The Enchanted Castle (Shioni of Sheba Book 1) (8 page)

“I
t’s a mite late
for a jaunt down-valley,” said the stable hand, scratching his scraggly goatee as he led Shioni down the picket line. He peered short-sightedly at her. “You works for the Princess, have I right?”

“I do,” said Shioni, carefully neglecting to mention that she was doing this entirely without permission
for the second time within two weeks. How could he mistake her? His eyesight had to be terrible. “I’m just riding down to Ginab and back. Urgent message.”

It was the
perfect opportunity too. Four solid days of feasting for the King’s birthday had ended, and today the guests had been leaving Castle Asmat in their droves. She could hide amidst all the traffic–or so she hoped.

Her
eye was caught by a chestnut stallion which was roughly tied some distance from the others. Despite its splendid lines, the horse looked skittish and wild of eye, gaunt in the flanks, and its coat badly needed a good brushing. She raised her chin. “Whose horse is that?”

“Oh, miss, ‘e’s a mad one alright!
Arabian. Cost a King’s ransom ‘e did. Don’t you be going near ‘im, ‘e’s a biter and a kicker.”

“Broken to the saddle?”

“Once, maybe. But no more.” The man crossed himself and spat on the ground, to invoke God and ward off evil just in case. “Was a gift from the King of East Sheba, y’know, our good King’s brother. But ‘e gone madder than a wasp since crossing the Red Sea. Nobody dare ride ‘im now. Barely feed ‘im, y’know, like I throw food to ‘im.”

They proceeded down the line
. “You wanting Star again?”

“She’ll do nicely,” said Shioni, looking back wistfully
. The stallion looked sad.

“Maybe you can ch
eer ‘im, miss,” said the stable hand. “You’s having such a fine touch with them animals and all. I fancies you talks to them sometimes, I does. That a ferengi skill or what?”

“Er,” Shioni
stalled. “Well I–”

“Darn clever anyways,” he said
. “Ferengi magic says I. Well, if you’s wanting to help with ‘im, I’d welcome it. If you’s right proper careful and such. Can’t bear to see such a noble animal suffering.”

“Thanks
. I will.”

What
ever could have happened to a horse to make it look like that? She had to help him, and maybe with her newfound ability to understand animals she might be able to do just that... but later. Right now she had another hard night’s riding ahead of her. And she was already exhausted before starting out, having been put to hauling rocks that afternoon on the building site while Princess Annakiya assisted Hakim Isoke with taking an inventory of the newly cleared storage rooms beneath the east wing of the castle.

“You be wanting no tack, miss?”

“No, I like riding bareback and my knees are enough. I’ve a rope halter in my bag.”

“Fine
. Picket ‘er later, I’ll be sleeping most like.”

Once the chatty stable
hand let her go, Shioni breathed a sigh of relief. She really didn’t enjoy lying. She clucked to the pony. “Down to Ginab Village, girl. You can run if you like.”

Star gave a little nicker of delight
. Shioni caught the image of a happy foal playing in a lush mountain pasture. Then–true to her sweet nature–there came a strong sense that the pony really liked her as a rider.

“I like you too.”
Shioni patted her neck.

Great galumphing elephants, now she was imagining whole conversations with her pony.
Next she would be dancing around trees like that crazy man the warriors had driven off yesterday.

Shioni gave the pony her head. As they trotted down the valley
away from the golden rays of a lowering sunset, the black basalt cliffs hugging the meadows seemed to draw back almost reluctantly. Star pushed along as eagerly as an animal half her age.

Lower down
they entered a wood where the carpenters had been busy felling trees for the construction work at the castle. Beyond the wood, Shioni knew, the valley ended abruptly in a steep descent to the hills fringing the mountain. She would have to make that descent without the benefit of a full moon this time. The stream to her left was already burbling happily in anticipation of the downhill dash. Ginab Village was nestled in a loop of the stream, still a good height above the river plain.

The pony’s ears pricked up.

“What’s that?” Shioni turned, listening carefully. “What did you hear?”

She caught a picture of a person from the pony.

There were a few isolated huts along the valley, home to poor farmers and hunters Hakim Isoke referred to as ‘peasants’, spitting the ‘p’ as though she had tasted something sour. ‘Once they see the castle, they’ll multiply like fleas,’ Annakiya’s tutor had added. ‘Protection is valuable, as is the commerce the castle will bring.’ Shioni, silently kneeling in her corner, had not understood the entire lesson she had overheard. Still, it was clear to her that Isoke had a high opinion of Sheban culture and not much of an opinion about anyone else’s.

Shioni directed
Star through the trees toward the stream. “This way.”

“Help
me!”

Pushing her way through some low bushes, Shioni
came across a girl of about her own age curled up at the base of pine tree. A pair of wide brown eyes stared uncertainly at her.

The girl
rubbed her eyes. “I must be seeing angels… am I dead?”

“I’m as
real as you are,” said Shioni, more crossly than she had intended. “I am called Shioni. What’s your name? What’s the matter?”

“A-Are you asmati?”

“No! I work up at Castle Asmat. Now tell me your name.”

“Selam
. I’ve been out here two days… I think I broke my ankle near the river. Are you sure you’re not–”

“Look, if you weren’t hurt I’d pinch you,” Shioni said, thinking that now she had to help this gir
l, she wouldn’t reach the lion’s cave in time and might indeed land in hot water upon her return. But the thought left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth, like yellow curd. She could have spat at herself. Of course she would help!

“I guess angels aren’t so touchy,” said Selam, with a hesitant smile
. “Are you an albino?”

Shioni liked her immediately
. She had a gentle smile and a sweet, open face framed by the tight, intricate
shuruba
braids women seemed to favour in the mountains.

“Look, I am a slave of Sheba,” she said, indicating her necklet
. “I–uh, well, I come from a faraway land. Let’s take a look at your ankle.”

Her ankle was hot, swollen, and sitting at an impossible angle
. Shioni did not dare touch it, but instead, whistled between her teeth. “What did you do, kick a tree?”

Selam laughed
. “Almost as silly as that, Shioni. I was playing near the river when I fell off a small bank and caught my foot between two rocks.”

“We should get you to your home.”

Selam had never been on a pony before. But between them, they managed to lift her onto Star. On their way to her home on the far side of the wood, Shioni emptied her pockets of a bread crust and a handful of dried spiced grain, which Selam ate as though her life depended on it. They chatted like old friends the whole way. Selam had four older brothers, two of whom worked at the castle as carpenters, she learned. Her mother had died but her father was alive. A shadow crossed her face as she spoke of her father, and Shioni wondered at this.

Home was
two huts–a large one for living in and a small hut for sheltering animals from the fierce mountain storms, which Shioni had not yet experienced as it was dry season. They were round, mud-and-stick huts with a conical roof thatched with heather and moss. A wooden fence surrounded the huts, for keeping animals in. But as they approached the gate, Shioni could hear voices raised in anger.

“Tell me which is worse, the Shebans or the Wasabi?” someone
was shouting.

“I’d rather have the Sheban yoke myself!”

“But yoke it is!” shouted the first voice. “If you want to be yoked like a dumb ox–!”

“Now is not the time to rebel, Desta!
These Shebans are too strong.”

“Hush!
Someone comes!”

By this time they were at the gate, and Selam was innocently calling out
a greeting to her brother, Desta. Astonishment, followed by fear and anger, played across his features as he came out to meet her. Selam was chattering away like a magpie about how she had been rescued. She was so excited with her pony ride! But the men at Desta’s shoulder were not equally happy. Shioni recognised several faces amongst their number. And the implications of what they had been arguing about were beginning to make sense–rather too much sense–to her.

“Where’s our father?” Selam was asking.

“Inside, drunk as usual,” said Desta, flatly. Selam’s face fell. “Sleeping.”

“Oh dear God
, save us!” hissed one of the men. “It’s the ferengi from the castle. She works for the Princess!”

“How lovely!”
smiled Selam. “You didn’t tell me that, Shioni. I bet you can tell me lots of stories about–Desta! What are you doing?”

What Desta was doing, was holding a knife to Shioni’s t
hroat! “She’s heard too much.”

Everyone seemed to be shouting at once, but Desta would not be deterred
. He moved closer, gripping her arm with one hand and keeping the knife steady with the other.

“
Desta, you have to take your sister to Mama Nomuula,” said Shioni, trying to keep from shaking. Having a knife at her throat was a new and most unpleasant experience for her. “I’ve seen her set plenty of breaks like that one. If you don’t, she might never walk or work properly again.”

“
Hold your tongue, slave!” he snarled.

“Desta!” cried his sister.

“Let me go!” He shouldered her aside roughly. “Don’t you see you’ve ruined everything coming here with
her?
”

Another, older man caught Selam as she fell
backward with a cry of pain. “Killing is not our way, Desta!”

“Desta.”
Only a whisper, but it silenced them all. The squabbling men drew apart, letting an old woman into the circle. “I sense an ill spirit in the wind. Has it overcome you?”

Shioni stared
. It was the old woman, the
arogit
, from Ginab Village! She was an ancient, tiny slip of a woman, so withered and bent that her head came barely to Shioni’s shoulder. Her face was lined like the oldest of Annakiya’s scrolls. But most unusually of all, her eyes were as blue as the sky, and as bright as if all the life that had faded from her body now shone out of them. How had she even managed to walk from the village to here?

Shamefaced, Desta dropped his d
agger, but he was still muttering and complaining under his breath. Shioni’s whole body breathed a sigh of relief.

“What’s your name, girl?” said the old woman, leaning on her stick and shuffling closer.

“Shioni.”

“On your way… yes, beyond Ginab
even?” Shioni nodded uneasily. How did she know that? “So you found our Selam… hmm. A life-debt owed. None from her family missed her for two days? How is that?”

Desta’s answer was to shuffle his feet
. “But what should we do, my mother?” he said. “What wisdom can you give us?”

“So impatient,” said the old woman
. “Well. Hopefully a look will set your hearts at ease. Give me your hands, girl. Don’t worry…”

Taking Shioni’s hands in her knotted old fingers, she turned her face to the skies
. Her eyes fluttered until only the whites showed. A strange sensation seemed to be tickling the edge of Shioni’s mind. She must be a wise woman! Shioni had heard about wise women from Mama Nomuula, but never actually met one. In the mountains, the wise women had even more power than tribal chiefs. Mama had added that while witches were bad, wise women were always good.

“Ah,” she said, coming back from wherever she had gone
. “While there is much to fear and much to expect from this one, her heart is true. Desta, you should be fine if you just leave her alone.”

Leaving Desta gaping
and Shioni bemused, the old woman gave a chuckle and moved off. She had almost disappeared into the hut when she threw over her shoulder: “I would let her go if I were you.”

Desta was clearly very unhappy but helpless in the face of the arogit’s bizarre proclamation.

Not long after, Shioni was waving to Selam one last time. Desta was trudging up the valley to the castle, carrying his sister on his back. The ox-carts and horse-carts she had become used to from the plains seemed absent up here, she realised. These people had so little in comparison to the plains-dwellers. And they had no love of Sheba! How would she carry this secret in her heart, when it could lead to huge trouble for Princess Annakiya, Mama, and the others?