Chapter Four: History Lesson

Hours later, with the sun well down, Evie sat in the cart, swaying. She was too tired to keep her eyes open, but the rocking of the cart certainly wouldn’t let her fall asleep. “I don’t think anyone is following, Elder Banied,” She paused to yawn. “I bet we can stop safely now.” It had been a long night already. Elder Banied had kept the horse galloping all the way to his cottage. Once there, he ran inside and came back out with supplies wrapped in blankets. Then they’d left the village, and Evie had no idea where they were. She’d never been so far away from home.

The worst part was that she had no idea where they were going or why. The old woman rode in the cart with her, but never said a word. For most of the ride she just sat there with one of Elder Banied’s blankets clutched tight around her, staring sadly backward. Evie couldn’t understand why she thought it was cold.

A couple of times Evie had tried to ask the Elder a question, but each time he told her to be quiet until he had time to talk to her. The whole situation frightened Evie. Elder Banied couldn’t muster any more sympathy for her sleepiness then he had for her questions. He answered her with some muttering about it not being safe in the forest at night. So, they trudged on for what seemed like forever while he peered around the forest for whatever he was looking for.

Finally, Elder Banied brought the horse to a stop and Evie’s eyes popped open, but only for a minute. She felt herself being carried to a spot of grassy ground where one of the adults had laid out a blanket. Another was put over her and she snuggled in to sleep.

What felt like only minutes later, although it was actually considerably longer since the sun had already poked up from behind mountains to the East, Evie awakened to a low-pitched growling sound. Her muscles tensed. Whatever made that noise lurked close to her. Without daring to move, she cast her eyes around for the source. Only shadows met her searching gaze. It could be hiding anywhere.

Petrified with fear, she knew something horrible prepared to pounce her. It wanted to eat her. Maybe it already ate the two adults. Before her eyes adjusted to the weak morning light, she felt a prickly, slimy thing touch one of her bare legs. Without time to think, she jumped up screaming. She danced around the campsite stomping her feet into the ground to rid herself of the creepy feeling that caused her to shiver uncontrollably. In the first instant after her scream, Elder Banied jumped up as well. He held a sword that he must have been sleeping with and raced over to Evie’s side.

After a moment of tension, he just stared. He looked from her to a small reptile scurrying off into the woods. Then he began to laugh. She’d never heard anything that sounded so odd. Elder Banied was laughing at her! At another time she very probably would have seen the humor in the situation as well. The animal was small and harmless and she must have looked rather silly hoping around like an idiot. But she had been dragged away from her home, denied sleep to the point where she passed out in a mossy forest and then awoken by some horrible creature that she was sure wanted her for breakfast!

Something snapped inside that very patient twelve-year-old. “That is ENOUGH!” she screamed. “I have had it and I’m not going to take it anymore! I don’t care if you are an Elder. I don’t care if you think I’m a two-year-old who needs protection so I won’t fall down and hurt myself. I want to know what’s going on! I need to know why in the world I am here and if you don’t tell me…I’M GOING HOME!” She finished with both of her fists thrust down and her foot stomping in what she knew was a temper tantrum and didn’t care.

She didn’t care how dumb she looked, either. It was simply too much for her to handle. She realized that Elder Banied had stopped laughing. He stared at her, considering. The old woman, Anna?, had woken up in all the racket and she looked like she was going to berate Evie for her temper. Well, she had to regain her spirit sometime. It didn’t matter anyway, Evie was going to hold her ground. She’d already decided that much.

After a few minutes of the two adults staring at her, Elder Banied sighed and sat down on a rock. “Come, relax. I will answer your questions before we continue on today. Wondering if this was a trick, Evie found a rock near where the Elder sat and settled down to be stubborn if he tried to put her off again.

He began, “Do you remember what we’ve studied in the recent history of the Kingdom?” Evie tensed. She was not asking for a history lesson. He had tried to sneak lessons in whenever they met in the village, even at festivals.

The Elder seemed to be catching her mood. “Trust me, Girl. Now start with Queen Brenive and tell me what happened next.”

Evie had calmed a little now and she felt a pretty weird about yelling at Elder Banied. Besides, if she did what he asked, he would have no excuse for not answering her questions in full. With a sigh, she recited, “At the time the ray and souray lived in separate villages across the kingdom. The Old King met and fell in love with a souray named Brenive. He married her and they had two children. The older one, the heir to the throne, was a daughter named Jessimara. When Brenive was crowned she was the first souray to come to power in a hundred years. She believed that souray and ray should work together and the kingdom enjoyed a period of prosperity. The people began building schools for children of ray and souray families to learn together. Although most souray had lived in villages far away from the main city, close to the forest, during the first years of her rule many people moved into the city, especially souray. The princess, Jessimara, displayed the magical abilities of the souray, even though she was only half. When she was twenty she met a young man, Trey, who had been a leader in his village before most of them moved to the city. They were married and crowned king and queen, but Jessimara died of a fever shortly after,” She paused to swallow. That was how her mother had died. “The young king married again, another souray named Tereisa. The new rulers believed that souray were better than everyone else because they could use magic. They began removing ray from schools and forcing them out of the city. Now, the only ray allowed in the city are the loyalists and they are servants.” She stopped. That should satisfy him. She had been listening when he taught her lessons.

The Elder nodded with a smile, “You are a good student, Evie. What you didn’t mention, because I never told you, is that there was a rebellion when Trey and Tereisa came to power. Many of the souray agreed with Brenive. The King arrested anyone who opposed him. I know of one young souray, however, who escaped and went to live among the ray. A beautiful young woman named Lara.” Evie’s eyes went wide as he paused. Lara was her mother’s name.

She didn’t know what to think. She’d been taught her whole life that souray were mean and evil. How could her sweet mother have been one of them? As she was fighting to understand how she felt, a sudden thought struck her. “Does that make me a souray?” She asked, horrified at the thought.

Elder Banied looked down in disturbed contemplation. He acted like he didn’t want to answer her. But finally, he did. “I don’t know, Evie. Your mother brought you when she came to our village. Abby took her in and called her sister, but I don’t think she ever mentioned what happened to the rest of her family. I have no idea who your father is. If he is a souray, you certainly are. If he is a ray, you may be. In any case, it makes no difference. There is no one here who can teach you.”

“That still doesn’t explain why that man was after me.” She turned toward Anna, “Who is he?”

“He,” the motherly old woman answered angrily, “is an awful man! He found out his wife knew where your mother was hiding and he had her arrested for treason. I was the nurse to his son, who you met at your home. I did not think he would have told the boy his mother had died!” She breathed furiously for a moment before continuing. “I am sorry about your mother, girl. I came here to warn her, but I did not know you existed. I only regret that I didn’t save Trevor. His mother’s heart will break if she learns what he thinks.”

Only then did something the Elder said crash home. Aunt Abby was not her Aunt. Bridget was not her cousin. She didn’t have a family. The two adults were looking at her with great sympathy on their faces. They acted like they knew exactly what she was thinking.

Elder Banied stood up and began distributing breakfast. He handed Evie an apple and a few nuts and moved to the business of cleaning up the blankets and preparing for travel. Staring down at the food she said, to no one in particular, “Where are we going?”

It was Elder Banied who answered, “That, I can not tell you. I do not know.” Evie noticed a startled glance from Anna, but the old woman didn’t say anything. This was going to be an interesting journey.