Blossom

Author's note:

This is the final part of Keya Oko's introductory story.

I awakened to sunlight, from Jinai pulling aside the curtain. It took me few seconds to realize that I was still naked. My hand was stuffed between my legs, and Musa was in the front room.

"Are you well?" Jinai asked, frowning.

"I am perfectly well." I grabbed my dress and clutched it over my nudity. I still felt a delicious throb in my cunt. "Absolutely."

Jinai stared at me a moment. She shrugged, put on a tunic and grabbed a jar of oil to go out and wash.

Later, as the six of us sat down to break fast, Seku confronted me.

"There is a rumor," he said, "that you are offering the fishermen higher prices."

"I am, in exchange for their aid."

"My Lady, you cannot do that," he said with a pained expression. "That is my trade."

"If Oko merchants pay you more for local fish, I expect you will pass the benefit on to the fishermen," I said. I didn't trust Seku to honor the promise on his own, but I also wouldn't go far as to openly suggest he would cheat the villagers.

"But you do not lead House Oko!"

"If I find my mother's firstborn son -- even if it is only his remains, she will be pleased to reward anyone who aided in our success," I said.

Seku fell silent, and we all began to eat to the sounds of the village.

"What do you want to do now?" Musa said to me.

I thought for a moment. "If you will watch our captive, I would like to see the other villages and meet some of the people there."

*

Seku accompanied Jinai and I and the sailors. The day was long and hot, and by the afternoon, our clothes were as damp and heavy as the waters of the swamp. Still, I was pleased that many of the people in the other villages already knew of my visit, and of the offer that I had made on behalf of the House. A group of girls even gave me a garland of hibiscus flowers. Gossip traveled faster than I, it seemed.

As we returned by boat to our village, Jinai spotted someone concealed in a shaded copse of giant mangroves.

"He is waving to us," one of the sailors noted.

"Go to him," I said.

"Beware, Keya," Jinai said, as her gaze swept our surroundings.

"Your handmaid is wise, Lady," Seku said. "It is not good to be so trusting."

But the crewmen turned the bow as I bid, and soon brought us within easy speaking distance of the stranger. It was a young man, alone in one of the fishing canoes. His nose was bulbous, as if it had been broken and healed badly.

"You are the noblewoman from Namu?" he asked me.

"I am Lady Keya Oko," I said. "What is your name?"

"I am Lonji," he said. "Is it true that you will reward the person who tells you what happened to your brother?"

"I will reward anyone who helps, yes."

"What if I wish to leave with you, to go back to Namu?" he asked. "Will you still repay me?"

"Of course," I said.

He swallowed. "Is it true that you have magical powers? Are you a witch?"

"I am a priestess. Nothing more."

Jinai rolled her eyes, impatient. "What can you tell us?" she asked.

"There is a tomb. Very old, in the direction of the sea -- the densest part of the swamp," he said. "The fishermen stay away from it. That is where your brother went. He and his men did not return."

"Can you take us there?" I asked.

The man seemed to shrink. "You don't understand. There are many in the villages who just want you to leave. We all live in terror, but only some of us demand that it end. Some say they will come to meet in your village to decide what to do." He seemed afraid, unwilling to say more.

I nodded, having some idea what the villagers were terrified by. "Lonji, if you choose to lead us to the tomb, you can leave with us, and House Oko will be in your debt. If others who feel as you do come to me, I will tell them what I have told you," I said.

Lonji bowed his head, and sat down, paddling his boat away into the twilit swamp.

*

"We need to find Lonji again, press him further," Jinai said. "He is our best hope."

Musa nodded vigorously. We'd told him about our encounter. "I agree. You cannot trust those southern brutes," he said. "In this swamp, an ambush could be a few paces away, and we would not see it.

"Speaking of our captive, we cannot hold him forever. Slit his throat or let him go. I am surprised that he has been so docile," Musa said, stoking our fire with a charred stick. He nodded in the direction of our floating hut, where he'd been holding Baba during the day. "But he is also... suffering. He has tremors and sweats. He keeps smiling at me, my Lady, and promising he will take you to 'Blossom'. But his meekness cannot last."

The two Oko retainers sat with me on the shore near the plank bridge to our hut. The smoke from our fire helped keep mosquitoes at bay, as did -- I hoped -- the whirring nightjars and chorus of bullfrogs. I had slipped off my sandals, and I enjoyed the cool caress of grass on my toes and the soles of my feet, arching and flexing them in the warm air. Such a simple pleasure, and yet so rare to come by.

"I fear it won't be enough to have Lonji as a guide," I said. Zahar had indeed run afoul of a demon cult. Judging by our captive, who didn't come from this area, the cult had been alive for a long time. Which meant that it might be quite large. "The three of us can't fight against an entire cult."

"The men of the village," Jinai guessed.

Musa looked a question at each of us.

"We wondered why there seemed to be so few men here," I explained. "In the other villages it is the same. The cult is growing by somehow taking the village men."

"These people are not warriors," Jinai said, gesturing to the village behind us. "How can you expect any more of them to help us? Send back to Seku's ship. Bring more Oko men here."

I shook my head. "If we come at the cult with force, it will just melt away. It has done this before. The demon will hole up somewhere else, and take its followers along, just like it did with Baba," I said. "Besides, if there is a battle with Oko warriors, many of the cultists would die. Those men are the family of our hosts, compelled against their will. I cannot do them such harm, just to find Zahar."

My handmaid eyed me. "You are too gentle for this, Keya," she said.

Jinai's look was not critical; it was more thoughtful. I flushed nonetheless. "I can only be who I am," I said.

"I am certain that will be enough, my Lady," Musa said, politely.

It was little reassurance.

*

"Please," Jinai said. "Send for the House guards. Even the six on the ship would make a difference."

Musa had taken the prisoner out of the floating hut and back to shore, giving us privacy in our back room.

"But-"

"I don't care if the demon gets away," Jinai said. She stood squarely before me, forcing me to look her in the eye. "I don't care if villagers die. I fear this search for your brother is... too much for you, Keya. If you and Zahar are lost, what becomes of House Oko?"

"The House will be stronger if it builds trust with these people. And if Zahar lives, it doesn't matter what happens to me."

"By my nameless father!" Jinai swore. "You are not a rutting sacrifice! I am begging you to ask for help!"

"I

am

asking for help!" I said, belatedly aware that I was shouting. "I have spent two days asking for help, Jinai!"

She threw up her hands, and began to turn from me. I grabbed her wrist. She did not pull away. I felt the heat of her, her tension and strength.

"I need to hear your counsel," I said, softly. "I share your fears. But I must do what I believe is right."

I could see anger, concern, and - yes - affection, in her expression.

"Please," I said. "Trust me, Jinai. Without you, I am lost."

She stared at me. The muscles in her arm sagged, relaxing.

As I gazed at her, I realized how much taller and older she was. How odd, our relationship -- she the servant and I the mistress. And yet, I looked to her for approval.

That was the moment I should have drawn Jinai close, and kissed her. Instead, I hesitated, afraid she would reject me. Of course, she would pity me.

The moment was gone, like a morning mist in sunlight.

"I trust you," she said, She shook her hand free, and turned to her kanga. "We will see what tomorrow brings."

When she slept, I stripped off my clothing again, and tried to pleasure myself. But my flesh was numb.

I was filled with a sense of foreboding. Tomorrow would be a trial. Whatever result, it would determine my fate -- and with me, the fate of House Oko.

But at the same time, I saw the freedom this journey had afforded me. To be alone with Jinai, beyond the strictures of the House and Magisterium. To be unmasked, with all the possibility that allowed.

I had my one chance to create a bond with Jinai, and I had missed it.

The girl inside me wanted to cry. But the leader of a Great House did not cry. She could only acknowledge her destiny.

My destiny was to be alone.

My first instinct was to rebel. Without a second thought, I threw on my short gown. I stepped over the snoring Jinai and out into the front room. Musa was fast asleep as well, easily bypassed. My bare feet padded over the plank bridge to the shore, and the ancestral stone to which Baba had been lashed.

The southerner slept with his back against the clay obelisk, wrists tied at his sides. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

"Baba," I said, kneeling before him.

The gown fell only halfway down my thighs. I was intensely aware of my nakedness beneath it. I wasn't sure how much the southern man could see in the starlight.

He opened his eyes. His cockeyed glance seemed knowing, as if he could see through my pretenses.

"Tell me about Blossom," I said.

He smiled. "You are searching."

"What am I searching for?"

"You seek the beauty of a thousand orchids blooming under the night sky. You crave rapture so deep that it consumes your soul."

I smirked. But under the gown, my cunt was growing wet.

"You dwell in a palace somewhere, with your wealth and power. You're surrounded by servants and flatterers, but you don't know what it is," he said, "to be cherished. To belong to someone, as they belong to you."

My hand drifted down between my legs. I couldn't help myself. At first I assured myself Baba wouldn't see.

But that was false. I wanted him to see. I wanted him to see beyond my pallor, to lush, feminine curves. I wanted him to lust after me.

I tried to justify my depravity. He didn't speak the local language. He was tied up. He was mad. He couldn't hurt me in the slightest way.

"When did you realize," I asked, as my fingers slipped between my sodden nether lips, "that you belonged to Blossom?"

"The moment I smelled her." His gaze fell between my legs.

I sat down in grass, displaying myself to him. I spread my legs, again feeling grass curl around my toes and bow to the underside of my legs. I pulled my cunt lips apart, opening my dripping core to his hungry gaze. In my derangement, I imagined untying Baba's bonds and letting him take my maidenhood, right there in the muddy grass.

"What does Blossom look like?" I rubbed tiny circles around my pleasure nub.

Baba nodded upwards. "Like the loveliest night sky."

My legs began to tremble. I felt the flutters of delicious heat that signaled my approaching climax "Tell me how you felt," I panted, "when Blossom took you for the first time?"

Baba lunged then, lurching up against his bonds like a hound on a leash. Even then, I couldn't stop myself. I watched him in alarm as I stifled a moan. I stroked my little bud, the fingers of my other hand greedily plunging into my open slit.

The knots held, and Baba sagged. "I belong to Blossom. Just as you will, Lady."

I came then, gasping as my juices streamed out on the grass. I threw my head back, not caring about Baba or anything else, letting the white hot wave burn through me.

I lay there for a moment, still shuddering. Eventually, I propped myself on an elbow, and met Baba's cockeyed gaze. His body was shaking, as if from a fever. I had been so enflamed with lust, I hadn't even noticed. I brushed grass and dirt away as I stood up.

Part of me wanted to set him free him right then. He had told me what I wanted to know. I had taken undue advantage. And Musa was right. We couldn't hold him forever.

And yet, I had at least somewhat returned to my senses. If I let him go, he would probably drag me away with him.

So, without a word, I left him tied there, and returned to the hut.

As I entered our quarters and stepped over Jinai again, she spoke in a clear voice.

"I saw you."

For a moment, I was still as a statue. "You... saw me?" I flushed hot with shame. I could only imagine the scorn she must have for me. "What... did you see?"

"Baba," Jinai said, "looks just like the wretches I used to see in the Hazard, hooked on

qat

leaf and dream-smoke."

I couldn't make out her face in the dark. I had to grope towards my mat of kangas.

"I'm not a fool, Keya. And, by the ancestors, I am not incompetent," she said. "Someone needs to save you from yourself."

*

They began coming early in the morning. Men, women and children in boats from the other two villages. Even the ones I had already met all but ignored us at first, venturing amongst the huts to greet extended family and friends. It was like a holy day, to be spent with loved ones over food, sharing story and song.

When the sun began to fall in the west, people gathered on the swath of grass between our hut and the rest of the village -- a space that seemed to serve as a plaza. Many sat on kanga cloths, but stools were brought for the elders. I counted more than one hundred villagers.

Once they were all seated, Njiba rose from her stool and came to the center of the crowd. Chatter and murmurs died down as she spoke.

"We gather to reply to the generosity of the Lady of House Oko," she said. "She has come in search of her lost brother, as have others from her House before her."

"We regret that we know nothing of her kin," Njiba said, turning to speak to her entire audience, "and that what she seeks is not in our power to give. But many of us wish to repay her kindness and earn the friendship of her great House. Let us consider that good will, and offer her something in return.

"In that spirit," she said, with a warm smile, "I invite any of you to speak."

Njiba stepped out of the center, and waited for a request.

None came. I spotted Lonji, who looked about him nervously, but said nothing.

The villagers were afraid. Njiba had ruled out giving me aid, implicitly challenging anyone to say otherwise. She would have me turned away, just as the cohort had been.

I straightened. "I wish to speak."

Njiba smiling, nodded.

I entered the center of the gathering and turned about, seeing Seku and several familiar faces.

"Members of my House usually wear a mask of gold to show how different we are," I said. "I wear the mask because, as you can all see, I am different. Some say I am cursed, because I have skin like bone, and hair like parched grass. Some wonder if I bleed, or if I feel pain at all.

"I came to you without a mask to show you I am like you in one important way," I said. "I have lost someone in my family. I feel the same pain you feel."

Njiba's smile vanished, sagging into the scowl that seemed more her custom.

"I know you are afraid. I am afraid too," I went on. "But I know what has taken our kin from us. This is the work of a demon. I am a trained adept to the Temple of the Ascendants, and I can defeat this demon, and free all of our missing kin. But I cannot do it without your help.

"Many of you have told me of your ancestors." I remembered a few of the names I had written down, and I repeated them. "I feel the spirits that dwell on this ground. You are a steadfast and loving people. With the help of your forebears, and those who watch over me, we can defeat this demon and find those we have lost. We can heal wounds that torment us all. If you help me do this, I swear that House Oko will count the people of this village as its friends."

Everyone seemed to look towards Njiba. But the older woman said nothing. She grimaced, as if I had spit in the stew. I stepped back to stand with Jinai.

"Empty promises!" someone shouted.

"She is cursed -- can't you see?" yelled another.

Then Lonji stood, and he came to the center of the crowd. Njiba nodded, almost imperceptibly, at him.

"My brother taught me everything I know," the young man said. "Where to set my traps for the best crabs. When to thatch a roof before the rainy season. How to be a good father." He looked around at the other villagers. "Where is he now? Is he hungry? Is he ill?

"You all know it. We take our boats out, and we see them, hunting in the marshes, wading among the mangroves. They are alive out there, living like wild beasts. How can we let this go on?"

Lonji waited for an answer. "I want my brother back," he demanded.

"I want my husband back!" a woman cried.

Others shouted too, for missing sons, fathers and brothers. The shouts became an angry chant, and the meeting dissolved into bitter arguments. I spotted Njiba staring back at me. Her expression was one of heartsickness.

The debate continued late into the night. Many came to tell me their stories. Their men had disappeared into the swamp. Some had left seemingly of their own accord. Others had disappeared from their boats while out fishing. But it was always men, from young to middle age. They never returned, though they were occasionally spotted again, lurking in the swamp. A few villagers offered to take me to the old tomb.

By the end of the night, I was exhausted. But a group of over forty adults, mostly younger, clustered around me in the grass.

"Come with me," I urged them, ignoring Jinai's disapproving glance. "All of you who are able. Your ancestors will be at your sides. We will invoke their spirits to dispel the sorcery that has been cast upon your men. The more who come, the more we can bring back."

Later, in our room, as she undressed for the night, Jinai said, "I am proud of you, Keya. You did well tonight. I never would have thought so many would come to us. But..."

Like every muscle in my body, my eyes were sore, and they stung from hours of smoky air. I put out the tallow flame so that I could shimmy out of my dress and pants in the dark. As soon as I lay down, I knew I would be asleep.

"But...?" I prompted her.

"How can you protect them? These are not warriors, and you are bidding them to follow you into capture."

"You asked if I could break the spell with our captive. I could not; I knew none of his ancestors to call on. But if the villagers come with us, and we find their men..."

"You can break the spell?" the handmaid asked.

I fumbled for my kanga and stretched out upon it, hesitating before I answered. "Yes," I said, projecting confidence.

Even when I did not feel it.

When I slept, I dreamt that I was swallowed by a demon that was as vast as the night sky.

*

The villagers who would go with me to the old temple had assembled by midday, in eighteen canoes. Seku was there too.

"I wish you well, but this is beyond what we were hired to do," he said.

"Indeed," I replied. "But I ask you to return to the trader and tell the Oko guards where we have gone. Explain to them what I have promised these people, and bring them here. They will be needed. No matter what happens to me."

The stout merchant offered me a sympathetic look, and gestured at the fishermen and fishermen's wives that awaited. "You have achieved so much here. You made your point. Why must you go with them? Let Musa go. If there is fighting, he can handle it."

"I do not expect these people to fight, which is why I must go," I said. "Before you return to the ship, release the captive. Let him go his own way."