by Stone, Leia
The walk home was strenuous and I was tempted to drop the extra pot I was carrying for Lake. Four pots and a canteen was too much. Water was heavy. We didn’t talk, we pushed through as the sun dropped in the sky and we approached our village where vibrant sounds of revelry could be heard. Lake was panting and I watched in horror as she tripped over a stone and fell, bringing all of her pots down with her. Oh Fates! I unloaded my pots as quickly as I could, and helped her. She was crying. Precious clear water seeped into the dry, cracked ground.
“Lake …” I didn’t know what to say. Spilling water happened, but on the night of the revelry? She didn’t have time to go back.
She sobbed and her hands shook as we poured the half-filled pots together to make full ones. Two. Only two of four. Plus the one I had carried for her would be three.
“Three should be enough,” I told her.
She nodded. We loaded our pots and walked the short distance home.
We passed the village square. The elders beat their dried-skin drums, and the wives, who weren’t fetching water, sang and danced and served the men and children food. We came close to my hut and I glanced at Lake as I off loaded her extra pot.
“Bring any provisions you can and hide them underneath the Life Tree. When the elder starts the rain dance, find me and we leave,” I whispered in her ear.
She hugged me hard and nodded.
I set the water pots inside and saw my mother was there with Creek. Creek took the water from me and began adding it to the revelry stew. My mother and Creek were famous in our village for their revelry rabbit stew. Red and purple potatoes, sweet onion, sage and tender rabbit meat. The smell made me salivate. Creek slapped my hand away but gave me a wink. “It’s not ready yet.”
My mother ushered me upstairs. She produced a small cloth bundle. “Inside is the gold Kings Coin, dried meats, fruit and some spices. The food will get you across Death Valley, the spices can be traded for room at an inn, and the gold will buy you an apprenticeship.”
Tears slid down my face. My mother wasn’t like other women in the village, she married my father for love. They took no water wives. My mother fetched the family’s water for years before her hands became too deformed to hold the pots. Then I took over at nine winters old. If my father hadn’t died when I was twelve, we could have managed. A small but humble and happy family.
“I love you, Mama.” I unstrapped my canteen and shoved it under my straw bed with the bundle my mother had given me.
She hugged me quickly. “No long goodbyes. Just go. I don’t want to know when,” she told me, and twisted my hair up into one large bun. She fastened it with polished wooden sticks. She took her finest blue cloth and twisted the ends, wrapping it in an elegant fashion around my neck, draping it in the traditional way of my people.
“Happy summer solstice, Ocean.”
I wanted to tell her so much more. I wanted to tell her what she meant to me, how worried for her I would be, that I had decided to take Lake with me. But instead, I gave her what she wanted. “Happy summer solstice, Mama.”
I joined the revelry and became concerned when I saw Byron but not Lake. Did he punish her for not bringing full pots home? His other wives were present. I scanned the crowd desperately. I saw James, our head elder and Brook, his first wife, our spiritual leader. She took the stage and prayed to the Fates.
Her beaded headdress made her look regal. She threw her arms up in the air. “We call on the glorious Fates in the sky! Swell your clouds with life-giving water and bless us with your magnificent rain!”
The drums began to beat. Every village, every town, every kingdom was having the exact same festival, asking for the exact same thing.
“Fates of water and life, we plead! We are a humble people. Grace us with the next Water Blessed. We name our daughters after your blue elixir of life. We implore you to have mercy on our village. Choose one of us to carry your gracious water power.”
The drums were wild. I had attended every summer solstice since I was born, always asking for rain and water, but only once every twenty years did we beg for one of our women to be Water Blessed. Twenty years ago it was a farmer’s daughter from Wheat Valley. Before that, an innkeeper’s daughter from Mule. Brook began to dance. It was time for me to leave. My mother’s eyes found mine. I nodded, she nodded back. That was it. That was our goodbye. Born of her belly, nourished on her breast, tended to for eighteen winters and that was the only goodbye I could give her. I forced myself not to cry.
I really needed to find Lake. Everyone was rapt with attention on Brook and the drummers. With one final look at my mother, I used the distraction to sneak away. I grabbed the canteen and cloth bundle I had hidden behind our courtyard. I would have to hope Lake was waiting for me at the Life Tree; the only tree in our village that marked the border of our land and the beginning of Death Valley. If she wasn’t there, I would have to double back and check her hut, if there was time.
The drums thrummed louder and the wind carried with it an odd smell. It almost smelled of … rain. I tied my dress up high in between my thighs to make short pants so I wouldn’t trip on the hem. My animal-skin sandals were tied neatly around my ankles. I was ready for travel.
I ran quickly behind the village center and along the back of the huts to the road that led to the Life Tree and out of town. No one watered the tree, it just grew. It produced no fruit, just thick green leaves. We boiled them once, Mama and I, the leaves were bitter and not edible we decided. So it just became a thing of beauty; something to look at, something to give us hope. A magic tree, the elders said.
I reached the tree and was out of breath. I was panting and realized it would be a long night’s walk after carrying pots all day with no rest. My heart fell when I saw that Lake wasn’t there, but her bundle was. She must have placed it there earlier and was going to meet me. I decided to wait a few more minutes. The smell in the air was getting stronger. It had been so long without rain that I couldn’t remember the smell. Was it rain? The drums beat wildly and the hairs on my arms stood up. I’m doing it. I’m leaving my village to escape a life of being tied to those pots, to Byron, to being a water wife.
The first droplet of water hit my skin and I thought I was imagining it.
No. It’s not. It can’t.
But the second … the tenth droplet, I couldn’t deny it. Laughter bubbled up inside of me as I fell to the ground. It was raining! The Fates had smiled upon our village. I resisted the urge to run back into town and help my people grab every pot, pan, and cup, and set them outside to catch water. Instead, I lay back as the sky began to cry. I let the Fates tears of mercy seep into my cracked skin. I opened my mouth and caught the droplets inside. Lake would arrive any moment. The rain was the perfect distraction to get her out of the house if she was being held there as punishment.
“Thank you, Fates, bless Lake. Let Lake be your next water blessed,” I whispered. Then she would want for nothing, could command a divorce from Byron. Command anything from the kings that lived in the realm.
All of a sudden, a low rumble sounded overhead, the sky lit up with streaks of fire. I sat upright just as sky fire licked down from the clouds and zapped me on the head. I cried out. Pain shot from my head, down my neck, across my left shoulder and out my left hand. I gasped for air, clutching my left hand with my right.
“Ocean!” It was Lake. She was limping, running toward me, but I couldn’t stay upright. I fell backward and hit the ground with a thud.
Water Blessed
I awoke sometime later in an unfamiliar hut. My mouth was moist, which was never the case. I felt hydrated and alive. I groaned, and began to sit up. I was in the animal barn surrounded by over fifty pots of water. All full. I had never seen such a glorious display of water. My stomach grumbled. I was starving.
I saw my mother and she stopped me from sitting up. Her eyes were wide and she couldn’t speak. I felt wetness on my left palm, so I glanced down at it. What I saw sent me jumping upright, and knocki
ng over a full pot of water. My left hand was dripping water, like the faucet from the well. A long, jagged white scar marked where the sky fire kissed me from my left ear down to my wrist.
“I … I” I couldn’t say it. I had heard the stories, but I still couldn’t say it.
“You’re the new Water Blessed,” my stepfather told me with delight. His eyes glittered with greed.
I concentrated on my dripping hand and it ceased to flow. Holy Fates. I could control it at will, like breathing. My eyes met my mother’s and she smiled, bringing up a shard of reflective glass to my face.
“Your hand was dripping for two days while you lay unconscious. We filled every pot in town!”
Two days! I looked into the shard and saw that my once green eyes were now sky fire blue. They were like tiny stars. They glowed with such intensity, I knew that I would never be mistaken for anything other than the Water Blessed again.
My stepfather made a path through the pots and approached me. “I’m going to forget about the fact that we found you near the Life Tree with a travel canteen, food bundle, and my stolen Kings Coin, okay?”
I wrung my hands nervously. “Okay.”
His round belly spilled over his pants. He smiled. “I have a representative from each of the four kingdoms on their way here. They will bid for you to go and be the water bearer for their king.”
“Bid for me? Like a slave!” I shouted. I felt waves of anger crash inside of me. “I’m the Water Blessed. That means I’m not marrying Byron and I will do as I please from now on.” A daring thing to say but I was feeling bold.
My stepfather’s face became fierce and my mother tried to step in front of him, but he shoved her aside. “You’re such a naive little girl. You act twelve winters old! Do as you please? Selling you to one of the four strong kingdoms is the only way to ensure your safety. Do you want to be captured by water thugs and live at the bottom of a dry well, bleeding water for the rest of your life?”
His words sent cold water down my veins. He was right. I was naive and I would be taken if I went off on my own. My small village couldn’t protect me. Almost every war in the Water Realm was fought over the use of the Water Blessed.
My mother got up and stood in front of him again. “Let me speak with my daughter in private. Don’t I at least deserve that?”
As he gazed upon my mother, I saw his face soften.
“I’ll be right outside with the hunters. Word has gotten out to the realm that the Water Blessed is here. We could be attacked any moment.”
As soon as he left, my mother embraced me. She held me for a long time before letting me go.
“I knew you were meant for greater things.” Her fingers trailed the thin white scar along my arm.
“Do you think I should go to one of the four kingdoms?” I asked her.
She sighed. “You were going to go anyway, right? This way our village will prosper and you will have protection of a king.”
She was right, but I didn’t like the idea of being sold, being bid on like a fine piece of jewelry. “How’s Lake?” The second I asked her, my mother winced.
“Byron beat her pretty badly for bringing only three pots home. Then when they found you two together, trying to leave …”
My heart dropped. “But she’s okay?”
My mother nodded. “Thugs came while you slept. One of the hunters died guarding you. It’s been crazy here. We have only slept in shifts. The whole village is too excited and scared.” She looked tired. I didn’t want anyone to die for me.
“When do the kings’ representatives come?” I queried.
“One is already here, the other three will be here midday. The bidding starts tonight.”
Bidding. I hated that I had become an object. “Does the highest bidder get me or can I choose?” I asked her. She was silent.
“Mama, don’t I get any say?” I prodded her.
My mother looked at her feet. That was a no. Well, at least I didn’t have to marry Byron.
*
The village square was rumbling with excitement. Every person was present. I saw Lake who had a shawl covering half of her face. I tried to force a smile and waved. She waved but didn’t smile back.
As my stepfather and the other elders led me up to the stage, I scanned the four noblemen before me. The first man was short, fat, and had a wart on his nose. His nails had black in the creases, his boots covered in black dust; he was from the Coal Kingdom. The second man was tall with dark skin and wore a vibrant stitched silk tunic; he was from the Silk Valley Kingdom. The third representative was a woman. My eyes scanned her. I heard rumors that women ran the Wheat Valley and all of the lush farmland there, but I didn't believe it. Seeing her stand before me, I got excited at the prospect of being bought by a kingdom where women were in charge. Then I looked the final man up and down. His hair was longer and fell to his chin in wild waves of dark chestnut. His eyes, the color of clouds, bore into mine. My stomach warmed and I quickly looked to the jewels that littered his armor. He was tall, broad shouldered and as muscular as a horse; he was a member of the royal guard of Jewel Mountain Kingdom. All of the realms’ precious metals and desired jewels came from Jewel Kingdom, the wealthiest in the realm.
Seeing the four representatives before me made me realize I was about to become a prized possession. I was the Water Blessed! I could ask for whatever I wanted, starting with the right to choose my own offer. I cleared my throat and whistled loud. My people fell silent.
“Here's the deal!” I shouted loudly. “Each of the four kingdoms will present their offers. After which, I will choose which offer I will be taking. I'm not a slave; I can't be bought. I will only be persuaded.” I held my chin high. The glare from my stepfather told me that if he could, he would beat the water right out of me. I glanced at the good looking Jewel Mountain man, he was grinning ear to ear.
The Coal Mountain gentleman stepped forward. "Your ladyship, although we can clearly see your glowing eyes, might you show us your water power before the offers are spoken?"
The Coal Mountain stronghold was a dirty kingdom with the realm’s strongest army. I doubted I would be choosing his offer as I did not wish to help a people that bred war.
"As you wish," I told him and walked over to an empty pot at the end of the stage holding my left hand over it. I barely had to think and water began to trickle out. More thought and it flowed faster. My people gasped and a few fell backward in shock.
The greedy coal man was salivating as if he wanted to eat me. He bowed. "Thank you, my lady. Then I will begin the offers. The gracious king of Coal Mountain is prepared to give you and your village a generous deal. We will build earth ovens within each home and supply each hut with one year’s worth of coal."
I heard my people gasp. It would making cooking easier and keep them warm in the harsh desert winters.
He smiled. "We will also provide your lovely village with a large water storage tank and fifty wheeled wagons for your water wives to fill it."
I saw the women plead to me with their eyes. They stomped their feet with appraisal. Wheeled wagons would certainly make water fetching easier. You could pull ten pots behind you, and only have to go twice a week!
"And to you, my lady, the coal King offers you a royal house with female attendants and a royal guard. Also, we have arranged a marriage with a noble man that will make you a duchess and give you royal children." He smiled as if that would please me.
I narrowed my eyes. Before I could even consider the offer, the silk man stepped forward.
"A petty offer compared to mine, my lady. The Silk King is prepared to offer every wife in your village three reams of our finest silk and one tailored dress each. Also, we will bring our finest tailors to provide seamstress apprenticeships for ten young girls who can begin a silk trading business for your village that will bring prosperity for years to come."
My heart began thumping in my chest. What if I could ensure that Lake was one of the girls to get the apprenticeshi
p? I met her eyes. She thumped her foot with the rest of the women who wanted me to entertain the offer.
"In addition to that, we offer a large holding tank for water, sixty wheeled wagons and a marriage to our King!" He finished in a grand fashion and the women in my village stomped their feet loudly.
The Wheat Valley woman stepped forward and bowed. "Arranged marriages? You will have nothing of the sort in the Wheat Valley Kingdom. You may marry for love to whomever you choose!"
Marry for love? Like my parents. My heart beat wildly in my chest.
"We will provide your quaint village with enough wheat for bread making for an entire year!" She roared and my people gasped. Byron looked livid. Wheat was his trade. If the villagers had their own, his business would tank. I grinned at him. She went on, "Ten sacks of rice per household and one package of seeds. We too can provide a large water holding tank, seventy wheeled wagons and a farming apprenticeship for one lady whom you can bring with you."
My mouth dropped open. Bring one lady with me. My eyes went first to my mother. She smiled sadly and shook her head and then looked at Lake. My mother’s fingers would never make it through a farming apprenticeship anyway. I met Lakes eyes, she was holding back tears. Yes, I would take this deal. I nodded to her.
"My lady." The handsome Jewel Mountain representative stepped forward. I had forgotten about him. His voice was like silk and did strange things to my stomach. "Do you wish to hear the Jewel King’s offer?" He was the first one to ask my permission and not bombard me. I might as well give him a shot.
"Yes, if you think it is superior to these other offers." I gestured to the others.
He smiled; his teeth were stark white and straight. He was inarguably the most handsome man I had ever seen. "Well now, that sounds like a challenge and I like those."
I smiled back.
"The Jewel King is prepared to offer the following. One red ruby for every woman in the village." He couldn’t even finish talking before the stomping began. He smiled. "One gold Kings Coin for every man." The men stomped too and the other kingdom representatives glared at him. "We will build market stalls and teach your people the blacksmith metals trade." The stomping was deafening. "Like in the Wheat Valley, you may marry for love to whomever you choose. You will be guarded by the King’s finest knights, be given a private suite in the King’s castle, and be able to take one female companion with you to be your hand maiden."
