The floor was cold even through her slippers, and the room was dark enough that she could just make out the shape of the door through the shadows. One look at the small window high up told her that the moon was hiding. There would be none of its light to guide her.
But Nina remembered the path to the front door of the acllahuasi, and her newfound clarity gave her courage.
Sneaking was a skill she had mastered after years of hiding from Sacha in the fields. She was adept, and desperate, and willing as she slid through the door, nothing but a whisper of fabric against stone to give her away. She placed her fingers against the wall to guide her, shut her eyes against the absolute dark, and then she was running.
A right, and then a left, and another right. She stopped for a moment to get her bearings and catch her breath, ears strained to listen for any noise. But there was nothing. She took off again, this time a bit slower, until she felt the space open and knew she was in the front room of the acllahuasi.
Slowly, she placed her back against the closest wall and quietly shuffled along it, her palms out beside her. Her heart ticked in her ears, keeping pace with her erratic breaths. She tried to calm her breathing—in through her nose and out through her mouth—but she was so close to the outside that she could almost taste the wet air, and it tasted like freedom.
Finally, the texture of the wall changed from rough stone to weathered wood. She knew the door had no handle—she vaguely remembered being dragged through it when she arrived. There had to be a way to open it. If not this door, thenadoor, or a window, or a hole in the wall. She’d claw her way out, if she had to.
As quietly as she could, she ran her hands over the wood and banged her fist along different spots, thinking that there might be a false window or a crevice of some sort she could slip her fingers into. She remembered her brother, Samaq, had always been tinkering with different materials, finding inventive ways to build a toy to entertain his sisters. He would have known exactly how to open it.
Frustrated, Nina slumped into the door with a sigh of defeat.
A click echoed through her shoulder. She leaned away, and the wood shifted forward.
With a silent squeal of victory, Nina pried her fingers into the opening, breath held as she pulled it wide enough to slip through. Humid air washed over her. Once out, she found a handle and carefully shut it behind her.
She had succeeded in escaping. It was almost more than she could believe. The wet air chilled her skin as she turned and surveyed the ultimate obstacle between her and freedom.
A line of ominous trees stood in the near distance. Beyond them was a dark so complete that Nina couldn’t make out anything more than vague shapes, but she could hear the sounds within them. Leaves rustling in a thick breeze. Owls calling to one another. Insects murmuring a never-ending song that seemed to grow louder the longer she listened.
The forest was alive, and she was about to walk right into its maw.
Briefly, she recalled Qori’s warning about creatures in the dark, but this was her only chance at escape, and she would not squander it by standing still with fear of a threat meant to keep her in line. It wasrecklessness that put her there, and it was her recklessness that would carry her home.
With a deep breath, she took off in a silent run toward the tree line, in the opposite direction of the clear and obvious road. Cold air pushed the fine hairs away from her face and burned the back of her throat. Winter was fast approaching.
More reason to leave instead of waiting for another opportunity that may never come. Her robe was thick enough to keep her somewhat warm, but it attempted to trip her up, until she grabbed a handful into a fist and hoisted it above her ankles.
The trees towered over her as they came closer. What she had thought were shadows turned out to be brush so thick there was hardly any space to walk through. If she gave herself the time, she could imagine the kinds of creatures that would be hiding beneath it, lying in wait to latch on to her ankles and drag her down.
Nina wouldn’t allow it. She would do whatever was necessary to survive.
Just as she placed one foot over the tree line, a force knocked into her, stealing the breath from her lungs and slamming her onto her back. Her head thundered with the impact. The stars in the sky swirled in her vision. Then a face appeared, one with beady eyes and a bulbous nose and a lewd smile on his lips.
Nina tried to squirm away, but the man only pressed her farther into the earth, his legs wrapped around hers, her arms pinned beneath his large hands.
Nina opened her mouth to scream, but a hand clamped down before any sound could escape. Both her wrists were pressed together above her head as the man leaned into her face. A lock of short, dark hair brushed her forehead, and she shivered. The only men she knew with shorn hair had been disgraced and exiled from her ayllu. “Shh,shh, now. We wouldn’t want to wake the forest creatures. They love nothing more than a struggle.”
Nostrils flared, Nina sucked in several rapid breaths. She scanned the trees for an idea, an answer, some sort of help. She let some of the tension out of her body, relieved when the pressure from the man’s hand lessened around her mouth and she was able to gain just enough space to tilt her head and slip one of his fingers between her teeth. She bit down hard, a spurt of warm liquid coating her tongue.
The man screamed and ripped his hand away from her face, and then his fist barreled into her jaw. Her head whipped to the side. Black spots crowded her vision. Her body went limp.
“Ekko! Enough.”
The familiar voice came from a distance, the order curt and unsympathetic. The man slid off her body with nothing more than a smirk. And then Mamakuna Dusi slid into view. The same position they had been in when they first met.
The matron of the acllas stood arrow straight, her hands folded together beneath the thick sleeves of her purple robe, and peered at Nina as if she were nothing more than excrement she had stepped in.
“I was curious how long it would take you to try the door. Do you know why it is left unlocked?” Nina knew the mamakuna didn’t expect an answer, and she was reassured when the woman spoke again without waiting. “Because my acllas understand their purpose. They are the chosen ones. Gifts to those who are honored enough to receive them.”
A shoe dug into Nina’s side. “You are not particularly beautiful. You cannot sew. You cannot obey. What use are you to anyone?”
I can plant,Nina thought angrily.I can nurture. I can grow.
It was the women in her ayllu who gave life to their fields, and it was only their offerings that Pachamama accepted. This made them worthy beyond measure, but the mamakuna’s words needled a deep, unspokenfear Nina had harbored for as long as she could remember. What if she was too difficult to love? What if she wasn’t ever enough?
