By Willamette Sutta

The sneeze quivered on Munya’s nose, and she opened her mouth. Mami clamped a hand over both, earning her a fistful of spit and snot.

It wasn’t enough.

The men shouted and came toward them.

“Run!” Her mother sprang from the underbrush and shoved Munya in the opposite direction. She stumbled and looked back. “No, girl—go!”

Munya recoiled, wanting to return. Her feet wouldn’t obey, running away of their own accord. “Mami!”

Her mother’s dark eyes burned with love and desperation, then snapped around to face the bounty hunters trampling toward her.

Munya moved to keep up with her feet, clinging to the image of her mother’s bun, stabbed through with a hair stick, becoming more distinct in the blooming glow. She twisted forward and looked up. Had the moon come out?

Creak—screams—Crash!

Munya tried to stop and nearly toppled over when she did. She turned, instantly regretting it.

Her mother stood with both arms forward, stretched toward a tree that had fallen on their pursuers.

For a moment, Munya saw the frozen eyes and bloodied faces, peeking beneath the massive bark. The light winked out into blackness, and her heart seized in an icy choke.

“Mami!” she wailed, dropping onto the damp ground.

Quick footsteps brought the reassuring voice close. “Hush, Muni. Shh—shhhh.”

Munya flinched at the touch, then pushed into Mami’s familiar arms. “Where is the moon?”

“We don’t need it,” she said, pulling Munya up. “Let’s go.”

“Did it go behind a cloud?” Munya tried to look up again, but Mami held her as they tripped over the slushing leaves.

Munya blinked until her eyes adjusted to the silvery gleam of the stars. It was bright enough, but not like before. She focused on the sounds of cicadas and distant frogs, calming her.

They were going uphill. Her mother only held her hand now.

“Mami, why did the tree fall?”

Mami’s grip tightened, but no answer came.

They walked on in silence. Munya’s stomach remembered to rumble again, and fatigue weighed her down. She had no idea how far the Hannola Hills were. Mami had only mentioned them once before they left.

Pha wasn’t even dead yet, but Mami said he was too sick to wake again, and they must be gone before the Nai’s men came to take everything, including them. They could not pay their debts now so they would become slaves.

A night bird screeched. Mami stopped and thrust Munya behind her.

“Show yourself,” she said.

A man stumbled out on their left, holding his head. “Ugh. What did you do?”

“You were… reading my mind with foul sorcery.”

“Hey, don’t get all judgy. It’s not like you’re not packing something too, or I would have read your mind. But you blocked it with… what? It sizzled my brain, and boy, did that sting!”

“The Aerjui,” Mami said. “It’s power from Elrad.”

“Huh… And you control it?”

“I don’t control it. It is grace—to do good.”

“Yeah, like dropping a tree on those guys back there?”

“Who are you? You are not from here.”

He stood up straighter, wavy dark hair falling away from his face. His coloring was deeper than theirs. Munya guessed Asenei, although the clothes didn’t fit with the neighboring country. Hair looked wrong too.

“Name’s Zai. I’m visiting from… other parts.” He shrugged. “Had a unique opportunity to see new sights and took it. But I had no money, so thought I would do some work. There’re always crooks to catch.”

“We are not crooked, and your accent is terrible.”

“That happens when you have to pick up language from telepathy. And no offense, I’m just after the fee. Wasn’t thrilled about nabbing women and children, but well…” He peered at her. “Glad I hung back though. W—what are you doing?”

His black eyes grew wide in the warm light. Light?

“Oh, I see where it’s from,” he said.

Mami’s hair stick was glowing from the yellow knob at the end. Was it a gem?

“You’re from far away,” Mami said.

“You know?” The confidence skipped in his voice. “They said no one would…”

“They don’t know the Aerjui. You must go back. It’s wrong for you to be here.”

“Not so simple… Tell you what. Give me that stick, and I’ll let you go. I’d like it for my collection.”

Mami bowed, and gusts of wind hit him from the side.

“What…?” He staggered and scrunched down, clutching a gnarled tree root.

The air raked Munya’s skin, but she remained planted on her feet.

“No… not yet!” He hung onto the root as the current tugged his compact form upward. A clenched grimace stretched his lips, and he goggled over Mami’s bent head.

Munya read it in his eyes and lunged at the same time he did.

“For Ryn!” Zai yelled, yanking the stick from Mami’s hair, unleashing a cascade of black locks.

Munya grabbed his wrist and sank her teeth into it. Mami screamed, but his whine was louder.

He screeched like a crying rat as he dropped the stick. Munya pounced on it. “Fouler’s toenail that hurts! Do you have fangs?” His face paled when he saw blood on his hand. More cries erupted before the ballyhoo of his pain faded, carried away with his body by the gust.

Munya hardly noticed as she clasped the gleaming jewel, transfixed by the fervent strength embracing her and an almost-visible gaze of stern care.

Mami plucked it gently from her hands, and a surge of sadness mixed in as their fingers brushed. Then it was gone.

She gaped at her mother, who went about coiling her hair back up.

“Mami, are you a Wise Woman?”

Munya thought she would not answer again. But this time, Munya plunked herself on the forest floor, determined not to move. Her hair intact, Mami eyed her and sighed.

“I am not worthy. But maybe someday you will be.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Willamette Sutta is the pen name of a former academic librarian who has always been more fascinated with the worlds of imagination than the STEM books that she curated. Now she combines her love of information and speculation to create fantastic stories that nevertheless give an air of a world truer than the one we see. Find the story beneath the story.

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