ROAD TO CORDIA (5 page)

     “By that time, Ja'Nil had found the pouch where Aunt M’eer kept her monies. “How much? Ja'Nil asked.

     “How much she got?”

     Ja’Nil clutched the money pouch to her chest, refusing to let the innkeeper inspect it.

     “Najada! You think I gonna rob from you?”

     That was exactly what Ja'Nil thought.

     The innkeeper gestured impatiently. “Give me six Queens.”

     “At home I could live for a week on six Queens.”

     “You ain’t at home. You’re at my inn. You don’t want to pay, get outta here.”

     Where would she go? How could she take care of her awful aunt?

     “No, no I didn’t mean--we’ll stay, but we need a healer.”

     “Gimme my monies.”

     Reluctantly, Ja'Nil counted out 6 Q’s into the innkeeper’s fat hand. His fingernails were cracked and dirty. What would Aunt M’eer say when she realized Ja'Nil had spent her monies?          Take’em to the stable, T’eem,” ordered the innkeeper as he turned away.

     “The healer?” Ja'Nil called to his retreating back.

     “Yeah, yeah.”

     “So come on,” mumbled T’eem, still not looking directly at her. “I’ll shows ya.”

     The stable looked in danger of falling down at any minute. It was dusty and malodorous. The only other occupants were four of the large horses.

     T’eem held Aunt M’eer in his big arms and waited for Ja'Nil to tell him where to put her.

     “When was the last time this place was mucked out?” she muttered more to herself than to T’eem, but he seemed to feel she was criticizing him.

     “He’s always calling me away,” he said in his soft rumble. “I never gets to finish one job, but he calls me.”

     As if to illustrate the point, they could hear the innkeeper bellowing. “T’eem, gets ya big ass out here.”

     Still holding Aunt M’eer, T’eem stood dithering.Should he drop his burden and run to see what the boss wanted, or stay and help Ja'Nil? His face was dark with frustration. There were actual tears in his eyes. “What should I do?” he whispered.

     Quickly, Ja'Nil checked out the stalls. The nearest one seemed marginally cleaner than the others did. She grabbed up some dry straw and piled it into an untidy bed-shaped mound.

     “He’ll be mad you’re using the straw.”

     For a second Ja'Nil hesitated, then shrugged. “I paid him,” she said.

     Carefully, T’eem laid Aunt M’eer down on the makeshift bed. “I gotta go,” he said. “He’ll be mad at me.” He was trembling.

     Ja'Nil reached out and grabbed at his arm. “A healer,” she said.

     T’eem stared down, mesmerized by her tan slim, long fingered hand resting on his sunburnt forearm.

     “Please,” she said.

     He couldn’t meet her eyes but he did nod his head.

     “Thank you, T’eem.”

     “Yeah.” And he was gone.

     Aunt M’eer was quiescent, not a good sign. Ja'Nil checked twice to make sure that she was still breathing, and then decided to explore the barn. It didn’t take long; there was a wide middle aisle with stalls on either side and a high ceiling with a loft to one side that probably held hay. Four of the stalls were occupied. All the occupants were badly in need of brushing, and their water buckets were growing green algae. The place stank to the heavens.

     “How much rent is he charging you?” Ja'Nil asked one of the horses. The animal refused to be drawn into a discussion. He just snorted and withdrew his large head from her outstretched hand.

     Ja'Nil checked Aunt M’eer again. The woman hadn’t moved. Her skin was hot to the touch and her breathing seemed more labored. She was getting worse.

     Where was the healer? Should she go up to the inn and demand a healer. Surely, there was one nearby. But what if there wasn’t? What if…?

     “She dying?” asked a slurred voice. Ja'Nil jumped a foot and whirled to face a very drunk, very dirty man wearing a prominently displayed yellow and green Healer’s badge.

     “You’re a healer?”

     He nodded and patted his badge, but he spoiled the effect by burping. Alcoholic fumes hung around him like a visible veil.

     He leaned over her aunt and peered myopically down at the woman. “What she got?” he asked.

     “You’re the healer.”

     He nodded, “True.”

     “She has a fever, she was wounded in the shoulder, see.” Impatiently Ja'Nil pointed to the rough bandage she had applied hours ago.

     “Yes, I see.” He nodded sagely. “That will be eh, two Queens.”

     “What?”

     “I will treat her for two Queens.”

     “But the Crown pays healers. Everyone knows that.”

     He rocked back on his heels, wiped his nose with his sleeve, and gazed benignly at her. “Two Queens,” he repeated.

     Ja'Nil dug out two Queens from Aunt M’eer’s money pouch and gave it to him.

     He blinked, owl-like as he carefully examined the money. Then he dug into one of the numerous pockets in his grungy tunic and brought forth a small gray stone bottle sealed with a cork. 

     “Give her two swallows of this and all the water she will drink. When First sun is at height, give her two more swallows and more water. When Little’un is at height, give her the rest. Thus, will she be cured of her afflictions.”

     Ja'Nil put the bottle to her ear and shook it slightly. Something fluid inside sloshed thickly. She pried out the cork and sniffed at it. The smell alone could kill you.

     “Are you sure this will work? What is it?”  When she looked up the healer was walking away. “Wait! What about her wound? Aren’t you going to dress it?”

     The healer never stopped walking and he never looked back.

     Ja'Nil sniffed at the medicine again. Dare she give something that smelled so foul to the sick woman? But what if she didn’t and Aunt M’eer died? “What if I do and she still dies?” she asked looking up at the heavens. The heavens were silent.

     It turned out Aunt M’eer had a few objections herself to taking the medication. When Ja'Nil gingerly supported her head and brought the stone bottle to her aunt’s mouth, the odor had a galvanizing effect on the sick woman.

     “What in the Seven Hells?”

     “You’re alive! I mean, you’re awake!”

     Her aunt pushed feebly at the bottle. “Get away from me.”

     “It’s medicine. The healer said…”

     “Where?” Aunt M’eer looked wildly around.

     “Please just try to take a swallow?” Ja'Nil begged her aunt as she brought the bottle up to her aunt’s mouth again.

     “Who are you?”

     “Me? I’m Ja’Nil.”

     “Where’s Chou?”

     “She’s dead. Don’t you remember?”

     “Dead?”

     Ja'Nil took the opportunity to pour some of the medicine into her aunt’s mouth. Her aunt promptly spit it out. Most of it went all over Ja'Nil. The small amount that did go down made her gag. Ja'Nil gagged, too. It smelled like essence of skunk piss.

     Either the medicine was effective or the smell was strong enough to wake the dead. Aunt M’eer looked around her dazedly. “You said a healer?”

     “He’s gone now.”

     “Are we in Cordia?”

     “No, ma’am?”

     “Where are we?”

     “At the inn.”

     “What inn? What are you talking about? We have to get to Cordia.”

     “Yes, ma’am. As soon as you’re better.”

     “I’m not going to get better, you fool. I’m dying.” To illustrate her point, Aunt M’eer started coughing; horrible deep, gasping-for-air-coughs that rattled around in her chest and seemed to suck all the strength from her.

     Ja'Nil watched helplessly. She didn’t have a clue what to do. “Do you want some water?”

     Aunt M’eer continued to cough.

     Ja'Nil found a cup hanging from the stall door. At the nearest bucket, she pushed the inquisitive horse aside, splashed away most of the algae floating on top and filled the cup. “The healer said you should drink lots of water,” she said as she offered the cup to her gasping aunt.

     Aunt M’eer shoved it aside. “Where’s the healer?” she asked. Her voice was weak and she took long pauses between each word.

     “He left.”

     “Did you tell him our village needs a healer?” Aunt M’eer asked between gasps.

     “Ah, no.”

     “No!”

     “I don’t think he’s the kind of healer the village wants,” said Ja'Nil.

     “You fool,” Aunt M’eer said between coughs. “We need a healer. You’ll have to go on to Cordia without me.”

     “Me?”

     Aunt M’eer glared at her. “You little coward,” she said to the astonished girl. “To think, it’s come to this, the village depending on you.” She was panting heavily. Suddenly, she reached out and grabbed Ja'Nil’s arm, pinching her skin in the process. “I’m going to die here. Cho is waiting for me. We travel together. Our circle is not ended.”

     What was she supposed to say? “Maybe it is, maybe--”

     “No!”

     For someone who was dying, and coughing, and gasping for breath, her aunt had lost none of her bossiness.

     “Aunt M’eer I can’t go to Cordia alone. I don’t even know in what direction it is.”

     “You have to do something.”

     Ja'Nil twisted her arm out of her aunt’s grasp. “What?” she asked grumpily.

     “There is something wrong in Cancordia. Pirates. No healer sent as a replacement. The country is breaking down. I’ve seen it coming for a long time.”

     “Then why didn’t you do something?” Aunt M’eer didn’t answer; she barely seemed to breathe. Her eyes were glazed and inner seeing. “Aunt M’eer?”

     Slowly Aunt M’eer turned her head and looked directly at Ja'Nil. “If you will do this for the village, you may take the goods from my cottage. Use them to pay for your ritual. If you fail, you will always be neither child nor adult.  Of use to no one. Wanted by no one. A non-person.” She closed her eyes.

     “Aunt M’eer?”

     Slowly Aunt M’eer opened her eyes. It took her a moment to focus on Ja'Nil. “Promise me,” she said.

     “What?”

     “Promise you will go to Cordia, to bring a healer to our village.” She was speaking so softly Ja'Nil could barely hear her. “Promise me!”

     “But--”

     “Promise! So I can die in peace.”

     Ja’Nil could hear the rattle in her chest as spoke.

     “Please don’t die. I promise, only please don’t die. Aunt M’eer?”

     Ja'Nil watched in horror as her aunt’s breathing slowed, slowed, and stopped. “Aunt M’eer!”

     Shivering Ja'Nil started mumbling prayers for the dead. She put out a trembling hand and made the sign of the circle on her aunt’s cooling forehead. “May you enter The Paradise of Forever, and…and I hope you meet again with Chou. Also.” She stopped talking, tears were fighting to get out, to fall, to undo her. She took a deep breath. “Also,” she said, “if you see my family please, please…”

     The tears came flowing then. She sobbed, as darkness descended through the broken walls, and the barely existing roof.   The shadows grew darker and longer until Ja'Nil, finally quiet, sat by the side of her dead aunt in the blackness, listening to the occasional movements of the uncaring horses. There was absolutely no one of her family left on this earth. She was fourteen years old, alone and lost.

CHAPTER 5

     Ja’Nil stayed by her aunt’s body for hours, fighting to stay awake, but sleep would not be denied. It crept up on her, beckoning seductively, offering temporary oblivion. Her eyes closed. She did not dream of the dead woman lying just lengths away from her. No, instead she was back on her father’s boat.

    
The storm is raging. Yonny, her little brother is crying, screaming for Mama.  Ja'Nil, is terrified.

     “Get to the dingy,” mama says, “Get Yonny into the dingy.”

     Ja'Nil is crawling along the deck, which is awash with debris. Ropes and barrels bump into her. They try to coil around her body and crush her, the way the mast is crushing daddy. She looks back over her shoulder. Daddy is still pinned to the deck; his blood washed to a pale pinkness by the waves that crash over The Ta’Sec. Now there is a tremendous crack and the entire boat shudders and starts to come apart.

     “Daddy, what should I do? Daddy!

     Slowly her father raises his head and looks across the doomed boat at his children.

* * *

     “He’s dead,” said a man’s voice.

     Ja'Nil sat up, blinking, confused. “What?”

     The Inn Keeper was standing in the door of the stall, legs spread, fists planted on his fleshy hips. “I said, is she dead?”

     “The storm,” Ja'Nil said, still confused.

     “What storm? Ain’t no storm. Clear as glass is the sky.” He peered down at her. “You ain’t one of them addle wits, are ya?” he asked, moving closer to her,

     Ja'Nil skittered backwards until stopped by the unmoving lump that was her aunt’s body.

     “She dead?”

     “Yes.”

     “That damned T’eem, always bringing in strays. Now there’s an addle wit for ya.”

     “He’s nice,” Ja'Nil protested.

     The innkeeper snorted. “Like’im, do ya?”

     Ja'Nil nodded, yes.

     “Do ya like me?” asked the innkeeper.

     Ja'Nil gazed at him in horror, licked her lips, and thought frantically. “Well, I don’t really know you.”

     “You’ll like me, once ya gets to knows me.”

     Ja'Nil doubted that but said nothing, just watched him, like a feral animal in danger of being caged.

     “Ya wants her buried?”

     “My aunt?”

     “She dead, ain’t she?”

     “Yes, I mean, no. Cremation is our way and then burial.”

     “I’ll put her in the ground. I ain’t building no fire for her. Ya don’t wants her in the ground then ya gets her outa here.”

     “Burial will be…I…burial, yes. I don’t guess it really matters to the Lord. It’s still a Circle, isn‘t it?”

     “You believe that stuff?”

     “Everyone believes it...don’t they?”