Two Moons of Sera (26 page)

Velka led us through the village, past the wilting fields
where the harvest was sparse, and to a cliff’s edge. Despite her long cloak,
she easily crossed a narrow path along the rock wall until we came to a cave
mouth.

I followed, body pressed flush against the mountainside to
keep from falling. Past the walkway, nothing but open air greeted me. It was
dizzying to look out to the horizon, where the open sea appeared so vast,
spanning from the shore to infinity with nothing to stop the nosedive off the
end of the world.

At the cave entrance, I greeted darkness as thick and dense
as smog.

“Come.” A cloth-covered hand took my wrist and guided me
through the black.

My Sualwet senses offered no information about my
surroundings, just like in the cave where Tor had—

My throat constricted as memories of Tor’s departure flooded
my mind. The hand on my wrist squeezed gently.

Soon the mist of darkness thinned, and we entered a small
room. Balls of fire hung above, illuminating the space without smoke. Velka
dropped my wrist and dropped the cloak covering her body. A small and gorgeous
frame stood before me. Her long ebony hair flowed down her back, its inky black
color only a few shades darker than her skin. She was completely nude beneath
the cloak, a state I’d come to expect from the A’aihea. Most surprising was her
youth. She couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me.

Surprise must have shown on my face, because Velka laughed,
a bright ringing sound that filled the stone hall. Keene and Sev stood on
either side of me with heads lowered, not looking up.

“You are surprised by this body?”

“No, I mean, you’re just... You look my age. I thought... I
guess... I thought you’d be older. Wiser.”

“Skin deceives. I am far, far older than you. Older than all
three of your years added up. Older than even twice that.”

“But you look so—”

“Being of the Fire stops the passage of time. I was Within
for many, many years.”

“That’s where Tor went? Into the lava?”

“He went Within? So, he is not only a lost child, but of the
Fire. The A’aihea must be thrilled.” Velka observed Sev, who lifted her eyes.

“Lost has returned. Killed has lived.” Sev traced along her
throat the line of Tor’s scar.

“Yes! That’s right.” I turned to Sev. “Tor doesn’t know who
he is, where he came from, but he can do what you do, and he has a scar on his
throat that’s been there his whole life.”

“Not do as I; I am not of the Fire,” Sev replied, head
haughty.

“I thought—I don’t understand, you can make fire like he
can. Isn’t that what you mean?”

Sev ignored my question as Velka turned her back and walked
to the far end of the cave. The luminescent fire followed, as did Sev and I.
Trailing behind Velka like children, her air of authority silenced my questions
and demanded our undivided attention.

“Erdlanders came once,” she said. “They took our children,
those too young to hide in the Fire. Most children cannot go Within until ten
years pass. Some got away, some hid. The others were taken. We hunted for them
only to find bodies, all with their throats slit.” She motioned to the wall
before us, and one of the fireballs came closer, lighting up the images painted
there. “The priestesses created this so we would never forget what the
Erdlanders are. They are the killers of babies, the takers of children.”

In these beautiful paintings, words I couldn’t understand
wove through pictures of mothers rushing to a wall of fire, carrying children
in their arms as short, thick men gave chase. From the fire, arms reached out
to those seeking safety. Orange, yellow, and red swirled together, and with the
flickering light of the ball, the mural appeared to be moving.

Farther along, a darker image depicted trees filled with
birds and owls looking down on a pile of tiny bodies. Women knelt, holding limp
children to their breasts, heads raised as they wailed. The echoes of our
breath carried their keening through the cave, bringing their pain to life.

“Few survived.” Velka’s voice was heavy with pain. “A whole
generation slaughtered.

“But you survived,” I said to Keene and Sev, pain clutching
my heart at their loss.

“I am of the Fire and went Within,” Keene said. “Sev is not.
She creates the flame, but cannot hold its embrace. She hid.”

Sev grimaced. “I survived.”

“You were right to hide, to run. It is how you live today.
If you had not, I would be alone without you.” His smile was sad but full of
love. It shone in his eyes and softened my heart.

“All were thought dead,” Velka continued. “If your Tor has
returned, he is precious. It has been a very long time since any of the lost
ones rejoined the A’aihea, and if he is of the Fire, able to walk Within, he is
rare. Fewer and fewer are able to enter with each new birth.”

What was happening to the world? The A’aihea couldn’t go
Within their Fire, the Erdlanders were on some kind of breeding program, and
the Sualwet long ago abandoned live birth for the ease and practicality of
laying eggs.

The crumbling pain of the women painted in the mural
reminded me of Elle, another victim in the long line of atrocities the
Erdlanders had committed. She may not have been tortured physically like my
mother, but she still suffered under the rules of their society. Their lack of
compassion for her loss and pain only proved that they certainly had the
capacity for the kind of evil depicted on the wall. I was evidence of their
cruelty, my very existence a tangible example of how twisted their minds were,
but me—me personally? I had nothing to do with this insanity.

“What does any of this have to do with me?” I asked.

“The priestesses wrote many things here, things from times
forgotten, things from days when one moon hung in the sky and the races matched
its number.” Velka glided farther into the cave, into another opening and down
a long corridor. The flames followed her and illuminated walls covered with
illustrations, script, and portraits of generations.

I wanted her to stop, to tell me the story of every image,
to share their secrets, but despite her tiny frame, she moved swiftly. Images
of celebration, fire, and erotic coupling filled the walls, streaming past me
as we hurried along.

“I’ve not been this far,” Keene whispered beside me.

“Women only, not eyes like yours,” Sev replied. “Initiation
happens deep.” Her shoulders straightened with pride.

The ground dropped as we followed Velka down a steep decline
that twisted through open caverns and underground springs. The scent of fresh
water and moss filled my senses, clearing my mind. When we were deep inside the
earth, possibly at the center of the mountain, Velka stopped, bringing all the
fireballs close to illuminate one image.

On the wall was a painting of a girl with long brown hair,
silver eyes and a tail instead of legs. Her iridescent eyes shone in the firelight,
twinkling from within. Instead of using paint, some ancient artisan had set
opalescent gemstones into the eyes, creating a perfect recreation of my irises.
In her arms this woman held a child with fire in its eyes.

The woman’s face looked exactly like mine.

“What is this?” I breathed, mesmerized by the image before
me.

“We have been waiting for you for so very long,” Velka spoke
reverently, staring at the wall before us.

“This doesn’t make any sense. Who did this? When did
this—what does it mean?”

“Sev brought you to me. She remembered the stories from
initiation. She was to be a priestess but found her calling with the Qutha’ia.”

“What is that?”

“Those of the Fire, those who rule us all, they are the
Qutha’ia. They are cruel. They’ve forgotten what it means to be alive and
instead exist in the flames of lust and ego.”

“But you were one of them.”

“And did many things I regret,” Velka confessed. “I left,
denouncing their ways.” She held out her right arm, showing me the triangles
spanning from her neck to her shoulder. “These”—she traced along her neckline—”show
I am part of the Qutha’ia, like Sev. The markings running down farther show I
lived Within. Sev does not have these because she cannot go inside the Fire.
These...” She dropped her arm and presented me the left one. Tattooed black
bands spread along her upper arm. “These show that I left the Qutha’ia, either
by choice or by force. Because of this, I’m never again allowed to set foot
Within.”

I looked from her arm to my new companions. “So, Keene left
but Sev didn’t?”

“Yes.” Keene stepped forward and held out his tattooed arms
for inspection.

“What about this?” I reached out and traced the black band
on his right bicep, which both Keene and Sev displayed.

He withdrew from my touch without responding.

“That is the mark of first blood,” Velka explained. “Keene
and Sev were born from the Queen.”

“So you’re a prince?”

“And princess,” Keene answered, smiling at his sister.

Sev spoke to him in A’aihea, earning a frown from Keene.

“She says she is more prince than I.”

“The first bloods are the line from the beginning,” Velka
continued. “The family can be traced back to those who painted these images.
Keene and Sev’s mother, she who leads them, has no name, for she was born into
the Fire. A babe straight to the flame.”

“The woman who took Tor,” I said.

“She took not,” Sev replied, her eyes tight. “He did follow.”

“So why are you here? If she’s your mother, why did you
bring me here?”

“The way is....” Sev struggled with the words. “We—we are
wrong.”

Sev’s simplicity made sense. Some things in this world were
just wrong. I’d seen more than my fair share of those things. My life, for one.
Her strength reminded me of my mother. She’d also refused to accept the way
things were just because everyone else did, and she went against the ways of
her own people to protect someone she loved.

Velka motioned farther into the dank cave, and the hovering
fire moved to illuminate another image. Four pictures came into view. A woman
stood in the middle of three figures circling around her. The picture in the
center looked Erdlander, but her body stretched taller like the A’aihea. She
stared out at me with the same silver, gemstone eyes as the previous image.
Around her were portraits of a fish with a man’s hairless head, a naked woman
with hands of fire, and a small, ruddy-skinned version of the person in the
center.

“Once, there was a time when Erdlanders, A’aihea, and
Sualwet were one. This was so long ago that few remember the happenings of that
time, and most have already forgotten the stories told when they were young.
The priestesses saw the separation of races and noted it here. These...
humans,
as they were called, sought to conquer the Earth by separating parts of
themselves into those who would dwell beneath, those who would dwell above, and
those who would dwell Within. But, like is drawn to like, and new races
emerged. Soon, we were all that remained, and now, we have lost what we are.
The Sualwet have no kindness left—”

“That’s not true. My mother—”

Velka shook her head. “Your mother must have been special to
bring to the world a child as you, but was she kind? Were her people kind to
her?”

“I guess not.” The admission pained me, but if the Sualwet
had been kind, my mother would never have suffered the way she did, and I’d
probably have died when the Domed City collapsed.

“The Qutha’ia have no sense of time or civility. We live
like beasts, while those who rule us revel in the flames. Any who incites their
passion is punished, discarded like Keene.”

“Discarded?”

“I question,” Keene lamented. “I cannot live as they do.”

“You were banished?”

He nodded, shame filling his usually proud features.

“Erdlanders inbred until they lost their souls,” Velka
continued. “They lash out at all who live, because they know their end is near.
What they fail to see is we will
all
be gone soon: none of us can
survive this way much longer. We A’aihea see it in our children. Their flame is
dim.”

She paused, her words filling the dark cave, oppressing me
with meaning. “The end comes as the new begins.”

The flames drifted back to the image of the girl with my
face, and we all stood silent before the mural. In the darkness, Sev placed her
hand on my shoulder.

“You must remain safe,” Velka said.

I sat on the mat in Keene’s hut. We’d returned to the
scraggy village where he lived since his banishment. His only crime as far as I
could understand had been defending the A’aihea who couldn’t go inside the
Fire. On the floor next to me lay an orange cloak, identical to the one Velka
and the other priestesses wore. Wearing it meant I would be able to walk around
unnoticed, and it was long enough to hide my Sualwet feet.

Exhaustion set in, and even though the sun still shone
brightly, I wanted to lie down and close my eyes. But I didn’t dare. If I fell
asleep, I might wake to an even worse nightmare than this one. How that was be
possible, I wasn’t sure, but the fear lingered. Instead, I sat in a
mud-and-thatch hut, surrounded by half-naked people who believed I was some
kind of savior.

I longed for Tor’s silent comfort, a hand on my back or a
twitch in his eyebrow when he tried not to laugh at my irrational thoughts. I
wished for my mother’s distant affection. Though strange and detached, she’d
never given me cause to doubt her love for me. Instead, I was stuck with Keene’s
strange kindness and Sev’s melting cruelty. I never thought I would miss living
with the Erdlanders so much. How long had it been since I’d sat at the dinner
table in Pod Thirty-four? It felt like another life, one of the many I’d lived
in so short a time.

Outside the hut I heard a familiar thrumming sound, followed
by shouts. Rushing out, I saw A’aihea scattering down the dusty path. Most
rushed back to their homes, dirty children in tow, others—including Keene and
Sev—ran to the edge of the forest, weapons in hand.

And from the distance came an unmistakable call: “Thhhhhhruuuuuup!”

Panic spread throughout the village as an oversized, excited
mountain hound rushed from the forest at full speed toward the huts and pounced
me. I fell to the ground, tumbling under his massive bulk, laughing.

~
Elgon! Calm down!~

The monster licked my face with glee and wiggled in delight
as I chuckled and scratched his muzzle. Above me, Keene and Sev screamed. Sev
raised her staff and pointed it at Elgon’s head, ready to strike.

“Stop!” I rolled Elgon off me. “He’s not dangerous.”

As I sat up, the mountain hound curled around my back,
laying his head on my leg.

“Worst of the forest, kill for fun!” Sev countered, still
holding her spear at the ready.

“Maybe the others do, but Elgon is my friend.” I scratched
his ears, and he looked up at them with his tongue dangling out the side of his
mouth. How anyone could think him something other than ridiculous was beyond
me, but only a few days ago, I had been terrified of him as well.

Keene stood a pace behind his sister, eying Elgon and I.

Sev stood at the ready, hands ignited around her staff.
Behind her, the villagers took cover in their huts. A few other brave A’aihea
stood a safe distance from us, screaming for the mountain hound’s death.

I laid my hand on Elgon’s nose and let him lick my hand. “It’s
all right. He won’t hurt you.”

When Keene saw Elgon hadn’t gnawed off my entire arm, he
placed a hand on Sev’s shoulder to stay her hand.

“I promise. Please, trust me. I’m trusting you. Elgon won’t
hurt anyone.”

Sev’s eyes never left Elgon as she lowered the staff’s
blade, but she appeared no less deadly. “He must leave.” Her demand left little
room for disagreement.

“I can’t make him,” I replied, scratching the monster’s ears
and hoping he would stay calm. “He does what he wants.”

Elgon’s body tensed in reaction to my terror. I couldn’t
bear another death, another loss, not his or anyone else’s.

He was the only tie I had left to Tor.

“Please.”

“Too much fear with him here,” Keene explained, his face
still flat with shock from the scene laid out before him. “He must leave or be
killed. We listen, but others would not.”

“But what am I supposed to do?”

“Come.” He walked past me and held open the flap to his hut,
ushering us within. Behind Sev, the gathered crowd gasped. “Come. We talk away
from eyes.”

“
No
.” Sev stood with hands on her hips.

“Fine, stay here.” I turned my back on her and received a
growl in response.

She must have made a move toward me, because Elgon’s hackles
rose and he turned to bare his teeth at her.

~
No Elgon,
~
I cooed in Sualwet, ~
come with
me
.~ I smoothed his raised fur until he calmed and turned away from Sev.

Her eyebrows rose in shock as he relaxed and looked up at
me. Then I led Elgon past Keene, and the hound snorted and pressed against me,
pushing me farther from the A’aihea prince.

Inside the hut the air hung stale, and I could still smell
the lingering scent of vomit. Elgon explored the room, sniffing around the
perimeter. Keene remained perfectly still when the mountain hound inspected his
legs.

“You can pet him,” I offered. If Keene touched him, it would
be easier to convince him of Elgon’s gentle nature.

“Not to be,” he replied with narrowed eyes.

I knelt next to Elgon, who licked my cheek. With a laugh I
batted his snout away roughly, earning me a devilish grin and snort.

“He does play?”

“Yes.” I blew on Elgon’s nose, which made him sneeze and
bump me in the arm with his forehead. “See? He’s my friend.”

He knelt next to me and reached a tentative hand toward
Elgon. His offer of friendship was rewarded with a wet tongue running up his
palm. Keene laughed.

At the deep sound, Sev thrust her head inside the hut in a
panic.

“All is fine,” Keene assured her, but her dark eyes focused
on me.

She stepped inside, still holding her staff. Elgon growled.
At the menacing sound, Keene fell back and hurried to get away.

~
Elgon,
no,~ I chided. ~
We have to show them you’re
nice so they don’t turn you into dinner or clothes. Please, no more growling,
okay?
~

“Stay here,” Keen instructed. “He leaves, he would die.”
Then he joined his sister outside, leaving me alone in the darkness.

~
Elgon, whatever are we going to do?
~ I sat on the
mat and he lay next to me.

Crusted mud matted his hair, and a healing scratch ran along
one side of his nose. For the most part, he was the same as before. What kind
of adventure had he been on, I wondered?

~
You had to’ve had more fun than me,
~ I muttered
before lying next to him and wrapping my arm around his body. Elgon wasn’t Tor,
but this creature was familiar and comforting. He loved me, in his own
monstrous way, and he protected me. He had found me even though we’d been
separated.

When Elgon’s breath evened out into contented slumber, I
slipped away and stepped outside. Sev sat on the dusty ground, watching her
brother cook over a small fire pit in the dimming sunlight. The scent of meat
and spices filling the air ignited my hunger.

“Hi,” I said and sat next to the fire.

Sev glared at me before darting her eyes back to the hut
flap.

“Elgon’s asleep,” I assured her. “He’ll stay in there, so
you don’t have to be afraid.”

“Scared? No.” Sev’s eyebrows shot up. “Not scared.”

Keene laughed at his sister’s response.

“
A’ai thouah
....” Sev stretched the word out into a
warning.

“
A’ai thew-ahh
,” I repeated, “what does that mean?”

Sev folded her legs under her and poured me a glass of water
from a nearby pitcher before replying. “Brother. No. More than...? Uh, Keene?”

He didn’t look up as he shifted coals in the fire with a stick.
“She means something... more than family. Brother of the soul. A word of love,
not only relation.”

“That sounds familiar,” I said. “The Sualwet, they don’t use
short names. Even family uses someone’s full name. I’m Serafay. All Sualwets,
even my mother, would use my whole name. To call me just ‘Sera’ is like that
word—
a’ai thouah
. It’s a way of saying ‘you love me, you hold me close.’”

“Yes, yes!” Keene’s eyes shone in the fire.

A chill had crept over the village as the sun began setting,
so I moved closer to the fire and Sev.

“We do call you Sera,” she observed.

Keene nodded. “Serafay, then?”

I shook my head. “None of my friends call me that. They’re
Erdlanders, so they do things differently. Sera is fine.”

“Only short names for A’aihea,” Sev offered, her posture
elegant even sitting cross-legged on the ground. No slump dared lie on her
shoulders, but her face remained relaxed. She was pretty in an intimidating
way. The lack of hair and eyebrows gave her a familiar appearance, though, and
despite her dark coloring, she reminded me of my mother.

“You don’t have a family name? My mother was Nilafay. I’m
Sera, and my family name is Fay—Serafay.”

“Named for mother?”

“For family. I guess if I had a father, I would be named
after him, but I don’t.”

Sev raised an eyebrow in question.

“The Erdlanders—they made me.” I shrugged, but Sev’s
confused tilt of her head prompted me to continue. “My mother was kidnapped
when she was about my age. The Erdlanders did that...
do
that. They took
her and experimented on her, trying to get her pregnant. She didn’t like to
talk about it. They kept her for a long time, and she escaped eventually, but
she was already pregnant with me. When I was living with the Erdlanders, I
found a Sualwet boy they kept in a cage, and I heard about others—”

“A’aihea?”

“I don’t know. I never saw any. Didn’t even know you existed
until right before we left, but I’m sure they would have done the same thing to
your people if they could.”

Keene took the meat from the fire with his bare hands,
pulled it into chunks, and added it to a small pot next to him. My mouth
salivated with the promising aromas as he stirred the pot with a spoon before
setting it in the fire. Keene prepared food so differently from how I had back
at the cove. I always had to suspend the pot from something so I could retrieve
it without burning myself. Not being flammable had its advantages.

I sipped my water and watched the fire blaze around the pot.
The ruby moon rose over the cliff wall beyond the village, spilling an ominous
red cast on the night. A halo glowed around it, making the moon appear larger
than ever, filling the night sky.

Keene disappeared into the hut to retrieve plates and then
served us from the pot.

“Thank you.” Instead of waiting for the food to cool, I
burned my tongue on the first bite. The flavor was so full, it bloomed in my
mouth and filled all of my senses. “What do you do to make this so good?”

“Keene does do.” Sev eyed her brother over her glass.

“But what do you
do
?”

Keene shrugged, not looking up at me. He seemed embarrassed
by the attention.

“I’ve never tasted anything like this. Is all A’aihea food
this flavorful?”

“Yes, much more than Erdlander chalk.” Keene wrinkled his
nose and stuck out his tongue.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. Even Sev smiled.

We finished our meal in relative silence. The food tasted
too good for me to want to spend time conversing. Instead, I relished the
flavors and tried to empty my mind of all the pain and confusion filling me.

The sky drifted to black. At the mountain’s altitude, the
stars shone with brilliance, battling the moon for dominance. The smaller moon
finally rose and chased the dominating ruby satellite through the night.

“Nothing makes sense anymore,” I mused into the darkness. I
huddled close to what remained of the fire, as the A’aihea clothing didn’t
cover enough to keep me warm.

“What mean you?” Keene asked, also gazing up into the sky.

“While I was growing up, my mother told me stories about the
Erdlanders, but most of those people aren’t like the ones who hurt her or the A’aihea
children. Most of them are just
people
, and I’d never even heard of the
A’aihea—only bedtime fairy tales warning against coming to the mountains.”

“Tales of what?”

“Sualwet mothers would tell children stories about the Devil’s
Daughters, cautionary fairy tales about the dangers of straying too far from
the group. I never believed it—when I was a kid, it all seemed silly—but I
never believed a lot of things until recently. One of the stories was about
women who sang to Sualwet men, drawing them into the mountains to lay with them
and then throw them off cliffs.”

The siblings laughed.

“Sualwet men? Ha! Skinny Fish boys!” Sev said.

“Oversized fire starters,” I retorted with a laugh of my
own, but my good humor didn’t last long. The realities of my world were too
heavy to allow such levity. The fire burned down to embers and fatigue dragged
me with it.

“What are we going to do? I can’t stay here. And I have to
get my friends....”

“We know,” Keene replied into the darkness. “Something will
be done. Something will have to be done.”