Heyna's Tale Chapter Six (cont.)
The Old Fox
Sansir scowled when he saw Heyna. Sronban thrust his copy at him and he reached for it and hesitated. He seemed to be considering. He finally took the book and turned away leaving his door open.
“You might as well come in,” he said. They followed the old fox into the house, which was dark. The windows were all shuttered and it took a while for Heyna’s eyes to adjust. She reflexively took off her glasses and wiped them. Sansir looked at the wire rimmed ovals, for a moment. “Hmm…” he said to Sronban. “Why did you bring that.” He waved vaguely at Heyna.
“She was helping me deliver the latest edition from Bebe. The load was rather heavy. And, my friend Heyna offered to help.”
“Friend?” Sansir’s voice raised and his brows went up. “What are you playing at? This… person, is not welcome here, and you are forbidden from associating with it, much less befriending it.”
“Elder, please, she will not stay long. Her path takes her far from our lonely island.”
“After the gifting, you mean? How exactly is she going to leave?”
“Maybe, I won’t leave,” Heyna said flatly. Maybe you’ll kill me and throw my ruby into the sea.”
“Perhaps.” The old fox smiled a thin grin that bared some teeth. “Or perhaps we’ll have a hard bargain that will benefit us both.”
“I wasn’t going to bring it up. But since you mentioned it. I didn’t come to start negotiations,” Sronban said. “That’s between my friend Heyna and me.”
“What are you saying?” he huffed. If your parents were here…”
“I have a request,” Sronban said quickly. “I want to be initiated.”
“But, the jewel, we haven’t made any deal with the stranger.”
“Like Sronban says,” that’s between me and her.” Sronban looked at Heyna, who nodded. “She’s the only one who has shown me any kindness on your fair isle.” Sansir took Sronban by the arm and drew her aside. He whispered fiercely. And Heyna could smell the frustration on him. Sronban brushed off Sansir’s hand, and backed up a step.
“No,” she said. “Call the council if you wish. I will not be bullied. Come on, Heyna.”
“I will do that. I will call the council, young one,” Sansir called after them.”
Sronban led Heyna out. They walked down the lane away from the town and climbed a low hill. There was a gazebo that had a pleasant view of the valley and the town. Off to the north, Heyna could see a sparkling blue bay, with a few small fishing boats bobbing in the breeze. The friends sat quietly together in the shade. Heyna waited for the Fennec to speak.
“We do not have any jewels,” she said. “You should know that I am not the only juvenile without one. There are quite a few now. Sansir has a grandson. He wants the council to decide whether he gets the jewel or I do.”
“That’s not their decision to make.”
“No, it is yours. I know that. But… I… You should know the truth, before you decide. I had a thought, when you were dying. That thought, that first thought, my… my first thought, was not that we should save you. My first thought was that we should save the jewel. It’s horrible. I know. I’m sorry. Saving you was my second thought.” Heyna looked into Sronban’s face. The little Fennec smelled sad and a little frightened. “I didn’t want you to make a decision based on false pretenses.”
Heyna was silent. She searched Sronban’s face and analyzed her scent. She decided that this was the truth. She also decided that she had to make the best deal that she could, to get allies, get off the Misty Isle, and get to and into the domed dragon city. Right, she thought, I’m nuts!
“Tell me what the jewel means to you,” Heyna said after a long wait. “Tell me the whole truth.”
“Long ago,” Sronban began, “before the world was as you know it now, before the Gryphon and the Erda made peace.”
“Wait, wait… The Erda and Gryphon were at war?”
“As I said, the world that you know was not formed. Quetzalcoatl were once warlike too, and spent their considerable resources to create weapons and engines of war. The dragons were just a minor race.”
“A minor race?” Heyna gasped.
“These are the tales. I don’t know them all. I don’t even know if they are true. They are old and refer to just what affect us. There are some books, but many tales are told around hearths on Winter nights.
“They say, my people were hunted. We were few, but powerful. Each race tried to use us to their advantage. We were like Erda are now, servants and slaves. Many of us were killed for our jewels.
“More than a thousand years ago, we found this island by accident. It was large enough, had food and water, a comfortable climate, and most important of all, a source of gems. The lucky ones gathered here. The rest… we think they went extinct. There are many tales of what happened. I have some books, but it was so long ago, no one knows what is fact and what is fiction anymore.
“We’ve lived here, protected by another race that is even more secretive than we are. They are the Kelpie of the Shallows. They live in the ocean around the island. I can’t really tell you much about them. We have agreements that must never be broken. I can tell you that we have a symbiotic relationship. They live in the shadow of the glamour that we cast around this island and so are also protected.”
“You said that you are symbionts. What do they provide for you?”
“They are telepathic too, and warn us when danger is near. The rest I cannot tell you. Anyway, we lived on the misty isle safe for many generations until the last jewel was drawn from the mine. I told you that we do not trade with any other peoples of the world. When my parents left, they were looking for a source of jewels, not just for me, but for all our people. This was a desperate venture.
“What my parents did was forbidden in so many ways. Leaving the island is forbidden. Trading off the island is forbidden. Returning after you have left is forbidden. They left me a letter explaining their actions, but I never really understood it until now.
“When I was younger, I didn’t know what it meant not to have a jewel. I thought my parents were outlaws. I knew they left to help me, but I was ashamed of what they did. As I got older, I realized that without the gems, our way of life is threatened and we might go extinct. Or worse, devolve into something less than what we are.
“People like Sansir don’t think that will happen, but I’m old enough to know that one group with power and one group without power is a recipe for tyranny. Anyone who doesn’t get initiated with a jewel, cannot fully mature and are considered lesser, not quite Fennec.” She paused, “I was almost resigned to my fate.
“When you were in the midst of the glamour and I heard your story. I was inspired. When I saw your determination to save your people, I rooted for you. When I saw the ruby, a plan crystallized in my heart.” Sronban paused again for a long time.
“And that plan is?”
“If you will let me have the ruby, I will undergo initiation. This will give me great power. Then, I will come with you. I will help you, and you will help me. We will save your friends together. Then, I want to travel to Lurmunduan, to Jakintu and trade for jewels. We will save your family, and the Fennec.”
Heyna was excited. She saw what a Fennec glamour had done to her, and what it had done to boat load of sea snakes.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” she shouted.
*
The Fennec council met in a natural amphitheater in a glade lit by torches that stood a league or so from the town center. Heyna and Sronban walked the road at dusk. They saw the firelight in the distance. The evening scents were pleasant. They were burning some herbs. She smelled sage, sweetgrass and lavender. She heard a flute, then drums, then singing.
As they walked into the glade, Heyna saw an unlit bonfire laid in the center of a large circle. Logs formed a cone taller three times taller than an Erda. The foxes sat in rows, gradually ascending with the hillside in a semicircle on one side of the bonfire. Drummers and musicians sat to the other side. Everyone was singing. Sansir stood in the center, singing with everyone else.
The song ended and the drumming picked up a faster beat, more complex, with overlapping rhythms. A whoop went up from the audience, and people began dancing to the beat. Sronban did a little step and turned. Heyna felt the urge to move too. The dance was infectious. Her tail moved in time and before she knew it, she was dancing with the little fox.
The dancing went on and on. The drumming became more and more complex, driving the people to wilder and wilder dance moves. Eventually, the Fennec began dancing around the unlit bonfire, jumping and whooping. Heyna joined them, letting the music move her. A trance-like euphoria filled her from nose to tail as she gave herself over to the dance.
Then the music crescendoed and stopped, and everyone fell to the ground in exhaustion. The people lay panting for many minutes. Heyna wasn’t sure that she could walk. She was still breathing heavily when Sronban got up and grabbed her hand.
“Let’s get a seat. We’ve still got a long night ahead of us.” They sat in the front on the opposite side of the semi-circle from the musicians. Sansir moved to the center. The other elders took their places in a semi-circle sitting behind him. Light from the setting sun turned his fur golden. He held up his hands and the people quieted.
“Friends, I have called this council because we have a grave danger in our midst. This,” he pointed at Heyna, “interloper has invaded our sacred land. Worse, our way of life is threatened by one of our own.” The assembly was silent. Only the sound of the wind in the trees punctuated Sansir’s address.
“The stranger possesses a thing of value. If we let nature take it’s course and let the stranger die, our laws dictate that this treasure will be lost to us. Sronban has made common cause with this invader and wants to claim the treasure for herself. She wants to leave our island and threaten our security. I have thought long and hard about this situation. I wish the council to consider two proposals.
“The first is to change our laws to allow us to kill the invader and keep her jewel.” The audience erupted in shouts of, no, no, and yes, yes! “Second, that we negotiate,” he sneered the word, “with the interloper for the jewel. Then put her out to sea in a fishing boat with enough provisions to last a fortnight.” There was an audible gasp from the people, and again the chorus of no and yes. Sansir held up his hands for quiet. He raised his voice and said, “It is time for the council to speak.”
“Wait!” Sronban shouted.
“It is not your place to speak in council!” Sansir shouted back.
“I want to be initiated, to go with Heyna to find another source of gems…” Sansir gestured with his hand and Sronban fell the ground. Some people shouted to let Sronban speak, others just laughed. Heyna jumped to her side, and saw she was only asleep. The audience buzzed loudly in conversation.
“She wants to help save you all and I will help her. Three proposals! Three proposals! Three proposals!” Heyna shouted as loudly as she could. She heard her chant repeated in the audience before she too was knocked unconscious by a gesture from Sansir.
*
She dreamed of Screeble again. His crew chased her through the town and into the woods.
“Smell you, Kit. You smell good,” Screeble said, his whiskers all aquiver. As before the sea snakes couldn’t see her. But this time Sansir was with them, carrying a wicked looking little curved dagger. He looked right at her.
“There she is!” Sansir said, pointing at her with the blade She woke up nose to nose with the old fox.
“Wake up! Wake up!” Sansir was standing over Heyna. “Wake up and hear the decision of the council!” He did not look happy. Sronban was already awake and smiled at her. A scribe sat beside the council with a large book in his lap. His pen was poised to write. Sansir addressed the assembly.
“All assembled, hear the decision of the council.”
“We hear the decision and obey,” the people said in unison.
“It is the decision of the council that Sronban be given the ruby and be initiated. She will be elevated to full citizen.”
“It is written,” said the scribe.
“It is the decision of the council that Sronban be allowed to accompany Hey…” he looked at Sronban.
“Heyna of the Paititi Erda.”
“Be allowed to accompany Heyna of the Paititi Erda on a sanctioned mission with the following goals. One, to aid Heyna in saving her people. Second, to locate, negotiate for, and arrange for the delivery of jewels of sufficient quality to the misty isle. Heyna has pledged to help in this mission.”
“It is written,” said the scribe.
“Third, if, and I say if, she is successful, Sronban may return. If not, she is forever banished.”
“Is is written,” said the scribe again.
The drums started again, slow and steady, then the flutes, in rising tones. The Fennec started to sing a hymn of praise to their ancestors and the council. When it was over, it was full dark and the bonfire was lit. The drums started again. The people began to dance around the fire. Their dancing shadows were thrown against the trees like giants.
“It is written,” Sronban said to Heyna and smiled.
“By the Trees! Now we’re in the soup.”
“Let’s dance!” Sronban said, and they did.