by P. C. Cast
As they left the burrow and began the long, hot journey to the Tribe, Mari thought about the “drastic measures” she would have to perform, and then, according to her mother’s notes, there was still no guarantee a case this far along could be cured.
“You look worried,” Nik said.
“I’m thinking about your cousin,” Mari admitted. “Nik, you do understand that he might be too sick for me to heal, don’t you?”
“That was one of the first things I thought about when I saw him last night. It’s why I left right away, even though I knew it could be bad for my own wounds,” Nik said. “Mari, could the blight come back?”
“I didn’t see anything in Mama’s journals that said the blight reoccurred. She wasn’t taking notes on Companions, of course, but you did respond to the treatment immediately. I think you’re okay, Nik.”
“That’s good to hear,” Nik said.
“And you know where I live. If your wounds start bothering you, come by the burrow and I’ll take a look at them.”
“That’s better to hear.” Nik grinned at her. “But do I have to be in pain to see you?”
“Why else would you want to see me?”
“Because I like you! And I like Rigel. And now that Sora doesn’t want to kill me I like her okay, too.”
“I don’t know if we can be friends,” Mari said slowly, surprised at how difficult it was to reject him.
“I thought we were already friends.”
“Well, we are. But that doesn’t mean we can keep seeing each other. Nik, my father was killed because of his relationship with an Earth Walker. I don’t want that to happen to you,” Mari said.
“It’s a different world now than it was all those years ago,” Nik said.
Mari met his eyes. “You’re going to have to prove that to me when we get to your Tribe.”
A squirrel bolted from the path in front of them and Rigel, barking with happy excitement, took off after it.
“Are you sure I shouldn’t send him back to the burrow? Sora calls him a creature, but I can tell she secretly likes him. At least he’d be safe there,” Mari said, watching the treed squirrel scold her pup.
“The Tribe would never separate a Companion from her canine. I told you that.”
“I’m only half Companion,” Mari reminded him.
“No, you’re Rigel’s Companion—his choice for life—and that’s stronger than anything in your blood. Trust me, Mari. I won’t let anything bad happen to either of you.”
They walked on in silence for a little while until Mari’s curiosity couldn’t be still. “So, your father is Leader of your Tribe and a priest?”
“A priest, or priestess, is always Leader. There’s also a Council of Elders that rules on Tribal business and upholds laws and such.” Nik paused and then added. “So a Moon Woman is what you call your Clan’s Healer?”
Mari had told herself she was ready for Nik’s questions. He’d overheard enough to make his curiosity dangerous, and before they’d left Sora had pulled her aside and vehemently reminded her that no one from the Tribe could know the extent of a Moon Woman’s abilities. Mari agreed, but she wasn’t looking forward to lying to Nik. She’d promised herself to tell him the truth—just not all of it.
“Mari?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, a Moon Woman is a Healer, but it’s more complicated than that. Like I explained before there is usually only one Healer per Clan, and we always live apart from our people,” she said.
“Why?”
“Safety.” She sent Nik a pointed look implying what the Moon Women had to stay safe from was his Tribe and their Hunters.
“Oh, I see.” He looked away from her and Mari breathed a mental sigh of relief. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault.” Guilt made Mari’s response sound more abrupt than she’d meant it to, so she added, “It’s the way our world is.”
“Sometimes I think our world needs to change.”
Mari mimicked Sora’s sarcastic snort. “Just sometimes?”
“Yep, sometimes. When I was in your burrow watching Sora grumble about us not staying for her feast, and Jenna playing that strange card game with little Danita, and you buzzing from the front room to the pantry and back again and again while you loaded up your medical pack—well, that’s some of the times that I don’t think the world needs to change,” Nik said.
Mari stared at him, not knowing what to say.
“Do all of your Healers have gray eyes?”
His question surprised her and she scrambled for an answer that wasn’t a direct lie.
“Why do you ask?”
“Your eyes are gray, and so are Sora’s. You’re Moon Women. That new girl, Danita?”
“Yes, that’s her name.”
“Her eyes were gray, too. I heard you tell Sora to train her. And the Earth Walker who told me where Jenna was being held last night was the only female who would talk to me—her eyes were gray, too.”
“Did she tell you her name?”
“Yes—Isabel.”
The knowledge that one of the girls Leda almost chose to apprentice was imprisoned settled within Mari like a sick secret.
What would Mama do? What would Mama do?
“Mari, is something wrong?”
“I know her. Isabel was a—a friend of Mama’s.”
“I suspect you know many of the Earth Walkers on Farm Island,” Nik said.
Mari nodded.
“I don’t know what to say about that.”
Mari looked at him, meeting his gaze with a frank fierceness that caught her off guard. “You could say that you’ll help me figure out a way to free them.”
“Your friends?”
“Yes. No. All of them, Nik. All of the Earth Walkers. My friends—the women I don’t know. All of them.”
“I think you’re the key to that,” he said.
His response utterly shocked Mari. “Me?”
“Absolutely. Hear me out. You don’t know my Tribe, my people, but they aren’t monsters. They aren’t killers and slavers. They’re just people—like Sora and Jenna and you. They justify enslaving the Earth Walkers because of the damned blight. Working the fields—planting, weeding, irrigating, and picking—that’s a death sentence to people who can’t survive a simple cut in their skin. But you can cure the blight! If you share that cure with my Tribe, they’ll have no reason to enslave your people.”
Mari stared at him. Was he really that naive, or was he trying to trick her into giving him the cure? Of course the irony was the added annotation in Leda’s medical journal: the infection was cured, though not without the power of the moon. Mari could give him the recipe for the indigo poultice—that was simple. But without a Moon Woman drawing down the power of the moon, it would be as ineffective as whatever the Tribe’s Healers had been using.
And she couldn’t tell him the full truth. Could she?
“Nik, healing the blight isn’t as simple as you think it is. There are things about Moon Women, and my people, that you don’t know. It’s—it’s complicated,” she prevaricated.
“Oh, I know! I remember. You need moonlight to cure blight, too. Lucky for us there’s plenty of moonlight up in the trees.”
“Well, that’s good!” Mari said brightly. “But Nik, that’s not all there is to it.”
“I understand. You don’t want to give the cure to the Tribe. And why should you?”
She hated the sadness in his eyes. “Nik, can we agree to talk about it later?”
“Sure. Right now let’s just get O’Bryan well. Everything else can come later,” Nik said.
“That sounds good to me,” Mari said. Rigel ripped past them, barking wildly at another squirrel. Mari and Nik laughed. “So your father’s canine is Rigel’s father?”
“Laru—his name is Laru. They look a lot alike.” Nik smiled as Rigel tried to climb a tree after the squirrel. “They act a lot alike, too. Or at least Rigel acts like Laru used to when he was young. He’s mor
e mature now, or at least he pretends to be, but you’ll definitely see the similarities.”
“I’ll get to see Laru?”
“Of course! He’s always with my father,” Nik said.
“I’m meeting your father?” Mari felt a little dizzy.
“He wouldn’t have it any other way. Plus, you’ll be safe with him. I can say I won’t let anything happen to you, but Father has the power to grant you safe passage.”
“Does he know about me? Who I really am?”
“Yes.”
“And he accepts me?”
“Completely,” Nik said. “He helped me get Jenna from the island. He knows everything, Mari. You can trust my father as surely as you can trust me.”
Mari gave Nik a nervous smile, and said nothing. Then she had a thought and asked, “Does the entire Tribe know I’m coming?”
“No! Just Father and me—and O’Bryan, of course.”
Through measured, sideways glances, Mari studied him. “You’re going to get in trouble for letting Jenna go free, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know,” Nik said. “I don’t think anyone has ever freed a Scr—ur, I mean Earth Walker before.”
“You’re going to get in trouble,” Mari said.
“Most likely.”
He didn’t appear to be upset by the likelihood, so Mari teased, “Well, you can always hide in my burrow!”
He stopped and met her gaze, smiling. “That is an offer I may take you up on.”
With her stomach feeling as dizzy as her head, Mari said, “Um, how much farther is it?”
“Not far now. We’ll get there not long after sunset.”
Mari glanced at the darkening sky and wiped her sweaty palms on her tunic.
“You don’t need to be nervous. You’re only going to meet Father and O’Bryan. Oh, and Laru, of course.”
“Nik, did it feel like you were only meeting Sora and Rigel and me?”
He laughed. “No! It felt like I had been tossed upside down into a while new world.”
“Okay, then. I’m going to be nervous.”
His grin widened. “You are going to be fabulous.”
45
Against the canvas of the setting sun, the Tribe of the Trees looked to Mari like a magickal painting created by sky gods. Having climbed the well-traveled ridge more quickly than they’d expected, Nik led her to a pine situated several hundred yards away from where the city began. There were wide, sturdy steps built into the tree so that it was easy for Rigel to follow Mari and Nik up onto a beautiful wooden platform, sanded smooth, with a railing decorated with carvings of flowers and songbirds.
“What is this place?” she asked him, running her hand over the intricate decorations as she stared to the west at the city in the trees.
“It was built a long time ago as a private meditation space. That’s why it’s not connected to the rest of the Tribe. It’s also why my father knew no one would be here this close to dusk. It’s too far away from the city to be used after sunset.”
“Wait, did you say your father?”
Nik smiled. “It was his idea to bring you here.” He searched the platform, looking under the wooden benches built around the circumference of the tree until he spotted a box. “This was his idea, too.” Nik opened the tinderbox and set about lighting the thick beeswax pillar candle. “Father will be looking for this. We’ll stay here until it’s fully dark, and then—with his help—we’ll get you to O’Bryan.” Nik lit the candle and positioned it on the wide railing, facing westward. “That’s it. Now we wait.” Nik made a gesture that took in the massive pines and the city within them. “My part of the idea is that I thought you’d like to get a real view of the Tribe before sneaking into it.”
Mari stared to the west. “It’s incredible. I had no idea it was so big.” Her hand was resting on the railing and her fingers traced its intricate decorations. “Everything is so beautiful. This carving—the birds and flowers look so real it’s like I’m waiting to smell the jasmine while I watch the birds fly away.”
“My mother carved it,” Nik said.
“Really? She was very talented,” Mari said. “How old did you say you were when she died?”
“It was just after my tenth winter.”
There was a long pause, and then Mari asked, “Does it get easier to be without her?”
“Yes and no. The pain gets easier. It fades. Missing her doesn’t fade, though. Sometimes it’ll hit me when I don’t expect it at all—like when I’m doing something as simple as choosing a new blanket for my nest. Her voice will suddenly be there, in my mind, telling me that that particular color of blue reminds her of the summer sky.” He paused and cleared his throat before he continued. “When that happens I miss her so much it’s hard to breathe for a while.”
Understanding, Mari nodded. “I’ll reach for something and all of a sudden my hand will look exactly like Mama’s. It’s so strange how that’s a comfort and a sadness.”
“At least you’ve drawn her. You won’t forget her face,” Nik said.
“You don’t have any drawings of your mother?”
“I do, but they’re not as good as yours. Your talent is impressive.”
“I could draw her for you sometime, if you’d let me try,” Mari said.
“How?”
“Well, show me a drawing you do have of her, and then tell me more—describe more about her to me, and not just how she looked. Tell me about the things she loved and the things she disliked. What was a normal day for her like? What were some of your favorite things to do together? Expression is important in getting a portrait right, and expression is ruled by a person’s likes and dislikes.”
“That would mean a lot to me, and to my father.”
“I’d be happy to do it. When I sketch it’s like I go to a different world,” Mari said.
“Do you hate this world so much?”
Mari met his gaze. “I used to.”
“And now?”
“Now I’m not sure. I’m not sure about a lot of things I used to think I knew,” Mari said.
“Me either.” Rigel padded to them and sat between them, lying half on, half off both of their feet. Nik grinned. “We make a strange team.”
Mari laughed with him. “We can definitely agree on that.”
“I wish you had met my mother. She would have liked you,” Nik said.
Mari felt herself flush hot with unexpected pleasure. “That was a nice thing to say. Thank you.”
“It was just the truth, but you are welcome. Thank you for coming with me.”
They sat on the graceful platform for a long time, side by side, waiting for the world to catch up with them. They watched the sky go black, and then become dotted with the crystal dust of stars. The moon appeared, a fat crescent, glowing with a brilliance that caused Mari to squint against its brightness. Finally, the flickering lights from braziers and torches began to blink out and the Tribe became sleepy and still.
“Are you ready?” Nik asked her.
“Yes,” she said firmly, hoping the word would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. “But how are you going to sneak me all the way up there?”
“Well, Mari, that is going to be a grand adventure for you. Um, you didn’t mention it before, but are you afraid of heights?”
“Does it matter if I am?”
“Only if you scream or faint when you’re afraid,” he said.
“I know we’re not up as high as the rest of the Tribe is, but I didn’t mind climbing up the stairs to get to this platform at all. I don’t think climbing farther up is going to be any problem for me at all,” Mari said.
“Oh, you’re not going to climb—you’re going to fly.” Chuckling to himself, Nik motioned for her to follow him down the stairs. Baffled, but intrigued, Mari followed.
* * *
“It’s like a litter that’s been turned into a strange cage that lifts.” Mari crouched beside the contraption Nik had guided them to.
“All you and
Rigel need to do is to climb in.”
Mari looked up. And up. And up, up, up. Her stomach gave a sick flutter.
“Everything all right?” Nik asked.
“Yes. Just thinking. Nik, it’s really far up there. Are you sure this is safe?”
“Safer than hanging out here on the forest floor at night with a guy who has unhealed wounds,” Nik said.
“You’re right about that.” She looked at Rigel. “Is he going to be okay, or do we need to tie him in somehow?”
Nik grinned. “Rigel, let’s go up!” He pointed to the litter. With zero hesitation, the young canine bounded into the litter and lay down, mouth open in a canine grin, tail wagging. “He’s used to heights, remember?”
Mari sighed. She climbed in behind Rigel, clutching her medical satchel to her lap and trying to pretend that she was somewhere—anywhere—else.
Nik got in behind her. “Ready?”
“Absolutely not, but let’s go up anyway,” she said.
Nik chuckled and pulled on a thick hemp rope. There was a pause, and then the lift jerked up, causing Mari to gasp and flail for the sides of the litter and something to hold on to.
Nik’s strong hands were on her shoulders in an instant. “Relax,” he said into her ear. “We use this for people who have been so badly injured that they can’t make it to the infirmary nests from any of the large lift cages scattered around the city.”
“Does that mean I should be badly injured?”
“That means you should be confident that this little lift is absolutely safe,” Nik said. “And open your eyes.”
“How did you know they were closed?”
“Easy guess. Open them.”
Mari did so, and then found herself looking around as they rose into the sky. The trees were massive. They were also beautiful with their drapings of moss and ferns. As they went higher, all around them things began to glitter, and Mari realized that the entire city was decorated with crystals and mirrors and beads and ribbons. Then, carried on the rising wind, came a musical tinkling and chiming in time with the night breeze.
“What kind of music is that? It sounds like the wind is playing glass and bells—but how is that possible?” Mari asked Nik.
