by Megg Jensen
Chapter Twelve
The party atmosphere dissipated when the guards left. Mark tugged my hand and we blended in with the other villagers heading for the door. Their reactions ranged from anger at Kandek’s blackmail to worry for their families. They whispered about how unfair it was that they were being held accountable for the actions a girl they didn’t even know. It broke my heart to be among them so visible, yet hidden, knowing that I was the cause of their concerns.
Once we were away from the crowd and headed back to Johna’s cottage, Mark put his arm around my shoulder.
“Don’t let it get to you,” he whispered in my ear.
I glanced around, most of the people were having their own conversations and were oblivious to the two of us.
“How can I not be upset? This is my fault.”
“It’s Kandek’s fault.”
We walked in silence, arriving at the cottage moments later. I walked in the door and made eye contact with Johna, who was still hard at work grinding herbs.
“What’s the matter child?” She wiped her hands on her apron and scurried over to me. I flung my cloak on a nearby hook and sank to the bench.
“Kandek’s going to kill petty criminals if Reychel isn’t turned in within the week. He’s getting married and used his wedding as a deadline,” Mark said, placing a hand on my shoulder.
“Oh no,” Johna cried. “What is it about you that he needs so? You must figure out what makes you so valuable. Think, child, think. What happened during your time with him?”
“Nothing,” I said, balling up my hands. “I’ve thought about it over and over but I still have no idea.”
“Ivy said you had private audiences with him. What happened during those meetings?” Mark asked.
“He would ask me to tell stories; that’s all. There was nothing special other than those were the only times I was allowed to look out the windows. He kept me confined otherwise,” I said.
“Why weren’t you allowed outside except in his presence?” Johna asked.
“I don’t know,” I insisted, pushing my hands on the wooden table as if a secret panel would appear and give me answers. I received nothing more than a painful sliver in my palm. “I never understood it.”
Johna sank to the bench across from me, resting her hands on the table to steady herself. She stared at the table taking steady breaths. A sharp gasp from her mouth startled me to attention. Johna lifted her eyes to mine, gazing intently.
“Great Eloh. Could it be true? I never put it all together,” she muttered. “It’s beginning to make sense now.”
She stared into my eyes. “May I read you, child?”
“Read me?” I asked. “Use your gift to hear what I’m thinking?”
“It’s more complicated than that and only partially related to my gift. I’m going to merge my thoughts with yours. It will allow me to search your memory for anything you may have forgotten but still remains.”
“Is this something any gifted person can do?” I was still amazed at the range of abilities.
“Not all, but some. I am not the most powerful, but I have been known to find nuggets of truth otherwise hidden from the person who bears them.”
“Of course,” I said. “I trust you.”
I sat next to Johna on the bench staring deeply into my mentor’s eyes. If Johna could find anything in there that I didn’t know, then I was more than welcome to let her sort through my mind.
Johna gripped my hands and stared into my eyes. A few moments passed before she slowly pulled away, staring at me in horror.
“I never suspected,” she said. “I should have, everything considered, but I didn’t. Oh Eloh, how could I have missed this?”
“What?” Mark and I asked in unison. Anxiety rose from my stomach to my chest.
“You are the Prophet. The one we have been waiting for,” she said, shaking.
I laughed, pulling my hands away from hers. “That’s absurd. I don’t even have any gifts.”
Johna stumbled away from the table and grabbed a book from a nearby shelf. She leafed through the pages as I tried to steady myself. Of all the ridiculous things I’d ever heard. To be told I was the Prophet. It was ridiculous. Insane. Unbelievable. Me?
“Remember the story I told you and Ivy? About the man who made the prophecy? He had rare gifts that no one has shown until now. Until you. He too could read the clouds.” She closed the book, leaving a finger to hold her place. Her eyes found mine. “That is what you do, isn’t it?”
“I,” I stuttered, “I like to tell stories, that’s all. I don’t interpret shapes like little children.”
“No, you most certainly do not,” Johna said. “It makes sense. He wouldn’t let you outside. He only allowed you to see out the windows in his presence when he asked you to tell him stories. You were prophesying.”
“I was not. I just let myself get carried away in my stories,” I insisted.
“What did you tell stories about?” Mark asked, his eyes wide.
“I don’t know. Kings and queens, nobles, pretty much anything that popped into my head.”
“What do you know about royalty?” he asked. “Did you ever experience any of it outside your master’s castle?”
“No,” I said. “I made it all up. It’s called imagination. If I’m a prophet, why hasn’t anything happened while I’ve been here?”
“You’ve been shut up in the house,” Johna said. “Kept away once again from the outdoors.”
“I can look through a knothole in the shutters.”
“A person can’t talk well if someone has their hand around her throat,” Johna said.
“What?” I giggled. This was becoming more ridiculous by the minute.
“You’re only seeing but a tiny slice of the sky. It’s not enough. Let’s go to the back room,” she said, grabbing my hand.
Mark and I followed an excited Johna across the cottage.
Johna pushed open the door, strode across the room, and threw open the shutters. The dappled sunlight streamed in as the clouds floated over the moonlit night sky.
“What do you see, Reychel?” Johna asked.
“The sky. Clouds. Moonlight.”
I gasped as the clouds caught my attention. I slipped to the bed, my mouth wide open. Visions passed through my mind of people I’d never seen before going about their daily lives. A quick flash gave way to a woman arguing with a merchant over a basket of wormy apples. A third vision showed a blonde woman from the back raising her hands towards a man cowering in a corner, his face hidden by her arm. I closed my eyes and the visions disappeared.
“In my mind,” I whispered. “I can see people, but if I look away from the clouds it slips away.”
“You are the next Cloud Reader,” Johna said, a smile growing on her face. “You are the one we’ve been waiting for. Our Prophet.”
She reached down into her dress, pulling out the chain she wore around her neck. I’d noticed the chain before but never seen what hung from it. As she drew it out my eyes widened in recognition. The coin. The same as the one left for Ivy and the one left in my place.
“By your expression, I see you’ve seen this before,” Johna said, laying the coin in her palm. I nodded, reaching into my pocket and withdrawing the coin left for Ivy. Every day since leaving the castle I looked at the coin to see if the baby responded to me. I hadn’t told anyone, Ivy included, what happened that first morning. Babies on coins don’t wink or wave but part of me wondered if what I had seen was true.
I held Ivy’s coin in my hand, with the baby side up just like Johna.
“That’s you,” she simply said, nodding at the coin.
“The baby is me? Is that why it blew me a kiss?” I had to ask.
“It moved for you?” Johna said. “I’d heard that it would move for the Prophet, but I never believed it. Thought that part of the mythology of the Prophet was just that – a myth. But yes, that’s a representation of you, not an actual portrait. This coin has been our sec
ret symbol for seven generations.”
I glanced back at the coin. Johna laughed as the baby gurgled and reached out its arms. I smiled at the baby, I mean at me, at the coin. One more wondrous thing. I looked at Mark who stared at the coin with his mouth open.
“Can’t believe that’s true. I’ll have to show it to Nemison,” Johna said. “With your permission, of course Reychel.”
“Who?” Mark asked.
“Just a gifted friend,” she said. Johna flipped the coin over to the other side and I followed suit.
“Anathema?” Mark said, reading over my shoulder. “Doesn’t that mean to curse something?”
“That is does, my boy,” Johna said. “At least it does today. A long time ago, before the Malborn invaded, anathema had another meaning.”
I released my breath, afraid for a moment that Johna would tell me I was cursed because of my gift.
“It means an offering to Eloh. Reychel here is our offering, our savior, the Prophet.”
Chapter Thirteen
“The story that landed me in the dungeon,” I whispered. “It was true.”
I looked up at Johna and Mark.
“When was this?” Johna asked.
“My birthday,” I said. “The master invited me to his chambers to talk. It was rather pleasant, really, like the other times. He even offered me a balm to help the pain from the branding. But then he opened the shutters, my eyes were drawn to the clouds, and a story poured out of me. One that told of my escape. It was at that moment he had the guards put me in the dungeon.”
“He knows,” Mark said. “That bastard knew all along what you were and he’d been keeping you hostage.”
“And using your gift for his own gain,” Johna said. “Why bother with spies when a slave can tell you everything you need to know? No wonder his sigil is the fox.”
“That’s why he’s been searching for her. He doesn’t just want her back, he needs her back.” Mark punched his fist into his open palm. “If her skill were to fall into someone else’s hands, he could be ruined, either by his secret leaking out or by someone else getting his advantage.”
“Everything makes more sense now, doesn’t it?” I asked, stunned at how neatly the pieces fit together. Only one spot remained blank. “Do you think this is the secret Ivy was keeping?”
“Did she ever ask you to read the clouds?” Mark asked.
I shook my head. I didn’t even have to take time to think about it. Kandek was the only one I ever told stories to, at least stories that came from gazing into the sky. I’d told Ivy plenty of stories over the years, but none were a direct result of seeing the clouds.
“Then it’s doubtful,” Johna said. “Ivy didn’t seem to know what your power was any more than you did.”
“I agree with Johna,” Mark said. “That’s not what Ivy was hiding. There’s something else. But whatever that is, it’s not important right now. She’s gone and so is her secret. What’s important is figuring out what to do with this proclamation Kandek has issued.”
“I’ll turn myself in,” I said. “It’s really that simple.”
“No!” Johna exclaimed. “We can’t let you fall into his hands again. You have a greater destiny than to serve him. You were born to save the Serenians.”
“Let’s take this one step at a time, Johna. I consider poor people who stepped on the wrong side of the law to support their families as part of the people I’m supposedly going to save. If this is all true, then I have to try to protect everyone I can, starting with these prisoners. I saw those people tonight in the tavern. I know more than ever how much family can mean to a person. I have to help them.”
I felt as though I should say something more. The weight placed upon me tonight far outweighed anything I’d ever considered for my life. How could they be certain? How could I?
“I can’t do this alone,” I said.
“You’re not alone,” Johna said.
Mark sat down next to me, and put his arm around me. I rested my head on his shoulder. I’d spent so long avoiding him and now I couldn’t imagine not having him by my side, not being able to touch him.
“We won’t let you do this alone,” he said while squeezing my shoulder.
“How do I know where to start?” I asked. Doubt rose in me. I didn’t know anything about the world. I couldn’t do it alone, if I could even do it at all. “How am I, a former slave, supposed to free our people? It’s laughable.”
I looked to both of my friends for answers, but no one said anything. Mark took a deep breath, opened his mouth, and then closed it.
“What’s going through your head?” Johna asked. “You’re always so unreadable.”
“I’m gifted too,” Mark said. I slowly raised my head off his shoulder and turned to look at him. He was opening up to Johna. He’d known her for years and not once told her about his gift. Today certainly was a day for surprises.
“I take it this isn’t a surprise to you?” Johna asked me.
“I thought you wouldn’t read another gifted person’s mind without their permission,” I said. I hadn’t felt anything in my mind, but I wasn’t sure I would even know if she did.
“I don’t have to. You didn’t even flinch. I can read body language just like any other person, child. Someone doesn’t make a statement like that without shocking people.” She turned to Mark. “What’s your gift then?”
“I can build impenetrable walls in my mind. I can also sense them in other people,” he said, shrugging.
“Useful,” Johna answered. “I presume that’s how you knew about Ivy?”
Mark nodded his head.
“But you can’t see what’s behind the walls?” she asked.
“No.”
“Too bad. Then you’d be even more useful,” she said.
“Yet you don’t seem surprised,” he said.
“I knew there was something special about you. That’s why I let you in on my secret. I may not have been able to read your mind and see your little secret, but I knew you understood.”
I slipped away during their conversation. I knew about Mark and what he could do. I wanted them to work out their relationship without me. Making my way back to the window, I gazed out at the clouds again.
I saw the fat man who had been at my branding ceremony. He was drinking a cup of wine with his wife, who sat nearby looking at him out of the corner of her eye. I could see her plotting a way to kill him in his sleep and still maintain her graceful position. I could also see a bird’s nest in her hair.
Another cloud showed me scores of people banding together in a town square. They shouted to each other. One woman waved a knife in the air and a man next to her whispered in his friend’s ear. They were arguing about how best to proceed in finding someone.
“If we catch her, all our problems will be solved,” the woman yelled, stabbing the air with her knife while the man next to her ducked to avoid losing an ear.
“If we go along with this, we’ll be just as bad as him. There must be another way,” he said.
“I want my son back!” she wailed. “He was only trying to feed his little sister. What’s the life and safety of one woman compared to the freeing of our family members?”
I shrank back from the window. They were talking about me.
“Did someone see you?” Johna asked, running over to close the shutters. “You must be careful, child. What if someone should see you?”
“I need to go back,” I said. “I have to turn myself in to save those poor prisoners.”
“I already said no,” Johna insisted.
“Before we get sidetracked again,” Mark said, “let me offer an alternative. I’m also a member of the Sons of Silence.”
He paused, looking at us both. I have to say I wasn’t surprised he told Johna. Nothing could shock me today. I wondered, not for the first time, how many of the rumors about the Sons were true. Did they kill innocent Serenians to get to the Malborn? I couldn’t imagine Mark doing that.
�
��Tch,” Johna said. “You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself in to. They are dangerous people.”
“No more dangerous than the Malborn,” he retorted. “At least we’re doing something to take back our land. What about all of the hidden gifted? What are they doing? Nothing. I want to help Reychel and I know we could work well together.”
Johna smiled at me with the same look in her eyes when she suggested I was in love with Mark all those weeks ago. Now wasn’t the time to sort out complicated feelings. I turned away from her and looked to Mark.
“Do you think they would help?” I asked. “Peacefully?”
“I do. There is a man living in our town who might be able to help us. If you’re determined to turn yourself in, maybe we can rescue the petty criminals at the same time. Create a diversion.”
“Rescue? Why on earth would you rescue them when he’s said he’ll free them?” I asked.
“Do you really think he’ll keep his word?” Mark asked.
“I don’t know,” I rubbed my fingers through my short black hair. A few months ago I would have said an unequivocal yes. After everything I’d learned I didn’t know what to think about Kandek’s honor.
“Do you want to take the risk that he won’t?”
“Risk? You’re talking about risking the prisoners and completely ignoring the fact that Reychel’s delivering herself back into slavery. That cannot happen,” Johna said.
“We’ll figure that out too,” Mark said. “It’s a detail.”
“Detail? Just giving our Prophet of the Clouds back to a man who has used her for her entire life to forward himself politically? I won’t have it! I’ll call in the council!” Johna insisted.
“Council?” Mark and I asked.
“Of course there’s a council of gifted people, you foolish children. Do you think that we operate independently? You’re both so young and you know so little,” she sighed. She shook her head at us. I knew there would be much to learn, but time wouldn’t afford me the option to learn now.
“I’m seventeen and army trained. I’ve had more life experience in the last year than most people do in ten years,” Mark said.