Translated From Sarconian Scout
Kaia clung to Jasper as they galloped back to the Breaker farm. Jasper suspected that she was not used to the speed of the unicorns they rode. John and Mary welcomed Kaia as they had welcomed Jasper two years before, and Jasper began trying to reconnect with his sister. As he did so, he was horrified to learn that she was a candidate for Lady High Priestess of the gods. The Lady High Priestess was not just high priestess of one god or goddess, she was high priestess of them all, which meant that she had to do something to please each of them."I am honored to have been chosen," Kaia told Jasper. "Not many girls are, and I have already made it further than most." She pulled up her sleeve. "The god of war requires us to slay at least ten men in pitched battle. That is where most girls fail, but see," she pointed to two parallel scars on her upper arm, "I have already killed two. In the last Aranaran raid I wielded a hatchet along with the men of the town," she said proudly. "And I am not yet fourteen."
Jasper felt sick as he imagined his sister fighting with a hatchet and wondered how he would ever pull her out of the strange cult that she had been drawn into.
That night there was a violent thunder storm. Kaia had always hated storms, so Jasper went to her room to check on her. She was not there. A small bag lay open on the floor. Swift examination of it told Jasper that it contained the herbs that priestess took to throw themselves into trances. He ran out of the room.
"Jasi?" It was Anna. "Kaia just left the house. I told her not to go out, but her eyes are glazed over and she wouldn't talk to me."
Jasper tripped over himself as he sped down the stairs and out the door into the rain, screaming for his sister. It was a black night, broken only by a few flashes of lightning. Jasper bent low to the ground as he left the farmyard, trying to catch a glimpse of his sister's tracks. He followed her up to the heap of white rocks. She knelt there, face turned towards the sky, a mindless grin on her face. "Kaia!" Jasper shook her wildly, but she did not respond, having been totally overcome by the herbs. A howl burst from the trees, and the yellow eyes of wolves shone through the night. Jasper pulled out his only weapon, a knife, and stood over his entranced sister as the wolves advanced on them. A snarling ball of fur and muscles leaped at him. He grappled with it, stabbed his knife into its side, and flung the dead body from him as the other wolves converged on him. He did not know how long he fought the beasts, but at last they left. Jasper's arm had been bitten, but he hardly noticed it, turning instead to his sister and calling her name again. She did not respond. Feeling helpless, he knelt at her side and pushed his fingers against the bridge of his nose to stay awake. Lightning struck near them, and thunder shook the ground. At last the clouds cleared and the sky began to get lighter. Jasper examined his drenched sister, trying to figure out what kind of dose she had taken. What he discovered horrified him. Kaia was taking herbs that, if she had only three more doses, would shorten her life-span almost ten years.
Crying and putting his arms around her, he tried to get her to wake up, but he might as well have been trying to get a statue to respond. With a cry of anger at those who had dragged her to this, he rose and began flinging rocks off the short cliff nearby, screaming mindless vows of revenge.
"Jasper." The voice was deep and kind. Breathing hard, he turned to see Grandfather Breaker leaning on his staff in the early morning light. "You aren't going to make this any better by screaming about it."
"Who could have done such a thing to her?" asked Jasper, his voice breaking.
"Some people are just ignorant. They don't mean to harm people, but they do. Sit down, Jasper, and let me look at your arm." Jasper sat down, and Grandfather Breaker lowered himself down next to the boy. "The wolves came last night, did they?"
"Yes," said Jasper. "I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to fight...and...she'd die." "You protected her well."
"When will she wake up?"
"Hard to tell. It could be hours, it could be days, depending on how many doses she's had previously."
"What do I do?"
"Give her a brother's love and do so unconditionally. That will take you far."
"Grandfather Breaker, I...I can't leave those herbs with her. I know they mean alot to her religion, but...I..I can't just let her have them! I'm going to burn them."
"She'll doubtless be angry, but I think that's the best thing for you to do for her, Jasper."
Jasper nodded, rose, and helped Grandfather Breaker to his feet. Picking up Kaia, he carried her back to the house, wincing at the pain in his arm.
Jasper left on a mission the next day. Kaia appeared to be out of her trance and sleeping peacefully. Jasper took the pouch of herbal tonics from her room and tucked them into his saddlebags when he left at first light with Jonathan. That night he pulled them out and examined them.
"What are those?" asked Jonathan.
"Tonics mixed by the priest and priestesses on the plains to throw themselves into trances. I found them in Kaia's room." He dropped the first tonic into the fire.
"You're going to burn them?"
"Yes." Jasper dropped another tonic into the fire.
Jonathan watched him carefully. "Is that a good idea?"
"For my relationship with my sister at this time, no," Jasper admitted. "But for her health, yes."
The last tonic was a liquid encased in a lovely little vial. He emptied it, rinsed it out, and tucked it back into the pouch.
When Jasper returned, Kaia's manner towards him was very cold. It kept growing colder as time went on and she learned how he had disposed of her tonics. "You took them," she said angrily. "You took the tonics and burned them!"
"For your own good Kaia, yes," Jasper replied.
"Heretic! Have you no respect for the gods?"
"No," said Jasper, being careful not to let any harsh edges creep into his words.
"Then you must die so that your blood will cover your sin of heresy against the gods, and you will have a chance of gaining their mercy in the afterlife!" Reaching forwards, Kaia grabbed Jasper's hunting knife from his belt and stabbed at him. Taken by surprise, he dodged too late and felt the knife slice his arm. Horrified, he pulled a dagger from his boot and held it in a defensive position. "Kaia, don't -"
She cut at him again. "You cannot be my brother!"
Jasper parried the knife half-heartedly. "Kaia, talk sense! I'm not trying to harm you!"
"My brother would never forsake the gods!" Kaia yelled, slashing wildly.
Jasper gave up trying to talk to her like this, stepped in, and knocked the knife from her hands, grabbing her wrists. "Kaia, listen to me."
Kaia growled like a wild animal and tried to bite him. Jasper shifted so that her back was against his chest and her wrists, which he still held firmly, were at her waist.
"You. Took. My. Herbs," she hissed.
"I took them because I know what they are and what they do! They will bring you nothing but harm!" "No! That isn't true! I disown you Jasper! You are not my brother! Let go of me; it isn't right for you to hold me like this!"
Kaia's words pierced Jasper like daggers. He slowly released Kaia, who shoved him backwards. Looking into her wild eyes, he whispered, "What have they done to you?"
"I'm leaving!" said Kaia. "Now."
"No," said Jasper frantically. "It's too dangerous. I'm going on a mission with Jonathan tomorrow. Wait until I get back - it'll only be a week. I'll escort you to Brenia's outskirts to make certain you don't get lost or hurt."
"Fine," she spat, whirling away and leaving him.
"Kaia, well, she got angry and, um, came at me with a knife."
"And stabbed you in the arm?!"
"She was aiming for my heart; I dodged a little too late."
"That has to be hard," said Jonathan sympathetically, "but Jasper," he leaned over and put a hand on Jasper's shoulder, "do not dwell on it overmuch. Your spirit, I think, is already troubled enough without extensive consideration of this matter."
Jasper nodded. His mind often functioned on two levels: one aware of all that was going on around him and the other going through his own cogitations. But he couldn't let his situation with Kaia dominate his thoughts.
They were in the north that week, and nothing happened. That is, they were involved in no skirmishes. They had to pull a wild unicorn out of quicksand and were drenched by a thunderstorm, but after what they had been through, they thought little of these matters.
When Jasper returned, he knew something was wrong, for Stephen ran out to meet him. "Jasi! Mother and Daddy left for a while, and Kaia's gone off!"
"When?" Jasper demanded.
"Yesterday afternoon."
Jasper leaped off Thunder and unsaddled him. Stephen took the saddle to the barn as Jasper raced inside the house to get ready to leave. He seized a spare cloak, a more extensive medical kit than the one he usually carried, and other things that might come in handy if Kaia had gotten herself hurt. He flung a light saddle onto Thunder and bumped into Anna, who had prepared a small pack of food for him. Thanking her, he told the twins to tell John and Mary that he had gone down the Highway in search of Kaia.
He rode at what would have been a hard pace for a horse, but Thunder, being a unicorn, took it in stride, for it was an easy pace for him. It grew late, but Jasper pressed on. There were dark clouds coming in from Corvan, and he suspected there would be another storm. He scanned the sides of the road in the blue moonlight and finally spotted Kaia, lying halfway down an embankment. He tumbled down the slope, sliding in the mud from the last storm and losing his balance. He landed next to Kaia in a heap of briers. Groaning as they jabbed him, he lifted Kaia and floundered back up the slope, carrying her. She was limp in his arms and he wondered if she was alive or not. She moaned as he put her on Thunder and led the unicorn back up the trail a few hundred yards to where there was a cave.
As Jasper laid out blankets and pine needles in an effort to make his sister as comfortable as possible, he was put on the alert by the sound of hooves. He drew his sword and slipped to a place from which he could view the road without being seen. The figures that rode up where cloaked, but they rode unicorns that he recognized as Ember and Firestorm, which meant that the riders were probably Jack and Joshuel. His recognition of them was confirmed when they spoke.
"That's Jasper's unicorn," said Jack, "but where is Jasper?"
"Probably hiding," said Joshuel.
Jasper walked softly towards them and did not speak until he was but a few feet from Jack's side. "Aye. Until I knew who you were."
Jack jumped. "Where'd you come from? Boy, you're getting good at this!"
"Jonathan's a good teacher," Jasper responded.
"We hear that you came up here after your sister," said Joshuel.
Jasper nodded. They went into the cave where Kaia lay. Jack and Joshuel took over the job of setting up camp so that Jasper could tend to Kaia, who had been badly hurt when she fell down the slope.
Kaia awoke in the middle of the night to crashing thunder. She hated thunder. It shook the ground, and the lightning that came with it caused the night to be spooky. Her body hurt all over, but she was out of the pouring rain. She lay on a soft bed of pine needles that were covered in a thick blanket, and another blanket and a cloak lay over her. The thunder crashed again, and she whimpered.
Suddenly, someone leaned over her, placing a hand to her cheek. "Are you alright? Where does it hurt?" It was Jasper's voice, and it was filled with concern.
"Everywhere," Kaia moaned. Jasper started to check some of the bandages on her arms, but she stopped him. "Just hold my hand. I'm frightened."
Jasper took her small hand in both of his. His hands were rough and calloused to the touch, but still gentle. "I was so afraid that you were dead when I saw you at the bottom of that slope."
"I fell. I didn't wait...like I should have."
Lightning flashed, followed swiftly by crashing thunder.
Another bolt of lightning struck the tops of the mountains.
"You disowned me. I never disowned you."
Something cool came into contact with Kaia's arm, and was gently shifted by Jasper's fingers. Kaia's eyes caught its gleam in the dim light. "What...?" she asked, not quite able to resurrect the faded memories that were connected with the bracelet that now encircled her wrist.
"It's your charm bracelet," Jasper reminded her. "You lost it a few years ago, remember? I found it when I ran away."
"All this time...you kept it?"
"Sometimes I forgot that I had it, but yes, I did keep it. There was always that faint hope that I'd see you again."
The thunder rumbled.
"You won't go, will you?"
"No." He knelt beside her long after she fell asleep, still holding her hand.
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