STORM
by
Aria Zilfier
For Nanowrimo 2011
*****
PUBLISHED BY
Aria Zilfier at Smashwords
This is a rough draft for Nanowrimo 2011, compiled only for distribution at Smashwords. Do not re-distribute as your own work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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01 A Cup of Tea
There was nothing quite like a cup of tea.
The green tea leaves, turning dark and soggy, sunk down into the cup of red-tinted water. Outside, birds twittered and hopped about and did whatever they usually do, while the room’s four walls served only to remind her of the freedom that was called outside.
Her knees ached. Her thighs ached. Her back ached.
But still, she continued sitting, staring down at the tea leaves.
Float dammit, float! She urged the tea leaves.
But every single leaves sunk.
She started pushing the cup away, but thought the better of it, and gulped the tea down, tea leaves and all, as her guests stared at her.
“Well, it’s bad,” she decided as she set the cup down.
“It is?” One of the guests asked.
“Yes, that’s pretty much it.” She waved them towards the door.
When they had left, she dropped down to the floor and rolled under the table. The bamboo mat smelled like home. She sighed in content.
“Grand Seer?” A pair of feet appeared in front of her.
She looked upwards at the owner’s severe expression.
“Don’t tell me...”
“Yes, the princess is here.”
The words barely left the attendant's mouth but she was already bounding out of the room, the bells in her gown tinkling in a frenzy.
“‘Sha!” cried the princess as she tottered forward then tripped on her gown and fell.
“Princess!” she caught the toddler before she hit the floor.
“Lady Asha.”
Grand Seer Asha turned and smiled, “Greetings, Prince Iyn.”
Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Rause, when it was more likely for someone to be eaten by dragons than ride on them, was a king and his three sons. There was no mention of the queen anywhere in the tale, so it was likely that the sons were from a handmaiden, or from some illicit affair - which was another likely thing in those days.
So the king had three sons, and they were equally strong, brave and handsome. The kingdom was torn between the three. Each of them had quite a number of supporters and if there was a riot somewhere in the kingdom, it was a guaranteed thing that the riot was caused between the different supporters.
There was one thing the supporters agreed on, however - that the king was too old and he should give up the throne to one of his sons.
The king did not quite know what to make of it. He couldn’t give the kingdom three kings and he did not want to break the kingdom up into three smaller kingdoms.
So, like all other kings, in other stories, he told them to go on a quest. The nature of the quest was not important. But what was important was that the youngest prince finished it first ( and that it was just as a certain little girl had predicted).
The first prince, was so distraught over this defeat that he married a princess from a far away kingdom.
The second prince decided he had enough of the kingdom and its fanatic people and disappeared into the mountains.
That left the third prince, who thought that future was rosy and all, until he discovered that the king had declared that the heir to the kingdom would be the yet to be born princess of the queen, whom he had married while the princes were away.
Grand Seer Asha was not in love with Prince Iyn. She used to, a long time ago, when the Prince was young and charming and dreamy. All he was at the moment was grossly fat, and was a widower with many children.
Prince Iyn, however, seemed to think otherwise. “I am here again, with the proposal, Lady.”
“And I must respectfully decline,” Asha replied almost immediately. She looked down at the princess in her arms. “Princess, you’ve grown.”
“‘Sha!” The princess gurgled.
“Bringing the princess would not help change my mind, Your Highness.”
Prince Iyn, who was tugging at his beard, sighed. “This is my fifth time, Lady Asha. Really, any other man of royal import would have...No, just any other man, would have really been offended.”
“Your beard offends me,” Asha quietly replied.
“Lady Asha!” Her severe-looking attendant gasped.
Prince Iyn chuckled. “Well, that’s a better answer than what I’ve gotten.”
It used to be that Asha would do anything for that laughter. For the man who laughed. Now, she simply looked at him indifferently.
The princess was uneasy. “‘Sha?”
“Stay here a bit,” Asha set the princess aside and rose. She walked towards the window, and the prince followed.
“Prince, what do you see here?”
The prince followed her gaze.
“The garden,” he replied. “I see a pond over at a corner, and there must be fish swimming inside the waters. I know the royal gardener recommended some golden carps last year, so I suppose those must be it. I see the stone garden - there are some birds perching on the rocks. A cat is staring intently at it. And the trees are flowering. It is a season of hope.”
The bells in Asha’s gown tinkled, and Asha blinked, startled.
She turned to the Prince.
“All I see is a cage.”
And it was there, beyond the garden that served as an illusion, the twisted black metal that enclosed her in the temple - invisible to her, but she could feel its presence constantly.
The prince looked at her intently.
“I jest,” Asha smiled.
“Would you at least confirm it with your tea?” Prince Iyn asked. “I’ll pay for it.”
Asha raised a brow. “I don’t think you’d like it.”
“Please.”
Asha nodded to the attendant by the door. She bowed and left.
“To the tea room. Just you,” Asha glanced at the guards posted around the room.
Asha walked past the princess, taking a second to pat the toddler on her head, back to the tea room.
A new set of tea things were already placed on the low table.
Asha took a seat and beckoned the prince to do the same. He sat across her, watching her hands as they moved to pluck tea leaves from the bowl and drop them into the cup.
She had done this thousands of times, and she had never once, believed that whatever she saw was true. Yet those thousands of people did.
The bells tinkled again.
The water rippled in the cup as she set the pot of hot water aside.
The tea leaves were floating as ripples continued to break the surface of the cup.
Asha frowned.
The bells were continuously ringing then, like some ominous sign.
At last she sat back. “Well, this cannot be good.”
When she looked at the prince’s face, she saw that he was frowning. “You know that, deep inside, don’t you?” Asha asked.
“I am not going to stop trying.” And he would not. Asha could hear the resolve in his words.
She smiled. “My Prince, it is useless. I am not royalty. I am a priestess...of this temple. I cannot belong to a person. I belong to everyone.”
“‘Sha?”
Asha could hear the little princess’ voice outside the door.
“‘Sha?”
Prince Iyn glanced at the door. “She really loves you, you know that, don’t you?”
“And I love her dearly too,” Asha replied.
Outside, birds were nearly squawking.
The bell in the tower thundered, and Asha could feel the vibration throughout the building. The prince winced as he rubbed his ears. The princess was whimpering outside the door.
“Is it always like this?” he asked.
Asha gave that a long thought. “Well, no.”
And then, the earth heaved.
###
02 A thousand bells
There was once a little girl who was fascinated by the royal family. She was a little girl, really, and was innocent.
“Politics” was just another difficult word for her that started with “P”.
But she was certainly an extraordinary girl.
To this girl, who was no older than eight years old, there was future in the leaves. To be precise - tea leaves. It was an incredible feat that no one believed.
The people of her village thought it as a scam that was so simple, it was simply stupid. They laughed at her parents, and pitied her for being made use of to cheat people out of money.
But then the youngest prince of Rause came back from the quest first.
It was a one in three chances thing. Not impossible, but it had never occurred to the villagers that it might happen, that it would happen.
So, the day after, two of the villagers asked her of their future.
"Take care of the goats," she replied. "Don’t put them near water." They laughed at her and left the house, leaving the girl bewildered. The two villagers, who were goatherds of their own flocks went back to the fields to tend to their goats.
The river was swollen that day and the goats were lost to one of the villagers. The other villager, who had secretly took the girl’s words seriously, was glad he did.
It did not stop there.
Soon the girl was besieged by villagers. And after that, were people from other villagers.
And one day - she was simply gone.
There were whispers.
The king’s guards had taken her, some say. Others say that the men of the wood took her. Yet more said that she was the devil’s beget and he had come to steal her back in the middle of the night.
But the fact was, she was gone.
And as the little girl faded from the villagers’ mind, far away, in the capital of the kingdom, the king was throwing a ball to celebrate both his impending heir’s birth. It would be the feast of the century because he had finally solved his heir problem.
And after all, a daughter was less likely to wrest his throne from him when she was older.
And the princess, was to be called, Ivy of Rause.
Back in the village, a man and a woman mourned the loss of their daughter. And they bitterly cursed their daughter’s taker.
And so it was that fated day, when Prince Iyn, a has-been washed up prince came to visit a certain Grand Seer by the name of Asha, that the earth shivered violently. The other priests and priestesses would say that the mother earth was being tickled by her children's antics.
Personally, Asha had always thought that mother earth had a little too much to drink and was heaving up all its content.
Bad Mother Earth.
But that was her own whimsical thoughts and reality was, she had to hurry out of the room...that is, if only she could stand.
It was impossible.
She was on her knees, while everything around her groaned and creaked in the lurches of "Mother" Earth. Precious vases that were given y the temple's followers fell from the niches in the walls onto the ground, shattering into pieces.
Outside, the thousand bells of the Thousand Bell kingdom rioted. Asha stared out of the square hole that was the window of the room. The sky was an incredulous cheerful blue, mismatching the chaos that was happening below it.
The prince was saying something that she couldn't hear and Asha made sure she just so happened to be looking the other way. She knew, thoug, tht they had to get out of the building fast. It did not sound like it was going to hold up any longer.
As Asha crawled towards the door, it slammed open and the prince's guards fell into the room, piled up on top of each other.
The prince was shouting himself hoarse. "the princess?" he asked.
One of the guards shouted back, "safe!"
"good!"
"your highness! We have to get out of here!" the top most guard rolled off the pile and crawled towards the Prince.
"I'm trying to! Get the lady Asha!"
A second guard rolled off the pile and started crawling towards her. He did not look good - his face was turning into a most fascinating green colour. Amazingly, he managed to reach Asha without throwing up, and even dragged her a bit more towards the door before he rolled over on his back and remained motionless.
Asha caught herself before her “tsk” went out of her mouth. She crawled passed him, the prince and the other guards, through the doorway.
The wooden passage outside the room was littered with the broken pieces of clay statues and glass bells. Asha continued dragging herself, sometimes slipping on the parquet, but always moving forward.
Her eyes were focused on the end on the corridor, at the glowing white patch. Behind her, the prince and his guards grunted and clanged as they followed her.
After what it seemed like a million years, Asha finally found herself going over the threshold. She lunged in between the railings and fell onto the earth, her face in the sand.
When she looked up, she saw priests and guests scattered about the temple grounds, on their knees like her. She spotted the princess well away from any buildings.
The tremor stopped.
Asha picked herself up and walked away, further from the building and the general crowd.
“Grand Seer!” cried the Grand Attendant as she made her way to Asha. “Are you alright?”
The Grand Attendant was a sight. Her clothes were torn at places and some of her bells were dented,probably when she fell during the quake. The Grand Attendant was a pretty young thing, but her dark hair had come undone, making the younger girl look like a wild beast.
“yes, I'm fine. But the prince...” Asha nodded towards the direction of the building that she had just come out from. “One of his guards fainted, and the Prince was still in the building, when I last saw him. Find him, before the next one hits.”
“the...the next one?” the Grand Attendant asked, eyes widened and lips quivering. Asha felt sorry for her.
“Yes, there will be another one. Hurry!”
The Grand Attendant gulped and ran off, shouting for some of the other attendants as she did.
Asha continued walking.
A few minutes later, she turned her head and saw nothing but trees and the rock garden. Around her, everything stood still, as though hold its breath for the next tremor. Absent-mindedly, Asha whistled for the birds, then realizing that there was no response, she wondered where they had hidden themselves.
Suddenly, the gates were in front of her. Asha's heart skipped a beat. Although the gates were closed, the guards were not there. She walked towards the gate pensively, and looked around for anyone who was still around. When her hands touched the warm metal, Asha sighed.
She was there, touching the gate, and there was no one who could stop her. She could see the road from between the bars. It was a straight paved line, vanishing just as the ground sloped down.
Asha tugged at the metal. The gate swung open easily and she slipped through it quickly. And she ran.
Her bare feet kicked up dust from the road, and sometimes she stepped on grains of sand. They hurt her feet and she thought they were starting to get cut. But, Asha would not stop - not for her feet, not for the world.
As she ran down that road, her thoughts were on nothing, but running - escaping from the cage that had held her for time immemorial.
Fly! Her heart whispered.
The road started to slope downwards. The trees that had flanked it were suddenly gone, and Asha saw a vast plain set inside a bowl-like depression in front of her. She could see the road continue up a slope on the other side of the plain.
The plain was not vacant.
There were tents - of all colours, shapes and sizes. Armoured men were rushing about, no doubt trying to figure out what to do post-quake. Asha looked at them with dismay. She had never thought that the Prince had come with an entourage. Though thinking about it, it really did not make sense that the Prince would bring the Princess out for a three day ride away from the capital.
She kicked herself inwardly for being ignorant.
Then, the ground started to tremble again, as Asha had foreseen. The guards who were hurrying about immediately stopped and dropped the ground. Asha took that as a cue and dropped to the ground too, but for other reasons.
The tremor this time around was not as bad as the first one, but as she stood on the road, seeing the guards so clearly, she realised that they would have spotted her too, if they had not been so pre-occupied. Now that they had stopped moving, they would probably notice a girl in a torn priestess garb standing on the road.
Asha had thought that “escape” would be as simple as walking out and disappearing into the scenery, and she knew then that she had thought wrong.
Despite being the Grand Seer, she was still a girl who knew nothing. She had already started to miss her tea leaves badly. It was a safe situation, and she had not been that unhappy. Her patrons were the royal family themselves. She wondered what had gotten into her to just slipped out of the grounds to make her escape. She should probably turn back, and pretend that nothing of this had happened.
Something dark was moving fast down the other slope, and circumvented the camp.
Asha wondered at it and realised that it could possibly be a horse. As the object climbed up the road, clearer as the distance closed between them, Asha saw that it was, indeed, a horse. And its rider. And she was right in the middle of the road, in its way.
Asha scrambled to the side of the road, but the horse seemed determined to stomp on her.
The horse neighed as the rider tugged on the reins.
Asha looked up. Despite being hooded, she saw a pair of the brightest blue eyes she had ever seen.
“Take me away!” she cried.
###
03 Blue Eyes
Asha held her breath as she cried the words. Behind the horse, Asha knew that the guards were picking themselves up from the intensity of the clattering that bounced from the hills. Soon, some of them would notice that there was a horse standing still on the road, in front of the a red bump. And they would realise that the red bump was a priestess’ garb, and then someone was donning that priestess garb.
They might send someone up to investigate, and they would send her back where she belonged. Back to the Temple of Bells, safe and sound, with her tea leaves. Doing nothing but reading tea leaves, for a future that wasn’t hers.
Not that she could read her future, even if she wanted to. Everyone else’s but hers. Fate was strange.
Soon, someone will notice us.
She tried to fight off the panic that was rising from her stomach, but she was going already going to be sick from the terror. The rider stared back at her.
Asha couldn’t tell if he or she couldn’t figure out what to make of her or contemplating whether to just ride over her. Asha hope not.
“Please!” she pleaded again, just as an extra measure.
The rider nodded his (or her) head and stretched out his hand. Asha grasped at it quickly and found herself easily pulled onto the saddle. The rider started up the slope where the she had come from.
“No! Not the temple!”
Asha could hear an almost audible sigh, and then the rider veered from the road and headed at an angle away, but still up the slope.
At least it isn’t the temple, Asha thought. Anything but it.
As they continued galloping further from the temple, the sense of urgency subsided. Instead, Asha was increasingly aware of the pain was throbbing at her knees and feet. She knew she must have looked terrible - she felt horrible enough - but as she clutched the back of the stranger’s clothes, she was just thankful enough that she was on the horse, rather than back at the temple.
Absent-mindedly, she wondered if the prince had found the gold chain he lost in the quake.
When they finally slowed down, the moon was already rising. Asha looked anxiously at the setting sun, and their surroundings.
“Will we be alright?” she asked, glancing at the forest that threatened to engulf them in its immenseness. Asha had never seen so many trees before in her life, and she felt overwhelmed. The stranger nodded slightly and continued on, giving his horse a little more freedom in picking its path.
A cliff rose to meet them, with water cascading over the edge and collecting into a small pool of water beneath it. The stranger got off the horse and led the horse nearer to it. As the horse bent to drink from the pool, the stranger picked Asha off it easily.
“You’re strong,” Asha admired, and then blushed as she realised how silly the words made her sound. She hurried to the other side of the pool, distancing herself so that he wouldn’t see her face. There, she studied him as she took sips from the pool. She did not realised how thirsty she was until the first drops touched her lips, and she drank eagerly without thinking.
The rider was unsaddling his horse. He moved easily and gracefully, as though he had done it a thousand times, easing the saddles over his broad shoulders. Yet, he looked too thin. She could see from the clothes flapping about his body. “There must be only skin and bones under all those,” she thought. He was all wrapped up - besides the long-sleeved shirt and breeches he was wearing, a dark cloak hung from his shoulders, with its hood pulled low over his face. Even that was wrapped up, with some kind of dark cloth.
Asha knew that she should be scared by such a suspiciously-garbed person, but somehow, she felt at ease with him, as though instinctively, she knew that he would not do her any harm.
She turned away from him to look at herself. Her red robes were torn and marked with splotches of dark patches of dried blood. She raised her robes and winced at what she saw. The skin of her knees were scrapped and long bloody lines criss-crossed her legs from her thighs to her ankles. Her soles were caked with a mixture of blood and soil.
Asha cupped water from pool and poured the water over her legs. She bit her lips to stop herself from crying out at the pain that exploded in her legs. Her attendants would have cleaned her legs with herbs and dressed the wounds properly, but they were a good distance away, and Asha rather the pain than them.
The rider was staring at Asha as she was washing her wounds. He was striding around the pool towards her. She found herself blushing again, and quickly covered her legs. He caught her arm and shook his head. Releasing her hand, he pulled aside her robes and studied her wounds, hovering his hands slightly over them, but did not touch them.
He took a flask from his belt and uncorked it; pouring its contents on the wounds before she realised what was happening. It felt as though her legs had been set on fire.
Asha screamed.
This was the quest that was set by the king: Find the kingdom’s lost treasure. The shape, size and manner of the object was lost to the kingdom, and the king was equally clueless as to what it was. There was a legend that long existed, that said that the King of Dragons had took it for himself, so it might have been a woman. If so, then the treasure would have already be fertilizing some trees somewhere. What the king was sure about it was that it was magical. So the kingdom’s lost treasure might not have been a woman after all.
The prince came, late one afternoon. The little girl had known it would happen. She saw it in her mother’s future that morning. The family was prepared, but the villagers, not so. As he rode up the pebbled path, farmers and cow girls and others of many vocations froze at what they were doing and peered to stare at the handsome stranger.
“Greetings,” he said, as he got off his horse and led it to the front gate of the girl’s house. Her mother had been pretending to be gardening. She stood up and dusted her hands on the front of her dress. “I am a traveller, just passing through.”
The girl peered around the corner of the house. She was told to stay in her house, but she couldn’t just sit around while an actual prince visited!
The girl smiled as she saw the prince try to pretend that he wasn’t a prince. He would be staying for the night, and her mother would be paid handsomely. Her father would be very pleased.
When she came around, it was dark, and the ground felt harder than she thought it would. Her bones felt the chill in the air.
“Hello?” There was a small fire lit up, but it was not big enough to generate enough warm. The rider laid near the fire, without his cloak. Asha realised belatedly that the reason why she was not frozen was because of his cloak that was wrapped around her.
They were in a small cave. Looking out of the entrance, she saw the curtain of water and knew at once that they were in a cave beneath the cliff. Asha crawled nearer to the stranger.
He was deep in sleep. His fair hair was unbound, and tumbled around him, long like hers. Even Prince Iyn had never worn his hair that long, but while that kind of fashion would never suit him, Asha thought it suited the rider very well.
His shawl was wrapped around the lower half of his face, but Asha could see that he was younger than she had thought he was - just years older than her, a youth on the brink of manhood. His face was gaunt made even more obvious by the eye bags.
Asha was curious about this rider. Why did he help her? What future would the tea leaves show her? There was plenty of water, but no tea leaves.
The stranger stirred and Asha quickly retreated.
She stood up, hands pressing against the wall and walked to the entrance of the cave. Her robes were now at her knees and the cloth that were torn away had been used to bind her legs. The wounds did not hurt as much as before, and Asha guessed that she should be thankful that the rider had dressed the wounds.
Asha watched the scenery from behind the curtain of water. The moon was high up in the sky and other than the sound of water and the chirping of crickets, the forest was quiet. As she breathed in deep, she felt the chilly air enter her lungs.
“Why am I here?” she spoke loudly to herself. “Why did I choose to leave?”
Truth be told, she had never thought about leaving the temple, at all. She was nearly sixteen, having just crossed over to maidenhood a few months before. Perhaps she would have left, if the royal family had allowed her to, but she thought, as a bride to one of them - perhaps to a less important prince or a noble who was important enough to be entrusted with her care.
Prince Iyn was only the first of her suitors. There were others, but none of them were as nearly sanctioned as him.
Asha rubbed her arms. The cold was making her feet and face numb. She turned around to walk back to the fire, and bumped into rider. He had been standing behind her so quietly that she had not noticed when he approached her.
“I apologise,” she mumbled.
The rider’s placed his hands on her shoulders and stared down at her. For a moment, Asha thought that he was going to kiss her, shawl and all.
Kiss - she had heard it from the acolytes as they chattered while they went about their duties. More often than not, it had always started hands on the shoulders. Asha did not know what exactly the action was, but the acolytes always broke up in giggles.
The rider was trying hard to say something, but all she could hear were whispered words.
“I don’t understand you,” she replied. “Perhaps, if you removed the shawl...” she raised her hand and moved to her mouth.
Before she completed the action, the rider flinched and his hands released her to clutch at his shawl, as if he was afraid that she might steal it.
“I’m not going to do anything to your shawl!” Asha cried out, offended. “I just can’t hear your words.”
The rider turned away abruptly and came with a glowing stick.
Asha backed away. Suddenly she did not feel quite as safe with the stranger. He stopped a few stops away from her, and slid the stick onto the hardened ground. Asha guessed that he was writing.
“I don’t know how to read,” she said, dismayed.
He looked at her, and sighed. He dropped the stick, and pointed to at her, and then to the forest.
“You want me to go out...?” He shook his head, and paced to and fro.
“What is it, then?”
He continued his pacing and then stopped suddenly. He lunged towards her and picked her up.
“What?” Asha asked as he walked out of the cave, still carrying her.
They stood there for a while as he turned this way and that, glancing towards her now and then, before she finally realised what he was trying to communicate.
“You’re asking me where I want to go?” she asked.
He nodded quickly and let her down. He pointed to himself and his horse.
“I...I don’t know. Can’t I just follow you?” Asha replied.
He hung his head and shook slowly. Asha saw that he was clutching at his shawl again.
“Are you, perhaps, looking for the owner of the shawl?” she asked, curious.
He looked at her again, and then nodded slowly.
“I...I’m actually looking for something too. Please...bring me along, at least until you find that someone. I’ll leave you alone then,” Asha pleaded.
He hesitated, and then nodded again.
“I am Asha.”
He looked at her, staring at whatever was left of her red robes, and at her face, calculatively.
He’ll know who I am, stupid. I should not have used my real name, Asha thought immediately.
“Aein.”
Asha looked at him. She had thought that he was a mute, but the it was spoken clear as day.
“Aein,” she repeated after him. “I’m blessed to meet you.”
###
04 The cost of freedom
Aein did not say anything else.
After that surprising acceptance of her presence, he had simply turned away, sauntered back into the cave and continued sleeping.
Asha stayed where she was, rubbing her arms when the cold got to her. After a few hours, she went over to the horse and laid against it, feeling its heat spread over her. At least it kept her slightly warm until the morning broke over the forest.
She had fallen asleep again - no, the first time, she had been knocked unconscious - so, she had fallen asleep, and she woke up when Aein shook her shoulder. He pressed a small piece of meat into her palm.
It was tough to bite, tougher to chew and almost impossible to swallow. Asha realised that she had been pampered at the temple, as horrible as she thought it was, at that time.
Back at the Temple of Bells, she had been warm, and she had meals four times a day. And she was swathed in silk when she was not reading fortunes. And that was all she did - reading fortunes.
“What is the cost of freedom?” Asha mused, rather too loudly.
Aein turned to look at her, tilting his head slightly, bemused. He had been binding his hair rather unskillfully, and her question had caused him to mess it up.
“I was just thinking out loud,” Asha smiled sheepishly. She walked over to him. “If I may? I know a bit of hair binding.”
Aein hesitated. Asha began to think that he might actually be more afraid of her than her of him. Eventually, he let her braid his hair, although he held his shawl possessively.
As she did, she wondered at its illustriousness. Beneath the sunlight, it was almost white. Her own hair was pale gold, and the attendants had mostly red or brown hair. She had never seen someone with the colour of his hair.
“There.” The braid thumped gently against his back as she let go of it.
They rode through the misty forest. The horse’s hoofbeats echoed around them, like a steady drum. Asha rode in front of Aein this time around, so she felt the cool wind in her face. She was all fine, but after a while, her body started to ache from being bounced around.
“Where are we headed off to?” Asha asked. She was not used to silence. Back at the temples, her attendants had always chatted as they worked - sometimes a little too much.
Aein remained silent. Asha supposed that he didn’t like to talk, or perhaps he had some kind of speech impediment. She grew wearier as the day wore on with no end to the trees. They stopped for a while to water the horse and continued riding. Asha was soon hungry, but she knew that she had chosen this path and event though she had pondered over her choice, and regretted a little, she had to stick by it.
Almost a day had gone by without anyone trying to find her and Asha thought that perhaps the temple was lacking in people to search for her. The earth didn’t shake again after she met Aein by the road, so the damage would not be too extensive, she hoped. She didn’t not like to think that any of her attendants could be hurt in the quake either, so she tried to shut off her thoughts and focused on the ride again. It made her all aware of how much her body hurt.
Aein sensed that Asha was too tensed and quiet, and he reined in the horse for a longer break the next time. He gave her another piece of the meat and Asha took his offer eagerly.
“Aren’t you eating?” she asked, when she was done with hers.
Aein shook his head and disappeared into the bushes with the horse. She could hear the sound of water running where he had disappeared to, but Aein had motioned for her to stay, so stay she did. When he returned, Asha saw that his whole front was drenched. Before she could ask, they were back on the horse and started riding again.
She wiggled a little, feeling the moisture spread from him to her back, rather uncomfortably. They rode on for a few more hours, when Aein finally found a path that eventually joined up to a proper road. It was not as majestic as the road that led to the temple, but it was a decent one. At the very least, Asha did not find herself bouncing on the horse so much.
It occurred to Asha, at some point of time during the ride, that Aein had no idea where he was going. Not that she was in a hurry to part company, but her body ached all over, and the idea of finding somewhere proper to sleep was appealing.
The road they were on, wounded around trees and cliffs and various parts of the scenery that would have attracted Asha more if she hadn’t been so distracted by her pain. It never did quite lead them out of the forest, and as the day continued, Asha grew slightly alarmed that there was no end to the trees.
As the sun was setting, they finally stumbled upon a tall wooden fence in the middle of the clearing. It was almost like the temple except, the temple was all bars, and this fence was closed in, so that they could not see what was beyond it. And even on horseback, the fence was so high that they could not see where exactly in ended. It was impressive, and Asha found herself feeling anxious. Why would there be such high fences? What was there to keep out?
She suddenly remembered all the frightening tales about the forests that she had heard from the attendants.
There was one that had especially frightened her - it was about the wild men of the woods. It was said that they would steal away children in the night, cut out their hearts and eat them raw. They would use the children’s skins to make clothes and boots, and sell them as exotic leathers to the noble families. It was said that the skins were so supple, that one would not thing that he was wearing anything at all.
Asha shuddered.
They rode along the fence for a bit before they finally found a huge double-door gate. He got off his horse and knocked on it. The knocks echoed, a little too loudly for Asha.
Nothing happened.
“Hello?” Asha asked. “Anyone?”
There was still silence. Aein continued to knock on the door of the gate, without stopping.
“Maybe we should just go...?” Asha suggested as she stared at the door.
There was some kind of scratchings, and the doors groaned as they swung inwards slowly.
Asha stared at the gap between the doors as it grew large enough to reveal what was beyond it. There was a village of sorts, and possibly a bonfire that was starting up. She couldn’t be too sure. Aein did not wait for the doors to be fully open, and pulled the horse with Asha on it, in. She quickly lowered herself, with the top of the door frame scrapping her head slightly.
As soon as she was through, the doors slammed shut behind her. Apparently, whoever it was who opened the doors, did not wait for them too. Asha turned to look at the doorkeeper, but Aein distracted her when he lifted her off the horse and placed her firmly onto the ground.
All at once, the aches in her body burst forth, and Asha’s legs nearly folded under her. Aein caught her before she did, and she found herself leaning on him. She took a breath of his scent, and realised it was a mistake. Aein - like her - had been wandering around in a forest for one day, though he might have been even longer. She coughed and turned her head away from his body. Fortunately, Aein did not seem to notice.
The area the fence was protecting was a fairly large village. Houses clustered around a square clearing in twos and threes. All in all, there were at least twenty wooden houses - Asha could not see anymore beyond the cluster on the other side of the square.
Since it was nearly twilight, the windows of the houses were lit with candles. The road from the gate to the square too, was line with lit oboes. The gate keeper started walking forward towards the square. Aein pulled the horse after him and Asha hurried after.
The road and its surroundings were empty of people, but as they passed the houses, she could feel them being stared at by hidden eyes. Chickens crossed them twice, and Asha had to be careful not to accidentally step on the chicks that was tailing after their mother. Somewhere, a dog barked.
The fire was lit up by the time they reached it.
There were several people there and all of them turned to look at Aein and Asha as they approached the fire. The gate keeper left them there to hurry back down the path they had came from. Asha scuffed her bandaged feet against the soil, feeling uncomfortable.
“Um...” she started.
“Quiet,” said a voice, startling Asha. She glanced at Aein and then at the fire, but he had moved even the slightest since they reached the bonfire. The horse neighed, however.
“You’re back. Were you unsatisfied with the horse?” asked the same voice. Its owner approached them.
Asha had to squint a little before the dancing fire after-image would disappear from her sight. She realised that the owner of the voice was a small girl who sounded too precocious for her age. As if to prove Asha right, she walked all the way to them, stopping by the horse to pet it. “We will give your money back if you are unsatisfied with the horse. That was our agreement and guarantee.”
“Um...” Asha started.
“What is it, My Lady?” she turned to Asha, her dark curls bouncing slightly.
Asha panicked. Did this girl know her?
“Do you know me?” Asha asked.
The girl looked bemused for a minute and then shook her head.
“Oh,” was Asha’s comment to her reply. She felt relief washing all over her. The girl did not recognise her. Asha wanted to ask if soldiers had come visit the village to ask about her, but it didn’t seem like the right moment to do so. It would obviously raise some questions and questionable stares from whoever who was at the bonfire at the moment. Asha wanted to steer clear of that.
“In any case,” the girl continued. “The transaction was between this Mister and myself, so you need not concern yourself with it.”
Asha decided that the girl was being slightly impetuous and that she really ought to be indignant about the sentence. But Asha couldn’t be bothered. All she wanted to do, at the very moment, was to eat and sleep in a bed.
Aein pointed at Asha, and the girl flickered her eyes between Aein and Asha. “You want to outfit her with new garments?” She asked at the same time as when Asha asked, “Is there some kind of place to sleep in?”
Aein nodded twice, probably at both their questions. Taking it to be an encouragement, Asha pressed further, “Are you the...chieftain of this village?”
The girl laughed. “I am not a chieftain, just the daughter of the horse breeder.”
“Oh.” Asha was slightly embarrassed for herself.
“There is no village chief here. Although a leader of sorts would be residing in the cottage over there.” The girl pointed to a house in a far distance, almost completely cloaked my mist that seemed to have come out from nowhere. “But I wouldn’t suggest for you to go there now. The house has been locked down.”
“...Locked down?” Asha asked, not comprehending the phrase.
“Yes, we’ve been rather concern about a few things, and the people over there... a little more so.”
“I...I see.” Asha decided to try her luck again. “You don’t suppose you have tea leaves do you? Loose ones.”
The girl gave that a thought. “I think I know where I might find them. Give me a while to find all the things that the mister has requested. I will find that bed for you too.”
“Thank you!” Asha was delighted.
The girl came back quickly and led them to a house that seemed to be abandoned. But when the door opened, there was a family of four inside, all too eager to please. There was hot soup with bread and cool cider-like drink on the table when they came in.
Asha thought that Aein smiled, but she couldn’t see him with the scarf still wrapped around his face. For a fleeting moment, she thought if he would take it off to eat, but he gestured for Asha to eat first while he left to bath first.
They left the horse tethered outside, and when Asha was done, she asked the family to the direction of the bathhouse.
Night had fallen when she left the house with the clothes. It was cool and misty and as Asha thought of the hot bath that awaited her, she quickened her pace slightly. Outside, the village had come alive. The house they were to stay for the night was far away from the bonfire, but Asha could see the light of the fire flickering off the mist, creating an effect of a golden storm. There were music as well, and the scent of chicken, barbequed to crisp drifted. Despite having just eaten, Asha heard her stomach growling.
She smiled to herself, but continued walking towards the bath-house, while generally admiring the village.
Unlike the temple, which was a sprawling one level on stilts, many of the houses were two-storeys, with the first storey being a place of trade. She saw one place with some people sitting at tables eating while above it, she saw children peering out in their night things. She waved at them, and they hid themselves. Sometime a brave boy or girl would peek out and wave back, looking delighted that they did not back away, or perhaps, it was because it was so infrequent that they got to see someone they had never seen before.
After a while, Asha finally reached the bath-house. It was a building that was secluded from other areas. Like the houses, the walls were made of wood, but the bath-house had several chimneys with steam rising out of it. There was a huge pump, which was probably used to pump water from the stream nearby, into the bath-house. The bath-house was on stilts and there seemed to be orange ember beneath them. Asha hoped that the bath house was safe enough for her to be bathing in. She was worried that the ember might cost a fire and with her inside it, it would be she who would be nice and crisp from being barbequed.
Asha shook her head (literally) to free it of negative thoughts. She continued walking down the short pebbled path and tried pulling the door. When that didn’t work, she pushed it, and it swung open immediately, and Asha nearly fell onto her face. The first thing she felt was a blast of hot air.
It was foggy inside the bath house. Asha could hardly see anything. Granted, she could see a bit of shadows here and there, for instance, the shape a large tub some distance away. But she was not sure where it began and where it ended. Somewhere, was a clicking sound as the pump worked to bring the water in and out of the tub.
As she stepped inside quickly, she closed the door behind her. She felt around as she navigated along the wall. She nearly fell over when her feet nudged a ledge.
Asha knelt down to remove her new boots and stepped over the ledge. The wooden floor was warm and slippery. The rest of her clothes followed as she removed the tatters that was her priestess robe.
The water was a welcome and as Asha waded further in, she felt her muscles slowly relax and her sores fade away. She closed her eyes and thought about the events that had happened for the past two days, and wondered if anyone would try to find her. It was frustrating - she wanted them to notice that she was gone - that she was important enough to be noticed when she disappeared, but she did not want to be back at the temple.
The feeling of freedom - it was exhilarating. Already she had done many firsts - a horse ride, to be out of the gate, to be wandering about in a forest alone - no, wait, that was not quite right -
The little girl heard a distant voice telling her - “Don’t stray off the path!”
She turned to nod once at the cluster of trees behind her and continued to walk down the path. The basket was empty, but it would soon be full. It was a good season for fruits and she could not wait to fill the basket up with berries.
She could have hummed a tune or two - Asha couldn’t remember. Her dark braids swung as she hopped on one foot and then the other foot, thumping against her hips. Her hair was her pride, and she would not let anyone cut it -
The scissors was on a red velveted cushion, and it was huge. Asha hugged her hair, now released from its bindings. It was superbly long and glossy, and it cascaded over her shoulders and spread onto her knees as she sat on the floor. Twigs were entangled in her hair and the Grand Attendant, an old woman with wicked beady eyes that could set anyone she saw on ice or on fire (not literally of course) was looking down furiously at her.
“No!” Asha cried out. But the Grand Attendant took the scissors and growled, “Hold her down!”
Asha could not let anyone cut her hair. It was her one and precious commodity-
Aein held fast onto his scarf, his knuckles were slowly turning white from his grip -
Asha blinked.
Why had she suddenly thought of Aein? She frowned to herself. There was something about that scarf that made her remember about a disturbing memory about her hair. It was around five years back, and at that time, it was the most precious belonging to her because...because of the woods.
The dark braids, swinging as she skipped along the path in the woods, with an empty basket. A voice who told her not to stray off the path...
“Think! Think!” Asha gritted her teeth in frustration. She could almost see the face in her memory. Perhaps it was her mother...or her father? Or a brother? She could not remember the voice, but only the words - “Don’t stray off the path!”
Asha sat still, she knew what she had to do - she had to find home.
There was a sudden splash.
Asha twisted around to look at its source. “Anyone here?”
There was no answer, but she could see a shadow standing up from a corner of the bath and walk out of the tub.
As the door swung open and the figure exited, Asha thought she saw a glimpse of red scarf disappearing through the doorway.
###
05 The Price of Secrets
Asha opened her eyes.
It was a strange ceiling that she woke up to, and for a moment, she felt a sense of deja vu. She rolled over, and saw that the light that streamed through the windows were bright - it must have been noon.
The night before, when she had finished bathing, Asha could not sleep. It was not the rough woolen clothes she was wearing, nor the hard bed. Or the fact that Aein laid on the bed next to her own - the first time she had to sleep in the presence of a male for a long while. (The night before did not count because she had been unconscious rather than sleeping.)
It was her memory, or rather, the lack of. She had stared at the strange ceiling, trying to remember her past but she could not. It was simply too far away, too faded, and the days that followed her childhood was far more rich, and possibly, she had been far more happier then, than she had been before.
Asha found the logic slightly disturbing. She wondered if she had truly been unhappy as a child. And she wondered until her eyes finally closed and she floated away in a dreamless sleep that bore her to mid-noon, the following day.
Aein had woken up, and was trying to tie his braid again. His red scarf was tied around his face again.
Asha stared at him as he struggled, laughed and walked over to him.
“I’ll help you,” she said, as she knelt behind him. She took his hair in her hands and started to twist them around. Aein held on anxiously onto his scarf again, nodded at Asha as she stood up, job accomplished.
Aein disappeared through the door as Asha washed up. When she was done, he had reappeared, with a tray of food in his hands. As he set the tray down on the bed, Asha noticed how wretchedly thin he was. She caught his wrist as he turned away.
“Have you eaten?” Asha asked, looking into his eyes. She found herself mesmerised by its blueness again - azure, haunted by the darkness of despair.
Aein nodded his head, but her intuition told her that he was lying. “I’ll leave. I’m just a burden to you, aren’t I?” she asked. “I don’t want you to forgo anything just because of me. I mean, you only met me yesterday. You don’t need to be responsible for me.” And it was true. She felt useless that she had been so used to being dependent on people that she did not even know how to start standing on her own two feet.
I’ll make a dramatic exit, she thought, and gave the food a sorry glance as she walked past Aein.
Her thought, as Aein grabbed her before she finished her ultimate sacrifice exit was “oh thank goodness!” It was selfish of her, and she felt bad, but she was glad that Aein was holding on to her with every ounce of energy he had and that he was not letting her go until she turned around.
And so Asha did.
She looked into Aein’s eyes once again, as he shook his head hard. When he released her and pointed at the food again, Asha wasted no time in gobbling down the food.
I’m a spoiled child, she thought tearfully. I have to change for the better.
When every single crumb was finished, Asha realised that Aein had brought up tea for her. She stared down the cup, and saw the leaves swirling.
“You will...I mean...I’m sure you will find the person you are looking for, one day.” She glanced upwards and saw that Aein was looking at her, eyes wide with astonishment.
“That would be the reason why you’re wandering around, wouldn’t it?” Asha quickly added. “There is someone you’re looking for. The owner of the scarf, perhaps?”
Aein did not move. And then, after a while, he looked down at his scarf again, and nodded once. Asha pretended to sip the drink as he continued looking at her. When he turned away, she lowered the cup and glanced at the tea leaves again.
The leaves mentioned that he had a big choice to make sometime in the near future. It would probably affect the outcome of his search, but that was Asha’s own conjecture. Asha hoped that it wouldn’t be a choice in between leaving her here or leaving her in the middle of the forest. Or worser things...
Aein did not look like a criminal, and he did not look like he was inclined towards violence. There was something almost innocent in the air around him, that made people want to trust him, be kind with him and so on. Asha knew that this did not effect only her. The other villagers as well appeared to be nicer to him, though he did not talk to them.
Again, Asha wondered if he would ever attempt talking to her again. Perhaps she shouldn’t have been too blunt that she could not understand him...
Aein looked at her again, and Asha quickly gulped down the tea, choking on some tea leaves. “I’m fine,” she said as Aein moved towards her with an anxious look on his face. “I just choked on the leaves.”
They were off again, through the gates quickly and Asha realised, with a tinge of regret, that she never had the chance to ask the villagers why they built the fence so high.
Sores lessened by the hot bath the night before, Asha found that it was less painful to be on the horse, although she did still ached a bit after a few hours of bouncing around.
Aein put her in front of him again. He had reclaimed the cloak, but wrapped it around her as they continued their way, away from the fenced village. Asha looked over her shoulder to give the village one last glance.
If she was in a forest, her village could have been like this, sans the fence. How many villages were there in the kingdom? She wondered, and she thought too, about how many years it would probably take for her to find her village. But at least she knew where to go, instead of wondering around everywhere but the temple.
Asha started to fall asleep as they trotted on the path at a brisk pace, when she thought she heard many horses approaching them from behind. She thought it was a dream, and she blinked a few times (and for good measure, she pinched herself too). The noise was real and it was growing louder.
She heard a couple of trumpets.
It was definitely guards from the royal household.
Asha panicked. She couldn’t just surrender herself when she had already known what she wanted to do.
“Aein, I need you to trust me on this,” she whispered. “I cannot be caught by the royal guards.”
Aein looked down at her, with a thoughtful on his face. “Please,” she urged. “Please take us away from them.”
He narrowed his eyes.
He’s going to turn the other way, he’s going to send me back to them! Asha thought, as horror washed over her. Aein was pulling at the reins.
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