Cursed: Traitor's Trail

Chapter 3 Part 2

Rough edged stone pressed into her flesh, numbing her legs. She played her fingertips into the pocked surface, but other than that she did not move. Not with her fate undecided and everyone watching her like wary prey might watch a predator. Like she was a demon. Sounds of shuffling and whispers surrounded her; the clan moved about at a safe distance; as if the curse were contagious and might pass into their pure souls.

Cowards. Oh, if she could just speak, if she could show them that there was some sort of mistake. She was not evil. She was the same Aya she had always been.

“I always sensed it.” A group of women stood next to Phrion's tent, whispering. Only Hassra made no attempt to quiet her words. “Did you know she has been sneaking around at night? And she was involved with that demon attack...”

The words themselveshardley made her blink; but the concerned murmurs from the clan that followed stabbed hurt into her heart. Murmurs that said they believed this woman when, yesterday, they would have only scoffed at her assertions. They turned on me so quickly.

“Aya?” At the sound of Grandmother's voice, Aya lifted her gaze from the dust at her feet. Pain stabbed her gut as the older woman's eyes widened in fear, and she took an involuntary step back, whispering a soft prayer of protection.

“Grandmother, please...”

“Mara, do not speak to it,” Sierr, one of the younger women of the clan whispered, placing a hand on the old woman's arm to stop her. “It will lure you to its evil.”

“Grandmother it is me,” Aya cried.

The old woman stopped, and hesitated, undecided. Aya opened her mouth to try again, but the Elders had noticed and made their way toward her swiftly. Grandmother stood, still except for her rapid breathing; her wrinkled face frozen into an expression of shock. Ancient brown eyes studied Aya from her unclothed head to her sandaled feet, resolutely avoiding her eyes, refusing to acknowledge the truth.

“Mara.” Elder Toldon approached stiffly, holding out a hand, as though he expected she might do something foolish. Dangerous.

“No."A fat tear escaped the deep wrinkles at her eye.

“Mara, you know clan law.”

Aya's last chance was slipping away. "At least let me defend myself."

Toldon frowned, his thin hair at his lip twitching. "You cannot deceive us from the truth." He glanced to her eyes pointedly.

"But..."

"Enough!"

At last, he led Grandmother to join the gathered elders under a shaded canopy. Grandmother's hand flew as she spoke in agitation, but eventually she would agree with clan law, Aya knew, Grandmother always sided with the traditions.

The life she had lived seemed to fade back from the new terrible reality trickling through. Was there none within the clan who would listen to reason?

Not one would meet her eyes, even Hassra, whose lips tipped up in a secret smirk. The demon loving coward would be pleased; Aya supposed, with Aya's fall from status, she would be the highest-ranking female besides grandmother.

The elders shifted, and true fear entered her heart. A life changing debate and it is over so quickly. She knew what was coming, and she didn't have the power to stop it. She knew clan law as well as they did.

They approached as a group, weathered faces grim and set. Aya looked desperately for Grandmother, hoping for one last chance to turn the direction of events, but she was nowhere in sight. They think I'm a risk. These people who loved her only yesterday. Uncles and cousins. Her family.

“Aya,” head elder Toldon spoke, his voice rang loud in her ears, interspersed by the beating of her own heart. “You have revealed, on this day, your true nature. Your evil cannot be allowed to taint the Monthoda tribe. You are banished here and now and forever more.”

The clan moved away from her at once, she was invisible to them now; no one would even look at her. In an instant, a single breath of time, she lost her entire family and clan.

No. No. No. No.

This is wrong. They are wrong. If anyone in the clan was evil, it would be that witch of a woman Hassra.I am not evil.

Stubbornly she pushed determination into her heart where fear tried to numb her mind and her senses. She was not evil, and she would prove it.