crispina kemp

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 🙏

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

Please note: This is now a weekly post

The spirit-woman Cela-Kuci had confirmed it: A star-spirit had spoken. And the name of that spirit was Kija, the star-deer. Why else the flaying of the boy, Tammi-Tiki; why else had the spirit-man killed the dragon to save Li-Kerbi, and both she and Tammi-Tiki born as children to Kija-house. And this while the star Kija was rising. Now Cela-Kuci had tasked Li-Kerbi with spreading news of a meeting. All the dow must know of it. With four days to prepare, Li-Kerbi wasted no time.

No matter that Li-Kerbi might prefer to return to Kija-house, on leaving Cela-Kuci she went directly to Wael-house. That was Anji-Tiki-ta’s house and as headman of Toki-dow he must be the first informed. Since Wael was the next house but one from Byi-house, she kept to the back way. It gave her more time to swallow the grin that wanted to burst across her face. It must be held tight. At least until after the meeting.

But as she emerged from the back way, alongside the longhouse and into the dow’s centre, the headman’s woman, standing with her wrinkled visage like a gnarled old tree, blocked Li-Kerbi’s progress. “And you want what, here? Sneaking up from behind like a thief.”

“I’ve a message for Anji-Tiki-ta.” Li-Kerbi didn’t say the message was from Cela-Kuci. She knew the headman’s crabby old woman would likely make a fictional feast from that small morsel. And even if the woman was right in her surmises, that would cause Li-Kerbi more trouble than she’d ever had, for not sealing her lips until the words were slipped to the monkey-born Anji.

“He’s not here,” the woman said. “Taken his men to fetch us meat. And if he brings enough we’ll feed the dow this night.”

Li-Kerbi nodded, took a deep breath and turned away, to cross the dow’s centre back to Kija-house.

As soon as in reach, her mother grabbed Li-Kerbi by the band of shells at the top of her arm and, ignoring her squeals, rushed her up the steps to the relative privacy of the shadowed interior. Li-Kerbi wrenched out of her grasp and was straight back down those steps.

“What?” her mother called after her.

“Fetching my shoe.” She’d lost a sandal in her mother’s haste.

Her mother wailed, her hands to her face to cover her eyes. “Beseeching spirit-father-eagle, beseeching spirit-mother-deer, allow no disaster to enter here.” And to Li-Kerbi, “Throw that sandal away. Don’t you bring it in here. Bring it in here and it’ll be you going away, and it won’t be to any house in Robi-dow.”

Li-Kerbi ignored her mother and with the shoe back on her foot walked right in.

Inside the house, the spirits whispered in her head, how contrary of her who’d not wanted to be assigned to Cela-Kuci when first sent there, who’d not wanted to be a spirit-woman, now to be hiding her satisfied grin. But she answered, if this was her fate then she must accept and embrace it, and she listed as many advantages as she could find. Kija, the star-deer, wanted her, Cela-Kuci had as good as said it. And Father-Bull would have to release her. That’s all she could find for now. Except whatever else it might entail, there’d be no climbing the hills to Robi-dow now.

Her mother huffed and scowled at Li-Kerbi’s feet. “So be it. Then I’m thinking something Cela-Kuci said has sent you off on this disobedient track. Though there was scant obedience in you before. Setting fish traps down by the burrows, inviting the Life-Eater. Pfft, you’ve lost your senses. And me your mother. Wait till I tell your father this.”

Li-Kerbi ignored her mother’s words, her fingers rubbing her thigh in such agitated manner they broke anew the already broken weave of her skirt. It wasn’t that she was worried, nor that she feared what disaster she’d bring on herself. It was just impatience. She wanted to spread the news of the dow’s meeting but she couldn’t yet. She bit her lip, turned and turned, and looked for something, anything, to occupy her hands and her thoughts while she waited for Anji-Tiki to return. She asked her mother, “You have some spinning I can do for you?”
Her mother opened her mouth. And closed it again. “You think to deceive me?”

By answer Li-Kerbi scrunched her face and grimaced. “I think to be useful.” She cocked her head.

“There.” Her mother nodded to a basket of fibres readied for spinning. Li-Kerbi set to it.

“So,” her mother said after a few moments of watching her daughter, “what did Cela-Kuci say? When you told her what you’d seen.”

“I cannot say.” She pressed her lips together, hard.

Her mother watched her a while longer, before nodding.

“Mother, you’re to say nothing of what you’re thinking.”

“I’m thinking your brother Ambita should be back soon. He’s learning his hunting skills with your sister’s man. But you wouldn’t be thinking of him. Not now, would you.”

“Why would I not?” She tilted her head. “I’ve thought of him every day since Tammi was taken.” Taken by star-spirit Kija, who was now taking her – though she hoped that would be in a less painful way.

*

The men of Anji-Tiki-ta’s Wael-house returned from their hunt with ample game for a feast – even after the star-spirits were fed. While the elder women amused and nursed the younger children, their mothers and the older girls prepared the meat and the hides. Away from the women, where they’d not be seen, the men with their older sons set to cleaning, repairing or replacing the shafts or heads of their spears, their throwing-sticks and rope-linked stones. Now was the time for Li-Kerbi to seek out Anji-Tiki-ta, now, when he’d be alone.

He sat atop the steps to Wael-house, looking grandiose with his shell-hung arms and his feather-topped head, his hands loosely clasped over his midriff the better to cock his elbows and appear so much bigger.

Li-Kerbi approached, her eyes on the headman’s grass-wrap, on his feather-fringed boots, on the shell-hung bands around his calves, never raised enough to fetch his wrath. But the day was soon coming, she was sure of it now, when she’d be greater than Anji-Tiki-ta, greater even than Cela-Kuci, and all the dow would bow to her. For the star-deer Kija, having taken Tammi-Tiki to gain their attention, now had declared he’d something of pressing importance to say. And in saving her from the dragons he had declared her his mouthpiece. But until that was known she must play the humble unworthy disobedient daughter of Amba-Tawan who, not being born to Kija-house, nor to Toki-dow, would ever be subservient to the father of the taken Tammi-Tiki.

“You want?” Anji-Tiki said, his words brusque.

“I have a message I must say to you.” She supposed that the best way to phrase it.

“A message? Why given to you, not said to me?” He leaned towards her, hands now on his knees. From where she knelt at the bottom of the steps, he looked like he’d topple and fall on top of her. He was a big man, he might crush her. “Who says this message?”

Li-Kerbi bit her lip. Here it was, her moment of rising. Thank you, star-spirit Kija, she said with her heart.

“By the taking of Tammi-Tiki of Kija-house, and the saving of myself from the dragons, also of Kija-house, and the vision of himself granted me this early morning – all while star-spirit Kija is rising – star-spirit Kija lets it be known he has a message for us. Cela-Kuci has advised me to call a dow-meeting that we might discuss the star-deer’s desires.”

“If the spirit Kija has chosen you as his mouth, I can do no less.” Yet by the sour look on his face she could see this didn’t sit well with the headman. “Go tell every house, I call a dow-meeting. When?”

“On the ninth day of Byi,” she said, for the moment resisting the need to blow her breath upwards to cool her burning face.

Anji-Tiki-ta grunted. “So be it. I call a dow-meeting for four days hence. Now, Li-Kerbi, I task you with spreading this news.”

This was a big message. Not only was she sent by Cela-Kuci but now also charged by the headman. And if that wasn’t enough to set her apart from the dow, everyone in the dow soon would know that the star-spirit Kija had chosen her, lifting her up to take her away from her life. Of a sudden she couldn’t breathe, hand to her chest as if that would help. Around her the longhouses spun while a hive of bees buzzed in her head.

To be continued next Monday