by Marc Secchia
After a long time, during which she listened to her lungs filling and emptying, and pondered their brief encounter, Shioni found her feet taking her down the corridor to the doorway which had so recently been filled by her nightmare. She stepped outside. The night was so clear that the stars clustered overhead appeared as thick as dust, a dazzling trail no human foot had ever trod. She felt her neck, bruised by his fingers. Both her neck and her shoulder hurt now. Shioni dreaded reporting this incident to General Getu. Did he not already harbour enough concerns about his son?
The courtyard was deserted, silent; shadowed by the baobab’s leaves which gleamed silvery-grey in the moonlight. She could almost hear the castle breathing. Shioni shivered, and not just because of the cool night air. Was the whole place steeped in magic? Or was this inkling merely her imagination, magnified by the lateness of the hour?
“You were unfair to Talaku,” she told herself, wanting to be comforted by the sound of a voice. “He’s no nightmare. He’s a person like me…”
Truly? Shioni leaned against the rough wooden doorframe, willing, for the first time, to give this question serious consideration. Was either of them human? Giant, dragon-tainted Talaku? Weird Shioni of the witch-powers? Azurelle had magic too, she reminded herself. So she could pick her role model–the murdering witch Kalcha or the queen of vanity!
“Ooh, you’re in a mean mood.”
Somehow, her mood was nothing to do with being smashed into the wall by the giant. Shioni felt that if she had a mirror, she would have seen something rather disagreeable and noxious staring back at her.
But to be inhuman was a repellent, chilling thought. What made a human… well, human? Compassion? Love? Two arms and legs? A soul? Who decided? She had not stolen any Fiuri’s powers, nor been bitten by a dragon… but she had come from an unknown land, from unknown parents, at a time nobody seemed too sure of! She had strange powers. If she could speak to animals–some animals–did that make her an animal herself? Or an oversized Fiuri? Or the child of magicians from a faraway land? A small gasp issued from her lips. Or a person from another world, even? Were there other worlds? Who would know?
Her eyes rose to the stars. Shioni sometimes imagined her parents might be up there, somewhere in the universe, also gazing up at a starlit night. Wondering where she might be.
Did people like her even have parents? Yeshi’s accusation of being born under a rock smarted afresh as it crossed her mind. But she had reason aplenty to be worried! What if she turned out like Kalcha? What if her powers led her down an evil path? The General had touched this question exactly. Where had her powers come from? Did it matter? Had they been born into someone, or something, called Shioni? Were those powers inherently evil or would it be her choice what became of her?
Shioni found herself shaking her head so violently that she scraped her right temple on the doorpost. Great. There was one thing she could do, of course. One thing she could try–even if she was fearful of starting down a path that would likely lead only to disappointment. Shioni whispered, “Find my parents.” Maybe the Princess would help her. And the Archivist? He seemed fond enough of her. Maybe slave-girls were not allowed to ask such questions. She might offend Annakiya just by asking–even if they were important!
Maybe she should just go to bed.
Would the elephants have some wisdom to share? Or Shuba? But she was gone now. Shuba knew about magic. But would she be willing to share her knowledge? For the safety of West Sheba, even? To keep a certain slave-girl sane and out of danger?
Shioni’s gaze searched the baobab’s velvety leaves and portly branches as she recalled what she had found nestled beneath its great roots. She never intended trouble... trouble just had a way of finding her! She fingered the parallel scars on her shoulder. Trouble such as entering a lion’s lair to treat the great beast, only to be attacked in return… trouble such as uncovering the secret Wasabi route into their valley… trouble like nearly being drowned by the other slave-girls…
They’d not meant to drown her, had they? Surely no-one hated her that much–save Kalcha, who must still be smarting after her defeat at Shioni’s hands.
Funny how staring death right in the eye had made her absurdly, almost tearfully, grateful for every breath that filled her lungs now. Her warrior instructors would have beaten her at staves for such an idea. For being a dreamer. For daring to believe life was precious and not to be chopped off by the edge of a sword or the point of an arrow.
That’s what it was. Just a dream. Dream of finding your parents, slave-girl. But steel yourself for disappointment… the inevitable let-down… or tremble at what you might find out. Shioni hugged herself. Had they loved her, their baby?
Her sigh steamed lightly toward the cool, uncaring stars.
After a long while, she dropped her gaze. Footstep by footstep, Shioni dragged herself back to her pallet. It took an age to worry herself to sleep.
Chapter 13: Beauty’s Baby
The instant Shioni, RUBBING her eyes groggily, set foot outside the Princess’ room the morning following her midnight confrontation with giant Talaku, the General’s hand seized her shoulder and swung her about.
“Aargh!”
“Silence!” snapped Getu. “What’s the matter with you?”
“I had a nightmare. Hyenas… the witch…”
Shioni felt as though she had been wrestling a dozen giants all night. To be accosted by the General first thing? She rubbed her shoulder defiantly and grimaced at her toes.
“Well, pull yourself together, girl!” ordered the General. “I need you down at the elephant pen, double time. The pregnant elephant has gone missing. She left no tracks. With all these hyenas about, I fear for the animal.”
Now she remembered her dream–well, one at least. Shioni became aware her mouth was hanging open and shut her jaw with a snap.
The General’s brown face had meantime turned a distinct shade of purple. He roared, “You are released from your other duties for this task! Now get lost, before I tan your hide as you deserve!”
Shioni dashed out of the castle as fast as her game hopping on her stick could take her, earning herself a swat on the head and a curse from the gate guard on the way. Her feet slapped along the path; one loudly, one gingerly. The General misunderstood her. He had been tempted to hit her, back there. Why was he in such a fierce mood? But she had a good idea what she would find down at the pen. No elephant would choose to birth its calf in the full view of men.
Her urgency must have communicated itself to the elephants, for they were all lined up waiting for her–and pointedly, quite ridiculously, in fact, ignoring the elephant-sized hole in the fence right alongside the Chief Elephant. Like a group of naughty children who had enjoyed a stolen piece of honeycomb, she thought, they looked smugly pleased with themselves.
Right. Shioni summoned up the memory of her dream and let them have it right between the eyes.
The elephant handler was trying to tell her something when the Chief scuttled out of the pen, as well as a twelve-foot-tall bull elephant can be said to scuttle, twirled his thick trunk around Shioni’s waist, and deposited her on the back of his neck between his great, flapping ears. He gave her a testy blast from his trunk.
“We’ll go get her!” Shioni called over her shoulder.
The handler shook his head, obviously convinced she was a crazy girl.
Shioni, used to riding Thunder, felt as though she was perched up among the puffy white clouds dominating the sky, lightening even as she watched from the depthless blues of night into a radiant dawn. It was awesome. And scary. The huge male elephant was so bulky, she felt that once he began to run, he would be unable to stop. The handlers said Chief was the biggest elephant they had ever known. His tusks alone were longer than a man is tall.
Oddly, however, he had stiff hairs on his back that pricked her legs like thorns. Her leggings were no match for them. Struggling to find a comfortable position quickly become more important to her than worrying
about falling off!
Choosing a path Shioni had seldom travelled, Chief thundered down-valley from the castle. He angled steadily away from the river, through a thicket of acacia trees and tall elephant grasses, until they were right up against the base of the cliffs. He kicked up clouds of red dust as he forged along through the tall but sparse tan grasses; but at nearly fifteen feet in the air Shioni was above all of that. She frowned. Was there a cave down this way? A shallow one, quite different to the one the Wasabi had used to steal into the valley, as she recalled.
Why had the elephants let Beauty give birth in private, knowing there were so many hyenas in the valley? Not that elephants ordinarily had anything to fear from hyenas. But a group of hyenas, especially Kalcha’s oversized pets, could make life very unpleasant for a mother and her calf. The witch’s hyenas had come so close to killing Anbessa…
“It’s the elephant way,” the Chief interrupted her reverie in his deep, unhurried tones. But his pace did not slow one bit. “The mother will find a secluded place. Calves are usually born at night.”
“Are you listening to my thoughts?”
“You aren’t hiding them. I can teach you, if–”
Remembering how the Chief had ‘taught’ her before, she blurted out, “No! Chief… I’m sorry. That came out wrong.”
“Well. You are learning.”
What she was learning, Shioni thought crossly, was how much the Chief elephant enjoyed having his own way! She remembered exactly how he had meddled in her mind before. What he meant was that she was learning manners, and he was nothing if not a stickler for good manners! But if she was patient in listening to his interminable stories, Shioni had found there were always nuggets of wisdom to be gleaned from the great pachyderm. And he had been so concerned about her after her near-drowning…
Lost in her thoughts, Shioni was startled by a furious trumpet-blast. Ears spread, trunk raised, Chief charged down the path toward a milling group of hyenas. Shioni grabbed his ears to stop herself from falling off.
The hyenas had been skulking and mincing about, menacing the opening of the cave. But the Chief’s arrival scattered them as chaff in the wind. A slap of his trunk this way, a switch of his tusks that, and he had already dispatched three hyenas into the beyond. The rest broke into yipping, cowardly flight–all bar the last pair, the largest members of the pack. They emerged from the cave curling their lips back from their fangs and snarling bad-temperedly.
Shioni caught the image of Kalcha clear in their minds.
“Run, you mangy curs!” bellowed the Chief. “Scuttle back to your mistress with your tails between your legs!”
“You haven’t seen the last of us,” smirked one of the hyenas, giving Shioni a perfectly revolting view of his scabrous grey gums and yellow fangs.
“Yes, Kalcha has a nice surprise planned for you two-legged parasites.”
“Shut up!” snarled the first, snapping viciously at the other.
Chief kicked up dust with his forelegs and lowered his tusks. That was enough to frighten the hyenas off into the distance, cackling and yipping like a pair of demented ducks.
After a moment, his trunk curled upward and Shioni took a ride down. Not that she had any choice in the matter, she thought crossly, restraining an urge to slap him as he nudged her forward now. Chief often treated her as one of his herd.
“Beauty?” she called, entering the cave with the tread of a mongoose entering a strange burrow.
There she was! An exhausted trunk snuffled at her outstretched hand, and Beauty struggled to her feet. She had used her body to block the interior of the cave, Shioni saw. Clever. But her trunk was bleeding in at least a dozen places, and her left ear was torn like a beggar’s rags where the hyenas must have pulled at it with their teeth.
“You came!” cried Beauty. “How did you know?”
“The Chief brought me. The handlers saw you were gone this morning, and I… I had a nightmare. Ooh–is that your baby?”
“Come out, Little Chief! He’s a bit shy. Come out, honey.” Beauty laid a proud trunk upon his shoulder. “Shioni won’t bite. She’s the only human who can talk elephant.”
Well, at least the elephants thought she was human!
He was so new born–no more than a couple of hours old–that his skin still looked wet and his body and head were covered in soft, downy hair. There was a lovely baby smell about him, a fresh hint of milky vanilla clearly distinct from the sour, dank odour of the cave. The little calf could fit easily underneath his mother’s belly, but he had to be at least three times Shioni’s weight and stood nearly the height of her shoulder.
He did not look at all certain about having his trunk stroked by her! A wild heave made him stagger into his mother’s side, but then he gathered his courage to test her clothes with the twin nubbins at the end of his trunk.
“He’s delightful!”
“He’s already had a good feed this morning,” said Beauty. “Come on, son, let’s meet your father.”
As the mother elephant stepped out in the sun’s gentle warmth, the little elephant wanted to hide behind her legs. He peeked out at his father. Shioni thought it comical–and precious–how he had to crane his neck further and further upward to take in the great height of his father, until he overbalanced and sat down with a thump on his backside.
Beauty chuckled indulgently. The three elephants touched trunks tenderly, meeting each other, just drinking it all in.
Shioni found herself dabbing away a tear. Some things about being an orphan were rotten. Just plain rotten.
Chapter 14: A Giant Accusation
MURDERER!” shouted Captain Dabir. “You filthy madman! Answer your accusers!”
“Murderer!” hissed the village elders.
In the centre of the courtyard Talaku stood stock-still, as though thunderstruck. Only his face moved. And that was the tic, the involuntary twitching of muscle, that Shioni knew proclaimed him the Mad Giant. Her hand stole down to her dagger. This was about to turn ugly.
“Wait,” said Princess Annakiya, stepping forward. “He should stand trial. By our law–”
“My son! He murdered my son!”
“Lock him up,” growled Dabir. “Before he kills anyone else!”
The Princess’ jaw worked. “Maybe temporarily. Talaku, will you–”
The giant sprang!
And Shioni, mirroring his action to the split second, sprang forward too, coming between him and the Princess of West Sheba. She swung her dagger hard, flat and low.
Talaku’s fist struck her jaw like the kick of a horse and she felt herself fall. She must have blacked out, because she did not feel herself hit the ground. Now she was eating dust off the courtyard stones, she thought inanely. Shouldn’t she be sweeping them with a broom?
Then Shioni saw the giant reach around Princess Annakiya to draw her dagger out of his forearm. He gave her an odd, sad smile. “Nobody moves or I kill the Princess, understand?”
Shioni fished a gob of dirt and blood out of her mouth with her fingers and flicked it on the ground. She rolled onto her knees and looked up. At that moment, she was the only person moving in the sun-drenched courtyard. The rest–the Elite warriors, the castle staff, and the elders of Ginab village–were all staring as though the giant’s words had robbed their limbs of the power of movement.
“You will not lock me up in any dungeon,” Talaku growled at Captain Dabir. “Now, you had better order the archers to stand down, or I will twist her little neck just a little too far.”
Captain Dabir’s jaw worked as though his tongue were a snake writhing inside his mouth. Finally, he spat, “Stand down! Nobody move!”
Talaku had his back to the wall and was shielding his body with the Princess. The huge paw gripping her neck was covered in blood from the wound Shioni had dealt him, but he did not appear to feel any pain. Annakiya, to her credit, was doing nothing to further aggravate the giant. She had cried out once–when Talaku swooped on her, and Shioni dived across wit
h her dagger drawn. She grimaced, feeling her lip. So much for being the Princess’ bodyguard! He had swatted her away like a bothersome mosquito.
Talaku tossed the longer dagger back to her. “Sorry. But I have to do this.”
“Stand still! You are accused of murder!” shouted Dabir.
Talaku began to shuffle along the wall toward the entrance of the keep. “A couple of tracks do not make for murder,” he hissed. “I stole a goat.”
“Murderer!” cried one of the village elders. “His flight condemns him! My son, my precious son! His blood is on your hands.”
Dabir was turning every possible shade of puce. A small part of Shioni–a part of herself she didn’t admire at all–was enjoying his teeth-gnashing, impotent rage. In a castle full of warriors, Talaku had just played him for a fool.
Again, he addressed Shioni as though she were the only person in that entire courtyard who mattered to him. “I will leave the Princess upriver, unharmed. You, and only you, will fetch her. No warriors.”
Shioni nodded. “I will come.”
And with that, the giant vanished into the deep shadows beneath the gateway. His feet tapped sharply on the cobblestones, a rhythm Shioni knew meant he was already running. Perhaps the afternoon’s events had only accelerated what would have happened soon anyhow. Talaku had been planning to leave the castle for months.
Nobody would catch him now.
Chapter 15: Ganging up on Shioni
“Them onions ain’t attacking you, girl!” Mama Nomuula’s hand closed over Shioni’s. “You cross with me?”
