Daughter of Three Suns
Chapter 9
Irina looked better than the last time I saw her. She'd gained weight, and her bruises were gone. The wounds on her ankles and wrists were also healed. However, they'd left wide scars, and she limped as she walked toward us. She touched her forehead to Rosalie's in greeting, and they grasped hands. Then, she turned to me and started to crouch as most women do when talking to young girls. Suddenly, she stood and turned to Rosalie.
"She's grown," she said in surprise. "She should not be this tall."
My sister nodded. "We think it's the exposure to Daughter Sun."
Irina picked up my arms, examining the darkened skin covering the back of my hands and extending upward to my elbows. "Thrice burned?" she muttered before glancing at Rosalie again, who only nodded. "So, it's true, then."
Their words were confusing, and I huffed in exasperation. "I'm sorry, Bella." Irina immediately apologized. "It was rude of me to speak of you that way. Have you not noticed how much taller and stronger you are?"
"No," I confessed, glancing between the two of them. "What does that mean?"
For a moment, neither one answered me. "It means," Irina finally said, "that when you emerge from your Metanora you will be stronger and bigger than anyone has ever been before. It means you will rescue our people. And," she continued. "Rosalie and I are here to make sure you are prepared for what awaits you."
Irina led us to a flat area in front of one of the cave openings. A large basket of dark red stones sat in the middle of three padded mats. When we sat down, she handed one to each of us. They were not big; mine fit inside my palm. One edge was narrower than the others, and when I tested it with my thumb, it easily cut through my skin.
"What are these?" I asked, sucking on the thumb to ease the slight sting.
"I found them at one of the bare-rock islands on my journey," Irina explained. "The edges can be shaped by striking them with a harder stone. They're also easy to sharpen if they become dulled or break."
She picked up one of the more common stones we used for grinding the fanio meal and began tapping along one side of a red stone. Thin layers broke off, leaving a sharp, clean edge. When she drew it across a piece of tough dried fish skin, it split with ease.
Next, she showed us three items she'd shaped from the stones. One was obviously a knife. It was about as long as my forearm and tapered to a fine, extremely sharp point. Dried fish skin had been wrapped around the wider, opposite end which was shaped into a handle.
The second was a knife, too. It was still sharp, still pointed but much shorter, perhaps the length of a woman's finger. The other object was round and flat and fit neatly in the palm of her hand. The middle was slightly raised, and the outer edge had been shaped.
"What is that?"
"I call it a throwing disk," Irina explained. "Watch."
She stood. Then, holding the disk carefully between thumb and middle finger, she drew her arm across her body, and with a flick of her wrist sent the disk spinning across the pond toward one of the thick appa vines. It sliced through it cleanly.
Rosalie jumped up and ran to the vine, examining it closely. She picked up the disk from where it lay on the rocky ground. "One edge broke off," she said, laying the pieces in front of us.
"It's easy to fix." Irina picked up the shaping stone and tapped a few times on the broken edge, quickly restoring its sharpness.
My sister examined everything closely. Then grinned at us both. "I think this will work," she said before nodding. "I think this will work."
…..
We worked on the red stones until Grandmother Sun hid her face at the back of the island. Shaping them wasn't easy, but Irina guided me patiently. Finally, when Rosalie left to cook the fish she caught, Irina told me to stop.
She shifted around, then leaned against the rock wall behind us. "Rosalie told me you were there when they took me to the healer. She said you saw me and my basherter."
"Yes. Alice told me to go, to see and remember. I hid in a nearby doorway and watched as they carried you by. You were …" I stopped, unable to continue.
"It must have been scary for you, to see a woman so mistreated."
"Yes," I finally whispered. "Who … what did that to you?"
"On that world …" She began, then stopped to gather her thoughts. "On that world, there are three types of beings. There are the basherti that you know, and there are the others."
"Are they people?" I asked.
"They look something like us. They have arms, and legs, and heads, but they are changed somehow. One group is small and weak. Their hair is thin and white, and their skin is gray."
"Gray?"
"Yes, like the ash from a cooking fire."
When I nodded, she continued. "They're the leaders of their world. They make the decisions and are in charge of the place they kept us. They've lost the ability to have children. They think that by capturing us they can do something called 'tests and experiments' to find the reason this has happened and try to fix it."
Her words made no sense to me, and I shook my head, frowning. "What are 'tests and experiments'?"
"Things they did to us without our permission, like removing some of our blood, or skin, or giving us strange things to eat or drink. Sometimes they put stuff inside us or did things to our basherter." She shuddered. "You do not want to know more than this."
"And the third kind of being?"
"These looked like the gray ones, but they were very big and very strong. Their minds did not work well; they only did what they were told to do. My basherter called them drudges." She chuckled softly. "It is a word meaning a mindless monster, I think.
"After your change, you will be strong, much stronger than any of the grays, and your claws will be a fierce weapon for you. You need not fear them as much as the drudge things. Those monsters are strong. If they catch you, it will be difficult to escape. They are very slow and dimwitted, however, so you should be able to outrun and outthink them.
"One thing you will need to remember is that the small ones cannot stand to be in the sun. The bigger ones go out in the sun but only for a very short time. Also, they smell really bad," she added with a laugh. "You'll know they are near because of their stench.
"It is a hard thing to understand, I know. These beings do not live as we do, at one with their world. They live in metal islands they call buildings." She stopped, then stood abruptly. "Come, let me show you."
Irina led me to another cave. "Laurent and I live here," she explained. "I have been drawing pictures to help teach you about this place you're going."
We passed through the gathering room and into her bedroom. Her basherter was asleep on its perch, head tucked under one wing. It woke when we entered and began to tremble and tweet fearfully. Irina crossed to it. I could hear her whispering calming words. Finally, it peeked over her shoulder to study me, and she motioned me to come nearer. "This is Bella," she explained. "She is going to your world to save the rest of your kind and to rescue my cousins."
Laurent was very beautiful. Its feathers were deep russet gold with a lighter fringe around the neck. It had dark golden eyes edged in amber and a beak the color of Grandmother Sun. I could see my reflection in those eyes as it stared at me. I wondered if it saw the same weak girl I considered myself to be.
"Is Laurent well?" I finally asked.
"Yes, it improves each day, but it was sick for a long time. It's still not strong enough to fly very far. Being here, just the two of us, helps."
When it seemed settled, Irina limped over to the wall where her drawings were.
"This is like the wall in the other home," I said.
Irina nodded. "Yes, when I saw those old pictures, I thought perhaps this would help explain how different their world is from ours. This is called a building. It's where they live now. Once there were many buildings in their city but most are empty or destroyed." Her drawing was all straight lines and sharp corners; there were no soft rounded shapes like our islands. It looked very tall, much taller than our home.
The next picture was like the first, only she had drawn it as if the building were missing one side and the interior could be seen. I counted at least twenty levels of homes. Two sets of stairs connected the levels on each side, and in the center was an open area that stretched from the bottom to the top.
Irina pointed to all the parts, explaining how there were many rooms on each level and how you could move from level to level by using the stairs. "They called this an elevator shaft," she said, pointing to the open area in the middle. "There is a box inside that could go up and down between the levels, but it no longer has the power to do so. Laurent and I hid inside it after we escaped. It was a good place to hide," she added, glancing toward her basherter with a smile.
We moved on to her next picture. She called it a map, and it was a detailed drawing of the top of the building. "The opening to their world is on the roof of the building they call 'The Tower.' When you step through, you will be here." She touched a spot where she had drawn a small circle. "Over here"— she pointed to a small, square shape—"is the opening to one of the stairways. All the basherti were trapped and held captive inside there. When each of us arrived, we could sense our soulmates waiting for us. When we entered to find them, the people were waiting with nets and ropes.
"When you go," she continued. "Do not go there. Even if you can feel your basherter, do not go to the stairs. Your body will be drawn to your soulmate, but you must resist. Do not let them capture you. Go here," she continued, pointing to a flat square on the roof. "This is a metal barrier that will open to the elevator shaft. You will need to pull on this ring to open it. There is a ladder in the elevator shaft, you can use it to climb down to the other levels or to the ground."
Irina's finger pointed to the places she described, tracing the route she said I must use, but I was confused by something she said.
"You said 'metal buildings and metal things.' I don't understand what 'metal' is."
"Sorry," she replied. "Let me show you." Irina walked to one of her storage baskets and pulled something from it. "This is metal."
"Is this what was on your ankle?" I asked.
"Yes. They called it a 'shackle' and this part"— she pointed to some round circles hanging from it—"is called a chain. The chain connected this shackle to another one on my other ankle. It kept me from running away."
"And your wrists?" I asked, looking at the scars above her hands. "Did you have shackles on them, too?"
"At first. When I became too weak to fight back, they quit putting them on after their experiments."
The shackle and chain were heavy, the metal slick and oily. It felt wrong in my hands. It also felt very strong when I pulled on it. "How did you break this and escape?"
"I pretended to be much weaker than I actually was." She grinned. "I made my hands shake, and I stumbled when I moved. After one of their tests, I acted like I couldn't walk. One of the strong drudges carried me back to the room where they kept Laurent and me. Before it could leave and lock the barrier they called a door, I twisted around to its back and grabbed its head." Then I …" Irina stopped suddenly. She clenched her lips and breathed deeply, before looking away from me.
"Irina?" I finally whispered when she didn't continue.
With a sigh, she turned back to me. "You must understand, Bella. I knew I had to escape. I needed to save my life and Laurent's life, but most importantly, I needed to save the lives of the other women who were trapped with me. I feared we would not survive the terrible things they were doing to us." She shook her head and her whole body trembled. "I killed it. I held its head with one arm and used my woman's claws to tear out its throat."
Behind us, Laurent squawked and flapped clumsily to settle on Irina's shoulder. She gathered it in her arms and curved her body around it, hiding her face in its feathers.
Awkwardly, I stood there watching, not knowing if I should stay or leave. Just as I turned to go, Irina spoke. "You know it is forbidden to use our claws on another being. It is a choice I had to make, but it wasn't easy to watch it die." She raised her head to look at me. "I hope you will not have to make that choice, Bella."
I opened my mouth to answer, but she shook her head. "Later, please," she murmured. Still hugging her basherter, Irina crossed the room and laid down on her bed.
I nodded and left to find Rosalie.
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AN: As always, thanks for reading and reviewing. It's always exciting to read your theories and thoughts. Many thanks, too, to Sally and her beta skills.
