by Dora Machado
“I wouldn't believe you.” He tried to rip his aching knees from the floor but failed. He took a deep breath, succeeding only in scalding his lungs. He had to think clearly. He had to keep his wits straight.
“You'll know the signs,” the woman said.
“The signs for what?”
“It has all been told before. Her name will become the path upon which the faithful will travel. She will make life from death, think with her heart and feel with her mind. She will lie with the truth, cheat with devotion, lose to win and win to lose. Her life will be the goddess's last stand, but her death, now… her death will be the world's last blessing, bringing future to past.”
“You can't sway me with musty old tales,” Kael said. “The Wisdom is nothing to me.”
“The Wisdom is everything to you. You'll do what you must to make it happen.”
“To make what happen?”
“Her demise, of course.”
The words punched the breath out of his lungs. “No.”
“It's too late,” the woman said. “Her death is already in you.”
“No,” he said again, but a sight flashed before his eyes, an indisputable vision of Sariah dead in his arms. A sharp pain twisted his heart and squeezed his throat. Terror inched on his mind's fringes like an avenging army, cold and unforgiving. “I would never—”
The smile on the woman's face was just another omen for disaster. “Fate is not always arbitrary. Common sense. You can always rely on it to finish the job.”
“I can't—”
“You know her better than anyone. Who better suited to kill her than you?”
“I won't—”
“Oh, but you will. She must die. Like we did. Like I did.”
He knew it couldn't be. He wouldn't do it. Meliahs knew he would never be able to survive her death, let alone cause it. Yet he also realized that the present and the future had been woven together in a tangled knot to bring about disaster, true, unavoidable and done.
Kael's mind raced. Had the woman invested others with the same task? What could he do to prevent what he'd seen from happening? A sense of pragmatic logic prevailed. He and Sariah had defied worse odds before. Together, they had been able to overcome the most lethal of troubles. Together, they would be able to beat this newest challenge as well.
“I don't think so,” the woman said. “You won't be able to share this news with her.”
“What?”
“You can try, of course. You will. But you won't be able to. You'll see.”
Kael refused to believe the woman. She didn't understand the indestructible bond that he and Sariah shared. After all they had been through, nothing could keep them from each other, not even the stones and their damn tricks.
“Dare you think your bond is stronger than the might of the stones?” The woman snorted. “You're in for a hard, rough road.”
Kael considered his options. What if the woman's outrageous rantings turned out to be true? He could kill himself to avoid killing Sariah, but then he'd only be surrendering her to someone else's blade. He couldn't begin to fathom killing her, but if she died he would die of grief all the same. Or he could try to defy the stones, knowing himself lethal to the stonewiser he had pledged to protect, the enemy who against all odds had conquered his prejudices and claimed his heart, the woman he cherished.
By the rot. He had always lived life by his own leave. Was he ready to relinquish his will to the stones’ fickle creatures?
“Do you know why the stones grieve?” the woman said. “Not for a soul, I'll tell you that much. The stones don't grieve for the passing of a lowly woman or the madness of a smitten man. They don't mourn death, or lost love, or broken dreams, or loneliness or despair. Yet you will make them wail. For you, the stones will weep.”
“You will not command my will,” Kael swore, to her, to Sariah, to himself. “You can't.”
“Have you ever heard the stones cry?” The woman shook her head sadly. “It's a ghastly wail, a soul-killing sound, a hope-ending affair. All will be done when you hear the lament of the stones. She will be done as well.”
The cavern's ceiling retreated, revealing the somber gray sky and allowing the drizzle to dampen his face. It felt like defeat raining on his cheeks, like misery drenching his existence. The ground rumbled beneath his knees, gathering in an imminent explosion that would eject him out of the ruins, hurling him toward the fate he dreaded.
“I won't do it,” Kael spat between clenched teeth. “Do you hear me? I won't.”
“Farewell, my newest Wisdom maker,” the woman said. “May you die well.”
Acknowledgments
As always, my sincere thanks to:
My awesome family, for the huge amounts of love and the steady supply of support; my editor, Peter Gelfan, who is not afraid to cut through my writer's density with a shear of clarity and perspective; my friend and proofer, Linda Au, whose passion for writing is only matched by her passion for writing perfectly; the folks at Mermaid Press, for their hard work and commitment; Debbi Zimmerman, whose patience with both printer and writer is legendary; my doting husband, who insists he can cook just so that I can write; my patient son, who will eat what his father cooks with resigned humor; my audacious daughter who takes matters into her own hands with a much appreciated kitchen coup d'état; and especially to my brilliant readers, who share in my mind's adventures with such generosity and enthusiasm.
The Author
Dora Machado is the author of the fantasy novel Stonewiser: The Heart of the Stone. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Georgetown University, but thinks that motherhood is by far the more challenging and rewarding of her accomplishments. Although she was born in Michigan, she grew up in the Dominican Republic, where she developed a bilingual fascination for writing, a preference for history, a sobering perspective of the human condition that permeates all of her stories, and a taste for Merengue. As a teenager she had the honor of meeting Mother Teresa while volunteering with her charities in the barrios of Santo Domingo. After a lifetime of straddling such compelling but different worlds, fantasy is a natural fit to her stories. She lives in Florida with her indulging husband, her two extraordinary teens, her awesome exchange students, three very opinionated cats and a gold fish. She loves to hear from her readers and can be contacted at [email protected]