The Book of Terrus: The Ghosts of Goran

Chapter 19 - Starting Again

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 If ever Vinie needed any confirmation that south Goran was completely unlike the rest of the kingdom, she found it as soon as they arrived in Falerik. Nothing about that little village reminded her of Moaan, or even Utunma in any way. For one thing, the sea was nowhere to be heard or seen. It made Vinie feel like a landed fish to be so far away from open water. Even during her ten years in prison she had at least been able to hear the gulls flying over Utunma's rooftops. When at long last Kiiss's carriage had stopped and they stepped outside for the first time in days, Vinie couldn't help but gawk at everything around her.

Falerik's buildings were fashioned in a strange, pointy manner, their roofs rising together in such sharp angles that they looked crushed together. Their shingled ridges rose out of the mist that swirled everywhere like the prows of ghost ships. The sky was completely overcast, making the humid air feel even closer. Here and there Vinie could make out the red-orange glow of lanterns hanging in windows, and shapes moved in the mist a short distance away. When the shapes proved to be townspeople, Vinie was equally fascinated to observe them.

Unlike the people of south Goran, these folk were an odd, olive complexion not unlike Sula and Nadathan, if perhaps a bit lighter. Their hair and eye colors seemed to vary more as well; the man and woman who passed by warily eyeing Kiiss's zebra drawn carriage were both possessed of dark red hair unlike anything Vinie had ever seen in the south before. Their clothes looked like they had randomly thrown together an assortment of items in various states of fraying and patching. Both man and woman wore an enormous amount of bone jewelry which rattled as they moved, including beaded bracelets with so many layers they reached nearly from wrist to elbow.

"I wouldn't stare if I were you," Kiiss interrupted Vinie's people watching. "People in Falerik don't like to be watched."

"Why all the bones?" Nadathan had no doubt noticed the townspeople's odd jewelry as well.

"Bones of their dead loved ones," Said Bakko. "Keeps their spirits close by keeping a piece of their actual body close. It's for protection."

"Very right!" Kiiss sounded delighted, the clap of her hands muffled in the humid mist. "Bakko, you never cease to amaze with your unexpected worldliness."

Vinie did her noble best not to roll her eyes when her father turned away to hide his pleased blush. The last thing she wanted was their unpredictable benefactor trying to get in too good with their resident elder. It was bad enough that Kiiss was already going to be taking Gideo away to Amenthere. Gideo for his part seemed equally fascinated with Falerik, but remained uncharacteristically quiet as he had done for the entire two-and-a-half-day carriage ride from Moaan. He and Vinie still had yet to discuss his interest in learning from assassins any further.

"Ugh, how morbid," Vinie shuddered. "To actually wear human bones..."

"Not everything is done the same all over Goran, remember?" Sula didn't seem off-put at all. "In the east, we leave our dead out in the open on piers for the scavengers to consume. That way death feeds life, which is as it must be in a harsh land like the Hanara desert."

"I think I'd rather my loved ones wore my bones," Vinie thought she heard Gideo mutter.

She slid a hand up to touch the black pearl where it sat, as always, between her brows. Sometimes she still didn't quite trust her own mind, but if there was any truth to her visions in prison or what she'd seen in the sea foam on the way to Moaan, she didn't need Zaneo's bones to keep his spirit close to her.