by Willow Rose
“Sami?”
The werewolf bit the black bear till it whined in pain. Blood gushed out of its throat when Sami finally let it go. Humble and defeated, the bear gave up its mission and limped into the forest. In there they heard it roar and moan until it finally was quiet.
“It is gone,” Sami said, approaching Sara. “It will not be able to survive my bite.”
Sara hurried to check on Manolo. His leg had stopped bleeding but he was still not able to stand. Sara went into the forest and found herbs. She made a bandage from leaves and herbs and told Manolo to get some sleep.
The moon was high in the sky again as she sat down with Sami.
“Where did you suddenly come from?” She asked.
“I have been following you all the way. I saw you leave with Manolo that night and I followed you. I thought you could use my help. And I was right.”
“So you were the one we always sensed was after us?”
Sami nodded.
“I tried to keep my distance to not scare you like that night at the camp.”
Sara smiled.
“Thank you.”
Sami lifted his nose high in the air.
“We are not far from the camp now. I think we can walk the rest of the way in the morning.”
The next morning, Sara woke up next to Sami, who by the time the sun’s beam hit him, had turned into the young boy Sara knew from the cage at the camp. He smiled at her and she smiled back. Then he left the clearing while Sara attended Manolo. She took off the bandage and looked at the wound. It had healed perfectly. She wiped it with the palm of her hand, chanting a song her mother used to sing when she was healing someone. When she opened her eyes, Manolo was looking at her.
“You certainly have gotten your mother’s healing touch,” he said.
“Try to stand up,” she said.
Manolo panted a bit but finally he stood again. Happy to be able to use his leg again he jumped and kicked in the air, the way horses like to do.
“It is completely healed!” he said.
Sara smiled. She was getting quite good at all this healing stuff. Now it was time for her to heal her brother of the strange illness.
Sami came back with a couple of fish he had caught in a small lake nearby. Manolo made a fire and then they ate with great hunger.
When they were done it was finally time to go home.
“Mother … Mother … It is Sara! I am back!”
Screaming, Sara ran towards the caravan where her mother still sat by her brother’s crib. When she heard that sweet gentle voice of her child she raised her head, heavy from all the lack of sleep, and ran towards the door. She opened it and felt the relief in her heart when Sara threw herself in her arms.
“Mother … mother …” she said trying hard to catch her breath.
Settela put a finger over her mouth. “Hush, now. Catch your breath first,” she said.
Sara took a second even though she didn’t feel she had the time or the patience in her heart to wait.
“Mother … I have the cure for Marius,” Sara said. She fumbled with her worn-out dress and found the pocket. From it she pulled the small leather bag.
Her mother looked at it and Sara saw a tear in her eye.
“It is dust from a unicorn’s horn. It is supposed to be very healing, and it will heal Marius’ strange illness.”
Sara handed the leather bag to Settela.
“My sweet child,” she said while caressing Sara’s cheek. “You sure are a Mighty One.”
Sara smiled, and as much as she enjoyed being filled with the love of her mother in her heart again, she felt like they had to hurry.
“Let’s give it to him,” she said.
Settela’s look on her face was that of a concerned mother. She had lost a lot of weight.
“He hasn’t been awake at all for days,” she said.
“Well then … let’s wake him up!” Sara took a leap inside of the caravan and held her hand towards her mother. “Come on, let’s cure him.”
Her mother took the hand and went with her inside. As Sara turned around her eyes met those of Manolo and Sami who stayed outside.
Marius had gotten very skinny and looked barely alive when Sara approached him. His breathing was irregular and only came every once in a while like a small panting. Sara caressed his head and felt his forehead. He was burning up.
“We have to hurry,” she said and looked at her mother who had the leather bag in her hand.
Settela came closer and stood with the bag holding it over him. Then she turned and looked at Sara.
“You will do it,” she said and handed the bag back to Sara. “You have traveled all this way. Your faith is strong.”
Sara took the bag and stood next to the crib. A strange hoarse cough came from Marius and then the boy seemed to have stopped breathing.
“Hurry up!” Settela cried.
Sara opened the bag and poured out the dust on her forefinger.
“Only a fingertip is enough,” she said and then she carefully put the dust on Marius’ small colorless lips, on his forehead and on his cheeks. Then she started chanting a song she had heard her mother sing so often.
Soon after, her mother started chanting along with her while they were both putting their hands on the child. Marius’s forehead had all of a sudden gotten cold—a little too cold, Sara thought. An anxiety rose in her as she realized that he wasn’t breathing either. She looked at her mother who was still singing with her eyes closed. Settela opened her eyes and looked at Sara and saw the fear in her eyes. Then she took her hand and whispered:
“It is not what you see with your eyes that count. It is what is in your heart.”
Sara felt a lump in her throat. Had this all been in vain? Was he going to die anyway? Did she come too late?
Then she felt Settela’s hand squeezing hers hard almost crushing her fingers. She looked at her mother.
“Look,” she said and pointed at Marius.
Sara looked at her baby brother and still saw nothing. He was motionless, pale and didn’t breathe any longer. Quickly she turned her head away from him while her eyes were filled with tears.
“Look again,” her mother said.
So she did.
This time she actually saw something. A small red tongue sticking out between Marius’ lips was slowly licking the dust off. As it did, the color came back in the lips and soon in the cheeks as well.
Before Sara could begin to smile, the paleness disappeared from his face and soon he opened his eyes and looked straight at Sara.
They couldn’t stop crying. They took him in their arms and took turns holding him and hugging him. They held him carefully, because he was still weak, but not too weak to give them both a big smile and a cheerful laughter. Sara and her mother couldn’t stop cheering either. They jumped and danced with joy and soon the whole camp could hear them.
Including the great Moeselman.
“What is all the commotion about?” he yelled as he entered the caravan.
When he saw Sara with the smiling Marius in her arms he couldn’t help tearing up as well. He grabbed them both and lifted them up. Then he brought them outside the caravan and lifted them high in the air.
A crowd of people had gathered outside. They all stared at Moeselman holding his two children high up in the air.
“Sara is back and she has cured her baby brother,” Moeselman roared through the camp. “Look at her, for she is truly a mighty sorceress!”
Then the crowd burst into a great cheer of joy that later was told could be heard for miles and miles away.
22
A PRICE TO PAY
That night, the dancing in the camp wouldn’t stop. After weeks and weeks in despair and sorrow they needed to be happy and carefree all night. For once it wasn’t the elder that told stories to the younger around the campfire, it was Sara and Manolo that got to tell their story. They told about how they lost the stallion in the Singing Cave, how they fought the crows a
nd were caught by the big Orael in the Wild Witches Valley, about the Desmans that saved them, the giant speed-talking snail, the cave with the treasure and Beads of Souls, the Griffin, the Forest of Vanity, the elves in the bog, the City of Lights, the Nightmare Mountain and the Dead Land where they had fought Sensisaron and gotten the crystal ball. They talked for many hours about their great adventures and all the Romanies listened quietly, since they had never heard such an extraordinary story.
Sara’s mother sat her down on her lap and hugged her. Marius had fallen asleep and every now and then they checked on him but he seemed fine. Settela could hardly believe it. He had even been drinking some milk before he fell asleep. The fever was gone and he seemed so calm and well. When Sara and Settela had sat there for a while, Sara heard her mother heave into a deep sigh. The smile on her face was the happiest smile Sara had ever seen.
They stayed at the same camp for another week while Marius grew stronger and gained a lot of weight in no time. When they found him to be strong enough they packed everything and left.
They traveled for weeks and came further south where they wanted to spend the winter. They reached the town of Seville in Andalusia. Here they stayed for thirty days, performing at the local market.
Sara enjoyed being home with her family and tribe again. She took care of her baby brother and played with him most of the day. He grew and grew and soon he started to crawl all over the caravan making it more difficult for Sara to keep an eye on him. One day she accidentally found Sensisaron’s ring in her old clothes. She had completely forgotten about it and now it looked like it was worth nothing. The red ruby stone was dull and looked like any other stone. It seemed almost impossible that it could ever have held such a great power over people. Sara shook her head and put the ring in her box of jewelry. Soon she forgot all about it.
Manolo was accepted to the tribe as Sara’s. He belonged to her and she was to feed him and take care of him, which she did not mind at all. Every day they would go into the forest and take a ride and then Manolo would soar into the air and fly them far, far away. One say he asked her about the ring.
“You did destroy it right?”
“Of course,” she lied.
“Good. A ring with dark powers like that can only come from the evilest of demons and will only cause you trouble,” he said.
Moeselman wanted to put Sami back into his cage, but Sara told him not to.
“He will end up eating someone one day,” her father argued.
“He saved my life, father. He eats nothing but animals in the forest at night. He is to no danger to anyone. I just know he is not. Look at him. He is just a kid. Like me. Let him walk freely in the camp during the day.”
Moeselman sighed and looked at Sara with discontent.
“Are you sure?”
“I am sure.”
“What if he smells blood and turns into a werewolf?”
“Then we put him in the cage.”
Moeselman sighed again.
“Okay, but you make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone.”
“I will.”
So Sara got to be with Sami every day as well. They had a great time playing with Moeselman’s dogs and helping out around the camp. Sami still had to go on stage and act dangerous with Sara’s father at the markets, but he played that role well, Sara thought standing among the crowd watching them on stage.
Settela put up her tent and soon people flocked to her for healing. Sara helped her get the right herbs and followed her closely. But Sara didn’t enjoy spending time in her mother’s tent as much as she used to. Not that she didn’t enjoy being close to her mother, that she truly enjoyed, but in the tent she felt strange. She couldn’t help but gaze at the Book of Foresight that was at the bookshelf among the others. She would always feel uncomfortable when she came too close to it. It was like it wanted her. Or it wanted something of her.
One day when she was helping her mother, it kept calling for her.
“Sara … Sara … Sara …”
She tried not to pay any attention to it but the calling kept getting stronger and stronger and soon that was all she heard.
“Sara!” her mother said when she tipped over a bowl of water making all of her mother’s dried herbs wet and ruining them.
“Where is your head these days?” she asked.
“I am sorry … I was just …”
Her mother sighed.
“What is going on with you?”
Sara bowed her head.
“I don’t know. I had my mind somewhere else. I am sorry.”
Her mother sighed again.
“It is okay. Just clean the mess up, then I will go and find some new herbs we can dry.”
So Settela went outside and left Sara alone with the book. While she was sweeping the water off the floor she tried to ignore its hissing voice calling for her.
“Sara … soon. Soon. There is a price to pay. You knew that when you opened me and used me. Nothing is free, Sara …. Soon.”
Sara stared at the book on the shelf. Was she imagining things? It hadn’t even moved. It couldn’t have been talking to her. She dropped the broom and ran outside. Her hands were shaking, her body shivering.
What kind of a price could it have been talking about?
As days passed by, nothing happened and although she couldn’t forget it, Sara began slowly to think that the book wouldn’t follow through with what it had told her. She stayed far away from her mother’s tent and helped her father prepare for his act instead.
But most of the day she spent walking through the forest with Marius on her arm, talking to Manolo by her side. One day she told him what the book had said.
He was quiet for a long time, thinking. Marius was laughing.
“If there is indeed a price to pay for using the book, it will definitely be collected some time soon. The Book of Foresight is some kind of dark magic, like the ring was, and if you are not careful with that kind of magic you can get in serious trouble. That is why I always stay away from anything that has to do with the dark spirits. You don’t want to mess with them.”
“But I had to do it. It was the only way to save my little brother.”
“I know. But there is always a price to pay when you ask help from the dark and evil spirits. They always want something in return.”
“So why hasn’t anything happened yet?”
Manolo shook his big horse head.
“I don’t know.”
That night Sara had a dream. And it was no ordinary dream. A thick cloud of silver mist seemed to be filling the caravan and she went outside. Out there in the middle of the campfire stood a figure. A woman it looked like. An old bony withered woman with long crooked fingers that were reaching out for Sara and signaling her to come closer. Her hair was gray and thin and her eyes yellow in the light from the moon above her head.
Her teeth were gnashing as Sara went closer to her.
“Come… Sara … Come,” she whispered.
Sara went even closer and reached out her hand to touch the old lady’s claws. As she did, a thousand pictures went through her head. Pictures from her own life. It was like it was all she had ever seen with her eyes.
Then a bright white light flashed in front of her eyes and everything was empty. It was like there was nothing. No camp, no forest, no ground, not even any feelings. It was nothing.
Next thing Sara saw was the face of her mother. Settela was calling for her.
Sara smiled at the sight of her mother, relieved to discover that it had only been a dream.
“You were tossing and turning in your bed,” Settela said while preparing Sara’s breakfast. “What were you dreaming?”
“It was just a stupid nightmare,” Sara said and ate quietly. The feeling was still tormenting her inside. The feeling of emptiness. The worst feeling in the world.
The next night Sara had another dream. It was very similar to the first one, but a little different. This time she woke up because someone was calli
ng for her and she went outside. Now there were two women standing where they had the campfire earlier. They were two very similar women. Equally tall, equally crooked and bony. They both called for her.
“Sara … come with us,” they whispered.
It sounded like it was the wind.
Sara wanted to resist them but she couldn’t. Again she found herself walking towards them and reaching her hand out, and when she touched their claw-like fingers it was as if all her life poured out of her. She felt the blood drain and her skin go pale. She felt like all her emotions and dreams were drained from her mind.
And then it was all white again. The nothingness was back. And Sara really felt nothing. She had no love for anyone, no emotions of any kind, not even anger was she able to feel. It was just emptiness inside of her.
Again she woke up by her mother’s calling.
“Sara. You are having a bad dream again. Wake up sweetheart.”
And she opened her eyes and immediately her heart was filled with love and she started to cry.
“What is wrong Sara?” Settela asked while hugging her.
“It was just such a horrible feeling. Like I had ceased to exist.”
At that time her hunchbacked great grandmother entered the room.
“Go back to bed,” Settela said. “Sara is just having a nightmare.”
Then the old woman said: “Nightmares are an omen that bad things are about to happen.”
Settela sighed.
“Well, not always, I would think.”
“You mark my words. The evil spirits are coming,” she said and left the room.
“Old fool,” Settela said and shut the door after her. “At that age they see bad omens everywhere they go.”
It made Sara smile.
“It was just a dream,” she said not too convincingly.
The third night, Sara went outside and found three crooked women waiting for her. They all looked very much alike and they were calling her name and signaled that she should come closer.