“Hey,” the woman said, crouching before her, wiping her cheeks. “What’s wrong? Have you lost your mom and dad?”
“And my pig.” Zeeky swallowed, then sobbed. “I’m all alone.”
“Me too,” the woman said. “So why don’t we stay together. You can help me, okay?”
“O-okay.”
“So what’s your name?” the woman asked.
“Z-Zeeky. What’s yours?”
“Jandra,” the woman answered as she swept her up in her arms. Jandra looked at Hey You and said, “I’m surprised they don’t have you under guard.”
The old man shifted his eyes toward her. His lips barely moved. “I’m not the man I thought I was.”
“What do you mean?” Jandra asked.
“I am no longer Bitterwood,” Hey You said, continuing to lie as still as death. “Another now answers to that name.”
“I don’t understand.”
At last, Hey You lifted his head from the ground. He frowned as he said, “Your boyfriend stole my name. I may let him keep it.”
“My boyfriend?” Jandra asked, sounding confused. Then she raised her eyebrows. “Pet?”
The man Zeeky called Hey You lowered his cheek to the dirt once more and said nothing.
A commotion came from the edges of the crowd. The shouts of dragons could be heard, barking orders for the people to line up.
“Stick close to me, honey,” Jandra said to Zeeky as she lowered her back to the ground. Then she moved to Hey You and said, “Let me help you up.”
“Why bother?” the old man complained. “Let the dragons carry me or kill me.”
“Don’t be like this,” Jandra said, placing her hands on the ropes that bound him. Her hands glowed in the morning light and the ropes fell free. “I’m going to save these people. You’re going to help me.”
“I tried to save them,” the old man said. “I failed. I’m too tired to go on.”
Jandra took him by the shirt and with a grunt lifted him to a sitting position. She stared into his eyes and said in a low voice, “No matter what the dragons or these people believe, I know who you are. You do too. You aren’t going to simply give up.”
“You don’t know me,” he said. “I’ve fought for so long. Now another has agreed to die for my sins. You could never understand what that means.”
“Then you can try to explain it as we go,” Jandra said, struggling to pull him to his feet.
The old man sighed, then stood, shoulders hunched..
“I need to borrow your cloak for a second,” Jandra said, picking it up from where the dragons had thrown it to the ground. She looked around; no one even looked in their direction. “Zeeky, I need you to keep secret what you’re about to see.”
“Okay,” Zeeky said.
Jandra took Bitterwood’s cloak and placed it over her, hiding her face in the hood. By now the guards had reached them and forced them into the column of people that formed across the field. Zeeky noticed that other green dragons had herded the animals from the village at the back of the column, and she wondered if Poocher was with them.
“There,” Jandra said, handing the cloak back to Bitterwood.
Zeeky gasped. Jandra’s hair was no longer long and brown, but was now short and black. Bangs completely concealed her tiara. Her dress was neither stained nor white but a uniform beige. Zeeky could hardly believe the change.
“How I have fallen,” Bitterwood grumbled, “that I keep the company of a witch.”
“Don’t mind him, Zeeky,” Jandra said. “I’m not a witch.”
“Villagers!” Kanst again stood on the wagon, shouting through the wooden cone.
“Chakthalla, the tyrant who held you all in bondage, is dead. I have liberated you in the name of the great King Albekizan. The king has ordered me to take you to a new home, a better place, called the Free City. There you may live your days liberated from the worries of daily labor. In the Free City, food and shelter are provided at the king’s expense. Chakthalla resisted the king’s plan to shower you with wealth and comfort, preferring to keep you in servitude. Now she’s paid the ultimate price for her cruelty. The journey in the days ahead will no doubt be hard. We will be walking during all the hours of daylight so that we may bring you to your new home as quickly as possible. But be strong, good people. You will have your reward.”
Confused voices rose all around Zeeky.
“It makes no sense,” a man said. “They threaten us with death, then say they’ve come to help?”
“My cousin in Richmond sent word of the Free City,” another said. “He says he’s been employed in its construction and that the wages were the highest any man could earn.”
“It’s God’s will, my children,” said an old man with a shrill voice.
“Kamon speaks!” A ripple of excitement ran through the villagers. “It’s Kamon! He’s broken his silence!”
The crowd turned and Zeeky caught a glimpse of an ancient withered figure clothed in rags. He was bald save for a fringe of thin white hair that hung around his shoulders like a wedding veil. He had a long braided mustache that hung six inches below his chin. His eyes looked twice the right size for his wrinkled, spotted face.
The villages were all jabbering now, whispering back and forth about the significance of Kamon speaking. They drew into a large circle around the old man. The ragged figure silenced the crowd with a raised hand.
“For years I’ve kept silent, waiting for the sign of our redemption,” Kamon said, in a dry, scratchy voice. “In the blood of the child, all is revealed. We must obey the dragons. The murder of the boy, the taking of our homes, the fall of the castle: these are signs that the land is cursed. Though even they don’t know the truth, the dragons lead us from this place, to the Promised Land, where we will finally be free from sorrows. The day of redemption is at hand!”
An earth-dragon pushed his way through the circle of villagers. “Break it up,” he ordered. “We’re leaving.”
Male villagers, including Hodan, rushed to form a protective line in front of Kamon.
“Stop,” Kamon said to his impromptu defenders. “Now is not the time to fight. These dragons are mere servants of fate. The day will come when they will pay for their sins against our people; today is not that day.”
The dragons jostled the people into a long column, no deeper than three abreast. The people began to move forward, guided by the dragons across the broken fields. Zeeky looked back, trying to see the animals that some of the earth-dragons had gathered from the nearby farms. She watched the dragons herd the beasts together behind them. She hoped she might catch some glimpse of Poocher, but there was no sign of him.
Then they started marching, and the only animals she could see were the crows descending in great dark clouds, shattering the morning air with their harsh caws, forming a black wake as they fell on the battlefield, covering the dead with a living shroud.
PART THREE: RIVER
Take the millstones, and grind meaclass="underline" uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen:
I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man
PROLOG PART THREE: LIES
“Bant Bitterwood! Come forth!”
Hezekiah’s loud voice echoed through the small cabin. His daughters flinched at the noise. Adam, in his crib, began to wail. Bant went to the crib and leaned over to kiss his son on the forehead. The motion distracted Adam from the shout. He fell silent and stared up at Bant with wide, wet eyes. Bant turned away and faced his daughters. He scooped them into his arms as they rushed to him.
“Why do you have to go away?” asked Ruth, his eldest daughter.
“Hezekiah says we must spread the word of the Lord,” Bant said, squeezing them with all his strength before lowering them once more to the dirt floor. “I’ll think about you every day.”