Prologue
Safiya sat on the ground beside her mother in the small, fragrant sanctuary of the family herb garden and lifted one of the thick brown seeds they were planting to her nose to see if she could tell which plant it was by smelling it. She couldn’t.
“What is this one again, Umi?” Safiya asked her mother.
Naiya Akhad looked over at her daughter before smiling and replying.
“That, my sweet, is a nourani root seed. Good for treating pain caused by toothaches, fevers and blood-fly stings,” Naiya answered and reached over to smooth away the wavy strands of black hair that had come loose from Safiya’s braid with the back of her hand.
Safiya nodded and smiled back as she repeated her mother’s words in her head several times and buried the nourani seed into the soft red-brown soil. Their little garden was located behind their sturdy wooden house and the family cafe. She and her mother sat beneath the trellised arbor that covered the center of the garden. Her father had built it for shade from the sun and it was Safiya’s favorite part of their backyard. She and her brother Ami would climb it when they were smaller but they were now to heavy for it and Umi yelled if she ever saw them on it. Slender, springy vines grew up along the columns of the painted wood above them and vines with purple wild-flowers stretched themselves down and around the planks of the short whitewashed fence surrounding the small patch of garden. The fence had primarily been built for keeping out rabbits but Baba had made the effort to carefully paint both the arbor and the fence the same soft yellow that was Umi’s favorite color.
Loud banging echoed across to them from a few yards away and Umi flinched, frowning in the general direction of Safiya’s father, Amere, as he and her little brother Amir hammered nails into a plank of wood. Her father and brother had been mending the larger, sturdier fence that surrounded their house and the family café. Safiya didn’t mind the hammering so much but Umi hated it.
Safiya looked back down at the basket of seeds between them and gingerly selected three gleaming sufa seeds from one of the small cloth bags. She held the seeds up to the sunlight and marveled at the translucent, golden-brown color.
“And what do these do again, Umi?” Safiya asked as she ran her fingertip across the smooth amber casing before digging a small hole and dropping the seeds into.
“Those are for protection against the Pox,” Naiya answered and patted the red-brown soil that she had dug up over the blue leaf seeds that she had just placed into the ground. “The sufa plant is also used as a blood-cleanser, and when made into juice, the seeds will give you clear, beautiful skin if you drink the juice every day.”
Safiya perked up at the mention of the Pox as she remembered what her friend Hahni had told her the other day.
“If our clan is supposed to be the healers of Terra, why did so many people die from the Pox? Why didn’t somebody heal them?” Safiya asked and dropped another pair of seeds into a fresh hole.
“Well,” Umi began and wiped sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. “Because the Pox was a disease that we had never seen or heard about before. The off-worlders brought it with them from their home planet.”
Safiya gazed towards the southern sky at the hulking mass of the huge blackstone wall that stood against the horizon and shuddered. The wall was the only thing that stood between the wards and the land where the off-worlders lived. Hahni had also said that off-worlders sneak into the villages near the wall and steal children away while they sleep. She’d never seen an off-worlder and she didn’t ever want to.
“What was the name of the planet that they came from again?” Safiya asked her mother and covered her seedlings with the soft, red-clay soil.
“Earth,” Umi answered and began pulling closed the small linen bags in her basket by their drawstrings.“That’s all for today. We’ll plant more in the morning.”
Safiya couldn’t stop thinking about the off-worlders and the Pox now, and although her seven-year old mind understood that she was likely going to give herself nightmares, she asked her mother her next question anyway.
“Hahni said that when people get the Pox, they get great big purple boils all over their bodies and their eyes turn black, even the white parts, like a snow lion – is that true?” Safiya asked and stood up to brush the dirt from her hands across the seat of her short pants.
Naiya swatted at Safiya’s hands and shook her head disapprovingly at the red brown stains she’d left upon her backside before responding, “Yes, that is true – why were you and Hahni talking about the Pox?”
Naiya stood and lifted the hand-woven basket from the ground before grasping Safiya’s hand and walking her from the garden. Sunlight glinted against her mother’s braids, illuminating the auburn streaks in the silky dark brown strands, and Safiya leaned affectionately against her mother’s arm, thinking she was the most beautiful woman on Terra. She’d almost forgotten what Umi had asked her but remembered when Umi looked down at her.
“Hahni told me about how her brother got really sick last winter and how her grandma said that it was almost as bad as the Pox. Then her grandma told her all about the old days when the off-worlders first came and how all of the healers died from it. From the Pox. Hahni says that’s why we only have two healers left in all of the villages: because all of the other healers died,” Safiya answered.
Naiya was silent and smiled sadly but they had reached Baba and Amir by the outer fence so she squeezed Safiya’s hand affectionately before addressing Baba.
“Almost finished?” Umi asked Baba, squinting against the waning sunlight.
Baba leaned one of the wooden planks against the fence and put down his hammer to smile at Umi and to muss Safiya’s hair. His turquoise eyes flashed brightly against his sun-kissed brown skin, and he winked playfully at Safiya before responding to Umi.
“I don’t know,” he teased Umi with exaggerated seriousness. “Might end up taking me the rest of the afternoon to get the majority of the planks up. Why don’t you and Safiya head to the market without us today?”
Amir nodded enthusiastically in agreement but Umi frowned without a trace of amusement.
“Oh, no you don’t. The two of you are coming, even if we have to wait until sunset for you, so hurry up,” Umi scolded and flounced away, grasping Safiya’s hand and pulling her along as she went.
Baba grinned and went back to work hammering the wide wooden plank that he’d been holding in place but shouted over his shoulder.
“Can we at least have something to drink!” he called playfully after Umi.
“Yeah!” Ami echoed in his sing-song, six year old voice.
“Maybe,” Umi shouted back with laughter in her voice as she strode towards the house. “Now back to work!”
Safiya giggled as she followed Umi through the back door and into the kitchen where Umi promptly gestured for Safiya to wash her hands. Safiya walked over to the sink obediently and pulled up the footstool to reach for the pump. Cool well-water spurted forth into the sink and she stared through the window at the little herb garden, wondering how Umi had learned so much about healing if all of the healers had died. She decided to ask.
“Umi?” Safiya asked and twisted to look over her shoulder at her mother who was tucking the seedling bags back into their places in the herb box on the windowsill. “How did you learn about healing if all the healers died in the old days?”
Umi wiped her hands upon her soiled apron before removing it and hanging it upon the peg outside the back door. She smoothed away the stray strands of dark brown curls that had escaped her two braids and her hazel eyes glinted impishly at Safiya when she smiled.
“It’s a secret,” Umi whispered and joined Safiya at the sink to wash her hands beside her. “A secret that I cannot tell you until you reach your twelfth moon cycle, and then, I can only tell you after a special moonlight ritual where you’ll have to eat a handful of harp-berries and drink a full glass of penya syrup.”
Safiya wrinkled her nose in disgust with squinted, skeptical eyes.
“Penya syrup and harp-berries?” Safiya protested. “Are you telling the truth?”
Umi laughed happily, a sound so beautiful that Safiya often imagined that the angels must sound like that, and she leaned over and playfully rubbed her nose against Safiya’s before shaking excess water from her hands over the basin and turning off the pump.
“No, I’m not,” Umi admitted. “Well . . . it is a secret, but I suppose I won’t make you eat the harp-berries before telling you.”
Safiya smiled and hugged her mother around the waist.
“I love you, Umi,” Safiya said and peered up at her mother’s smiling face.
“I love you too, my girl,” Naiya replied and kissed the top of Safiya’s head before walking over to the cooler to get two bottles of sela water for Baba and Ami. “Now upstairs you go. Change your clothes and get ready for the market. I’ll need your help if we’re to get your father and Ami to come with us.”
Safiya smiled and nodded before hurrying up the stairs to her bedroom. Going to the market was the best day of the week for her. She couldn’t wait to see what kinds of sweets would be laid out upon the tables, and she needed a new lens for her skyscope. Ami and Baba hated going because they said Umi took too long to decide what she needed, but Safiya didn’t mind because there was always some new object on display from the merchant ships from Yarna.
She reached her bedroom and exchanged her short pants and shirt for a dark blue tunic and light blue leggings before hurrying back downstairs. When she re-entered the kitchen, Umi was standing in the back doorway speaking quietly with a woman who wore a long white abaya. The woman also wore a lightweight white scarf draped over her hair and shoulders and Safiya recognized her clothes as what the nuns from the village chapel wore all the time. The woman’s kind brown eyes noticed Safiya as she entered the kitchen, and Umi turned around with a smile.
“Sofi, come, meet Umi’s dear friend, Sarai,” Umi said.
A wave of apprehension washed over Safiya and she almost turned back to run up the stairs. Seeing the woman made her feel strange – like something bad was about to happen. Umi extended her hand towards Safiya and gave Safiya a look that demanded obedience so she walked forward reluctantly and grasped her mother’s hand. She somehow knew that they wouldn’t be getting to the market today.
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