The Last of the Wilds

And what else could the Elai sell them?

While she hadn’t liked wearing the formal jewellery favored by adults before, now she carefully chose something from her chest every day. Her favorite toys she now displayed on a shelf, but she did not play with them. Instead she asked Teiti endless questions about Elai history, the landwalkers who had attacked or deceived Elai in the past, magic and the goddess. When her aunt could not answer her questions, she had sent the woman away to find answers, or demanded to see people who could tell her what she wanted to know.

“All landwalkers have Gifts - even small ones. Why don’t we?” she had asked of the palace sorcerer, an ugly old man with a wheeze and loose skin that hung from his bones like cloth.

“The oldest records tell how Huan selected men and women with weak Gifts to become Elai,” he told her. “They were less resistant to the changes she wrought in them.”

“Resistant? Didn’t they want to become Elai?”

“They did, but those with magic found they kept undoing the changes without meaning to.”

“What of the Elai who have Gifts now? Do they undo themselves?”

He shrugged. “We do tend to sicken easily and age faster.”

“Is it the same for the Siyee?”

He nodded. “They have fared better, however. They have a few sorcerers with moderately powerful Gifts. At least they did ten years ago, when I last visited.”

“Why have they done better?”

“I don’t know,” he had admitted. “Why don’t you ask the head priestess?”

She had followed his advice. The head priestess, a woman of Teiti’s age, told her that the way things were was how Huan intended them to be.

“So she doesn’t want us to change?”

“Not necessarily. We can change. But if we begin change in a way she does not want us to, she will intervene. She has done it before.”

Imi had considered this, then moved to another question that had been bothering her.

“We only follow Huan. What of the other gods? Why don’t we follow them?”

“Because Huan made us.”

“And she doesn’t let us follow other gods as well as her?”

The priestess’s eyebrows had risen at that, but not in surprise. Imi had met her disapproval with determination.

“What are the other gods like?”

“Chaia was always known as the God of Kings. Lore was the God of War. Yranna the Goddess of Women and Saru the God of Wealth.”

“You say that as if they aren’t any more.”

“They put aside their former titles after the War of the Gods. But these titles are still an indication of their natures. Chaia has the character of a leader, and is wise in all matters of holding and keeping power.”

Imi nodded. “What of the Pentadrian gods?”

The priestess shrugged. “I know nothing of them. It is said only five gods survived the War of the Gods, and that in some lands people still worship dead gods as if they are real.”

“Servant Reivan said that she once heard her god speaking in her mind. That sounds as if he is real.”

“She may have imagined it.” The priestess shrugged. “I know nothing of these Pentadrian gods, nor do I need to know anything. Huan is our goddess and creator. We need no other.”

“No. But it would be good to know all about other people’s gods.”

“Why?”

“In case Huan decides we need to change,” Imi replied. “Or in case we begin to change and Huan doesn’t stop it.”

“I doubt she’d approve of us worshipping other gods.”

“I don’t think any Elai would want that. But other things can change, sometimes without us wanting it. We should be ready to face anything.”

The priestess had smiled at that. “You’ll make a good queen one day.”

Imi felt a wry pride at the memory. She had nearly finished her circuit of the room. As she moved to the next shelf there came a knock at the door, and she stopped. Teiti emerged from her little “room” within Imi’s cave and opened the door. The woman frowned as she saw the boy standing there.

“Come in, Rissi.”

The boy sidestepped past Teiti and walked toward Imi. He stopped a few steps away and bowed.

“Princess,” he said. “I have come to report my findings.”

Teiti nodded approvingly at the formality before returning to her room. Imi smiled at Rissi. After a day of pleading, her father had finally agreed that several months’ imprisonment was enough punishment for the boy who had led her out of the city and to the islands where she had been captured. Rissi hadn’t been angry with her for leading him into trouble. Instead he apologized endlessly for failing to stop or rescue her. He had come to the palace each day, asking if there was anything he could do to make up for his mistake.

Teiti had suggested Imi think of something useful for the boy to do, as guilt - though undeserved - was obviously making him miserable. That had given Imi an idea, and she had sent Rissi out on a quest for information. Her father used the pipe room to listen in on the city populace and gauge people’s opinions on his rule. She would use the children.

Rissi had asked other children to pose a question to their parents. He was to tally the answers and give them to her.

The question was: “Should the Elai be friends with the people who had rescued Princess Imi?”

Imi smiled at Rissi. “What did they say?”

“It was even,” he told her. “Some said the answer was ‘yes.’ Just as many said ‘no.’ A few didn’t get an answer, or didn’t understand the answer, or their parents couldn’t decide.”

“So half of the definite answers were ‘yes’ and half ’no,‘” Imi mused aloud. “Without anyone trying to change their minds yet.”

“You’re not going to get your father to befriend landwalkers, are you?” he asked.

“You don’t like the idea?”

He shook his head. “Landwalkers took you away and made you work like a slave. They’re dangerous.”

“Not all of them,” Imi told him. “The Pentadrians were good to me.”

He shook his head in disagreement, but said nothing.

“Why don’t you believe me?” she asked.

He frowned. “It’s not that I don’t believe you, but...”

“But?”

His frown changed to a scowl. “It only takes one bad one among the good and we’re all dead.”

“Not if we don’t bring them here. When we trade we should do it somewhere else. And insist that there only be a few of them. We could even have them leave goods somewhere for us, and we could leave ours in return.”

“And if they come back and attack us? If raiders come to take the goods?”

“We should have a quick escape route. They can’t swim like us, remember. We have to stop running and hiding. We have to be able to stand and defend ourselves.”

“We have our warriors.”

“Who can only fight one on one. We need to do better than that. We need archers. And fortifications. And magic.”

Rissi shuddered. “I don’t like it. We’ve been safe living here for generations. Why change that?”

“Because we’re not growing, Rissi. Look at the Siyee. There are thousands of them. We’re crowded in here. We need to live on the islands again. We need space if we’re going to grow.” She sighed. “My father started talking about finding me a husband in a few years. I asked Teiti who he might choose, and there were only five boys or young men who were close to me in age, and they were all cousins, and I don’t much like any of them.”

“You might in a few years,” Teiti offered from within her “room.”

“Though he did say I might marry a warrior leader, if he was impressed enough with the man, in order to bring some new blood into the family,” Imi added, ignoring Teiti’s comment.