Oathtaker

by Patricia Reding

  Mara’s foot slipped.

  Basha turned her way. Her eyes opened wide as she sucked in a breath.

  “Shhhhhh!” Mara cautioned, her finger to her lips as she approached.

  Basha held her hand up.

  “I’m here to help,” Mara whispered. She feared the woman might shout out and reveal her presence. She had only seconds to win her over. “Basha—”

  “Who are you?”

  “My name is Mara. I’m Dixon’s friend.”

  “How did you—”

  A sound at the door interrupted them.

  “I’ll only be a minute, I swear,” came a young woman’s voice. The door cracked open. A sliver of light entered the room. “I have to warn her. Let me go!” There was a scuffle outside the door. “I said, ‘Let—me—go!’”

  “You two have seconds to get out of there. If Lilith is on the way, you dare not let her catch you,” a man responded.

  The door swung open.

  Mara jumped back.

  “Adele!” Basha cried. Then her eyes flashed toward Mara just as she—vanished.

  Mara transported. Once again on the banks of the creek, the sunlight stung her eyes and the sounds of the countryside invaded her senses. Startled, she sat upright.

  “Oh!” Nina exclaimed. “Where did you come from?”

  Mara looked up, squinting. “I’ve been here all along.”

  “You most certainly have not.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “What do you mean, ‘am I sure?’ Of course I’m sure. We’ve all been looking for you. I’d best tell the others you’re here.”

  “Oh, Nina, I did it! I traveled again.” The Oathtaker jumped to her feet.

  “That’s great!”

  “Yes, now tell me again. Were you right here before you saw me? Just now I mean?”

  “I’ve been standing here for several minutes. When I first came to find you and couldn’t, I informed the others you were missing. We split up to look for you. I came back here and I’ve been standing right in this spot, looking up and down the creek. I thought you might’ve walked downstream. Then suddenly, you appeared.”

  “Oh, you’ve just answered a question for me!” Mara, positively giddy, embraced the young woman.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “When I traveled before, I couldn’t be sure I wasn’t just traveling in my mind and I didn’t know if I was ‘here’ or ‘there.’ You see?”

  “I think so.”

  “Now I know that when I travel, I’m no longer ‘here.’”

  “Oh, yes I see.”

  “Thank the Good One, you saw me.”

  “Yes, but we’d best let the others know you’re safe. They’re concerned for you.”

  The two returned to where they’d lunched.

  Upon seeing Mara, Jules visibly relaxed.

  “I apologize, Jules, for worrying you. Please let Samuel know all is well.” She looked around. “Where is Therese?”

  “I’m right here.” Therese came out from behind some brush, holding Eden in one arm. Blood dripped from her free hand.

  “Therese, where’s all that blood from?” Mara rushed to her side. “Is Eden hurt? What happened? Are you all right?”

  “Oh, it’s nothing really, I just cut myself on a sharp rock over there.”

  “Let me see that,” Mara insisted. She took the woman’s hand.

  “It’s nothing.”

  “Nothing! This is very deep.” Suddenly and unexpectedly, a stream of magic left the Oathtaker and entered into Therese. Both women gasped at the power of it, and at the sight of Therese’s wound healing before their eyes. Moments later, only a light scar remained.

  “Oh my!” she exclaimed as she brought her hand to her face and wiggled her fingers.

  Mara stood with her mouth open. “Where did that come from? That healing power, I mean?”

  “Seems your attendant powers keep coming.”

  “That was amazing!” Nina exclaimed.

  “It sure was,” Therese agreed. “Listen, Mara, not to make light of this or anything, because I appreciate it, I do. But where were you? You frightened me nearly to death.”

  “Oh, I did it!”

  “You— Oh, you traveled again?”

  “Yes!” Mara smiled, but then her countenance turned grim. “Oh, but I have to go back.”

  “Well, tell us all about it.”

  The Oathtaker explained where she’d gone, and what she’d seen.

  “Dixon was hurt?’ Nina asked.

  “Terribly.”

  “And you saw Basha?” Therese asked.

  “Yes, but as I said, when I left it seemed she might be in danger. A young woman was entering the . . . I don’t know what it was. A cave? A prison? Anyway, she was explaining to . . . a guard I guess he must have been, that Lilith was coming. She meant to warn Basha. So Lilith must be the cause of Dixon’s current state.”

  “Do you know who the woman was?”

  “I think Basha called her by name. What was it again? Amelia? Alicia? No . . . Adele. Yes, that’s right, Adele.”

  “Yes, I know her. A lovely young woman. Rowena adored her. But why would she risk Lilith’s ire?”

  “I don’t know. But I have to go back. I have to do what I can to help Dixon.”

  “Mara, you know where your first responsibilities lie,” Therese cautioned.

  The Oathtaker nodded. “Yes, but there must be some reason I’m able to do this traveling. Maybe the Good One is trying to make it possible for me to . . . Wait . . . Wait a minute!”

  “What?”

  “Oh! How could I have missed it?”

  “Missed what?” Nina asked.

  “Oh, Nina! Therese! Don’t you see? Remember the night I traveled to Dixon and spoke with him? I returned with his flint.”

  “Yeeessss,” they said in unison.

  “So, don’t you see? If I can take something like a flint through my travels, maybe I can bring Dixon back to us.”

  “I don’t know,” Therese said. “You have to be very careful, Mara. If Lilith is responsible for the state he’s in, you don’t want to risk getting caught in her clutches.”

  “Yes, I’ve been thinking about that. I’m trying to put my finger on what it was that I did to travel there and back. I think I might have it.”

  “You think you can travel at will now?” Nina asked.

  “I think so. Earlier my traveling was . . . I don’t know. Almost an accident. But when I realized the danger there, I recreated the ability almost instantly.”

  “Do you think you could do it again?”

  “I think so.”

  Therese stepped away, then turned back. “Here’s the thing though, Mara. He may need your help, but the girls—”

  “I know, I know,” the Oathtaker interrupted. “I can’t risk harm to them. Then again, if he could be instrumental in seeing to their safety, I can’t risk failing to help him.”

  “So do you plan to return to his side now?”

  “No, not immediately. It’s likely Lilith is with him now. I don’t want to walk into that situation. But I’m going to try again soon.” Mara sighed. “I just hope she doesn’t further harm him in the meantime.”

  “Very well then.”

  “Therese, try to understand. I’m acting as I believe Ehyeh is leading me. I know the dangers. I’ll be careful.”

  “Well,” Nina asked, “are we ready to move out then?”

  “Yes, let’s go,” Mara said.

  The women went to their horses. Suddenly, Mara stopped cold. “Therese?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’ve been thinking.”

  “Yes?”

  “How did you come to know Samuel and Jules?”

  “Why do you ask?” The woman untied her mount, Cloud.

  “I just wonder. How is it you feel you—we—are safe with them as guards? I mean . . .”

  Therese refastened the latch of her saddlebag. “Samuel and Jules have been entirely faithf
ul to me. They don’t have an Oathtaker’s powers, but they’ve kept me safe for some time.”

  “But how do you know them? What do you know about them? Like you said yourself, I owe Reigna and Eden my first responsibility.”

  Therese made room for Nina to untie her mount. “Since you mention it, I think you should hear their story for yourself.” Just then, the men came into sight. “Samuel! Jules!” she called. “I need you to tell Mara your story.”

  “What do you want to know?” Jules asked.

  “In a nutshell, I want to know why Therese trusts you two so completely. How is it you’re not Oathtakers, yet you’ve taken on the responsibility of keeping her safe?”

  “That’s rather a long story,” he said as he and Samuel mounted up, then led the group out.

  “Why don’t you start at the beginning?” Mara asked, once again recollecting the night Dixon had told her his story. Her thoughts frequently turned to him.

  “You ride with the women,” Samuel said, “and I’ll go ahead.” Looking behind, he cautioned the others, “Just keep an eye on things. We’re kicking up quite a dust.”

  Jules turned back to Mara. “Samuel and I are cousins. We both came from families that had many Oathtakers over the years. We both would’ve become Oathtakers ourselves, but there were no Select remaining back home.”

  “Where’s home?” she asked.

  “Near the intersection of the Rivers Modan and Costan in Anka.”

  “There are no Select at all there?”

  “Very, very few.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Pretty much the same reason their numbers have decreased throughout Oosa.”

  “Assassinations?”

  “Exactly.”

  “So you chose not to become Oathtakers.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Well, but I come from the Barten Lake area of Usta. We also have very few Select, yet—”

  “Yet you chose to become an Oathtaker anyway.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Well, we decided we could be of service to the Select and to Ehyeh, even if we weren’t Oathtakers. So we set out to discover how to do that.”

  “And what did you find?”

  “In a word, we found Lucy.” He grinned.

  “And?” Mara urged him on.

  “Lucy is . . . Lucy is . . . unique.”

  Therese laughed.

  The Oathtaker glanced at the woman, curious at her response. It was as though she and Jules shared some great secret. “What do you mean?” She slowed her mount, as it was getting anxious amongst the pack.

  Jules searched for words. “Lucy is . . . Well, that is, she has a long history with the Select. She was Oathtaker to the last two female sevenths before Rowena.”

  “The last two? But that was ages ago!”

  He rose up in his saddle and looked behind. As he settled back into his seat, he smiled. “Yes, it was.”

  “How long ago are we talking?”

  He laughed. The sound was free and easy. “Well now, I guess that’s why Lucy is so unique.”

  “So? How long?”

  “A couple hundred years ago.”

  Mara’s mouth dropped open. “But that’s— That’s im— How is that even possible?”

  “Attendant magic,” Therese said.

  “What? Does she have nine lives, like a cat or something?” Nina asked.

  Jules glanced at the young woman. He seemed surprised to find that she had a ready wit.

  “Not exactly,” Therese answered, “but Lucy has cheated death on more than one occasion.”

  Mara’s brow furrowed. “She didn’t appear that old to me,” she mumbled.

  “Yes,” Therese said, “we should all look so good at that age.”

  They all laughed and then, as if in collective thought, scanned the landscape around them. They could just make out Samuel’s presence ahead through the dust and heat wavering in the air that created a surreal look to the landscape.

  Mara turned to Therese. “So, who was the first seventh who was Lucy’s charge?”

  “Selene, from a province near where Samuel and Jules grew up. Everyone was excited when she came of age. They hoped she might usher in the seventh seventh written about in prophecy.”

  “But?” Mara asked after a moment’s silence.

  “But Selene was never able to come to a full appreciation of who and what she was. In short, she didn’t believe.”

  Mara brushed hair from her face. “You mean she didn’t believe in the Select? She didn’t believe in their cause? She didn’t believe in Ehyeh? What?”

  Therese tilted her head to the right, then left. “I guess you could say she didn’t believe in herself.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Well, everyone has a special calling—and none more or greater than a seventh. But a seventh who doesn’t believe in herself, in her mission, is unable to bring others along in her pursuit. Does that make sense?”

  “I guess so.”

  “In any case, Selene was unable to come to grips with the fact that there was a special call on, and of service for, her life.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “Basically, she wasted her life away. She became a recluse. Of course Lucy continually urged her to an appreciation of her special place, but it never worked. Lucy was devastated. She spent years with her charge studying and preparing, and then one day, the young woman just . . . walked off.”

  “Never to be seen again?” Nina asked.

  “No,” Therese said, “she was seen again—just not alive.”

  “What happened?” Mara asked.

  “No one ever really knew,” Jules said. “Her body was found at the base of a cliff, days after she’d gone missing.”

  “She killed herself?” Nina shuddered. “How awful.”

  Therese wiped sweat from her brow. “Actually, no one knows. Was it an accident? Did she find her life useless? Was she frightened to face what was ahead? No one knew.”

  “Who was Lucy’s other charge?” Mara asked.

  “Some years later, on her way to the City of Light to report, Lucy felt the calling. Imagine her surprise to find she’d been called to serve another seventh-born daughter.”

  Nina glanced at Therese. “But I thought sevenths were so rare.”

  “Yes, that’s true. But there were more of them in those days.”

  “Who was this second seventh that Lucy served?” Mara asked.

  “Bridget,” Jules said. “A seventh born in the City of Light.”

  “What was her story?”

  He ran his fingers through his hair. “She was quite influential and of course, Lucy gained additional attendant powers when she accepted Bridget as her charge.”

  “More lives, no doubt,” Nina muttered.

  Jules eyed her again, chuckling.

  “Actually, Mara,” Therese interrupted, “you and Dixon also have some of the same attendant magic as Lucy.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, as you know, an Oathtaker doesn’t physically age for so long as his charge lives. Right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, there’s one little difference for the Oathtaker of a seventh.”

  “What’s that?”

  Therese smiled. “Once you accept a seventh as your charge, you will never physically age again.”

  The Oathtaker’s eyes widened. “Never?”

  “Never ever.”

  Mara had not heard that before. So much had been lost over the years. Oh, I have so much to learn! She turned her attention back to Jules’s story. “And Bridget? What of her?”

  “Assassinated,” he said.

  “How dreadful.” That word kept coming up. It dampened her spirits. Mara looked at Reigna slumbering in her arms and breathed in the infant’s beautiful scent. “Assassinations must have been rather rare then.”

  “Yes,” Therese responded, “they were.”

  “And Lucy has had no c
harge since then?” Nina asked.

  “None,” Jules said. “Well, that is, she’s not been bound to any individual member of the Select.”

  Mara stared at him. “I don’t understand.”

  “Well,” Therese said, “since Bridget’s death, and given the danger to the Select as a whole, Lucy’s mission has been to protect all of the Select. She has hoped to live to usher in the prophesied seventh daughter of a seventh daughter who might bring restoration and revival to the Select and to Oosa.”

  “A self proclaimed mission?”

  Therese tipped her head right to left, left to right. “Hmmm, not exactly.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “As Lucy tells it,” Jules said, “Ehyeh informed her of her mission.”

  “How?” Nina asked. “Did he just sit down and talk with her or something?”

  Therese smirked. “Well now, that would be a question that you’d have to ask Lucy.”

  “Why is that?” Mara asked.

  Once again, Jules glanced quickly behind. “She just says that when the right Select and the right Oathtaker come along, she’ll be able to share all that she knows and how she came to learn it.”

  “And in the meantime?” Nina asked.

  “In the meantime she works with anyone who wants to assist with the Select so that they can continue to pass Ehyeh’s ways down through the ages.”

  “And that’s where you come in,” Mara said.

  “Exactly.”

  “So, your story then is—what?”

  “It’s simple, really. Samuel and I met Lucy in the City of Light. We agreed to work with her and to follow her for the benefit of Ehyeh, the Select, and Oosa. We swore to do so.”

  “You mean you swore to all of the Select, as opposed to a particular member?”

  “In a manner of speaking.”

  Mara pulled back on Cheryl’s reins, leaving the rest of the group moving forward. A moment later, they halted. Their eyes darted about for any sign of an ambush.

  Jules was the first to turn his horse around. He kicked dust up as he returned to Mara’s side. In a flash, he covered her with his body. “What is it? What happened? What did you see?”

  “Nothing. Nothing!” Her leg was cramped between their horses. She broke Jules’s hold. “Nothing’s wrong!” By this time, Therese and Nina hovered nearby.

  “Is everything all right?” Therese asked.