MAHARLIKA and the Cursed Descendants of the Orient

The Moon Princess

Liyab’s behavior today is absurd which I don’t appreciate. I try my best to understand his frustration earlier about my faction’s shortcomings but now, he disrespects everyone by walking out of the room without saying anything.

“Geez. What’s up with?”

I am halted by Sinag when I’m about to stand up to follow Liyab outside. His face is red. He doesn’t look me directly but his eyes are burning with…anger?

‘Anger? Is that really anger? If it is, then why the sudden change? He was okay earlier?’

Like Liyab, he doesn’t say a word and just leaves. My heart tells me that there’s something wrong going on but my brain couldn’t figure out what.

An unwelcome silence is pinching my ears. No matter how hard I try, words couldn’t find a way to get out of my mouth. My fingers start rubbing and entangling the strands of my hair hoping to lessen the tension that’s cloaking me. Finally, someone disturbs the uncomfortable stillness.

“My apologies,” Gasol says. “It’s better if we should go home now. There are people who are waiting for our return." She still maintains her coolheadedness but her demeanor also changes.

“Tala,” Lola Basiang says. “I think you should go home too. Your mother must be worried about you.”

“That’s right. I should go home too.”

“Why don’t you come with them?” Lola Basiang stretches her hand to Gasol’s direction. “I won’t be at ease if you go home alone.”

I look at Gasol, waiting for her to respond but she remains quiet and her obvious rejection is as clear as day.

“I can handle myself, so don’t worry.”

Gasol stands up. “We came here together, we’ll go home together. We don’t wanna be blamed if something bad happens to you.” She bows down, thanks Lola Basiang and the others then leaves too.

“You should follow them,” Kalasag says while exhaling the smoke from his pipe.

I wave them goodbye before going out of the store. The moment the night sky bathes my skin with its chilly flurry of air, the blazing presence of Liyab and his companions counters it. I press the box of my arnis to my chest while dragging my feet towards them. As I anticipate, I fluster when nobody talks or even looks at me.

The ride from Hinagiban to the capital is far which isn’t a good thing. That means I have to endure a couple of hours being with them. The apprehensive aura around us is suffocating and the anxiety that keeps on building up in me is making things worse. From the time we ride the kalesa to the time we reach the capital, my head is lowered down that I could feel the back of my neck numbing.

“You…” I pause, clearing my throat and setting my shoulders straight. “You can drop me here. The next road leads to the village where my mother lives.”

When the kutsero pulls up the kalesa in front of our village, I hop off the wooden cab then force a smile to them. Gasol and Sinag nod with their uninterested expressions but Liyab’s eyes are stuck outside the window and don’t even make an effort to glance at me. His action brings sadness in my heart, this is more terrible than what I felt during our argument. As the kalesa starts to move, the stress that’s gripping my chest loosens a little. At least, that’s a positive thing, I guess.

My legs unhurriedly thrust themselves towards my mother’s house. When I push the steel gate, a loud thud of feet and an energetic neigh salute me.

“Marikit!” I run to her and enclose her neck with one arm. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

“Tala?! Tala, is that you?!”

Tears stream down from both my mother’s eyes and mine as she puts me in a warm embrace. She squeezes me so tight that I almost wanna break down in her arms.

“I’m so worried about you.”

“I’m sorry for the trouble I caused.”

I wipe my mother’s wet cheeks before we head inside the house. I lay the box on the center table before flopping my body to the soft foam and pillows of the rattan sofa in our living room. My mother sits next to me and holds my hands firmly while caressing my knuckles with her thumbs.

“Are you sure you’re unhurt?” Her blue eyes convey so much concern as fine lines appear on her forehead.

“I am. Look.” I stand up and twirl slowly. She pulls my arms causing me to flump back to the sofa then hugs me again.

“Marikit came back alone and was very scared. I thought…I thought.” She starts crying.

“Mama!” Lifting her chin, I press my lips on her cheeks and forehead. And finally, she gives me a genuine smile.

“By the way, your father…I mean the king arrived in Saab the other day when he got the news that you’re missing.”

“What! He’s here?!”

“He’s so worried. He’d be very happy once he sees you. I promise to send him a letter.”

“Where is he staying?”

“He’s currently at the Peace and Order Faction’s headquarter. Dama de Noche was kind enough to let him and his castle guards stay in there for the time being.”

A mixture of surprise and gratefulness stirs inside of me. “Dama de Noche is safe?”

“Yes. She’s so alarmed of what happened to you.”

The confirmation of my mother about Dama de Noche’s wellbeing is probably the most important thing that I need to release some weight that I’ve been carrying on my back since this morning.

“Mama, I’m tired. I wanna go to sleep. I still need to wake up early to meet the king and the others.”

“Sure.”

Entering my room, I throw the box on my bed then stare at my reflection in the mirror. My eyes are swelling and my nose is red. I divert my attention to my hair, the bottom strands are messy and tangled. Grabbing the comb that lays on the cocoa-colored dresser, I brush it on the bottom half part of my hair over and over until the strands untangle and straighten.

I open my closet’s door and take out my most favorite night gown – a white short dress with thin straps on its shoulders. Before I could recline on my bed, another tear falls from my eyes then I hug my pillow, embed my face on it and let out all the unnecessary emotions off my chest. A sob raptures across my unlit room.

A little over two hours later, the morning sunlight sprinkles through my window, a couple of knocks on the door cause me to jerk. I sluggishly move towards the door to open it.

“The castle guards are downstairs. They come to pick you up. Hurry and get change,” mother says.

“No!”

“Why not?”

Lowering my chin, I cast my sight at my feet for a long time before I could express myself. “The castle guards are the ones who…who kidn*pped me.”

Mother gasps with her wide open eyes as she takes a step back.

I unintentionally mimic my mother’s reaction. “Didn’t Dama de Noche tell you?”

She shakes her head, still in shock.

Confusion… or more like suspicion ravels within me. My feet are stuck on the granite floor and my toes and my fingers are twitching. My mother grabs my wrist when I’m about to touch the strands of my hair. Wild thoughts run through my head while my heart pounds violently.

‘What if they kidnap both of us? What if they hurt my mother? What if Liyab is right that I’m surrounded with untrustworthy people?’

I can’t let my mother face them alone so I wear a leather strap around my shoulders, take out my arnis from the box and hang them on my back before heading down to the ground floor together with my mother while clinging to each other’s arms.

“You should all go back. I’m not coming with you,” I say, failing to act tough.

None of the castle guards' faces are recognizable though. Then someone in a cloak which is covering almost his entire face and body gets off the faction’s carriage then enters the gate. The person lifts his face so we can get a better glimpse of it. The panic that’s been hitting my nerves decreases and a little joy sends comfort in my body. I run to him and give him an embrace.

“Father,” I murmur.

His big hand kneads my head. “Don’t be scared. I’m here with you.”

“We can’t leave mother alone here. What if…”

“She’ll be alright. I’ll have three of the guards stay with her until we find out who did this unforgivable thing to my princess.”

I look at mother, she agrees by nodding and smiling then shift my sight to Marikit who’s calm eating her hays and finally to the castle guards who respond by bowing down.

‘I trust my parents. Also, these guards who are always around the king are his most principled and reliable guards. So there’s nothing to worry about.’ I think, trying to convince myself.

With one final glance to my mother, I ride on the carriage. The horses gallop along the road. The trip from my mother’s village to the faction’s headquarter is short yet nerve-wracking. When I step out of the carriage, I’m greeted with cheers and tears. Dama de Noche who’s in front of everyone else treads closer to me and hugs me. I raise my arm behind her and pat her upper back.

“You don’t know how ecstatic I am to see you alive,” she says.

“Thanks.”

My voice might sound impassive since Dama de Noche doesn’t seem to like how I respond. She raises both her perfectly painted eyebrows briefly then lowers them again and acts like how she always does – cool, calm and collected.

A slender man with red tint on his lips and cheeks comes forward. “Princess, I’ll fix you up,” he says, giggling.

I stare at him blankly. “No need.”

“Tala,” the king says. “We need to show our people that the princess is safe and sound. And the k********g issue is nothing but a rumor.”

My eyes crease as I clasp my hands on the hem of my dress while surge of unwanted ideas are messing with my head.

‘Is my father worried about his daughter’s safety or is the king worried about his people’s opinions?’

Feeling helpless, I slouch my shoulders and do as what I’m told. The thin man leads me to the last room on the ground floor and directs me to a stool. After removing the leather straps on my shoulders and the rubber band on my hair, he coats my hair with coconut oil then tidies it with a comb and embellish it with a gold crown. The crown fits perfectly on my head. It is intricately decorated with diamond crystals that flicker so beautifully when light hits on them. Next, he trims my eyebrows with a blade then shapes them with well-defined lines using a pencil. I close my eyes when he asks me to. A soft sponge dabs my face and neck then a brush nudges my eyelids, my cheeks and my lips and lastly, a pointy object tickles my entire face.

When I open my eyes, I gasp while leaning my back a bit. A stranger on the mirror is staring back at me with wide open eyes and mouth. Her skin looks smooth, her eyelids are shaded copper and her cheeks and lips are tinted coral. What’s remarkable are the images or scriptures or whatever they are called painted all over her face.

“Is this me?”

Then the man puts jewelries on my ears, my neck, my wrist and even my ankles. He opens one of the displayed cabinets and happily shows me a garment.

“I’ll be right outside. Just call me if ever you need something,” he says.

He hands me the garment before leaving the room. My excitement spikes up when I put it on me. It’s a three piece attire – a tube top that exposes my torso, a long flowy skirt with a high slit on both sides and a wraparound cloth that drapes from my left shoulder down to my right hip. Its blue color with gold designs stands out against the color of my hair and skin.

Wows and claps reverberate in my ears when I set foot on the lobby where everybody is gushing while staring at me. Delight subdues the little shyness that’s swirling in my chest. I’m escorted by the castle guards to a white roofless carriage with gold decorations and gold wheels which is drawn by four white horses. I glance at the king who’s in front of me sitting comfortably on another carriage that looks exactly like mine. Behind are series of roofless colorful carriages which are occuppied by high ranking kingdom’s officials, including Dama de Noche. A loud music starts to play and with its every beat, my heart dances with joy. The horses’ trot is steady and relaxed from the moment we move out of the iron gates until we hit the road.

Throng of people are lining up, waving and beaming at us. Some are even shouting ‘princess! princess!’. There are faces that are familiar and it’s obvious that they don’t have an idea that the princess they’re seeing is the Tala they’ve encountered before. I wave and smile back at them, dismissing the humidity of the air and the striking blaze of the sun.

The trumpets and cymbals compete with the noise of the surrounding. Flower petals are tossed by the castle ladies to the crowd in which the children gladly catch with their hands.

The parade takes longer than I expect. A sting penetrates my shoulders and my back as fatigue crawls all over my body. The market is the last destination before we go back to the headquarter. Though I stop waving my hands, I still keep smiling. But that smile fades as soon as my eyes land on someone I know, Liyab.

His face is clenched and his eyes are full of anguish and hostility. He breaks our shared eye gaze then turns around and goes away before disappearing from the crowd. Again, he brings this painfully unknown sensation in my heart.

“Why? What makes you change?”