Deadly Fate [Book 1 of the Teadai Prophecies] Page 29

  “Perhaps not. But then I can’t remember talk of Gypsies in our village. Other than a few children’s tales about charmed scrolls that brought luck, good or bad, to the wielder.” His half-closed eyes gave Taniras a look of infinite patience. “How many younglings have you spoken to about this, Taniras?”

  She actually squirmed under Birek’s steady gaze. “None.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Snowy said. “If the servants’ answers satisfy me, we all stay.” He focused hard eyes on Taniras. What was wrong with her? She acted more like a child than the woman he had known in Maricar, a proud healer’s apprentice. “And if you try to run away, your new mother is not the only one you’ll need to worry about.”

  Taniras pursed her lips, and Snowy thought for a heartbeat she would stomp her foot at him, but she simply sank on the bed next to Camlys.

  The younger woman put an arm around her shoulders. “We stay together, Taniras. That’s what we agreed to before we ever left Maricar. If Snowy trusts these Gypsies then I don’t think we have to worry about betrayal from them.”

  “You don’t have to attend classes and worry about unsavory chores if you break a stupid rule.”

  Camlys gave her a serious look. “I’m sure they have their reasons.” Snowy wondered if she was remembering all the times Taniras had disciplined her. “Besides, I thought you were tough.”

  Taniras shot her a look, and Snowy prepared to break the two apart if they took to throwing each other onto the floor, but there was no need. Taniras smiled sheepishly. “I will be if we remain here.”

  Birek laughed and all turned surprised faces to him.

  “Laugh all you like,” Camlys said. “You two know nothing. You weren’t tied to a pole and bloodied!”

  Snowy flinched at his memory of last night.

  Taniras grew a horrified look on her face. “Oh, Camlys. I’m so sorry about that. I tried to stop them.” The woman was near tears now. Her emotions seemed to go from calm lake to raging rapids and back in just heartbeats. “You can’t stay.”

  Camlys held a hand up. “We’ve made a decision, Taniras. If Snowy decides this is right then we’ll stay on as servants. I’ll finally get the chance to hunt. And I bloody well intend to get a promise from the Vedi that we won’t be beaten again.”

  “I’m certain they’ll agree,” Haranda said from the doorway, and Snowy snapped his head to her. The others got to their feet and the Gypsy glanced at each. “My apologies. I wasn’t eavesdropping.” She stepped inside. “These younglings need to get back to their studies.”

  “Until later,” Birek said, and he swaggered out.

  Taniras stared after him with her mouth open then watched the Gypsy. “I would like to stay a while. Mother Haranda.”

  “No. If your friends agree to become servants you’ll have plenty of occasions with them.”

  Taniras pouted and Snowy wanted to yank her arm. What was wrong with her?

  Haranda’s eyes hardened. “Are you planning on disobeying me again, youngling?”

  “No, Mother Haranda,” Taniras said through her teeth. She turned to Snowy. “Until later then?”

  Snowy nodded. “Yes.” Taniras touched his hand with hers and his heart jumped. Then she slipped around her clan mother and scurried out.

  Haranda smiled after the younger woman then turned back to Snowy and the others. “You see what happens when our younglings are called. They become children in many ways, not just in the Energy. And that’s a dangerous thing. When you’re pledged as Gypsy servants, you’ll be responsible for them as well.”

  That surprised Snowy but Camlys spoke before he could. “You mean we’ll have authority over Taniras and Birek?”

  “Yes. And the other younglings, as well. They’re not infants, of course, but working with the Energy makes them impatient and irritable until they have sufficient training behind them.” She narrowed dark eyes on Snowy. “That kind of behavior is treacherous when working with Energy, and younglings are especially susceptible to mishaps.”

  Camlys laughed. “Taniras won’t like that one bit.”

  Haranda smiled. “No, I don’t suppose she will.” Her gaze was warm and inviting now. “I look forward to welcoming you into our family. Be well.” She left.

  Greges crossed to the door and peeked out for an instant. He turned back with a sly grin. “Looks like we got the long sticks among the short. I can’t imagine what Taniras will say when she finds out we’ll all have authority over her.”

  “She’ll probably grind her teeth right out of her bloody head.” Camlys’s eyes widened briefly then she grinned.

  Chapter 25

  The night was quiet and Adelsik lay staring at the cottage ceiling. The three uninvited middlings from Maricar who had taken servant oaths had been working alongside the others for a while now. As servants, they had more privileges than any of the younglings. In fact, they had as much freedom as the Gypsies and new-oathed. And they couldn’t harness the Energy!

  Taniras, who still seemed unsure why her friends took oaths after being beaten, had slapped Camlys during midday meal, much to Adelsik’s surprise. The tall hunter dragged the youngling into her cottage and a short while later Taniras came out near tears. Of course, a servant had no protection from the Energy, which was probably the reason the Vedi forbad younglings to use the Energy on them without permission. Punishment for that came from the Vedi themselves, as did punishment for using Energy on each other without permission. There were occasions when Adelsik wanted to step into Saldia’s dreams and give the tavern wench a good fright, but it was a stupid youngling who chanced the wrath of the Vedi.

  Nonetheless, she smiled at the thought of making Saldia shriek and her mind turned to the good things that had happened today. She had finally created two steady orbs. It was simply a matter of focusing a yellow spark and mixing it with the air. Father Xiath’s directions sounded much simpler than the actual task. The stalwart man was powerful in the sparking Energy, almost as powerful as Mother Haranda, but gentle.

  Life with these Gypsies didn’t seem such a hardship as she had thought it might. In fact, she felt herself looking forward to time with her clan mother. The woman became like a mother to her with each passing sunset. Adelsik smiled to herself, proud of her accomplishments today, then she drifted off to sleep.

  In the Netherworld, she stood between a farmhouse and barn, a place she didn’t recognize. Animals strolled here and there inside the stone wall. She knew by the vivid images that she slumbered but still had little control over that ability. And she had no idea whose dream she had entered or why she had come here. She suspected something had pulled her here.

  Haranda and Wren had warned her of slumbering alone but she hadn’t gone to this dream, it came to her, so she decided to wait and see what happened even at the risk of angering the women. She doubted any of the slumbering Gypsies would chance upon her, since there were as many dream bubbles in the Netherworld as stars in the night sky. Most people dreamed in spurts of images that sometimes made her dizzy but never harmed her, so she didn’t worry about being injured here.

  She held her Energy close, the way Haranda had taught her back at the cave, enveloping her otherself within it. This way, the dreamer wouldn’t see her and be frightened the way Henny had been on Adelsik’s first slumbering trip. A small girl in a dirty dress ran crying from the farmhouse. The weeping child bolted into the barn, and a man soon came out of the farmhouse. He wore only his breeches and his face was completely featureless, except for a mouth. Eerie. Not only were these two people void of brilliant slumbering colors, they had no color at all except shades of gray. She must remember to tell Mother Wren this once she returned to the middling world.

  “You come back here, girl!” the man called. “I’m not finished with you!” He made his way to the barn as though he knew exactly where the child had gone.

  Adelsik decided to follow. Because nothing here was real, there was no need to interfere.

  “You’ll do as I tell you.
” The faceless man crossed to an empty stall and snatched the weeping girl with one hand.

  “No, please!” The little one held her face in her small hands. “Please, it hurts me.”

  The man lifted the child under one arm and carried her out, her sloppy braids swinging as he walked.

  Adelsik stood dumbfounded then quickly followed them across the yard, through the front door of the farmhouse and up the stairs to a bedroom. She watched in horror as the faceless man threw the little girl across the bed. He started to remove his breeches when the girl screamed. Then the dream was gone.

  Someone touched Adelsik’s arm. She cried out and pulled away so hard that she fell off her bed and was jolted into the mundane world.

  “Adelsik?” Maesa’s dark eyes focused on her own. “Are you all right? You whimpered and I couldn’t wake you. I sent Henny for Mother Haranda. Please, are you injured?” Maesa pulled her to her feet and helped her sit on the edge of her bed. It was dark out but the fire in their cottage still burned strong and the heat was welcoming.

  “Oh, Maesa,” she said through tears. “It was horrible. What he did to her.” She sobbed as her clan sister held her.

  “You’re all right. It was just a dream. The Netherworld isn’t real, remember?” Maesa had a slight amount of slumbering Energy and had been working with Wren lately.

  Adelsik pulled away and wiped her face. “No. This was real. I’m not certain how I know that but I do. What happened to that child was real.”

  The door opened. Haranda and Wren hurried inside with Henny behind them. They didn’t even stop to dip their feet briefly in the wash water.

  “What happened, youngling?” Haranda took Maesa’s place on the bed and wrapped arms around Adelsik. She wore her nightdress and her long hair was mussed. “Did you go slumbering without me?”

  Adelsik nodded. The most horrible dream found me, Mother Haranda.”

  “Whose dream was it?”

  “I don’t know.” There were no children in the Land of the Goddess. “A faceless man and a little girl. Both had no color except gray. Am I traveling outside the Land of the Goddess now?” Wren had assured her that it would take years of work with her slumbering Energy before she traveled beyond those around her.

  “No. The dream is from one of our kin. Are you certain you didn’t recognize the man?”

  Adelsik shivered and Haranda pulled her closer. “No. He had no face, only a mouth. I would remember his voice. He’s not here.” Thankfully.

  Wren sat on the other side of her.

  “This was a memory dream.” Haranda spoke to the white-haired Gypsy.

  “Yes. The lack of color indicates a disturbing memory, one the person doesn’t want to acknowledge. Adelsik, what happened in this dream?”

  “No. I can’t.”

  Haranda rocked her for several heartbeats then held her at arm’s length and focused probing eyes on her. “You shouldn’t have been slumbering without us, youngling. Now tell us what you saw.”

  “But it was horrible.” She didn’t even want to think about what she saw, much less tell anyone.

  “We discussed this, Adelsik. You’ll see nightmares. You already have. But remember, no matter what you saw in the dream, it wasn’t happing then. Don’t be afraid to tell us.”

  “But this was real. You said so.”

  “Yes, but it’s only a memory. Your slumbering has strengthened since you began training here but memory dreams can’t harm you. Now tell me what happened to frighten you so.”

  Adelsik took a long breath as Wren caressed her back. She felt the tingle of the woman’s calming Energy and finally got the courage to tell them every horrible detail. When she finished, Henny and Maesa stood with eyes wide and jaws dropped.

  “We need to find out who the child is,” Wren said to Haranda. “This kin needs healing.”

  Haranda focused on Adelsik again. “Are you certain you didn’t hear a name or recognize the child?”

  She shook her head. “No, Mother Haranda. I told you all I remember.”

  “All right. You younglings get to bed.”

  Henny and Maesa crawled under their covers as the two Gypsy women stood.

  “Adelsik,” Haranda said. “Come to my cottage before morning meal.”

  “Yes, Mother Haranda.”

  The woman was going to punish her, probably make her clean privies for this disobedience. She should have left that dream once she realized she was slumbering. Adelsik hated getting dirty and Haranda knew it.

  * * * *

  The next morning seemed to come early. Much too early. Adelsik hadn’t slumbered after that disturbing dream. In fact, she didn’t even remember having her own dreams. It had taken her a long while to get back to sleep after Haranda and Wren left the cottage, and her eyes felt gritty now. She pulled from her covers in the dim morning light that streamed in through the triple windows. The fire had gone out and the cottage was cool, especially the floor.

  Henny and Maesa still slept. Maesa had complained of a dry throat one morning, and Adelsik informed her that it was most likely caused from the pig noises she made in her sleep. The woman adamantly denied any such an unladylike deed, even when Henny had chimed in.

  Adelsik kept quiet as she washed her face and dressed, making certain that her purple class stone was tucked away in the tiny front pocket of her skirt. Food smells filled the air as she stepped from her lodging, and she forced herself to walk towards Haranda’s cottage. She would have been hungry if she hadn’t been going to receive punishment. Haranda would be expecting her now, since servants already bustled around from fire to tables, and it was a foolish youngling who kept a Gypsy waiting. For anything.

  Adelsik walked past the cottage Kal shared with Eletha and Zarenia and around the corner toward Haranda’s, sidestepping a servant woman who scurried by with a load of laundry. Her heart began to race as she approached her clan mother’s door, which had been decorated with a dried flower wreath like all the mother’s cottages, and she knocked tentatively.

  “Come in,” Haranda’s voice called.

  Adelsik entered and stood on the grass mat, closed the door behind her, dipped her feet in the waiting wash basin, and dried them on the thin towel. The woman’s cottage wasn’t any larger than Adelsik’s, except that Haranda didn’t have to share with anyone. The Gypsy sat at her table with Wren, each with a cup of tea, and there was a smoldering fire in the hearth. The room smelled of flowers and wood. Haranda’s needlepoint lay on the old trunk at the foot of her bed, and Adelsik longed for a free afternoon to do her own needling. She had been in her clan mother’s cottage on a several occasions for advice but now it seemed less inviting.

  “Sit youngling.” Haranda pointed to the third chair at the table. Adelsik began giving the woman more respect once she found out they hailed from the same root village, Bedlon in the Cragrilon Prefecture.

  The floor seemed unusually hard as she walked toward the empty chair. She eased onto the edge of the seat and held her hands in her lap. Oh, stop acting foolish, Adelsik. You’re no child, for goodness sakes. You’re marriage age now.

  “Tea?”

  What? Was the Gypsy going to torture her by making her wait? “No, thank you Mother Haranda.” She eyed Wren a heartbeat but the woman’s expression never altered. “I would like to know my punishment, if it pleases my mother.” She felt like retching.

  Haranda raised a brow. “Is that why you think you’re here?”

  “Aren’t I?” Was she playing games now? “I mean—” She gave Haranda a confused look. “After last night. I slumbered without your permission.”

  “Yes. Are you certain you wouldn’t like some tea? I made it myself, fresh this morning.”

  “All right.” A hot meal before mucking out the stables or dreaded privy duty?

  Haranda’s probing eyes focused on her, stripped her right down to nakedness. “You can stop fretting now, youngling. I’m not going to punish you for what happened last night. You told me that the dream came to
you.” She poured tea into a cup and placed it in front of Adelsik.

  “Yes. But I knew I was slumbering.” Why am I confessing this? Did she truly want to scrub the privies? Of course not. She took a sip of the warm liquid. It was bitter so she added honey and took a longer drink.

  “I remember what it’s like when a dream finds you. Especially the first few times. There’s a reason why a dreamer seeks out a slumberer. Had Wren or Elder Siri or I been sleeping, one of us might have received it. A dream like that is usually from someone close to you, someone who’s having a problem they can’t or won’t talk about.”

  “Oh.” The woman spoke to Adelsik as an equal now for some reason. Not as a wayward child. “But I still don’t know who it was I saw.” She took another long drink, hoping it would stave off her sudden tiredness.

  “You will. I want you to keep watching the dreams when they find you.”

  “What? But you said—”

  “Listen to me, Adelsik.” Haranda’s eyes hardened. “One of our kin is in need of mind-healing. You’ve made a connection, whether you realize it or not. You must remain open to this person.”

  That made her stomach curdle. Those images she saw, that man, what he did to that innocent little girl.

  “Youngling? Are you going to be ill?”

  “No, I don’t think so. But I don’t want to see that dream again, Mother Haranda. Please, you take it.”

  “You must continue. Wren and I will assist you. And we can enlist Elder Siri’s help if needed.” She put a warm hand over Adelsik’s. “What you saw happened long ago. You must remember that. Allow yourself to see whatever the dreamer chooses to reveal. You’ll know the person in time. Dreamers always show themselves, eventually.”

  “So, you can come with me?” Fatigue seemed to be stripping away at her and she sipped again.

  “Yes. But you must seek Wren and me out in the Netherworld. That’s what we’ll practice this morning.”

  Adelsik yawned. “Excuse me.” Then she yawned again and gazed into her cup.