Page 5 of Humans Don't Have Horns
“Who are you? Are you Baghiva?” The name from earlier jumps to my mind as I try to make any sense of this situation.
The woman’s eyes widen in surprise. “How do you know that name?” Perhaps it was a mistake to ask. She can’t know that I understand their language. It’s best for them to speak freely in my presence. I remain silent as she looks at me closely. After what feels like a long time, she says “I’m Emek.” She lifts the bowl slightly as if her name is enough to persuade me to eat.
“Why are you the one treating me? What is your role in this kidnapping?”
She loses her patience. “Enough with the questions. Eat now.” My eyes sting from tears of frustration. “I can’t move.”
Emek rolls her eyes and murmurs to herself inaudibly. “I’ll feed you,” she says, sounding as enthusiastic about the idea as I feel. She takes a cushion, seats me so I lean on it, and brings a spoon full of porridge to my mouth. It’s humiliating to be so helpless.
I spit it out. “Oh, it’s vile.”
Emek’s eyes harden. “We live on what we can, Princess, sinceAldon forbade us from working the land,” she says scathingly. “Eat now or die, for I care less and less with every moment.”
Like all Aldonians, I went to the chapel daily from the age of three. I knelt for two hours every day, begging for forgiveness for my sins so Sun would not strike me. I know nothing of the Cursed Ones but what I was told in the chapel – that they have malicious and violent natures.
Yet it is obvious I have just insulted her. Can monsters even get offended?
“I’ll eat.” I let Emek feed me. I must eat if I have any hope of escape.
***
I dream of my mother, her blue eyes smiling at me. locks of blue hair dancing in the light. “Can you keep a secret, Lian?” She stands in front of an altar for Sun, a large gold panel with Sun’s imprint on it. My mother presses it, the panel moves, and I see another altar. A silver altar, and at the center is the moon. Around it is text in Renyan:Forever we are children of the moon.
“The Goddess is a secret, Lian. Father can never know.”
Again I wake up confused and disoriented. Was it a dream or a memory? Since my arrival in this place, my mother’s image haunts me. An image I hadn’t managed to form in years. But over the past few days, I have been flooded with memories. Is it the danger of my situation, or perhaps the boredom from being too weak to move. But it’s not just the memories. Everything is sharper—smells, sounds, flavors. As if I have been underwater for years and am now at the surface.
The pain is sharper too. So sharp I can barely breathe. Like my world came to an end just now and not nine years ago, when my mother and sister died. I had remained at my father's mercy ever since. Much like I am at the mercy of this Cursed One now.
Sitting on the mattress alone in the tent, I can hear the Cursed Ones outside. The random exchanges of words passing by the tent, ababy crying. There is no guard outside. Probably because trying to leave would be a deranged idea.
Emek said we’re in the swamps. The Swamps of Death, as they call them in Aldon. No Puresoul dares go in the swamps. Predators lurk everywhere. There are stories of trolls, swamp lions, and giant spiders who can eat a grown man whole. Being in the swamps explains the stench. The air itself is full of poison. Only evil and cursed things live in the swamps. What’s more, I am surrounded by Cursed Ones, who are known to take pleasure in drinking the blood of Puresouls. Especially the Butcher, who favors the blood of Puresoul babies. And most of all, I can barely even stand. I don’t know what they’ve done to me that makes me so weak.
I think of my guardian—Ms. Ektra – who was with me for the past nine years. Ever since I was moved to the palace. Ms. Ektra is now dead. I’m disturbed by the mildness of the emotions her death produces in me. Why is there no pain or grief? Is it because of her role in the events of that night before the wedding? She served as a maternal figure to me after my own mother died. Should I not be haunted by the sight of her corpse outside the wedding tent? I fall asleep with these disturbing thoughts.
Chapter Four
Lian
I’m having another nightmare. This time, I’m standing in a beautiful white gazebo full of colorful butterflies, right in the middle of a well-kept garden awash with light. I sit there, amid all that beauty, paralyzed. In the distance, a faceless monster devours my little brother. I try to move but fail. I wake up in tears.
This was not a memory. My brother, the Crown Prince of Aldon, is very much alive. I sit on the mattress, trying to settle my breath. I soon realize I’m not alone.
My kidnapper crouches near me. His commanding figure looms large inside the small, spare tent. He’s shaved now and clean of blood and gore. He smells of soap and something sweet I struggle to name. His appearance is so unlike the last time I faced him. But he wears the same leather armor on his upper body and two axes on either side of his belt. His obsidian-black eyes look tired. I freeze under his gaze. Has he come to fulfill Minera’s demand for an offspring?
“You had a nightmare,” he says, frowning at me. To my shock, he spoke in fluent Aldonian. I open my mouth to speak and shut it again, unable to shake off my frozen state.
“Can you walk, or do you need me to carry you?” His eyes are fixed on some point behind me, as if the sight of me offends him.
“I can walk,” I croak. I have gained strength over the past few days, with Emek feeding me regularly. Even if she hadn’t, the last thing I want is for him to carry me or touch me in any way.
“Let’s go,” he commands, avoiding my eyes. “Go where?” I frown at him.
He stands up. “We’ll start with going away from here. We have no time. Come on.”
He speaks in my language with an untraceable accent, which I find astonishing. Where did the Butcher study such enunciation?Focus, Lian.Should I go with him? If he wants to rape me, why not here? What if he just means to kill me? He told Minera he would. I stand, and he hands me a dark cloak with a hood and a satchel I didn’t even notice he had. I wear the heavy cloak and tuck the white strands of my hair under the cowl.
The crescent moon outside does little to illuminate the night. I spot more tents. A few behemas are scattered in the camp. Snorting occasionally. All else is quiet. My kidnapper walks at a quick pace away from the camp and towers over the swamps surrounding it. We pass several large, dangling objects that are revealed as human corpses as we get closer. They are hard to make out in the darkness and in their rotting state but I observe that they have no horns. They must be Puresouls. But I can’t make out their colors in the scant moonlight. Red for Aldonian, blue for Renyan, or yellow for Kozari. I regret eating earlier as I struggle not to retch.
