The Dream Map; Chapter 5 - Laiya's Tent

Go back? Cora still didn't know if she could. Jaielle was her sister? She was kin to Kylion? Of course, it was only logical. Jaielle's mother had fallen ill soon after Jaielle was born. And Cora's father - or rather her mother's husband - had been useless all along. Cora cursed herself for not recognizing the obviousness of the situation before, of not insisting on reaping the benefits of a merchant's daughter. There was a lot to consider, and Cora headed toward the one place she had been able to go for guidance - Laiya's tent.

Cora stopped to look at her own attire, a nightgown, Jaielle's nightgown to be more specific-a decent middleclass nightgown, even if it was dirty from Cora's running all morning through the village and forest. She knew she had deserted Laiya since Aertis had invited her into his home, and she would need to appear to be in little more dire straights before Laiya would just allow her back into her tent, and her life.

Cora knew Laiya well enough to know she's be feeling upset and deserted. She had seen her many times at the market, and Laiya had barely acknowledged her. Cora couldn't blame her. She was supposed to check with Laiya, see if she needed any assistance, but she had been too caught up in the situation with Jaielle and Aertis, and Laiya was left to her own devises.

Miva, the Miller's daughter had given birth to a daughter just a few days after Kylion's birth. Had she delivered a son, Miva's father would have let her stay in his house, but being unmarried with a girl child who would likely serve him no purpose was too much for him to accept. Laiya, as Cora well knew, had a soft spot when came to these situations, and she could not send Miva and her newborn daughter Zenaya out to fend for themselves -especially when she suddenly had a position open for an assistant midwife.


Cora ripped her nightgown at the shoulder, and again near the ankle and walked up to the opening of Laiya's tent, when a young girl emerged and scraped her leg with a sharp stone. Cora fell to the ground and held the wound with her hand.

The girl stood fiercely, even though she was little more than three feet high, her eyes wide and dark, attentive, prepared. She held a firm grip on the stone.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"I'm a friend of Laiya's," Cora explained. "My name is Cora, you must be Zenaya. It's good to finally meet you. I see Laiya and your mother in the marketplace sometime. I hear them talk about the good helper you are."

"Laiya doesn't have any friends," Zenaya stated.

Cora was hurt, but of course Laiya herself would never use the word "friend" to describe their relationship-or that with anyone else. It was too personal, and if Laiya were to admit to having friends, she would have to admit to sadness once she lost them.

"I was Laiya's boarder, before you and your mother came. You're so small, Zenaya. Tell me, do they often leave you alone like this?"

"They went to deliver a baby. I was with them, but they sent me home."

"Delivering a baby is serious thing," Cora told Zenaya. "You have to behave yourself, and do as you're told. It's hard, I know when you're little, but you have to try...."

"They sent me home because the woman and baby are going to die. Mother says I shouldn't see that. And I'm not little. I found my way home, and I knocked you to the ground."

"I'm sorry," Cora said. She observed something quite ancient about this little girl, as if the seed of her soul had existed for a very long time, and had never been able to blossom.

 "Do you have any playmates, Zenaya?" Cora asked.  "Any children your own age?"

Zenaya looked befuddled. "Sometimes I talk to the new babies to help quiet them. Mother and Laiya say I'm too small to hold them."

"That's not playing," Cora told her.

"I saw a boy playing once, with his mother, I think. They were throwing a piece of fruit back and forth outside the marketplace. The boy looked at me, and dropped the fruit. Mother told me people in our position don't play games like that. Dropping a piece of fruit was a mistake for that boy and his mother. For us it is a missed meal. Mother scolded me. She didn't think I understood, because I smiled when the fruit fell and the boy looked at me and smiled himself. I knew it was naughty, but I couldn't help it."

"Did you see the boy ever again?" Cora asked.

"No," Zenaya said, "my mother made me look straight at her while she was talking to me, and by the time I had the chance to look anywhere else he was gone."

"Well," Cora said as she held onto Zenaya's arms, partly to look square into her eyes, partly to support herself as she stood up. "I have a feeling you may be seeing that boy again soon."

Zenaya didn't ask any other questions, but instead let her guard down and let Cora inside the tent to tend to her wound. She handed Cora a bottle of homemade brandy and a piece of gauze. "Since you lived with Laiya once, you should know what to do. You should tend to your leg, it could get infected."

"Thank you, "Cora said and she put a bit of brandy on the cloth and wiped off her scratch. She was seated on the edge of Laiya's cot when she and Miva came in.

"Zenaya, what's this?" Miva asked as she walked through the door.

"She said she used to board with Laiya-before us," the girl explained. Miva looked at Laiya and she nodded.

"You still should not be inviting people you don't know into the tent," Miva scolded.

"Yes, Mother, I know, but she was hurt. Don't we help people who are hurt?"

Miva brushed her daughter's hair out of her face and kissed her forehead. Both of them smiled, and for the first time Cora started to see Zenaya as a little girl. She realized that the boy she had encountered playing catch with a piece of fruit was likely Kylion. The two children would have been born within days of each other, although Cora estimated that Kylion probably was nearly a head taller than Zenaya, and far less thin.

"What do you want," Laiya blurted at Cora.

Miva led her daughter out of the tent and announced that they were going to the river for washing. Zenaya walked over to Laiya and asked her if both the mother and baby died.

Laiya nodded. "There were twin, a boy and a girl. Neither survived."

"I'll pray for their souls when I'm at the river."

"You're a good girl, Zenaya," Laiya said. "Go with your mother."

Miva and Zenaya left the tent, and Laiya watched until they disappeared around the corner.

"Your position is filled," she said curtly. "That's why you're here, looking like a waif. I heard you convinced Aertis to throw Jaielle into the Asylum. I suppose Aertis has decided he doesn't need you, and here you are. Well, there's no room for you here either."

Cora was hurt, but she ignored her feelings. She had hoped she could walk in, take back her old position, and carry on as if nothing happened, but from the time she saw Zenaya she knew that wasn't possible. What was possible, Cora figured, was retrieving information.

"Actually," Cora said smugly, " I wanted to ask you what you remember of my parents."

"Your parents?" Laiya asked. "What about them? I delivered you, of course, along with nearly everyone else in Sendozor the last 30 years. But I didn't form many personal relationships. You should remember that."

"What about Miva?" Cora asked.

"She needed a place to stay. I needed a new assistant."

"And Zenaya?"

"She's a child. She goes with her mother."

"No," Cora told her. "There's something else."

Cora was right, but Laiya wouldn't say so. Laiya had developed a special bond with Zenaya. Miva had confessed the circumstances of Zenaya's conception. She wasn't born of an affair with another peasant, as the rumors claimed. The king's nephew, Ayrich had shared his lunch with her at the Enchanted River where Miva was washing clothes, and he had brought her back to the stables at the Castle. He had been charming and attentive, and later denied the whole encounter, as was usually the case with couplings between peasants and nobles. Miva had received a free meal out of the experience, and of course Zenaya. She only met Ayrich one other time and he assured Miva that if she let on that her child was heir to the Castle he would see she and her family lose their heads, and he suggested she leave the baby out to die of exposure. They could all forget all about it.

Miva's story hit a soft spot with Laiya, for her mother, Stella, had told her a similar story just before she died. Stella too had taken favor with a noble, although Laiya did wonder about the accuracy her mother told the story for she had been on her deathbed when she told it. She'd recalled in a fever the days of King Roland and Queen Ghasia. Stella claimed she had bore the child of the slow and disfigured Prince Roland, whom she had met on the Night of Two Moons. Her father had made her go to The Enchanted River to retrieve water for her sick mother. She met Prince Roland, and was delayed. By the time she returned her mother had died, and Stella was blamed.

Stella's father expelled her from the tent, and unlike Ayrich, Prince Roland took care of Stella. He brought her to the palace when they discovered she was with child. Queen Ghasia took an interest in her, saw that her own midwives assisted in the birth. Stella believed the King and Queen had accepted her, that she belonged. But they were only protecting an agenda. They had promoted Prince Roland's younger brother, Handor, as successor to the throne when Roland became disabled. Stella's child was a threat to the order, and so it was never even handed to her after it's birth. Stella was never informed of the gender, for Queen Ghasia claimed it as her property, and brought it to the forest to perish in the elements.

That night, Prince Roland was found hung in his chamber, and Stella escaped from the castle. She managed an existence for herself back in the village, but she dared not mention the baby or Prince Roland. Eventually Stella wed a man named Boggs, a brick maker, who was Laiya's father. Boggs died when Laiya was ten years old, and Laiya and her mother served together as the midwives of Sendozor, until Stella died sixteen years later.

All her life, Laiya had never known that her mother had bore her a sibling, but since she learned that one had once existed her heart was filled with an aching. In helping Miva defy royalty and save Zenaya, Laiya could not help but feel a special connection, as if she were not only serving Miva and her daughter, but her mother's child as well.

"You were asking about your parents." Laiya reminded. "What do you want to know?"

"Was my father involved at all in my mother's pregnancy," Cora asked, choosing her words carefully.

Jasper did not involve himself in much of anything besides his own whiskey," Laiya stated.

"Including my mother, apparently," Cora stated.

Laiya looked at Cora hard. "What have you heard? It was a no nonsense look, and Cora knew it was time to come clean.

"I've been to the Asylum," she confessed. "I saw Jaielle. She told me we are sisters."

Laiya nodded. "I suspected as much," she said. "But I never knew. Your mother mumbled Breyton's name in a fever before you were born."

"But he wasn't involved?"

"He asked me once if it was safe for your mother to work. He knew the suspicions, with his wife ill, and Jasper so often incapacitated.

"There is talk of you and Aertis." Laiya said.

"Most is true," Cora admitted.

"And has he thrown you to the wayside? Is that why you come so tattered?"

"Even Jaielle has requested that I return to Aertis' cottage and tend to Aertis and my "nephew." But the boy is unusual. He woke this morning with his leg burning in pain. His ankle has grown a mark on it, resembling a map of Sendozor. Aertis sent me to find Orin to assist. I found him inside the forest, and he ran past me. I was afraid to return, and so I sought Jaielle. I had hoped for answers, but she gave me few."

"And what have you found here?"

Cora thought a moment. "Confirmation," she supposed, "that I am Breyton's daughter, and therefore linked by blood to Jaielle's son."

"You'll be returning now, to Aertis," Laiya said. "I'm tired now. I'm an old woman, you know. I should take advantage of this time to rest while Miva and Zenaya are away."

Cora started out the tent, but Laiya stopped her.

"Wait," she said.  "There is something you should take with you." Laiya pulled the lid off the trunk where she kept her clothing and other personal belongings and pulled out a faceless doll."

"I thought that had been burned!" Cora gasped, it was the doll Jaielle had given to her years ago.

"Don't get so excited," Laiya said. "You're to bring this to Kylion.  The boy should have something from his mother."

"Of course," Cora said. "It's perfect. Thank you."

Laiya did not say another word, but simple climbed on her cot on the other side of the tent and closed her eyes. There was nothing more for Cora to say either, and she started back towards the cottage.