In The Lair of the Draca (Book 2)

In The Lair of the Draca (Book 2) Chapter 27: Plotting

"M-may I be excused? she asked meekly.

"Why?" came the gruff reply. "The family is not done eating. In this lodge, we share meals as a family, together, and no one gets up until the last person has finished."

"Let the girl alone!" Mother protested, poking a gentle finger into Gormaq's side. "Ziuta has good manners. I teach her. She will not break tradition by simply leaving dinner early."

"I forbid it," Gormaq muttered, but his voice had less conviction.

"I just feel trapped in here. Like--" Ziuta thought of Pomoq's nut-eating friend at the half-moon window: "like a black-ringed wood rat who cannot find its nest. I would like to get some fresh air, after which I will come to bed as is expected of me. Surely it cannot be wrong for me to breathe fresh air and look up at the Twin Moons...is there?"

Gormaq looked at her a long, hard while, while Amek tossed Ziuta a skeptical glace.

"You know that it is not proper for a woman in Looks Thrice to wander the common area alone in the evening," came the stern response.

Ziuta thought quickly. "I shall stay near the edge of the palisade," she said (which was true-- she would stay near the gated wall, since that was where the cur had dug the hole). "All I ask is to be able to sit outside and look up at the stars. It-- it comforts me." She looked at her hands and prayed she seemed contrite enough. "I like to imagine that one of those stars is Kiwa, my home Planet-- and that mother is still there waiting for me, with open arms, ready to embrace me." Ziuta was not prepared for the tears that blossomed, but she was grateful for them: Gormaq's expression had softened.

"And when, exactly, do you plan to return?"

"I don't know," Ziuta said truthfully. "But you don't need to worry-- just about every Gate-Keeper knows who I am now. No one will let me out of the village alone."

"Will you allow Michek or Bichek to accompany you?"

"No," she said sharply. "I- I want to be alone."

"Then I cannot allow it."

"Gormaq, please!" Ziuta begged. "I went to see Pomoq because I wanted him to help me with my night terrors and feelings of helplessness. He told me it is good for the soul to breathe the fresh air in solitude. You would agree with him, would you not? I love Pomoq-- almost as much as I love you."

Amek gave a half-hearted snort of disgust.

"Well, alright," Gormaq agreed gloomily. "But I want you back in here and in this bed before you can get yourself into an ounce of trouble, do you understand?"

"Oh, thank you Gormaq!" Ziuta exclaimed.

Amek shoved her bowl away and crossed her arms, giving her father a scathing look. "Why is it that she has permission to do the things the rest of us cannot?" she groused. "I don't understand why Ziuta gets to have special treatment. She probably has a plan to sneak out someway or other and go to frolic with that water serpent again. And you allow her a mile when she begs for an inch after batting those pretty eye-lashes?"

"How dare you speak to me in that fashion!" Gormaq raged, using his walking staff to jab at her from across the fire. "Tomorrow morning you shall haul eight buckets of water instead of the four you hauled last time, and you'll do it without so much as a whimper!"

"But--"

"I have spoken!" Gormaq struggled to stand and hobbled his way to his sleeping bench, while Mother rose and began to clear the empty bowls.

"Mother, do something!" Amek whined.

"Listen more. Complain less," said Mother lightly. "You should be more like Michek and Bichek-- or your sister, Ziuta. Ziuta does not complain when she must do chores like other girls. You will do as your father says."