City of Gods [Book 3 of the Teadai Prophecies] Read online

  She stood with Emir’s assistance. The Energy ran pure through her body, not a trace of the void that had caused so many problems of late, and gave her a sense of completion, thanks to Adelsik. She gazed out at the sea. A stone pier stretched into the water, and a few tall trees spotted the sands below the cliffs where she stood. Recognition sparked in her mind. Haranda had brought her all those moons ago, where she’d received her calling. There was a cave below them, a cave Saldia had lived in for a while with Haranda, Adelsik, Thad, Henny, Maesa, Zarenia and Nym.

  Shocked murmurs came from several Elders and Siri’s voice rang above the rest. “It’s the City of Gods.”

  Saldia’s heart leapt. No one spoke of it beyond a few old fables. No Gypsy had ever mentioned it, either, that she’d heard. Yet the name now resounded from her kin’s lips as they gazed around in awe.

  Several heartbeats passed as everyone gaped at the City of Gods. It was breathtaking. The most beautiful thing Saldia had ever set her eyes upon. And I’m going to live here. It wasn’t a question any longer. She was Ved’nuri now. Part of her felt the essence of Ved’nuri, go-between of the Goddess, rising in her, but another part was plain old Saldia, former tavern girl and new-oathed Gypsy, lover of LePon, former clan daughter to Haranda. How in the name of the Goddess was she chosen to rule her kin?

  She realized something else. Emir wasn’t the child to bring reverence back to the Gypsies, not directly. Saldia would couple with him and conceive a babe. She would become the new mother to the Gypsies. How awkward. Yet, how amazing!

  She stepped to a mound with Emir—Ved’mana—elevated so she could see all those in front of her. Her gaze drifted among her kin, her children, and fell on Zarenia Va’pash, her former clan sister. Zarenia’s root home, Pashdad, needed attention. There were others here who had more leadership experience than the highborn girl, centuries in fact. If the kin took Pashdad for their own, that would give them a prime spot in the northern area. And with Taniras’s root people already loyal, they would have little trouble repopulating Maricar.

  The Bankari and Hunters had sworn their loyalty, as well. That secured the northern region with exception of a few tiny villages. Saldia felt so knowledgeable now, yet frightened by power she couldn’t quite grasp. It ebbed and waned inside her like the tide, slippery, yet eternal.

  She moved her eyes across Thad, Cass and Gwen. Something about Thad flitted through her mind, a vision perhaps, but she couldn’t quite grasp it. She felt his sadness under the shock of all that had happened recently. But she also felt he would find happiness, and very soon.

  How do I know this? Her attention moved to Eletha Lavine. Eletha had snagged Brak in her net, though Saldia didn’t remember the treewalker ever searching for a man. She’d seemed content to challenge them in games. Strands of color emanated from the little woman. The strands reached out to the large man and his own colors entangled with them.

  Love. I’m seeing love. She smiled and her heart rapped at her ribs in excitement.

  The wolf singer, Taniras, and her mate, Snowy, stood proudly next to those from Maricar. Camlys, Greges and Birek confided in one another more since Maesa’s death, if that was possible. The three had always been close but Birek seemed a changed man now, more animated. Their closeness had begun to heal them. Saldia felt that as surely as she felt the ground beneath her feet.

  The Elders had taken their place near the front of the kin and Siri gazed up at her with interest. The woman had been a Gypsy longer than any other and would provide valuable advice, as would Finlor, D’Esher and the rest. Saldia needed advice, more than anything right now, and she gave an awkward glance at Emir, who looked as stunned as she felt.

  She let her eyes pass over her kin again. Xiath stood near his bedfriend Wren, their colored strands twining together. The two weren’t far from Predula. Even now, the small body-healer fought the urge to prod and probe those around her. Healing was part of her, like her limbs.

  Henny stood between Lyssinya and Haranda, dried tears staining her fair cheeks. The youngling would become a strong Gypsy one day and her grief placated. She and Nym would soon move to new-oathed.

  Haranda smiled at Saldia and she smiled back. Once her clan mother, the Gypsy would become her daughter like the rest, at least in ritual. Perhaps they could keep their old relationship in private, with Saldia in the daughter role. She stared out at the great sea again and smiled at memories of her calling, when she had raced shadowed and naked along the beach.

  This title, the greatest honor the Goddess could bestow, felt much like a noose. She would no longer have freedom to do silly things like running naked on a beach. Perhaps she was tied to this place now, like the Vedi had been to the dome. Perhaps she would never have the freedom to travel. She would be mother, advisor, ruler. Yet, she would never again be one of them, free to tell bawdy tales and do cartwheels across the sand.

  Sadness welled but it was banished when Emir’s love strands reached out to her. She smiled at him before gazing at her children again. She would always keep a special place in her heart for them, her former Gypsy mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers. Her eyes fell on Emir again, who now studied her with a faint smile. With his upbringing and quick growth to manhood, he probably hadn’t experienced gaiety like Saldia and the others, and he certainly had never traveled. Despite her misgivings, there was something satisfying about her situation now. She no longer had a need to count. Anything or anyone. Perhaps there was freedom for Saldia Trich after all.

  She smiled back at Emir and found one hand resting on her belly. Was that mischief she saw in his eyes? Yes. He knew what was expected of them just as she did. The two would lie together and create a life. So the Energy hadn’t rendered either of them barren, yet. Emir was a handsome man, and gentle, everything Saldia’s girlhood fantasies had been. And he loved her. She saw that plainly enough. Perhaps this life wouldn’t be so bad after all.

  Emir took her hand and the two faced their kin. Bright faces, taut with fatigue, stared back. LePon tore at Saldia’s heart, and she forced her eyes to move to him. Those large cheeks were tear-stained as he bowed his head in her direction. She acknowledged him and fought tears of her own again. He would find happiness, or at least contentment.

  But what of those they’d lost? Adelsik would never see this place, the place of her calling, ever again. At least, not as Adelsik Nunsey. Saldia didn’t believe anyone remembered the lives they’d lived before their rebirth, for she couldn’t recall any in her past, even now. Adelsik was gone, yet she would return in a new life, a new chance, same as Candelus, Eguin, Maesa and the others they’d lost. Perhaps they would return as younglings in a few years, come to this very place.

  Haranda’s encouraging look put her at ease and she nodded at her former clan mother. All of these people, young and old, had work ahead of them, but it would be a joyful task to spread the word of the Goddess.

  Saldia lifted her head. “The Energy is clean. And the City of Gods will thrive again. We have come home, my children.”

  Despite their losses, great cheers met her ears, and she smiled as Emir took her hand.

  Here ends the trilogy of the Teadai Prophecies.