The Prophecy

by Melissa Luznicky Garrett

  Or rather, at me.

  “Sarah, you will sit here.” Charley propelled me to a chair at the front of the room and then pushed on my shoulders, forcing me to sit.

  Soon enough, people began trickling in, shaking the now-falling rain from their clothes and umbrellas. A peal of thunder crashed overhead and a baby cried. I rubbed my hands against my jeans, but it didn’t make my palms any less sweaty. I just hoped the anxiety I was feeling didn’t show on my face. I tried to imagine what I must look like and then concentrated on not looking that way, but also not looking too disinterested either.

  “What are you doing?” Shyla hissed at me.

  “Nothing,” I whispered back. “What do you mean?”

  “You look like you’re about to pee your pants. Or worse. Relax, will you?”

  “I’m trying.” I took a deep breath and settled for looking as neutral as possible, but all I really succeeded in doing was fidgeting in my seat.

  Shyla’s hand shot out and grabbed my knee. “Hold still. You’re making me nervous.”

  Jasmine, who’d been conveniently absent while we set up for the meeting, sauntered through the door with her friends Astrid and Will. The three made their way to the front row and found seats right in the middle—the best view in the house. Then they sat whispering and occasionally throwing glances our way. I looked away, intent on not paying any attention to them, and yet my eyes kept wandering in their direction.

  Caleb, who’d gone off with Adrian for apparent male-bonding, showed up a few minutes later. He shook his head like a dog and then ran his hand through the spiked ends of his faux-hawk. Nodding at Shyla and me, he started to make a path down the outside aisle toward the front of the room.

  Charley suddenly grabbed his arm and then leaned in close to whisper something in his ear. His face hardened, and then Charley let go and walked away. Caleb took a seat next to his sister, keeping his eyes down.

  Within ten minutes, every seat was full. Just as I had feared, people began to pile in and stand elbow-to-elbow along the perimeter of the room. I could have sworn they were all staring at me.

  “Isn’t this against fire code?” I whispered to Imogene, who had taken the seat next to Shyla’s.

  Before she could answer, Charley stepped in front of the crowd and clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Members of the Katori tribe, welcome.” She smiled as she looked around the room. “I’m pleased at such a large turnout as we come together to welcome back old friends.”

  Shyla snorted under her breath and a nervous giggle escaped my lips. Imogene and Meg shushed me from either side.

  “It is my pleasure to introduce Sarah Redbird, daughter of Melody Redbird and the granddaughter of our late friends Daniel and Anna. Please, let us welcome Sarah into our fold as the newest Spirit Keeper.”

  Some people clapped, while some sat in silence, unsure about whose side they were on. Or maybe it was just my imagination.

  Charley continued. “Through Shyla Hunt, the all-powerful and merciful Spirit Leader, Katori, saved this child and blessed her with the honor and duty of being our next Spirit Keeper.”

  I was just thinking she had a knack for theatrics when Charley turned to me, her arm outstretched. “Sarah, stand up and give us an example of your abilities. I’m told there are some aspects of your powers that are already very great for someone so . . . inexperienced.”

  My eyes widened. Surely I hadn’t heard her correctly. “Pardon me?”

  Charley and I locked eyes, and for a brief moment anger flickered in her expression like the wavering flame of a candle. “Stand up and show us what you can do,” she said through her teeth.

  Clearing my throat, I rose on unsteady legs. I made the mistake of looking at Jasmine, who was staring back at me with a sneer on her face. I wished I had practiced using, rather than suppressing, my powers. I would have loved to blast Jasmine out of her chair right then. That would have really gotten the crowd’s attention.

  “Whenever you’re ready,” Charley prompted, a tight smile on her lips. Directly to my right, Meg reached over to give my hand a reassuring squeeze and then quickly let go.

  I mentally ran through the list of my limited powers. I’d already tried manipulating Water that morning and pretty much failed. Wind seemed beyond my control, as well as Earth. I hadn’t even tried anything with that element. Knowing my luck, I’d cause a massive earthquake and widespread destruction. No, if there was one thing I knew how to do by now, it was heal.

  The baby that had been crying when she first came in had yet to fully settle. Her mother paced the back of the room, bouncing her over her shoulder while patting the baby’s small back. Nothing she did could get her to calm down. Nodding decisively, I made my way down the outside aisle. The mother seemed surprised when I stopped in front of her.

  “Do you mind?” I held out my arms for the baby. Tufts of black hair and eyes the color of nutmeg peeked out from under a knitted beanie. The mother, who appeared to be not a whole lot older than I was, looked to Charley for guidance.

  “It’s okay, Nova. Sarah won’t harm your daughter.” Without a word, Nova turned back to me and placed the squirming baby in my arms.

  “What’s her name?” I asked as I tried to get a better grip on the little girl. I’d never held a baby before.

  “Starla.”

  I smiled and cooed at the baby, but she seemed to grow even more restless and agitated. She drew up her knees and curled her toes, and her pinched face grew redder the harder she cried. Even without touching it, I knew the problem was the girl’s small tummy.

  “What’s wrong with her?” I asked anyway, just to be sure.

  Nova shook her head. Lines of exhaustion carved her young face. “The doctor says colic. It started a few weeks ago. When she starts crying, she doesn’t stop for hours.” Nova’s chin quivered as she turned her eyes on me. “I’m just so tired.”

  I offered Nova a small, reassuring smile. “Let’s see if I can help.”

  Cradling Starla in my left arm against my chest, I put my right hand on her stomach. Then I closed my eyes and swayed gently from side to side, blotting the rest of the crowd from my mind. I wasn’t thinking about proving anything to the tribe at that moment; my entire focus was on helping this one little girl and her mother.

  Breathing in deeply through my nose, I concentrated on making the baby feel better. The tingling started in the center of my chest, right where my heart was, and then a bud of warmth blossomed into a full-headed heat. The warm feeling circulated through my body and then flowed down my arm and out through my fingers.

  Almost immediately, the baby stopped crying.

  I slowly opened my eyes and found Starla gazing up at me, her nutmeg eyes open wide. “There, now,” I whispered. “All better?”

  Starla’s pert little mouth formed an O and then broke out in a gummy smile. I handed the baby back to her mother, whose own mouth and eyes were as wide as her daughter’s.

  “Thank you,” Nova breathed, her eyes glassy with tears.

  I bobbed my head, all of a sudden very aware of the attention on me now that I didn’t have Starla in my arms anymore. I returned to the front of the room and headed for my chair, but not before Charley snagged my arm and pulled me to her side.

  “Brothers and Sisters,” Charley called, “come lay your hands on our newest Spirit Keeper. Those standing, please come forward first. Then we will begin at the back of the room in an orderly fashion.”

  Oh, the humiliation! It was one thing to demonstrate my knack for healing, but this laying of the hands was a little too much for me. I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking out all light, and simply endured the next few moments that followed.

  One by one I felt hands touching my head or my elbow. Some members whispered a muttered blessing, or what I hoped was a blessing, in some native language I couldn’t understand.

  I’d been standing still for so long that my legs began to go numb, when a zing of electricity shot through my body. I ope
ned my eyes to see Caleb standing in front of me, his hand on my shoulder.

  “Welcome,” he said, seemingly just as surprised as I was.

  Without warning, he grimaced and shuddered. His knees gave way, and he collapsed to the floor in front of me.

  “Omigod!” I yelled, instinctively grabbing at him.

  The room quieted and Charley rushed over at once. She knelt next to Caleb, putting a hand on his shoulders. “Seizures,” she explained calmly to me. “He’s suffered from them his entire life, but they’ve been coming more frequently lately.”

  After a few agonizing moments, Charley helped Caleb to his feet and returned him to his seat, where he sat with his head bowed. “He’s fine,” she assured the crowd, though her own voice was shaky. “Please. Let’s continue.”

  I wasn’t so sure that was such a great idea, but apparently the others were used to Caleb’s seizures. In fact, no one in the audience seemed to be overly concerned.

  To be honest, the meeting wasn’t proceeding exactly as I’d envisioned. I had expected that we’d congregate around a campfire at sunset and be enveloped within wood-smoke and magic. Or maybe a small number of us would gather in a ceremonial hut where one of the tribal elders would call forth the spirit of our ancestors, and we’d pass around a peace pipe.

  Priscilla would accuse me of being racist, but what did I know? My entire family had done a really good job of keeping me in the dark about anything having to do with my heritage and people.

  Charley clapped again, disturbing my musings, and motioned for me to find my seat. “As you all know,” she said, “a singular event fractured our tribe just over seventeen years ago. Some of you remember that day—”

  “She should never have been allowed here!” someone shouted suddenly.

  Another voice rang out, “She’ll bring trouble to the tribe!”

  At first Charley just stood there, and I wondered if she was going to put a stop to the heckling. Finally, she raised her hand and said, “Sarah is a very special girl. You’ve seen proof of that already.”

  At that point Charley began to recount the whole sordid tale of the night my father, in wolf form, entered Katori land and subsequently killed one of their own. The story certainly didn’t help my case, and the angry muttering and jeering continued. My face burned as I wondered exactly where she was going with this.

  “It was clear to all present that the wolf was the creature that had impregnated Melody.” Charley spat out the word creature, making what my mother had done sound sick and twisted.

  “He was defending himself,” I blurted out. Heads swiveled in my direction.

  “What was that?” Charley said, as though she hadn’t heard.

  I rose from my chair. My legs wobbled, and I felt suddenly lightheaded. I turned to Adrian and was stunned to see the anger in his eyes as he carefully focused his attention elsewhere. Given all the times he had assured me he didn’t blame me for his mother’s death, I hadn’t expected to see that look on his face. I turned back to Charley. My mouth worked, but no sound came out at first. Taking a deep breath through my nose, I continued.

  “I don’t mean to minimize their loss,” I said, gesturing to my left at Imogene, Shyla, and Adrian, “or to make light of the pain that was caused because of what happened. But from the stories I’ve heard, I believe my father was only trying to defend himself. Wouldn’t you? Try to defend yourself, I mean.”

  My question was met with stony silence, but I watched as the members of the audience turned to their neighbors, shrugging and nodding. Of course they would try to defend themselves. I cleared my throat and tried again. “If someone were to come at me with a weapon, I . . .”

  At this, I fell quiet. Someone had come at me with a weapon. I flashed back to that afternoon in the woods when Adrian’s dad Victor had chased me down with a knife, intent on killing me. And all because my father—a father I didn’t even know—had accidentally killed his wife.

  “Look,” I said. “I’ve never met my father, and I obviously wasn’t there to witness the attack against Victor’s wife Aida, but there has to be some other explanation for why, and even how, he came to be here.”

  “There is no other explanation,” a man yelled from the audience. I recognized his voice. He was one of the people who had jeered me once before. “This will never be your tribe, so who are you to say what did or did not happen?”

  “It’s her tribe just as much as it is anyone’s here,” David shot back.

  “Okay, everyone. Let’s try to keep this meeting civil,” Charley said, raising her hands in a placating gesture. “Sarah’s presence here today has obviously opened an old wound.”

  “A wound that we need to let heal,” a woman shouted. “She’ll only make it worse.”

  “You all voted to banish my family from the only home they’d ever known, and all because you thought I would be born a monster,” I said, growing angry. “But I’m here to tell you, I’m not a monster at all. I’m just a girl. You can’t blame me for my mother’s mistakes. And believe me when I say that I’ve already paid the price.”

  “Because of the fire that Victor Hunt set,” Charley said pointedly to the crowd. “As you all know, Victor recently attacked his son Adrian, who would have died had it not been for Sarah’s healing power. The same power you just witnessed her use on little Starla.”

  Charley pointed to me. “Victor also tried to kill Sarah. And yet, against all odds, she is still here. So we must ask ourselves, what does that mean?”

  The entire room had fallen silent. I searched the faces before me, and for a moment no one moved. But then, toward the back of the room, Nova raised her hand.

  “Go on,” Charley said to her. “Speak up so we can hear you.”

  Nova held her now-sleeping baby slumped over her shoulder. Her young face may have showed the lines and dark smudges of sleep deprivation, but her eyes were eager.

  “I know I speak for many when I ask why the Spirit Leader spared Sarah’s life. There are many among us who simply don’t understand.”

  Of course, there was no definitive explanation for my salvation. Even within my own family, it continued to be a much-speculated topic of discussion. Imogene and Meg were certain I was destined to play a much bigger role in our tribe than any of us could imagine, but I wasn’t so sure.

  “The answer to that is not clear,” Charley said. Nova nodded and resumed her pacing. “Only the Spirit Leader knows the true answer to that question. Only She knows Her plan for Sarah. It’s best we not question it.”

  A shout rang out from the audience. “So we’re supposed to have faith in Katori that this girl is more than just a girl?”

  “She saved Adrian’s life when he was on the brink of death,” Imogene said, her voice raised among the growing mutterings of discontent from the crowd. “Sarah’s demonstrated an aptitude far greater than any I’ve seen before. If that is not proof enough of Katori’s plan for this girl, you are blind.”

  The man who had shouted sat back in his chair, his mouth pressed into a hard, thin line.

  Charley clapped her hands together then, making me jump. “All right. If there are no more comments or questions at this time, this meeting is adjourned. The sky has cleared, so please stay for the potluck picnic. Those of you with a chair, please fold it and put it away.”

  There was a scuffle of chairs being pushed back as everyone started to quickly clear the building. I leaned over to Meg, confused. “Is that all? Is it really over?”

  Meg shrugged, seeming as confused as I. “Apparently so.”

  Relief rushed through me. I had fully expected to be bombarded with questions and more angry jeers. All things considered, I couldn’t believe it had been that easy. With the exception of Caleb’s seizure, it’s was sort of a non-event.

  Adrian circled his arms around me from behind and I flinched, remembering his angry look from before. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  “No,” I relented. “Although it was weird when everyone ca
me up to touch me.” I craned my head. “I hope Caleb is okay.”

  “He’ll be fine.”

  Charley walked by just then and I called out to her. She stopped, but I could tell by her face that she was distracted. “I just wanted to tell you thank you,” I said.

  “For?” She was looking around, searching for someone I thought.

  “For making my introduction to the tribe an easy one. I hadn’t expected it to go so well.”

  Charley ceased scanning the crowd and turned to me with an audible sigh. “Believe it or not, Sarah, sometimes it’s not about you.”

  SEVEN

  The rain had left the air cool and damp so that a fine mist blanketed my hair and skin. Adrian and I sat on the rocky beach at the edge of the water with an old quilt tucked loosely around our shoulders, huddling close together for extra warmth as we waited for the sun to break fully through the clouds.

  Caleb had followed us down to the water and was presently skipping rocks across the lake’s surface. He kept his back to us as though he wanted to be alone, but not really alone. We didn’t speak much, but the silence wasn’t at all awkward. It felt altogether peaceful and welcome after the week I’d spent stressing out, wondering how today would go. And now that it was over . . .

  “Do you really think Caleb is okay?” I whispered, low enough that I hoped he wouldn’t hear me talking about him.

  “Yeah,” Adrian said. “He’s had seizures off and on for as long as I’ve known him. He always bounces back.”

  “It’s just that I’ve never seen anyone have a seizure before. It kind of freaked me out.”

  “Freaked me out the first time I saw it happen, too. Everyone knows about his condition but he doesn’t like to talk about it, so don’t bring it up.”

  I nodded. After a few minutes of sitting in silence I said, “Today seemed much too easy. And when something seems too easy, that’s because it usually is.”

  “Now you’re just being paranoid.” Adrian stood and tucked the blanket more securely around my shoulders. Then he picked up a smooth stone and sort of chucked it at the water. He didn’t possess quite the skill at skipping stones as Caleb.