Dindi (Spring Equinox - Midmorning)
…Dindi blinked, and the double vision faded. Tears ran down her cheeks. This was not just a dance.
The story had happened long ago, but it was real. Her people had done this. They had destroyed the most beautiful and powerful faeries in the world. They had hunted the Aelfae until only one was left. In all of Faearth, except for the White Lady, who was the last of her kind, the Aelfae were gone.
On stage, the human dancers split into three groups. One held a full basket, another held a basket broken into two pieces, and the third carried a swan feather. These showed the three clans that now lived in the Corn Hills—the winners of the war with the Aelfae.
That was the end of the dance.
The Tavaedies lined up and moved back into the hole in the ground, returning to their kiva under the plaza.
"Ooooh, look, it's the goose from Lost Swan," said a sharp voice behind her.
Dindi spun around.
Kemla and some of her cousins stood nearby—girls from Full Basket Clan who always teased Dindi.
"Crying because when Initiation comes, you won't be chosen to become a Tavaedi like me?" Kemla said with a mean smile. She always wore as much scarlet as she could, even though she wasn't a Tavaedi yet. She had tucked cardinal feathers into her breast bands to show off her chest.
Dindi quickly wiped her tears. "You don't know that."
"It'll never happen, goat-legs," Kemla laughed. "No one in your scraggly clan has ever been picked to be a Tavaedi. The only magic Lost Swan Clan ever dances is when they go crazy and run off with the fae."
The Full Basket girls laughed loudly. Dindi's face turned hot.
"Goat-legs! Goat-legs!" the girls shouted. They formed a circle around her and pushed her back and forth until she fell into the dust.
Then they laughed again and walked off with a flounce.
The dust tasted like dung.
They were right.
No one from Lost Swan Clan had ever passed the test during the year of Initiation. Dindi knew she could be taken for Initiation any day now. And all signs said she would fail.
Like her mother.
Like her grandmother.
Like every person in her clan since the time of the first Lost Swan woman.
Her basket had tipped over. She heard a small meow and scratching from inside. She reached into the basket and pulled out her kitten and his neko. The kitten's fur puffed up. He looked angry.
The neko, whose name was Miskymew, squeaked and gave off little sparks of purple static. Dindi gently petted both of them to calm them down.
She had saved the kitten from the grolwuf, a cat-eating goblin, but it had already eaten the mother cat and the other kittens. The baby had been snow white, with eyes still closed. Since then, his ears, nose, paws, and tail had turned black, like he had danced in mud. So she named him Puddlepaws.
She kissed him and stroked his fur until he relaxed. He purred, letting her know he forgave her for the dropped basket.
Miskymew climbed on his back and guided him back into the basket.
"Bad bullies!" said Miskymew. "You should hit them with a stick and turn them to stone too!"
Dindi giggled. "Sadly, humans don't come back to life after a day. Their clan would say I owed a deathdebt for each one I killed. Then I'd be put to death."
She sighed. "Unless I ran away. But to be an exile… to be a Rover without a clan… that would be worse than death!"
"You could always come live with the fae," said Miskymew, sounding proud. "We don't need clans or clay huts to be happy!"
"If only humans could live like fae!" Dindi grinned.
She looked up toward the tall mountains, where the wildflowers bloomed. Past the Clan Markers and Tribe Markers, past the claimed lands. A strange memory tugged at her, just out of reach...
A cold feeling wrapped around her heart. Like fear left over from a dream.
A nightmare fae must have broken through my dreamcatcher last night, she told herself.
She shook her head and pushed the fear away.