Promised Valley Rebellion Virtual Book Tour April & May 2011

During the first full-moon holiday after the winter solstice, it was Blue Sky’s turn to go home. It was past sunset when he arrived in his village, but his father was still working in the barns.
Rose Leaf was in the mountains with Morning Sun. Blue Sky understood that Rose Leaf spent all of her time between full moons helping their parents and their ill and elderly neighbors. She did much of the work he used to do. She never went to the town. She worked, ate, slept, and went to see Morning Sun during the full-moon holidays.
Gentle Brook, who’d gone outside to empty a jar in the waste ditch, began weeping when she saw her son coming down the path from the forest in the moonlight.
Blue Sky embraced her.
“I won’t scare you again,” he promised, his arms still around her. “I’ll do as I’m told.”
A grateful smile broke through his mother’s tears like sunshine at the end of a shower.
They went into the house and sat by the fire.
They drank that autumn’s cider, which was pleasantly hard by then—and soon they spoke of what mattered most that winter.
“I want to tell Rose Leaf and Morning Sun one thing,” Blue Sky said. “I want to tell them why Tall Oak says they can’t marry and have children together.”
His mother stared at him, saying nothing.
“Are they brother and sister?” he asked. “Yes or no? Are they or aren’t they? What difference would it make if they and I knew that? We’d never tell anybody else.”
Gentle Brook sighed. “I can assure you, they aren’t brother and sister.”
“Then why can’t they marry? Why can’t they have children together?”
“You wish to know too much.”
“That’s impossible. Nobody can ever know too much.”
“Nobody needs to know why they can’t marry.”
“Rose Leaf and Morning Sun need to know,” Blue Sky disagreed. “They want to become husband and wife. They want to have children together. They want to live the rest of their lives together. And they want to know why the king says they can’t.”
“I know what they want.”
Blue Sky could see on his mother’s face the pain their conversation was causing her.
“Rose Leaf sat here and told me what she wants,” she continued. “Who can blame her? Morning Sun has become an honest and good man. A beautiful man, too. I think it would be wonderful if he could be Rose Leaf’s husband and the father of her children. And live with her the rest of their lives. But they can’t do that. Tall Oak says they can’t. The king says they can’t.”
“And Rose Leaf and Morning Sun can’t be told why they can’t?”
“Tall Oak and your father are wise men. And I don’t say that because the one is the king and the other my husband and your father. I say it because I know it’s true. I know it with my own eyes and ears. I know it from the many years I’ve known them. I say it despite the mistakes both of them have made.”
“Mistakes,” Blue Sky spat. “Sturdy Limb and Law Keeper.”
His mother shook her head before she resumed. “The king and your father say I shouldn’t tell you why Rose Leaf and Morning Sun can’t marry or have children together. I believe they’re right about that. So you can ask me all you want, but I can never tell you.”
Gentle Brook had tears in her eyes again.
“I never thought this would happen,” she said, looking at Blue Sky. “I thought Rose Leaf felt she was as much a sister to the prince as she was to you. Maybe I was just hoping that’s how it was. Whatever the reason, though, I was wrong.”
Gentle Brook and Full Harvest were dancing close together once when Blue Sky saw she was crying. He assumed she was feeling sorry for the man because his wife, Early Harvest’s mother, had been killed in the war, and he’d never found another woman who could replace her. The older people, though, said he, quite unlike Sturdy Limb, could’ve married any number of women who’d lost their husbands in the war.
“I was very, very wrong,” Gentle Brook continued. “I’m sorry, but I never saw just how wrong I was. I know now I should’ve seen it. But I didn’t. They were children.”
Blue Sky and his mother had openly hoped Rose Leaf would become Early Harvest’s mate. But those expectations were fatally flawed. They left out the fact of Morning Sun himself, growing into his manhood. Blue Sky and Gentle Brook were asking Rose Leaf to have the strength, which both of them entirely lacked, not to fall in love with the prince—not to dream they could somehow be the one he loved.
Gentle Brook took Blue Sky’s hand. “I don’t blame you for wanting to know. If I were you or Morning Sun or Rose Leaf, I’d insist on knowing. But I’m sorry. I can’t tell you.”
Blue Sky embraced his mother again and asked nothing more of her that evening.
*****
His father was in the horse pens working by torch light. One of the mares had given birth.
Green Field was ready to cut the foal’s cord with his blade.
Blue Sky helped him hold the foal down.
When Green Field was done, they stood up over the foal and looked at one another.
“I thought,” Green Field said, “you’d go to the town with Solemn Promise and the others.”
It was also Solemn Promise’s turn to go home. Blue Sky had come down from the mountains with him and two men from neighboring encampments.
Tall Oak had invited them to a banquet in the great central hall. The purpose was to honor Blue Sky. With only Spring Rain at his side last autumn, he’d stood his ground against ten hill warriors and made them turn away. The farmers had insisted upon his being recognized.
In his response, Blue Sky had promised that since he’d done nothing deserving recognition, he wouldn’t attend. The king and queen canceled the event.
Solemn Promise had agreed to give to the court what little news, all of it of little worth, Blue Sky had from the apprentice tellers’ encampment.
“I thought,” Blue Sky said to his father, “I’d have a better use for my time—better than listening to the imbecilities of people like Law Keeper, Sturdy Limb, and Tall Oak.”
Green Field winced when he heard his son include the king in that remark.
“When I was a child,” Blue Sky continued, “I was led to believe you weren’t like them. But that was before I saw who you really are. Before I became aware you approved the king’s banning a marriage for no good reason at all. And anybody can easily see the two people involved truly love one another.”
Blue Sky was hurting his father even more than he’d hurt his mother.
“That was also,” he added, “before I knew you approved killing innocent children.”
Green Field closed his eyes.
“I don’t approve any of that,” he countered. “Tall Oak has a good reason for banning the marriage you have in mind. It’s irresponsible for people to give birth to unwanted children. Rose Leaf knows she can’t have children with Morning Sun. He knows that. They’ve always known that. And that’s why they should make certain they don’t have children together. They can both have all the children they wish with other people.”
“They don’t wish to have children with other people. They wish to have children with each other. Why, may I ask, can’t they do that?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Tall Oak ordered you not to tell me.”
“That’s right. He did. He thinks you’ll tell the people.”
“He doesn’t want the people to know.”
“They don’t need to know.”
“You don’t want them to know either.”
With the torch light in his eyes like the sun at dawn, Green Field stared at Blue Sky and made no response.
“Tall Oak will suffer the consequences of this,” Blue Sky said. “Rose Leaf and Morning Sun will have children together. If Tall Oak orders a child of theirs killed, who’ll dare to obey such an order? Nobody. And Tall Oak will no longer be our king. The people will demand that the tellers determine he’s lost his mind. I’ll lead the rebellion myself if I have to. But I truly think an order to kill a child will be all the leading the people will need. Morning Sun will be the new king.”
Green Field let the foal’s cord drop to the barn floor.
“Just to say any of that is treason,” he said.
“Is it? Many Numbers and Spring Rain tell me a prince once became the king before his father died. The king’s mind had died, but not his body. That appears to be the case with Tall Oak.”
“Many Numbers and Spring Rain agree with you? A king can be deposed like that?”
“The tellers can recognize Morning Sun as the king if his father has lost his mind.”
“Sturdy Limb will never let the tellers do that.”
“Even if the people demand it? Even if they think the chief warrior’s life isn’t as worthy as that of Morning Sun and Rose Leaf’s child? Sturdy Limb would side with Tall Oak against the people? Why would a coward who feared for his life wish to do that?”
The foal was attempting to stand up.
“You think the people will side with you against the king?” Green Field asked.
“They’ll side with Morning Sun and Rose Leaf against the king. That’s what I think. Unless they’re given some good reason not to. Do you and Tall Oak have one?”
“Yes, we do.”
“What is it?”
The torch light still dancing in his father’s eyes was the only answer Blue Sky got.
“You can’t tell me,” Blue Sky said. “You can’t tell Morning Sun and Rose Leaf. You can’t tell the people. That’s the same as having no reason at all.”
Blue Sky knew he was causing his father agony, but he also knew he could only go on.
“A king who’s lost his mind can no longer be king,” he said. “That’s what the story says. The gods won’t allow it. Nor will the people.”
The foal stood next to its mother. Blue Sky was glad his words meant nothing to those innocent creatures.
“I’m leaving now,” he said. “I’m going back to the encampment.”
“Alone? In the forest? In the middle of winter? At night?”
Ordinarily, Blue Sky would’ve begun his return to his encampment with Solemn Promise and the other men the morning after the next day.
“I can do more for the kingdom in the mountains,” he said, “than I could ever do here.”
When he turned to go, his father caught the sleeve of his coat and held him back.
“I know this seems wrong to you,” Green Field said. “I know why it does.”
He held Blue Sky close to himself, as if his son were a lover he was attempting to talk out of an abrupt leave-taking in the middle of a quarrel.
“It would seem wrong to me, too,” Green Field continued, throwing the words in Blue Sky’s face. “But Tall Oak is the king. I promised him my loyalty long ago. That means I go along with his decisions. Even if his decisions might not always be the same as mine. He says we can’t tell you why Morning Sun and Rose Leaf can never have children together. There is a reason for it. But I can’t tell you, Rose Leaf, Morning Sun, or the people what it is and remain loyal to Tall Oak.”
Blue Sky shook his head. “There’s no possible reason why the people shouldn’t be told.”
“You don’t understand,” Green Field countered. “The world isn’t as straightforward as you think it is. There are some things the people shouldn’t know. For their own good.”
“And this is one of those things?” Blue Sky asked. “And the people are just supposed to take your and Tall Oak’s word for it that it is?”
Green Field let go of Blue Sky’s sleeve.
“You and Tall Oak will find out,” Blue Sky said, “the people aren’t as stupid and unconcerned as you think they are.”
“And you’ll lead the people into treason against their king?”
“If that’s what you and the present king wish to call it, yes.”
“You won’t like where this is taking you. Believe me, you won’t.”
Although what Green Field said could’ve been interpreted as a threat, the look on his face turned it into one last plea—which did him no good.
“When you were a youth,” Blue Sky said, “rebelling against a misguided and fearful king was called bravery. Those who did it are still, to this day, considered heroes. And rightly so, in my opinion. When they were young, they were fearless. But sadly, as they grew older, they let fear rule their lives and the kingdom. I’ll have nothing further to do with you. I’ll say good-bye to my mother now and be gone. You, though, can forget you ever had me for a son.”
Blue Sky walked alone in the forest all through the night. In the morning, snow began to fall. He walked all that day and through another night without sleeping. When he reached sunrise pass the next morning, the snow was as deep in the mountains and the valley as it got that winter.
Chapter Eight
When Many Numbers came to sunrise pass for the second full-moon holiday after the winter solstice, he brought news from the town.
Blue Sky, Spring Rain, and he were sitting on the bench outside their hut getting as much warmth as they could from the midwinter sun and the wine they were drinking.
“Does Tall Oak know what the people think?” Blue Sky asked.
“Without a doubt,” Many Numbers said. “You should see him in court. His mind appears to be somewhere else. He and Rainbow Evening are constantly whispering.”
“How much does he know?” Blue Sky asked. “Do you think he’s heard any talk of his being forced to let Morning Sun marry Rose Leaf?”
“He must’ve,” Many Numbers replied. “Just the other day, Sturdy Limb was making one of his pointless speeches in court. He was going on and on describing the punishments for different crimes. When he got to treason, Tall Oak suddenly interrupted him, saying traitors have always been dealt with harshly in this kingdom, and if anybody had a story to the contrary, he’d like to hear it. He was looking at me when he said that. Everybody knew what he was talking about.”
“Just as I thought,” Spring Rain said. “He’ll order all of us executed. Sturdy Limb will enjoy doing it, too. He’ll prolong the execution of Green Field’s son. He’ll love that.”
Blue Sky gave Spring Rain an unusually stern look. “Only if we don’t succeed,” he said.
“Most traitors don’t succeed,” Spring Rain noted. “That’s how it’s supposed to be.”
Blue Sky didn’t have to say he didn’t want to hear any more of that kind of talk.
*****
People said Blue Sky must’ve inherited his good eyesight from his father and mother.
When he came of age, though, he had an undeniable edge over his father. The night they’d argued in the horse barn, he could tell his father wasn’t aware that Autumn Wine’s grandsons were on the other side of their common barn wall, listening to them.
The grandsons had seen Blue Sky coming down the path from the forest. They’d no doubt attempted to hear through the common house wall what he and his mother were saying, probably without success. But they could hear him leave the house and go to the horse barn.
They’d gone into their cattle barn without torches. Blue Sky could still see, through a tiny crack in the wall, when they opened their barn door and briefly let in the light of the full moon. He could hear them walking on the fresh straw they’d laid down that morning. He could hear the cattle moving out of the way as the grandsons approached the wall where they could best eavesdrop on their neighbors.
Blue Sky was certain, despite his people’s dislike of traveling in winter, it hadn’t taken long for the grandsons’ news to reach the town or even the upper valley: the king was absolutely opposed to Morning Sun’s mating with Rose Leaf. Hearing no good reason for the opposition, Rose Leaf’s brother was so angry he was prepared to ask the people to remove Tall Oak as king in favor of the prince they’d come to love. And when Tall Oak fell, Sturdy Limb, Law Keeper, and all their high deputies and tellers the people had come to despise would go down with him.