Nanny For The Alien General by Athena Storm
Serafina
“Wake up, Serafina.”
The low, rumbly voice works its way through the dark quietude of my sleep. Before my eyes even open, I’m conscious of the large, warm body I’m pressed up against. I have half a moment of thinking I’m curled up with Keilon in bed before my memory kicks in and reminds me where I really am.
I’m very quickly awake. Low sunlight is streaming between the wooden slats of our hold. It’s still early morning.
“They’re coming,” Keilon whispers as I come to more fully. He quickly takes his arm away from around my shoulders. I miss it immediately. I feel hurt for a second, like I’ve been rejected. Then I realize I’m being stupid. He’s protecting me. We both know how things already look for us. What would they do to me if they saw him holding me?
What will they do, anyway? I wonder. As I hear voices approaching, I try to imagine the scenarios that might play out. It’s impossible. Nothing like this has ever happened in Tilleli. Which means anything is possible. And means people could act out of desperation rather than reason.
Will they try to kill Keilon? Will they try to kill me?
Suddenly, the door bursts open. Several villagers roughly grab at us and drag us into the morning light. I have to fight off panic. I try to summon the clarity I have during my healing work. The distant professionalism. I don’t get there completely, but I manage to calm my nerves a little.
There’s a crowd gathered at the lakeshore. We’re dragged through it. Though the people part to make room for us, we’re greeted with plenty of nasty looks. My stomach knots and I force myself to take deep breaths.
Situated at the front of the crowd are the village leaders. I know some of these men and women very well. Have drunk with them into the night. Have healed the bones they broke stumbling home after those drinks. Have treated their sick children while they worried.
Now, they stare at me like I was a stranger. Worse: an intruder.
The people who dragged us down here let go of me and Keilon and merge into the crowd behind us.
Malori is the first of the leaders to speak. She is a woman in her early sixties, though she’s been blessed by genetics and her brown, smooth face is that of a woman twenty years younger. The only hint of her age is a bright white streak running through her thick, long black hair. Rather than make her seem old, though, the streak makes her seem dignified. So does her voice, ringing out over the crowd and the sound of the lake lapping at the shore.
“What are your intentions here, Kiphian?” she asks.
“None that would do you harm,” Keilon replies evenly. “You have my word – all of you – that I have no intention of betraying this village.”
The village leaders exchange skeptical glances while behind us the crowd murmurs its lack of faith in Keilon’s words.
“I… have some political power back in Cytheira,” Keilon tells the crowd. I try to maintain as neutral a face as I can. He’s obviously withholding his being King, again. I just hope it doesn’t come out and enrage the villagers like it enraged me. “I can try to help you when I return home. But in order to do that, you must release us.”
“Your political power in your home does not give you the right to make demands here,” Malori tells him. She barely raises her voice but, impressively, it’s enough to make Keilon pause.
If she only knew she’d just silenced a King, I think.
“Anyway,” another elder says, a middle-aged man named Trune, whose daughter’s weak heart I’ve treated since she was born, “do you really expect us to believe you?”
The voices that raise up from the crowd tell us that most of the villagers do not, in fact, believe him. This is going to be harder than I thought, I realize.
“Kiphians have screwed over humans since we arrived on this planet!” shouts another leader, an older man named Yellin, whose wife’s pain I eased while she died in his arms last year. “And your kind will always screw us!”
More shouts, this time angry ones, from the crowd. Someone shouts out that they have to kill Keilon. “There’s no other way!” This gets enough vocal support from the people around us that I’m momentarily ashamed of my people.
“Killing him makes us no better than the Kiphians,” a different voice in the crowd adds, giving me momentary relief.
“And he has kids,” a woman points out, her voice high with anxiety over what the crowd’s proposing.
“What’re we supposed to do with the kids anyway? Raise them?” someone else adds.
Things devolve into a lot of shouting about Keilon’s life and the future of the kids. Then, amid clamor of voices, I start hearing my name repeated. Malori is finally able to quiet the crowd, but she turns her steely gaze on me.
“What do you say for yourself, Sera?” she asks. “How do you defend keeping this Kiphian’s presence a secret?”
“He was hurt,” I say, trying to hide the tremor in my voice. “I have been healing him. I kept his secrets as I’ve kept many of yours.” I sweep my eyes over the crowd. To their credit, a few look appropriately ashamed.
“She ought to be banished, at the least,” calls out someone who, apparently, is not ashamed. A rolling murmur of agreement sweeps through part of the gathered villagers and my heart aches.
“Serafina has done nothing but good for this village,” Malori tells the people. There are several agreements.
“She’s broken any trust and goodwill she’s earned with this,” Trune argues, his face contorted with bitterness. There are several agreements with his statements, as well.
The crowd falls into loud, vocal argument once again. I suppose I should be glad there’s enough people on my side to cause a stir, but the vehemence of those against me is terrifying.
Will they really banish me? Leaving Tilleli would break my heart…
Suddenly, above the voices of arguing adults, we all hear the sound of a child crying out for help. Everyone falls silent, looking around. Malori rises quickly from her chair.
A young girl – Leila, whose skin rash I once treated – comes running through the crowd.
“What’s happened?” Malori asks.
“Please!” Leila shouts. Her face is red and tears stream down her face. “We were trying to ice fish… but it was the wrong patch…” she breaks off, choking on her emotions. But we all know where this is going before she gathers herself enough to add, “They fell in!”
