Zoran Chronicles Volume 1 A Dragon in Our Town (49 page)

            
“Can you get us out of it?” Chika asked. “We don’t know how. We can pay you.
We’ve both stashed a bunch of big pearls inside our skins.”

            
Zoran blushed. Probably they would be completely naked when the skin was
removed. Zdenka again came to his rescue. “We are rather modest people. We only let
our husbands see our private areas. That’s why he is a bit embarrassed. Dear, you step
out a minute, and Jarka and I will see what we can do. If we need help, we’ll holler.”
Zoran quickly stepped out, grateful for her suggestion.

            
Ten minutes later, Zdenka called out for his help. “Dear, I am afraid that we are
going to have to have your help here with this.” He was not prepared for what he saw
when he entered. The women had managed to peal the skin off of their legs; the fins
were now lying in the corner of the room. The women were still lying on the bed. Zoran
stared at their legs. Every few inches from the tops of their thighs on down to their toes
some kind of metal loops went through their flesh on either leg, binding the legs tightly
to one another all the way down to their toes!

            
After he recovered from his shock, he then examined one ring loop closely. It
went through the fleshy part not their bones. Chika had nineteen rings down her legs
holding them tightly together. Akira had eighteen. “Well, they look like they only go
through the fleshy part, not through their bones.”

            
“Please, can you get them off of us,” Chika begged.

            
“Yes, I have to, but the how must be worked out, Chika. Let’s see,” he tried
bending one open with no luck. “Okay, I have an idea. I’ll be back in a minute.” He cast a
Mystical Door spell and stepped through the door.

            
“One day I would like to learn how to do that!” Akira exclaimed. Zdenka took this
opportunity to chat with them about their spell casting skills. Neither knew what she
was talking about, so she prompted them about their Water Breathing spell.

            
“Oh that was magic?” both girls exclaimed. They had been unaware that it was
magic that they were doing. Shortly, Zoran returned with a blacksmith’s wire cutter.

            
“Let’s hope that these are soft metal rings,” he explained. He set to work on the
topmost ring of Chika because it was the easiest to fit into the large cutter’s edge. It gave
way with a slight popping sound. With a bit of effort, he managed to separate the two
halves and then it was a simple matter of slowly easing one side out of her flesh and then
the other. “Ta da, one down, eighteen to go.”

            
It took him an hour to free both girls, who could finally move their legs freely for
the first time in many years. Zdenka rubbed their legs and holes with a healing salve as a
safety precaution, though the piercings were long ago healed. Then, she and Jarka
helped them into a dress. Now presentable, Zoran returned to talk at length with them.
Suddenly, Asami took on a whole new dark side — one that they had not remotely
suspected was there.

            
Chika began to relate their tale. “Nao was our mother. She and we are called
shinjutori, pearl divers. We live at Ma-meido, in the waters there. Just on shore is our
communal house. Only women are shinjutori. We slide up onto the beach there and into
the protection of the low house. We don’t know who our father was. Nao only said he
was an important man. Akira and I played there as little girls, running about and having
fun. When I was eight, they said it was time that I became a shinjutori. They pierced my
legs and put rings in them and then put the fish skin over my legs. Mom taught me to
swim. Some man showed me how to breathe underwater. It was awfully scary at first,
not having any legs anymore.”

            
“But we could swim much, much faster,” Akira broke in. “They did me when I was
seven. I didn’t want to be left out.”

            
“How many shinjutori are there at your place?” Zoran asked.

            
“Usually fifty. We are taken out every few days to dive for pearls. Actually they are
oysters. That’s why we have such long fingernails,” Chika explained. Zoran had
wondered why their nails were at least three inches long. “We use them to tickle the
oysters into opening up so we can get the pearls.”

            
“We are always treated well; we get all the food we want,” Chika continued.
“Everyone always tells us that we are the most valuable people on Asami and that by our
collecting many pearls we are helping to feed lots of people. So we work hard at it.”

            
“But it is dangerous! Tell them about mom,” Akira added.

            
“She’s right; it is very dangerous work. No one ever gets old. They die like Nao
did. One day a few months ago, a shark surprised Nao while she was collecting pearls. It
bit off both of her hands! Oh the blood was awful in the water. Other shinjutori quickly
came to her aid and tied ropes to her hands to stop the bleeding. Once we all got her to
our home, a man came and gave her something to drink. After that, her arms healed up,
but ever since then, we had to be mom’s hands. We had to feed her and help her with
everything, but she could not do any more pearl diving after that. She tried, but without
hands and fingernails, she could only grab an oyster. We had to get the pearl out of it for
her. She got awfully depressed and then one morning, she died.”

            
“She told us many tales though. How a long time ago there was this magic circle
and that the powerful men and women could use it to go to other places. She told us that
our father was one of those who could do this and that maybe we could do it too.”

            
“After Nao died, they brought in another shinjutori to take her place. That’s what
they do when one of us dies or goes missing for a long time. Then, one day Akira and I
went out diving for pearls, and we went a long way from our home, searching for bigger
and better pearls. That’s when we discovered that Circle thing. We watched its swirling
colors and felt its pull on us. We kept coming back when we could and that’s when we
decided that maybe we could use it to go someplace where we can be free and not have
to be a shinjutori anymore. We want to have babies too.”

            
Zoran smiled, “Say, how old are you or do you know?”

            
“I’m nineteen and Akira is eighteen,” she replied.

            
“Anyway, the other shinjutori told us that the pearls are really valuable and that
people in other places must desire them for trade, since you cannot eat them. So we
decided to keep some pearls back for us. Zdenka found our pearls when she took our
skins off us. We just tucked them inside. When we decided that we must have enough
pearls, we went to the magic circle to see if we could leave and go someplace else. I
decided that since I am the oldest, I should go first and find us a good place to live. I
made Akira stay behind and wait for me to come get her.”

            
“I did, but she didn’t come back!” Akira exclaimed. “Not for days and days!”

            
“I don’t know what happened to me. I left Asami but it was all black and I
couldn’t find anyplace. I couldn’t find my way back either! I cried and cried and tried to
call out to anyone. Then, I see you coming for me.”

            
“Yes, I heard you calling out, Chika, but I am so sorry that it took me so many
days to figure out that you were calling for help,” Zoran apologized.

            
“We are rescued and are now free people, right?” Chika asked.

            
“You bet you are free people,” Zdenka replied before Zoran could.

            
“You will not be missed? Others won’t come looking for you?” Zoran asked the
questions uppermost in his mind.

            
“We have already been missed,” Chika answered. “Sometimes shinjutori stay
underwater too long and get water in their lungs and die. Sometimes sharks get us, like
it almost did mom. Sometimes shinjutori swim too far and get lost and cannot find their
way home. A big boat once brought a woman back who went too far and got lost. They
bring in new shinjutori all the time. Often the new shinjutori are young girls like we once
were. There are no old shinjutori at all.”

            
Zoran’s chief worry evaporated. The attrition rate of these mermaids was steep,
so that the loss of two more would be hardly noticed. “Okay, you two can stay here with
us as long as you desire. We will fix up a room for you at once and get you some clothes
to wear. Say, are you able to walk anymore?” He suddenly realized that they might not
be able to get around!

            
“We used to when we were little girls,” Chika replied and then tried to stand up,
she nearly fell over. Her feet would not go flat on the floor anymore, but her toes did flex
well. In time, perhaps her legs would readjust. Zdenka had a flash of insight. She
retrieved her tall heels that she had been given by the Baroness and tried them on
Chika’s feet. Though a little loose, they fit. She had her stand up again. While she needed
to hold onto Zdenka for support, she could stand in the high heels. Jarka got her pair
and helped Akira to stand.

            
“Yes, they can stand now with our support. First thing, we need to help them
relearn to walk,” Jarka announced. Everyone looked quite pleased.

            
Zdenka then said, “Ladies, suppose that you came home to your protected spot
only to find a mother and daughter cowering in a corner. A man was at a table, but was
bleeding badly. On the table was a large pouch of pearls. What would you do?” Zoran
and Jarka realized at once what she was doing — the picking test!

            
“Oh, we stop the bleeding,” Chika said without hesitation.

            
Akira added, “Tie something around it like they did for Nao.”

            
“Good. You girls have already been taught one magical spell. How would you like
to learn how to cast many, many magical spells?”

            
“We can? Really? Use much magic?” Akira exclaimed.

            
That decided that. Zdenka took on two more students. She soon discovered that
first she needed to teach them to read and write. It would take them longer than most
students, but this gave them new goals and an education, which they totally lacked.

            
While Bernard cleaned out a storage room for the two and added a bed, Zdenka
and Jarka began helping them learn to walk again. With constant assistance, both
women regained their mobility in a few days and then were introduced to everyone else.

            
That evening after dinner, the group discussed their new arrivals. Zoran
commented first, “You know, their father must have been a Duska. That is the only way
that Chika could have entered the Circle of Ascension. Both were drawn to it initially, so
I think that Akira is also going to be able to do it. When Priestess Anezka returns, I am
going to have her conduct the Ceremony of Ascension with these two women. We may
have just acquired two more unknown Duskas.”

            
“If they take to magic, this will be of great benefit for us all,” Zdenka added.

            
“Yes, but how can we ever go back to that paradise knowing that such wickedness
lies under the surface?” asked Jarka. “Imagine doing that to your own daughters!”

            
“Well, they must have a reason,” Bernard replied. “For one thing, they sure can
out-swim any of us.”

            
“You can say that again!” Zoran added. “As weakened as Akira was, when she led
me to the Circle, she left me in the dust! She had to frequently stop and wait for me to
catch up. I suspect that speed has something to do with their reasons. Still, what an
awful thing to do to young girls and women.”

            
“Such a short life span!” Zdenka added.

            
“Well, maybe that’s the only way that they can get enough pearls to buy all the
things that they need to keep everyone else alive,” Bernard theorized.

            
“Yes, the rest party on the beaches and sleep in until ten, while these poor women
risk their lives obtaining the pearls, to say nothing of their legs!” Jarka retorted. She was
still angry with those on Asami.