Chapter 2

10 months ago

Eyrotia

King Barigo of Eyrotia stood a head taller than the whole village. His shiny bald head gleamed under the hot sun that was common to the Northern parts of the world. The ritual of purification for his now pregnant wife was underway and the villagers in their cloth of animal fur and tanned leather danced around the village seer who stood in the middle of the square with a gourd of fire in one hand and staff on the other.

The staff was said to have been handed down from one generation of a seer to the next. It was said to have chosen the people, in fact as the inhabitants of the land rather than the people choosing it. The seer raised the staff to the skies, the same staff that was used to beg the gods for the rain to bless the Eyrortian people's fields. The villagers came to a stop and the seer, an old shriveled man, pointed the staff to the queen, Herentik, and chanted under his breath.

Aloud he said "Our queen has been blessed by the gods"

Everyone shouted "Oi!"

"A child darker than the coals we use to please the gods"

"Oi!"

"Her hair will be thicker than the cords of our shipmen's rope"

"Oi!"

"And she will carry herself with grace like her mother"

"Oi!"

Barigo yearned to pull his wife close but according to the tradition that was considered taboo. The ritual of purification was to make the queen acceptable to the gods for natal blessings.

The staff came down and everyone began to dance again. Grape and corn wine flowed freely and the aroma of freshly roast meat filled the square.

10 months later

"What do you mean?" Barigo asked, barely able to keep the anger out of his voice, "We can't kill any daughter of mine not after waiting for years to have a child"

The seer stared at him through eyes made yellow by smoke from burnt aromatic plants used as sacrifices for the gods.

"You should see for yourself,"

He motioned for the midwife to come forward with the baby. The frown was wiped of Barigo's face in a second. Members of his court strained their necks to look at the strange sight.

"Why is her hair the color the ripe corns in the field," one chief wondered aloud.

"And what happened to the color of her skin. She was born without color, what does this mean?"

"What is the reason for the red of her eyes and hair?"