“I can see why she is ill.” Sharlia turned back to Devish, who stayed at the door. She couldn’t believe how callus he was. Even with what she was, even with everything that happened between the Wanderers and the Walkers, he could have given her some amount of respect. She deserved so much more than this.
“Humans, Wanderers, they are so much alike and deserve so little.”
She felt sickened with his lack of concern, so she turned back to the bed. She didn’t know if this battered woman would tell her anything now. She knew that she wouldn’t if their roles were reversed. Why would she talk with me when they abused her like this?
Devish chuckled some with hearing her thoughts. “I will leave you alone with her my lady. I have work to accomplish down south and I must prepare for it. We will hopefully have a guest soon.” He did. It was the only thing on his mind, so he could care less of what she thought for him.
She bowed her head to him before he left.
He closed the door and left her alone.
Being so, she moved towards the foot of the bed. She walked cautiously. She took her time.
The Seer turned to her and watched her closely.
Sharlia saw her diamond clear colored eyes. Even they seemed to lose their shine with everything they did to her.
“Welcome back lady Sharlia of the Southern Continent. I have been hopeful that you would have come to me again. There is so much we need to discuss.”
“We do.” Sharlia heard nothing but calmness in her voice. She sounded exactly the same way as she did all of those years ago in the cave at the bottom of the cliffs. She admired that about her. Even with everything that happened to her, she kept her strength. She kept her calmness. She hoped it meant that she would talk to her after all. She did have so much to ask her. “I am so truly sorry for what they have done to you.” Saying this made sense. She had no part in her abduction and hoped it was a good place to start.
The Seer smiled. “They do what they must do lady Sharlia of the Southern Continent. They are what they are.” Her voice sounded strong yet reserved.
Sharlia only nodded. She had nothing to say on that matter, so she switched to the Seer. “Is there anything I could do for you?” She took a single step to the bed. The smell intensified the closer she went, so she kept it at only one. Her sense of smell wouldn’t allow anything more than that.
The Seer grinned with this. “I am afraid that there is not much one can do.” She showed her now yellow teeth. Some were missing. “I am given food. He keeps me alive only.”
“He should still show you some respect.” Sharlia watched a tear streak down her dirty left cheek. Again, she felt for her. She felt for the tear. One came to her left eye too.
The Seer saw her eyes watering some, and it made her feel even more relaxed because of it. With it being so, it was time to get back to the matter that brought her back to her.
“You are here to question what I had told you the last time of your visit.” She didn’t flinch once. Her voice stayed soft.
Sharlia suddenly felt guilty coming there to get more out of this poor woman like this. It felt wrong. She could see that she had been through too much already for the information locked inside her mind. Doing any more of it, she couldn’t help herself with feeling this way.
“It is alright my lady. My gift to see things that others cannot has brought me here to this place. It cannot happen any other way.”
Sharlia shook her head. “It is still not right. I should have not counted on those gifts.”
“Our gifts must be used and offered to others when we can. The means do not change this. Their cruelty never will.”
Again, she admired her strength. She was not broken. She knew that she would assist her now.
“I have many questions. I need answers.” It was time to get to it.
The Seer’s eyes went from diamonds to blue so quickly that it looked like the magic it was. “Satar did what he thought was right. He did what he needed to do and found what he was looking for. You must also do the same.”
Just like before in the cave, she didn’t understand any of this. “He did not find it though. He died and so did she.” She paused some, trying to put her thoughts together long enough to ask her next question. When she caught herself, she began again, “Am I to die too in my search?”
The Seer smiled some with this before she began again, “Death is not the end. It is only the beginning of the journey. He learned this in the end, and so will you.”
Again, she stressed this most pressing point, “So I am to die in my journey?” This didn’t sound right to her at all.
The Seer shook her head. “You will live longer than most around you, my lady. You will find what he did.” Unable to lift it off the bed by much, it looked sluggish and difficult.
Again, Sharlia just sighed with seeing her lack of physical strength. “What will I find?” She shook her head and moved to the bed. Her thighs now touched the foot of it.
Her diamond eyes came back again. “The one is now. He is here. He lives.”
Sharlia blinked. “Who is here?” she stressed this the most. The last time the Seer spoke in a type of code and she hated it then just as she hated it now. It boggled her mind.
The Seer laughed again. “What you are looking for of course. He is here. The black wolf has shown himself.”
That is knew, but, “What black wolf?”
“He is what you seek. He is the answer to everything you look for. He will give you what you want and show you the correct path to take. He will lead you to the journey’s end.”
“What is it I want?” She couldn’t believe what she just heard. Inside, she of course knew what she was looking for, but that wasn’t all of it. She did know that she wanted to know what happens after death. She wanted to know what happened to Sharlia, the Nightwalker that made her. She wanted to know about the Sharlia, the Blood Walker that lived before her. She knew that Wanderers possessed a life after death. They would move to another body when the time was right and live again. She also knew that humans also possessed a soul. They could move on to a place, which no one has ever returned from but they did live again. As for the Walkers, they just died. They went nowhere, and for her, it didn’t make sense. Why would all life on this world have a soul, but not them, not the one species that came first? It just bedazzled her mind. She wanted to know, and this was what she was looking for.
The Seer turned her head to her left side. “You are looking for life after death. You are searching for the meaning of why you exist.”
Sharlia nodded. “Yes.” There was more. “I was human once. I was turned into this and became what I am now, but why? When I was human, I had a soul, but now I do not. Why? Why did I lose something that I should have had?”
The Seer turned her head back to the foot of the bed. “That is what you seek and that is what you will find. He will show you the journey’s end. He will show you the truth behind the power and pain.” Her eyes blared again to a bright shining blue color. They sparkled like sapphires that were lit up from behind by a fire.
Sharlia turned from them and looked back to the door. She thought about everything, and now understood some of her deepest questions. She now knew the full depth of what she wanted, but what did this person, the black wolf have to do with any of this? It was time to find out. “Is this black wolf the one with the answers? What is he? Why have I never seen him before?” She turned back to the bed.
The Seer’s eyes faded back to their sparkling white. “He was born with the answers locked up inside him. He holds the truth of the flames. He holds your answers. He has what you seek.”
She believed that she understood what she heard. “He knows of the truth as to why we Walkers do not carry a soul? That implies that he has one.”
“He does, and more. He has a lot more than even this.”
She swallowed hard with this. “This black wolf is a Wanderer—a shifter?” It didn’t sound real. None of this made her feel truth. She f
elt more disjointed than ever.
The Seer shrugged softly. At least she tried the best she could. “He is neither Wanderer nor Walker, but yet he is both. Yet, he is even more than both.”
She scoffed some with this. “That does not make any sense.”
“I know it does not make sense to you now, but one day it will. You will learn the truth of him, one day, long from now, when you live through the end times.”
Why can she not just explain something without the damn riddles? She thought, but then remembered what she told her back on Golan. She sees only what she can. She cannot help herself but to see what she speaks. Knowing this, she bowed her eyes again. She continued thinking too. None of this makes sense. He has to be one or the other. He cannot be both. She had never heard of such a thing before, and she didn’t know what to think about it. It just blew her mind.
“How is it possible? No Wanderer can change into a wolf through the bite. The bite kills all Wanderers. No Walker can be born; we lose the gift of birth. So, as you can see, what you say cannot be right.”
The Seer watched her closely. When she used her powers, they came to her only as she spoke them, but she did have a choice. She could choose what to say and how to say it. She could find no other way to do what she needed to have done.
“There are many ways to bring life into this world my lady. This world has given birth to so much that one can never understand its full breadth. He is one of those gifts, and with it, he possesses the key to life. He is life itself.”
“He is life? What does that mean?” Sharlia swallowed hard again, trying to get everything she heard down inside her mind. It seemed hard to comprehend but if she was right, if the Seer saw this as only she could, then she had to be right. He had to be the key to everything, including her answers. She now needed to find him like never before.
“He is what he is. He is of both worlds, and because of it, he is both light and dark. This means he is life. He is also death.”
What in the heavens does that mean? She almost blurted out but stopped herself before she did. Quite honestly she didn’t know what to think about any of this, but being told the same things over and over again—well—she didn’t like that thought much either. She would have to come to understand this on her own, hell the Seer said that much already. She also knew that the black wolf had the answers, and knowing this, she did finally accept what she heard. She had to find him and get the answers that he seemed to have.
Thinking that she understood, at least some of this, she looked back up. “How do I find him? Where do I go?”
“There is a place not that far from here that will show you things that will give you your answers. This place has the keys to the future.”
“What is this place? Is it a town?”
She chuckled some. It sounded even softer. “It is a home to those who follow no one.”
Again, she heard the riddles. Again, she had the headache of hearing the code. “It is a place then…where do I find it?”
“You will. Search for it and you will know it.”
She nodded with this. Again, she will have to do it, even if she didn’t understand it.
The Seer’s eyes went to a bright blue color again. “Find it and he will come to you.” They went back to their normal white.
Sharlia tried to swallow but couldn’t. “He knows of me?” She felt something close to a log building up inside her throat. It came so strongly that she could have choked on it if it was real. Thankfully, it wasn’t.
“He will come to you. This is when you will know each other.”
Then he does not know me, but he will. This did make sense, and it made her feel deep calm cross over her mind. She soaked in it the best way she knew how.
The Seer saw the completion in her eyes. She smiled, truly smiled, with what she saw. She knew that this Walker was different somehow, that was why she sent her down this path in the first place, but she didn’t know how much she was. Now seeing the look, she felt right again. She too now felt complete that she had chosen her well. Like Satar before her, she had done what she needed to do.
Sharlia saw her relaxed look. She calmed down even more.
“When will he come? How will I know him?”
The Seer laughed harder than she had in years. She couldn’t help it, so she let it come. It lasted for a good minute before she stopped, and was able to speak again. “You cannot miss him, lady Sharlia of the Southern continent. You would never miss him.”
Again, she heard the code. Again, she hated hearing it.
“Go now my lady. Go and find what you seek.” The Seer felt exhausted. This always happened to her when she used her powers like this. It had nothing to do with the pain she now felt.
Sharlia felt stunned, but she also knew that this was finished, so she turned. She went back to the door, and quietly, she left the room.
Only the wolf guarding the door was there.
“Where is Lord Devish?” She wanted to know. If he had heard any of this, she didn’t know what he would do about it. She feared him more than she would ever let him know.
The wolf bowed to her. “He has left. He will return shortly when he finds what he is looking for.”
She smiled with this. If he has left, I will have the time to go out and find what I am looking for too. She didn’t know how he would take it if she left, but in thinking about it, she didn’t really care. It was a part of their deal. He gave her the freedom to search out what she learned from the Seer. He is looking for something too, and knowing him, he would be consumed with it anyway to care about me. In the end, she would do what she had to do.
“Of course he has.” She gave the young wolf a final curt grin, turned and left the door.
She headed down the hallway and headed straight to the front door. She left his castle quickly. When she reached the gate, she stopped. It dawned on her that she had no idea where to go. You will know it when you see it. She replayed the Seer’s voice over in her mind. If she is correct, then I must just go. I must search. Maybe it is the journey that is all that matters.
She decided. She would just start it and see where she ended up. She had nothing to lose.
She left the gate and headed straight to the trees. She headed to the right. It felt like the best place to start.
17
Alana made breakfast for her family, and when they finished, Kalima headed out for the day. He still had some crops to sew, but he did promise her that it wouldn’t take long. She then set about her day too. Sima helped her. With the long summer nights upon them, she had to prepare the house for the heat. She opened all of the windows. She swept out the floor. She pushed new plaster into the floorboards and walls. The better, the cleaner the place was, the cooler and drier it would be.
She managed to finish the front wall when something caught her attention from just outside. She thought she heard a growl. Maybe it was a snarl, but either way, she did hear something. She then heard what sounded like a tapping sound along the wall. She didn’t know what it was, but the snarl gave it away to her. The sounds of several of them made her freeze where she stood.
It sounds like wolves. It sounds like several of them. Her heart raced. Her breathing grew short. She turned back to Sima who was standing behind her. Seeing the terrified look on her face, seeing the horror in her daughter’s eyes, she knew that she heard them too.
She rushed her and grabbed her into her arms. She held her close to her chest.
“Mommy?” She heard her sob.
Another set of snarls and growls came behind them at the back of the house.
She knew what it meant. There is a pack of them. She looked back to the front door, and to her utmost terror, she saw the open door. With all of her cleaning, with all of her plastering, she had left it open. How could she have done such a thing?
It is not your fault mother. Little Sima’s voice softly said to her inside her mind. It sounded like it always did. Her inside self was just as calm as it always was. Of
course, she heard her. She always has.
This didn’t help her as she stared at the door. She watched a single shadow as it flowed over the ground just outside.
With Sima, she stepped to the fireplace behind her, along the back wall, reached up to the top of it and grabbed the old metal sword from the mantle, and held it in her hands. Kalima gave it to her after they married. He told her to keep it close to her person at all times, because she would never know when a wolf would come for her, and she would need it to protect her life. How right he was. She knew what wolf he meant, but it turned out not to be him. Now needing it, she held it in her right hand as she kept Sima in her left. She then turned back to the door.
The shadow grew larger. It moved closer.
Sure enough, a deep brown colored wolf stepped to the door. She saw it clearly. She now felt her heart sink heavily in her chest. She readied her arms. She strengthened her hands. She gripped the sword’s handle as tight as she could.
The wolf stepped through the front door and came inside her home.
It came to her. It came to them.
18
He felt their hunger. He felt their rage. He felt the animals inside all of them.
“They are already here.” Kenar turned to Rochie with shock on his mind. Fear came in with it. He couldn’t believe how close they felt. He also couldn’t believe that they were able to get that close without him seeing them coming. It happened too fast. He should have seen them long before now.
“Where are they?” Rochie stood up.
They spent most of the morning down by a small creek within the trees. The horse loved it. The birds sang their songs. They rested by the water, and ate their meals. The shade felt so right, but when Kenar said what he said, the peace of the day vanished painfully fast.
Kenar turned back to the trees first. He turned to the eyes that he now saw flaring through the shadows. He saw a small cabin surrounded by trees. He saw the front door open. He saw a young woman with dark long hair holding a child in her arms. He saw her with what looked like a sword. He saw their fear, and with it, he now saw through the woman’s eyes.
A Werewolf's Saga, The Beginning (A Werewolf's Saga Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 36