Tales from the Chest: Spinning the Wheel

Stera and Lety, Rube's stepsisters, are secondary characters and I didn't waste time explaining who trained them.  They played bit parts and though what they did was important, at the end, this scene didn't need to see the light of day - until today!  Enjoy:)


"They're still in bed."  Chal gave an evil grin.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Shanika asked, looking up at the ceiling where, above them, two unsuspecting girl's were still wrapped in sweet dreams.  That was about to change.

"Spin-the-wheel time!" Chal reached inside the silverware drawer.

The cook of the Ha-mah smiled indulgently.  "Don't forget to bring back my knifes!"

"Can I keep the cleaver?" Shanika asked, running her finger along the edge.  "My cook needs one."

"As long as you place an order with the blacksmith for another."

"Done!" Shanika put the cleaver in her apron pocket and followed Chal up the stairs.

The two lumps beneath the thin blankets weren't stirring, other than soft snores.

Shanika opened the window, gathered up the Stera, blanket and all, and dumped it outside, aiming (mostly) for the pile of laundry the girls were already supposed to be working on.

Chal followed her example.

The screaming got everyone's attention, but, as usual, one look at who had done it and they all went back to work.

"Do you think they broke something?" Shanika asked, looking a bit worried.

"Nah, it isn't that far.  The most that could happen is a sprain or two."

"Just so you know, Stera might have a concussion before the end of the day," Shanika said in a hard voice.  "And it won't be because I threw her out the window."

They made it outside just as the sisters scrambled out from under the pile of dirty laundry looking cross as two spoiled little brats could possibly be.

Chal walked up and shoved two fingers up Lety's nostrils and led her to a contraption known to the trainees as "the wheel."  She released Lety's nostrils and pointed at the wheel, which was lying on the ground.  "Lay down!"

Lety, with eyes streaming, screamed, "NO!  You can't make me!  Mari said..."

Chal kicked the girl's feet out from under her and stepped on her neck, looking delighted.   "Shanika, they don't know how to fight!"

Her co-conspirator had Stera's arm up behind her back and was applying pressure, making the girl tiptoe over the ground at a fast pace until she stood in front of large planks.  "Get on."

The girl, after seeing that her sister was being strapped down, climbed onto the planks which had a series of pulleys, ropes, and chains that somehow were connected to the wheel.

"Listen to me, you Vael-brained wonders!" Shanika barked.  "You two were late getting out of bed, didn't help with morning dishes much less finished the wash.  So, you get no breakfast or lunch and you will  finish the wash as soon as you finish volunteering for eye-hand-coordination."

The girls looked at each other in question.

Chal clapped her hands together - four measured beats - and looked at Stera.  "Start walking to this rhythm.  If you stop your sister dies."

Stera's face bled of color and she began to walk in place while the planks moved up and down and she held onto two long poles that glided back and forth.

"You better go faster than that or your sister will never make a whole revolution and she'll suffocate," said Shanika with a disinterested tone.

"Got the knives ready!" Chal said with an eager grin.

The wheel which had been on the ground, was slowly rising as Stera tried to keep the beat that Chal had given her.  Her face was red with the effort and she was already sweating.

Shanika faced the wheel and Chal stood with her back to it.  "On four?"

"Yeah, and let's descend this time and then go on odds."

The women began to count... "Four...three...two..." a knife was thrown by the backwards-facing Chal.  It slammed into the wood near Lety's head.  The girl howled.

"Hey, Stera, you better keep the pace or your sister won't make another round."

Even as the women spoke, they were throwing knives back and forth, catching them by the handle, and changing places.  Other girls were now gathering around, no one saying a word, but all watching with keen interest.

"What are you looking at you freaks!" Stera yelled angrily, puffing as her sister, strapped to the wheel, screamed again as a knife missed her outstretched hand by inches.

A cleaver sprouted next to Stera's foot.   "Go FASTER!"  Shanika warned.  She turned to Chal, "I don't think weak-knees has the strength to make the wheel do one revolution.  Lety may suffocate."

"Let's see how much Stera loves her sister."

Both women, still throwing knives, watched as Stera strained, the blood vessels on the girl's forehead bulged and threatened to burst.

"I...I...CAN'T do it!" screamed Stera, falling to the ground and stretching one hand out toward the wheel as it sank toward the ground.  "NOOOOOOOO!"

Chal calmly looked at the group of girls.  "Volunteers?  No, not you Pid, you broke your wrist yesterday. Mari wants you to wait a day...anyone else?'

The wheel had come to halt - upside down.  Lety's screams were faint, but definitely audible.

"LETY!"  screamed Stera, jumping off the non-moving planks and rushing to the wheel, trying to lift it.

"It's too heavy, silly," said the injured Pid with a sniff.

"No one wants to help?" Chal asked.

"Will we get into trouble?"

"Who said that?" asked Shanika, looking disappointed.

All heads turned to a small brunette with a club foot.  All the girls backed away, leaving space around the girl.

Chal smiled.  "Not if you can take this knife away."  She displayed the weapon.

Before she could blink, the girl disappeared and reappeared - with the knife.

"Well done sister mine!"  Shanika crowed and she gave Chal a wink.

Shanika's sister worked the planks and Lety, covered with sweat reappeared - unconscious, but still breathing.  Stera, sobbing, pulled away the straps and then pulled her sister off the wheel.

Chal turned to Shanika with a smile.  "Mari is absolutely right."

"She always is," Chal agreed.  "But about what this time?"

Shanika retrieved her cleaver from the plank.  "This is no such thing as a permanently unmotivated person!"

Tales from the Chest: Training Mari

I didn't have time to do a flash-back of Mari being personally trained by the Forest Wife.  In keeping with my idea to have Brenna and Talon in the center of the story, I needed to move on.  In any case, there was no need to really show where Brenna got a healthy helping of her stubbornness from.  *Spoiler alert* if you haven't read the series you should before you read this.

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The seventy-five pound book landed on the large table, creating a small puff of dust as it did so.

In surprise, Mari waved away the dust which threatened to choke her and looked up at the blonde woman who was not quite her mentor and not quite a friend, yet.

"Read."

Mari was not accustomed to taking orders and there was no mistaking that this was an order.  "Do you want me to read or practice?  I can't do both at the same time."  Mari couldn't quite keep the frustration out of her voice.

"I believe, in the end, you'll be surprised at what you can do."

Mari, feeling fractious over this newest chore, sniped, "Oh, good, a new cryptic way of saying you know more than I do.  That might change if you'd just let me keep practicing!"

The pair of blue eyes fixed on Mari did not waver in their silent reprimand.

"Just let me practice!"

The Forest Wife shook her head. "Do you really think that this time and place were made just for you, Mari?"

The truth was yes.  She'd been under the impression that the place was there to give her a place to practice.

"Did you ever read the Book of Benamii, as I asked?"

"Yeeees..." she answered, but didn't meet her teacher's eyes.

"So, you read about yourself.  What did you think?"

At the moment, she couldn't.  She was too busy wrapping her mind around the idea she was mentioned.  As her mind raced, she shook her head.  "The book didn't say anything about me."  She was absolutely sure she would have noticed her own name!

"Then you didn't study it."

"It's boring..."

"So boring you want your ignorance to kill your husband and daughter?"

Mari blinked and then snapped her mouth closed.

"Study doesn't mean to skim over the parts you find uninteresting.  The Prophet Benamii wasn't trying to be cryptic, Mari.  he gave his life so we could have the truth."

"He's dead?"  She hadn't heard...or she hadn't paid attention if she had.

"Nez gifted the bloodthirsty Sogoians with a public execution."

This was said in such a tone Mari knew it was the truth. She willed away her sorrow.  Last time she'd seen the old man, he was standing at the gates of Ryn House, announcing her time had come for training.  In part, that memory had served to press her onward.  "I still need the practice."

The Forest Wife took a seat; something she never did unless the subject was serious.  "Look at me, Mari."

She did.

"You are stunningly beautiful and impressively powerful, but your ignorance is crippling you."

She scowled, failing to appreciate being called stupid.  It also tweaked her curiosity, as, no doubt, the Forest Wife intended.

"The mistakes you make here and now, on this side of time, will have severe repercussions."

"I thought you said what I did here wouldn't affect anyone or anything there."

"I sometimes wonder if you listen at all."

That cowed her.

"I'm not talking about whether the waterfall you forced to fall up makes a dent in the world you return to.  I'm speaking of something so much more.  Something that is coming so fast, no human can hope to stop it."

"What is it?"

"The battle for the souls of men, Mari.  What do you think all this," the Forest Wife spun in a circle with her arms outstretched, "is about?"

She hadn't considered the souls of men. She had, however, given considerable time to honing her power so she could help Loni with the orphanage and control the irrepressible Hadasha.

"You have specific responsibility looming over you and you need to hurry, for all our sakes."

Mari did not like the idea of a deadline when she didn't know what was at stake.  "You know everything, so why not tell me?"  She did not want to read a foot-thick book.

The Forest Wife didn't answer, but opened the cover of the dusty tome.  "This record was written by your grandmother."

She had no memory of the woman who had passed away before she was born.

"Not that grandmother, but Marisena, wife of Jaydren; and before you can ask, yes THE Jaydren, ruler of Utak and, coincidentally, your direct-line grandfather.  If I were you, I'd memorize it."

"Why don't you just tell me what I have to know?"

"There are no shortcuts to what you need to know."

She fingered the first page, looking at the small writing, noting Jaydren's wife had pretty penmanship, but also sighing at the voluminous tome.  A new thought burst onto the stage of her mind, looking like a frightened doe.  "If I have something really important and you're my teacher, it figure you have something important to do as well."

The woman looked as if debating the wisest course of action.  "I am mother of the Chosen."

Mari's quick mind ran over what she remembered of the person called "the Chosen" in the Book of Benamii. She put a commiserating hand on the Forest Wife's embroidered sleeve.  Her child was destined for heartache - a life of great danger and challenges.  "If anyone can do it, you can."

"That's exactly how I feel about your role."

Mari's heart sank.  If her role was as serious as her teacher's she was in big trouble.  With resignation, she began to read.

Tales from the Chest: Iskar goes swimming...ooops

Trying something new.  Posting stuff that didn't make it into the final cuts of COS.

Set up:  This is what Iskar was up to after Talon left Utak.  I didn't put it in the book because it was such a short piece and it pulled the story too far from where I was going.  In hindsight, I probably could have put it in, if only to show Soline's unforgiving nature.

ISKAR GOES SWIMMING

At long last, after suffering fields of blisters that felt the size of Mt. Benamii, Iskar felt liberated. 

Because of his invention, the burang, which was used to kill the flame-throwing Ybarra herds, he was something of a hero in the city of Lander.  Life had never been sweeter.

He no longer needed someone to introduce him to the Utakian girls.  They all knew his name.  Several came to him with hero-worship in their eyes and told him tales of the difference he had made in the lives of their families.  Their compliments were ambrosia and he was in an almost constant state of euphoria.

Respect was something he had earned in Utak and it was hard won.  Without Talon present, the tanners and skinners listened to him as they planned how to eradicate the Ybarra herds.  Best of all, he didn't have to share the glory.  Rube was in Rykett and Talon, well, Talon was somewhere with General Monus.  Being with Talon wasn't safe and it wasn't fun. 

He could be himself!   All he had to do to remain safe was stay out of the water.  It made him nervous to see water in any greater amounts than a glass.  He stared out at the ocean from a safe distance.

With the half-moon casting her reflection onto the surf, it appeared haunted.  Iskar didn't think it was, he knew it was.  The entire ocean was the playground of the Keeper of the Waves and he was on her list of people to kill; likely first on the list.  She thought of him as a betrayer and he didn't know why.

After she attacked Talon, he'd thrown a burang at her, which she caught and threw back at him, slicing Iskar's arm open.  Later, he had gone to the water to wash away the blood and her voice had come to his mind, "You will never be safe in the water, Betrayer.  Every Raykah in the world knows the taste of your blood.  It will sing to them and they will come."

When he first heard about the enormous kite-shaped fish that inhabited the Ammon Islands, he'd wanted to ride one like Talon had.  It sounded adventurous.  The blue-haired Sea Witch had changed those plans.  Since then, he made it a point to stay well away from the edge of the water, even if it meant the other young men poked fun at him.  None of them had been threatened by a living legend as he had.

He settled his blankets on the sandy rise above the beach, listening to his co-workers and sometimes-friends tease each other.  They were splashing in the water after a hot afternoon working with the tanners and skinners. 

"Hey, Iskar! Come join us!" the self-proclaimed 'leader' of the group ordered.  It was just that - an order.  He knew the tone.  He also knew that none of them would have made a fuss about Iskar staying dry if Talon had been there. 

"Afraid of the water?" taunted one.

"Can't you swim?" asked another.

Irritated, he hollered back, "Yes, you dung-eating pursha, but I don't want to!"  Not ever.

"That's what we thought," came a voice behind him.

Four sets of arms grabbed, lifted, and carried him down to the sea.  When he realized what they were going to do, he began to fight as he'd never fought anyone before.  Panic raced through his system.

"Let me go!" he demanded, twisting, jerking, kicking, pulling anything and everything he could reach.  "LET ME GO!"

"No chance," the leader scoffed.  "That foot in my face just cost you a dunking."

"The Keeper will come!" he promised, trying to claw free.  These boys were all farm workers and strong as oxen. 

"I didn't know you listened to fairy tales!"

"She's going to kill me!" he warned them, twisting like a wild animal. They kept a firm grip on him. 

"There's no such thing!" sneered the one he'd kicked in the face.

"DON'T DO THIS!"  he begged, terrified to the very center of his soul.  He ripped one of his arms out of their grasp, loosening their hold, feeling his skin tearing away in the effort he was making to gain his freedom - his life.  Two more came to help their companions.

"Ready to get wet?" he was asked as they carried him out into the surf.

"NOOOOOO!" he screamed as they flung him out into the deeper water. Part of his mind told him he was a dead man.  He was bleeding and the carnivorous Raykah knew the taste of his blood. 

They would come. 

The Keeper had promised him they would.

Water surrounded him and he knew he only had moments to break free of the tide.  Raykah were fast swimmers and their mistress was faster.  His head popped out of the water and he took a breath of air.  With every ounce of strength he had, he plowed through the water, heedless of the current, his threatening-to-burst-lungs, and the stitch in his side.  Fear fed his speed and he was sure he'd never swam faster in his life .  His heart roared in his ears. 

He wanted to sob when he reached the shore, but knew he didn't dare stop. 

His 'friends' had deserted him.  The last one was racing up the small pathway, looking as terrified as he felt.  Now that he was on shore, he dared glance back.  Fifty feet from shore were large wakes and behind them, Soline herself!  She raised her arms and threw her hands forward.  A large wave rose and he knew that if he didn't find something to hang on to, he would be dragged to the sea and eaten or worse:  Soline would handle things herself.

He had always hated the Hydra tree when he was out in the fields.  It started as a small choking vine.  It's roots, Rube had once joked, went to the center of the world.  You had to pull every speck of it up or it would grow back - with two vines, getting thicker each time if you didn't eradicate it.  Finally, if left alone, it became a tree you had to plow around.

It looked like heaven.  He jumped, grabbed the lowest limb, and swung himself up just as the wave Soline had created hit.  He was under water and hanging on for all he was worth.  The water seemed to get deeper for a moment.  He worried it was deep enough for a raykah to reach him.  Thank All, the water receded and he was finally able to get a breath.

He looked the direction of the water and saw she wasn't finished.  He slipped to the other side of the Hydra and climbed higher, keeping the Sea Witch in his sight.  She pushed her hands forward and the next wave was higher. 

A small yellow Raykah rode the crest of it.  She had to know it wouldn't make it back, so it was a sacrifice she was willing to make - to kill him. 

The rubbery-looking fish would have one chance and he wasn't going to stand aside and let it take a chunk out of his hide!  He remembered Talon telling him Raykah had two pair of eyes, one on top and the second underneath the first set.  He pulled his burang out and when it got close enough, he shook it open and, with every muscle he had, brought it down on the creature at an angle, slicing through the front part of its head.  It stopped moving.  He had killed it!  He triumphantly looked out at the water.  The wakes had disappeared, and Soline was no longer riding a water spout, she was hovering in the shallows!

He was a dead man.

In a clear voice, she said, "You will die a thousand deaths in the time you have remaining on this land for the crimes you've committed and those you will commit.  Remember, when your time comes, that I offered you a way to die with honor, Betrayer.  Justice will be served, sooner than you think."