not change.
“Do you not have those with the mark still
being born within the tribes? These are only the ones with the Dark
King’s blood who also possess the right amount of talent, there are
bound to be more. So why is it that only the Lost Lands deserve
punishment?”
“We do not allow the marked to live among us
here either,” he growled. She had hit a nerve.
“No, you exile them,” Katya pushed, “your own
children.”
“Yes,” the Kanza leader’s voice grew
colder.
“Why?” Katya challenged.
“Because they are tainted by his evil. They
would grow into evil people.”
“Will they?” She rose one eye-brow at
him.
“If I may interrupt,” the Dena’ina leader put
in, “Another of our party has something she wishes to say.”
The Kanza leader rounded on him, no doubt
expecting another accusation. The Dena’ina leader simply waved
towards the rear of their group. The other man watched with a
mixture of curiosity and trepidation.
Katya stepped aside with the rest to allow
the strange cart which the Dena’ina had brought with them to come
forward between them. Her anger cooled as she watched the
proceedings with interest.
The cart pulled up directly in front of the
man, who looked as though he wanted to step back a pace, but he
held his ground. The curtains were pushed aside to reveal a young
woman. She paused a moment to blink in the sudden brightness, then
gracefully stepped out.
“Hello, Uncle,” she greeted the Kanza leader
with dignity.
He closed his eyes.
The woman didn’t move and no one said a
word.
Then suddenly another woman rushed forward,
exclaiming, “Petra! Is that you, my darling daughter? You’re
alive?” She showered the woman with kisses.
The leader finally had to open his eyes,
surveyed the scene with an icy stare.
Petra embraced her mother warmly, seeming to
hold no resentment at having been thrown out simply because of the
matter of a little mark. Then she stepped forward lightly, seeming
to float across the ground as she addressed the rest of the
crowd.
“I was thrown out when I was five years old
because a mark showed up on my neck. I wandered the landscape for
weeks before the Dena’ina found me and took me in. You were afraid
that I would grow into an evil person because of a silly marking
that meant I was far distantly related to someone evil. I wanted to
come stand before you today so that you may judge for yourselves
whether or not I am evil.”
The sun seemed to shine down at her in such a
way that it illuminated the air around her, making her look
majestic, and certainly not evil.
The Kanza leader scoffed. “Goodness is not
something that can be seen by you standing before us.”
“And yet you can see evil by a mark on my
neck?” the woman countered.
He did not answer.
“Don’t you also have children?” the Dena’ina
leader asked him, “Two sons, I believe?”
The Kanza leader’s teeth were clenched so
tightly that his temples were bulging. It appeared to take some
effort to loosen them in order to reply. “Yes.”
“And this young woman who was exiled because
she bears the mark is your niece, correct?”
He simply nodded.
“Then would it not stand to reason that her
parents each have at least a fifty percent chance of having the
Dark King’s blood? And most likely both did to some extent. Which
means that there is a chance that you bear the Dark King’s
blood.”
The Kanza leader looked revolted, but could
not deny the possibility.
“How would you feel if your sons were taken
from you? If you had been stripped of your ability to have
them?”
“I wasn’t, they are already in
existence.”
The Dena’ina leader nodded calmly, “Then how
would you like to see them slowly change into blood-thirsty raving
mad monsters? We did not keep records that would tell us who might
be affected, who might also bear the blood of the Dark King aside
from those obviously bearing the mark. If we allow this curse to
spread farther, it will
Jan (ILT) J. C.; Gerardi Greenburg