Chapter Twelve of my current wip. As before, all and any comments very much appreciated

Please note: This is now a weekly post

Every house had a star-spirit mother: Li-Kerbi’s was the star-deer, Kija. Every child born had a star-spirit father: Li-Kerbi’s was the star-bull, Kerbi. But every house had an overseeing headwoman and headman too. In Kija-house that was the old man Ampal-Sarbi-ta and Li-Nozim whose two daughters hadn’t long been given to hill-men in Robi-dow. At the dow-meeting, Ampal-Sarbi-ta and Li-Nozim spoke for Kija-house, as did the other headwomen and headmen for the other houses. In all there were twelve house-mothers, twelve house-fathers, the headman Anji-Tiki-ta, and the spirit-woman Cela-Kuci on the platform that represented the council. And Li-Kerbi.

She was finding it difficult not to fold her lips in, press them hard, hold them yet tighter by the clamp of her teeth. Although the platform only raised her knee-high, she was further filled with spirits – she prayed they were favourable spirits – that caused a churning of her innards. Star-spirit Kija, do not deliver me into decay and destruction. Ought she also pray to the star-bull? But no, she wanted away from the house and the life into which she was born.

“Star-spirit Kija speaks,” Cela-Kuci announced. “First with the taking and flaying of Tammi-Tiki, born to spirit-mother deer. Then with the miraculous snatching of Li-Kerbi from the very jaws of Byi’s own dragons. Li-Kerbi, also born to spirit-mother deer, tell your story so all might know and wonder.”

At this moment the spirits inside Li-Kerbi grew agitated, stealing her breath, unsettling her poise, destroying her composure. They bid her jump from the platform, to run away, even into the forest. To flee and to cry. Yet Li-Kerbi remembered the words of a story told her as a child, though she couldn’t remember who’d told her. And the woman said to the troublesome spirits, No! Help me, do not hinder. And the spirits obeyed. Li-Kerbi clasped her hands, eyes cast up to where at nightfall the star-spirits would shine in the sky. Help me, do not hinder, she said in the secret caverns of her heart.

The spirits inside her quietened and settled, they aided her with a great intake of breath and a rearranging of her story. While telling it she’d not look at her mother, nor at Cela-Kuci.

“It was four days past, and I was setting my nets in the shallows and –” she held out her hands in admitted guilt “– I know I was foolish to be so close to the dragons’ burrows. But no one fished there and I…I felt guided…guided to be there. Of course, the dragons sniffed the air and knew I was there.

“The first dragon, he was forest-tree tall and sea-rock huge. All scaly skin and…and I’d never been so close. Its forked tongue – yellow it was – lashed the air. And its teeth…” She rolled her eyes upwards and let out a guttural groan. Several of the women moved to catch her should she faint. But she recovered. “It lifted its heavy foot. And flopped it down. Lifted, and flopped, all the while pounding the ground. I couldn’t move for my terror else I’d have fled. And I could see that this one wasn’t alone. Twenty there were, twenty, all closing in on me. Slavering, preparing to eat me. That’s when the star-spirit appeared.

“It looked like a man, like…like Anji-Tiki-ta, except what he wore. No feathers but clad in shiny deer-yellow. He pointed his finger towards the dragon. And from that finger a dazzling light shot out, like a bright blue spear. And that spirit-spear drove into the dragon’s house-sized head and slayed it. Dead.

“The spirit-man looked at me, and I at him, and though no words were spoken yet I knew he was telling me something…important. But I was too scared to be so close to those dragons, and so I ran. I ran and I ran.

“That spirit-man was the star-spirit Kija. That’s what he was telling me. I know that now. And he has a message for us, but I didn’t wait to hear what he’d say. My deepest apologies, I should have stayed. Strip me of skin and hang me on that tree alongside Tammi-Tiki.” She clasped her hands in front of her to make an earnest display of her apology. But Li-Kerbi knew she was in no danger of that happening. Though she might be thrashed they wouldn’t flay her; only the demons and spirits did that.

A busy wave of words wove amongst the lesser Itamakku families of Toki-dow as they sat below the raised platform. Previously, they’d heard Li-Kerbi’s story only as retold by their various house-mothers. And the tale they’d now heard wasn’t exactly the same. But whatever their opinion of this embellished form, Anji-Tiki-ta cut their chatter.

He stood, seeming a giant amongst the lesser Itamakku. His hands thrust skyward as if he’d shake the hands of the star-spirits. Li-Kerbi wished him well, shaking hands with a dragon, for this was the ninth day of Byi, the star-dragon.

Li-Nozim, tapped on his thigh – as his mother she could do that. “It is Kija who seeks our attention, not Byi.” She said it quietly but not so quiet that Li-Kerbi didn’t hear.

“I know that,” he hissed back at her.

Li-Kerbi turned her head and covered her mouth before she smirked. He might know it, but a man, he wouldn’t know where Kija was in the sky despite the star-seats were set in the same order.

He slowly turned, an eye to hold the gaze of every house-mother. “Four days we’ve had to examine our behaviour, to find where we’re lacking, to discover what we have done to offend the star-deer Kija. And what have you found?”

Li-Kuca, house-mother of the headman’s house, was the first to answer. “We found nothing. Our hunters – your hunters – assure us that no deer have been killed without the correct procedures and offerings. The deer-born who reside in our house are honoured as equals. No offence, no slight, no insult that we can discover. But this is only Wael-House. I can’t speak for the others.”

The others reported the same, from Wael, Naba, Byi, Manula, Nozim, Tiki, to Sarbi.

Then was the turn of Kija-House, Li-Kerbi’s own house, where the house-mother, Li-Sae, repeated as the other house-mothers had said. But before she’d said above two handfuls of words the jeering began. To jeer or even to counter-speak was considered an insult to the slighted one’s star-spirit, and thus few would dare it. But many at this meeting did dare. Such a clatter and clang, Li-Kerbi couldn’t separate the words. Yet it was obvious what they said.

Everyone knew that Tammi-Tiki had been chided many times for straying unaccompanied beyond the bounds of the dow’s gathering range. And hadn’t Li-Kerbi just said she was down by the burrows where she know she oughtn’t be. Two disobedient Itamakku, born to Kija-House. There lay the fault. Now star-spirit Kija has a message for the Itamakku. So let Li-Kerbi seek out the star-spirit to discover what he wants with them. And is it only the people of Toki-dow?

Anji-Tiki-ta held up his hands. The shouting stopped. “Is this the consensus of every house?”

“Not every house-mother has spoken yet,” Li-Sae said. “Let them say and see if there is fault amongst them.”

Anji-Tiki-ta turned to the other house-mothers, of Kerbi, Tawan, Sae and Kuca houses. But they reported as the others had: This was no fault of theirs. Anji-Tiki-ta nodded acceptance of that. “Then it is decided, Li-Kerbi shall seek out the star-spirit to discover what he wants with us.”

To be singled out from her neighbours of Toki-dow sat well with Li-Kerbi, even though those neighbours had said of her disobedience. To speak with a star-spirit was to set her above Cela-Kuci. But she twisted her mouth and contorted her face. She looked up at the sky, and all round about. She wanted to ask but hoped someone might say it first.

Perhaps one of the star-spirits favoured her, though she didn’t know if it was Kija, Kerbi or Wael. But whichever spirit, that spirit prompted Anji-Tiki-ta to speak her question, “How is she to do this? Sit on Kija’s star-seat? Or climb into the sky?”

“I shall seek out the ancestors and ask it off them,” Cela-Kuci said, a harsh look at Li-Kerbi. “And until we have that answer, Li-Kerbi will abide with me.”

To abide with Cela-Kuci, but that wasn’t what Li-Kerbi wanted. What if the spirit-woman never released her?

To be continued next Monday

I welcome your comments 🙏