A Star Is Born 1
The throne room was empty save the king who stood at the far wall, staring into the palace. The sun reflected on the twelve sun disks strategically placed around the room made his hair shine like spun gold. King Aruba, thirteenth king of Eloisa Kingdom, the land of the immortal kings.
He was usually a cheerful and jovial monarch but today, his shoulders seemed to droop as though he carried great weight. His great sword hung loose on its scabbard and his eyes roamed the streets of the palace without really seeing anything. Then someone stepped into the throne room and the King became alert, watching in his mind eye as the person walked closer to him.
“Edva,” the king called.
“My King” replied the astrologer, not at all surprised that the king had been aware of his presence. The king turned to him and Edva bowed so low his beards swept the floor.
“What is this I hear of a star rising in the East?” King Aruba asked. The astrologer’s eyes flashed with menace and the king continued. “Yes, my wailers speak of it. I assume it is the reason for your visit also”
“Yes my king, but I am unlike the wailers who are barbaric in their ways,” Edva said, curling his tongue in disgust as he remembered the Wailers. Dreadful creatures with human bodies and animal heads. They were born to serve the king and one of their gifts was to see the future.
“Those “barbaric ways” have so far gotten me out of a few scrapes,” the king said sarcastically.
“My king. I have more than the Wailers can ever give you” Edva said quickly.
“What is that?” The king asked. He snapped his fingers and guards who had otherwise been invisible, hiding under the drapes came out and stood guard beside their king as he sat on his throne.
“The location of the star,” Edva said happily, his beard bobbing in the air. The king stared at him as though he had run mad.
“A star rising in the East. Tell me Chief Astrologer, what other location do you need?” He asked.
Edva looked at the guards to see if they had moved from their place beside the King “I know the exact village in the East, my king” he said. The king seemed pleased at this.
“Very well, you may write it in that scroll and leave. Guards, call all my councilors. We have a war on our hands”
***
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It was a moonless night, the stars shone brighter than ever before. Myra and her mother sat outside their hut, warming themselves by the fire. There would be no music today, both mother and child had no stomach for it.
“Mother, I have learned everything. I know the movement of the sun and how it impacts on our farmlands. I know the birthing date of a lamb just by looking at its mother. I know the seasons and the names of all the mountains and rivers in Eloisa.” Myra said. She turned to watch her mother’s face. Her mother was a young woman gone old from the strain of taking care of both husband and child alone for many years.
Myra’s father had been paralyzed in a hunting accident and could no longer work. Myra was just fifteen years old and only recently began to help her mother in her little shop. They were not very poor, her mother’s ivory carvings fetching a great amount partly because it was ivory and partly because Myra carved with the dexterity of ten veteran carvers.
She had begun to carve when she was as little as four years old, at that time her mother kept the wood carvings on the top shelf and told everyone who asked that she was the one who carved them. She feared for her daughter’s safety if people began to view her as different or special. Her learning under the Great Masters of the tribe made her know how dangerous people’s reactions to strange things could be.
Myra’s hair, which had grown long over the years(an impossible feat for the Eloisa people who had hair closely cropped to their heads) had also been kept hidden. Tied neatly around the girl’s head and covered with a scarf like the one all the other girls wore. The music was also strange, but no one could suspect foul play in the playing of a wooden flute and they were safe.
“Do you know why stars shine so bright in our lands?” She asked her daughter. The teenager shook her head, biting her rosebud lips. Helima always thought the child too beautiful to be hers.
“No, tell me,” Myra said. Scooting over so she was resting her head on her mother’s shoulder.
“It is because the king who is the brightest star of all shines upon us”
“Does he shine like that in his throne room? When will we ever see the palace?” Myra asked carelessly. Then she quieted when she realized that would mean leaving her father alone for weeks. She cuddled deeper into her mother and stopped.
“Why is there a heart beating in your belly?” She asked her mother. Helima smiled proudly.
“I should have expected that you would feel it. I am with child”
“A brother!” Myra squealed “Oh. I have always wanted a brother”
“Myra” Helima called.
“Yes mother”
“Wherever you go. Remember to hide your gifts. There are people who would love to use it for evil” Helima said, earnestly staring into her daughter’s eyes.
“Yes mother, I will. Do not worry.”
***
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The jeweler was a man with a tall frame, a defining feature of the Merchants, the tribeless people of Eloisa. They were castes higher than the farmers or artisans and allowed no one into their ranks. Helima hoped that her request would be accepted but she didn’t have much faith.
“How may I help you, lady?” The jeweler asked. Helima adjusted her veil and walked closer to the counter.
“I do not come for your jewels,” she said. The jeweler laughed.
“What else can you find in a Jeweler’s shop?” He asked. Then he looked at her and gasped. “Helima, is that you?”
“Yes, Mandi. It is indeed I” Helima said. The jeweler crossed over the counter and rushed towards her. He took her in his arms but she resisted.
“I am a married woman now,” she said, her voice quivering.
“Do you think I care about that? With all the pain you caused me, I deserve to hold you and never let you out of my sight again” The jeweler said, then he seemed to recover himself. “I am a married man too,” he said. He stepped away from her but he couldn’t take his eyes off his long lost love.
“I need your help,” Helima said. Mandi, the jeweler laughed harshly.
“And why should I help you? I am no longer yours to command” he said.
“It is about my child,” Helima said, she stretched out a hand to touch him but he shifted away from her. “She needs a career”
“Surely she can follow the steps of her mother. You say career but we both know you mean caste. It is against the law to switch castes like that.” Mandi replied. He was back behind his counter, putting space between them.
“I want more for my child,” Helima said.
“Do you? You ran away from me and eloped with a hunter. Yet you stand here, sixteen years later and say you want what’s best for your child!” Mandi cried.
“I am sorry. I made my choice and I do not regret it. You will know why when you see her”
“I will know nothing,” Mandi said, slamming his hand on the wood. Then suddenly he smiled a wicked smile. “Send her to me. I will consider it a gift of appeal and a retaliation. The hunter took a wife from me, I will be taking a daughter from him”
“You will do no such thing,” Helima said clutching at her scarf. Mandi gave her that same burning look. The look of a wounded animal.
“When you do, send her alone. I cannot bear to see you again” he said and turned his back until she left.
The next day, Myra trudged down the path to the jeweler’s shop. There were black, white and purple lilies on the path. Her bag was heavy so she dropped it on the dusty footpath, picked seven of those flowers and weaved a little bouquet. The large red door was locked and it read Jewels in the ancient language. Myra rang the small bell hanging beside the door and it opened.
She looked inside but there was no one standing at the counter. She walked in, the brightness of the jewels calling unto her. She had never seen such splendor in all her years.
“Hah!!” A voice shouted, as its owner jumped from behind the door. Myra opened her mouth to scream and was stopped with a heavy hand on her mouth. “Don’t scream!”
She struggled against the big man’s hold and he released her.
“So you’re my new apprentice,” the man said, he was smiling. Myra shifted away from him until her back was against the door. She was shocked, her mother had spoken highly of the jeweler and she had not expected to be harassed.
“My mother sent me here,” she said, a shadow passed over his face but he quickly regained his smile.
“Yes, she was here yesterday. Call me Mandi. You have much to learn” the huge man said briskly. As though trying to conceal a particular emotion. “First, I will take your bag. Then you will take off your scarf. Can’t have you looking like a farm urchin in my shop” as he said it, he dragged her scarf off her head. Myra tried to stop him but she couldn’t. He was too strong.
Her hair tumbled down her back and the jeweler watched in awe.
“So this is what your mother spoke of,” he said, Myra’s eyes widened. Who was this man that her mother would tell him their life long secret?
He shook himself out of the daze. He, like every other merchant, had traveled through the whole of Eloisa but never had he seen anyone with long flowing hair.
“We have to hide your hair,” he said, then he walked over to a closet on the right. He rummaged through it for a moment. Myra was still standing at the door, trying to tame her hair. “Come,” he said beckoning to her “hair like amethyst” he murmured in wonder, handing her a scarf.
Myra took the new scarf from him. It was bejeweled, red and beautiful. She dropped her head in thanks and Mandi patted it. Suddenly, I possess something more precious than all my jewels he thought.
“My wife would be back in a few hours. If anyone asks who you are, tell them you are our daughter. We will be leaving in two days” he said.
***
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Myra had been standing outside her house when her mother returned. The woman had looked even older than ever before. Her heart went out to her mother as she vowed for the hundredth time to work and become rich so her mother wouldn’t have to struggle anymore. She ran and hugged her mother.
“How was the market?” She asked, taking the small basket her mother held. It barely contained anything as they had very little money to spare.
“Busy as usual,” Helima said. “I have something to tell you. Sit down”
Myra sat on one of the stools outside and faced her mother. Will she allow me to learn with the Great Masters now? She thought
“You will be leaving home tomorrow,” her mother said.
“To where?” Myra asked.
“Your new career as a Jeweler’s apprentice,” Helima said with a smile, she was pleased that her plan had succeeded.
“I don’t understand. I’m a hunter’s child. I cannot apprentice with a jeweler. It is against the law.” Myra cried. “Jewelers are merchants who travel around the kingdom. I would have to leave you and father”
“Yes, you will. You will return in three moons.” Helima said, taking her daughter’s hand and trying to comfort her. Fat tears fell down Myra’s cheeks.
“I might miss the baby’s birth” she gulped.
“No, you won’t,” her mother said fiercely “you will be back just in time to see your little brother be born”
“Promise me,” Myra said, Helima drew her little girl to her. The baby kicked between them.
“I promise,” she said.
Myra wiped fresh tears from her cheeks. Remembering her family always brought pain and she tried to avoid it as much as possible. Mandi and his wife treated her like their own daughter. They had six grown-up sons who had all gone into the army and were delighted to have a little doll, as Mandi’s wife called Myra, with them.
Their journey through the kingdom had been an uneventful one. Yet Myra had watched and observed as they went, part of the skills her mother taught her, always look and learn, you never know when you will need the knowledge. So she watched as much as she could without intruding on others’ privacy.
She learned that the Mongol people prayed with their feet up and facing the sun because they believed the feet were holier than hands. The Brishne people had hair shaved to the scalp, both males and females and their women wore only loin clothes like the men, leaving their breasts exposed. Soon they neared the capital and joined a caravan of other traveling merchants.
“Myra, come help me gather wood. We are stopping here for the night.” Mandi’s wife Helen said. Myra shot up from her perch on the mat.
“We’ll be having a proper dinner,” she said excitedly. Helen laughed, her voice like tinkling bells. She held unto Myra when the latter attempted to pass through the door.
“Oh, you are the daughter I never had,” she said, kissing the top of Myra’s head. They both walked hand in hand into the nearby woods, in search of dry wood.
“Why was the ancient language banned from use,” Myra asked Helen as they searched the undergrowth for wood. The woman smiled at her. She was by now used to the teenager asking questions out of the blue. Deep topics that would barely interest adults were what she found exciting.
“Because it became so powerful that people began to use it for dark magic,” she said.
“So none can read the ancient symbols now?” Myra asked. She cocked her head to the side as she remembered that she had seen an ancient symbol on the door of the jeweler’s shop.
“A symbol like the one on the door of our shop is in the ancient language. It was carved on it centuries ago. Some say it is what preserves the door and the shop but I have my doubts” Helen said, her voice sounded far away. Myra ran to meet her.
“It says jewels.” She said. Helen looked at her for a moment, trying to understand what she just heard.
“You can read the ancient language,” she said, her face gone white. Myra was oblivious.
“My mother taught me,” she said. Helen covered her mouth with a hand.
“Don’t ever tell that to anyone. Do you hear me?” She said. Myra shook her head, unable to speak with the hand still covering her mouth. A scream tore through the air and both women stood up in surprise. Another scream went up, followed by another. There were shouts also, all coming from the direction of the camp.
“Mandi!” Helen screamed out. There was no answer. She dropped the wood she was holding and turned to Myra.
“Wait here. Hide. Whatever you do, don’t come out until I tell you to” she said. Then she tore off her petticoat and handed it to Myra. Myra watched as Helen ran through the forest, a feeling of foreboding settling over her.
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