mountains eclipsed a starry sky.
Ahead, under a grouping of massive trees, stood a large shelter without walls, perhaps forty feet to a side. Firelight cast a glow into the surrounding foliage.
I could see dark forms silhouetted there as we approached, but my escort stopped under the closest tree. They tied a rope around my neck and secured the other end to one of a dozen posts. I was obviously not the first to be brought here, and fears of what awaited returned my mind to a state of frenzy.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was a goat about to be slaughtered.
One of my escorts wagged his finger in my face, uttered a stern warning, then motioned at something to my right before leaving.
When I first laid eyes on the girl who waited in the moonlight twenty paces away, I thought we’d been followed by the woman who’d helped me undress. But as she approached I saw that she was much younger, perhaps twelve or thirteen. The simple bands around her arms and neck were fashioned from woven vines, and she wore no colored accessories.
Something else caused me to wonder if she was of a lower class than the three women I’d met earlier. The split skirt hanging from her waist was made from some kind of woven grass or thin bark rather than from dyed fabric, as the others had worn. And as she walked toward me I saw something even more distinctive about her. Her skin was a milk chocolate, not the near-black of the others’. Her hair wasn’t as curly. In fact, she looked altogether racially divergent, from her tiny stature to the roundness of her face.
She stopped a few paces off and looked at me with round brown eyes. After a moment she addressed me.
“Are you English?”
I was too stunned to answer. Her accent was heavy, but I refused to believe I’d misheard her words.
“I am Lela,” she said. “I will speak for you.”
“Speak for me?” My voice was hoarse.
“I will speak for this trial.” She shoved her chin toward the square structure.
Tears flooded my eyes. “You speak English!”
The girl named Lela stood still. “What is your name, miss?” she asked.
My breathing was heavy. “Julian.”
“Yulian?”
“Julian. I’m an American.”
“I attending English school. A long time past. I forgetting this words.”
“No, no, you speak perfectly!” I cried. Then, eyes darting in fear that I’d been overheard, I lowered my voice. Words rushed from me like water from a spigot. “You have to help me! This is all a mistake! My boat…I was taken but I’m an American. We have to leave before they kill me! This is a mistake, I don’t belong here!”
“It cannot leave this place, miss. Anyone leaves this place, they will be sick and die. It is the way, this purum . This evil spirit.”
“No, that’s only what they tell you.” Her earlier words caught up to me. “What do you mean, trial?”
“This lords. It is the way of wam who come to Tulim. This three tribes will decide if you will be with a man.”
I couldn’t process what she meant.
Lela looked at the council just out of earshot, then back at me. “You must make pretty or I think you will die.”
Oddly enough, the girl’s suggestion that this tribunal had gathered to decide if I would be married or taken or whatever with meant, unnerved me more than the possibility that they might kill me. My life had already been snatched from me. My child had drowned. What was left for me?
“I…” Words couldn’t keep pace with the revulsion flogging my mind. “They will force me?”
By her expression I could see that she still didn’t comprehend. But of course she was hardly a woman who could understand such things.
“They will hurt me?”
Slowly a smile nudged her mouth. “No, miss, you do not understand. They will not hurt you if you are beautiful,” she said. “It is great honor to be with this great lords. This are princes of this Tulim.”
“I don’t want to be with these lords!”
She looked shocked. “But you must,
Ahead, under a grouping of massive trees, stood a large shelter without walls, perhaps forty feet to a side. Firelight cast a glow into the surrounding foliage.
I could see dark forms silhouetted there as we approached, but my escort stopped under the closest tree. They tied a rope around my neck and secured the other end to one of a dozen posts. I was obviously not the first to be brought here, and fears of what awaited returned my mind to a state of frenzy.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was a goat about to be slaughtered.
One of my escorts wagged his finger in my face, uttered a stern warning, then motioned at something to my right before leaving.
When I first laid eyes on the girl who waited in the moonlight twenty paces away, I thought we’d been followed by the woman who’d helped me undress. But as she approached I saw that she was much younger, perhaps twelve or thirteen. The simple bands around her arms and neck were fashioned from woven vines, and she wore no colored accessories.
Something else caused me to wonder if she was of a lower class than the three women I’d met earlier. The split skirt hanging from her waist was made from some kind of woven grass or thin bark rather than from dyed fabric, as the others had worn. And as she walked toward me I saw something even more distinctive about her. Her skin was a milk chocolate, not the near-black of the others’. Her hair wasn’t as curly. In fact, she looked altogether racially divergent, from her tiny stature to the roundness of her face.
She stopped a few paces off and looked at me with round brown eyes. After a moment she addressed me.
“Are you English?”
I was too stunned to answer. Her accent was heavy, but I refused to believe I’d misheard her words.
“I am Lela,” she said. “I will speak for you.”
“Speak for me?” My voice was hoarse.
“I will speak for this trial.” She shoved her chin toward the square structure.
Tears flooded my eyes. “You speak English!”
The girl named Lela stood still. “What is your name, miss?” she asked.
My breathing was heavy. “Julian.”
“Yulian?”
“Julian. I’m an American.”
“I attending English school. A long time past. I forgetting this words.”
“No, no, you speak perfectly!” I cried. Then, eyes darting in fear that I’d been overheard, I lowered my voice. Words rushed from me like water from a spigot. “You have to help me! This is all a mistake! My boat…I was taken but I’m an American. We have to leave before they kill me! This is a mistake, I don’t belong here!”
“It cannot leave this place, miss. Anyone leaves this place, they will be sick and die. It is the way, this purum . This evil spirit.”
“No, that’s only what they tell you.” Her earlier words caught up to me. “What do you mean, trial?”
“This lords. It is the way of wam who come to Tulim. This three tribes will decide if you will be with a man.”
I couldn’t process what she meant.
Lela looked at the council just out of earshot, then back at me. “You must make pretty or I think you will die.”
Oddly enough, the girl’s suggestion that this tribunal had gathered to decide if I would be married or taken or whatever with meant, unnerved me more than the possibility that they might kill me. My life had already been snatched from me. My child had drowned. What was left for me?
“I…” Words couldn’t keep pace with the revulsion flogging my mind. “They will force me?”
By her expression I could see that she still didn’t comprehend. But of course she was hardly a woman who could understand such things.
“They will hurt me?”
Slowly a smile nudged her mouth. “No, miss, you do not understand. They will not hurt you if you are beautiful,” she said. “It is great honor to be with this great lords. This are princes of this Tulim.”
“I don’t want to be with these lords!”
She looked shocked. “But you must,
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