[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 22]    [Chapter 24]    [Chapter 25]    [Chapter 26]    [Chapter 27]    [Chapter 28]    [Chapter 29]    [Chapter 30]    [Epilogue]
   

Chapter 23

The Taklans in the cave got up to all sorts of things. They bathed in the pool, girls put on make-up and children made and shared cookies. Balka-Rae seemed a little weak, so he napped. Meanwhile, Zana was trying to clear his head.
    “I guess they’re nice,” he thought. “Who is Dad? 2 people? Or am I making up the second? But he made it up. He made up his cruel reputation to hide his feelings. Is he really that clever?”
    Jaron flew up to the ledge, carrying Warok with him. They sat on the ledge.
    “What are you doing here?” asked Zana.
    “Giving you company,” answered Jaron.
    “I’m sorry for staring at you earlier,” said Warok. “It’s just that I’ve always known how rare a Sage is and just to see one...is counted as a blessing.”
    “Don’t bow,” Zana ordered.
    “I have heard of your relationship with your father,” said Warok.
    Zana looked away. “Yeah it’s big news.”
    “Family fights are quite common, all you need is to talk,” the Catlan told him.
    “Jaron, if you were to talk with your parents how would you feel?” Zana asked.
    Jaron curled up. “Well...in this lifetime I’d be pretty scared...I think.”
    Zana sighed. “I always need other people to clear my head for me.” “I’m going to get a cookie.”

A lot of people were lying down. They were supposed to be sleeping but only a few were. They were waiting for Dali’s baby to be born. They could hear some of her cries. They could hear the whispers to comfort her.
    Zana was with his family. He was trying to sleep but was just as nervous. What Kuni told him went round in his head. “Soon after a child’s birth, a baptism ceremony is given at that altar. Usually it’s the senior of the family who bears the child its name but since you’re here, they’ll probably want you to do it.”
    Everyone could then hear a baby’s cry.

They were on their way again. It was only morning, but Corina was in such a happy mood that she couldn’t stop talking about the baby.
    “She’s called Sage-Mar. She was so cute! And those adorable eyes! I could hold her for hours. I want a baby of my own.”
    “Babies don’t last forever,” said Loria.
    “I beg to differ looking at your baby sister Loria,” said Rida in a posh voice. People laughed.
    “Hey, in case you haven’t noticed I don’t like being made fun of,” said Corina.
    “You’re always asking for it,” Zana told her.
    “How?!” asked Corina. “All I do is comment...and complain. But everyone gets a free opinion.”
    “We know that but... ” Yanthro tried to say but-
    “But what?” asked the princess.
    “If you don’t try to...control yourself our mission will fail,” told Yanthro carefully.
    “The adults should’ve thought of that before dragging me along!” said Corina.
    “We agreed with your parents it was a good idea,” Jaron told her. “We thought we-”
    “You wanted to discipline me!” Corina almost shouted.
    “It’s probably for better,” said Yanthro quietly.
    “That’s all you adults wanna do! Make every kid miserable! You make us follow rules and...Loria, I remember you when you were cool. You’ve turned into…”
    Balka-Rae had stopped and turned around. Corina looked and felt really scared. He walked up to her and slapped her. She fell to the ground.
    “Father!” Kuni shouted.
    “YOU ARE GOING TO SHUT UP YOU WARRUS WENCH!” Balka shouted.
    Corina started crying. Zana shoved his Dad. “What did you think you were doing?” Zana demanded.
    Corina got up, touching where she was scratched. “That hurt.” She ran from them.
    “CORINA WAIT!!!” shouted Yanthro. He took off his back-pack and ran after her.
    Kuni picked up the pack Yanthro dropped and put it on. Balka-Rae carried on walking in the direction he was going.
    “What about-” Jaron tried to ask.
    “As long as Yanthro sticks with her she’s fine,” said Balka sternly.
    Loria was mad at him. “I’m gonna get you for hurting my sister. I’m gonna get you real bad!”

Corina ran until she ran out of breath, then fell to the ground. She cried her eyes out. Yanthro ran up behind her. He wasn’t as out of breath as she was, but he was breathing heavily. He drank from his flask.
    “You should drink too,” he said. “Exercise in the day is not good.” Corina slowly stopped crying and drank from the flask that he gave her. “We should go back.”
    “No! I won’t go back to him or any of ‘em,” she said.
    “But we must, to do our mission and to tell the others-”
    “That I’m sorry for whining? Forget it!”
    “It’s something more important than that,” told Yanthro. Corina stared at the Doglan. “Balka sick.”
    “Oh he’s sick alright, he should be locked up in a psycho home!” she told him.
    “No, he is really sick,” he tried to tell her. “He has fever. At first it was small, but it got bigger in our journey.”
    “So, he wouldn’t slap me if he was sane?” she asked.
    “No, he doesn’t like to hurt anyone...except Ingree and jailors,” told Yanthro.
    Corina thought for a minute, then shook her head. “I’m not going where I’m not wanted.”
    Yanthro then got an idea. “I know another way to Catlan Imperial, but it’s dangerous and you have to be real quiet.”
    “I promise I’ll be good,” Corina told him.
    Yanthro helped her up and led the way.

    “Sick is he?” thought Zana. “No wonder he’s acting weird. But I can’t confront him about it now, he’d just push me away.”
    He walked up to his half sister and pulled her back a little bit. “He has a fever,” he said really quietly into her ear.
    Kuni stared at him. “How’d you-?” Zana pointed to his head. Jaron noticed what was going on, but he couldn’t hear a word.
    Balka-Rae then stopped. “We’re nearing the Guard circle, we need to go through the underground tunnels.”
    They found themselves near another sandstorm shelter. They went in. It was pretty much the same as the other one they stayed in. What the other one didn’t have were strange markings on a wall. Balka touched a few of them and a door opened.

Yanthro and Corina kept on walking, with their heads low. For 3 days they had been walking across the desert, having Scout ships and Guard ships flying over their heads. They could see nothing but sand.
    “Yanthro, are you sure we’re getting close?” Corina asked quietly. He nodded. “We’re running low on water,” she said.
    “There’s another water-hole a day away,” he told her. “If not we can chop down a cactus.” Another ship flew over them.
    “I hope we don’t have to,” said Corina.
    They kept on walking. They soon saw a herd of camels in the distance. There were a few nomads herding them.
    “They’ll have water,” told Yanthro quietly. “And cactus vines to eat, but they’ll trade it for a price.” He thought for a moment. “Corina, give them your copper bracelet.”
    “My bracelet?” she asked.
    “You have plenty more and besides, it’s normal for nomad girls to collect copper bracelets. Gold ones seem suspicious.”
    Corina pulled up her cloak sleeve and undid her bracelet. They walked up to the herd.
    One of the herdsmen came to them. “Afternoon kind people, I see you’re interested in a purchase.”
    “We are indeed,” answered Yanthro. “We like a canister and a bag of pines please.”
    “Paid for very well by this copper,” said the man and he took Corina’s bracelet. He walked to a camel with luggage on it and pointed to the child herder, then pointed to another camel. He took a black barrel (with a screw top on it) off a camel and came back to them. The barrel had straps on it so it could be worn on the back. The child herder ran up to Corina with a small, black sack. She took it. Yanthro put the barrel on his back.
    “We wish you good journey,” said the child herder.
    “We wish you good herding,” said Yanthro and Corina bowed her head. The two walked off.
    After walking a little bit, Yanthro whispered to Corina: “You blended in good. Where did you learn to do that?”
    “One of the few times I listened in school, we were learning about different people’s lifestyles,” Corina whispered.

They kept walking. It was easy to walk for ages because the tunnels were cooler than the desert above. They walked and they walked and found 2 tunnels, but one tunnel stopped at a large door.
    They were about to take the tunnel on the left when Zana said: “We should go through that door.”
    Balka-Rae looked at his son. “No one has the key to open it.”
    Zana walked towards the door. He took out his forever dagger and put it in a small hole next to the door. It opened.
    “How did he do that and what was the point? There’s only more caves,” thought Loria.
    “This is a short cut,” Zana told them. “Go in before me, it closes when I go through.”
    They shrugged and went in.

©Ruth Amy Louise Hüneke 2008