all wore the same robes that Calliope and the judge wore. All of them had dour expressions on their face and all of them held small wooden hammers with black heads in their right hand as they walked onto the platform that held the bench and then took their seats.
Behind Reena, the crowd was restless; she could hear whispering and snatches of conversation. She could feel the looks directed at her, her face burned as she realized that every single person in the room was looking at her, and her tribe. Were they judging them? Of course. Were they finding them lacking? Probably.
She was clean and she was dressed in clothes that came with her across the desert. She had refused to wear the new clothes that they had asked her to wear to Council today because she wanted to be different, she wanted her difference to be seen. The clothes they had offered her were made of fine linen, sewn with silk threads, and dyed with beautiful colors. She did not want to wear those, not today.
Calliope began to speak. “We have before us today a tribe from what we call the lost lands. They come here to show us that not all is lost there as we had thought. There is the city there, one called Aretula. It is the city that was founded by Barkley.”
At the mention of his name, boos and hisses began to ring out. In the crowd someone cried out, “Anything that came from his hands must be spoiled!”
The entire Council banged their little hammers onto the surface of the barrier between them in the crowd. Instantly the crowd quieted. Calliope said, “We will hear them out and we will hear them fairly. We will not speak against them and we will not speak out as they speak. We will respect them and we will hear them. Reena, come forth.”
Reena stood uncomfortably, acutely aware of how many people were staring at her. Lucas whispered, “Think of how many people were staring at you when you were in the Arena.” Instantly she felt better. He was right, the people in the Arena were howling for her blood, these people were simply here to listen to what she had to say. Courage filled her and she kept her
head high as she approached, and nodded to Calliope and the others of the Council, and then turned her back on them.
She faced the people in the benches. She knew that what she had just done was against all of their traditions. She could see shock and drawn in breaths all around her. To prove her suspicions Calliope said, “It is customary to face us when one speaks Reena.”
Reena said, “I am sure it is. That is the tradition here, but I am not from here. I respect you and your traditions, but I am going to speak to the people that I am asking for help. You see where I come from it is the government, the ones who make the laws who would never suffer the weight of the decisions that they make. I don’t know how that works here, but I am going to speak to the citizens of Olympus because it is their help that I am seeking; it is them that will have to bear the weight of the decisions that are made here today.
“In my land there is a city as Calliope has told you. Yes it was founded by Barkley and his line still holds it. It is a city where blood is spilled daily, it is the city where justice does not prevail. The poor are starving and left without resource. Women have no rights, no rights at all. If it is decided that you should go to a tavern and be made to prostitute, that is what you do because you have no say in the matter.”
Many of the women in the crowd began to mutter angrily, their shock overwritten by their rage that such a thing be allowed to happen. Reena said, “In our lands there is twice a year an event called the culling.
“Children are taken from parents, wives are taken from husbands and sometimes husbands are taken from their farms, leaving their family to starve because without the men there, the women have no rights and they’re not allowed to farm alone. They have to either leave the farm to the family that the government decides to place there, or they have to beg charity from that family in the hopes of staying.
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