The Purlieu Experiment, Book 1 Read online

  Halisi came to his rescue. She held her hands out to Chiku. “Come to me now so Heri can say goodbye to Baba.”

  Chiku reluctantly went to her mother and Donte hugged Heri close, kissing his cheek. Heri’s eyes were not quite brown and not quite dark blue. Farasi had been delighted that he favored Donte. Heri had everything his grandfather could provide, but as far as Farasi was concerned, Chiku had to settle for life.

  Donte released Heri and let him sit on his arm as he turned to Halisi and Chiku.

  “Thank you for bringing them to see me. Are you being treated well?”

  She met his gaze. “Kafil sees that we have everything we need - and more. We are safe and comfortable.”

  Donte nodded, his throat constricting so that it was difficult to speak. “Tell him I am grateful.”

  Her dark eyes implored him. “Why, Donte? You didn’t even know her.”

  For a moment he looked into her eyes. After six years, had she learned nothing about him? He sighed. “I felt it had to be done, Halisi. I’m sorry for you and the children, but I still think it was the only way. At least now Chiku will be safe.”

  She glanced at Chiku. “He wouldn’t hurt her now. He loves…loved her.”

  He didn’t argue. Let her think of her father in any way she wished. Farasi was gone now and was no longer a threat to any of them. He set Heri on the floor and took Chiku from her arms. Putting Chiku on the floor, he turned to Halisi and reached out his arms for her. For a moment she hesitated. She had never hugged or kissed him and it was clear that she wished things to remain that way. Finally she shrugged, probably unable to refuse the last request of a condemned man. She took a step toward him and he pulled her into his arms. He didn’t want to leave her thinking she meant nothing to him, even if he meant nothing to her.

  “I admire you, Halisi. I’m sorry I came between you and Kafil.”

  She studied his face for a moment before responding. “You gave us time together. It was more than we could expect from you. You have been a good father to…our children.”

  He pulled her close and kissed her lips. At first she was stiff in his arms, but finally her lips responded and she hugged him. He released her and stepped away.

  “Goodbye and good luck,” he said.

  “Goodbye.” She lifted a hand, paused, and dropped it in an awkward gesture. She was probably going to wipe her lips with the back of her hand but thought better of it. It was the first time he touched her that she didn’t cringe. No doubt she would be glad when he was gone.

  He stared at the door after they left. Halisi and the children left him in a vacuum. Everything he had lived for in the last six years had walked out that door. At the moment, he welcomed death as an escape. He was almost 30 years old and his existence amounted to nothing. Ultimately, his life had cost that of his mate and children. In six years, Halisi had developed no feelings toward him and tomorrow he would abandon his children in death. He had robbed his father and grandfather of their only opportunity for future generations. He was a dismal failure for a human, much less a mascot.

  He had been only seventeen when he exchanged vows with Liana, and she only sixteen. By the time she was seventeen, she had a baby to look after, and a mate who wasn’t yet a man. She was only twenty-one when she died. Donte was only twenty-two when he came to Nyumbani. A person did a lot of growing up in hard times, and he hadn’t really known any until Liana died.

  He sat on the cot, his thoughts returning to his arrival in Nyumbani six years ago. At first he had agreed with the term Farasi had used to describe his daughter. “Ice Princess” seemed appropriate. She had made it clear from the beginning that Donte was there for only one purpose, and she permitted that only because her father demanded it. He wasn’t permitted to kiss or caress her. Their mating was awkward and humiliating for both of them. Their only saving grace was the fact that her father didn’t dictate how or when it would happen. He simply wanted a male heir. They had to work out the details as best they could. Medical knowledge had been limited on Purlieu. The Parliament had done all the creating of life up to that point and there was only one method of doing it now that they were gone.

  Halisi had figured out how to get along with her father - she avoided him. She had taken over an abandoned house and started farming on her own. She had a small garden and a wild bovine that she milked morning and night. It wasn’t much, but she managed to eat regularly, which was more than he could say for many of her neighbors.

  When it became obvious that Donte was going to be staying with her for a while, she gradually allowed him to help her with some of the chores. That was when he discovered that Farasi’s little “ice princess” was feeding her starving neighbors - generally at her own expense. She ate enough to stay healthy, and she made sure Donte had enough to eat, but the rest of the food went to the neighbors. He knew, because she sent him to deliver it.

  Donte had never known hunger until he arrived in Nyumbani. He was an experienced hunter, but the wildlife in Nyumbani had been depleted by excessive hunting. The remaining animals had learned to avoid the hunters. Donte had a unique advantage in hunting. He had been born with a strange sense. He knew when animals were around him. He could sense their presence and often what they were. He could sense people the same way and knew if their intent was benevolent, malevolent or indifferent. No one could explain it. It simply was.

  Their existence in Nyumbani was meager at best. Halisi didn’t hunt, but she had used ingenuity on her farm. When it was time to breed the Bovine, she staked her out where the wild bulls could find her. That gave Donte an idea. In Bergen, he had learned how to make a rope from braided tree bark. He waited until a bull came to service the cow and then tracked it back to more female bovines. Catching the female bovine proved to be simple compared to avoiding the bull and getting it back to Halisi’s farm. By the time he returned, Halisi was probably convinced that he had escaped. With two bovine females, they had more milk to feed the neighbors. He built a fence strong enough to keep the bovines in, and when a bull came calling, he let it in with the females. So it was that in the first year, he tripled her stock.

  Donte captured some wild fowl and built a pen for them. He gathered grain and planted it so that they would have feed, and he tended the vegetable garden. By the time Halisi’s stomach began to swell, they had enough stock to keep him busy tending the farm.

  At first Halisi tolerated his endeavors as one would accept the inevitable antics of children. To her, he was a child of twenty-two and she was a woman of thirty-five. As his methods began to put more food on the table, she gradually treated him with more respect.

  As she became heavy with child and he was taking on more of the chores, evenings were often spent in conversation. Halisi had an insatiable hunger for knowledge and she was willing to share what she knew.

  Halisi was only 5 years old when the books were burned, so she didn’t know how to read or write. Only males of high standing were taught to read, so Donte taught her. Together they secretly made paper from lint and pulp. They found wild berries to make ink and he fashioned quills from large feathers he found. They wrote books and bound them with glue that he made. They taught neighbors to read and write. To that end, they became partners in crime.

  By the time Chiku was born they had cultivated a guarded friendship. They respected and admired each other, but that was the extent of their relationship. As he gradually began to understand Halisi, his eyes were opened to the cause of her distance from him. Halisi loved someone else. Their love was forbidden, though, because he wasn’t even a mascot.

  For Donte, anything that displeased Farasi became a passion. It was no different with Halisi’s love life. He arranged meetings for Halisi and Kafil and cared for Chiku while they were together. In retrospect, it was a good indication of Halisi’s trust in him. He could have taken their daughter and escaped. He wanted to escape and he wanted to remove his daughter from the suffering in Nyumbani, but he couldn’t hurt Halisi that way.

 
Of course, Halisi had every reason to trust him with their daughter. Two weeks after Chiku was born Farasi arrived in a rage because she had not informed him of the birth. When he discovered the baby was a girl, he was livid. He had contracted for a boy. Farasi ordered one of his men to kill the baby.

  Donte defended Chiku with the only weapons he had - his physical strength and his fertility. He stood between Farasi and Chiku and told him that there would be no more children if Farasi harmed Chiku in any way. At that point he had already decided to terminate Farasi if need be. He knew it would result in his own execution, but at least Chiku would be safe. Now he wished he had done it.

  Perhaps Farasi knew he had no chance, or maybe it was the idea that Donte was basically promising to stay long enough for a second child that caused him to reconsider. Little Chiku was safe until Heri was born. Then the fear began all over again. Farasi would never permit a female to succeed him in power. If Farasi had known he was going to die today, he would have ordered his men to kill both his daughter and granddaughter so that Heri would rule. Halisi would never believe him capable of it, but Donte knew better. In any case, the incident with Chiku formed a closer bond between Donte and Halisi. Three years later, when she came to him for another baby, she was more responsive. Little Heri was born one year later.

  It had not been Donte’s intent to stay for more than a few weeks after he gave Farasi an heir, but here he was; one year after Heri was born, unable to break the bond he had formed with his daughter.

  He stretched out on the cot, hands behind his head, thinking about Liana and Bjorn. It startled him to realize he could not picture either of their faces. Instead he saw Halisi and Chiku. It had only been six years. How could he forget?

  CHAPTER 2

  Kafil sat in his room, staring blindly at the wall. Farasi was gone and Donte was scheduled to be executed in the morning. He wracked his brain for some way to prevent the extinction of their colony. He had only the breath of a hope that Donte’s letter would stop Pieter. Kafil had never met Pieter, but the ruler of Bergen was reputed to have a quick temper and a mighty power swing.

  Farasi had promised the safe return of Donte after he produced an heir. Strangely enough, that was what prompted Kafil to get involved with the council. With the ordered rape of his daughter to get an heir, Farasi had graduated from insanity to tyranny. Of course, Farasi didn’t consider it rape, and Donte was as unwilling as Halisi, but it was rape. Halisi was an unwilling participant. What else would it be called? At first he had hated Donte for his part in the production of an heir. Why would anyone agree to such a thing? He had begun to believe that Halisi was the only sane mascot left alive - that the plague had rendered all the male mascots insane.

  In a way, Donte was insane – at least for a while. He certainly wasn’t thinking right. It took Kafil a while to realize that Donte’s insanity was temporary. It wasn’t until Farasi ordered the execution of some of his own men that Kafil and the council learned what had happened to Donte’s mate and children. Until that point they had not even known of Farasi’s obsession about an heir from Donte.

  Kafil had to admit that the first time he saw Donte, he was impressed. He had a regal look about him. He stood straight and proud, not looking down on people, but not concerned about how they perceived him either. He was an unusually good looking man - tall, lean and perfectly formed – but that wasn’t all. For the first two weeks after Donte arrived, Kafil had only observed him from a distance. It wasn’t until the execution of Farasi’s men that he observed what he felt was the most impressive thing about Donte.

  Donte was present to witness the execution of the men who killed his mate and children. Kafil could understand his interest in seeing justice – or even revenge. He had watched Donte as they brought the first man to be executed. It occurred to him at that point that Donte would rather beat the man to death. As the axe swept down, the man tried to jerk away. The axe caught part of his neck, paralyzing him so that he could not move. He lay there screaming and had to be placed on the block for completion of the execution. Donte turned away, his golden skin blanching until it was almost white. Donte’s tortured gaze had fallen on Kafil. It was something Kafil would never forget. In that moment he knew why Donte had agreed to come to Nyumbani, and it had nothing to do with giving Farasi an heir. It was probably that moment that Donte snapped out of his temporary insanity. Maybe it was because the horrific killing of his mate had been revenged. Whatever the reason, Donte became the man Kafil knew today.

  Donte didn’t hate all the Nyumbani for what Farasi and his men had done. In fact, he did everything in his power to improve their lives. Donte had years of experience in farming and raising animals. He was an incredibly successful hunter. He had an education beyond anything Kafil could have imagined. Kafil hadn’t even known about the space ships until Donte told him about them, and Donte had been on one. But most of all, Donte had integrity. It didn’t take the colonists long to realize that he could be trusted. When he caught a man stealing food for his family, Donte didn’t report him. Instead, he found food for the man’s family. When someone was sick, he found herbs to make them well. He taught them how to make paper, charcoal pencils and ink from plants. Without question, Donte’s tutelage increased the quality of life for many colonists. All those things won Kafil’s respect in the first year, but it was the coming of his first child that inspired his deepest respect. Donte delivered Chiku, and when Farasi discovered it was a girl, Donte protected her. It was the first time Kafil had ever seen anyone stand up to Farasi and win. It was the first of many times Donte defended the colonists from Farasi. He was a soft-spoken man who didn’t feel the need to act tough. Donte treated humans as if they were equally created. He had never known a mascot to act that way – not even Halisi.

  In the six years that Donte had been in Nyumbani, Kafil had built a friendship with him. Donte deserved better than he was getting. They should send him home with honors for ridding their colony of Farasi, not execute him. But Donte hadn’t killed Farasi in self-defense, or even by accident. He had assassinated him. Even Donte understood that they must punish him. If they didn’t, this would happen any time the colonists didn’t agree with their leader. In the absence of order, there was chaos.

  Kafil rubbed his forehead. No matter how many times he reminded himself that it was Donte’s decision, he felt guilty - ashamed. Donte wasn’t a criminal. He had done what they lacked the courage to do. If they executed him, they would be doing more than betraying him. They could never hold their heads up again. Even worse, they could never drag themselves out of their current state of poverty. Because he spoke all the languages, Donte was their only viable connection with other colonies. Who else but Donte would speak for them after what they had done? There were no colonies left now that they hadn’t violated in some way. Without Donte they would be forced to either hold the Lochfowk woman captive or turn her loose to return home alone.

  He stood and walked to the window, staring at the building where Donte was being held. If he and the council had not worked so hard for the last few years building a militia they could trust, he would help Donte and the Lochfowk woman escape. The council had been preparing for a takeover in the event of Farasi’s death, but it had happened sooner than they expected. Not all of Farasi’s men were loyal to him, and they had assisted in taking control. Still, some of Farasi’s men had escaped. Kafil wasn’t naive enough to believe they wouldn’t be back when they regrouped. Even if the council released Donte, the men loyal to Farasi might find and kill him. Still, if he was free, at least he would have a chance.

  Kafil turned and left the room. He needed to talk to Halisi. He strode across the yard to the complex. Once inside, he made his way to the back door and slipped outside. He stood still for a while, watching the night for any sign of movement. After seeing nothing, he walked to the next building, a small storage area. Again he waited, but there was no one around. It was in that manner that he finally arrived at the home of his parents. Halisi an
d the children had been hidden in a cellar. It wasn’t a fitting place for a princess, but no one would think to look there.

  He knocked on the door. “It’s Kafil.”

  Halisi opened the door and closed it after he entered. The children were both asleep on cots. Halisi held a candle in one hand.

  “I thought Chiku would never stop crying.” She whispered.

  Kafil blew out the candle and took her into his arms. For a while they simply held each other. They were accustomed to a clandestine relationship. With Donte gone, it might be even more difficult. Kafil didn’t want to hamper any opportunity Halisi had of being recognized as the rightful heir to rule Nyumbani. As long as Farasi had lived, there was no chance of her being queen. Even so, Farasi would never have allowed Halisi to exchange nuptial vows with anyone but a mascot.

  “I had to talk to you.” Kafil whispered. “Did you talk to Donte?”

  “Yes. He’s holding up remarkably well.” Her voice sounded strained. “Can’t we do anything for him?”

  “I’m trying to think of some way to convince the council tomorrow morning. The first thing we must do is decide who will be our next leader. You are the rightful heir. I don’t know if they will agree to that – because of the things Farasi has done. They may want to start a different form of government.”

  She leaned against him and sighed. “I will support them if they want to start a different type of government, but I will not support a decision to execute Donte or the Lochfowk woman. They are not our people. We have no right to execute them. We brought the woman here against her will. Donte was promised a safe return to his people. To execute either of them would take us to a point beyond return. The council must be made to understand that. If our colony is to survive and flourish, we must do the honorable thing.”

  She leaned against him again and started to cry. He held her close, trying to comfort her. He wasn’t sure what to say or do. She had never wept in his presence before and he was unsure of the cause now. The idea that she was in his arms weeping for Donte was upsetting. Donte had known her in a way that honor had prohibited him from knowing her. Still, maybe her tears were the result of a combination of all the events. Halisi said she had never been close to her father, but since the plague they had drifted farther apart. Even so, he was her father. The relationship with Donte had been forced on her, but she had grown fond of him. Listening to Chiku cry all evening and knowing there was nothing she could do to improve that situation would be enough to make a person cry.