ROAD TO CORDIA Read Free Page A

five Elders, the grieving Aunt M'eer, and the orphans were the only ones left. Elder Ban’Et spotted Ja'Nil and Sildy. Rog had snuck off with the villagers. “You children go to bed,” she ordered. “Immediately.”
         Sildy scurried into the sleeping room. Ja'Nil followed.
         Inside their room, Sildy plopped herself down on her bed. “I’m hungry,” she whined.
         With a sigh, Ja'Nil knelt, pulled out the box from beneath her bed and opened it. Aside from a spare set of clothes, it was empty. Ja'Nil looked up at Sildy.
         “I ate it yesterday,” said the Sildy. “Well, it was going stale.”
    * * *
         Ja'Nil couldn’t sleep. Between the hunger, Sildy snoring away in the next bed, and the loud voices of the Elders and Aunt M'eer arguing in the next room, Ja'Nil was wide-awake. Anyhow, lately she found sleep more and more…unpleasant.
         “I want that self-righteous little prigger censured by the council.” Ja'Nil heard Aunt M'eer say in her rough voice.
         Ja'Nil shifted nervously in her bed. Aunt M'eer always made Ja'Nil want to be somewhere else – somewhere far away.
         “Now Fisherwoman M'eer,” said Elder Ban’Et, always the peacemaker, “Lee-Uno may have been a little, uh, rude.”
         “Rude!”
         “But do remember she has just lost her mother and…”
         “And she accused me of murder. Me! Cho was my…” Her voice sounded almost tearful.
         “We all know what Cho was to you,” said Elder Jo’Oner.
         Ja'Nil could just imagine Aunt M'eer’s heavy brows lowering, her jaw jutting, and her posture ready to pounce. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Her voice was low and dangerous.
         Elder Jo’Oner backtracked rapidly. “Just that we all know she was your… ah, Special Person. We realize how deeply committed you were to each other. I for one, certainly sympathize with your grief.”
         “The question is,” broke in Elder To’Tol, “who will take the trading goods to Market City now that Cho’s dead?
         Their voices grew lower and then became a soft rumble. Ja'Nil’s eyes grew heavy. The last thing she heard before she finally drifted off was Elder Jo’Oner’s voice. “We must have a healer. It’s the only way to be sure.”
         Finally, sleep overtook Ja'Nil. And she dreamed.
     

CHAPTER 2
         She dreamed she was on her father’s boat, The Ta’Serc, In her dream, she is ten years old again.
    The same beautiful day. Her family safe and happy around her…and then the wave, twice the height of the Ta’Serc, a monster thrown up from the deep.
         Frantically, Daddy spins the wheel, trying to turn the bow in to the wave. But the Ta’Serc is just a fishing boat; speed of response has never been required of it. The wave is horribly dark, its crest a sickly yellow. It looms over them, blocking out the daylight as it crashes down.
    Tons of water snap the mast, tossing the massive oak timber about like a kindling. It falls across her father’s chest, pinning him to the sea-swept deck. The steering wheel is shattered. A spoke of the wheel, broken off into a razor sharp point, is sticking out of Daddy’s side. Bright red blood pumps from him to mingle with the rain and seawater.
    “Can you move it?” yells Mama.
    “What?”
    “Move the mast.”
    Ja’Nil tries. God of the Circle knows she tried. She claws at it, pushing and straining. Nothing.
    “Use your gift,” Mama yells.
    Ja’Nil closes her eyes, pictures the massive timber lying across her Daddy’s chest. She tries to “see” it floating up and moving gently away. Nothing is happening. It won’t budge.
         The storm is still crashing against the Ta'Serc, rocking it dangerously.  Now there is thunder along with whipping wind. Lightning flashes across her closed eyelids. She can’t concentrate. She can’t concentrate! She can’t “see” it.
         “Ja'Nil,” Mama calls out,