by Dana Davis
“I’ve felt it. The darkness in the Energy.” He pulled his back a little straighter but kept the cane for support. “Since I’m Bankari by birth, Mistress Norine declared allegiance for me as well. I can no longer run. Forgive me for my foolishness.” He sank clumsily to one knee again, while gripping his cane, and bowed his head.
Haranda looped an arm in his and lifted him to his feet. “I accept your apology, Ryder, though there’s really no need. You’re one of us. The Goddess has seen to that. What happened to your leg?”
“I fell from a ledge years ago. My leg was broken, twisted. I braced it as best I could but it never mended right.”
“Well.” Haranda adjusted her cloak. “I’ll have Predula take a look at you once she’s strong again.”
He smiled and two of his side teeth were missing. “My thanks to you Gypsy.”
“Call me Haranda.” She glanced at the other Bankari, who seemed shocked to find out one of their own was a Gypsy. “We should get to Hunter Forest.”
“I know that forest well,” Ryder said.
“Then perhaps you should lead.” She gazed at the Bankari elders.
“Yes,” a man with silver hair said. “Ryder will lead.” There was pride in his quivering voice. “The Sea Goddess has chosen him. The Great Mother Goddess has chosen him.”
Haranda ordered one of the guards to accompany the errant man. She wanted to trust him but his footprint was hidden behind that hedge again. She would have him release that once they were in the safety of the forest. She also wanted to know just how he managed this hedge he talked of and planned to learn that secret. She must gain and offer trust quickly and oath him properly. It wouldn’t do to have an errant among them without the Goddess Kiss to keep him loyal. She planned to oath the others too, as soon as possible. She waved the group to their horses and mounted, taking offered goat cheese and dried, salted fish, and thanked the Bankari for their generosity. She began with the cheese and stuffed the fish into her saddle pouch for later.
They continued toward Hunter Forest and reached the outlying trees by midday. The air had picked up again and Haranda hoped they wouldn’t have another funnel storm. Someone at the head of the caravan had stopped them, Ryder most likely. She rode ahead to find the errant and guards face to face with several armed Hunters. They didn’t appear friendly.
Chapter 20
The unusual storm had torn shutters from windows in the keep, and lightening struck trees in the nearby forest. Magical weather, unstable and deadly. Thankfully, the rain was hard enough to put out any fires that might have started. Maesa sat in one of the overstuffed chairs and watched Zarenia pace across the library floor, a habit the Demargina of Pashdad had when she was frustrated. A fire gave off warmth, while several lanterns added brightness to the gray night. Raith had gone to aid Elder Yuri in some task. Hallia stood not paces from Zarenia and watched, silently.
In order to get more acquainted, the three walked after evening meals. Zarenia often seemed lost in thought, and Maesa suspected the woman tried to riddle out Evin’s puzzle of the missing text. The three of them should have figured out Evin’s riddle but days had passed and nothing. Everyone seemed on edge lately. Frustration built in Maesa too, but she didn’t have any right to complain. Zarenia’s task was much more difficult than any Maesa had ever experienced, and despite her agitation, the other woman handled her situation quite well.
“Demargina?” Hallia said. Not only did she look very much like Zarenia but her voice sounded so similar the two could pass for sisters. “You mustn’t be so hard on yourself. We’ve finished your father’s journals with no success but there are many others here.” One arm made a sweeping motion.
Zarenia stopped pacing and gazed at the bindings and scrolls that lined the massive shelves.
Maesa didn’t need listener abilities to know what her former clan sister was thinking. How could they possibly get through all these scrolls before the void overtook the Energy? Not even a Gypsy could read hundreds of journals in a few days. And if this insane weather continued, they would run out of food. Sure, Zarenia had goats and chickens in the keep stables but the gardens had been soaked by the rains. Servants salvaged what they could but the Elders forbad anyone to set foot outside in this weather. They allowed Zarenia to make that decree just to keep some semblance of household order in the chaos. No one could travel now and trade was a huge part of her people’s survival.
Maesa had brought Ved’nuri’s messages back from the Netherworld. Disturbing messages. Someone tampered with elemental magic and the unstable weather was spreading to all parts of the world. Recently, Haranda’s quest had survived nasty conditions. Maesa didn’t remember many details since her slumbering Energy was very slight but she gathered enough, and Yuri had explained what Gypsies knew of elemental magic. The fact that it had been forbidden for ages added to Maesa’s fear. They had all heard the Vedi’s babe let out its first cries and that sound echoed in her head even now. She truly hoped the child remained safe.
Her eyes fell on the false shelves, the ones that concealed the library safe, which Zarenia had shown her one day in private. Important journals and other documents were stored there, as well as a few family heirlooms. The remainder of Zarenia’s wealth was kept in a vault behind a hidden panel in another part of the keep. Pretty and desirable as they were, one couldn’t eat coins and jewels.
There were many hidden passages in this home, some unused for centuries, waiting to be rediscovered, and Maesa wondered if she might come back with Zarenia someday and make those discoveries. In some ways, this keep resembled a mind, with its outward stoic appearance and many hidden passageways within that kept treasures and secrets from prying eyes. She nearly chuckled when she realized how much of her mind-healing lessons had stayed with her once they left the Land of the Goddess.
She watched her former clan sister pace the tapestry rug again and started to move to comfort the woman, but Zarenia turned so quickly to her that she twitched and sat her place.
“Can it be that simple?” Zarenia’s green eyes brightened. “I think I know what Evin meant. Hallia, fetch Elder Yuri and the others.”
Maesa got to her feet as Hallia fled the library in a flurry of excitement. Zarenia paced again then pulled the long rope and soon another servant arrived.
“Demargina?” The girl curtsied and waited.
“My cloak. And my confidante’s and my aide’s.”
“As you wish, Demargina.” The servant curtsied again and disappeared.
“Are you going to tell me?” Maesa planted hands on her hips much the way she’d seen Gypsy mothers do with wayward younglings. “Or do I have to squeeze it out of you?”
Zarenia smiled. “I prefer to tell everyone together. If you don’t mind?”
“Very well. But you’d better tell them right away or I just might knock your skull with one of those scrolls.”
The other woman laughed and Maesa grinned that her attempt at levity had worked. Zarenia could have berated her since she was still a youngling. “You’ll be a formidable Gypsy one day, Maesa.”
“As will you, Zarenia.”
The two chuckled and hugged and Maesa wished Adelsik and Henny could have been with them.
Once the kin arrived, Zarenia bade them to sit at the large wooden table with Maesa next to her. The servant brought the ordered cloaks and gave them to Hallia, who remained standing near the wall behind Zarenia’s chair.
“I think I’ve figured out what Evin meant by the sludge of days past,” Zarenia said, and Maesa’s heart raced with anticipation. “When I traveled to the Land of the Goddess, I entered through Fathe—through my dungeons. I waded through mud and sludge to find the life circle.” She glanced at the gold band on her finger then focused on Elder Yuri.
The short man rubbed at the stubble on his dark head. He kept it shaved, even here, except for the single black braid that hung down his back, and he focused narrow eyes on her. “You think the text is there?”
“Why
not, Elder? Evin was my father’s grandmother. She knew things my family hid for generations. She knew about the texts. The dungeons haven’t been used to house prisoners since before my father’s days. Even the guards don’t venture there except to use one of the passageways to the outdoors. And they don’t linger. A perfect place to hide something you don’t wish found.”
Yuri nodded and his gold hoop earrings shimmered. “There will be light in the morning. Hopefully.” His gaze took in the lightening that flickered through the shutters of the leaded glass windows.
“We can begin the search tonight, Elder. The dungeons have no light even in day.”
Maesa frowned and wrapped arms around herself to keep from shivering. She didn’t like total darkness, even if that fear made her feel childish. “Sounds horrible.” Birek sat next to her and placed a brief hand on her shoulder, which relaxed her a bit before it stirred something else inside, something she knew very well to keep to herself, and she longed to be alone with him again. She offered him a brief smile.
Yuri stood. “All right. We can take lanterns and use orbs. Have your servants bring shovels. And barrels for the muck.”
Zarenia nodded. “There are still remains down there. I saw them on my first venture. They should get a proper burial. I’ll have the shrouder at hand too.”
That did nothing to soothe Maesa’s trepidation. Dark and dead, two things she had feared since she could remember.
Elder D’Esher stood. “They’ll need blessing.”
“Will you perform the blessings, Elder D’Esher?” Zarenia said in a thoughtful tone. “There’s been enough war and death in this place. Perhaps the Goddess will have mercy on those who have crossed to the Netherworld.”
D’Esher smiled and lines creased her eyes and the corners of her mouth. She was an imposing woman, two hand spans taller than Yuri, but could be as tender as a nurse with a newborn when she chose. “Of course.”
* * * *
Maesa waited just outside the dungeon entrance with Zarenia and Hallia, all three cloaked against the cold dampness that would meet them. Servants arrived with shovels, lanterns, buckets and barrels, and soon the rest of the kin assembled. Maesa pulled the Energy into her body and pushed a warm yellow spark from her fingertips. She spun it with the surrounding air to create an orb and followed behind Zarenia and two guards, who had insisted they go first. They eyed the orbs but said nothing.
Despite the cold down here, the place smelled of death and decay, and Maesa quelled the urge to wretch when she stepped into the muck that covered the floor, regardless of the high boots Zarenia had given her to wear. Sludge of days past, indeed. This place hadn’t been touched in years from the cobwebs and dust that had accumulated along the cell bars. Mold grew here and there along the walls.
Yuri and Raith inspected the remains of the long dead before allowing D’Esher to bless them and Zarenia’s shrouder to take them out. The rest of the women were content to let the men handle the bones. Maesa was grateful the servants shoveled the nasty sludge into buckets and barrels for inspection. She didn’t think her stomach would hold if she had to dig in the disgusting stuff. Hallia stayed unusually close, touching elbows more often than not, and Maesa wondered if the woman would faint. She had seen so much of Gypsy workings lately, and now this.
Could this be too much for her?
“Demargina?” the aide said in a soft voice.
“Yes, Hallia?”
“What will you do when you find the text? After the Vedi have corrected the weather and made peace with middlings?”
Maesa studied Zarenia. Elders D’Esher and Yuri did too. Probably waiting to correct her if she gave the wrong answer, whatever that might be. Zarenia had to remain here in Pashdad if there was any hope of saving her land and the people who were loyal to the Va’pash family. Cousins had already created turmoil during her previous absence, a great mess that she was still cleaning up. But she was a Gypsy, sworn to the Goddess. If she decided to stay, would the Vedi even allow that? Especially since she was only new-oathed. She would remain at that status for years. Zarenia still had much to learn, like all new-oathed.
“I’m still undecided.”
Hallia eyed her then the two Elders and nodded. Perhaps Hallia understood more than Maesa first thought. The woman had seen things from middling nightmares yet she was loyal to Zarenia. Perhaps she could be oathed as a servant. From the look D’Esher gave Hallia, Maesa wondered if the Elder thought the same thing.
* * * *
They spent the remainder of the night and into the morning in the muck. Maesa had been relegated to inspecting barrels of the disgusting stuff, by Zarenia no less, and she longed for a bath. Her stomach hadn’t protested like she thought, and her one consolation was that Birek got to work with her. Though not being able to kiss him made that worse somehow.
Maesa and the rest of her kin had abandoned their orbs not long into the night and she was tired now. Weary in body and mind. The storm still pounded the keep and the grounds flooded until parts of the dungeon began to leak water. Zarenia’s home was on elevated land, as many of its day had been built, but the river and swamp threatened to overflow. Farmers and villagers wouldn’t be so lucky, and their Demargina couldn’t house them all. This home, though it still seemed a castle to Maesa, was too small for that. Even if Zarenia could protect and feed those loyal to the Va’pash house, she couldn’t get them here.
What sounded at first like a rumbling thunder, shook the ground, bringing down small flakes of wall and dust.
“Earthquake!” Yuri barked. “Everyone out!”
The guards and house servants dropped tools and ushered Zarenia and the Gypsy kin up the stone stairs. Birek stayed by Maesa’s side but she tripped more than once before she got a grip on her cloak and skirts. Once in the warmth of the upper floor, the ground shook again, so violently that Zarenia grabbed onto Maesa and Birek, and the three struggled to stay on their feet. Plaster that had covered the walls for centuries crumbled and fell in dusted heaps onto the floor tapestries.
Maesa’s heart pounded and she gave a startled look to Zarenia.
The woman shook her head. “Quakes don’t occur in Pashdad. There hasn’t been a quake in the whole of Trinedad history. What in the name of the Goddess is going on? Elders?”
Another temblor, this one stronger than the first two shook items from shelves and wall tapestries swayed violently.
“We need to evacuate,” Elder D’Esher said.
“The vault,” Zarenia said to Grenwin.
The former nurse nodded and grabbed onto two servants then headed down the hall. Zarenia ran to her library with Maesa and Hallia on her heels before anyone could stop them. The Demargina snatched up the text they’d found at Evin’s burned-out home. She stuffed it into her belt purse and headed for the safe.
Maesa gripped her arm and spun her around. “We must leave.” Zarenia might be new-oathed but she acted foolish just now.
“My maps. Father’s journals. Mother’s brooch.” Another temblor shook the place and two of the wall lanterns came loose and smashed to the floor. Zarenia tried to pull away but the Energy kept Maesa’s grip strong.
Hallia grabbed onto Zarenia’s other arm. “We need to leave, Demargina.”
“No.”
“I won’t allow you to endanger yourself, Demargina Va’pash. I have sworn loyalty to you and I’ll take you out of here if I have to toss you over my shoulder.” Gray eyes blazed from features similar to Zarenia’s.
Maesa guessed the woman was more than capable of doing as she suggested. Servants often did laborious tasks that kept their muscles hard, even the women. She and Hallia hauled Zarenia toward the door but the woman managed to get her arm free of Maesa and swipe one of the journals on her way past the table. She clung to it as her aide led her, none to gently, out into the hall and toward the exit with Maesa trailing. They ran right into D’Esher, who latched onto Maesa and dragged her along. The woman had the advantage of breeches, as well as longer leg
s, and she had to run to keep up. Two more temblors shook the place before they made it down the winding halls and to the entrance doors. Luckily no one fell. The sky was dark and rain drizzled onto the flooded grounds.
Yuri looked none too pleased. Grenwin had made it to the entrance with a small trunk carried between two muscular guards, and Maesa guessed they took enough coins and jewels to keep them going until it was safe to go back inside. Maesa pulled Zarenia’s cloak hood up and then tended to her own since the woman didn’t appear to have her wits just yet.
Servants ran this way and that in the storm, chasing frightened children and animals as the darkened, morning sky lit up now and then with streaks of lightening. The rain had let up enough to see where they were going, and they crossed the grounds past the protective curtain wall and out the portcullis to the flooded grasses that extended toward the swamp, where servants erected a shelter of makeshift tents. Another quake struck. This one threw Maesa off her feet and seemed to last an eternity. Once it finally stopped, she clamored upright with D’Esher’s assistance and stared in disbelief at Zarenia’s home.
Several blocks of the keep and the curtain wall had crumbled. Dust billowed into the air only to be dampened by the rain. This place had stood for generations. How could it now be damaged like this? Maesa stood dumbfounded and watched as a section just above the women’s apartments crumbled to the ground. A streak of lightening hit the remaining tower with a crack that made her ears ring and several people cried out. Zarenia seemed too stunned to weep, and Maesa took her hand in one and Birek’s in the other. Men on horses scrambled through the portcullis with the remaining animals to join the rest of the bewildered folks on the soggy grass. Several on foot followed, hauling injured men and women. Two looked close to death.
Grenwin put a motherly arm around Zarenia’s shoulders as they stood beneath the tent. “We can rebuild, Demargina.”