Burnt (2 page)

The village was quiet as the trio made their way to the hut positioned at the point furthest north. Only those too young or too infirm were excluded from helping in the orchard. They were as close to alone as any in the village ever were. Even the chickens seemed to be occupied with something that kept them silent
and out of sight. It was eerie, like the life drained out of the world he knew so well leaving it strange and still.

Though he
wouldn’t admit it out loud, he wished it was his mother and father with him. He appreciated Sojun and Amorette, but they weren’t his parents. He already missed the way his mother hummed and ran her fingers through her curly red hair. He missed how his father, constantly munching on peanuts, would toss the shells at him whenever his attention drifted. And the way his mother’s humming always seemed to lead to the two of them singing together as they cleaned up dinner. He was so embarrassed by those things when Sojun was visiting but now he couldn’t imagine what life was going to be like without them.

They were not allowed today
though. This was his rebirth as an adult in the eyes of the tribe. His parents could not be part of that. His father built him a home of his own, at the southern-most side of the village. Once his time with the Lemme was complete, he would go straight there. Everything his parents thought he would need in his new life was already there. He would spend two days in near isolation, not even leaving for food and water, contemplating the destiny the Lemme laid out for him. Only Sojun and Amorette, his witnesses, could see or speak to him.

His parents
would be at the ceremony, after the two days. They would listen, with the rest of the tribe, as he shared what understanding he gained from the Lemme’s words. They would celebrate his future and say goodbye to his past. And if his friends were right and he was to lead the tribe, he would spend much of the time he wasn’t hunting learning how from his mother. But it would never be the same. His life with his parents was over the moment he stepped outside the door that morning. Now he wondered why he never took time to appreciate it.

This wasn’t stuff he could admit to his friends. Not even Sojun. He loved them both, but Kaie wouldn’t give either one of them the chance to see him as a mewling baby, clinging to his mother’s skirts. So he smiled and laughed at Sojun’s corny jokes. He teased Amorette and kicked at the stones in the path as though it were just another day. Until they were standing in front of the Lemme’s hut, he thought he managed to be pretty convincing.

They all stopped at the entrance. Clinging desperately to what he hoped was a casual grin, Kaie stared up at the door and waited for the eagerness he felt all morning to return. A cool hand slid into his own. With surprise he looked down to discover Amorette’s fingers lacing through his. He dared a glance up to her eyes and saw an understanding that lanced through his pride and bolstering. A second later Sojun’s hand dropped firmly on his shoulder.

A wash of gratitude nearly swept him away. He blinked back the tears threatening to unman him and swallowed words that would shame him. Neither was needed. They both knew already. They weren’t the parents he longed for, but they were still his family. He could never find better witnesses than the two at his side. Letting the fake one drop, he gave t
hem both a true and shaky smile and then pushed open the door.

The smell hit him first. It reeked of incense, herbs and all matter of ot
her things he couldn’t identify and made his head spin. According to his father, it was all to facilitate the Lemme’s visions. So far as Kaie was concerned, it did far more to ensure her isolation. It was starting to make him feel like his mind was so light it might float away. Who would want that sensation more than was absolutely necessary? He knew his mother visited regularly, but few others were interested in anything more than what tradition demanded. Underneath it all, so faint he almost missed it entirely, was the smell of sickness.

The woman crouched in the far corner, just outside the arch of light from the open door. She was every bit as intimidating as the cloying stench. Kaie heard the stories of the beauty she once was
and his mother was not the only one to tell them. There was even a rumor that many hearts were broken when she declared the Lemme line would continue through his mother rather than her. It was hard to believe seeing her now.

She was bottom heavy, to the point where it seemed unlikely she could do more than waddle. Her face was a stark contrast, gaunt and heavily lined.
Apparently all the food she ate went straight to her hips and left the rest of her body starving. Every bit of her skin was an unnatural yellow. With the flickering light of the fire pit Kaie thought he saw some of the buttery color leaking into the whites of her eyes. Her lips were the only part that seemed immune from the saturation, adopting a faint blue tint instead.

“Kaie. Son of Alma and Lodan. I expected you two hours ago.”

He grimaced. She wasn’t going to hurt him. He knew that. But he couldn’t shake the fear. “Yes. I’m sorry Lemme.”

“At least you’ve brought your witnesses. I half expected you to arrive by yourself, all balls and brass, with little sense behind it.”

Sojun chuckled and knocked him on the arm lightly. “You know our Kaie. In a minute, he’ll tell you how it’s me and Amorette to blame.”

“I will not!”
Kaie snapped before he could think better of how childish and petulant the retort was. He really didn’t like this place. He struggled to focus on what was going on rather than the floating feeling but couldn’t manage. Kaie felt like things were swirling out of control. Events were unfolding in ways he didn’t appreciate. It was one thing for Sojun and Amorette to laugh at him, but the smirk on the Lemme’s face was too much.

With some effort
he kept the frustration from coloring his voice as he spoke the words of tradition older than the tribe. “I’ve come for my future, Lemme.”

She dragged her yellowed eyes up a
nd down him. From another woman such a look might make Kaie strut and brag; now it made him poignantly aware that he was still just a gangly child. “Are you certain? The future weighs heavy on those of us who carry it. There is always the choice to leave without.”

Kaie blinked. His parents spent months preparing him for this day. His father made him memorize every word he was expected to say
, and his mother played the Lemme’s part so that he would know what he was expected to hear. This was not in his lessons. They told him she took joy in sharing the visions she saw for the tribe. Now it almost seemed like she was asking him to dishonor himself and his family. Was it a test?

With no script to fall back on, he opted for the most formal sounding response his addled mind could come up with. “Yeah… Yes I’m certain. I am ready to take up the future you’ve see for me.”

She sighed and gestured for him to sit down beside her. He did so reluctantly, half suspecting a trap. The moment his butt touched the wooden floor she caught his hand up in her own. It took a great effort not to flinch away.

Again
her behavior took him aback. His parents never told him there would be touching. Maybe some of this oddness could be explained by their relation. He was her sister son, after all. But surely that didn’t account for all of it. The traditions of this were too important for so much deviation for a relative she never met before this day.

Up close, her visage was even more frightening. Her skin was pulled tight across her face l
ike some sort of grotesque mask and her teeth were colored the same hue as her skin. She could be a monster from the stories his father told on the moonless nights, when he enjoyed scaring the children of the village.

The urge to recoil away from her touch was nearly o
verwhelming. Her hand was frail, with no more strength to it than a dying bird. It was feverish and clammy, coating his palm in a slimy sweat almost instantly. He tried not to grimace as she squeezed feebly, imagining she meant it to be comforting.

“Are you sure?”

He didn’t say anything partly because he could think of nothing that would further convince her, but also because her reluctance shook him. The fear from earlier mutated and twisted in his stomach, becoming something new and vicious. For a second he really thought about it. She wasn’t testing him, Kaie was sure of that now. The Lemme saw something for him, something terrible. She truly seemed to want him to leave without the knowledge, to leave his future hidden.

Amorette’s words on the hill dissolved into ones his father spoke years before, joining the churning sea in his head and stomach. A thousand different futures
that the Lemme might be on the verge of speaking raced through his mind, each more terrible than the last.
Greatness is not the same as goodness, son. Never confuse one for the other.

Sojun’s hand dropped on his shoulder again, squeezing once. Amorette’s fingers brushed the back of his neck, cool as ever. He could leave. They would follow. They would share his shame
without question. They were to see him through this. His failure would be theirs. It would color their lives, just as it would his. No horrible future could justify such a fate for the two of them. Kaie bit down on his tongue before it could betray him.

The Lemme read his answer in the silence. She turned away from him for
a moment. When she looked back Kaie thought he saw a sadness in her unnatural appearance. But she said nothing more about leaving. Instead she leaned away from him and pitched her voice so that it echoed around them and filled the small space with its power.

“Very well Kaie, son of Alma and Loda
n. Yours is a vision of five and it comes in five parts.”

“First, know that you will love five women so deeply that they will be in your heart on your last day. You will see everything you care about ripped away five times. You will
lead men into battle five times; three will leave you broken. You will murder five who deserve it and five who do not. You will die five times.”

Kaie’s heart slowed until he thought it might stop. His vision blurred as he felt, through the link of her hand around his own, power pulsing through him with every sluggish beat. Her words brought forth a flurry of images in his whirling mind.

He saw Amorette, her lips turned up in a blissful smile. She was dressed in a strange gray shirt that left her right shoulder bare and fraying brown pants that weren’t quite long enough for her limber frame. Her hair was short, a strawberry cloud framing her beautiful face. She knelt in a stark, wintery world. In front of her was a frozen stream, above her two leafless trees. Red colored the snow around her, dark and terrifying. On the other side of the stream were others waiting for him, but they flickered in and out of sight so fast he was left only with the impression of white blonde hair and dark feathers.

Then there were soldiers. Thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands. All looked at him, waited for him to lead them. He opened his mouth to speak, knowing he was unworthy. Before
a word could slip past his lips the men began screaming. He watched, silent and motionless, as a sea of blood washed over the armies, drowning every soul. People who counted on him, people who needed him, dead while he stood still and let it happen.

He noticed his hands. The right was bloody up to his elbow, clutching a silver knife adorned with carvings that made no sense to him. In the left, he held a rotting head by hair that he was certain used to be silky and brown. Bloodshot eyes stared up at him, accusing, lifeless. At his feet were bodies. Eight bodies, all rotted
, and all there because of him. A scream ripped through him but lodged in his throat.

“Second.” The Lemme’s voice drew him back to the hut, if only for a moment. The scr
eam died before it could escape and Kaie wasn’t sure if he was glad for that. “Know that you are the phoenix who will father dragons. Your world will burn to ashes again and again. Each time you will rise greater than before, until your children are left with a world of ash and beauty in equal parts. And that world they will rule with a greatness and glory that will dwarf your name in the mouth of history.”

Now he saw only fire. Everywhere, there was fire. Out of the corner of his eyes, Kaie thought he caught sight of five shadowy figures, dancing in the flames. But when he turned his gaze to them, they vanished with the skill of something that never really existed. He saw no beauty. Only destruction. And all of it was his. All of it came from him. And then he caught sight of them. Dragons. Five of them: red, green, blue, black and white. Ashes filled the sky in great clouds with each beat of their wings. Each was spewing forth a stream of ceaseless fire from their terrifying maws, keeping the destruction fierce and alive. And they were his as well.

“Let me guess.” Sojun’s voice sounded forced, but it dragged him back again. Grateful for his escape from the inferno, Kaie jerked his hand loose of the Lemme’s and rubbed his face to rid it of the thick sheen of sweat developing there. “He’s going to have five kids.”

The Lemme turned a scornful glare on Sojun for just a moment, then she pursed her lips and let an answer fall loose. “Yes. All he is to have, he will have five-fold. It is the nature of his destiny.”

Kaie shot Sojun a warning look over his shoulder. The comment was not made disrespectfully, he knew. It was just Jun’s way. Sojun dealt with tense situations by throwing out every bad joke to cross his mind. If allowed to go unchecked soon they would all be groaning and the Lemme would likely kick them out of her home.