The Sudzi was called the River of Surprises. It was broad and fast flowing in some places, narrow like a ribbon on a baby’s nightcap in others. Those were deadly places, where the river was thin and sluggish and it seemed a man could cross it without getting his knees wet. The river narrowed because of suckers, deep holes that swallowed the water, and any living creature who ventured close enough.

The river wasn’t navigable because of the suckers. And the road running along it was seldom used by travelers. It had been a major highway three centuries ago, but disuse had turned it into a broken and rutted track. After two days, they had to let go of the carriage.

The road led mostly through forests, dark and forbidding. Now and then they came across straggling villages, once even a smallish town. They stopped at these habitations to buy food or to spend a night.

Morning and midday meals were hurried affairs. The evening meal was leisurely. Miiya used that time to obtain from Jubi every nugget of information she could about Draca.

Squeezing water out of desert-sand might have been easier.

“This Possession, can it happen to anyone? Men, women, young, old?

A nod and a pause. “They mostly take young people.”

“They take children as well?”

“No, not children... I’ve never heard of it.”

“And the old? Do they take the old as well?”

“Not many I think. Just a few... I’ve heard of about four... Including Papa.” Sometimes words would tumble out. “That’s why I thought papa was safe. He was lame too, fell from a tree when he was young.”

“So people who are ill or suffer from some kind of physical disability don’t get taken?”

Silence, elongated but not empty. “No. Sometimes people pretend to be blind or deaf. Or even sick... To avoid being Possessed... But the soldiers are never deceived.”

*

“You said you read something about me in a book. Can you write as well?”

“Yes, Papa taught me.”

“So he can write and read?”

“Yes.”

“Are most people in Draca able to read and write?”

“No, just a few.”

*

“You said your king has several wives?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know there is more than one wife?”

“The seamstress, she tells.”

“Has she seen them?”

“No, but she has to make dresses of different sizes. So she knows.”

“And children?”

“Yes.”

“How many?”

“There are orders every year for a new silver cradle.”

**

The journey continued, through terrain that was sparse both of dangers and comforts.

One night Cillo asked, “Why do you put up with this horror, Jubi-girl?”

Jubi’s eyes widened. “What else can we do?” She responded faster now, especially when Cillo asked the questions.

Trust, Miiya realized suddenly. Jubi trusted Cillo in a way and at a level she didn’t trust Miiya. Jubi believed in Miiya’s ability to save her father. But the trust she was forming towards Cillo was personal. Jubi had faith in Miiya the witch and trusted Cillo the man.

Cillo spoke in his usual patient gentle tones. “Jubi-girl, according to you everyone in Draca lives in fear of being taken to this castle in the Silver Carriage. Rebellion is a difficult thing. But don’t people try to escape, to get away?”

Jubi frowned. “But there’s no way of escaping.”

“Draca is an island, in an archipelago. There are several islands close by. Anyone can escape Possession by taking a boat out. Or maybe even swimming at certain times of the year.”

“But the Divine Father says we must not use the sea for unholy purposes.”

Miiya asked, “So you can’t go out to the sea except to busy your dead?”

Jubi nodded.

Cillo said in Sammalorian, “It’s an island of taboos.”

“That was why I had to hide in the foreign ship.” Jubi’s voice startled both of them, She smiled a little at the questioning looks on the faces turned to her, “After I decided to seek your help, Miiya, I went on working in the docks, waiting for a chance. One day there was a storm, and a lot of confusion, so I managed to hide inside this ship. I used all our savings and bribed a sailor.” A slight flush rose to her cheek, reddish purple against her blue skin. Her eyes hardened. “It was so frightening. I was disobeying both the king and Divine Father. I thought something dreadful will happen in the sea. A storm maybe. Or a giant wave. The Book of Taboos says when a family tried to leave Draca in a boat, the Sea God sent a giant wave and destroyed them. But nothing happened to the ship. I was safe…” She gulped the rest of the words.

Miiya raised an eyebrow. “So ships come to Draca. I thought seafaring is not permitted.”

“But they are Unbelievers!”

“So your god doesn’t permit you, the true believers, to benefit from the sea while allowing that privilege to the unbelievers. Seems a bit unfair to me.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Jubi set her lips tight.

“Jubi did run away.”

It was Cillo, and his words held a reproach.

Cillo was right. Despite all the taboos, Jubi did run away. She turned herself into a stowaway and traversed the forbidden sea. Had she been caught before the ship sailed, she would have probably met a dreadful end. She would have known that, but still risked it. The conditioning of a lifetime, the fear of discovery and punishment, was no match against her love for her father and her determination to find him.

Miiya inclined her head. “I was wrong. You are right. Jubi did run away.”

Jubi looked from one to the other, as if wanting to understand what they were saying.

Miiya felt happy. Hitherto Jubi had not evinced any interest in what her companions did or said. This expression of curiosity was a first, a sign that the young woman was beginning to recover some of her old self, becoming more like the girl Miiya had glimpsed in the dreams.

**

The scream turned Miiya’s blood into ice, even though she had been up, and waiting.

She rushed to where Jubi lay, under a widespread banyan tree. Jubi was writhing like an animal caught in a trap, emitting low screams.

Miiya crouched low and placed her hand on Jubi’s red hot brow.

She had steeled herself against Jubi’s memories. Still they hit her like a physical blow. She wanted to snatch her hand away, to flee back to a time when life was simpler and she could afford to ignore things she didn’t want to know.

When it was over, and Jubi had fallen into a deep sleep, Miiya hauled herself up and tottered to her own sleeping place. She sat down with her back to the tree, waiting for her own shivers to subside.

The sound was tiny, a careful foot on a fallen twig. Miiya opened her eyes. Cillo was kneeling a few feet away and staring at her, his face full of concern.

Anger shook her, anger at herself for losing control, at him for seeing her in a moment of weakness.

“Would you like some water, Miiya?”

The concern in his voice dampened her anger. Her throat was bone day. Some water would be nice. She nodded.

He brought the water and sat by her as she drank.

She emptied the cup and gave it to him. “Jubi was having nightmares.”

“I suppose that was Mind-healing? I’ve heard of it of course, but never seen it been done.”

She shrugged a shoulder. “It’s like Pain-relieving. You draw out the poison. The memories remain, but they cease to cause distress.” She chafed her cold hands, one with the other. “What I did was not right. You must first obtain the patient’s consent.”

“You had no choice. Her scream woke me up. She was suffering.”

“I don’t know. Anyway to be healed properly, she’ll have to be awake, conscious of what’s happening. She must consent and cooperate.”

She waited for him to go away. He didn’t. She felt an overwhelming urge to scream at him to leave her alone. He was kind and caring. But the only company she could tolerate right now was her own, and that too just barely.

He asked, “Was this the first time she had nightmares?”

She almost said yes, but somehow couldn’t manage the lie. “No, she had one the night she slept in my house.”

His eyes widened for a fleeting second. She waited for intrusive questions, relishing the thought of treating him like a gnat. But he said nothing, asked nothing.

“I’ve been giving her a pinch of nidra in her food,” she said at last.

He nodded. “An excellent soporific.” He frowned a little. “Has it stop being effective?”

“I’ve run out of it.”

His face became pinched, as if he was in pain. “What do we do now?”

“We will reach Kikilonia in three or four days. It’s a large city, a trading city.”

He nodded. “I gather the memory fragments were very bad.” His voice was tentative.

Fury rose within her. When she spoke her voice was ice. “Nothing you could ever have experienced, Scholar Cillius.”

He flinched, as if she had lashed him physically. Then he said, still in that meek voice, “Was it something you have experienced, Mistress Miiya?”

She looked down, trying to banish the memory of what she had seen.

“I’m sorry, that was...” Cillo began but she held up a silencing hand.

“No don’t apologize. You are quite right. What she had gone through, at least that little bit I sensed, was something neither you nor I have experienced. How that girl survived, I don’t know.” This time her smile was a smile. “I’ve wondered now and then at your preference for animals and birds, Cillo. I think I understand now.”

His answering smile was warm. “Will you heal her? Can you?”

“I don’t know. For that she must trust me completely, and we are far from that right now. In any case, I need to conserve whatever power I have. Until we reach Draca I can afford to be a witch only in dire need.”

“How complicated life is and how hard the choices are,” Cillo said almost to himself. “Miiya, please try to get some sleep. You need the rest.”

She was too weary to argue, turned her head away, closed her eyes and willed sleep to come.

**

Miiya walked ahead, as she generally did. Cillo and Jubi trailed behind, Cillo trying to draw Jubi out.

“It sounds so interesting, making masks. I wish I had that kind of talent. Were you also a mask-maker?”

“Papa tried to teach me. I wasn’t good at it.”

“So what did you do? Did you have any kind of occupation?”

“I was a potter. And I taught children their letters.”

“Ah a teacher.” Cillo dropped his voice to a whisper, even though Miiya could hear him perfectly. “Like our witches. In Sammalore, they do most of the teaching and healing. Very good at it too.”

Jubi asked, also in a whisper, “Was Miiya a teacher?”

“Teacher and healer both. And she studied things, mechanics, stars.”

“I wish I could study stars.”

Cillo spoke in his normal voice, cheerful, encouraging. “Why not? Once this is all over, you can take up studying stars. There are places where you can learn how to do it properly.”

Jubi said nothing.

**

That night, Miiya insisted on taking on the first watch. Cillo didn’t demur. He curled up on his sleeping rug and didn’t turn even once, but Miiya knew he was awake and alert. He too would be waiting for the nightmares to begin.

Night wore on. Jubi’s body relaxed as exhaustion claimed her. Even Cillo seemed to have succumbed to weariness. Miiya sat with her back to a boulder and focused her mind on making sense of what was happening in Draca.

She was on her feet, and by Jubi’s side before the first long moan was over.

When everything was done, and Jubi had fallen into a deep sleep, Miiya tried to stand, and would have fallen, had it not been for Cillo’s hands holding her.

She made no effort to repulse him, but allowed him to shepherd her carefully, and settle her down by a boulder. She breathed in and out, consciously, mastering her writhing emotions. When calmness returned she opened her eyes and smiled at him. He gave her water and she drank deeply. “Thank you.”

He said nothing. She thought she’d seen corpses more lifelike.

“You should go to sleep, Cillo.”

“When you are old, sleep is hard to come by.” He paused and gave her one of his shy smiles. “I’ve heard witches and mages can sleep whenever they want to. Is it true?”

“In general, yes. And wake up whenever we want to. We have an internal capacity to know the time, just as we can control our body heat. Rather like animals.”

“Very useful attributes. I wish I have them, at least the capacity to control my body heat. That is one of the worst parts of old age, the cold. The cold is inside the bones you see, and it can be incapacitating.”

“How old are you?” she asked abruptly.

“Almost eighty. Eighty in a few weeks.” He hesitated as if unsure of what he was going to say. “Terryc and I grew up in the same neighborhood.”

She said nothing for a while. Her lips were pressed tight, her eyes stared ahead.

The silence stretched on, until Miiya could bear it no more.

“Did you know him well?” she asked in a conversational tone.

He smiled. “Quite well. He was some years younger than me. We went to the same school. One of yours. Then we lost touch.” He hesitated. “He went to become a lens-maker and I joined the ‘No witch’ movement.”

She smiled grimly. The movement had demanded that witches be prevented from healing. It had fizzled out eventually. “That’s interesting.”

Cillo bit his lip. “I was in love with a young woman. She was pregnant. There were complications. I refused to let her seek help from you or any other witch. She died, and the child too.” He looked at her fleetingly. “It was a daughter.”

She said, “I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “You know, Miiya, we all have the same spark of life, so fragile and yet so strong too. That is something you learn when you attend a death, be it a child or a lamb.”

She wouldn’t have been able keep the words even if she tried. “You went to the slaughterhouse?”

He said, “I went to the slaughterhouse,” and turned his face away. “I tried to give the poor creatures what comfort I could. Especially the little ones. They are not human, but their terror and their pain are not less real. It makes you think, about the world, about life.”

Miiya waited for more, wanted to hear more, but there was only silence. She broke it when it became too heavy to bear, “You are a man of true courage, Cillo.”

A ghost of a smile flitted across Cillo’s face. “That was very kind of you, Miiya.”