Trusting people was not a luxury I could afford as a female voyager in a strange land. No one, of course, supported the idea of a woman traveling alone, but my relative height and strength seemed to increase with distance from home. By the end of the first month of spring, my body became harder; reflections I caught of myself showed a set jaw and a determined expression.
Evening was falling as I came upon a shack pieced together from graying wood and straw. Smoke exiting the ceiling was tell-tale of active inhabitants and I hoped they would let me by as most of the houses did. A haggard woman as gray as her house burst out wildly wielding a sickle. I jumped and tried to move on, but she circled in front of me and gave a threatening swing of her weapon that swept me inside her hovel. My mind was racing as the smells of acrid wool clouded into my nostrils; escape seemed less and less likely as the woman silently herded me deeper into the dark. She stopped me short in front of a mountain of greasy furs, a soft tomb around an ancient body. Prophet Halle, the woman whispered to me as I was presented to the sitting corpse.
Suddenly the body turned and snarled, “Stand there and let me look at you. Turn that way! Ha! You’re a classic little coyotie savage aren’t you? Look at those long legs and dark skin. Ha! You poor people are so stupid, but you don't even know that you are stupid, do you? Well come on and tell me, did you come to steal some more of our vegetables? What are you doing so far away from home? Kick you out of the village did they? Sit down then! I don’t want you running away or sneaking about stealing my things. I need to find out what you’re up to, and then I can know what to do with you. Hey! You over there, Chay! What are you making for me to eat now? No more soup! You’re terrible at soup….Oh but my tea! Don’t forget my tea now.” The Halle was almost too frightening not to look at. Her piercing cackle set me on edge. Tired and spotted skin sagged from the corners of her skull forming bags and folds that elongated her face into a sort of pile. Long sprouting hairs wandered around her face across wrinkles and over patches where color used to be.
I managed a reply, “I’m going to the city, to learn about Saans, praise Kote, the namesake of our village, and perhaps educate myself for my people.”
“Ha, likely story, little coyotie. The city is so far and dingy and dirty! You won’t find anything but whores and more savages of different colors with their bodies all painted like they just came out of the ground. You don’t really believe the Saans, you don’t have that look about you. Are you a cheat little coyotie? Going to steal or sell yourself? I’ll tell you, you won’t find anything that’s true there. It’s here, right in front of you that you’ll find a prophet.”
I watched Chay’s slight gestures of disgust every time Halle opened her old mouth, flagging the world weary with her floppy bottom lip.
Despite her obvious senility, Halle's comments were affecting me. I wondered if she was right about SaanSanti and my fate. Had I become so desperate as to completely ignore common sense? Suddenly the wind turned to wolves trying to get though any crack in the walls. Mice and moles were little ears and whispers that mocked and rumored my paranoia. Halle shifted in her seat within the shell of matted and rotting furs that padded her rocking throne. My silence spoke to her as stupidity. It was my only defense.
She motioned to Chay, “Put her in the box. I don’t want her prowling around my property tonight.”
Quickly Chay was on me, the sickle encircling my throat. To my side I felt the sharp point of the blade in Chay’s left hand. The Prophet shifted herself from her seat and tugged the chair off of a set of flat boards embedded in the dirt floor. With a groan, she hoisted the boards up.
“You’re going in there,” Chay said to me.
Obediently I went into the darkness.
Chapter 24
Yossinda
He woke me early, yelling in a half drunken stupor. After an endless night of thrashing in the bed I was achy, cold and tired. I longed to get out from his chambers and into the safety of anywhere else. It would be as easy to hide the bruises on my arms and legs as the sadness and fear I felt inside.
The King had approached me the night before, after I had finished serving the Domi dinner. He was stoned and drunk with a hungry look in his eyes. Queen Myrah had been ignoring him, speaking with Tigus about their allowance from the Saans. Tigus told her several times that she could not have everything she wanted for Eileen, at least for now. Eileen cried into the shoulder of her husband. Tigus apologized lightly. To me it seemed insincere.
At first I made excuses and returned to the kitchen, but when one of his gentleman servants arrived at the door I knew I had no choice but to go on. Lillian looked at me with almost pitying eyes as I left to meet the King.
Guilt of what I had done lurked around me as I crept from the bed to find my things in the dawn. Manuel had pulled himself to the side of the bed and sat, smearing the grayish Tinea over his gums before returning two slimy fingers into little gold box of the sludge. It made him lethargic but curt— as if his slowness brought out his meanness. Now that he was drugged I was more scared, but I had more time to find a way out. Perhaps the Tinea would make him forget that he wanted me.
There were other servant girls he would call on, and I wished he wanted them more than he wanted me. I wished he had never seen me that day in the Garden, I wished I hadn't worn my mother's dress to serve him. And Yeidi had lusted after him before. It made me sick to think so, that I had to endure this, and had to work harder because she spent her time and our money wasted in corners staring into space, flies buzzing around her drooling mouth.
Doped up and slow, Manuel slouched back into the bed. He didn’t notice that I had slipped out the door. I dressed as I went, past the guards that eyed my barely covered chest and ignored the purple and blue marks on my ribs. I estimated I was up only minutes before the bowels of the Red Keep came alive with servants. It gave me time to sit in a doorway and collect my wits. The previous night came back in a series of pictures that made me nearly retch aloud. Covering my face in my hands, I counted my sins and said a quick prayer before reaching to tie the loose pieces of my hair back with my hands.
I let out one solid sigh and measured my waist with my hands as best I could. The Saans said a wise woman was an old woman, and to look old you simply had to thin out, to accent your cheekbones and the skeleton barely hidden beneath your skin. I was thinner than I ever had been, yet I felt unwise and dirty.
Lights were flickering down the hall, signaling that my day had begun. Down the stairs in the kitchen I went to work. Somehow, thankfully, my body knew what to do when my mind could not. Tomorrow was the day of rest for SaanSanti, but I gathered from the usual servants’ chatter that finally Eileen was with child. Today was a day of celebration and promised to be a drunken night. While the Princess had to abstain from sin, the rest of the city could rejoice in the news of life. In all it was a glorious time for the kingdom. I was ashamed to hope that Manuel would be drunk enough and forget to summon me. I needed a night of sleep and to heal. I needed to find Yeidi; she had gone missing again.
Chapter 25
Aneh
“You!” I woke from a disturbed sleep to the sound of an unwanted voice.
“You coyotie people you know, you’re not very smart!” I was so disoriented from my time in the box that I was tempted to agree with the Prophet. Chay lifted the top from my grave and the meager light from the house filtered in.
“If you hadn’t been stupid enough to relieve yourself in there I could’ve had a good night’s sleep!” She matched her accusatory tone with a knobby blotched finger pointed at my face. I didn’t know what she was talking about. I hadn’t relieved myself for who knew how long.
“I had two coyoties in my property some time ago and they were eating my garden and just making a mess of the whole place! That one…,” pointing to Chay laboring by the fire, “…That one just sat there and didn’t chase them away! They looked just like you, ignorant, Godless, but I’ll be darned tall and as skinny as
a river eel! I told that Chay to go out with the torch and she wouldn’t. All the neighbors called her a coward and you know, coyotie, I wouldn’t blame them! But I’m old, and clever, and I couldn’t bother to be scared by you. You’re not smart enough to hurt me or even try and escape.”
From the corner of the hut, Chay glared and muttered to herself. Her hair stuck to the sweat that clung to her checks and the corners of her mouth. I could almost feel the heat of her heart as it pounded in her chest when she helped me get out of the box.
“Let me tell you, let me tell you the truth, coyotie. The truth and you’ll be saved, the truth so that you might live to be half as old as I am.” She cackled as she sat in her chair and rocked back, flashing her full set of browning teeth to the room. “Ha! Anyone would be lucky to know the truth like I do. Those Saans, they have a good idea but they do not know it all. You coyoties would do some good to listen to me if you’re going to keep wandering out of your little coyotie holes out there in the desert. God will give you no leeway in the afterlife if you don’t praise Him and honor Him, our Lord and Savior. You are savages running around and thinking you can ignore him and keep thinking that the animals and stars are what take care of you. No one is more powerful and good than God. No one. No One!”
She pounded her fist on the arm of her chair so suddenly the spit was forced out of her mouth and onto her chin. She sucked it up without dropping her eyes from mine. But her soul said nothing. Her eyes were as vacant as an empty vessel, hollow, heartless and selfish. The longer I sat there the more satisfied Halle felt. She wouldn’t listen, I knew, to anything I could’ve said. A woman like this could never be changed.
"Let her go, Chay," Halle said, "She's too stupid for us. The city will teach her a lesson and she'll be sorry she didn't listen.”
I darted out of the house, grabbing my pack on the way.
“Steal from me and I’ll kill you, you hear me? But if it’s not me today it’ll probably be someone else tomorrow!” Halle squawked in parting.
Though my knees creaked and my muscles ached I ran as fast as I could to the end of the village and collapsed in the safety of a field of tall grass. Hungry and squinting in the bright sunlight I fumbled in my bag hoping for some food. Nothing. But just then, a black cricket landed on my outstretched leg. Slowly I extended my arm, picked it up and put it in my mouth, thinking of Yakeh as I crunched through its thick skin.
Now terribly thirsty, I got up to search for water. In the distance I could see looming cliffs bowing over a gully. Confident there was water in their shadows I picked myself up and continued to run. The cliffs never seemed to get any closer as I mindlessly threw one foot in front of the other. As the day grew dim, shadows patterned their faces like great giants all standing in a row.
A black and gray speckled boulder sat alone, echoing the noise of the large stream running at its side. Its peaceful rhythm beckoned for company. Feeling the tightness in my legs, I was happy to oblige. After a meal of crickets, soft greens and fish scorched in a poorly made fire, I soaked my feet in the stream and listened to the chatter of the water against my great aching feet. The sweet chirping of a few crickets carried on a warm breeze reminded me of home.
I woke the next morning to the gasping gurgle of the stream. As my eyes fluttered open I recoiled as I saw not the water as I had expected but another dying black fish beached on the bare rocks of the equally sickened stream. Over the course of the night this precious tiny waterway had rotted into a dreadful memory of running water.
After a moment of shock at the sight, I forced myself to swallow my disgust and fear. I put my misgivings and trepidations into my pockets and continued on.
But my disgust soon faded as I approached the gully bordered by the cliffs I had seen last night. Indeed there were great stone statues carved into the cliff faces. The statues were taller than washerwoman falls, taller than the trees in that same canyon. Their shrouded heads bowed slightly over their crossed arms but where their faces should be, there was nothing. They were magnificent—more impressive than anything I’d ever seen a person make—and I wondered who put them there. They were like stone gods protecting the road. And though they weren’t my gods, I felt protected by their presence.
Chapter 26
Yossinda
Dawn had broken, but the thick grey that covered the city had spread from night though dawn and into morning made it impossible to tell. To me, the clouds and smoke that clogged the city were as suffocating as Yeidi’s addiction. I imagine she was feeling quite free when I found her on my way to the Red Keep. She was sprawled out high, alone and stupid.
She had glitter flecks on her face and chest. Along with her blackened lips and rotting teeth she almost looked a beauty in costume, except that all that spilled from her lips were slurred words and a stream of drool. She looked like an infant the way it stuck from her mouth to her hands.
When I woke her she was a happy stoned fool. Although she lacked the coordination to stand up she was willing to try. I shouldered most of her weight on the walk back to the house. Though she was totally incompetent she was kind. I wondered if it was worth having a nice, drugged sister in exchange for a mean, able one.
Outside it was strangely cool for an early summer day. Despite all of our efforts the Red and Blue Keeps remained clammy. I did my regular work tending to the newly pregnant Princess and in early afternoon I went to do Yeidi’s work in the Citadel. I managed to hide my face when the King stormed through the great hall on his way to the throne; I thanked Terro he seemed too preoccupied to recognize me or seek me out.
On my way to Saan Citadel I saw my father, walking the same way.
“Another day in the mines,” he smiled sadly, “mining the black and making the grey. It cannot be good for my lungs, but I am thankful for work Yossy, I truly am.”
When I hugged my father goodbye he told me to eat more and that he’d see us that night. Raini was well when he left, he told me, and Yeidi was sleeping soundly, as sickly and tired as ever. I resented her, and I felt weighed down by our troubles, but I was excited to be in the presence of the Saans. Perhaps today I would see SaanKote up close.
Saan Citadel was warm and fragrant when I arrived. Underlings were congregating in the great hall for supper. I loved the magnificent hall. At all times of the day star-like lights illuminated the ceiling, shedding light onto the earthen floor. When no one else was around I could hear the peaceful trickle of the stream around the edges of the hall. All of the center lights that embedded in the ceiling were not burning oil or fat or wax. They glowed a heavenly blue and they never had to be relit or changed. It was magic. The mystery of the lights only strengthened my faith more.
Dinia ushered me into the kitchen shoved an overloaded tray into my arms. “The Holiest Ones are dining in the Solar of SaanAethan my dear, I’m afraid you’ll have to carry it all upstairs for them!” I didn’t mind. I moved nimbly in spite of the weight of the tray on my way up and up into fifth floor of the sky tower.
No underlings were there to take my burden from me and shoo me back to the kitchens. Instead, one saw me approaching and opened the door for me.
Inside was ablaze in warm orange light from paraffin lamps. Thick tapestries hung from the walls decorated in scenes from the Books of the Brothers. Together they encircled the Five Great Saans themselves. Each sat on one side of an oversized wooden table. It was hard to tell with all the plates and glasses covering the surface, but it looked like the table was inlaid with the silhouette of an Unmarked One. The head of the Unmarked One pointed towards SaanAethan while either an elbow or a hand pointed towards SaanTerro, SaanReas, SaanObith and SaanKote. SaanKote!
“Brothers, it goes without saying that the people love our new SaanKote, and dare I say SaanKote, I must agree with them," SaanAethan spoke from the head of a table, where glow from the lamps illuminated his eager eyes. The new Saan looked too young. His thick curly hair was cropped close to his head, his skin was dark and smooth li
ke an olive. I had never been alive for the coming of a new Saan, so the new and strangely beautiful SaanKote was nothing but a shock. I had only ever imagined the Saans as old men with papery skin deep with wrinkles.
"It is a blessing to truly have a direct descendant of Kote himself among us," SaanReas spoke happily. The rest nodded. "Truly," some of them mumbled.
"SaanKote has already shown great humility and generosity with his concern for the poor and tired," SaanReas started, his moon-face beaming, "What fortune the realm has in your presence here SaanKote."
"I've learned so much that I never knew. What a shame to think that I've spent so much time without knowledge of the greatest truths of the world. I look forward to sharing my knowledge and insights with the people of Saansanti, and hope that we can spread our messages into the lands beyond," SaanKote spoke like a Saan, slowly but with intention. His crooked teeth showed white next to his dark skin and like SaanReas, SaanKote smiled, but his voice trembled when he spoke. I couldn't help but stare.
Katrine and her icy gray eyes noticed my fixed gaze and sent me back down to the kitchens. I hurried, suddenly well aware of how off task I had become watching the Saans talk, wondering how they became so wise and knowing. The hours they spent in prayer must be uncountable. I wished I had the time to be so holy. Suddenly I yearned to be a man, so that I could be one of the Saans.
A Reading of the Brothers from After the Flood
Aethan was the most powerful of the humans, with a strong desire to unite and connect with others. Even his great strength of mind was no match for his great strength of heart, it is said. Aethan wandered the land, searching for others and preaching good words of kindness and understanding. People wanted to be near Aethan for he had answers. They knew his name and his goodness and wanted to be protected by him.