High Priestess- No Man's Servant Read online

  Contents

  Dedication

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Dedication

  To the indigenous people of Dalagsaan, thank you so much for being a part of my childhood. My summer vacations were always full of adventures with you.

  Also to my husband, who is always supportive of what I do; I couldn’t have finished this novel without you always asking how it was going.

  To my editor, Pete Smith from the Novel Approach Manuscript Services Ltd, thank you so much for your hard work and bringing more life to my words.

  Author’s Note

  Dalagsaan, a village in the Philippines is still untouched by modern civilization. The villagers travel on foot or ride rafts to town. As of this writing, roads have been slowly built, but still a half-day’s walk remained to reach the village. Dalagsaan was my inspiration for the setting in this novel.

  This novel used telepathic conversations between characters. To convey them clearly, telepathic communications were enclosed with < >.

  Chapter 1

  The Betrayal

  Kenda’s foot bumped against a protruding stone. She cried out, but her grandmother didn’t care. With surprising strength, the white-haired old woman practically dragged her, even though Kenda was now taller than her at fifteen years of age.

  “Grandma, slow down! We’re not the most important people in the celebration.” Wincing, Kenda tried to lift her right foot and saw that it was now bleeding a little.

  Her grandmother, Nora, pulled her along as if she hadn’t spoken. In her right hand, she held a staff adorned with locks of hair, and she persistently tugged at Kenda with her left.

  “How many times did I tell you to be home by noon?” The bony old woman let go of Kenda’s hand and slapped her hard on the bottom. “I am too embarrassed to keep the guests waiting. You could have at least made your hair look like you haven’t been wrestling with a demon.”

  Kenda tried to tame the disheveled hair which hung down to her waist. Even though she could not see herself, she knew that her grandmother was partially right.

  Nora had told her to watch out for birds eating the rice before the harvest. She had been running after an annoying wild parrot in their rice field. The parrot had continuously repeated all that she said to the point where Kenda became annoyed. Determined to catch it, she had climbed a tree, went under the bushes, and rolled down a hill, but all to no avail. The annoying parrot even laughed when her grandmother came looking for her and she had been told to stop the chase.

  “Now, keep your shirt tucked in,” Nora scolded.

  “Grandma, why do I have to go to any of these celebrations if you can just bring some food home from them? It’s not our celebration, is it?”

  “Why should I? You can go there with your own two feet! And have you forgotten that I am the high priestess?”

  Kenda looked up, wanting to roll her eyes, but she stopped herself. Once, her grandmother had made her kneel on salt for rolling her eyes at her. The memory of the pain had stayed with Kenda long after that day, and since then, she had not once rolled her eyes in front of her grandmother. Nora was loving, but she was also strict when it came to discipline.

  A few meters from the house belonging to her Uncle Goni and Aunt Pilly, Kenda began to hear the laughter and chatter. Pilly was Nora’s eldest daughter, and, being the highest authority in the family after Nora and her husband, Cesar, she was always active in gatherings. Gatherings were normally held at their house, primarily because it was big. With eight children to raise, it stood to reason that she and Goni owned a spacious house, with room enough to accommodate the many guests usually invited to such occasions.

  Kenda and Nora stepped through the open door. Unlike the other houses in the village where the floors were raised one or two meters off the ground, Aunt Pilly’s house was built with its walls touching the ground. Flat stones, strategically placed together, covered the dirt on which it had been built. As a result, it looked just a little rougher when compared to the cement floors that Kenda had seen in town.

  The laughter and chatter died down as people saw them approaching. There seemed to be at least fifty people huddled in the house, sitting so close to each other that most of their bodies were touching. Sitting on the ground without cushions was common for less important guests, and they sat wherever a vacant space could be found. Nora ushered Kenda forward, and people respectfully made way for them to pass.

  Kenda’s body went rigid as she stared at the only two vacant floor cushions in the center. Realization hit her. She now understood her grandmother’s determination in ensuring that Kenda came to the celebration. Nora had sent her to the rice field to deliberately hide the preparations from her. Kenda planted her feet firmly on the stone floor, not wanting to continue walking toward the vacant seats. With a steady hand, she pried her grandmother’s hand from her arm.

  She was ready to bolt from the house, but when she looked back, people were already blocking the doorway. About ten people were standing, and those who had made way for her earlier were now back in their seats, leaving no space for her to pass if she tried to reach the door. Kenda clenched her fists as she decided that this must have been carefully thought through, with her grandmother as the mastermind. Feeling defeated, Kenda moved forward and took a seat at her grandmother’s side.

  In the center, food was placed on top of a rectangular table which stood only a few inches off the floor, but as yet, no one was eating. The feast was extravagant by Kenda’s standards. There was roast pork, chicken cooked in various ways, fruit, and vegetables. Each offering looked as though it had been placed carefully, with several people no doubt having taken the effort to make them look appealing.

  Kenda looked at the faces of the people surrounding the table. To her left, beside her grandmother, was Romu, the village chief, and several other officials she recognized. Kenda supposed that the groom’s family sat on the opposite side, and so she scanned the males’ faces to find the groom. There was only one guy whom she thought might not be married. He looked to be in his early thirties, with clean-cut hair and large hands with dirt beneath the nails. His face looked to be that of someone who was used to working on a farm, but it was not burnt enough to suggest that he would spend all day in the fields, so she assumed that he must be someone from a well-to-do family who had the luxury of working whenever he liked.

  He looked at her and smiled meekly, but she did not return the smile. She couldn’t believe that she would marry this man, especially as he was more than likely twice her age and she had never met him before. She didn’t know if this man was good or not. She had only what the elders had to say to rely on.

  Her insides twisted at the thought of getting married. Most women in their village married early. Kenda, however, was past the normal age of marriage for their village because her grandmother had gone to great lengths to find a good match for her. It was no secret, but Kenda had just brushed it off, thinking that her grandmother had listened when she had expressed multiple times that she wanted to marry later in life, to a man that she was in love with.

  Her one trip into town had changed her. She marveled at those single women who dressed well and had worked
all by themselves. She longed to make a better life for herself, and that did not include making it harder by marrying and having children to feed.

  The old man to the left of the groom bowed his head a little and spoke in a low voice filled with respect. “Most people know of our intention in coming here to your village. First of all, I wish to thank you all for welcoming us warmly, especially the High Priestess and your village officials.” He bowed his head again gently, showing his respect.

  “I would like to introduce Jinja, my son. He would like to be a part of your family, your village, and a husband to the High Priestess’s granddaughter.” Jinja bowed a little, allowing the old man to continue speaking. “I know that some people here already know me. I am the leader of the village of Taa. As we are asking for the hand of the High Priestess’s granddaughter, we have come here to discuss the terms of this union.”

  Discuss the terms? That meant that he and her grandmother had already decided to pursue this marriage, and they were really just here to discuss the dowry. She wanted to say that she was not ready to get married. She wanted to stand up, but younger ones had no place in such a serious gathering. She was only allowed to listen. Now, the house was silent, as though her grandmother and Hula of Taa were the only two people within.

  Her grandmother, looking as powerful as ever, gripped the head of the staff laid in front of her. It looked like a simple staff on the outside, just like any other sturdy wooden staff used by older villagers but for the locks of hair on top, but it was anything other than ordinary. The staff had been bequeathed to many priestesses over the years, each adding a lock of their hair to serve as a symbol that the current priestess acted under the guidance of her predecessors. This was the symbol of the high priestess herself.

  “Well, thank you for making the arduous trip here. My granddaughter, Kenda, is happy to see such a strong man as her future husband, should we agree to the terms laid out today.”

  Happy? She threw a murderous look at her grandmother. How did she know that she was happy? Kenda had told her grandmother several times that she wanted to build a sari-sari store for them—a store that sold various things from town to the villagers—and that way, their life would improve. She was strong and could carry things from town to sell. That would be the thing that would make her happy. Making her life better would be her happiness.

  Hula nodded his head in agreement. “Please name your price, and we will do our best to honor it.”

  Nora cleared her throat, making sure that people would clearly hear her demands for the marriage. “For the kids, I would like them to live comfortably, and for this, I would like them to have a bull and a cow. The bull will help them on the farm, and the cow will give them calves to sell. They also have to live separately, so a second house should be built before the union. The size does not really matter, as long as they have roofs over their heads. My granddaughter is resilient and will do well in keeping the house. For the day of the union, I would like it to be known, both here and in the neighboring villages, that the High Priestess’s granddaughter is being wed. There should be music and gongs. The food should last for three days and must be able to feed at least a thousand people. No house here can hold such a number, so we must build something for the occasion.”

  Kenda’s eyes went wide. She had never seen such a grand event. The biggest she had witnessed had lasted for two days. The food had run out, and the groom had been left with little choice but to ask his relatives for their chicken and rice to continue feeding his guests. It amassed a huge debt that the couple must still be struggling to pay several years after the ceremony.

  Hula did not show his reaction to the demands. Kenda didn’t know if they were rich enough for her grandmother to name demands such as these.

  “The couple’s future must be secured,” Hula said at last. “I will see to it that they will get a bull and a cow.” He paused and put his hand on the table. “A thousand guests might be a little hard for us to accommodate, however. As you know, our village was struck by a typhoon this year, and the crops fell, rotten, to the ground. If we could only delay until next year, perhaps we will be able to save more food from the harvest.”

  Nora raised her hand. “My granddaughter is getting old; I cannot wait that long. I cannot wait another year, or other men will begin to show interest in her.”

  Kenda knew what her grandmother meant. She was already turning into a woman. Right now, in fact, she looked like a fully-grown woman. Her breasts were already big, and her hips were wide. That meant that she was ready to raise children.

  That also meant that she was in danger. Unmarried women were targets of men from the two villages nearby. It was well known that women in these parts died from rape as a result of the skirmishes between the villages. Some of the women survived, only to later kill themselves out of shame or be killed by their own family members in restoration of their family’s honor.

  For several hundred years, fewer and fewer women had been born in Daa and the other two neighboring villages. In the last couple of years alone, only one girl was born out of about a hundred babies. As a result of this decline, some men raped adolescent girls whose figures were developing, even at an age where they were not old enough to understand what they were being subjected to. As the years passed by, society adapted to the heinous trend, and the ages of the brides began to become younger and younger.

  Hula nodded in agreement with Nora. “If you can give us a few moments, my family and I would like to discuss this alone. We understand that you do not have the time to wait, and we certainly don’t want your granddaughter to marry into another family.”

  “Take your time. The day is still long.”

  Hula and his advisors stood up, and the crowd parted to give them space to pass. It was common for the groom’s family to do this in the middle of the discussion. The families always chose to talk amongst themselves and then later announce what they had decided, as opposed to allowing the other party to hear their discussion.

  After Hula was out of earshot, Kenda turned to her grandmother. “Grandma, I don’t want to get married yet.” As if her objection could change anything. She did not plead. She did not show her anger. She just stated what she wanted.

  Her grandmother pinched her right leg. She bit her lower lip and rubbed her leg to ease the lingering pain. Kenda knew better than to speak again, so she just stared at her grandmother’s staff in front of her.

  After what seemed like seconds, Jinja’s family came back inside the house in a line, the people once again giving them space to enter. She could not read Hula’s expression, but Kenda prayed that they would back out of the agreement and she wouldn’t need to get married. Hula took his seat lazily.

  “We have come to a decision,” Hula announced. “As Jinja really likes Kenda, we have decided to meet all of your terms. Please allow us two months to prepare, and then you can choose the date of the ceremony.” It was a short announcement, and there were no objections at all. It was almost as if Jinja’s family had been able to afford all the demands all along and their discussion amongst themselves had simply been a matter of theatrics.

  “Very well, then. Let’s hold the ceremony on the first day of the third month from now.” Nora smiled and bowed a little. Kenda thought that her grandmother must be happy that she no longer had to worry about her granddaughter’s wedding.

  It immediately dawned on Kenda that, in two months’ time, she would be married. Actually, it felt as though she was now married as of this day. Once the families set the date for the wedding, preparations would start immediately. Following the traditions of Kenda’s people, the bride was marked by wearing a red scarf across her chest, wrapped from her left shoulder to the right-hand side of her waist. In this way, people would come to know that she was no longer eligible for their sons as a potential bride, and the chance of her being raped would be reduced.

  Her dream of being independent and strong was crushed. Tears fell down her cheeks, now reddening with anger.
If she didn’t speak out now, she would never get the chance. Without thinking about her grandmother’s reaction, she stood abruptly and spoke in a loud voice that brought horror to the faces of each of the guests.

  “I am not getting married. I am not your property, and I can think for myself. If death is the penalty for not getting married, then so be it.”

  “I choose death.”

  Chapter 2

  Bolt

  The waterfall facing Daa village rumbled as Kenda rushed out of the house. She had to get away from this place, no matter what. She had said that she would choose death over marriage, but she had actually meant that as a last resort. She would flee this rotten village, just as she had trained herself to do. She had practiced running, should the need for escape ever arise, and she had also fought with her Uncle Goni several times in the forest to practice her fighting skills.

  The trail which led to town sloped down from the village to the river. Out here, there were no roads like the ones she knew of in town. There were only trails where the constant trampling underfoot stopped the wild vegetation from growing. Because there were no roads, it was hard for the townsfolk to reach their village, on a journey that would take days of walking from the end of the road to get there.

  The downward force of the waterfall caused the current of the river to be strong. Kenda knew that she needed to cross the river to quickly reach the town. As it sat on the bank of the river, she knew that she would get there by following its course. One thing was certain; Kenda couldn't stay on the trail because to do so would allow the villagers to catch her.

  She had barely escaped from the house by using the element of surprise and stepping on people. She had kicked and punched those who had grabbed her, and since most of the people were sitting, she had had the advantage of knocking them over as they tried. People had not expected her to flee. Nobody had ever tried to do so before.