Song Dance
Rue breathed gently, letting air escape her lips, forming a strange cloud in the bitter atmosphere of winter. She stared with startling green eyes at the waves chuckling as they collided with the rocks lining the shore. She fidgeted with her cloak and sighed. A solitary tear emerged and dripped down her pale cheek.
Yerwan jogged up the shore, looking curiously at the mound of grey Echorium cloak hunched over the reef. His cheeks flushed and rosy in his squashed face, he skidded in the wet sand and stopped, inspecting her briefly.
"Something wrong?" Rue gave a small squeak of shock and clutched her cloak, turning to frown at her friend. She shook her head stubbornly, glad the tear had gone.
"Good," he said. Climbing up onto the reef with difficulty, Yerwan squatted next to her, still looking at her. She wished he would stop. "You know that Singer Renn will probably have your head for running away again." She nodded slowly. "He's not going to be very happy. I'd be prepared for Aushan at the least, if I were you. Why do you like this place so much, Rue?" She glared at him and sniffed.
"What are you going to do about it?" he asked. Rue shrugged her bony shoulders and began to tap her feet on the rocks in perfect rhythm to Challa.
Shhh, calm. Challa makes you dream. "I know what you mean." Yerwan rubbed his arms and dropped to the shoreline below, landing in a wobbly crouch. Rue followed him with her gaze. "Come down," he yelled, shielding his eyes to the blaring whiteness of the sky and beckoning to her. She glanced at him, doubtful. "You know you can." Reluctantly, she prised herself off the reef, controlled her breathing and jumped, landing squarely on both feet with knees bent. With perfect balance, she walked off after her friend.
*
In her pallet, Rue rolled herself into her sheets. She felt like sobbing and would have done so if she could speak. Instead, she just felt warm tears soak into her pillow, making her uncomfortable. She heard someone coming down the passage and tensed, feigning sleep. The gentle scuff of worn sandals echoed outside the room down the corridor. She willed them to go past but the door opened and with those sandals came voices.
"I just don't believe it." A harsh voice like the call of seagulls rebounded off the walls and stopped abruptly. Rue lay motionless, pushing the voice away with her thoughts. It didn't work.
"Hey, Mute!" shrieked another voice, similarly hoarse. "What are you doing?" If I can just stay still, thought Rue, they'll go away. A finger with a long sharp nail prodded her in the back between her shoulder blades, almost cutting the skin. She yelped and hopped out of her sheets, rubbing the area. Horrible laughter mocked her, made ten times worse by the echoes. Nothing like real Kashe.
"Hello, Mutey!" squawked the first voice. "I should give you Yehn. That'd make you sleep - forever!" It sniggered. "You deserve to die anyway. Save us a lot of trouble."
Rue turned to face her opponents. Two identical blue-eyed girls stood before her and gasped simultaneously. They had seen her tears. She wiped them away with the hem of her sheets ashamedly.
"Pathetic!"
"Stupid!"
"Cry-baby!"
"Mute!" The last one hurt. Really bad. It was true she was a mute. She had yet to speak her first word. But Therna and Frelda were the only ones that teased her about it. It was at these times she wished she could speak and shout at them, retaliate to their taunting and bullying. Instead, she had to signal with her hands for them to get out and leave her alone. It wasn't their pallet anyway, thank the echoes.
"Oooooooh! What'ya gonna do, Mute?" said Frelda. "Cry for the Second Singer?"
"Or maybe she'd better just go down to the cells with the Crazies, her family, that is!"
They sniggered again. The fiery temper Rue was born with was reaching its peak. She was frightened. It had never reacted like this before. Usually, she could control it with her mind and keep it concealed behind her pale and innocent features but the 'Crazies' comment had triggered it to brew like a hot dinner. She didn't know why. It was heating her up like an uncontrollable fire. She fought to tame it but it didn't work.
Therna bounced onto the nearest bunk, Jaya's bunk. She giggled with glee. "Come on then, Mute. Show us what ya' got. Be brave, go on!"
Frelda clambered onto the bunk on top of that. "Yeah, sing us a Song, Mute! Sing us Aushan, sing us Yehn."
Rue exploded. She was still fighting her instincts to strangle the pair of irrepressible brats but she had to do something to release that feeling. Instead, she lifted her left foot, disregarding the sandals thrown under her bed, and used all the fiery anger and frustration to bring that foot down on the stone floor. It hurt, by the echoes, it hurt. There was an audible crack as her foot connected with the floor. She opened her mouth in a silent scream of agony and collapsed, nursing her foot. At the same time, the floor shuddered like an earthquake was approaching. The twins screamed and landed heavily on the trembling floor, hugging each other pathetically. Through the pain, it gave Rue some satisfaction to see they were both terrified and near crying. They crawled hurriedly for the door just as the tremors were beginning to relax and steady. But blocking the door was the Second Singer of the Echorium.
"What is going on here?" he thundered. It surprised Rue how how quickly he had arrived, as the last tremors subsided. Extraordinary grey eyes glared at the three girls sprawled on the floor, each shocked at his sudden appearance. "I demand to know what that was!" He focused his glare at the twins who automatically began to babble an explanation.
"Well, Singer, it went like this."
"We were just coming to tell Mute.Rue something."
"And she got all angry."
"She was really angry!"
"She stamped her foot, Singer."
"And an earthquake started."
"The floor was all shaking and trembling."
"I swear on the echoes, Singer, she nearly cracked the floor." He gestured for silence. The twins stopped, gazing at Singer Renn imploringly. Rue seemed forgotten.
"If I am expected to believe that, then." Therna scuttled over to Rue and grabbed her limp foot, squeezing it a little too enthusiastically. Rue chewed her lip frantically. She couldn't show she was injured otherwise the Singer would know it was true. Frelda joined her sister and chirped, "See, Singer! Her foot snapped!"
Singer Renn stared at the disfigured foot then at Rue. His face was expressionless but bleak. "You two. Go and report to the First Singer and tell her what happened." They hesitated. "NOW!" They scurried out of the pallet, wishing to stay and witness Rue's punishment. But they obeyed. When they were gone, the Second Singer knelt and studied the foot carefully, running his slender experienced fingers over the sole of her foot and each toe. Rue blushed vividly, gently trying to extricate her foot from his grip. He took it a little more firmly and continued to examine it, while questioning her.
"Has this happened before, Rue?"
Rue shook her head and tugged her leg pleadingly. The Second Singer still clutched it persistently, making her wince. She decided to leave it alone. She was already in enough trouble as it was.
"Do you know why it happened?"
She shook her head again. It was the truth. One good thing about being a mute was that powerful Singers couldn't truth listen to her voice. She just had to keep her body language as basic as possible.
"Do you want me to tell you why this happened?"
She wasn't sure how to answer that. She shrugged.
"Well, I know one thing. You let your anger get control over you. But thankfully not enough control. Otherwise, you could have done something much, much worse." Despite her anxiety, Rue wanted to know what this 'worse' was. She listened intently, disguising her pain with a blank face although everything was tense.
"There is another reason.but you shall learn that in good time, " he continued. He began to tweak her toes one by one, noting her reaction, testing which ones were broken. He wished she could relate her side of the event but that was impossible. She was a mute. A mute in the Echorium; he could have laughed.
"I shall tell you about this, Rue, for your own understanding, not my comfort, because I doubt it will not happen again. The Isle of Echoes is based on bluestone, you know that. It is unique to us. We used it wisely, for treaties with foreign places and the foundations of the Echorium we know now. Bluestone is not indestructible, but it is very powerful. It enhances the vibrations of Song; that is why it is so useful. Any sounds are amplified in here. With you stamping, the force of the blow triggered many vibrations, not of sound necessarily, but pure force. These were increased by the bluestone.would the novices standing behind me please return to their pallets or be dealt with? That is a rhetorical question, by the way." The cluster of novices peering around the door using pallet whispers to communicate separated and hurriedly returned to their pallets. Rue stared with her mouth open at her superior. The Second Singer suppressed a smile and continued.
"As I was saying, these were probably increased, the forceful vibrations, and therefore, as you have just seen, the whole Echorium probably felt those echoes and the merlee beyond. Though not all of that was simply amplified, oh no. Most of it came from you, Rue." Clear grey eyes looked at the young girl with interest, keeping the gaze until she returned it. To her relief, she had her foot to herself. It was limp and numb. "Now promise me you will try not to let that happen again, yes? I will confess, you have a remarkable.gift, but not necessarily a good one. "Your foot is broken, I'm afraid. That was quite some force you used on our floor. I shouldn't wonder if you'll be aching all over for the next day or so. Anyway, I think, just to hurry the process, a little Challa won't hurt. I don't think we've had a broken foot before in the Echorium.you'll be the first. It should be interesting. I'll book you in three sunsteps from now, yes? Be at the Pentangle before then. We are expecting another before that."
Rue nodded slowly and looked at her foot. While she had been concentrating on his lecture, the Second Singer had used strips of his long luxurious cloak to bandage her foot. She was staring at it in shock. The cloak was incredibly soft and intricate embroidery decorated the hem, depicting a story. She was astounded. Looking the Second Singer in the pearly grey eye, she motioned with her head to the bandage and shook her head in desperation. She didn't need more teasing. The hem on his cloak was ruined and dragged across the floor as he stood up. Rue almost cried at the loss.
"You can mend it for me later," he said, "It's only custom, mind you. I'm telling you to stay here until your therapy and ask Yerwan to help you up. I'll get him for you." And he left. There was no severe punishment that she had expected for running off in the middle of her history lesson that morning; infact, the Second Singer had almost been nice to her.
*
Rue breathed gently, letting air escape her lips, forming a strange cloud in the bitter atmosphere of winter. She stared with startling green eyes at the waves chuckling as they collided with the rocks lining the shore. She fidgeted with her cloak and sighed. A solitary tear emerged and dripped down her pale cheek.
Yerwan jogged up the shore, looking curiously at the mound of grey Echorium cloak hunched over the reef. His cheeks flushed and rosy in his squashed face, he skidded in the wet sand and stopped, inspecting her briefly.
"Something wrong?" Rue gave a small squeak of shock and clutched her cloak, turning to frown at her friend. She shook her head stubbornly, glad the tear had gone.
"Good," he said. Climbing up onto the reef with difficulty, Yerwan squatted next to her, still looking at her. She wished he would stop. "You know that Singer Renn will probably have your head for running away again." She nodded slowly. "He's not going to be very happy. I'd be prepared for Aushan at the least, if I were you. Why do you like this place so much, Rue?" She glared at him and sniffed.
"What are you going to do about it?" he asked. Rue shrugged her bony shoulders and began to tap her feet on the rocks in perfect rhythm to Challa.
Shhh, calm. Challa makes you dream. "I know what you mean." Yerwan rubbed his arms and dropped to the shoreline below, landing in a wobbly crouch. Rue followed him with her gaze. "Come down," he yelled, shielding his eyes to the blaring whiteness of the sky and beckoning to her. She glanced at him, doubtful. "You know you can." Reluctantly, she prised herself off the reef, controlled her breathing and jumped, landing squarely on both feet with knees bent. With perfect balance, she walked off after her friend.
*
In her pallet, Rue rolled herself into her sheets. She felt like sobbing and would have done so if she could speak. Instead, she just felt warm tears soak into her pillow, making her uncomfortable. She heard someone coming down the passage and tensed, feigning sleep. The gentle scuff of worn sandals echoed outside the room down the corridor. She willed them to go past but the door opened and with those sandals came voices.
"I just don't believe it." A harsh voice like the call of seagulls rebounded off the walls and stopped abruptly. Rue lay motionless, pushing the voice away with her thoughts. It didn't work.
"Hey, Mute!" shrieked another voice, similarly hoarse. "What are you doing?" If I can just stay still, thought Rue, they'll go away. A finger with a long sharp nail prodded her in the back between her shoulder blades, almost cutting the skin. She yelped and hopped out of her sheets, rubbing the area. Horrible laughter mocked her, made ten times worse by the echoes. Nothing like real Kashe.
"Hello, Mutey!" squawked the first voice. "I should give you Yehn. That'd make you sleep - forever!" It sniggered. "You deserve to die anyway. Save us a lot of trouble."
Rue turned to face her opponents. Two identical blue-eyed girls stood before her and gasped simultaneously. They had seen her tears. She wiped them away with the hem of her sheets ashamedly.
"Pathetic!"
"Stupid!"
"Cry-baby!"
"Mute!" The last one hurt. Really bad. It was true she was a mute. She had yet to speak her first word. But Therna and Frelda were the only ones that teased her about it. It was at these times she wished she could speak and shout at them, retaliate to their taunting and bullying. Instead, she had to signal with her hands for them to get out and leave her alone. It wasn't their pallet anyway, thank the echoes.
"Oooooooh! What'ya gonna do, Mute?" said Frelda. "Cry for the Second Singer?"
"Or maybe she'd better just go down to the cells with the Crazies, her family, that is!"
They sniggered again. The fiery temper Rue was born with was reaching its peak. She was frightened. It had never reacted like this before. Usually, she could control it with her mind and keep it concealed behind her pale and innocent features but the 'Crazies' comment had triggered it to brew like a hot dinner. She didn't know why. It was heating her up like an uncontrollable fire. She fought to tame it but it didn't work.
Therna bounced onto the nearest bunk, Jaya's bunk. She giggled with glee. "Come on then, Mute. Show us what ya' got. Be brave, go on!"
Frelda clambered onto the bunk on top of that. "Yeah, sing us a Song, Mute! Sing us Aushan, sing us Yehn."
Rue exploded. She was still fighting her instincts to strangle the pair of irrepressible brats but she had to do something to release that feeling. Instead, she lifted her left foot, disregarding the sandals thrown under her bed, and used all the fiery anger and frustration to bring that foot down on the stone floor. It hurt, by the echoes, it hurt. There was an audible crack as her foot connected with the floor. She opened her mouth in a silent scream of agony and collapsed, nursing her foot. At the same time, the floor shuddered like an earthquake was approaching. The twins screamed and landed heavily on the trembling floor, hugging each other pathetically. Through the pain, it gave Rue some satisfaction to see they were both terrified and near crying. They crawled hurriedly for the door just as the tremors were beginning to relax and steady. But blocking the door was the Second Singer of the Echorium.
"What is going on here?" he thundered. It surprised Rue how how quickly he had arrived, as the last tremors subsided. Extraordinary grey eyes glared at the three girls sprawled on the floor, each shocked at his sudden appearance. "I demand to know what that was!" He focused his glare at the twins who automatically began to babble an explanation.
"Well, Singer, it went like this."
"We were just coming to tell Mute.Rue something."
"And she got all angry."
"She was really angry!"
"She stamped her foot, Singer."
"And an earthquake started."
"The floor was all shaking and trembling."
"I swear on the echoes, Singer, she nearly cracked the floor." He gestured for silence. The twins stopped, gazing at Singer Renn imploringly. Rue seemed forgotten.
"If I am expected to believe that, then." Therna scuttled over to Rue and grabbed her limp foot, squeezing it a little too enthusiastically. Rue chewed her lip frantically. She couldn't show she was injured otherwise the Singer would know it was true. Frelda joined her sister and chirped, "See, Singer! Her foot snapped!"
Singer Renn stared at the disfigured foot then at Rue. His face was expressionless but bleak. "You two. Go and report to the First Singer and tell her what happened." They hesitated. "NOW!" They scurried out of the pallet, wishing to stay and witness Rue's punishment. But they obeyed. When they were gone, the Second Singer knelt and studied the foot carefully, running his slender experienced fingers over the sole of her foot and each toe. Rue blushed vividly, gently trying to extricate her foot from his grip. He took it a little more firmly and continued to examine it, while questioning her.
"Has this happened before, Rue?"
Rue shook her head and tugged her leg pleadingly. The Second Singer still clutched it persistently, making her wince. She decided to leave it alone. She was already in enough trouble as it was.
"Do you know why it happened?"
She shook her head again. It was the truth. One good thing about being a mute was that powerful Singers couldn't truth listen to her voice. She just had to keep her body language as basic as possible.
"Do you want me to tell you why this happened?"
She wasn't sure how to answer that. She shrugged.
"Well, I know one thing. You let your anger get control over you. But thankfully not enough control. Otherwise, you could have done something much, much worse." Despite her anxiety, Rue wanted to know what this 'worse' was. She listened intently, disguising her pain with a blank face although everything was tense.
"There is another reason.but you shall learn that in good time, " he continued. He began to tweak her toes one by one, noting her reaction, testing which ones were broken. He wished she could relate her side of the event but that was impossible. She was a mute. A mute in the Echorium; he could have laughed.
"I shall tell you about this, Rue, for your own understanding, not my comfort, because I doubt it will not happen again. The Isle of Echoes is based on bluestone, you know that. It is unique to us. We used it wisely, for treaties with foreign places and the foundations of the Echorium we know now. Bluestone is not indestructible, but it is very powerful. It enhances the vibrations of Song; that is why it is so useful. Any sounds are amplified in here. With you stamping, the force of the blow triggered many vibrations, not of sound necessarily, but pure force. These were increased by the bluestone.would the novices standing behind me please return to their pallets or be dealt with? That is a rhetorical question, by the way." The cluster of novices peering around the door using pallet whispers to communicate separated and hurriedly returned to their pallets. Rue stared with her mouth open at her superior. The Second Singer suppressed a smile and continued.
"As I was saying, these were probably increased, the forceful vibrations, and therefore, as you have just seen, the whole Echorium probably felt those echoes and the merlee beyond. Though not all of that was simply amplified, oh no. Most of it came from you, Rue." Clear grey eyes looked at the young girl with interest, keeping the gaze until she returned it. To her relief, she had her foot to herself. It was limp and numb. "Now promise me you will try not to let that happen again, yes? I will confess, you have a remarkable.gift, but not necessarily a good one. "Your foot is broken, I'm afraid. That was quite some force you used on our floor. I shouldn't wonder if you'll be aching all over for the next day or so. Anyway, I think, just to hurry the process, a little Challa won't hurt. I don't think we've had a broken foot before in the Echorium.you'll be the first. It should be interesting. I'll book you in three sunsteps from now, yes? Be at the Pentangle before then. We are expecting another before that."
Rue nodded slowly and looked at her foot. While she had been concentrating on his lecture, the Second Singer had used strips of his long luxurious cloak to bandage her foot. She was staring at it in shock. The cloak was incredibly soft and intricate embroidery decorated the hem, depicting a story. She was astounded. Looking the Second Singer in the pearly grey eye, she motioned with her head to the bandage and shook her head in desperation. She didn't need more teasing. The hem on his cloak was ruined and dragged across the floor as he stood up. Rue almost cried at the loss.
"You can mend it for me later," he said, "It's only custom, mind you. I'm telling you to stay here until your therapy and ask Yerwan to help you up. I'll get him for you." And he left. There was no severe punishment that she had expected for running off in the middle of her history lesson that morning; infact, the Second Singer had almost been nice to her.
*
