by Toni Cox
There was a chill in there air that had not been there a month ago.
A Moon cycle ago, he corrected himself.
He gradually learned the ways of this planet. Their calendar year consisted of eighteen Moons, or Moon cycles, not twelve months like on Earth. Each Moon cycle had twenty-four days, each divided into twenty-four hours. Each successive six days was called a Quarter Moon. Every two weeks, or two Quarters, they called a fortnight, just like they did on Earth.
Silas told him only yesterday that Fire Moon was almost at an end, and Harvest Moon, the eleventh Moon of their calendar year, would begin in a couple of days. Then it was the Moon of Plenty, followed by Falls Moon and Still Moon, and on the first day of the Moon of Darkness, winter truly began.
He struggled to remember all eighteen, but he would always remember the Moon of the Dragon, for that was the Moon they arrived here. It was the seventh Moon of their year, the middle of the Elveronian summer.
Our summer, he corrected himself again, for he had decided to stay, forever, even if Maia found a way to send them back.
Slowly she drifted out of sleep, still tired, but Wolf’s persistent licking was driving her crazy. Wolf!
Suddenly wide awake, she jumped out of bed, startling the wolf so he yipped and jumped backwards. Then he came to her, tail wagging madly and licking her hands. She knelt beside him on the floor and rubbed his shaggy coat, buried her face in it, tears streaming down her face.
“Oh, Wolf, I am so happy to see you up.” She kissed him on his nose. “How are you feeling?”
Methodically, she checked every part of his body, which proved to be more difficult than she expected, as he kept trying to roll onto his back so she could rub his belly.
“Hold still, will you? I need to make sure you’re all right.”
“I think he is quite all right. It is you I am worried about.”
Silas handed her a steaming cup of tea. She took it gratefully and sat on the bed. Wolf sat by her feet, tongue lolling out of his mouth, watching her.
“I’m still a little tired, but I am fine. I am so happy Wolf is feeling better.”
“Healing him took a lot of your energy. And Jaik’s. Even he slept for a day.”
“A day? How long did I sleep for?”
“Three days.” Silas chuckled at the expression on Maia’s face. “You missed some interesting discussions, but do not worry, I will fill you in once you have eaten something. I made you broth too, although this one was made with fowl and vegetables.”
Silas took the empty cup from Maia and moved toward the fireplace.
“Your mother left you fresh clothes. Why don’t you get washed up and then we can talk?” he said over his shoulder as he walked away from her, giving her the privacy to do as he suggested.
Once she was washed and changed; and been to relieve herself; she settled by the fire next to Silas. Wolf lay at her feet, gnawing on a bone Silas had thrown him.
While Silas stirred the pot in which her broth heated, he told her of what had transpired the last three days.
“The men from Thala Yll left yesterday. You left quite an impression on them. They talked about nothing else that whole night. It was almost impossible for Jagaer to extract a complete account of their trip from them, as they kept telling everybody who would listen about how amazing you were.”
Maia blushed. She had never liked the attention her status got her.
“Did they catch the Vampyres?” she asked, seeking to distract Silas from his current topic.
“They did indeed. They were hiding out in a cave just below Mount Pluteas. Wolf caught their scent and led the men there. Once the Vampyres realised they had been discovered, they fled. They chased them for over ten miles before they managed to corner them. Jaik said they fought like men possessed. He has never seen anything like it. There were twenty-eight, twenty-nine including Wolf, of our men, but only five of them. It should have been over quickly, but somehow two managed to circle back during the fight and attacked Jaik’s group from behind. Archer said one of them was about to deliver Jaik a killing blow when Wolf jumped at the Vampyre, clamping his teeth over his throat. The Vampyre apparently let out a screech like nothing they had heard before and the rest stopped fighting with the men and turned to help their companion. You know the damage they inflicted.”
Silas briefly patted the wolf’s head. “But it gave the men the opportunity they were looking for. With the Vampyres distracted, they converged on them and the fight was soon ended. Three were killed, but two they bound and Commander Arkenbay set to getting the information they were after. Jaik said it was not a pretty thing to watch, so he took some of the men and they saw to Wolf as best they could. He was going to leave, to take Wolf home to you, while the others dealt with the Vampyres, but the interrogation did not last that long. Just a few minutes in, the Vampyres both bit into something they had hidden in their mouths and were dead almost instantly. With the Vampyres dead, there was no reason for them to delay. They quickly built the stretcher and hurried home. The rest you know.”
Maia took a moment to sift through the information. She was glad, on the one hand, that her premonition had nothing to do with Death. However, if Commander Arkenbay had only been tracking two of them, it meant three of them had been hiding within a day’s walk from their city all this time. It was a terrifying thought. She had been right. Had she not sent Wolf along on the mission, something terrible could have happened to Jaik. She shuddered.
“Why are they here, Silas? What have we done to them that they raid our planet and kill our people?”
“We don’t know, Maia, but Jagaer is determined to find out. He has decided to send Somas to Naylera.”
“What?” Maia asked, shocked.
“He is to go in undetected. His elemental power is Air, so he is able to refract the light in such a way as to make himself invisible. You know the theory.” He nodded, as if to confirm it to himself. “He is to find out what is driving these attacks, so that we might know what we can do to stop them.”
“But that is a suicide mission,” Maia whispered. How could her father do that?
“Somas is our best Tracker and he is exceptionally skilled in stealth, trapping, hand-to-hand combat and the Silent Knives. No one is better suited for this mission. He left for the Gate last night.”
Silas took the pot off the fire and placed it on the low table next to the pit. Maia took a bowl from the table and held it while Silas ladled the steaming soup into it. It smelled delicious and she realised how hungry she was.
They sat in silence for a while. Maia ate first one, then a second bowl of soup and then went to wash the bowl before she sat again next to Silas to continue their conversation.
“When is Somas expected back? How do we know he is all right?”
“Naylera time moves almost the same as ours. It is agreed, if Somas is not back at Greystone within two days, the mission has failed and he has been discovered. Three Guard, Munnar, Boron and Aari, are keeping watch at the Gate with some of the Regiment. They have Aari’s falcon with them to send a message when the time comes. Jagaer is yet undecided about what he will do if Somas does not return, but he is preparing for war.
“Commander Arkenbay has taken messages with him to dispatch to Alea Yll and the north. Birds have been sent to Braérn, Tarron Heights, Rathaés and Dragonfort. Braérn will relay message to Crook Island and Stoneloft and beyond. Jagaer has given the command to produce arms and war machines. Even now, our Smiths work on producing swords, arrowheads, spearheads, and various parts of armour. Our Carpenters, including Aaron, are constructing war machines. To my surprise, Aaron has been very helpful in this, even if our methods are different from his. He has a mind for tactics and I have never met a more talented Engineer.”
Another day went by before she completely regained her energy. Silas said that Wolf had been more dead than alive, when she set to work on him and, although healing was what she was born to do, fighting death could kill her.
> It made her think. Silas talking about death awakened memories of the other wolf. Was he truly Death? If so, what did he want from her? And why did he make her feel the way she did? Since her return, he had featured prominently not only in her dreams, but also during her waking hours. She felt both fear and … she searched for the right word. Lust? He seemed to have a talent for appearing when she least needed him, causing alarm not only to her, but others as well.
Maybe, in light of what was happening in her world at this moment, she should take more note of Death and his behaviour. Maybe he had been trying to tell her something and in her fear and … lust … she had overlooked it.
She had been on her way to the stables, but now she sat on a rock beside the path, feeling as exhausted as after she had healed Wolf. She tried to calm her breathing, wiped her sweaty hands on her pants and closed her eyes for a moment. Why was she so weak?
“Darr!”
The dwarfish expletive rolled off her tongue before she could stop herself. Her father would not be happy if he knew Glark had taught her such foul words, but the word seemed to be the only one fit to describe what she thought of herself. She hated herself for being so weak. She had no self-control.
Shaking her head, she stood up and carried on walking towards the stables. If war was indeed coming, she would have to be stronger. It would not do to grow weak in the knees every time she thought of him. Nor could she afford to sleep for three days after healing just one patient, or throw up every time someone was in pain. She would have to be stronger.
“You want me to do what?”
She watched Jaik calmly as he paced in front of her. She met him and a handful of others at the stables and they spent the morning helping the Horsemasters drive in the herds. It had been mayhem. Never before had Maia seen all their horses together like this, but they would need all the mounts for the coming war. The mares would need some training. They spent most of their lives on the Grazing Grounds.
It was also the first time Maia had seen the filly Jaik talked about when she came back from Earth. She was now almost two years old and Maia could see why Jaik had mentioned her. Her coat gleamed as red as Fire’s, she had long, strong legs, a wide forehead and big, open eyes. The only difference in appearance was that she had a wide blaze down her face, where Fire had none. She had also inherited her father’s fiery temperament and gave them some trouble when it came to stabling her. Only after Maia had calmed her with her thoughts, was she willing to enter the confined space and it had been another while before she eventually settled and started on her hay net.
“I want you to teach me how to kill.”
I want to defeat Death, she thought, but left it unspoken.
“But why? You know what it does to you.”
“That’s exactly it, Jaik. I cannot afford to be weak. I must learn to deal with it. Otherwise I would be useless in a fight.”
“You are never useless, Maia, you know that. I have seen you do incredible things. You don’t need to be able to kill to be of help to us.” Jaik stopped his pacing and placed his hands on her shoulders. “You are, who you are. You cannot change that. What you have is not a weakness. Don’t you ever think that.”
“You cannot change my mind. If it does come to war, I will not let my people go without me. I need to be there for them. And Father will not let me go if I cannot control or defend myself. No,” she lifted her hand to stop Jaik’s interruption, “don’t say I can already defend myself. Sure, I can fight, but can I kill? What if I am face to face with a Vampyre and not just mine, but yours or someone else’s life depended on me killing him. Would I be able to do it? Would I be able to make that decision? I have to train harder, Jaik, not just the fighting, but also the killing.”
“You killed the bear.”
“Yes, I killed the bear. But had there been a second, would I have been able to carry on? Or would it have killed me in the moments I lay on the ground retching?
“Maia …” Jaik said, the anguish plain on his face.
“If you don’t want to do it, just tell me. I will find someone else,” Maia said stubbornly.
She did not want to think about what this was doing to Jaik. She was always so weak; not wanting to inflict pain; she would have to be stronger.
“No, I would rather it be me, than anyone else.”
He took her in his arms and held her for a while. Everyone else had returned to the city by then and they were alone, the Stable Guards outside keeping watch. The smell of hay and horses was strong here, a comforting smell. Maia felt safe in her brother’s arms and wished it could always be like this. But no, she needed to be strong. Reluctantly she freed herself from his embrace.
“I have already spoken to Egron. On average, he slaughters a score of chickens and a score of ducks per day and two cows every third day to feed the city. Deer and others animals are usually brought to him dead by the Hunters, but the domestic animals he slaughters himself. He has agreed to let me kill them. He said, as long as we bring the bodies of the animals back in one piece and it is done in accordance with our traditions, he does not mind who does it.”
Jaik stared at her for a moment, then burst out laughing. Maia watched him, eyes narrowed. She did not want him to make fun of this situation, this was serious.
“All right, you win. I will do whatever it takes to help you.” Jaik’s face grew serious again and Maia noticed the concern in his eyes. “But if I feel it is too much for you, I will end it. No arguing. That’s my offer.”
Chapter 12
Maia wiped the last of the blood off her clothes as best she could and stood up. It had been a long night and she was tired. She cast one final glance at Ätta and her new baby son, then hurried out through the door. They were both sleeping now and rest was exactly what they needed. Burindor was with them; Maia had given him some herbs, so he could prepare a tea for when Ätta woke up.
Tiredly, she climbed the last few steps to the veranda, then stepped into the house and dropped her medicine bag by the door. Dragging her feet, she made her way to the washroom. She didn’t think she had the energy to run herself a bath.
As she opened the door, the soothing smell of lavender made her look up. Malyn was bent over the tub, stirring the steaming bathwater with her hands. Candles were lit on the shelves all around the room.
Her mother smiled at her. “Luke said you would be finished soon; he suggested you would like a bath. Come,” Malyn wiped her hands on a small towel and beckoned to Maia, “let me help you with that.”
Gratefully, Maia let her mother help her out of her clothes. The shirt was ruined. She would never get the bloodstains out of the suede, but she didn’t mind. With a sigh, she sank into the hot water.
The last three days had been torture. Every morning, Jaik took her to the pens on the outskirts of the city. Egron pointed out the animals chosen for slaughter and they took them, one by one, to The Killing Grounds.
Just being in that place made Maia feel sick on the first and the second day. On the third, it was marginally better. For centuries, the city had used this space to slaughter their animals and the stench of death was almost unbearable to her elemental senses. Once Maia overcame the first few moments, Jaik went to work with her, making her kill in so many different ways. She shuddered to think of it.
On the first day she killed three chickens and a duck and suffered each death as if it was her own. She retched and shivered the entire afternoon and then pleaded with Jaik to let her continue. On the second day, she killed four chickens and two ducks. She cried the entire night afterwards and felt like an empty shell when she met up with Jaik in the morning.
“You don’t need to do this, Maia,” Jaik had said.
“The animals will die anyway, whether it is me that kills them or not,” she had retorted.
So, they continued on to The Killing Grounds and Maia killed another four chickens and another three ducks. She had not thrown up that day, but the pain she felt on the inside had not been less.
They had just called it a day and were returning to the city, when Luke came looking for them. Maia had hurried home, washed, grabbed her medicine bag and then spent the rest of the afternoon, as well as the entire night, with Ätta. Silas and Luke assisted where they could, mostly keeping Burindor company.
It had been difficult. The baby was slow to come and Ätta had been in a lot of pain. Maia spent most of her energy easing the pain for Ätta, but for her it had been bliss. After taking life for three days, she revelled in the fact that she was assisting in a new life to be born. It was a balm to her soul and she did not mind the blood, the pain, the long night or her exhaustion.
When she finally lifted the bloody baby to the mothers waiting arms, she smiled with joy and tears ran down her face. This was what she was born to do.
Her skin was pink from the hot water as she dried herself. Her mother brought her some fresh clothes and then left to make her tea.
Maia wiped the condensation off the mirror and studied herself for a moment. Her green eyes were bright, her skin flushed and her wet hair dark and shiny. She had the same high cheekbones as her mother, the same nose and lips. She had her father’s arched eyebrows and his darker hair. She looked a lot better than she felt. She looked at herself a moment longer, searching for the sadness she knew was there, but then turned to blow out the candles.
Still buttoning up her blouse, she took the few steps into the common room and joined her mother by the fireplace.
“Jaik has told me what you are doing.”
There was no accusation in her mother’s voice, only concern. Maia looked down into her cup and watched the steam swirl over the hot liquid within. It was mint tea. Her favourite.
“I don’t know any other way.” Maia sighed and took a sip of her tea.
“Killing is not something you can get used to, Maia, no matter how much you practice it.” Malyn took her hand. “You know death and have accepted it as a natural element within our lives. Even killing animals for food is a natural thing; it is for survival. What you must accept, is that defending the things you love most is also natural. Every living being will defend its family. Have you never watched a mountain cat kill a wolf to defend its cub? Or seen a pair of sparrows drive away the hawk to protect their nest? It is their natural right to protect themselves, just as our warriors protect us if we are attacked. It is necessary for our survival.”
