A Place To Bloom

Ranía

I had no right to survive Jungle. I'd climbed with broken ribs halfway down a cliff with venomous snakes snapping at my fingers. Dusk waned, and I was still hours from Carthia. One vita'o above dropped rocks and branches to knock me down while the others gathered below for the feast. Then...

I understood them. Clicks, chirps, squawks, and whistles came to my ears as if I'd been born speaking the language, and I made a deal that brought me safely back.

I hadn't understood a word from those lizards ever since.

Ranía said she knew how I did that. She'd said that if the wrong people found out, I'd be burned at the stake. She'd promised to tell me later.

It's later.

Renou, Ta'o, Bilal, and I stepped across the wooden drawbridge into the castle at the Lake of Doom somewhere between late afternoon and early evening. Hot air greeted us like a furnace. It hadn't been so bad beneath the dense jungle canopy, but the castle's high stone walls trapped the heavy humidity and it lingered there.

The mat of grass runners across the ground was shredded in some places, and in the center of the courtyard it was worn through exposing dry dirt. The important-looking native woman I'd seen the last time I came through was shouting at some men who all lowered their eyes. The older Herali man in charge of the place was among them; his eyes were the lowest of all. To our right outside the kitchen, a line of older Na'uhui men faced against three recruits, everyone waving fists and shouting obscenities.

Ranía stood in the center of the sitting area being drooled over by young conscripts. She was a textbook beautiful woman—generous curves, plush lips, doe eyes, with an air of deep contentment behind a wide, warm smile. Like Bilal, she was Goloagi; dark green hair cascaded behind her back in curls, and on each arm was a brand, 773-614.

"Caleb Jungle-Tested!"

The recruits all looked at me. Her voice perked up for each of us. "Bilal of Shonemai! Renou of Kyoen! Ta'o!"

"You know those guys?" The recruits asked her.

"Oh yes!" she exclaimed. "I'm so happy you're here!"

Today she wore a light-blue cotton dress that had a frill around her shoulders and skirted her knees. She opened her arms for Ta'o, who held her tight for a while. Then she released him to embrace Bilal and Renou in turn, before coming to me. I was afraid at first of the cracked ribs that still hurt, but she was gentle.

When I pulled away, she lifted her emerald-green eyes to me with a warm smile.

I gave her a smile of my own. "You owe me a conversation?"

She giggled lightly and looked around the castle grounds. Outside the kitchen one of the native men looked as he was about to lunge at the conscripts. Beside the mud huts, several local women had gathered with knives, and I could smell the mold in the barracks from here.

Her eyes were sullen. "Hoden asked me to come and help... domesticate these... men." She looked up at me with a sly grin. "I wonder how a good captain would handle this situation?"

My stomach tightened. Did she just...

"Excuse me!" The important-looking woman in red silk elbowed her way between two others beside us. She came to the center of the gathering and held up her hands, looking around. "I have an announcement!"

"Wait!" I held up my hand. What, exactly, would a good captain do in this situation? "We'll gather everyone together!"

I checked Bilal, who nodded back to me and directed Ta'o towards the mud huts. "You check down there. Renou..."