Promise: The Scarred Girl (8 page)

For the people, there are cold preserves. Nea has the choice between a vegetable stew and a meatloaf with rice. Nea chooses the vegetable stew. The twins remind Nea again that they are Carris and as such must thank Ereb for their food and health before they take the first bite. Good thing they started before Nea, because it would never have occurred to her to thank Ereb.

The food tastes almost as bad as the dog’s food, but at least it makes the unpleasant growl in her belly go away.

The icy wind whips Nea’s hair all through the air, while the rain beat her mercilessly in the face. Why did Miro send her to fetch water now? Could this not have waited until the next morning?  Surely he could see how bad the weather was.

Surely this was just another form of revenge for something she said. They constantly offended and insulted each other. Any strangers watching them would never get the idea that they were best friends.

In the moments when they quarreled, Nea hated Miro with all of her heart. She wanted to beat him black and blue. But as soon as he was not close to her, she again longed for him. No matter how mean he was sometimes, she never wanted to be without him.

With a loud creak, Nea opened the wooden door of the old warehouse where they have taken shelter for the past few days. Nea paused in amazement. She felt neither wind nor rain, but could only stare fascinated at the dirty floor. Several burning tea candles stood in a circle. In the middle of the circle was a wooden box, a sort of make-shift table. Miro had a piece of fabric spread over it as a table cloth. On this table were a wide candle, a bottle of wine, and two plates.

“It’s cold, close the door, or are you frozen?” Miro called from another corner of the room where a fire was burning in a barrel.

Irritated, Nea entered the room. When the door closed, a gust of wind escaped into the room and then a loud bang signaled that the door was now closed. Startled, she winced.

She had not expected this. Miro was rarely openly nice to her. There were more and more little hidden gestures and glances that showed her how much he liked her, but this was new. Or perhaps this was not for her? Had he done all this for one of those other girls?

“I never took you for a romantic,” Nea teased, without showing how much she liked it.

“Do you like it?”

Nea bit her lower lip. From outside, the wind raged against the house and the rain could be heard on the tin roof. Nevertheless, she felt her cheeks begin to glow.

“For whom did you do that?”

“Who do you think?”

“I have an idea.”

Miro began to laugh. Nea loved his laugh, because it came out of the belly, forcing her to smile every time. “Here, sit down. Easy.”

He had made it for her. Unbelievable! Nea’s heart frantically began to pound when she brushed the wet coat from her shoulders and knelt in front of the fabric-covered box. Now she began to recognize the faint scent of warm chicken soup and her stomach growled hungrily.

“Good evening, madam. You have done well to find our little modest restaurant,” joked Miro as he bowed to her as a waiter.

Nea snorted loudly, but played along enthusiastically. Even as children they loved to play restaurant. “Excuse me sir, but there is dirt on the floor.”

“But madam, that is not dirt, that is stardust. It saddens me that you cannot see that. May I cheer you up with the first course?”

“Yes, I think I will try the first course.”

“For the first course, I will serve a delicious chicken soup, fresh from the can, the specialty of the house.”

Miro handed her a bowl of steaming soup he had warmed over the fire.

Since they had no cutlery, Nea put the bowl to her lips and took a sip.

“What do you say, dear? Does it meet your high standards?”

“You said it was canned soup.”

“Yes it is madam, is something wrong?”

“It tastes kinda different than usual.”

Miro smiled at her, a smile that warmed her heart. “That is because it has been refined with love.”

Suddenly, one of the twins slapped her forehead with the back of her hand.

“Oh man, how rude of us, we have not even introduced ourselves to you. I’m Hope, and my sister is called Faith. As you have probably already seen, we are twins, but if you look closely, you can tell us apart.” She added this last part with a grin and winked at Faith. These two had some unusual names. But there is nothing special in this world, names are names. Nea never really thought about names.

“I’m Nea,” she said. Her parents had a taste for Finland and therefore named their only child a Finnish name.

Nea started looking at their faces curiously. She cannot see their bodies through their habits, all she can see is their faces, both are smiling brightly. Talking to Nea must bring them pleasure. In their cheeks, Nea can see small pits and can imagine how they must have been ridiculed before the illness took so many people.

Both have striking green eyes, slightly reddish eyebrows, snow white skin, little snub noses, and narrow pink lips. From their ears dangle earrings with the same image of Ereb that Urelitas wore on his finger. The Carris seem to have designed an entire jewelry collection just to drive their madness for Ereb even further. Nea recognizes a difference in their faces. While the two of them are giggling, her sight is drawn to Hope’s right earlobe. “See here, I have a small birthmark on my ear, Faith does not have one.”

While Nea admired their earrings, one of the sisters asked, “Do you have any siblings?”

Nea shakes her head no.

“Oh, what a pity... but it’s really not that bad, since the Carris is something similar to a family.” Faith smiles blissfully and seems to really believe what she says.

Nea can explain many reasons why someone might want to be with the Carris, but to call the Carris a family would be exaggerated and excessive.

“Well, I would not necessarily describe the Carris as a family...” Nea let slip out. Even if she is one of them, she must not agree to all they do. In addition, she likes these girls and wants to at least be honest with them. Faith and Hope stare at her with wide, disbelieving eyes.

“Are you not happy with the Carris?”

“There is no substitute for a family. In a family... I mean, no one is all-powerful and there are no priests who have more to say than anyone else.”

“But of course. Was your dad not the head of your family? And try to imagine that you had older siblings who believed themselves to be better and smarter than you. The main thing for a family to be is to be there for each other and believe in the same things.”

“And what about the slaves? Is it not unfair that they have to stay with us and not be free to decide their fate?”

The two look at each other and hesitate with an answer. “Yes, you are right, but we really just rely on their help. In addition, we treat them well. They always have something to eat and never feel cold. You cannot beat that,” both nod in approval of their words.

Nea understands where they are coming from. In their view, they know it is wrong, but are trying to be nice. They do not want to think about it, let alone talk about it.

Therefore, she puts out the light and the girls all snuggle up in the warm sleeping bags. Nea’s dog curls up on her feet and puts his head on the sleeping bag. The straw crackles at every little movement, but it is however very soft, even softer than the tree branches she usually camps in, softer even than the bed in Luica’s tent. The only sounds that can be heard are the soft snorting and trampling of animals. With so many unfamiliar noises, she finds it difficult to fall asleep, even though she is very tired.

Hope and Faith are both nice to her and unlike Luica, Harold, and Zippi; they seem to be really honest. They have no reason to lie to her. On the contrary, Nea is the one who is into foul play. Although she does not plan to hurt these two in any way, she is sure the girls will feel betrayed if they learn at some point that Nea has never been one of them. She knows only too well what that feels like and feels sorry that she now has to do that to someone. Her conscience plagues her already, even though her betrayal of them will be in a few days. She has no other choice if she wants to go to Promise. How did she get into this? She always thinks she’s incredibly smart and strong, but deep inside, she just a sensitive soul, like Miro always said.

The next morning, Nea awakes when Faith gently shakes her on the shoulder. It took her a long time before she could fall asleep at all.

The animals are still in their gates, which means it must be early in the morning. Hope pushes a bowl of cold water into her hands so she can wash her face. Just as the first drop falls upon her face, the barn door creaks open, followed by a loud barking dog. Urelitas enters in his bright yellow robe. Faith and Hope kneel on their knees and Nea joins in when she sees them prostrate themselves before the priest. “Greetings, High Priest!”

Some time passes before Urelitas says, “Good morning, followers of the one true faith!”

He seems to love showing off his power. Nea is just glad she does not have to kiss the stupid ring again. Faith and Hope are focused on him, but her eyes wander mutely around the barn, she does not dare look directly at Urelitas. They are very afraid of him and Urelitas seems to know this because he enjoys dragging this out and making it even more intimidating for Hope and Faith.

“It is a great honor for you to be selected by me to travel to Fortania. You are aware that this is only because you have been a member of Carris for so long. If anything goes wrong, it will be your first and last time, do you understand me?”

They both nod in a hurry, while Nea’s heart starts to feel even heavier. She did not want to hurt anyone and now the twins that have received her so warmly into their midst will soon be hurt in a big way. Secretly she wishes she were able to resist her conscience and seal her thoughts about betraying them away. But her conscience is feeling guilty, even though she has not betrayed them yet. Even though it has not happened, she feels as though it has.

Urelitas now turns to her. “Spread the message on your path of chaos and punish the unbelievers. Who knows, maybe Ereb will send you back to me.”

Nea’s stomach cramps when she sees his smug grin.

“It was an honor to meet you,” she politely replies and lowers her head in mock humility. She appears to feel she is inferior to him, but she knows inside that she is not.

Again he remains there briefly before her. But then he finally leaves with the words, “Ereb is chaos, chaos is Ereb.” He exits the barn and the moment the door closes behind him, Hope and Faith breathe a sigh of relief.

“I thought I would pass out when he came around us. We’ve known him for years, but he is still no less frightening.” Hope says excitedly.

“How was your commander in chief?” Faith asks Nea.

“He was a part of our unit, the only difference was he wore a yellow robe,” Nea says.

“I am so happy you get to go back with us.” They both grin conspiratorially at Nea. Nea would prefer to run away rather than continue to lie to them.

A few minutes later, they pack up their sleeping bags and leave the village. As soon as the village is behind them, Hope pushes a small loaf of still-warm bread and a bottle of milk into Nea’s hand. “When you have a long journey ahead of you, you should at least have some breakfast. Urelitas says those who pray to Ereb need no food and should free their selves from earthly needs, but our bellies do not quite understand that.” The fact that they are so faithful makes them more sympathetic.

The bread is delicious. The dog stares at her with ever so trusting eyes wanting her to give her some bread. But Nea does not want to seem to be disrespectful and ungrateful, but then Hope is the first to throw the dog a piece. “Who could resist those eyes?” She giggles and then Faith throws him the next piece. She throws a piece of bread into the air, only to see the dog jump and catch it in the air. Not a single piece touches the ground. In the end, the dog eats as much bread as the three women.

Around noon, they pass one of the fields where the slaves work. When the twins see that they grow strawberries, they view this as a perfect time for a little break and run to the guards on the field. Nea feels uncomfortable when she feels the contemptuous glances of the slaves themselves. A little boy causes her to be surprised because he reminds her of Zippi. She watches him for a bit. Perspiration stands on his forehead and his arms are covered with mud up to his elbows. This child looks like he would rather have fun than work with his dirty hands, he looks very unhappy. Stealthily he looks around and then stuffs one of the strawberries in his mouth. Nea smiles and thinks that the boy could actually eat the whole bucket. But the others do not seem to see it that way, because at that moment, one of the overseers comes running toward him screaming.

“You dare to steal from Ereb?” the overseer thunders with his powerful voice. The boy quickly shakes his head, whereupon the overseer swings back with his big hand and smacks the boy in the side of his head. The little boy flies to the side. The sight of this tears Nea’s heart and before she can think, she’s already screaming. “Leave him alone!” The overseer turns around to her. The eyes of everyone are on her.

“He’s just a child!” She now defends herself, somewhat sheepishly.

“But he must not steal from Ereb. This is something children must learn early on, otherwise they will never learn it.”

“If you hurt him, he can no longer work for Ereb,” she replies rebelliously. The overseer gives her one last dirty look before he turns back to the boy. “Do not do that again!” He hisses before he goes back to his post.

Slowly everything resumes its usual course. Nea looks at Hope and Faith and they give her a timid smile. Although Nea is not a member of Carris, they seem to be good people and are happy she stood up for the little one. Nea remembers that they said that the slaves would not be beaten. Maybe they are shocked by the brutality of the overseer. Although the two have been members of Carris for so long, there is probably a lot of which they know nothing and might not even want to know. A tiny spark of hope germinates in Nea that maybe she could persuade these two to leave Carris behind, because they are neither mad or bad people, nor are they stupid.