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30
Day 194
Hollis shuts herself in the throne room making Kava a few special things out of the flowers she fetched yesterday. Hopefully, no one will find out about them until the ceremony, so they won’t be too mad at us. Angus and Tolliver build a bonfire in the center courtyard.
Kava is making a meal of meat stew and mush. Luckily, we have a few pieces of jerky left to make it a little more special.
“Ledger,” Hollis whispers. She pokes her head out the throne room door and waves me over. Yanking me through the door, she reveals a path of petals from the door to the middle of the room along the golden rows of tiles. It’s actually quite beautiful. “Can you help me with something?” Her blue eyes sparkle in the torchlight. She is still wearing the grass stained tunic and trousers. Without waiting for me to respond, she instructs, “I need these over there.”
She is pointing at several tall iron candlesticks on either side of the thrones on the platform. It takes me several minutes to drag all four candlesticks to the center of the room. They screech hideously along the stone floor, sending shivers up my spine.
“There,” she says, “Our Hundred Harvest Tree.” She smiles and runs a hand through her hair. “Your job is to make sure the wind doesn’t wreck the petal path. I have to go get ready and help Kava.”
I laugh, and she lowers her eyebrows at me feigning seriousness.
“Okay,” I say with hands raised in surrender. She gives me a few more directions and prances out the door.
A little while later, after I’ve paced the entire room three times, there is a bang on the door. I open it slightly. It is Tolliver and Angus. “Where are the girls?” I push my face through the crack in the door.
“They’re coming. Let us in,” Angus demands.
“No, Hollis said not to let anyone in until we’re all here.”
At that moment, Kava and Hollis walk around the corner from the dining hall. Kava is dressed in a floor length white dove-down silk dress with a daisy crown on her head and a bouquet of wild violets in her hands. Tolliver gasps and Angus says, “Whoa.”
Kava looks beautiful, but next to Hollis there is no comparison. Hollis found a light pink dress that drapes to her knees. Her short vibrant hair and rosy cheeks, slender body and dainty features make my heart skip.
They stop before the door and I can’t take my eyes off her. I don’t notice her eyes go from excited to irritated.
“Open the door, Ledger,” Kava demands. I jolt to attention and drag the large door open. They enter and Kava gasps at the beautiful petal path that leads into the room. I quickly push the door closed behind them, so it doesn’t get blown apart.
“Thank you, Hollis,” Kava whispers and hugs her.
We create our own silent processional down the petal path to the center of the room toward the rod iron Hundred Harvest Tree.
Angus leads them in the blessing of the union and their future offspring. Kava and Tolliver gather a handful of petals in their hands, kiss them and toss them above their heads. They fall all around us as if they are falling from the Hundred Harvest Tree. My whole body aches with nostalgia.
Tolliver unfolds a white piece of fabric he brought. He drapes it over her head and touches her face gently. Her cheeks push back into a pleasant smile. Happy tears pool in her eyes.
Angus claps a rhythm. We put our hands together to the beat and dance for several moments. It doesn’t matter to Tolliver and Kava that we don’t have any drums to pound out the rhythm. We laugh together at the awkwardness as our claps echo around the room.
I hand Tolliver a piece of coal, symbolizing our family trade. Hollis hands Kava a leafy branch. “Pretend it is an herb,” Hollis whispers and winks.
Kava chuckles and nods.
We walk together down the petal path, out the door into the courtyard. The flames of the bonfire are small, whipping back and forth. But it serves the purpose.
Tolliver and Kava lift their tokens and say together, “Through life into death, we combine into dust, never to be separated.” They toss the branch and coal into the flames.
Before leaving the bonfire, Tolliver pauses and kisses Kava in front of us. The Balfour ceremony never includes kissing, partly because some of the unions are arranged marriages. But Tolliver and Kava’s show of affection is quite fitting for their unique ceremony in the sky.
We walk to the dining hall and sit together around a high stone table. Angus fetches the meal. We eat the meat stew and talk about the future.
“When we get back, I’m going to build myself a house,” Angus says.
“You can build me one too.” Kava smiles and touches Tolliver’s hand.
“When we get back, I’m going to go fishing.” Tolliver swallows a bite of Kava’s delicious meal. “And never eat grain again.” We laugh together filling the hall with our voices.
Hollis says, “I’ll go swimming. I’ll climb an apple tree and eat fifteen apples. And,” she pauses dramatically, as a smile spreads across her face. “I’m going to make a cake.”
They all laugh at her comment, but I jam another bite of stew into my mouth. I don’t say anything because I’m not ready to go home.
***
Day 203
“You did what?” Tolliver asks.
“I wanted it to be special,” Hollis says crossing her arms.
“And you were involved with this?” He looks at me with intense brown eyes. I put my hands up, staying out of it. I take a step back and sit on the edge of the courtyard fountain. I distract myself by picking up tiny bits of gravel and tossing them into the fountain.
Hollis crosses her arms and pouts, “I survived, didn’t I? It worked, didn’t it?”
Tolliver stops for a moment and I see a revelation light in his head. He is concocting something.
“What?” I toss a stone into the pool with a plunk.
“Maybe we can climb down and hunt again.” He scratches his head and says, “I miss a decent meal.”
Hollis and I exchange glances and she winks at me. Swallowing back a laugh that almost burps out, I toss the rest of the gravel into the fountain.
“Show me how you did it,” he says. Hollis uncrosses her arms and swiftly leads the way to the dungeon. We light a few torches at the bottom and make our way around the dragon’s cage and out the underside of Ellery. I show Tolliver the pulley and gather the rope, ready to toss it off.
“Wait,” he stops me. “What is that?”
We all look to the ground below. There are men wearing glistening silver armor on horseback riding in pace with Ellery. The island is closer to the ground than where Hollis gathered flowers.
The men notice us standing at the mouth of the cave. They could be shouting, but we can’t hear them. Their arms wave wildly. Without helmets, I can see their skin is painted a solid color. Some are red, some blue, yellow and a few green except for the man leading the charge. His hair is brilliant white with skin that is pale and nearly as white.
Hollis waves to the men. I lean out and look around the side of the rock toward the east and see a vibrant path before us. There are long rows of flowers leading to a castle in the distance.
“Look at that,” I exclaim.
“What is going on?” Tolliver leans out to see. “Let’s go up top for a better view.”
Dropping the ropes, I follow Tolliver and Hollis back through the belly of Ellery. He calls for Angus and Kava as we race through the courtyard and around to the east lookout tower. We get to the ledge and gaze out at the expanse of colorful rows of flowers. It looks as though they are planted in a pattern along the path of our floating island. They lead to a city with a massive castle at the center.
Standing in awe at the sight, Hollis chatters on and on about the flowers, big and small, red and purple, how she wished she could climb down now for Kava’s wedding flowers.
When Kava and Angus arrive, we don’t need to direct them to the view because it is so vibrant and eye-catching.
“Holy goose farts!” Angus exclaims.
“I’ve never seen anything so beautiful,” Kava gasps.
“Look, soldiers,” Angus says, pointing to the northeast. I squint, just able to make out rows and rows of men in silver armor.
“There are horsemen riding directly beneath us too,” Tolliver says. “We saw them out the dragon’s cave.” He puts the spyglass to his eye.
“Do they seem angry?” Kava grabs Tolliver’s arm. “Are they going to attack?”
“Actually,” I interject, “They seem happy to see us.”
Scanning the landscape and the gray castle beyond, Tolliver says, “There are mounds of bags near the castle with soldiers guarding them. Maybe bags of food.”
“For us?” Hollis asks.
“Not exactly us. For the Ellerians. Remember, it will be another three or four full moons until we reach the location where the Ellerians were lost,” Tolliver explains.
“These people don’t know the Sky People are gone.” Hollis peers into the distance.
“We need that food,” Angus says.
“We are never going to get down there to receive it,” Kava says with sadness in her voice. “Besides they would notice we don’t have wings.”
“I don’t want to risk getting captured again,” Tolliver says.
“That was not fun,” Hollis agrees.
“So, what do we do?” I search for an answer.
“Nothing,” Tolliver replies. “We wait until we pass, then maybe we can talk about getting down to the ground to hunt again.”
Angus looks at him with wide eyes and a bit of excitement as Tolliver explains our stunt to pick flowers. My face warms with embarrassment because of how silly it sounds. Angus, of course, who always loves a challenging adventure, loves the idea. My stomach fills with bile at the thought of trying it again.
