PART NINE (Cont'd):
It is my 'faculty' and I get to keep it!:
Reinah helped the struggling girl to pull the dress over her head and then proceeded to secure the fabric at the back, by fastening two sewn hooks together. Sika did not say a word, but briefly glanced at the princess with what might have been a smile playing at the corner of her pursed lips. Furthermore, her sigh of relief and the way she rubbed and twisted her neck back and forth to work out the kinks showed her appreciation that the clothing ordeal was finally over. That was the way it had been for the past two weeks that Reinah had been with this family. At least that was mostly what she had observed. Sika their daughter as it appeared struggled with certain basic and regular functions. She had her very few moments when everything appeared normal and okay. Then just as abruptly, she would relapse into a ball of helplessness. No one explained to Reinah what was going on, what to do or even what to expect. But being the sensitive and perceptive child that she was, she was able to deduce ways of assisting Sika in her obvious struggle.
For all the jolly and exuberant talking Sika's mother did, she seemed bothered by and distant from her daughter. Which made Reinah wonder how Sika was able to cope most of the time. As for her, she knew that her mother was dead and would not come back. So she would learn to adjust and cope with that irreversible absence and vacuum created by the loss. However, it seemed strange and sad to actually have a mother right there and still miss out all the same. Sika's father said very little or nothing at all in the house. He may have preferred to spend any waking minute he was not in the farm, cleaning his tools. He had his little corner where he littered his equipments and smiled at them periodically. Reinah did the best she could to help around the house. She helped prepare the ingredients, while Sika's mother cooked. The woman was happy and impressed to have such effortless help.
The princess also tried to show and help Sika cope with certain things around the house. She fed her routines and informations gently, as much as she could handle at a time. She had taken her for a walk twice, but decided against it. After the second time around produced a nerve wracking debacle. Ten minutes into their walk, Sika had veered off into the bushes and headed straight for the pond. When she got there, she lay down right at the edge of the water until it soaked through her clothes. Reinah knew the girl's mother would not exactly thank her for that outcome. No amount of talking and prodding could stir Sika from whatever stupor had been activated in her head at the moment. An hour later, she got up without a word to her companion and headed straight to the house. Oblivious to the very distressed and hoarse princess in tow.
After helping Sika with her clothing, Reinah sat in a little chair that was in the room. She needed to rest and clear her mind. She had to execute an 'escape plan' for the very next day. It had to be seemless and unsuspecting. An escape that would act as her bridge between life continuation and death absconsion. It was not that she did not appreciate these folks bringing her home from a potentially dangerous and hostile environment that was a forrest. It was the reason they thought she had showed up. As much as she knew how to, Reinah had tried to reciprocate their kindness by being the much needed help around. But it seemed she was about to learn a very major lesson in her journey of life. A lesson about friends, fiends and fake fellowships. While at that, she would also learn she was well equipped with the appropriate survival and winning gifts.
It had all gone south the previous night, as Reinah lay on a small bed of hay next to Sika's. She felt a gentle nudge on her shoulder and heard someone softly whisper her name "Areinah". The touch was so gentle yet very real in its physical impact, that she got up and grabbed the oil lamp on the floor next to them. She lifted the lamp off the floor, to see if maybe Sika's mother needed her. There was no one else in the room except for Sika crumpled in a strange position and snoring loudly as usual. Even stranger was the fact that she could hear anything above Sika's raucous. When she was sure there was no one else in the room, she tried to lay back down on the hay bed. That was when she heard the conversation.
".... I think she is the perfect fit. They are in the same age bracket and she is very healthy and active. And it does not appear like anyone is searching for her." This was Sika's mother's speaking.
"I don't know, must we shed blood and take one's life to give another hope?" Sika's father sounded a little distressed and a lot uncertain.
"Another?! 'Another' happens to be your daughter. Now you can do something about helping her while you have the chance or you can watch her keep walking into mudwalls until she kills herself." That woman was getting impatient and frustrated.
"Ssshhhh!...... She might hear you. This is not a shouting match, lower your voice." Her husband was cautious as he continued speaking. "So the high priest says a different and better brain would change everything?"
" Yes. A different and better brain would dramatically and ultimately change everything. I mean everything! It would change her appearance, her growth and her future. It would set her on a different course, a brighter and better destiny to say the least." The woman was getting a tad bit excited.
"And look who we got here. She is so bright and beautiful. You would think she was a princess. Don't you see how quickly she figures everything out before you can even explain it to her. She has actually significantly improved Sika's outlook in just ten days. When she helps me out, it is as if I had shown her what to do before hand. How is that possible? Seeing she is just a girl." The earlier frustration seemed to have evaporated from the woman's voice as her last statement was delivered with a smile and hopeful applomb. For full and final effect, she continued. "It can be an 'exchange' so to speak, if it makes you feel better. She can have Sika's brain if she must live. But I must secure hope for my daughter! And that hope came to us in her body." She held her husband's gaze, as if forbiding him to dissent.
"Okay then. Agreed her husband. Do we deliver the brain ourselves? Or do we deliver the girl to the high priest's shrine?" He wanted to know.
"We deliver her body still breathing and brain intact to the shrine. The high priest will perform the extraction himself. "
The right place at the right time (A ray of hope):
The distance from Bronid's house to the farm was not much. He often covered it in a brisk thirty-minute walk. But this very day, he felt like he had made three return trips from one province to another neighbouring one. He had not expected this particular turn of events that day or he would have ridden to the farm on his horse. He also could have just as easily sent for the beast, but as a healer he was committed to the quickest possible way to save an ebbing life. He was not yet sure how long the man that would become his patient had been buried as he was told. But he was very sure that the man was due for attention, much earlier than whenever he eventually received it.
The trip to his house could not have been worse than if he had taken his two young sons while they squabbled over an item. The first hunter whom it appeared was the younger of the two hunters, was himself a bigger burden than the limp and heavy body they had to hoist and lug between the three of them. First he refused to help carry the unconscious man. Then he tried to negotiate the distribution of every item on his dusty and inert body. When he got no encouragement from even his partner the other hunter, he decided to pick a fight with Bronid. He was convinced the healer had eyes only for the glistening apparel and glittering ornaments. For peace and health recovery sake and also for the speedy delivery of much needed aid. Bronid promised him he could keep vigil over the virtual acquisitions, at least until the insentient man came around.
Bronid's house was already in a state of 'temporary converted infirmary'. His first son was gravely ill. His wife was getting weak with no apparent diagnosis and his father was suddenly showing signs of aging and slowing down. His younger brother was still enstranged since the brawl over his 'ritual induced kidnap'. It was all the healer could do to not give up and join the list of people waiting to die. But he would not. Most of these problems were a result of his carelessness and lust. He had succumbed when he should have known better. Now he was living to make things right, even if it cost him his last breath. He would protect the ones he had foolishly exposed. Unbeknownst to Bronid, he was closer to his new found goal than he ever realized. Choosing to bring home and help the regally clad and unconscious stranger, was the best decision he had ever made in his life to date.
A snake in the garden:
Dezen the sixth magistrate approached the arguing couple with expertly concealed relish. They were yelling at each other very animatedly, in the main palace courtyard. It was no secret nor was it a surprise that the two were constantly at each other's throat. Why they still had not gored those throats, was anyone's guess. Dezen grimaced at his own thoughts. Thoughts that if he really aired or spoke out, would be deemed mean or inappropriate. So he would let them keep at it, while he helped stoke the fire. It would certainly make for good entertainment on a boring evening such as this one. Moreover the topic at the moment, would move him to support Tufad. The fourth magistrate's daughter was indeed know to be brash, rude and uncontrollable. Once he had heard that she had to be peeled away from one of the servant's sons. She had demanded he practiced how to kiss with her. The poor boy had been running an errand for his father. He ran even faster away from her at that request. She relentlessly gave stubborn chase....
When he heard the story, Tufad had blown a fuse and a half of which he barely had left. But his wife had shown up to grab the petulant child and then churlishly chided the magistrate while she was at it. At the sound of footsteps coming their way that moment, Tufad tried to lower his voice and possibly change the topic of the quarrel he was having with his wife. But she would not hear of it. At just about the same time, her voice went up a couple more decibels. The unthinkable had happened she lamented. Tufad did not want her taking their daughter to her weekly gossip fest. He claimed she was being exposed to wicked slander, foolish jesting and very crass language. His daughter's mannerism, speech and disposition were now sinking to a very deplorable low he also complained.
He had his reasons, the magistrate defended himself. The other day, his daughter had asked him if the princess Reinah was really the queen's daughter like she was their daughter. He had then confronted his wife to find out if she felt that the information their daughter requested was necessary for her growth and well-being at that point in her life. His wife thought nothing of it of course. She had armed her daughter with that piece of information, just in case the princess got too big for her 'britches' or felt she was higher than her daughter. Tufad was as perplexed as he was flabbergasted. Not just at his wife's daftness, but her ability to convince her own self otherwise.
"Well well well.... I do hope I am not interrupting anything here." Said Dezen as he got within earshot of the angry couple. He was smiling broadly as he spread his hands wide in front of his chest. "Feel free to interrupt all you want," hissed Tufad's wife. "I am about done talking to this good-for-nothing fool!" She hatefully glared at Tufad, hands akimbo.
Dezen was in his element and he dove right in before he lost the moment. Still with a smile on his lips, he asked. "I hope this has nothing to do with the information you gave me for the investigation, hmmm?" He was looking at Tufad now. "Because if she is denying it, I will hold off further inquiries. I mean, I am not one to cause problems......"
"What are you talking about?!" Tufad was livid.
"I am talking about the investiga....." Dezen started to say, the smile now replaced by what looked like feigned confusion. "Shut it up will you!" Snapped Tufad. This reaction startled and shocked the sixth magistrate. His fellow magistrate had never raised his voice at him. And it looked like he was not done yet. "How dare you speak of something so confidential and sensitive in front of her." He had carelessly waved his hand at his wife. An action which seemed to have activated her all over again. "What information did he give you?" She turned to ask the sixth magistrate, eyes flaring in expectation.
It seemed for the first time in her life, Tufad's wife felt just a wisp of shame. A circumstance for blushing as it were. When the two men turned towards her at the same time. Both their faces clouded with disdainful scowls.
The monitors (Blinded by light):
"Come take a look at this," beckoned Bivus to Xitus who was discussing some new strategy with Heinus and another monitor. That one walked over casually, while still glancing to his back and conversing. "He has been in her room for hours and is acting like he has gone mad." Bivus was scrolling through episodes on the mirror, until he got to the one he wanted to highlight. As he enlarged the particular scene, Xitus leaned closer and watched intensely.
King Nerlak had walked over to the stool beside his wife's bed and lifted the little brown sack containing the parched sheet. After a few minutes of discussion and as his bodyguard ran out of the room as if in haste, the king lifted the sheet and began to read....
"What is he doing, standing with his hands like that...?" Heinus who had also walked over to the mirror and was looking over Bivus' shoulder, was asking. "I don't know," replied Bivus. "He has his hands raised and seems to be speaking to his hands." "Why is he acting like he is holding something?" Chimed in Xitus. "He may have really gone mad indeed. Or maybe he is just trying to entertain her, by acting like he has something in his hands." "Maybe", agreed Heinus. "These humans are so ridiculously annoying," he finished with a shake of his head and walked away.
.