Deadly Fate [Book 1 of the Teadai Prophecies] Page 35

  “How are you holding up, Haranda?” She turned to Predula as the woman stepped to her. “I heard you’ve been quite busy hustling younglings back and forth to the dome.”

  Haranda chuckled. “Yes. Some days are more trying than others, Predula, but I think our younglings are worth the heartache.” At least, she hoped.

  “Mmm. Though I have fewer than most, my own cause a great deal of stress.”

  She chuckled and Haranda smiled. Healers usually got out of youngling duties, since they were often needed elsewhere, but Predula had volunteered. The short woman had more patience than some Gypsy mothers, which is why her younglings often thought they could get away with things. But Wren acted as her advisor too, and that woman didn’t put up with nonsense from anyone.

  “I saw Xiath a while ago. That poor man looks as though he could use a full night’s sleep.”

  “He’s been having a difficult time of it.” Haranda smiled, knowing the man secretly enjoyed being a father again. She started for the food nibbles and motioned Predula to join her.

  “So.” The body-healer walked alongside. “How is Candel—Ved’nuri? You had some privacy with her, yes?”

  “Yes. She’s adjusting. Though we miss each other’s company.”

  “Mmm. I miss her too. And her husband. But I can think of no finer Vedi.”

  “I agree.” Haranda dropped some nuts and dried fruit onto a napkin and had just lowered her backside onto the bench with Predula, when she heard Taniras cry out for help.

  Haranda caught up with her youngling just as Wren joined them. “What is it, Taniras?”

  “Tsianina.” Taniras’s voice wavered. “She ran off. Frightened out of her skin. I can’t seem to find her now.”

  “Keep looking. But call for help if you locate her. Don’t interfere.”

  Taniras’s face screwed into anger for a heartbeat before she said, “Yes, Mother Haranda.”

  Haranda ignored the girl’s hostility, for now, and told the others who had gathered what the situation entailed. She hurried in the direction Taniras had gone as she harnessed the Energy. There were so many younglings that she couldn’t distinguish one from another and fought a frown when she didn’t locate the girl. Kin scattered all over the village and she decided to head for the lake. The island girl loved the water, any water, and could usually be found sitting on the bank most evenings. Just as she passed one of the youngling cottages, she heard Xiath’s voice. She followed the sound, around the side of the cottage, and saw Tsianina, silent and gazing with fear up at the large man.

  “Father Xiath?” the island girl said in her lilting accent.

  “Calm yourself, youngling. Where’s your clan mother?”

  “I’m here.” Haranda stepped quickly toward them with Wren and Predula on her heels. They must have been following her. “What happened, Tsianina?”

  The youngling gave Haranda a look of trepidation and near madness. With a frantic yelp, she ran toward the barns. Haranda didn’t want to use the urging, not yet, but when she finally caught up, the girl was in the middle of a circle, surrounded by Gypsies. She stepped through, eyes on her terrified youngling. Tsianina turned, twisted, like an ensnared animal. Haranda stepped forward and Tsianina backed away. What was wrong with the girl? She never ran from her clan mother. Or any Gypsy for that matter. This one was the most obedient youngling in Haranda’s clan, perhaps in the whole Land of the Goddess.

  “Tsianina?” she said in a low voice so as not to startle the girl. “Listen to me. You need to tell us what frightens you.”

  “No.” Tsianina shook her head. “Let me out. I have to find him before he harms someone. Please.”

  The girl had never omitted a Gypsy’s proper designation. Until now. “Tsianina, have you forgotten how to address me?” Haranda kept her voice low but firm.

  “Please, Mother Haranda. He’s coming for me. I can feel him.” She rubbed at her arms.

  “Calm down, youngling.” Wren stepped from the circle and the others closed the gap before Tsianina had a chance to escape.

  “Please, Mother Haranda.” The youngling’s pink owl footprint began to spin.

  Taking in the Energy without permission. That was definitely not like her. Haranda prepared to call her down but Predula beat her to it.

  “Release the Energy, youngling!” The short woman took a place inside the circle, and despite her slight stature, she seemed to tower over the taller, island girl just now.

  Tsianina turned a wild gaze to the body-healer. “I have to protect you, Mother Predula.”

  Haranda, Wren and Predula instinctively formed a pyramid within the circle of kin to create an Energy hold. Tsianina’s reaction could be a side-effect of a new Energy, and they couldn’t take any chances on the youngling hurting anyone.

  Haranda narrowed eyes on the girl. “We can handle ourselves. Do you hear me, youngling?”

  The girl must have realized she was trapped now. She could harness the Energy but not use it. Not from within the hold. And they had no idea what aspect of the Energy caused this madness. If released, she could cause great damage to herself or someone else. She cried out with frustration and her face grew desperate. “I have to protect you!”

  “What will you do?” Haranda kept her voice quiet, in an attempt to calm the frightened girl.

  Tsianina focused large black eyes on her. “What?”

  She had dropped Haranda’s designation again and her accent had become quite a bit thicker. Tsianina, what’s going on with you? “What will you do to protect us, youngling?”

  The girl thought a heartbeat. “I—” She glanced around at the faces of her kin and shook her head. Her footprint slowed until it stopped spinning, and she fell to the ground, weeping. “I can’t protect you.” She buried her face in the grass. “He will kill us all.”

  Haranda broke the hold. She and Wren lifted the sobbing girl to her feet and walked her to Haranda’s cottage with Predula close behind. Once inside, they then put Tsianina into a chair, forgoing the feet-washing ritual. The body-healer wiped the girl’s face.

  “What frightens you, youngling?” Haranda studied the stooped shoulders and bowed head. Tears fell to leave dark spots on the girl’s dress. “If we’re in danger, you must tell us.”

  Wren rubbed the girl’s back and she calmed enough to speak. “Yes. Forgive me, Mothers.” The thick accent had turned into her normal lilt again.

  Tsianina began a tale that stunned Haranda, and from the looks Wren and Predula gave, they also had trouble believing. The man whom Tsianina thought she loved had held her with a spell. He had tricked her family into accepting him and fooled Tsianina into remaining on Fire Island when the volcanic eruptions began. When the calling took her and the nightsight filled her for the first time, she saw her husband’s true face, a countenance of evil. His touch caused burns on her skin and she showed the scars on her wrists where he had tried to keep her. She escaped somehow, swam to Phantom Island, a short distance from her own.

  “That’s where I found the life circle, Mother Haranda. I pressed my hand into the print and a doorway appeared then I ran inside. I haven’t felt him since I came here. Until today.”

  Predula left the cottage to inform the Vedi.

  “Do you feel him now?” Haranda said. This man must be an errant. How else could he have fooled the girl that way?

  “No. I don’t, Mother Haranda.” She sniffed and searched Haranda’s face. Then, much like a small child, she said, “Why don’t I feel him now?”

  “I have no answer for that, youngling. But Predula is calling a meeting with the Vedi. You’ll tell them what you have just told us. We need to get to the dome.”

  The trip over the hill and into the dome seemed much longer than normal, but finally Haranda stood on the green carpet with Tsianina at her side. The youngling told the Vedi everything she remembered about her husband. They asked questions, many she couldn’t answer, making Haranda realize just how deceptive this errant Gypsy had been. The girl didn’t e
ven know his name, couldn’t remember, yet she was certain he had told her.

  Ved’mana rose from his throne. “Gypsy-child Tsianina, I would like you to go with Ved’nuri and the others. They’ll help you remember.” The girl stiffened with fright and he smiled. “This isn’t a punishment, youngling. They need to use the Energy to find out what you’ve forgotten. What you’ve hidden deep in your mind.”

  “Yes, Ved’mana. I’ll help my kin any way I can.”

  “Very good, youngling.”

  The curtsies and bows were held until Ved’nuri passed. Then Haranda and the others followed. They walked outside into the gardens and the youngling was instructed to sit on one of the benches.

  Ved’nuri sat next to her. “We’ll form a worm in your mind, youngling. There’s nothing to be frightened of. The worm is simply a string of Goddess Light that will lead us to the memories. They’re buried so we must go deep into your mind to locate them. Push through the spell that keeps you from remembering. It’s all quite painless.”

  Tsianina visibly trembled. “I’m afraid, Ved’nuri. My apologies.”

  Wren stroked her back.

  Ved’nuri gave her a motherly smile. “No need to apologize, youngling. Just try to relax. Let us do our work.”

  The fear seemed to flow out of Tsianina with Wren’s touch and Ved’nuri’s words and she nodded. “What do I do?”

  “Relax, close your eyes, and think of the man who frightens you. Try to see his image in your mind.”

  Haranda joined hands with Ved’nuri and Wren, offering her Energy. Within a heartbeat, a glowing worm wound its way through Tsianina’s memories, pulling images to the forefront, like paintings, except that these paintings came with the feelings that Tsianina kept hidden in her mind.

  There were days in the sun when she was a child, nights under the stars with her root family, and laughing images as she frolicked in the waves that washed ashore on Fire Island. Her root father, strong and handsome, told stories and smoked his toka by the fire. Her mother, gentle and beautiful, braided flowers into wonderful necklaces and tossed them upon the waves for luck. In one memory, Tsianina stood at the edge of the sleeping volcano and dropped a treasured hair pin into it as a forgiveness sacrifice for some childhood transgression. Memories flickered past, an entire lifetime of them, and Haranda could only watch, an observer, as Ved’nuri sifted through her youngling’s mind.

  Soon, Tsianina’s husband stood before her, a handsome man. Words of love and trust flowed from his lips but something seemed erroneous. The words didn’t match the movements of his mouth and the worm burrowed farther into the memory, seeking what the girl had forgotten.

  Haranda heard his words, the true words this time. “See only this image, Tsianina. The one of beauty. You are mine. I’ll take you to my bed, enjoy your tender flesh, yet you will see a loving husband and submit willingly to my touch. I’ll take you each night until my seed is planted and you give me a child.” He smiled but this time Haranda saw only the pockmarked face of evil.

  Then his name burned her ears—Lombreeth. Tsianina screamed. The worm retreated and with it the images.

  Tears streamed down the youngling’s cheeks. “Oh, how could I have believed him? He said he loved me. Why didn’t I see him for what he was? He bedded me.” She buried her face in her dark hands and wept.

  Haranda sat next to her and the girl threw arms around her neck, sobbing. This youngling had been through so much, yet Haranda never would have guessed anything so horrific had happened to her. She fought a shiver at the thought of Lombreeth but anger quickly pushed away any fear. Ved’nuri nodded to her and beckoned Wren and Predula to follow her toward the cottages. Ved’mana came out from the dome several heartbeats later, nodded to Haranda, and followed his wife’s path.

  When Tsianina finished weeping, the two were alone in the garden and Haranda brushed away the girl’s tears. “You did well, youngling. We should be able to locate Lombreeth, eventually. Or at least sense if he crosses into the Means.”

  A horrified look took the girl. “He can do that?” She fingered one of the burn scars on her wrist.

  Haranda stiffened. “He can. He used the Energy on you, youngling. We’ve been searching for him for a long while. There are many life circles all over the world that mark entrances to the Means, some of which have been forgotten for ages. We have no way of finding them all. No one here even knew about the one on Phantom Island. Lombreeth probably figured that out when we didn’t come looking for him there. That’s probably why he chose your island. And he would have sensed you. That the calling was close.

  Haranda’s voice hardened. “He’s a very strong Gyp—he was a Gypsy, but he wanted to rule over us when it wasn’t his right. The Vedi could only be chosen once the Goddess called us home, to this place. Lombreeth wanted nothing else but to be crowned Ved’mana, so he lost patience with us and decided to create his own following. He was once the handsome man you saw before the calling took you.” Not many Gypsies had ever seen Lombreeth but everyone who took the oaths eventually knew his tale. “His deformity is from the Goddess Herself, from the Energy, as a punishment for betraying his oaths to Her. You’re lucky, youngling. Lombreeth seemed fond of you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have survived to come to us.”

  Tsianina closed her eyes briefly. “He wanted a babe, Mother Haranda.” Her lilting accent and soft voice made her sound so young but she was no child.

  “Yes. That’s one of the goals of the Vedi. To create a child that will be born in the Land of the Goddess, beneath the power of the dome. That child will lead us, bring Gypsies together and make us strong. Transform us into the revered ones we were in the beginning, when the Goddess first called us into Her service.” She held Tsianina at arm’s length and studied her. “You have been paying attention to your studies, youngling? Learning the Prophecies?”

  “Yes, Mother Haranda.” The girl squirmed a bit and avoided eye contact. “But I never thought the New Age would come true in my life. And I certainly never expected to take part. What if he had gotten me with child, Mother Haranda?” Her hands went to her belly and she looked ill. “What would it have been?”

  “The Goddess didn’t let that happen. There’s no need to fret over what might have been. We know about him now and what he plans to do. At least, in part. You’re safe here with us. And now that you harness the Energy, Lombreeth can’t fool you that way again. You will always see his true face.”

  Tsianina thought a heartbeat. “Another wouldn’t be so lucky. A youngling before her calling could be fooled like I was.”

  Haranda nodded grimly. Lombreeth was probably already seeking a new wife to spawn his child, or worse, he had found one. It was very possible that he wouldn’t succeed since most Gypsies were barren from working with the Energy. His own reproductive organs could be damaged, infertile. They had no way of knowing unless one of the healers examined him. But younglings were new to the Energy and better able to carry a child to birth if he managed to get one pregnant. There was always a chance that Lombreeth could create a child who survived. However slight. And that thought churned Haranda’s stomach.

  Goddess help us. “We’ll do what we can to prevent Lombreeth’s plans. You must have faith in the Goddess, youngling. There are reasons for Her actions, even if we don’t understand them.” Though Haranda secretly wanted to understand, Goddess forgive her. Tsianina looked lost in thought and she patted the girl’s leg. “We had better get back to the cottages. The Vedi are decreeing emergency commands until we can locate Lombreeth. Are you strong enough?”

  Tsianina nodded and walked briskly with Haranda. They left the gardens through the small gate and headed over the hill to the village circle, where the Vedi had already gathered everyone. There was little sunlight left and torches and fire pits burned bright. Tsianina found her clan sisters and stood with them. Taniras placed a protective arm around the island girl’s shoulders. Tsianina stiffened at her clan sister’s touch.

  The Vedi announced the danger
s that Lombreeth posed for the Land of the Goddess, but they kept certain details to themselves to keep younglings from panicking.

  “There will be new boundaries for the village.” Ved’mana made a sweeping gesture with one arm. “No one, without permission of Ved’nuri or myself, will venture beyond the twined oaks. Hunters will be accompanied by three full Gypsies on all occasions beyond that area. Elders will take shifts to sense if anyone enters the Means and appoint four guards to each watch. If an intruder is sensed, guards will sound the emergency bells and all younglings are to go directly to the dome. One new-oathed Gypsy will take charge and see that the younglings stay put until further instructions. New-oathed can vote tonight. Younglings are not to engage any intruder. Doing so will earn you a visit to the dome. Leave intruders to your mothers and fathers, is that clear?”

  That got a mass bobbing of bows and curtsies along with a round of, “Yes, Ved’mana.”

  “Good. Now, Ved’nuri and I will speak to the Elders. Winter Solstice Feast will continue as planned tomorrow night. You are dismissed.”

  All genuflected then the Elders followed the Vedi over the hill.

  “What else happened?” Taniras said to Tsianina.

  “That’s not your business, youngling.” Haranda stepped toward them. “You only need to know what the Vedi have told you.”

  “Yes, Mother Haranda,” Taniras said through her teeth.

  The Maricari girl hated being treated as a child but she was a youngling, and a strong one at that. Taniras also despised her Energy and grumbled about lessons in the barns every chance she got, but Haranda would turn her into a respectable Gypsy even if it took an eternity.

  She nodded. “Good, youngling. Now, all of you, get to the tables for night meal.”