“That’s exactly how it works. Except not all boys go to the military.” He hesitated. “Some don’t.”
Talitha was thoughtful for a moment. “So does that mean that you haven’t seen any other girls . . . before me?”
Caleb smiled, looking embarrassed. “I am seventeen, which means I’ve been to an Emblem Picking. There are also married women at the Fortress. But they’re all usually pregnant. And they dress in heavy leather dresses. Not much to see.”
“Oh.” Talitha’s face clearly showed fear that Caleb was with her for all the wrong reasons.
He took her in his arms and whispered, “I love you, Talitha. For who you are, not what you look like. And not just because you’re the only single girl I’ve ever spent time with.”
Talitha’s anxiety fled in the face of a brilliant smile. “So back to Shenayan marriages.”
Caleb quickly interrupted. “Talitha, choosing to marrying me will be impossible.”
“Don’t say impossible!” Talitha cried, sitting up quickly. “Difficult, maybe. But not impossible.”
“Talitha–”
“No, Caleb! You’re the heir to the throne. Surely your father would be willing to compromise on the rules if he knew how much we love each other? After all, he’s the one who makes the rules.”
“You don’t understand. It’s precisely because we love each other that he will forbid it.”
Talitha threw herself into his arms and kissed him furiously. When Caleb recoiled slightly, Seth listened into his thoughts. There was no doubt in Caleb’s mind that he could never marry Talitha, regardless of his love for her. That was just a hard, cold fact of Shenayan life. And nothing would ever change it. But the last thing he wanted was to hurt her, so he pulled away. Refusing to be deterred, Talitha buried herself deeper into him, kissing him with even more determination. The sweet taste of her tongue against his, the smell of her hair, her fingers exploring his body under his shirt, overwhelmed him. Cursing himself for his weakness, he kissed her back, hungrily, passionately.
Seth groaned. It was definitely time to leave. And he guessed that seeing another shattered relationship – especially Talitha’s – would only sadden Erin. He turned to Kate. “Untamed Africa is waiting for us. I want to see it. Can we go?”
“Who wouldn’t want to go and have fun exploring?” For a moment Seth thought he detected a note of envy in Kate’s voice, but she smiled at Talitha and waved them away. “Go. The Seer-Stone won’t let you get lost.”
Seth grabbed Erin’s hand and pulled her out of the hut with him.
Erin was burning to talk about Talitha and Caleb, and the strange Shenayan marriage ritual, but Seth forestalled her. “Where to? And if the Stone doesn’t like your choice, we can always turn it into grinding paste.”
Erin laughed, unable to resist his crooked smile. “Let’s go and find Daniel. I’d like to see that bird of his.”
“More birds! Surely there’s something else in Africa other than birds and hyenas. What about elephants or lions?”
“Oh, yes. The crows. I forgot.” Her face fell and she slumped back against the hut.
Seth didn’t need his spirit to tell him that she was cute when she pouted. “Okay. You win. Birds it is.”
He had hardly finished speaking when the Seer-Stone shot them into the air, pulling them towards Daniel’s thoughts. Screaming with a combination of exhilaration and fear, they flew across the bush towards the grassy escarpment Nathan had called Mount Sidon. All too quickly the flight ended and the Stone dropped them lightly onto the ground. They stumbled to their feet, laughing.
Erin held up her hand for a high-five. “That was the best! Ever!”
Seth smacked her palm. “Even beats walking through walls. Definitely worth coming to Africa for.”
Erin closed her fingers around his, pulled herself into him, and looked at him with bold eyes. “And you want to give this incredible diamond to Kyle, so he can sell it to blood diamond hunters?”
“Don’t ruin it, Erin.” Seth pulled his hand away and turned to find Daniel.
He was standing a few feet away, crooning to his hawk. His head jerked up and they saw him frown. For one fear-filled moment they thought he’d sensed their presence. But he was looking past them. Turning, they saw a small clay-brick building perched like an eyrie on the edge of the escarpment.
“It’s like some kind of look-out,” Seth said. From here they could see across the lake, as broad as an ocean to the north of them, and to the south, the bushveld savannah stretching to the horizon.
They followed Daniel towards a contingent of soldiers.
“They’re kids! None of them can be older than thirteen,” Seth exclaimed. “So Talitha was right about the boys going into the military.”
“I’ve read about child-armies. The Ottoman Empire used a similar system. They’d take children, put them into the military to brainwash them, then they’d send them out to slaughter their own families.”
Seth said nothing as he studied the soldiers. Although they were young, there was nothing childish about their hard, disciplined faces or their sinister uniforms. They were dressed in black, right from their metal-studded helmets to their boots; only a red Lightning Bird emblazoned on their breastplates broke the sameness. Each boy carried a bow and quiver slung over one shoulder, and a double-headed hand-axe strapped to his hip. One of them looked in their direction.
Erin huddled closer to Seth. “I hope Nathan was right about our invisibility.”
Seth laughed nervously. “It feels like the kind of dream when you’re standing naked in a crowd, praying that no one can see you.”
Erin giggled. “You and your dreams. It must be a riot in your head while you’re sleeping.”
It was Daniel who had attracted the soldier’s attention. He shouted out an order, and the other boys snapped to attention and saluted Daniel. He nodded and turned his back on them. “There, my Light-Being,” he whispered to his hawk, pulling the hood off its head. “Time for you to go and scare the birds. Eat their eggs.”
Seth shook his head. “Sounds like a pretty useless hunting bird to me. Aren’t they supposed to bring back food for the pot?”
“Maybe Daniel’s not much of a hunter. I wonder if that hawk’s his emblem?”
Daniel brushed his lips across his hawk’s back. The bird lifted her tail, leaning into his touch. He opened his hand, and she took off, turned on a wing tip and plummeted away into the bush far below. Daniel sat down in the shade of a thorn tree where he had an interrupted view of the guardsmen and the hut.
“Let’s explore the rest of the hill.” Seth stepped onto a well-trodden track winding eastward along the length of the escarpment. He stopped and whistled, pointing to a building about half a mile away. “Oh man, I can’t believe we didn’t see it.”
Erin grabbed his arm. “The Lost City Fortress!”
It was nothing like the medieval castle Erin had expected to see. From what she could make out, it had started life as nothing more than a crude defensive structure, built from slate-like stones. Successive leaders had obviously added to it, throwing out a wing here, a buttress there, with little thought to design. It was now a formidable fortification, the size of a large cathedral, but without a cathedral’s beauty. Huge red and black Lightning Bird flags flew on its turrets. On its northern side it was guarded by steep cliffs which dropped to the lake far below. High stone walls, almost identical to what Farini had described, protected the remaining three sides. It looked impenetrable.
Seth broke into a run, heading for a wooden gate in the closest wall. Erin followed, but she was gasping when she finally caught up with him. “Please, no more running. We do the rest at a civilized walk.”
“C’mon, I’ve dreamt about this place for months now, and to finally be here in the flesh is just amazing.” Seth grabbed her arm and steered her past the sentries guarding the gate. They entered a grassy quadrangle about the size of a football field.
“Farini’s altar,” Erin sa
id, pointing to a stone tabletop balanced on four fluted rock pedestals. The altar stood in the middle of paving stones laid out in a Maltese cross. “That’s what he reported seeing.”
“I wonder what they sacrificed on it?”
“Something about the atmosphere tells me that you don’t really want to know.”
Seth pointed to gargantuan wood and steel doors leading into the Fortress itself. “You wanna go and explore?”
“I’m a bit nervous actually. I know it’s silly, but the place gives me the creeps.”
Seth shelved his regret. “Let’s see what’s on the other side of the courtyard, through that other gate.”
They walked across the quadrangle, stopping to watch troops practising archery. At a shouted command from a young officer, the boys raised their bows and took aim at a row of targets.
Suddenly feeling invincible, Seth said, “C’mon, I have to do this.” He ran out in front of the archers, hands held high. “Yes, I feel lucky, punks!” he shouted. “Go for it!” And, as if obeying him, the boys shot off their arrows. Seth could hear a metallic-sounding twang as the arrows ripped harmlessly through him. “Missed me! You guys need more practice.”
Erin laughed until she saw the boys march forward to retrieve their arrows. Seth also turned to watch. There were five targets. One was a half-naked man, one was a woman, and the remaining three were small children. A family of living targets, secured to execution posts. Their heads had fallen forward on their bloodstained chests.
“I didn’t see them,” Seth cried out, quivering with shock. “I was just kidding around, when all the time those poor people . . .”
“It’s all right Seth,” Erin said, stifling a sob of rage and horror. “I didn’t see them, either. Let’s just get out of here.” She grabbed his hand and started running towards the far eastern gate.
It opened onto another pathway, which threaded down the hill to a golden savannah, dotted with umbrella-thorn trees. In the distance they saw the tawny smudge of a herd of antelope. At the bottom of the hill the path widened into a rutted road leading into a small town teaming with people. It had only one point of entry: a guarded wooden gate set in a high stone wall that ran around the perimeter. Even higher lookout posts, manned with soldiers, were interspersed along its length. But these were not the town’s only defences. Both sides of the wall had been piled high with dried thorn bushes.
“The ancient equivalent of razor-wire,” Erin said. “Although you can’t see it properly from here, I bet those thorns are each about two inches long. And as sharp as needles.”
“Ouch,” Seth said.
“And some. They’re still used today in parts of Botswana to protect the cattle posts from lions and hyenas. They’re virtually impenetrable.”
“So who do you reckon the Shenayans are trying to keep in – and out – of their town?”
Erin frowned, shrugging her shoulders. Seth smiled, guessing that it really annoyed her not to have a ready answer. He looked away from the forbidding town, over the surrounding countryside. A shiver trilled up his spine as the scene before him clicked into place, merging with the dream-image in his mind. “Erin, that’s where Reuel’s army camped in the final battle against the Free Men. Gideon chose this escarpment, the high ground, to give his soldiers a fighting chance. That was before Reuel built the Fortress.” He paused, feeling the dark energy of the battlefield. “Gideon and his men held out for a day or so, but it was hopeless from the start.”
“At least they were prepared to take a stand, Seth – to fight for something worthwhile.”
“I guess it’s all in the definition of worthwhile.”
“Fighting to protect the Stone, and for the right to be with the people we love, is worthwhile.” Erin fixed her green eyes on him, making Seth squirm.
They stood in silence until Erin spoke. “It’s incredible to think that we could be standing on the exact spot where Izzy and Kyle have their camp.”
“And he doesn’t even know we’re here, or that we’ve found the diamond. Knowing that would give him such a rev.”
His words sent a chill through Erin. She wasn’t sorry when the diamond intervened, and suddenly they were flying back to the hut.
* * *
Caleb and Talitha were cuddling under a blanket on the straw mattress. Her head was resting on his bare chest and he was cradling her in his arm.
“You don’t mean they’ve been having . . .” Erin’s mouth refused to form the word sex.
Seth’s eyes widened. He’d never considered himself a prude, but seeing Caleb and Talitha lying together surrounded by discarded clothing somehow shocked him, especially after Caleb’s determination not to hurt her. And having Erin here, seeing this too, didn’t help either.
“You’re not the only ones who disapprove.” Kate was sitting on the floor with her forehead pressed on her knees. The sparkle in her hair had dulled, as if it too was disappointed with Talitha.
Before they could reply, Talitha giggled. “Now Caleb, you’ll have to speak to your father about us marrying.”
Caleb let out a long, low sigh. Talitha propped herself up on one elbow and looked down at him. “You are going to, aren’t you?”
Kate flitted to her feet and spoke into Talitha’s mind. “Please listen to me, I beg of you. You have got to get Caleb to swear an oath to you. It’s the only way to guarantee that he’ll speak to his father. Trust me, everything – I repeat, everything – depends on it.”
Speaking to Seth and Erin, she added, “Here, in our time, an oath is binding, and if a person breaks their word they can be put to death. And Caleb would never agree to an oath he won’t keep.”
Seth shot a look of surprise at Kate and then studied Caleb’s face. But it was his spirit who recognised the truth of her words. Caleb shared Seth’s brand of honour. You never break your promise.
Erin sensed that Kate was talking about more than just Talitha’s and Caleb’s happiness. She folded her arms, digging her fingernails into her own flesh, waiting for Talitha to speak.
“Caleb, I know you said your father would never agree, but what father would deny his own son something as important as this?”
“Talitha, I know my father and I know Shenaya.”
“Please, Talitha,” Kate whispered again. “You’ve just given him your virginity. Demand that he makes you a promise.”
Talitha shook her head to dislodge the insistent voice. “Caleb, tonight. Just ask him tonight.”
Erin closed her eyes and sighed. “It’s all coming back to me now . . . just how stubborn Talitha can be. And naïve.” She looked at Kate. “Can’t you make her?”
“Make her? No, Erin. Guardians don’t make people do anything. Human choice is just too precious for that.”
They watched as Caleb picked up his knife and cut off a lock of Talitha’s hair. He kissed it and wrapped it gently in a cloth.
* * *
Erin and Seth flew straight through a wall into the flickering gloom of a torch-lit passageway crowded with people.
“Where are we now?” Erin asked, laughing.
Seth gave a customary shrug.
Talitha and Kate were walking ahead of them. Well, Talitha was walking, but Kate was bouncing up and down like a ball between the ceiling and the floor. Her matchstick hair burned bright and happy.
Erin giggled. “I just love that angel.”
“Yeah. The hair’s quite something. Anyway, what now? The Stone doesn’t seem to be pulling us anywhere.”
“Then let’s follow Talitha and her crazy angel.”
They caught up with them as they reached a sweeping staircase. Talitha hurried down and joined Caleb and his Gefallen who were waiting at the bottom. The Gefallen shoved Kate away from Talitha, but she swatted him with a gleaming hand, and he fell back, hissing.
Talitha smiled at Caleb. He smiled back, leading her into a huge hall where rows of men and women stood before low wooden tables set for a feast. Surrounding them were a regiment of black and cr
imson-cloaked Gefallen.
“I know where we are now,” Seth said, looking around. “I saw this in my vision. It’s the Lord’s Hall in the Fortress.”
Erin couldn’t help noticing that Seth had begun trembling again with cold. She was about to comment, when Seth pointed to a colossal Lightning Bird carved from wood. It glowered over the gathering through blood-red garnet eyes. “Nasty.”
Erin nodded. Together they watched Caleb’s Gefallen bow to it, and then swoop off to follow Caleb and Talitha to their cushions at a table at the head of the room.
Erin roved her eyes around the people, focusing especially on the women hidden in floor-length dresses made from leather, decorated with gold and silver threads, gem stones and ostrich feathers. “Caleb was right about the clothes. They’re so elaborate that you can’t really see the woman wearing them.”
“Look.” Seth nudged Erin, pointing to their reflections – dishevelled, dressed in jeans and t-shirts – captured in one of the many huge sheets of burnished copper, set in dark frames on every wall.
“We’re horribly under-dressed,” Erin joked.
“Forget the clothes and check out all those soldiers. By looking in those mirrors they can see everything and everyone in this room – except us and the dead. And look at the lighting.”
Thousands of candles, multiplied into millions of flames by the mirrors, could not lift the oppressive darkness in the hall. Erin huddled closer to Seth. He felt a strong urge to hold her, but didn’t. It had been bad enough watching Caleb mess with Talitha, without following his example. And how can I convince her that I don’t want her, if I’m all over her?
Erin sighed, missing the ‘real’ Seth, lost somewhere in the body of the aloof boy standing tantalisingly close to her.
“I wonder if the guy Nathan warned us about is here.” Seth’s eyes darted from face to face, looking for some sign that would alert him to this unknown enemy. But all he saw were the arrogant faces of the Shenayan rich and powerful.
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