In All Places (Stripling Warrior) (17 page)

When I had been younger, I
had deeply resented Kalem’s presence in my life—giving Mother food and teaching my brothers to hunt, fish, and farm. Things a father might have done. But he and I had bonded over the sword I had gotten from Joab at the training ground. Despite concern over hurting my mother, Kalem had made it into a beautiful piece of art. One that was covered with blood stains now—but that only spoke to the quality of the sword.

When we approached
Kalem’s tables, he stood with a ready smile and greeted us.

“Where is Muloki?” I asked him as I cast my eyes around the square.

Kalem smiled teasingly. He was not as bent on my marrying Zeke as the rest of my family was. Occasionally, I caught him teasing Muloki about me, too, when they thought I wouldn’t hear them. I always worried that this teasing would encourage Muloki to press me for more than the good friendship we had. But Muloki, though he flirted shamelessly with me, never asked for or expected anything more serious from me.

“He is with Pontus, little daughter.”

I smiled at the affectionate way he addressed me.

“Thanks,” I told him and set off in that direction
, pushing and dodging my way through the throngs of people.

Melek
was filled with refugees who were fleeing from Moroni’s armies in the east. It was said that he was taking the eastern lands by the sea with a vengeance, and sometimes, especially when I was lonely, I wished I was there with Kenai and Jarom.

I stepped up behind Muloki
, noticing his shoulders looked especially broad in his red tunic. The ends of his black hair curled lightly around his ears and the back of his neck. It was really a shame I could not love him, I thought.

He
was completing a purchase. Pontus handed him a small wrapped package and they clasped arms.

“Hi, Muloki,” I said.
“Hello, Pontus.”

I might have been
mistaken, but I thought Muloki blushed. He tucked the package into his satchel and gave my hair a tug.

I punched him in the arm and turned to Pontus.
“Show me the goods,” I told him.

He grinned and pulled the cover off a tray he already had before him.
He must have seen me coming. He knew I was not here to look at the jewelry he displayed.

I leaned forward and
studied the elaborate knives and daggers on the tray.

“Looks like you got a good supply of obsidian,” I noted.
“This is not from our mountains.”

“No,” he agreed.
“It is from the lands far to the north.” He pointed to a large spearhead forged of steel. “This comes from across the sea. I was only able to afford this one.”

“Do you have a buyer in mind?”
He wouldn’t have purchased something of this nature unless he did.

“Certainly.
She is about so tall.” He held his stout hand at the level of the top of my head. “Long hair. Brown eyes. A penchant for deadly weapons.”

I laughed and glanced at Muloki who also showed his amusement.
I was not a prospective buyer for the spearhead. I had no need whatsoever for a steel spearhead. Besides, I preferred flint for spears.

“Do you think it would go well with this sarong?” I asked them, holding the steel up to my shoulder
and posing for their opinion.

“Perfect.
Very beautiful,” said Muloki with a warm gaze.

“Quite, but I’ll leave the pretty compliments to the young man,”
Pontus added with a wink.

I placed the spearhead back
on the tray. “Did you sell those beautiful arrowheads?” I asked.

“Yes,” Pontus said.
“I sold them to an overconfident, swaggering young man who said he needed them to shoot rabbits.”

I looked up at him.
“If he wants rabbits, I hope you tried to sell him one of those snares too.”

“I think he already ha
s snares set,” Pontus said, and I thought he was trying not to laugh.

I looked
at him for a moment longer trying to figure out what was so funny. I glanced over my shoulder at Muloki to see if he had caught Pontus’s joke, but he was looking across the square at a group of people. I followed his gaze. More refugees from the looks of it.

“I know her,” I said
suddenly. It was clear that we were looking at the same girl. She was the most beautiful in the bunch, standing a little apart from the others in a blue sarong that looked very much like the one she had held up to me on a similar market day.

“Thank you, Pontus,” I said
as I gripped Muloki’s elbow and towed him across the square.

When we neared the people, I called out
to the girl.

“Melia!”

Melia turned when she heard her name, and when she saw me she burst into a relieved grin. I broke away from Muloki, and we flew into each other’s arms.

“I hoped I would find you!” she exclaimed.

“Did you find your father?” I looked around. “Did you make it to Nephihah? How is your grandfather?”

“Grandfather died almost a year ago.
I did go to Nephihah, but my father was not there, or I could not find him if he was.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.
“But I’m so glad you’ve come. Mother is here and Micah. You remember Micah. He is married now, and you will love his wife as well.”

Melia looked past me to Muloki.
“I can’t wait to see your mother,” she said.

“Oh!”
I turned and stepped aside. “This is Muloki, my…” I bit my lip. “My friend.”

Muloki rested a hand on her shoulder and said, “Hello, Melia.”
He kept her gaze and let his hand linger on her shoulder.

“And is your Ezekiel here in Melek?” Melia asked
brazenly. It was obvious that she wished to know the exact nature of my friendship with Muloki. How I had missed Melia’s boldness!

I shook my head.
“No. He is yet in the southlands. He has not been discharged from the army.”

“I thought your army was voluntary.”

“It is.” I took a breath. “He chooses to stay.”

Melia
gave me a look of sympathy but turned her eyes back to Muloki. “And you do not fight with the army?” she challenged playfully.

He smiled at her
, not at all shamed by her question. “I have served a great deal of time in the army and given much.”

“All five of his brothers died.”

Her eyes widened.

“Tell us what is happening in
Nephihah,” I begged her. “Kenai is there, and Jarom.”

She giggled.
“Jarom did not race his brother home to get to you first?”

“Melia!”
I caught the look of interest on Muloki’s face. He was too perceptive to miss it. He was not missing anything because of the language these days. “No. I think Kenai talked him out of it. They’re together, I think, in Nephihah. But enough about that. What is happening there? Is it as they say?”

A shadow fell over her face.
“What do they say?”

Muloki
spoke before I could. “We have heard that the Lamanites flee before Moroni’s army, that he forces them all from the land. That he raises the Title of Liberty wherever he goes and persuades his countrymen to take up the cause of freedom.”

Melia smiled wanly.
“Yes, I think that is the way of it.”

I looked deeply into her eyes.
“You can stay with Mother and me. And Darius. He’s home now too. Come, let’s go find Mother. She’s here in the market.”

After Melia said a
farewell to those with whom she had traveled, we found a quieter path and made our way to Kalem’s tables. Muloki and I flanked Melia, and she told us how she had petitioned Helaman for several units of the striplings to escort her and some others to Nephihah after her grandfather had died.

“I looked there for months with no luck.
Soldiers and civilians from all the neighboring cities were pouring through the gates in fear of the Nephite armies that marched through the land. And the more people that came, the more difficult it was to look for him. I had almost determined to come here to Melek to find you when one morning we woke up and the Nephite army was inside the city walls!”

“You weren’t hurt…or anything?” Muloki asked.
He was a Lamanite warrior, and of course his mind would go to the atrocities soldiers often did to women. He must have seen vicious things. Perhaps he had even done some himself, though I couldn’t imagine it.

“No.
Moroni’s army was fierce and terrible, but only to the soldiers there. To the women and children they were as gentle as lambs.”

I laughed.
“I won’t tell them you said that.”

She smiled
at that. “They gave us the option to come to Melek,” she went on, “and I didn’t even have to think about it before I agreed. The terms did not matter.”

“What were the terms?” Muloki wanted to know.

But we had arrived at Kalem’s tables.

“Mother!” I said.
“Look who I have found!”

Mother hurried around the table to hug Melia as I had.
“It is so good to know you’re safe!” Mother said.

“Leah!
I’ve missed you both so much!” They stepped back and regarded each other with grins, but then Melia’s gaze slipped past Mother to Kalem and she stilled. Her only movement was the smile that fell slowly from her face. For a moment it was as if she was unable to move, but then she shook herself free of whatever troubled her and gave Mother a weak smile.

S
lowly she stepped out of Mother’s arms and approached Kalem, who was by then regarding her just as curiously as she regarded him.

“Are yo
u Kalem?” she asked him in her bold way.

He gave a nod, and I saw tears form at the corners of his eyes.

I caught Mother’s eye. Could this possibly be what it looked to be?

I looked back to Kalem and Melia.
They stood still, staring at each other, both with unreadable expressions, for long moments. Finally, Kalem’s bottom lip began to tremble and he looked as though he might break down in sobs.

But he held them back and said softly, “You look just like your mother.”

Melia smiled at last, a small tentative smile. “No. She said I looked like you.”

Muloki nudged me
, and I looked up at him. “Did you know?” he mouthed.

I shook my head.
How could I have?

Darius had never met Melia, so he was slightly less amazed at the
happenstance than Mother and I were. But for a boy who had once craved Kalem’s attention so much for himself, he was content to let Melia have it all during the evening meal.

“Mother died years ago
, and I went to live with Grandfather,” Melia explained while we ate.

“When did you start looking for me?” Kalem asked as he handed his empty dish to Mother,
and his eyes followed her as she took it inside the hut.

“Almost immediately.”

“And your grandfather agreed to this?” I noticed Kalem was careful not to speak Zeram’s name aloud. Speaking the name of the dead would not be polite.

“It was his idea.
He felt Mother had overreacted and been unfair.” She blushed a little. “I took longer to warm to the idea.”

“I only wonder that you did at all,” Kalem replied, genuinely humbled.

“Grandfather explained how he thought Mother had been unfair. He even said it was his fault, giving her whatever she wanted all the time.”

Kalem nodded slowly, lost in
his past.

“We started in Zarahemla and spent a lot of time there
searching for you and learning the languages. I took to them quite well, because of my youth, Grandfather said. And Grandfather had of course been schooled in languages when he was young. Finally, someone told us the people of Ammon lived in the land of Jershon. But when we went there, you had all moved to make room for the Nephite armies. We came to Melek next and learned that you had traveled with the striplings, so we set off to search the cities in the south.”

“You haven’t had a very good life,” Kalem said morosely.

“Oh, Grandfather was wonderful to me. He taught me so many things during our travels. When I was little, he played games with me as we walked from place to place. He was determined to set things right. I always knew that, and I always respected him for it. I’ve had a good life, Father.” Melia said his name tentatively, trying it out. She clasped his hand in both of hers. “Let your heart be at ease about that.”

I knew how his guilt had plagued him, how he had not expected to ever gain his daughter’s forgiveness.

I left them alone and took the rest of the dishes I had cleaned with the coals inside the hut where I found Mother talking to Muloki. They glanced at me but kept talking, knowing I didn’t understand a word they said. It was strange that they spoke in the old Lamanite language because Muloki could both speak and understand Nephite quite well by then. I wondered, naturally, what they were discussing, but giving up eavesdropping as hopeless, I just put the dishes away and turned to leave again.

My sling caught on a hook near the door, the one we used to tie back the mat when it was too warm inside the hut.
I untangled it, but when I went to replace it at my belt, I paused.

It was my first sling
shot, the one Seth had given me on that long ago day when Helaman had let me join the army. Gideon had stepped forward to spar with me. Micah had introduced me to Seth. And Seth had given me the sling.

Stepping back into the recesses of the hut,
I brought it to my nose. The smell of the leather brought back so many memories. I thought of my first battle with the sling—retreating from the army at Antiparah, leading them away, turning to face them.

Was there anything
as noble as that yet to come? Had I any adventures left? When I looked to the future, I felt bleak inside. If Zeke didn’t marry me, I probably would not marry at all. What man would take on a feisty, man-killing warrior like me for a wife? For the mother of his children? I had heard the things they called me, even here in the village. And what else was left to a girl who did not marry and bear children? The future stretched out endlessly empty.

Muloki seemed less interested in
marriage as he got to know me better, and Zeke had not even bothered to come home to me yet. He had not so much as written a letter or sent a message to me.

Gideon
had wanted to make some kind of statement with that unwise and embarrassing kiss in the street, but in the end, he hadn’t wanted to marry me either. He must have been so relieved to have gotten away, to have escaped to the army, and I had let him do it so easily.

How I wished I could go back to the army too—the only place I felt I truly belonged.

“You miss it,
” Muloki said from behind me.

I turned and realized Mother had gone, and we were alone.
Strange that Mother had left us alone like that, but I felt the sling in my hand and knew why she had gone.

“Yeah,” I said.
“I miss all of it. The training, the fighting, boring guard duty, marches, patrols, my unit.” I looked up at him morosely. “Do you ever miss it?”

He considered.
“In some ways.”

I nodded
. There were certain parts I would not miss either.

“It’s not so much that I miss the war.
It’s more that I don’t feel I belong here at home.”

“What do you mean?
You have a wonderful home. A family that loves you. Friends.” He grinned and put his fist to his chest. “Me.”

“I know.”

He sobered and studied my face. “You have the heart of a warrior.”

Not the heart of a homemaker.
But there was so much more to it. I didn’t belong anywhere.

“That girl you met at the gate of Antiparah,” I said quietly to M
uloki. “The one who lied to you and had a hidden dagger strapped to her leg—she was the real me.” I pointed one of my fingers to myself and jabbed it into my chest. “So much more real than this one.”

Muloki took a stool at the table and said
calmly, “I think you’re wrong.”

I shook my head.
“I’m kidding myself here.” I gestured to the inside of the hut, the domesticity of it all. “This is the lie.”

“You should seek the guidance of the Spirit.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Do you think that thought has never occurred to me? I ask in prayer all the time what I should do. I get no answer.”

“Perhaps you are asking the wrong question.”

I started to protest, but his words sank in, and I stopped.

“Or perhaps you think too much,” he went on.

“What? I don’t have anything to do but think.”

“While you milk the goat.
While you grind the maize. Tend the garden, sweep, weave, cook, carry water, launder clothing—”

“Stop!
Yes!” I laughed.

He stood and went to my hammock.
He crouched and gathered all of my weapons, carrying them to the table with his large hands and dropping them with a clatter. “Stop doing these things that do not challenge you, that leave your mind to wander.”

“But
I’m supposed to cook and sweep and weave.” I eyed the weapons wistfully.

“So do them.
And then do what you love.” He motioned to the weapons. “Your problem is this. You want to be doing all the proper things all the time so that when Zeke strides into the village he will see you doing them. He will see the girl he wants you to be.”