Excursion

Chapter Six - The Child Has My Mark

  Jakinski sat Esis and I in chairs before taking the baby down from the medicine table and cradling her in her arms.

  "Nomen," she repeated, locking eyes with me. "This baby has your mark on her chest."

  "What?" I stammered. "What mark?"

  "Your branding, I mean."

  "You're saying that this baby has the same scar upon her chest that I do?"

  Sure enough, as I rose from my chair and looked over Jakinski's shoulder, she unbuttoned the baby's clothes once again, and there it was: the same three lines with another line through the middle, smack dab in the middle of the child's chest. Although unlike mine, the branding looked fresh.

  "Does this mean we're related?" I blurted.

  "That could be possible, though I would think your mother would be too old at this point to have any more children," the doctor explained as I sat back down. "Especially just to toss them out in the desert like this."

  I shook my head in disbelief. "That means there's more of them."

  "More of what?"

  "Women who don't love their children enough to keep them."

  "The Dolinkee have also reported receiving some babies from the sand dunes lately."

  "Do they also have the mark upon their chest?"

  "I don't know, they haven't told us."

  I was about to spit in frustration when I remembered I was under a respectable roof.

  "What's beyond this world, Doctor?" I asked bitterly, staring down at my worn sandals.

  "Pardon?"

  "Beyond this world. I mean to say... where are all these babies coming from? And why would those beyond think it's appropriate for them to die? When one of the desert tribes' women has a baby, they don't get a choice on whether they can keep it or not, do they? They chose to have them; they're theirs to keep. And if they had them against their will... well, they'll give it to one of their friends to raise. They don't just chuck them out in the wilderness as if they were a spent rag."

  "I agree, Nomen. It's absolutely appalling," Jakinski sighed, setting the baby inside a spare crib so she could put away some newly made ointments.

  "I want to go see that world."

  Jakinski dropped an ointment jar. "You what?!"

  "I want to go see the world beyond ours. The one on the other side of the dunes."

  "No, you don't."

  "Why not?"

  "Nomen, you know as well as I do that the stories of our ancestors clearly tell us that the world beyond is a dangerous, immoral one, and that traveling there can only lead to disaster."

  "But the stories of our ancestors don't specifically tell us why it's dangerous, do they?"

  "No, but everything else they've said has been true. Why do you even want to go to the world beyond the dunes? You've seen what they do to infants. How much more would they do to you?"

  "I want to know why they do the things they do," I told her truthfully, gesturing to the baby, before pulling down the collar of my shirt, exposing my own four, slightly raised lines. "I... I want to know where I came from, Jakinski. Is that a sin to ask?"

  The doctor fell silent. I could tell she wasn't used to arguing.

  "Ask the chief about it," she sighed, waving a hand in my direction as she turned back to the child. "But remember what I warned you. I don't want you running headfirst into danger without at least some idea about what you're getting yourself into."

  I let out a short laugh. "Since when have I ever ran 'headfirst into danger'?"

  The doctor scowled. "Would you like me to write a book?"

  With a mixture of a laugh and a sigh, I turned to motion to Esis. Now that the idea was in my head, I wanted to go see the chief as soon as possible, and perhaps get Salandil in on my plan. I really did want to see what lay beyond this expanse of sand, tents, and yaks that I had grown up in. This landscape was dull, and I had heard rumors from the Dolinkee minstrels about 'worlds covered in shades of green', and 'buildings made of stone'. Perhaps the world beyond the sea contained those things.

  As my gaze fell to the chair that Esis had been sitting on. My eyebrows furrowed, and I glanced around the room.

  "Um... Jakinski?"

  "Hmm?"

  "Did you see Esis leave?"