[Prologue]    [Chapter 1]   [Chapter 2]    [Chapter 3]    [Chapter 4]    [Chapter 5]    [Chapter 6]    [Chapter 7]    [Chapter 8]    [Chapter 9]    [Chapter 10]    [Chapter 11]    [Chapter 12]    [Chapter 13]    [Chapter 14]    [Chapter 15]    [Chapter 16]    [Chapter 17]    [Chapter 18]    [Chapter 19]    [Chapter 20]    [Chapter 21]    [Chapter 23]    [Chapter 24]    [Chapter 25]    [Chapter 26]    [Chapter 27]    [Chapter 28]    [Chapter 29]    [Chapter 30]    [Epilogue]
   

Chapter 22

Corina couldn’t sleep. She sat up.
    “You can’t sleep?” whispered Yanthro. She shook her head. “Me neither.”
    “I don’t understand it, I can’t stand seeing other people get hurt,” whispered Corina. “How can the Catlans do it and how is it Balka could stand your kind being tortured so long?”
    “He had to be very strong,” told Yanthro quietly.
    “I’m not that strong and I don’t like being hurt either,” whispered the Tellen Princess.
    “You should think yourself lucky. You grew up in a good home with good parents and people to protect you,” told Yanthro quietly.
    “At least you didn’t have to go to school everyday,” she told him quietly.
    “Many of us would do anything to go to school.”
    “As if,” she answered.
     Zana started to groan in his sleep. The 2 Taklans crawled to him.
    “Dad, you’re ill...sleep,” Zana said quietly. He then sat up. “Mum?”
    “Sh, sh. Back to sleep,” Yanthro whispered.
    He made Zana lie down, making the Tyron go back to sleep.
    “Do you think what Balka said is true?” whispered Corina. “When Zana talked weird, was it actually Gaderan talking?”
    “I think so,” whispered Yanthro. “We need to sleep.”

Balka-Rae woke up. He was an early riser, so as usual he was the only one sitting up. Kuni wasn’t in there. He shrugged. “Sometimes happens.” Zana was also gone. “Now that’s odd.” He crawled to get outside the tent. Kuni was going through his bag, taking out the stuff needed for making their meal. Zana was standing on top of a sand dune further away. Balka walked to him.
    He stood behind his son for a moment. “Got a good sleep?”
    “Didn’t hear you coming,” thought Zana. He turned around, looked at his Dad. “Lark says I should trust you...I suppose I should. You’re not lying.”
    “And that’s all you’ll see me as?” asked Balka-Rae. “A military leader with a heart?”
    “Well...you...never raised me, or talked to me,” told Zana.
    “Zana I couldn’t!” told his Dad. “They would have had you killed. I made sure you were raised right, you could at least thank me for that.”
    “Thankyou,” said Zana simply.
    Balka shook his head. “That hurts.”
    “I’m sorry that I have trouble just being okay with your story. Fine! You couldn’t see me! But what about Mum!”
    “I did. I had to pretend I was using her as some slave in a twisted game, otherwise they would have realised something was up and I wasn’t going to have her killed!”
    Zana stared at his Dad...for so long. “That’s how you started your reputation for torturing. You bought Tyrons to your room and-what? Fed them? Washed ‘em?” Balka-Rae seemed happy his son could figure out his lie. ... “Who was she?”
    “What?” asked Balka.
    “My Mum, who was she?” Zana asked again.
    “You talk about her as if she’s dead. You guessed right.”
    Zana looked at Balka’s locket. It was a rectangle: sparkly purple at the rim and gold in the middle. He opened it.
    There were 2 pictures inside. One of a woman with white hair looking through a window. There was a desert outside. “Jorea,” thought Zana. The other was of a woman’s face, smiling. She had blonde hair, blue eyes and a green head-feather. “My Mum.” He pointed to the picture. “Who was this woman?”
    Balka took the locket and closed it. “You’ve met her before.”
    “Huh?”
    Balka-Rae told his son: “You’ve met her. Twice.” ... “Don’t you remember? When the Catlan guard first threw you onto the streets. When it was feeding time, many Tyrons were fighting for their food.”
    Zana then remembered: “I couldn’t put up a fight as I was so weak. A woman then gave me some of her bread.”
    “Remember 9 years ago? The old woman in the hospital?”
    “I gave her the rose I had...” Zana stared at his Dad. “Her name was Riga...Riga was my Mum?!” Zana turned round. He felt like crying.
    “I went to her funeral,” told Balka. “I made sure she was burned with the rose you gave her. I know you know that’s true because you saw the jet I used to get there.”
    Zana turned around and looked at his Dad. “There was nothing stopping you from telling me then! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING! WERE YOU AVOIDING ME ON PURPOSE? I HAD A RIGHT TO KNOW! WHY DIDN’T YOU SEE ME THEN?”
    Balka was on the verge of tears. “I was afraid you would act like this,” he whispered. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Kuni had been watching them. She was walking up to them. “No Kuni, leave him be.” He walked to her and she turned around, still angry at her half-brother.
    It was at this point father and daughter saw Jaron standing outside the tent.
    “How much did you hear?” asked Balka.
    “Most of it,” answered the blonde. “Just let Zana cool awhile, he’s always getting tantrums but they go away.”
    Balka-Rae nodded. “Just like his Mum.”

It was late afternoon. This time of day was when some people used their cloaks as capes.
    “Stop talking, it makes you thirsty,” Yanthro told Corina.
    “But walking along and not doing anything, that’s just so boring!” complained Corina. “Man it’s so hot. How can anyone walk or even live like this!”
    “We’ll find some nomads then you can ask them,” said Yanthro.
    Corina got fed up of talking with Yanthro and walked next to Zana. “It was pretty easy for you to be Soaring Charotta.”
    “No it wasn’t,” said Zana.
    “What d’you mean ‘no it wasn’t’?” asked Corina. “You were picked by Vanus.”
    Zana drank from his flask before talking. “Salra introduced me to him and he saw my tact skills when he got to know me better. When he did offer me the position I took it, but I was very young. It’s not expected that the Charotta could be younger than 35, so I had a sort of tutor with me the whole time.”
    “How old were you?” asked Corina.
    “I became Charotta when I was 17. That’s why a lot of other high ranking officers didn’t like me at first. But the guy who followed me was respected. With all the work I put in I got accepted…eventually.”
    “Is it hard work to do everything on this planet?” she asked.
    “One thing you don’t find hard is annoying people,” said Kuni. Almost all the Taklans giggled.
    “That’s not nice,” said Corina with her arms crossed.
    “Too bad it’s true,” said Jaron quietly.
    A small boy appeared in front of them. He was definitely a nomad. Yanthro had started sniffing. A small girl had run up the sand dune and stood next to the slightly taller boy.
    The small boy called down. “Grandpa! Strangers!”
    “They’re both real nomads, I can’t smell phasers,” said Yanthro.
    A nomad who was older than Balka-Rae slowly got up the dune and looked at the group of Taklans. “I am Olka. What is your business?” Balka pulled down his hood and mouth-scarf. Both men smiled. “Balka-Rae! You have nerve showing your face here.”
    “Everyone seems to know Balka-Rae,” said Corina quietly.
    “Of course we do, he’s our destined saviour,” Olka told her.
    “You heard that!?” she asked.
    “I may be 85 but my ears have never failed me,” Olka told her proudly.
    “You’ll have to excuse Corina, she refuses to learn manners,” Balka told Olka.
    “You should put up your hoods,” said the little boy.
    “A sandstorm is coming,” said the little girl. It was a little blowey in the desert.
    “My great grandchildren,” said Olka. “Meet Kandar and his sister Jeraren.”
    “We should get going,” said Balka and he walked down the dune. The rest followed him.
    “There’s a sandstorm shelter nearby?” asked Loria.
    “Of course,” Kuni answered. “We’re heading straight towards it. Why were you and your great grandchildren out here Olka?”
    “We had been camping in the shelter last night and their parents agreed that the children needed fresh air,” Olka told Kuni.
    “I thought you spoke in the traditional tongue,” said Rida.
    Olka answered him. “When Balka-Rae fled from the forces Ingree announced that we had to speak in ‘the tongue of the strong’. Those who resisted were taken to prison. It’s what happened to my sons.”
    When he heard this, Balka-Rae looked shocked.
    “But that means that all Balka did to make better lives for the Doglans has been undone,” said Rida.

It was getting quite windy and everyone had their hoods up. They were getting near to an open hole and about 10 camels were sitting around it.
    “Last person inside please press the red button!” Olka shouted.
    They all carefully went into the hole and went down the stairs inside it. Zana was the last one in and saw a small screen on his left. There was a green button and a red button underneath it. He pressed the red button, then writing appeared on the screen. It said: ‘Trap Door Closing’. The trap door closed. The writing then said: ‘Sandstorm Sensor Activated’.
    “What about the camels?” asked Corina.
    “Camels are better adapted to the desert than we are, they can survive anything,” said Loria.
    They got to the bottom of the stairs and walked along a small tunnel.
    “We are fortunate tonight,” said Olka. “3 other clans are staying with us and we hope that Dali’s child is born by morning.”
    They went into a cave as huge as a cathedral. In a corner was a large pool. There was a tent in the middle of the cave. In another corner was a table covered in a red cloth and had golden cat and dog statues on it. Higher up were ledges where a few nomads climbed up. The new arrivals got inside and started taking off their cloaks and veils and scarves.
    “May I introduce to you my clan,” said Olka. A number of nomads came forward. “My 2 sons, Warok and Reen.” (The twins who looked about 55.) “Keldri here is married to Reen. My granddaughters, Faela-Li and Jella.” (2 nomads in their 20s, one has blonde hair and the other black.) “I’ve already told you that their sister Dali is in that tent, Koran is the fortunate father of the unborn child. You’ve met my great grandchildren, they belong to Jella and Kak.” (Kak is quite tall, he also has black hair.) “My wife, Siska, is in the tent with Dali.”
    Koran was about to walk to the tent but for some reason, everyone in the cave had stopped doing whatever they were doing and were staring at the newcomers.
    “Why are they staring at us?” asked Corina quietly.
    “It’s not us they’re staring at,” said Yanthro.
    Olka himself turned around then gasped. “Why, Balka-Rae. Why didn’t you tell us you were blessed with the presence of a Sage?”
    “Dammit!” Balka cried out. He looked at Zana. “Zana, I forgot. You’re considered sacred to these people. You’re known as a Sage.”
    Zana was asking: “Why am I-”
    A teenager from the back was about to say: “Because-”
    “Nevermind, I know.” The Sage flew up onto a ledge and sat on it.
    Jaron hovered up and spoke. “Listen, Zana doesn’t like being stared at so…just go back to whatever you’re doing.” And they did just that.
    While everyone moved around, Corina asked Kuni: “Why’s he called a Sage?”
    “The word means Servant of Fera,” Kuni answered.

©Ruth Amy Louise Hüneke 2008