We traveled to Akana by way of motorized vehicle. However, Iry stopped a short distance from the village because he felt it best not to draw attention to my homecoming by driving in.
I had to think about what he was saying, then I recalled my last day at the village, when I had caused such a disturbance. Perhaps I wouldn’t be welcome, and maybe even shunned.
We left his ‘car’ at the edge of the fields, walking in from the back past the stables. I felt a sense of heavy sadness as I walked by where I used to house my horse Casey. He helped me flee Akana and was struck with poisoned arrows as I made my escape. A part of me wished that I would see his head poke out of the stall, that somehow, he had miraculously lived. Sadly, the stall was empty. Casey’s sacrifice was my ticket to life, but also my loss.
No one was in the fields or around at all. The time of day was working time and I found this odd. No horsemen, tailors, wheat grinders, no one.
Then the sound of voices cheering carried to us as we neared the main community circle of Akana.
We approached from behind my home. I was prepared to go inside through the back door, when I heard Nito’s voice rising above the crowd.
“Do I not provide?” she asked. “Am I not kind to you?”
“Yes!” the crowd cheered.
“Then listen to me. You have been warned. The Elders ignore what I have said!” she shouted. “She needs to be imprisoned, for your safety. For the safety of us all!”
I did not need to be superiorly intelligent to know she was speaking about me. Iry tried to stop me from showing my face and walking to the circle, but I pulled from his warning grip.
“You must encourage the Elders to place her with me to be in a secure place!” Nito shouted, inciting the crowd. “If she is free, she will cause death, destruction, hunger, and famine. She is cursed! When the reign of terror and murder stalk through the night and take your young, blame her…” She swung her arm to point at me as I slipped into view. “They will come for her, they follow her, and in turn they will come for you!”
Iry stepped in a protective stance in front of me when the crowd turned my way. “This girl is no such thing!” Iry yelled. “Nito speaks lies through her greed. She wants the power this girl possesses.”
The entire town gasped as if what Iry said was blasphemous. In fact it was; he had spoken out against High Princess Nito.
“Educator,” Nito spat, walking toward him. “You are nothing. You are the lowest of the low of the Ancients. You are not above being excommunicated.”
“You are not in a position to do so,” Iry stated.
The sound of my little sister’s voice cut through the tension.
“Vala!” She yelled. “Vala!”
I gasped in joy over the sight of my little sister, Sophie. She didn’t fear me, she ran to me and I crouched own with extended arms. She slammed into my chest, greeting mine with a huge embrace. I took her in my arms, holding her tight, and lifting her against me.
Maybe I should have sought out my mother, however, my sister was the one I needed to hold.
“You’re back,” she said. “I knew you’d come back.”
My mother emerged from the crowd. Her lips moved silently, then finally she spoke my name. “Vala.”
I clutched my sister tighter. The crowd just watched.
Nito inched closer. “Your time draws near, Mare.” She cocked her head and spoke loudly. “Akana, tomorrow is ceremony. Tomorrow, encourage the Elders to hand her to me, for the longer she is free, the more danger she poses to you.”
She cast a snide look my way, my eyes locked on hers. There was a psychic tension, an underlying challenge between us. She turned in a dramatic fashion and walked off.
I held on to my sister in the face of dozens of cold stares from those I knew as neighbors.
My mother kept her distance. Not that it surprised me. Maybe she was in shock.
Iry insisted that Nito’s words were lies and she was using the people of Akana. In any event, Nito had to be stopped. I firmly believed she was an important figure to defeat in the war against the Sybaris. Her demise was my goal, and one I was certain I would reach.