Pledged

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Pledged Page 37

by Gwynneth White


  Crying and laughing, his mother took her baby boy from the midwife and pressed her lips against his bloody head.

  “Please let him remember me,” Sophia whispered.

  Caleb slung his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his embrace. “Like he said, Sophia, he’ll find you. You’re meant to be together.”

  On the mattress, in the blazing hut, the mortal Caleb buried his head in his hands. Jared and Sophia. Meant to be together. But Sophia is now my betrothed. My Norin temptress, sent to me to see if I can overcome my lust by refusing to marry her. Rejecting her is the only way I can lift Reuel’s Curse and fulfil Gideon’s Prophecy. The only way all of us will be free. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. Jared, if you’re dead, and can hear me, I make you an oath. I will never marry your girl.

  Then it occurred to Caleb that Shenaya still hadn’t answered his question about Seth and Erin. He looked up and saw her smiling at him. She had obviously been reading his thoughts again. Wordlessly, she pointed at the Seer-Stone.

  It took Caleb back to that misty space where Gideon and the remaining spirits still waited. Gideon was speaking. “Caleb, your birth will be next. Then Talitha and Sophia will have their turn.” He gestured to Seth and Erin, floating together, hands clasped. “Then you two will be born. But not until a little over a thousand Earth-years have passed.”

  The vision closed. Caleb looked up at Shenaya. “So Seth and Erin are still unborn spirits?”

  “You have a keen interest in them, Caleb.”

  “They’re my friends.”

  “Then would you care to see what the future holds for them?”

  Shenaya’s raddled face showed no expression, but Caleb sensed excitement in her voice. That worried him, alerting him to a possible trap. He hesitated, but a flicker of movement in the Stone caught his attention. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped. The mortal Seth was racing across a blinding white saltpan, billowing clouds of dust in his wake. But he was not running, not flying.

  “What is that monstrous cage Seth is trapped in? And how does it move so fast?”

  “Watch and see, Caleb.”

  But now the diamond faded into a fathomless opaque blur.

  “The image . . . it’s gone. How do I make it come back?”

  Shenaya smiled at him. “Simple, Caleb. But for that you do not need a Seer-Stone. You were born to be a visionary – a seer who can peer both into the future and into the past. Allow yourself to see.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  With a wave of her hand, Shenaya commanded, “Child, bring me two coals.”

  Abatha immediately obeyed, walking into the wall of flames. It parted for her, opening a path to the hearth where the embers of her fire still glowed. Using her shovel, she scooped out two coals and carried them carefully to Shenaya. The fire closed behind her, trapping the three of them once more. Shenaya stroked Abatha’s face with a liver-spotted hand before picking up the coals with her bare fingers.

  Caleb’s eyes tracked her suspiciously as she ambled towards him. “What are you planning on doing, old woman?”

  “Helping you to see.” Without warning she shoved the coals into Caleb’s eyes. He jerked away, but although initially shocked by her action, he felt no pain. Shenaya chuckled. “I suppose you would like to hear too.” Before he could protest, she brushed his ears with the coals.

  “You dead people–”

  “Are more agile and wily than the living,” Shenaya laughed. “Now, Caleb, contain your anger and tell me what you see.” Hands on her hips, she stood back, watching him with a look of deep satisfaction.

  Caleb’s amber eyes filmed over, and then refocused, clear and sharp, on a moving image both familiar and strange. “It’s Seth. He’s in that iron cage . . .”

  “They call them motorcars, Caleb. Machines made of steel that can cover huge distances at great speeds. Now tell me what he’s doing.”

  Caleb shook his head, coming back to the present. “Why? Can’t you see him?”

  “What I can or can’t see is of no concern to you. But Abatha and I are eager to hear what you can see. Aren’t we, child?”

  Abatha grinned up at Caleb.

  With a deep sigh of frustration Caleb allowed his mind to wander. In an instant he saw Seth with a man he knew instinctively was Seth’s brother, Kyle. They were sitting next to each other in the motorcar. Two girls and a black man he didn’t recognise were also in the truck. Without even knowing how he did it, Caleb frisked their minds for their identities. The girls, Mia and Izzy, were sisters. The black man was known only as Vukani. Then Caleb saw the diamond Seer-Stone. It was hanging around Kyle’s neck. He gasped with shock. Does that mean Reuel’s Curse is still in place a thousand years from now? And where is Erin? And why does Seth – our resident peacemaker – look so furious?

  He had to know more. So he closed his eyes and saw.

  ###

  ABOUT GWYNNETH WHITE

  I was one of the misfortunate many who left school with no clue of what do with my life. So I went to Stellenbosch University where I partied for four years while I read a degree in African Political Science and History. After varsity, I spent the first part of my working career writing advertising copy and training manuals for large corporate clients.

  Then I had a great blessing. I left ‘civilization’ for a year to work as a manager at a luxury lodge on a tiny island, accessible only by air or by boat, in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. As you will discover when you read the Soul Wars Saga, I have drawn heavily on that experience. I never used my varsity degree commercially until I needed to world-build for the Soul Wars Saga. Students of Africa will find echoes of the great West African civilizations in Shenaya. For those who doubt the presence of Semitic people in southern Africa, you will be interested to know that there is much evidence to suggest it was the Phoenicians who first circumnavigated the continent. They traded with the local San Bushmen, leaving Eastern beads and mysterious architecture in their wake.

  Once back in city life, I took my passion for remote places with faraway names and co-authored two non-fiction travel books – The Complete Guide to 4x4 Trails and The Ultimate 4x4 Guide. Both books became instant best-sellers in South Africa where I live.

  Then I had babies. Three of them. Beautiful, time-consuming, all-absorbing girls - now teenagers. You will recognise their names from Pledged: Stephanie, Erin, and Kate.

  Although I was a busy mother, my husband Andrew still managed to find a few hours in my day to squeeze in a bookkeeping job in his publishing and film-making business. I hated it. And I was the worst bookkeeper in history, but he refused to either accept my resignation or to fire me. Then inspiration came to my rescue. I started to share some of my imagined friends with him. Captured by their stories, Andrew finally agreed that I am a better story-teller than a bookkeeper. After ten years, he finally accepted my resignation on condition that I wrote a bestseller.

  With this challenge, my ‘friends’ and I settled down to commit each other to paper. And then my mother contracted cancer. Never before had I needed a mental escape as much as I did then. Her illness motivated me to create the world known as Shenaya.

  After my mother’s death her ‘voice and presence’ took up residence in my head. It inspired me to add a new layer to the book – guidance from beyond the grave. It confirmed my belief that we do not live in a vacuum; we are influenced by both the living and the dead. This tied in perfectly with my understanding that we also lived before our birth into mortality. Another major theme in the story. Thus Pledged was created.

  But once I had finished the third draft, I realised Pledged was not yet finished. Set in an ancient world, I knew it lacked a modern twist. Hence, the birth of Seth and Erin. After a final major rewrite I knew I had my story. Sharing it with you is my pleasure.

  Now that you know a little about me, I would love to get to know you. Please find me at;

  Email: [email protected]

  Twitter: @Gwy
nnethWhite

  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gwynneth-White/172095512890074

  Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7360328-gwynneth-white

  Blog: http://todayinshenaya.blogspot.com

  My publisher: http://www.swallowpress.com

  Finally, to all who helped . . .

  I would still be bookkeeping if it wasn’t for the help and support of some very special people. Thank you first to my three girls who patiently put up with me mentally slipping away to Shenaya at the most random times. And my soul mate Andrew, my greatest champion, who got used to me typing in bed at four in the morning when inspiration struck. Then Tony, my journalist father-in-law, who taught me how to “Put it up high and make it come alive.” His input was invaluable, especially with descriptive passages, which I always tend to gloss over. I’ve lost count of the number of times some of my buddies from my writing group “The Unbearable Writeness of Being” read the opening chapter to Pledged for me. Your patience deserves a medal. And finally, my editor Claire Strombeck who loves my characters almost as much as I do.

  ###

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: Vukani’s Place

  Chapter 2: The Pans

  Chapter 3: Dead or Alive?

  Chapter 4: The Mists of Time

  Chapter 5: The Wrong Promise

  Chapter 6: What’s Done is Done

  Chapter 7: Prophecy or Fable?

  Chapter 8: Reuel’s Curse, Gideon’s Prophecy

  Chapter 9: A Warring Heart

  Chapter 10: Pledged

  Chapter 11: To Do or Die

  Chapter 12: Enchanted

  Chapter 13: Blood Brothers

  Chapter 14: Knife-Edge

  Chapter 15: The Teacher

  Chapter 16: Lies, Damn Lies

  Chapter 17: Deal or No Deal?

  Chapter 18: Enslaved

  Chapter 19: Conspiracy

  Chapter 20: Confrontation

  Chapter 21: The All-Seeing Eyes

  Chapter 22: Sacrificed

  Chapter 23: Please Leave A Review

  Chapter 24: Preview of Sacrificed

  Chapter 25: Meet Gwynneth White

 

 

 


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