For the remainder of her first day in the city of the Hill People Maddie seemed to realize Dani was exhausted and gave her freedom to come and go as she pleased – so long as she stayed away from the prison tent. Dani was more than happy to comply.

Maddie’s tent was of modest size, sandwiched between a low rambling house with shallow slanted roof and three chimney’s that turned out to be the Matriarch’s residence and a longhouse that cast a long shadow over the tent, keeping the interior fairly cool, even in the heat of midday. The interior was light and airy, an open space divided into four quarters: a parlor of sorts complete with stuffed chairs and a matching love seat -- Maddie called it a divan -- a bedchamber at the back of the parlor separated by layers of light drapes of silk and sheer fabrics Dani was unable to identify that sparkled with gold and silver sheen; a unfurnished reception area at the entrance and a spacious dining area complete with table and chairs of dark carved wood. The hard packed earth was buffered throughout with woven tapestries that depicted Hill People engaged in various activities, but especially hunting and battle scenes; thick rush mats in the dining area; and a variety of fur rugs in the bedroom. There were bronze braziers throughout to provide light and heat at night. There was a privy below ground, accessible through a trap door in the parlor, hidden by a rug.

Dani took it in with some fascination; the scenes described into the carpets and wondering about the fleur de li symbol emblazoned on the herald that hung from a frame that separated the entry from the dining area. The symbol made her feel like she had been whisked backward in time instead of forward or to an alternative earth where the Hill People were Mediev al Normans.

As was the case with Theo she discovered a disconcerting mix of primitive and manufactured items: buckskin trousers and detailed leather jerkins; course linen sheets and silk shirts; a machine made cloth draped across the dining room table set with silverware beside wooden dinnerware stained with geometric designs and glass stemware. There were no baubles, no trophies that Dani could tell only low tables designed to hold tools, clothes and three extra pairs of boots. Dani’s pack was off to one side in the parlor braced against a support post. Beside it were Theo’s two packs, his half finished spear and his boots. As her In Between, Maddie explained, his belongings belonged to her until his fate was decided.

In the evening of the first day, before supper Maddie and the Matriarch paid her a visit with a doctor in tow, and she endured a lengthy physical examination to satisfy them that she was in good health. It was determined that she was adapting well; her lungs were nearly at 100 percent but her heart rate was elevated.

The Matriarch and Maddie shared a concerned look.

“Like her mother.” Maddie said in a matter of fact but cryptic tone that made Dani wonder aloud what it meant. But as seemed to be a habit among the people of Haven they offered no explanation. Maddie shook her head at her and Dani fell silent, not wishing to press her luck further with the Matriarch.

Dani slept for a little but was awakened by a disturbing dream where she lay stretched out comfortably on a field of tall grass wearing a white prairie dress of all things. The dress had eyelet lace and was trimmed with red ribbon at the wrists and on the high collar. A wide red sash was tied around her waist. The linen chemise beneath the dress was also bordered with wide scalloped eyelet lace at the hem and underneath her white pristine pantaloons she wore black knit stockings and on her feet tight black button up shoes. She knew every last detail of her outfit without looking, as if she had selected the garments that morning with intent, right down to the red beribboned garters that kept her stockings from falling down.

Theo was on top of her his body cradled between her legs. His large hands enveloped her hands linking their fingers on each side of her head. He stared at something behind Dani, not paying attention to her at all, and she craned her neck to see what he saw, and got a view of what sight made him look so extremely put upon. An upside down army was gathered on a nearby upside down grassy hill. The sun glinted off metal helmets and breastplates and pencil thin spears that made a row of upside down tiny fencelike pikes across the upside down horizon. The army seemed poised on the verge of attack.

“Orces, yes precious.” She said in a creepy sing song Gollum/Schmeagol voice that scared her awake, choking back a scream.

Surrounded by cushions and lightweight blankets, her body trembling, Dani caught herself thinking about the night Jordan died, she, who had not thought of Jordan in a long time except in the most benign terms, remembering only the emotionally neutral events of their longtime friendship. Now she remembered the sight of his brother’s blue late model mustang crumpled around a sugar maple on the passenger side where Jordan had been sitting mere moments before, remembered the high rate of speed at which his brother had been driving and the black ice that had sent the mustang skidding and the car she had been in with Ethan driving into a tail spin as well, except Ethan had corrected the slide and the car skidded to a stop on the lawn on the opposite side of the road. She was out of the car so fast, her heart in her throat her nose filled with the smell of gasoline and hot metal and burnt rubber and heard the tick and hiss of the ruptured engine, just before she started to scream Jordan’s name.

The dream with the prairie dress and the Orc army returned frequently without variation and she always wakened to one memory or another, memories of Ethan, Walter, Angie, Barb, even the old ladies who had cared for her in the nursery Sunday mornings at the Baptist Church. Each memory either made her homesick or left her reeling from shock, but few made her feel as terrible as the first.

Maddie put Dani to work at once allowing her permission to be dismissed when she tired and needed sleep. She often just quietly wandered away in the middle of instruction or a job to return to Maddie’s tent where she dropped down on her deeply cushioned bed and slept. The recurring dream and the sudden inexplicable stampede of long forgotten memories made sleep undesirable, so at times she wandered the streets of Admyndral et Pelbradyn or climbed slowly to the top of the Peldyn and stood at the perimeter of the area where the Crucifixion Tree stood on the exact opposite spot the Pavilion held at the Peldyn’s south end.

The tree was singular, unlike any she had seen and unlike any in the surrounding environs. It was similar to a full grown Sycamore covered with tattered mauve bark. Its gnarled white branches reached up and outward, broken, barren and stark save one. That one protruded from the trunk at a right angle low to the ground, but still a good twelve to fifteen feet up.

Spreading out from its trunk to the furthest skeletal reach of the tree’s branches was a circular field of undisturbed grass flush with more flower varieties than Dani could count, displaying every color of the rainbow and many shades in between. The ground all over the top of the Peldyn was beaten down and criss-crossed with well used paths, but no evidence of such foot traffic marred the sanctity of the ground surrounding the Crucifixion Tree. When her energy lagged but she wanted to avoid sleep, Dani sat quietly on the verge of the blooming field and stared at the Crucifixion tree with wonder. Something about it teased her. Something tugged to get her attention, but what that something was eluded her.

The people continued to defer to her, but wherever she went there was someone nearby who watched her, as if they expected her to cause trouble. The last thing Dani wanted was to be anywhere near Theo. It was bad enough she suffered that creepy dream daily but when her thoughts drifted toward the subject of Theo and the sapphire she pushed both out of her mind. What use worrying now? The only thing that mattered was the profound relief she felt now that she knew where the sapphire was, that it was safe and at her disposal when she was ready to go home.

Dani applied herself to whatever task she was given when she had the strength to do it. She mended winter shorts, tended the public garden, prepared stew using fresh or dried fish, the tasty blue-skinned tuber and a tender lavender bulb that looked like garlic but smelled and tasted like onion. She studied weaving, cooking, fletching arrows, and other skills to which she felt ill-suited. She received a tsk, tsk, from a fair share of the men and women she worked with until one fellow wondered aloud whether or not she was skilled at anything.

She was skilled at language. What would they know of language when they spoke only one language, though she had quickly picked up on the broad Hill People accent that defined their tribal culture, when compared to Theo’s well articulated formal speech. Overall the language was a gregarious mix of several evolved earth languages – as evidenced in the wide variety of names (Maddie, Georg, Silliandra, Bradyn and Januise) -- spun together with an element so foreign to Dani as to intrigue her with its complexities. Perhaps it was of alien influence. Her journal was filling up fast with words and phrases.

As for the specifics of the coming trial or the crimes Theo had committed conversations remained speculative at best because the sisters were the only two eye witnesses of Theo’s crime: Sillie (the peripheral witness) and Ruby (the sole survivor). Technically it was forbidden to discuss the details before the trial, though there was little else anyone wanted to discuss. When Dani asked for clarification they only told her detailed accounts of the unsavory habits of Dreyden and his band of ruffians.

When Dani’s thoughts drifted to Theo at all she wondered was he being treated well? Maddie assured her that Theo was under guard in the prison tent and no one harassed him. Dani accepted Mddie’s word and made no attempt to check the veracity of her claim. It made her stomach cramp to think Maddie had been right about Theo. Had he manipulated her from the start, stealing the jewel and keeping it hidden because he needed her to gain some advantage with the King in order to avoid punishment?

One afternoon after Dani returned from a two hour class in the forest on how to identify mushrooms, an impromptu game broke out atop the Peldyn. It took only moments to understand the game and to see that the main challenge was to take possession of the ball, and move it as near the hallowed ground under the Crucifixion Tree as possible while keeping the ball from entering the flowered field. It was not a team sport, but a game of every man for himself. Dani took immediate interest and wanted to participate -- but she soon discovered that young women watched while the young men, stripped to the waist, played.

“With the men there is too much unnecessary roughness.” The dowdy mid-thirtyish mushroom instructor explained when Dani expressed her desire to participate. She nodded sagely and as if to prove her point a fierce argument erupted between two players that turned into a small riot, with every man and boy in easy distance running in to join the fray. The display of testosterone fueled aggression was disturbing and exhilarating at the same time. Young women gathered in small groups to cheer or jeer their favorite or their favorite’s attacker; some just stared at the half naked men with flushed cheeks. After the fighting came to an abrupt end the game disbanded. It was as if the whole purpose of the game was to provide the young men an opportunity to release pent up energy and at the same time to display their virility for the benefit of the young woman. A primitive mating ritual, Dani thought.

That evening Maddie returned and found Dani as she so often found her, sitting cross legged on her cushioned cot with her fingers curled around the binding of her mother’s journal staring off into space.

Dani waited until Maddie disrobed, keeping her eyes averted. The Amazon had a fine slender body with minimal scarring and like everyone else showed no concern for her own nudity. She wore no second skin.

“Cover up.” Dani grumbled. “Wear a second skin, can’t you?”

“Sissy pants for insiders.” She said dismissively.

“You are disgusting.”

“You have seen Theo naked.” Her voice was full of censure, but Maddie quirked one eyebrow as if hoping Dani would divulge the nature of their relationship. Had anything intimate happened between them, had Theo acted in any way inappropriately toward her, the quirked eyebrow asked?

“He is as bad as you are.” Dani would not elaborate.

Maddie did not push for information but picked up a wide comb. It was made of white wood with long close set teeth and jewels in the handle arranged in a vine pattern with five tiny mother of pearl fleur de li. She ran it through hair while Dani stared at Mama’s journal and repeatedly dragged her thumb over the book’s leaf.

“Are you ever going to read your mother’s book?” Maddie asked.

“Eventually, I suppose.”

“What is the problem?”

“Some things are best left alone.”

Maddie studied her for a few minutes in silence.

“My mother’s history is the history of our people, so there is little about her history we do not know. My mother and father met when they were a bit younger than you are now. He was Outside fulfilling some duty related to his position and for a period of time he fell in with our clan. They were drawn together by their looks, you see, the so-called Aryan curse, and he was, in a way her equal: she the daughter of the great renegade leader, Bradyn, he a son of the Ruling Arm. She was Bradyn’s youngest child and only daughter, the child of his third wife and was already promised to the son of an ally, a betrothal that fretted her much.

"On the other hand the King tells the story from another perspective. He had never met anyone like her, you see. She was strong willed but she was also a free spirit. She taught him how to use a bow and sling. She taught him how to spear fish. She taught him the wood lore of the Hill People. Most of all he saw in her a reflection of his own life, constrained by family loyalty and trapped by the demands of their respective positions in society.

"Their time together was short, a matter of weeks, and they were cut off from one another when our people came under attack from the Insiders, The Last Great Purge. My father escaped. My Grandfather, the founder of our great clan, Bradyn, died in that battle on the Peldyn and our clan was horribly decimated. Mother’s brothers had been either captured or killed and she alone was left to lead.

"In the aftermath she struggled for control against men once loyal to Bradyn who thought they were better suited to leadership than she because she was female, barely eighteen and pregnant with me. A few thought if they slipped into her tent and forced a conjugal treaty, she would have to relinquish control to them, but she had young men loyal to her and on her orders they dragged these men to the crucifixion tree and left them to die alone and their bodies to rot as a warning against anyone else who might presume to steal her birthright.

“Several years later Father, cast out of the Insiders and now a renegade leader to be reckoned with, heard rumors about Mother and her crucifixions and sought her out. Until then he did not even know if she had survived that day. He prevailed upon her to rethink her policy of crucifying her enemies and helped her re-established the clan’s former rule of law. By then Mother had convinced everyone that mattered that she was capable of leadership and no one dared to thwart her."

Dani did not know what to say. What could she say after a narrative like that?

“Your mother’s history is your history.” Maddie lifted the end of her maroon fur over her body as the chill of deep night infiltrated the curtained bed chamber. “You cannot avoid that truth whether you know the pertinent details or not. Consider it a gift that she has invited you in to discover the woman she came to be in the aftermath of whatever war she endured. It may help you understand why she decided to come here, to Haven, with my father, though it meant abandoning you.”

By telling her the story of her parents Maddie had gone right to the heart of what ailed Dani. Her mother had abandoned her for the King.

Did she want to understand, Dani wondered with bitterness? She slept with Mama’s unopened journal pressed to her chest under both hands.

In the wee hours of the morning a low growl outside Maddie’s bed chamber startled Dani awake. The flames in the brassier had died down to hot coals. Naked Maddie sprang from her bed, wrapped herself in the large maroon fur and paused to lean over Dani. Her eyes were lively.

“Go back to sleep. I will see you in the morning.” She pressed a warm, firm kiss on Dani’s forehead, turned and was gone.

Just outside the tent voices mingled, an alto and tenor lover’s duet and their footsteps hurried away into silence.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

For the remainder of her first day in the city of the Hill People Maddie seemed to realize Dani was exhausted and gave her freedom to come and go as she pleased – so long as she stayed away from the prison tent. Dani was more than happy to comply.

Maddie’s tent was of modest size, sandwiched between a low rambling house with shallow slanted roof and three chimney’s that turned out to be the Matriarch’s residence and a longhouse that cast a long shadow over the tent, keeping the interior fairly cool, even in the heat of midday. The interior was light and airy, an open space divided into four quarters: a parlor of sorts complete with stuffed chairs and a matching love seat -- Maddie called it a divan -- a bedchamber at the back of the parlor separated by layers of light drapes of silk and sheer fabrics Dani was unable to identify that sparkled with gold and silver sheen; a unfurnished reception area at the entrance and a spacious dining area complete with table and chairs of dark carved wood. The hard packed earth was buffered throughout with woven tapestries that depicted Hill People engaged in various activities, but especially hunting and battle scenes; thick rush mats in the dining area; and a variety of fur rugs in the bedroom. There were bronze braziers throughout to provide light and heat at night. There was a privy below ground, accessible through a trap door in the parlor, hidden by a rug.

Dani took it in with some fascination; the scenes described into the carpets and wondering about the fleur de li symbol emblazoned on the herald that hung from a frame that separated the entry from the dining area. The symbol made her feel like she had been whisked backward in time instead of forward or to an alternative earth where the Hill People were Mediev al Normans.

As was the case with Theo she discovered a disconcerting mix of primitive and manufactured items: buckskin trousers and detailed leather jerkins; course linen sheets and silk shirts; a machine made cloth draped across the dining room table set with silverware beside wooden dinnerware stained with geometric designs and glass stemware. There were no baubles, no trophies that Dani could tell only low tables designed to hold tools, clothes and three extra pairs of boots. Dani’s pack was off to one side in the parlor braced against a support post. Beside it were Theo’s two packs, his half finished spear and his boots. As her In Between, Maddie explained, his belongings belonged to her until his fate was decided.

In the evening of the first day, before supper Maddie and the Matriarch paid her a visit with a doctor in tow, and she endured a lengthy physical examination to satisfy them that she was in good health. It was determined that she was adapting well; her lungs were nearly at 100 percent but her heart rate was elevated.

The Matriarch and Maddie shared a concerned look.

“Like her mother.” Maddie said in a matter of fact but cryptic tone that made Dani wonder aloud what it meant. But as seemed to be a habit among the people of Haven they offered no explanation. Maddie shook her head at her and Dani fell silent, not wishing to press her luck further with the Matriarch.

Dani slept for a little but was awakened by a disturbing dream where she lay stretched out comfortably on a field of tall grass wearing a white prairie dress of all things. The dress had eyelet lace and was trimmed with red ribbon at the wrists and on the high collar. A wide red sash was tied around her waist. The linen chemise beneath the dress was also bordered with wide scalloped eyelet lace at the hem and underneath her white pristine pantaloons she wore black knit stockings and on her feet tight black button up shoes. She knew every last detail of her outfit without looking, as if she had selected the garments that morning with intent, right down to the red beribboned garters that kept her stockings from falling down.

Theo was on top of her his body cradled between her legs. His large hands enveloped her hands linking their fingers on each side of her head. He stared at something behind Dani, not paying attention to her at all, and she craned her neck to see what he saw, and got a view of what sight made him look so extremely put upon. An upside down army was gathered on a nearby upside down grassy hill. The sun glinted off metal helmets and breastplates and pencil thin spears that made a row of upside down tiny fencelike pikes across the upside down horizon. The army seemed poised on the verge of attack.

“Orces, yes precious.” She said in a creepy sing song Gollum/Schmeagol voice that scared her awake, choking back a scream.

Surrounded by cushions and lightweight blankets, her body trembling, Dani caught herself thinking about the night Jordan died, she, who had not thought of Jordan in a long time except in the most benign terms, remembering only the emotionally neutral events of their longtime friendship. Now she remembered the sight of his brother’s blue late model mustang crumpled around a sugar maple on the passenger side where Jordan had been sitting mere moments before, remembered the high rate of speed at which his brother had been driving and the black ice that had sent the mustang skidding and the car she had been in with Ethan driving into a tail spin as well, except Ethan had corrected the slide and the car skidded to a stop on the lawn on the opposite side of the road. She was out of the car so fast, her heart in her throat her nose filled with the smell of gasoline and hot metal and burnt rubber and heard the tick and hiss of the ruptured engine, just before she started to scream Jordan’s name.

The dream with the prairie dress and the Orc army returned frequently without variation and she always wakened to one memory or another, memories of Ethan, Walter, Angie, Barb, even the old ladies who had cared for her in the nursery Sunday mornings at the Baptist Church. Each memory either made her homesick or left her reeling from shock, but few made her feel as terrible as the first.

Maddie put Dani to work at once allowing her permission to be dismissed when she tired and needed sleep. She often just quietly wandered away in the middle of instruction or a job to return to Maddie’s tent where she dropped down on her deeply cushioned bed and slept. The recurring dream and the sudden inexplicable stampede of long forgotten memories made sleep undesirable, so at times she wandered the streets of Admyndral et Pelbradyn or climbed slowly to the top of the Peldyn and stood at the perimeter of the area where the Crucifixion Tree stood on the exact opposite spot the Pavilion held at the Peldyn’s south end.

The tree was singular, unlike any she had seen and unlike any in the surrounding environs. It was similar to a full grown Sycamore covered with tattered mauve bark. Its gnarled white branches reached up and outward, broken, barren and stark save one. That one protruded from the trunk at a right angle low to the ground, but still a good twelve to fifteen feet up.

Spreading out from its trunk to the furthest skeletal reach of the tree’s branches was a circular field of undisturbed grass flush with more flower varieties than Dani could count, displaying every color of the rainbow and many shades in between. The ground all over the top of the Peldyn was beaten down and criss-crossed with well used paths, but no evidence of such foot traffic marred the sanctity of the ground surrounding the Crucifixion Tree. When her energy lagged but she wanted to avoid sleep, Dani sat quietly on the verge of the blooming field and stared at the Crucifixion tree with wonder. Something about it teased her. Something tugged to get her attention, but what that something was eluded her.

The people continued to defer to her, but wherever she went there was someone nearby who watched her, as if they expected her to cause trouble. The last thing Dani wanted was to be anywhere near Theo. It was bad enough she suffered that creepy dream daily but when her thoughts drifted toward the subject of Theo and the sapphire she pushed both out of her mind. What use worrying now? The only thing that mattered was the profound relief she felt now that she knew where the sapphire was, that it was safe and at her disposal when she was ready to go home.

Dani applied herself to whatever task she was given when she had the strength to do it. She mended winter shorts, tended the public garden, prepared stew using fresh or dried fish, the tasty blue-skinned tuber and a tender lavender bulb that looked like garlic but smelled and tasted like onion. She studied weaving, cooking, fletching arrows, and other skills to which she felt ill-suited. She received a tsk, tsk, from a fair share of the men and women she worked with until one fellow wondered aloud whether or not she was skilled at anything.

She was skilled at language. What would they know of language when they spoke only one language, though she had quickly picked up on the broad Hill People accent that defined their tribal culture, when compared to Theo’s well articulated formal speech. Overall the language was a gregarious mix of several evolved earth languages – as evidenced in the wide variety of names (Maddie, Georg, Silliandra, Bradyn and Januise) -- spun together with an element so foreign to Dani as to intrigue her with its complexities. Perhaps it was of alien influence. Her journal was filling up fast with words and phrases.

As for the specifics of the coming trial or the crimes Theo had committed conversations remained speculative at best because the sisters were the only two eye witnesses of Theo’s crime: Sillie (the peripheral witness) and Ruby (the sole survivor). Technically it was forbidden to discuss the details before the trial, though there was little else anyone wanted to discuss. When Dani asked for clarification they only told her detailed accounts of the unsavory habits of Dreyden and his band of ruffians.

When Dani’s thoughts drifted to Theo at all she wondered was he being treated well? Maddie assured her that Theo was under guard in the prison tent and no one harassed him. Dani accepted Mddie’s word and made no attempt to check the veracity of her claim. It made her stomach cramp to think Maddie had been right about Theo. Had he manipulated her from the start, stealing the jewel and keeping it hidden because he needed her to gain some advantage with the King in order to avoid punishment?

One afternoon after Dani returned from a two hour class in the forest on how to identify mushrooms, an impromptu game broke out atop the Peldyn. It took only moments to understand the game and to see that the main challenge was to take possession of the ball, and move it as near the hallowed ground under the Crucifixion Tree as possible while keeping the ball from entering the flowered field. It was not a team sport, but a game of every man for himself. Dani took immediate interest and wanted to participate -- but she soon discovered that young women watched while the young men, stripped to the waist, played.

“With the men there is too much unnecessary roughness.” The dowdy mid-thirtyish mushroom instructor explained when Dani expressed her desire to participate. She nodded sagely and as if to prove her point a fierce argument erupted between two players that turned into a small riot, with every man and boy in easy distance running in to join the fray. The display of testosterone fueled aggression was disturbing and exhilarating at the same time. Young women gathered in small groups to cheer or jeer their favorite or their favorite’s attacker; some just stared at the half naked men with flushed cheeks. After the fighting came to an abrupt end the game disbanded. It was as if the whole purpose of the game was to provide the young men an opportunity to release pent up energy and at the same time to display their virility for the benefit of the young woman. A primitive mating ritual, Dani thought.

That evening Maddie returned and found Dani as she so often found her, sitting cross legged on her cushioned cot with her fingers curled around the binding of her mother’s journal staring off into space.

Dani waited until Maddie disrobed, keeping her eyes averted. The Amazon had a fine slender body with minimal scarring and like everyone else showed no concern for her own nudity. She wore no second skin.

“Cover up.” Dani grumbled. “Wear a second skin, can’t you?”

“Sissy pants for insiders.” She said dismissively.

“You are disgusting.”

“You have seen Theo naked.” Her voice was full of censure, but Maddie quirked one eyebrow as if hoping Dani would divulge the nature of their relationship. Had anything intimate happened between them, had Theo acted in any way inappropriately toward her, the quirked eyebrow asked?

“He is as bad as you are.” Dani would not elaborate.

Maddie did not push for information but picked up a wide comb. It was made of white wood with long close set teeth and jewels in the handle arranged in a vine pattern with five tiny mother of pearl fleur de li. She ran it through hair while Dani stared at Mama’s journal and repeatedly dragged her thumb over the book’s leaf.

“Are you ever going to read your mother’s book?” Maddie asked.

“Eventually, I suppose.”

“What is the problem?”

“Some things are best left alone.”

Maddie studied her for a few minutes in silence.

“My mother’s history is the history of our people, so there is little about her history we do not know. My mother and father met when they were a bit younger than you are now. He was Outside fulfilling some duty related to his position and for a period of time he fell in with our clan. They were drawn together by their looks, you see, the so-called Aryan curse, and he was, in a way her equal: she the daughter of the great renegade leader, Bradyn, he a son of the Ruling Arm. She was Bradyn’s youngest child and only daughter, the child of his third wife and was already promised to the son of an ally, a betrothal that fretted her much.

"On the other hand the King tells the story from another perspective. He had never met anyone like her, you see. She was strong willed but she was also a free spirit. She taught him how to use a bow and sling. She taught him how to spear fish. She taught him the wood lore of the Hill People. Most of all he saw in her a reflection of his own life, constrained by family loyalty and trapped by the demands of their respective positions in society.

"Their time together was short, a matter of weeks, and they were cut off from one another when our people came under attack from the Insiders, The Last Great Purge. My father escaped. My Grandfather, the founder of our great clan, Bradyn, died in that battle on the Peldyn and our clan was horribly decimated. Mother’s brothers had been either captured or killed and she alone was left to lead.

"In the aftermath she struggled for control against men once loyal to Bradyn who thought they were better suited to leadership than she because she was female, barely eighteen and pregnant with me. A few thought if they slipped into her tent and forced a conjugal treaty, she would have to relinquish control to them, but she had young men loyal to her and on her orders they dragged these men to the crucifixion tree and left them to die alone and their bodies to rot as a warning against anyone else who might presume to steal her birthright.

“Several years later Father, cast out of the Insiders and now a renegade leader to be reckoned with, heard rumors about Mother and her crucifixions and sought her out. Until then he did not even know if she had survived that day. He prevailed upon her to rethink her policy of crucifying her enemies and helped her re-established the clan’s former rule of law. By then Mother had convinced everyone that mattered that she was capable of leadership and no one dared to thwart her."

Dani did not know what to say. What could she say after a narrative like that?

“Your mother’s history is your history.” Maddie lifted the end of her maroon fur over her body as the chill of deep night infiltrated the curtained bed chamber. “You cannot avoid that truth whether you know the pertinent details or not. Consider it a gift that she has invited you in to discover the woman she came to be in the aftermath of whatever war she endured. It may help you understand why she decided to come here, to Haven, with my father, though it meant abandoning you.”

By telling her the story of her parents Maddie had gone right to the heart of what ailed Dani. Her mother had abandoned her for the King.

Did she want to understand, Dani wondered with bitterness? She slept with Mama’s unopened journal pressed to her chest under both hands.

In the wee hours of the morning a low growl outside Maddie’s bed chamber startled Dani awake. The flames in the brassier had died down to hot coals. Naked Maddie sprang from her bed, wrapped herself in the large maroon fur and paused to lean over Dani. Her eyes were lively.

“Go back to sleep. I will see you in the morning.” She pressed a warm, firm kiss on Dani’s forehead, turned and was gone.

Just outside the tent voices mingled, an alto and tenor lover’s duet and their footsteps hurried away into silence.

Next Chapter: Chapter 18