The Unfinished Song: Taboo (4 page)

“Yes!” Nangi glared at Vessia. “I see the enemy with whom you were ‘conferring’!”

“These are prisoners of war, Nangi,” Vio said.

“You don’t need my husband to lock up your prisoners of war.” Nangi didn’t wait for agreement
;
she simply hauled Vumo away by his ear, like a naughty boy. He blew Vessia a kiss as he staggered behind his wife.

“You can retire as well, Gidio,” Vio said. “I can handle this.”

“Sure, Vio.” Gidio stole one last longing look at Vessia before he disappeared into another part of the camp.

At the end of the camp farthest from the tribehold, an enclosure made from sharpened logs kept the army’s tamed horses. Next to this kraal stood another enclosure, a cage of branches lashed together. Several humans crouched in the cage. More warriors with their faces painted to look like skulls guarded the cage. Vio nodded, and they unlatched the front section long enough for Vessia and Danumoro to crawl inside. The warriors lashed the cage shut behind them.

Vio looked down at the prisoners. He could not take his eyes off Vessia. She was used to odd stares from men, but there was something particularly intense and disturbing about the way Vio looked at her.

“You were a fool to give yourself up,” he said. “You should have run away while you had the chance. The Bone Whistler never had any intention of allowing the Yellow Bear tribe to defy him. He told me to parley and get what I could from them voluntarily before I give the army the signal to overrun the tribehold. My orders are to kill all the men and take all the women and children. Of the children, those who are tested and found to be
Imorvae
will be slain as well. Any
Imorvae
Tavaedi women will be used for the pleasure of our warriors, but should they bear babes, those abominations will be dashed on the rocks the day they see sunlight.”

“You’re a beast,” said Danumoro. “The carrion of a beast.”

Vio didn’t reply. He studied Vessia for a moment longer, then walked away.

Danumoro folded his arms over his knees. Tears streaked his face. “Vessia, Vessia, you should never have left your clanhold to follow me to this accursed place. It’s all my fault you are here.”

“Not really,” she said. “I do what I want to do.”

He smiled, despite himself. “Still the same old Vessia.”

Vessia turned her attention to their fellow captives, although they did not appear to reciprocate her curiosity. At first Vessia thought it was a couple and their daughter, but then she saw that the third woman was merely petite. She wore blue tatters, the remnants of a Blue Tavaedi dancing costume. The other two, the couple, had the look of outtribers from the Green Woods. The man sported a beard. Protectively, he cradled his wife in his arms. Her bare belly rounded like a moon. She was with child.

“My name is Danumoro, the Herb Dancer,” said Danu. “And this is Vessia, the Corn Maiden.”

The three stared back sullenly.

“Have you no names?” asked Danumoro.

“The less we know of each other, the better,” said the woman in blue rags. “Nangi, the Bone Whistler’s daughter, can read minds.”

“Can’t you tell me as much as our enemies know of you already?” he asked.

The woman in blue pressed her lips together. “My name is Shula the Waterfall Dancer. I was a Tavaedi in the Rainbow Labyrinth. During the hunts for
Imorvae
, I lived in hiding, pretending to be a
Morvae
. I was betrayed and tried to flee, but the army of the Bone Whistler found me and took me prisoner.”

Danumoro nodded. He looked at the couple.

The bearded man just frowned. However, after a moment of silence, his pregnant wife said in a low, dulcet voice, “My name is Finna the Falling Leaf, and my husband is Obran the Log Leaper. We are from the Green Woods tribe. Among our own people, we are Tavaedies, and I have a Singing Bow. We did not know the Bone Whistler had taken power, or that he hated all
Imorvae
. We went on pilgrimage to the Rainbow Labyrinth, and were caught and enslaved.”

“Vio looks at me as if he had some secret purpose in mind.” Shula looked at Vessia, a mix of appraisal and pity. “Shield that one from Vio the Skull Stomper as much as you can, Herb Dancer. I noticed him looking at
her
the same way.”

Danumoro nodded, although Vessia didn’t see how he could shield her. Indeed, after the evening sank more deeply into darkness, and even the moon could not be seen because the mountains hid it, Vio returned alone to the cage.

“Take out the new girl,” he told the guards. “She will spend the night with me.”

“No!” said Danumoro.

“Take me instead,” Shula said.

Vio smiled wryly. “So you can geld me as you nearly did to Chezlio when he tried to force you? Be wary of her, Danumoro. She looks so cute and harmless, but she has four Chromas just like you, and has led the underground resistance against the Bone Whistler for many years.”

Danumoro glanced at Shula in astonishment tinged with admiration.

“Your friends from the Green Woods almost sneaked you out in time, Shula,” taunted Vio, “but not quite, hmm? Shame on you for hiding behind a pregnant woman.”

“No one knew I was pregnant when we made the plan!” said Finna,
then
bit her lip.

“Then shame on you, Obran, for hiding behind your wife,” said Vio.

Obran roared in rage and flung himself against the branches of the cage. The whole structure shook. The warriors on guard shouted at him and prodded him with their spears until he subsided back into the cage. One warrior kept his spear point aimed at Obran while the other opened the cage flap for Vessia to crawl out.

“Vio, please, leave the new girl alone,” urged Shula. “I give you my word I won’t resist you, if you’ll just take me in her stead.”

“I’m blushing from your flattery,” he said dryly. “You needn’t be so desperate for my attention. I’ll be calling for your favors soon enough.”

“You sandal scorpion!” she shouted. “You filthy carcass of maggot-eaten muck!”

Vio the Skull Stomper gripped Vessia by one arm to guide her away from the cage into the center of the camp
to his tent of
painted hide.

The honey light of the Vision’s other-when-other-where dissipated. The doll rattled across the dirt and rolled to a stop in front of Gwenika, who stood watching Dindi with arms crossed. The resemblance to her mother was striking.

“I saw
everything
, Dindi. And I’ve seen something like that Vision before.
In the cave under the Stone Hedge.
I can’t believe my mother was right about you. She said you lied during Initiation. She said you would do anything to take power that didn’t belong to you. Even pretend to be my friend.”

That was so wrong, Dindi didn’t even know where to start. All she managed to blurt was, “That’s not true!” which sounded weak even to her own ears.

“Prove it,” said Gwenika. She bent to pick up the doll. “Go with me to my mother and give her this hexed doll.”

Something savage and protective and alien surged inside her at the sight of the doll in Gwenika’s hand. Dindi didn’t think. She leaped across the room and grabbed it back.

“Don’t touch it!” She didn’t know if she wanted to protect Gwenika—or the doll. She drew in a ragged breath. “Please don’t tell your mother about this.”

“If you were ever really my friend, you’d tell her yourself,” said Gwenika. “So I don’t have to.”

Gwenika was right. Dindi
should
tell. She knew she
should
, and she knew she
wouldn’t
.

A single sunbeam fell through the doorway and illuminated the gold bangles on Gwenika’s gorgeous Tavaedi frock, and Dindi felt a pang of jealousy. Gwenika, who hadn’t even
wanted
to become a Tavaedi, had, apparently effortlessly, plucked Dindi’s dream. She hated herself for her petty, ugly emotion, but it wasn’t envy that made her cradle the corncob doll in her arms.
She didn’t know why, but she could not surrender the corncob doll.  Dindi did not say this aloud, because she knew she would sound crazy if she tried to explain it. She just wouldn’t surrender it, any more than a mother would surrender her own baby.

Gwenika nodded, her face hardening. She
pressed her lips into a flat line, just the way Zavaedi Brena did.
“Right. I guess I can’t say we’re not friends any more, because we never were, were we?”

Gwenika walked away.

For a moment, Dindi stood alone, still stunned.

Zavaedi
Brena popped in the doorway with hands on her hips.

And here it comes
, thought Dindi.
Gwenika must have told her about the doll
.

“Are you planning to make everyone wait for you?”
demanded Brena.

When Brena spoke in that tone it made Dindi feel like a maggot in the corn meal.
But obviously Gwenika hadn’t had a chance to speak to her yet, because she didn’t mention the doll.

“No, Auntie.”
Dindi tucked the doll away under her clothes. She decided she would need to keep it on her at all times.

Outside, the Initiates formed columns, just as they had before the Test. This time, however, there were three columns of adolescents: warriors, maidens and Tavaedies.
A chilly mustard-hued haze hid the sunrise and turned everyone into vague silhouettes. Gwenika, in her own line,
glared
at Dindi. Aware of Zavaedi Brena’s hawk-like surveillance,
Dindi
hunched in on herself
. Jensi found
her
in the line of maidens.

“Dindi, thank Mercy you’re
here
,” Jensi said. “Great Aunt Sullana will be pleased. Finally, you’ll start acting like a
normal
person. Oh, we’re going to have so much fun now. You’ll see!”

She went on and on in the same vein. Jensi’s exclamations piled like rocks on Dindi’s chest. She had never known emptiness could be heavy enough to crush.  The overcast sky gloomed overhead, no sign of sun.

The columns began to move. Each would prepare for the celebration feast differently. The maidens would gather sugar grass, nuts and berries, the warriors would go on their first hunt as men, and the Initiate Tavaedies would dance for the first time with the experienced troop of Yellow Bear.

Jensi babbled the whole trek down the hillside, across the fields, to the river’s edge. The maidens walked to a brackish stream, one of the tiny tributaries that fed into the river as it flowed toward the sea. Along the stream banks, tawny cane grass grew taller than their heads.

“We’re supposed to cut sedges,” Jensi said. “Which grasses are the sedges? Hmm, let’s see… Ah! This must be the cane Udra told us to cut—look at the flat blades.
Think of the old adage:
Rushes are round, sedges have edges
.”

Jensi gripped a clump of grass taller than she was, and bent the strands so Dindi could see. A yellow sedge sprite clung to the tips of the cane.  He waved at Dindi. “Come dance with us!”

At just that moment, the afternoon cloud cover parted and the sky opened up over the river like a giant sunflower. The wind crooned in the pale gold reeds. She could taste the sweet dust off the cane.

Jensi released the grass, and the blades snapped back up, which catapulted the yellow sprite into the air. “Woohhheeee!”

He somersaulted in the air then bounced on the breeze until he caught himself with his wings. He fluttered back toward Dindi and grinned. “Come dance with us!”