Ashi's Grove

All characters are over the age of eighteen

Chapter Three

Over the next few days, Kohl left her alone, mostly. On the third morning, Havelen was sitting at the table, looking down at her open hands, at the palms, the lines there. The spirals were the same every time she was born, she imagined. She touched her necklace. He'd noticed she was still wearing it, his mouth tight, but he hadn't had sex with her again and he hadn't taken it from her.

Kohl opened the door without knocking, walking to put clothing on the table. "I'm taking you to the Talmyth Council. Get dressed."

He didn't leave. Ignoring him, she pulled off the robe and put on the clothing, similar to the woolen clothing he was wearing, muted colors and soft hetspah wool. There was a coat with a hood and stiff shoes.

He took her arm and brought her out of the room, more rooms beyond it. She'd thought it was a prison, but it was his residence, she realized, tech everywhere, art and textiles. Through an archway, she saw a bed, Havelen confused. The Rangisins weren't supposed to have these kinds of things. They were supposed to be primitives, living in villages or the desert.

He took her out of the residence through a door, down a hall to a lift. It was glass and she looked out at a city of waterfalls and light streaming from far above, the silhouettes of houses and shops emerging from the same rough-hewn black rock.

They were released at the bottom of the lift, exiting the building, everything around them looking both ancient and also modern, lights that brightened as they passed. The mist played colors in the light that fell from giant holes in the roof far above, the scale of the setting immense, the city a tiny jewel in a massive underground cavern. The water flowing everywhere was a soft contrast to the hard and straight lines of the faces of the buildings carved out of the rough contours of solid cliffs, narrow stone streets going up and down.

"Where am I?" she said.

His voice was neutral. "Talmyth."

"What is Talmyth?"

"A Rangisin city here long before the Aletheans bombed our surface cities."

"The Rangisins have technology?".

His voice was still as expressionless as his face. "Only in Talmyth, where there are Rangisins willing to pay the price for it. The citizens here spend three months out of every two years in the surface villages, women and men and children. Nobody is spared, necessary for the pretense, to keep Talmyth secret. The Talmyth Rangisins have to give the wardens their share of blood or the Aletheans would know we're hiding something."

She realized. "You were going to hide me here once."

"Just imagine. If you'd waited just a little longer, you could have betrayed a whole city of Rangisins instead of just me."

"Are you going to keep me in Talmyth?"

"No."

Talmyth was a secret and he wasn't going to keep her here. There weren't that many other options. "Are you going to kill me?"

Kohl didn't answer. They arrived at a large building, ornamental carvings and high walls, huge arches into which a tall doorway was inset.

A Rangisin man stood at the door. "Kohl," the man said in Lews, and then his head turned to her.

"Identify yourself."

Kohl reached and tugged her hood back in one motion. "This is the ashi, Vigil. She doesn't speak Lews. We're here to see the Talmyth Council."

The vigil, as Kohl called him, stared at her. Kohl hadn't told the other people at Talmyth that he'd stolen her, Havelen inferred from that gaze. She stared back at the vigil, her face calm.

"Enter," the vigil said, reaching to open the door, his eyes following her through as his hand came up, speaking into a device on his wrist.

Kohl led her down a long hall to double doors, his hand on her arm. He opened one and they walked into a chamber and down a set of stairs. It was a round room ringed with arches, the tier below that ringed with seats. On the bottom tier and in the center was an open circle, the only place lit. Kohl stopped when they reached the circle at the bottom, and they waited.

The people who then came through the arches with the sound of muted rustling to populate the darkened ring, silhouettes of men and women, were in shadow. A man came from one of the arches and walked to stand on the tier above them, visible, looking down. Lights came up where he was standing. He was a tall Rangisin man with mostly gray hair and a long, dolorous face, as if the council's dealings were necessarily tragic in nature. "Welcome, Kohl of Talmyth, once of Shaga Tribe. I am Moderator Ages of the Talmyth Council. Whom have you brought here?"

Kohl released her arm and spoke. "This is the ashi. She's Alethean. I speak Aleth and will translate."

Moderator Ages addressed her in Lews. "Alethean. Do you have a name by which this council could address you?"

Havelen stared back at him like she didn't understand.

Kohl turned to her, speaking in Aleth. "He wants to know if you have a name."

"Yes," she said in Aleth.

"She says she does. Her name is Havelen," Kohl said in Lews, speaking for her.

It was the first time Kohl had said her name, his lip curling, and she could hear the edge in his voice. That was how much he hated her.

The voice that came back from the council members in the shadowy ring seemed to have no source. "Would the woman tell this council what an ashi is?"

"They want to know what an inka is," Kohl said to her in Aleth.

"An inka is what Aletheans call a woman made into a whore to serve the Leopol-át," Havelen answered in Aleth, calm.

Kohl paused. She'd never told him that.

"What did she answer?" Moderator Ages said.

"I asked the wrong question," Kohl said to him in Lews, switching to Aleth when he spoke to her again. "They want to know what an ashi is."

She answered. "An ashi is a person who is reborn every hundred years."

"She said an ashi is a person reborn every hundred years," Kohl said to the moderator in Lews.

"Reborn," a man's voice echoed. "She was genetically engineered?"

More voices came out of the darkness.

"Who made her? To what purpose?"

"Does she remember?"

"Councillors," Moderator Ages said. "Please let the ashi answer these questions before asking more. Go ahead."

Kohl turned to her. "They want to know if you're made, who made you, for what reason, and if you remember anything."

Her voice was impassive. "I've never been given information about my origins or my true nature or any knowledge regarding the reason for my duplication. I have none of the memories of the previous ashis. I can't answer your questions. I only know that I exist. I return."

Kohl delivered her answer.

"Are you coming to us for shelter?" a voice said from the darkness.

"I brought her," Kohl answered for her, not translating. "She didn't have a choice."

There was a long silence.

A voice spoke. "This is Talmyth, Kohl, and not a place for desert justice. Whatever this Alethean woman has done, you should not have brought her here."

"That's not a question."

Someone sighed. "What are you planning to do with her?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Kohl said. "I'm fulfilling the prophecy. I'm taking the ashi to the ruins of Shosa, if she survives the journey."

Havelen glanced at him. A prophecy? That was why Kohl had taken her?

Another voice came out of the shadows. "You want us to allow you to take the Alethean from here, knowing what she does about Talmyth, which has been kept secret from the Aletheans for three hundred years at great sacrifice to our people, because of a prophecy?"

"Yes," Kohl said.

"What could the old ruins possibly have to offer us?" a different voice said. "Those things are of the past. If they couldn't help us then, how could they help us now?"

Kohl answered. "A desert Rangisin shouldn't have to remind this council that knowledge is its own resource. You knew my uncle, Ethen. You know he studied the ancient Rangisin texts. He believed the Sadun might still be active, leaving clues and guiding our actions. He believed they might have planted the prophecy. Surely it's worth investigating."

That was met with another long silence.

"The Sadun," a voice said. "If that secret society truly still exists, why don't they just tell us what this weapon is?"

Kohl's gesture was impatient. "Undé limith. It doesn't say it's a weapon. The prophecy says that in Shosa, the ashea will find a shield to fight the wardens. We don't know what that means. Maybe we need to bring the ashi there before the knowledge could be useful to us."

A woman spoke. "Some of us here do speak Onsagi, Kohl. So you took her from the Sanctuary and brought her here without telling this council you were going to do that?"

"Yes."

"Following legends in the ruins of the past will not help the tribes," a different voice said, a man. "They need to come to Talmyth. The surface has never been safe. You're the eldest son of Shaga Tribe. Could you not use your authority to persuade those in Shaga Tribe and the other tribes to join us? Talmyth could be their home."

Kohl's face tightened and he stepped forward, his finger stabbing at the ground. "This is not our home. Talmyth will never be our home. The tribes live on the surface of Iskel. They'll die there, if necessary. But before that happens, I will follow this prophecy to see where it leads and take the ashi to Shosa. Can you really say that you know there isn't even the smallest possibility that doing so will reveal something we didn't know before? Only a desert Rangisin can get through Nabed to the ruins. I'll kill her before I'll allow her to reveal what she knows to the Aletheans. If you can't help me, at least stay out of my way."

There was silence again.

"We retire for deliberation," the moderator said.

She and Kohl waited. Havelen didn't move and she didn't look at Kohl. The council members finally returned.

Moderator Ages faced them. "The council has voted. Havelen of the Aletheans is invited to stay at Talmyth under your guardianship, Kohl, with your word she will not leave. But if you take the ashi from Talmyth, you can never return to this city, or to the villages. You will be banished to the desert on the surface, and the Alethean woman is never to come out of the desert or her life is forfeit."

The circle in the center where they were standing went dark. Kohl's hand landed on her arm again as he led her out. He didn't translate for her. She didn't speak to him as he led her back to his residence and then through the door to her prison.

A prophecy. He'd never told her about any Rangisin prophecy involving the ashi. It was just another Rangisin story about the ashea. But that was why Kohl had come for her, and no other reason. He hadn't taken her for revenge. He would have left her there. Tormenting her was just something to do in the meantime.

When they were in her cage again, she pushed back the hood and faced him. She was calm. "You never intended to release me. Your offer in exchange for sex was a gesture of contempt." She thought the place where he'd once been couldn't feel any emptier.

He shrugged. "And to take my pleasure on your body. Do you hate me yet?" He walked closer to her, looking into her eyes. "Did you think I would forget? I'll never forget, Alethean. Yes, I see the beginnings of hate. But I still hate you more." He went to the door and opened it, looking back. "Don't worry. We'll get there. We leave in the morning." He closed it, followed by the sound of the lock engaging.

* * *

She was hot. Havelen had never been so hot.

Kohl walked in the desert and she followed. Her legs were aching from the unfamiliar exercise and her feet hurt in the shoes he'd gotten her, which were still stiff. They chaffed, and it only got worse. It was only going to get worse. He didn't slow.

If she didn't keep up, he would look back and stop, impatient.

"Hurry up," he'd said the last time she lagged.

After that, she kept up because she didn't want him to talk to her.

He was dressed in the kind of clothing he'd worn when she'd known him, causing her a pang when she'd first seen him, the soft pants and the tunic, the long scarf that covered his head and face. He'd put her in the same. The clothing felt loose, layers that protected her skin from the sun. Her head was full of things she shouldn't do.

"If you see an animal, don't approach it," Kohl had said, his voice neutral, not looking at her. "Don't touch any plants. Don't put your hands into any dark places without checking first, including your own shoes. Don't forget to drink water steadily while you walk. If you start to feel dizzy, let me know at once. Don't keep it to yourself."

Kohl pulled a cart with a harness that went across his chest, and the only time it slowed his steady pace was up the dunes. On the lift from Talmyth, the Rangisin man who ran it had stared at her the whole ride, Kohl ignoring him and Havelen trying to do so. They'd been released into a cave, a long tunnel that opened up to the desert.

They stopped walking when she could see the heat swimming from the ground. The shelter Kohl put up was a tent with no sides, a small patch of shade in a sea of sun. She crawled into it.

He came in, drawing back his facecloth, his face shiny with sweat but otherwise seeming unaffected, looking handsome like always, and graceful, tossing down a mat. "Don't sit on the ground. It's cooler off of it. We'll stay here until late afternoon and walk again."

When she moved onto the mat, he put water down and held something out. "Drink and eat all of it. It's salty."

Looking away, she shook her head. She wasn't hungry.

"The heat affects your appetite," he said. "You need the salt or you won't take in the water you drink. Do what I say."

He waited until she got it down, drinking the water.

After, he lay back, closing his eyes, his hands folded on his chest. "Enjoy the heat, Alethean. You'll be cold enough tonight."

* * *

She was cold. She'd never been so cold. In the tent, she had every blanket she could find around her.

Again, Kohl didn't seem to notice the temperature, dressed warmly but moving freely. She saw fire through the tent gap. Fire was warmth, Havelen gathering herself, getting up and walking out, sitting, a big pile of cloth from which her face peeked out. Her brows went up. The fire was purple.

Kohl was handling a delicate cobalt-blue ceramic pot in his large hands with surprising grace. She didn't think he would do so, but he poured the steaming liquid into a second cup and rose to hand it to her. "It's welith, a hot drink like a cider."

Her hands found a way out, taking it, eyeing him. It was good. She couldn't stop shivering, her legs aching and her feet sore. When she was done, she rose and walked, not limping, to hand the cup back to him without looking at him, going into the small tent and curling up on her side. It only seemed to get colder. Her body shook.

He came in, collapsing the sides of the tent, the whisper of cloth. His voice was deep in the darkness. "You have all the blankets, Alethean."

"You don't seem c-cold," she said, the first she'd spoken to him that day, and then Kohl was pulling at her blankets, unwinding them. When he had all of them and she had none, she sat up and put her head on her knees, shuddering. Feeling his hands, she moved away. "No."

He ignored her, pulling her close and pulling the blankets back on top of them both. He was like a heater, he was so warm, and she'd still rather freeze to death, struggling.

"You might stop rubbing yourself on me," he said.

She went still. Slowly, she became warm, her eyes open and her body tense.

* * *

The next day, they rose and did it again. She was walking in the heat when she looked down, something stirring in the sand under her feet.

Kohl turned around and motioned. "Come here."

Havelen moved toward him, still watching it.

"Faster, Alethean," he said.

Looking at him, she almost fell, staggering as something huge erupted from the sand where she'd been standing, Havelen scrambling away. Twice as long as Kohl, it was black and lumpy and covered in spiny hairs that tensed and flattened in waves.

"What that be?" she breathed.

"Karnukle," Kohl grunted.

"Where is its head?"

"I don't know yet."

She looked at him. "When will you know?"

A sound came.

"Not that end," he answered.

Evidently done with its business, the creature wiggled away, its long hairs undulating, and slowly disappeared back into the sand. What it left behind looked dry, balls as big as Kohl's fist.

Kohl moved toward them with a shovel, noticing her face. "See any wood trees, Alethean? It's what we'll use for fuel. It's concentrated and will burn for hours."

* * *

That night, she sat in front of the purple fire. Her feet were stinging and throbbing even when she wasn't walking.

"Green eyes are ill luck," he said across from her.

She glanced up. He rarely spoke to her. He never looked at her. "What?" She was shaking with cold.

"For hundreds of years, having green eyes has been a death sentence for a Rangisin. Male or female, adult or child, Rangisins who have green eyes like me have to hide the color or the wardens will execute us on sight. So we call them ill luck."

"You have green eyes?" she said.

"My Uncle Ethen dyed my eyes before we went to Talmyth. Desert Rangisins who have green eyes and stay in the tribes, like my brother, don't have to dye them. The dye stung and I was blind for two days, but when it was done, my eyes were black. I thought you might tell me why Aletheans kill Rangisins with green eyes. I've always been curious."

"I don't know why the wardens kill them." She stared at him and then looked away. Behind the dye, his eyes were green. He'd lived in Talmyth. He had a brother. She'd never known Kohl. Her fingers touched her necklace, wondering if anything about the young man she remembered had been true or if she'd made him up in her mind like the ashi tales. When she glanced, his eyes were on her hand, which she dropped.

His eyes swept her, sneering. "So unhappy. You could have been queen and lived to old age in the palace and instead you're being dragged across the desert with the man you betrayed."

She looked back at the purple fire. "The ashis die young," she said absently.

He scoffed. "Of what?"

"How long will it take to get there?"

"Shaga Tribe is another few days."

Something goaded her to say it. "Will they hate me like you do?"

His voice was neutral. "I'll protect you, Alethean."

Havelen sucked in her breath. It cut her so much deeper than his anger. His anger she understood. He believed she'd betrayed him. But the indifference said he didn't care anymore. She got up and went into the tent.

When he came in later, she was still awake. He got in, pulling her close. She didn't resist anymore, her shivering slowly stopping. Lying awake, enclosed in his arms, she stared into darkness. She could try again to tell him the truth. He would probably listen now, but she decided against it. It was pride, yes, but she would rather he didn't know she'd still had feelings for him, especially when his had suffocated under his bitterness and rage. She didn't want him to know that, imagining his pity. Then she would never confuse them again, her Rangisin in the grove and this cruel man in the desert. Her fingers went to her necklace.

* * *

"You look tired, Alethean," he remarked the next morning.

She nodded.

Limping behind him until her feet went numb, she kept up. The shoes had softened, but it didn't help, her limping constant. Luckily, he never looked back at her now. She kept up.

When they stopped at midday, he brought her food as she sat on the mat, her feet a misery. She answered if he spoke to her and didn't look at him, concentrating on keeping her body moving.