by Dana Davis
“Yes, Ved’nuri. Thank you for your acceptance.”
Those colorful eyes moved to Haranda. “Ah, my daughter, my sister, my friend. This has been difficult for you.”
“Yes, Ved’nuri.” Lyssinya would be insufferable now. Not only was she a few years older but her Energy was stronger. Haranda would be below her in status, Gypsy or not, for the remainder of her years. And she still missed Candelus, her former clan sister. The woman’s essence was in Ved’nuri somewhere but that wasn’t the same.
Ved’nuri came to her and cupped her chin. “Gypsy Haranda Banwidden. You have been most loyal to me and to the Goddess. Candelus misses your company. Don’t think this is difficult only for you.”
“No, Ved’nuri. I don’t think that.” Days were hard on all Gypsies, especially now.
“I expect you to treat Lyssinya with the respect you would show any Gypsy of her status.”
“Yes, Ved’nuri.” That chafed.
The Sage smirked, and the crowned woman turned on her. “And you must honor and protect Gypsies as you would your Sage kin.”
Lyssinya’s smile faded and she bowed her head slightly. “As you wish, Ved’nuri.”
Adelsik’s head flipped back and forth between the women but she said nothing, and Haranda fought the urge to chuckle at the girl’s disbelief.
“Now, my daughters. What ills have fallen on your mundane bodies?”
They explained everything they could remember down to the slightest detail until Haranda tired from slumbering so long. Ved’nuri agreed there was nothing else to do except meet in the Netherworld until they had use of their bodies again. She also shocked them with the news that her son would join her at their next meeting. The babe was not yet marriage age but close, and he had moderate slumbering Energy, similar to Haranda’s. Ved’nuri ordered them to remain calm and observant. The meeting with the others continued but Haranda went back to her body, where she slept despite the bumping of the wagon.
When she awoke again, the cart was motionless. She lay on her stomach, ankles tied and wrists bound behind her back now, rags of some sort, no doubt. So, they expected her to regain movement. That gave her a jolt of hope, despite her aches and bruises. Still, she couldn’t move her limbs or open her eyes. Not yet anyway.
After hearing nothing save insects and pacing footfalls of someone on guard, she pulled in the Energy and willed herself to slumber. The others had gathered already, including Siri, and she located them almost immediately. This time, they met in Ved’nuri’s memory dream of the dome. A striking young man with skin the color of milky tea, black eyes, and golden curls that draped his shoulders stood nearby. He was as tall as Ved’nuri and a perfect combination of his parents. A thin, gold crown of flowering vines encircled his head.
Ved’nuri smiled. “Haranda. This is my son. Ved’emir.”
She dropped into the proper curtsy, not as deep as the ones she made for his parents. “My honor, Ved’emir.”
“As is mine,” an adolescent voice replied, and he bowed his head to her. “Mother and Father have told me all about you. I’m distraught to hear of your captivity.”
“Thank you, Ved’emir.”
Ved’nuri informed her which kin still needed to be located in their dreams. “Those we have visited are still paralyzed, like you. And Lyssinya has some disturbing news, as well.”
The Sage, who had been silent, paled when Ved’nuri and her son set eyes on her. She looked as though she’d been weeping. Weary green eyes bounced between Haranda, Siri, Wren and Adelsik. “I visited with Tapnut, my bedfriend, in his dreams.” She glanced at Ved’nuri, who nodded patiently. “He said the Elders have been acting odd. That they’ve ordered some of my Sage kin imprisoned and bound. I don’t know what this means, but when I tried to enter one of their dreams, something threw me off. I fear they’ve disowned me and will harm Tapnut.” Her hands trembled and Adelsik took her in her arms. The Sage wept.
Wren went to the woman and waited. Once the Sage had wiped her face with the crying towel that appeared in her hands, Wren said, “I would have been proud to have you as my clan daughter, Lyssinya Atan Colewin.”
Wren’s sharp eyes focused on Haranda, hinting. She fought a sigh. “You would have been a competent and welcomed clan sister, Lyssinya. We can use your experience and knowledge among the Gypsies.” Ved’nuri could order her to show respect to the Sage but the crowned woman couldn’t change her feelings. Lyssinya grated on her nerves more than anyone she had ever met. She didn’t know why. Perhaps Adelsik had been right, the little snip. Perhaps she and Lyssinya were just too much alike.
Ved’nuri’s eyes focused on her. “That’s a wise assumption, Gypsy Haranda Banwidden.” A knowing smile told Haranda that her thoughts were just as much on display to the woman here as when she was in the dome. Interesting. Wren and Siri’s thoughtful gazes assured her that they realized the same thing. “Lyssinya? I wish to have a try at one of your Elder’s dreams. It’s late enough on the island.”
The Sage sniffed and wiped her face again. “Yes, Ved’nuri.” Her eyes focused in the distance as multitudes of dream bubbles floated around. Footprints of kin flittered about against a background of middling bubbles. It was actually quite a lovely scene, one that first-time slumberers couldn’t see, though Ved’emir seemed to. Now that the Sage was among them, her kin’s footprints appeared and came to the forefront of dreams but they were still invisible to Gypsies without Lyssinya’s help. “There.” A long, freckled arm pointed. “That orange frog. That’s Elder Galen. He’s our second highest ranking Elder.”
Of course, now that she had introduced this one, Haranda and the others should always be able to find him.
“He will do. Do you see Tapnut anywhere?”
“No, Ved’nuri. He sometimes keeps late vigils when he’s worried. I told him I would come for him tomorrow night. But he’s not a slumberer so I don’t know if he’ll remember.”
Haranda wondered why her kin hadn’t located these non-slumbering Sages before now. Perhaps they incorporated a similar type of concealment that Lyssinya used. The Sage was able to keep her footprint concealed from intruders in the Netherworld, something that slumbering Gypsies could now do, thanks to her tutelage.
A talent that just might benefit all Gypsies as well. There must be a way to teach them, since non-slumbering Sages seem to manage it. Ved’nuri gave her a brief nod that she’d overheard those thoughts. Or perhaps she had thought of it herself. At least they didn’t have to worry about servants and middlings. Anyone who couldn’t harness the Energy couldn’t be harmed from the Netherworld. That thought still chilled Haranda’s blood, that another slumberer could harm her mundane body from here. Why had Gypsies not learned how to do that that? Well, why would we? We don’t exactly go around attacking each other.
Ved’nuri’s crown of golden flowers glimmered as she studied Haranda. Then her gaze moved to her son. “Watch and learn.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Ved’nuri did not move. Instead, Galen’s frog footprint drifted toward her, and Haranda quelled an utter of surprise. Just when had she learned that? As far as Haranda knew, Lyssinya was the only one who could call a non-slumberer’s dream to her. Everyone else had to go to the dream. Lyssinya and the others seemed just as astonished at Ved’nuri’s new talent. Once the footprint floated nearby, the crowned woman concentrated on something.
Haranda wondered whether she was mentally knocking or trying to burst through the dream bubble. The answer came all too soon, when a blast of Energy tossed everyone onto their backsides. Everyone, that was, except Ved’nuri. The crowned woman’s face strained. After a few heartbeats, the dome changed to another place, that of the Sage dreamer. Haranda got to her feet with the others and watched as numerous tall trees with fronds on the top appeared alongside bright flowers. Ocean sounds permeated the air along with smells of salty water. The hard dome floor had changed to soft sand. Colors exploded everywhere she looked, a memory dream.
“This is Dragon
Island,” Lyssinya said with astonishment. She had recovered somewhat from the blast, just as everyone had, but her face was pale. The woman had never mentioned another slumberer among Sages.
“Dull yourselves,” Ved’nuri ordered. She took her son’s hand briefly and he nodded as though she had communicated something directly into his mind.
Haranda concentrated on her own concealment, which she still had to think about in steps. The nimbus and footprint of each winked out as the Energy covered them much the way a shade walker worked in the mundane world. Only here, they had a mundane body and an otherself to concentrate on.
“Is Elder Galen a slumberer?” The crowned woman focused on Lyssinya.
The Sage glanced around. “No. He’s not.”
Then who created this memory dream? Trepidation began to fill Haranda and she forced herself to stay calm. And who used the Elder’s footprint to do it? What kind of slumberer has this much power?
Ved’nuri glanced around and golden curls dropped over her shoulders. “Whoever created this memory dream probably knows we’ve broken through. But I wish to find out more.” Her gaze fell to Lyssinya again. “Are you all right, daughter? Do you wish to leave?”
The Sage took in a long breath. “No, Ved’nuri. I need to find out what has happened.”
Silently, they followed Ved’nuri and Ved’emir across the sandy beach. Lush vegetation grew everywhere, not at all like the beach where Haranda had begun training her younglings almost a year ago. Voices prompted them to stop and listen. Ved’nuri pointed to several torches that lined a dirt trail.
“Where is the snit?” a woman’s voice said. There was something familiar about her as Haranda watched the tall, lanky woman with white-streaked hair come down the trail. Two men who pulled a small, two-wheeled cart with colorful curtains all around it, followed. “I felt someone pierce the barricade. I know I did.”
“I don’t see anyone,” one of the men said. “You? No one has ever broken through one of her barricades.”
Haranda gave Ved’nuri a questioning glance. The crowned woman pointed to the men and raised her brows at Lyssinya. The Sage shook her head that neither of the men was Elder Galen. She shrugged as she glanced around and offered her own questioning gaze to Ved’nuri, who waved a dismissive hand. The group concentrated on the scene again.
Haranda found she was holding her breath, or at least it felt that way. Her otherself didn’t truly breathe, yet it performed every function that her mundane body did, at least in her mind. She stood perfectly still, like the others in her group.
The unknown, lanky woman sighed and turned to the two men. “Perhaps you’re correct. I seem to be jumpy these nights.”
“Then I suggest you change that behavior.” A rough, feminine voice carried from behind the draped cart, and Haranda stiffened. She knew that voice. But from where?
The men lowered the wheeled cart and rested it on its front pedestals. A woman’s arm shot out from between the curtains and Haranda got a good look at the large, gold ring on her middle finger. The ring was elaborately carved. The square setting held a large black stone that seemed to emit light wherever it was aimed. Quite a gaudy thing.
One of the men took the hand and assisted a woman, about as tall as Adelsik, from the cart. Haranda had to put a hand over her mouth to keep from shrieking. The woman had eyes as yellow as the sun. This was the one who had ordered her beating. And Thad’s, when he was just a youngling. The other woman had sounded familiar too. Perhaps she was the one who had held the whip. She had never shown her true appearance, though. Was this how she looked in the mundane world? They both had to be errants.
Haranda’s kin stared at her. Once she got her wits, she pointed to the yellow-eyed woman. She’s the one. She beat Thad and me! She sent that with great intensity, hoping Ved’nuri truly could hear her thoughts here in the Netherworld.
The crowned woman’s lips pinched in anger and she nodded. Before any of them could make a move, the yellow-eyed woman pulled a man out from behind the curtains. He looked very old and frail and nearly fell over when his feet hit the ground. His face seemed to have wrinkles upon wrinkles, and sun-darkened skin sagged in every place imaginable on his sickly frame.
“You have done well,” the yellow-eyed woman told him. She leaned close to his face and caressed his cheek with her nails. Nails that were much too long in Haranda’s opinion. “You want your reward, don’t you?”
“Yes,” he croaked. “If it pleases my mistress.”
Lyssinya gripped Haranda’s arm so tightly that she nearly cried out with pain. She shook off the woman’s grasp and mouthed, “What?”
The rest of the kin had noticed by now and all watched the Sage, who mouthed something back. Her movements became so frantic Haranda couldn’t understand her silent words.
Then, with a motion of frustration, she turned to Ved’nuri and mouthed it again. Ah, this frail man was Elder Galen.
It was all Haranda and Siri could do to keep Lyssinya from charging in and giving them away. The Sage nearly pulled from their grasps. One harsh look from Ved’nuri gave Lyssinya wits enough that they could finally release their grip on her.
“You’ve done well these many years, Galen.” The yellow-eyed woman focused on the old man, who now knelt on the sand in front of her.
“Thank you, Mistress.”
“I promised to give you the highest reward after you completed your assignment.”
“Yes, Mistress. Eternal youth. That’s what you promised.”
“Well, not exactly.” Her lips curled into a crooked smile. “I have no need of your services now, since you’ve fulfilled your end of the bargain.”
Galen gave her a questioning look and opened his mouth to speak. Before any words made it from his lips, the yellow-eyed woman raised her right hand and Haranda again saw the ring that encircled the middle finger. Realization hit her like an anvil and she fought blind panic. The forbidden ring of gold and black, a stone to render the heart cold and the wearer nearly indomitable. But it had been destroyed centuries upon centuries ago. Or had it? A frozen scream appeared on the Sage Elder’s face and he exploded into a thousand shimmering bits.
Adelsik gasped and the yellow-eyed woman turned toward her. “Someone is here,” she hissed. “Spies! Who dares spy on me?” She shimmered and melted into a large, mountain cat, void of color and substance, sickly, yellow colored eyes, empty and hollow. The all too familiar footprint gave off a stench of death.
Ved’nuri made a motion and they retreated from this horrific and disturbing memory dream. Once they stood safely in Ved’nuri’s dream image of the dome again, Lyssinya collapsed. Wren sat and held her as she wept.
Adelsik knelt by the two. “What is she, that—that woman?”.
Those innocent-looking eyes made Haranda’s heart ache. This girl had been her clan daughter not long ago. Her younglings had seen far too much violence, too much death already. She didn’t know what to say.
The crowned woman stepped to Haranda. “She was the one who beat you and Thad?”
“Yes, Ved’nuri.” Haranda tore her eyes from the three women on the floor to look up at her former clan sister. “She didn’t hold the whip. But I would wager my boots the other woman with her did. She said they would come for our younglings, come for us.” Now, fire rose in her gut and she glared at Lyssinya, not caring that the woman still wept. “Just what deals have you Sages made?” She wouldn’t mention the ring just yet, since she still didn’t trust Lyssinya, but she knew Ved’nuri had recognized it and she wagered Siri and Wren had too.
Siri planted fists on her hips but it was Ved’nuri who spoke. “Enough. I will ask the questions here. You’ll show proper respect, Haranda. Lyssinya has demonstrated her loyalty to us.”
“Yes, Ved’nuri.” Keeping her anger leashed proved more difficult than she imagined. “But what if she’s lied? I’m certain it wouldn’t be the first to cross her lips.”
“I haven’t lied about anything.” The Sage blew her nos
e on a crying towel and got to her feet. “I don’t know that woman, Ved’nuri, if she even is a woman. Elder Galen has always been faithful to us. He was so old. I didn’t even recognize him until he spoke.” She cursed several times without apology. “He’s an Elder. I thought he was faithful.”
Ved’nuri leveled a gaze at her. “You think he lied to you, to the other Sages?”
“I don’t know, Ved’nuri. I don’t want to think that he did. But from what I just witnessed—”
“You had no control over that.”
“Perhaps not. But I don’t know who to trust among my own kin.”
“We are also your kin, Lyssinya Atan Colewin. And you trust Tapnut, don’t you?”
“Oh, Great Goddess! I must find him. He’s still on the island. If the other Elders have been compromised, they could kill him. If that beast of a woman is there—“
Ved’nuri raised a palm. “Calm yourself. Do you see him now?”
Lyssinya blinked several times and gazed out toward the drifting bubbles. “No,” she said with desperation in her voice. “Wait. Yes! He’s there!”
She started toward him but Ved’nuri grabbed her arm. “Which is he?”
“That bright star there.” One hand pointed.
The crowned woman turned to Ved’emir. “You try, son.” Within heartbeats, Tapnut’s dream bubble floated just paces from them. “Well done.”
He smiled. “Thank you, Mother.”
“All right, Lyssinya. Would you prefer to go in alone?”
The red-haired Sage gave them a thoughtful look. “No. I trust Tapnut. With my life. But if he’s been compromised in any way—”
“A wise choice, my Sage daughter.”
Once inside the man’s dream, Haranda saw just what attracted Lyssinya. Tapnut stood as tall as his bedfriend with broad shoulders that tapered to a trim waist. He wore his long black hair in a single braid down his back. Lean muscles moved beneath dark skin and black eyes seemed tender when they looked upon Lyssinya. The only physical flaw Haranda could see was a scar that snaked across his cheek. She felt a bit self-conscious watching the two. She had been with men before but never had she looked at one the way Lyssinya gazed at Tapnut. Perhaps she had misjudged the Sage.