by Dana Davis
Siri stopped near the Sage. “What in blazes is going on? Stop that noise!”
Mindona gave the Elder a fearful look. “I won’t let that Sage whore poison me.” She pointed with her bound hands to Lyssinya. “I won’t! Get her away from me!”
“You won’t make demands of any kind.” The Elder pulled the Azure Amulet from between her ample breasts and fingered it, getting a wide-eyed expression from every prisoner who could harness. And silence. “Good.” She turned to Lyssinya. “What’s she going on about?”
The tall Sage took in a breath as she gazed at Siri. The two were nearly the same height, both as tall as most men, taller than some. “I’m certain Croferituus attacked the girls.”
The Elder swallowed hard and nodded. “Yes. That much is obvious.”
“Mindona claims she knows nothing of the woman’s whereabouts. But I think she’s lying.” She held up the cup in her hand. “This is a sleep tea. The Bankari herb mistress made it for me. Nothing poisonous about it.”
“No!” Mindona wailed. “It’s poison!”
“Quiet!” Siri pushed the amulet back into the front of her tunic and focused on the Sage again. “You intend to find her in the Netherworld.”
“Exactly. There, I can force her to tell the truth.”
“Very well.”
Mindona started to jerk her bound hands back and forth, pulling on the bars and screaming. “No! She’ll kill me!”
Siri picked up a rock and slammed it onto on of the bars. “Shut your mouth! Right now. Or I may kill you myself before you have a chance to make amends to us.”
Adelsik took a step back when the Elder grew taller than her already towering stature. Fire seemed to light her eyes. The prisoners cowered and LaNar the Poisoner began to snivel. Others had gathered and many seemed a bit shocked at the Elder’s new appearance. Several Bankari got down on one knee and gazed up in awe. Kal and Bel’keive didn’t look surprised but they had been in Siri’s quest. Perhaps they had witnessed this before or perhaps they simply didn’t notice since Kal held the weeping Bel’keive in her arms.
“Lyssinya’s tea isn’t going to kill you, Mindona. As much as I would like that. You have my word as a Gypsy Elder.” Mindona shook her head but kept quiet. “You’ll drink what she offers, voluntarily, or I’ll have Wren urge you.”
Mindona pressed her hands to her face. “She’ll kill me. She’ll kill me.”
Siri placed fists on her bountiful hips and shrank back down to her normal stature. “I already gave you my word that her tea isn’t poisonous. Are you calling me a liar?”
Silence filled the area except for a few ravens that chattered in the nearby trees, confused about the instant winter, and those few servants who had set out to build a pyre for Maesa’s body. Adelsik couldn’t think about that now.
Mindona frowned. “I could care less about you, filthy Gypsy. It’s not you I fear.” She drew a sleeve across her runny nose.
“You would do well to fear me, woman. Right now, I can do you more harm than Croferituus. Now, drink.” She took the cup from Lyssinya and pressed it through the bars.
Mindona put her bound hands to her mouth and shook her head, eyes wide. She whimpered.
“Get Wren,” Siri said to a servant.
After several heartbeats, the white-haired Gypsy appeared. She looked quite ragged, white braids hanging loose instead of looped over her ears. That prominent nose was red and creases formed around her mouth. “Yes, Elder.” Red-rimmed eyes focused on Siri as the two stood eye to eye with Lyssinya.
Adelsik felt dwarfed by these three.
“If Mindona doesn’t drink this by the count of five, use the urging on her.”
“Yes, Elder.” Wren looked pleased with that task.
Siri placed an oversized hand on her shoulder. “Don’t harm her, Wren.” The white-haired Gypsy said nothing. “If you can’t do this, I’ll choose another.”
Wren turned a sour face to Mindona and back to Siri. “I’ll do what I must to catch the murderer.”
“Very well.” The Elder focused hard eyes on Mindona. “One.”
The prisoner’s eyes widened but she pressed her lips together and pulled as far from the cup as she could with wrists bound to the bars.
“Two.” Siri’s voice had a low and dangerous tone to it now. “Three.” Still, the frightened woman didn’t drink. “Four.” Mindona began to weep again. “Five.”
The prisoner suddenly stiffened with Wren’s urging and reached out hands for the cup. Her eyes widened with dread but she drank. Lyssinya took Adelsik by the arm and they headed for the buildings. Predula and the others still cared for Henny behind the blanketed doorway of the first one.
Lyssinya stuck her head in. “How is she?”
Adelsik heard Predula say, “She sleeps now. There was a lot of blood. A lot of blood.”
“I wish to see her.” Adelsik pushed beside Lyssinya to see for herself, not caring if she offended the Sage. Henny lay on a fresh straw pallet, eyes closed and breath shallow. Adelsik crossed to the prone girl, knelt, and placed a hand on her forehead. Still fevered. The healers hadn’t taken that from her? Why? “She’s ill. How is that possible?”
Haranda knelt beside the pallet, blew her nose on a crying cloth, and placed a gentle hand on Adelsik’s shoulder. “She was badly beaten. She lost so much blood. Her body needs more time to recover even with what the healers have done. The fever is body fighting to live. We must pray to the Goddess for her health.”
Adelsik’s heart raced and tears flooded her eyes. She blinked them away and looked toward Maesa’s covered body. Her eyes drifted to Ryder. “Will Henny die too?”
The lame errant looked at her with sorrowful eyes. “I can’t hold Death forever.” His gaze flickered to one corner of the room, as though he saw someone there. “He waits for her.”
Adelsik shivered. “You said you could save someone before Death took them. Why can’t you save Henny? She’s clearly alive.” Her voice held more anger than she intended.
The man’s eyes grew wild. “She’s weak, doesn’t resist his temptations. I can’t always hold Death. I can’t.”
Adelsik wept as Haranda held her and she wrapped arms around her former clan mother, breathing in the familiar scent.
“Haranda? We need to find out what Mindona knows. She could lead us to Croferituus.”
Haranda’s breath caught in Adelsik’s ear. “Not now, Lyssinya.”
“Yes, now. Every heartbeat we wait gives Croferituus an escape. She could be planning another attack. I know that you and I clash, but I can’t do this without Adelsik. Or you.” Her voice caught. “I have feelings for these younglings too. I’m not cold-hearted. But I won’t allow that flea-ridden, yellow-eyed crone to harm anyone else if I have a chance to stop her.”
Haranda froze, took in a deep breath, then wiped her face with her cloth and held Adelsik at arm’s length. “Lyssinya’s correct. We can’t let grief keep us from helping the others. If we do, then Croferituus has already won.”
Adelsik pulled a cloth from her sleeve and scrubbed her face hard, partly to make herself feel something besides grief and helplessness. She blew her nose then swallowed a few times to make certain her voice would work. “Then we must do this.” As she stood, her eyes drifted over Maesa’s covered body and Henny’s pale features. “For my sisters.” The three women left Predula and the other healers to their work and went to the next building.
Several heartbeats later, Wren joined them. They quickly settled down on the pallets and willed themselves into a false sleep. Adelsik made certain she took in the Energy and worked it the way Lyssinya had shown her to dim her footprint before she entered the Netherworld. Soon, she stood near the beach cave she had been instructed to create and waited for the others. This place put some of her grief at a distance.
Siri’s dimmed black eagle was the first to arrive. The Elder shimmered into her otherself. “We’ll find her, child.” She hadn’t wept openly but her face had taken on a harden
ed appearance since Maesa’s death. Her features had also begun to look drawn and tired from using the Azure Amulet. How she used the amulet while in the Netherworld, Adelsik could only wonder.
“Yes, Elder.” She had to believe they would find Croferituus. Otherwise, she might not be able to think straight. Hatred burned in her belly for that yellow-eyed woman. The kind of hatred that could consume a person. She wouldn’t stop looking for Croferituus. Ever.
The others arrived as dulled footprints and shimmered into their otherselves, bereft of the Goddess nimbus that usually surrounded them here.
Siri got straight to business. “Mindona sleeps. But she’s no novice in the Netherworld. Be cautious. That one has some slumbering Energy. Not as strong as any of us, but her training has been erratic. We don’t know what other havocs the errant woman has caused here. Once she realizes what we’re doing, she may fight.” With that, she concentrated on the floating dream bubbles.
There were two footprints. Henny’s purple snowflake, delicate and dull as the Energy hid it. At least the youngling still had enough strength that the Energy hadn’t seeped from her, or perhaps someone hid it for her. Lyssinya had also taught them that. Kin could see each other because they knew each other, but Adelsik still didn’t know how Croferituus found the younglings. That woman shouldn’t be able to see any of them now. Had Henny and Maesa forgotten to perform the Energy task before they slept last night?
Adelsik saw Mindona’s print, a black raven, hovering inside a dream bubble. She didn’t know what the raven stood for but guessed it was a less than honorable footprint. The errant woman could no longer hide from them now that they knew her. Something that certainly gave an advantage to oathed kin.
Siri led them toward Mindona. The raven began to flutter and the bubble to move away from them. “She knows we’re near. How strong was that tea?”
Lyssinya huffed. “Strong enough to keep her out until midday, Elder.”
“That should be enough. Join hands.”
They obeyed and Adelsik stood between Lyssinya and Haranda. “What are we going to do?”
“Mindona won’t cooperate without a fight. We’ll have to sedate her here. Wren, I want you and Haranda to focus urging on her. Keep her from fleeing. But be on your guard.”
“Yes, Elder,” they said in unison.
“I’ll attempt to keep her bound. The amulet works here a bit differently than in the mundane world, and I don’t know how much she’s learned of it. Lyssinya and Adelsik. It will be up to you to coerce her into telling the truth. Use any means necessary. If she knows where Croferituus is, her life is worth that information. Do you understand?”
Adelsik’s heart raced. She had never killed anyone. And Mindona could be killed from the Netherworld. That woman deserved to die. What happened here to someone who harnessed the Energy could happen to the mundane body when an adept slumberer sent that Energy message. And slumberers could create and combine Energies here, Energies they couldn’t touch in the mundane world. Illusions perhaps, but still effective. Adelsik had only learned a few of the talents Lyssinya had mastered. Still so much to learn. She watched the raven as it moved even farther from them. Mindona deserved to die for helping Croferituus. Why would I even hesitate?
“New-oathed?”
“Yes, Elder?” She peeled her eyes from the retreating footprint.
“If you can’t do this—”
“No, Elder.” For her sisters, her kin. She took in a deep breath. “I can.” Haranda squeezed her hand slightly and that gave her strength. Lyssinya watched her with serious blue eyes and nodded at her response.
“Very well.” Siri took them closer to Mindona’s footprint.
The errant couldn’t move as quickly as the Elder and soon they pushed into her memory dream, a fine rendition of a beach at sunset. But this wasn’t the beach Adelsik knew. There was no cave, no ruins on the cliffs above. Nor did it resemble Lyssinya’s flowering shore. This one looked out to five shadowy islands in the near distance.
“Where is this place, Elder?”
“Forbidden Islands, I think,” came Siri’s answer.
Before Adelsik could ask where they were located, Mindona’s otherself ran from behind some rocks and toward a thatched-roof hut. The sun began to set with sudden rapidity and the area grew dark.
“Oh, no, Mindona,” Siri said. “You don’t get away that easily. Bring the light back, Lyssinya.”
Another sun rose to take the first’s place and Mindona let out a frustrated screech. “She’s trying to push my sun away,” the Sage said. “She’s not strong enough, though.”
“Careful.”
“Yes, Elder.”
Adelsik followed the others as they walked toward Mindona and prepared herself for what they might have to do to the errant woman. For my kin. For my sisters. I will kill if I have to.
Chapter 5
Pulsating light flickered around each and every object. The sky shone bright and blue, and the green tinted water glistened as majestic waves caressed the sandy shore. Familiar, yes. But something had changed. Something Maesa couldn’t quite explain. At least, not yet. She strolled along the shore, reaching down to the various sea birds that flocked at her bare feet. Her gown, with its lacy edges and beaded bodice, hung wet from her knees down as waves licked her feet and calves.
Something nagged in the back of her mind. Something she should remember but couldn’t quite get a grip on. Salt air filled her nostrils and she took a deep breath, filling her lungs. Tiny crabs burrowed in the sand as the water waxed and waned on the beach. To her right, she saw a cave opening and ancient ruins on the cliffs above. Something nagged at her again. Should she recognize this place? Had she been here before? Sea birds called out overhead and before she could take another breath, she flew alongside them.
She soared over the water, out above the waves and back toward the sandy beach. Before her feet could touch the sand, she kicked into flight again and lifted herself above the cave to the ancient ruins. Large stones and boulders cut into rectangular shapes formed a big circle in the sandy grass. Others had been laid in squares, one after another, large enough to be rooms or homes of some kind.
Maesa walked along the ruins caressing the rough stones until she came to a shining object half buried in the sand. When she drew it out, her breath caught. A silver crescent with a skull and waves carved into it lay in her hand. Her mind stuttered as memories flickered past. For a heartbeat, she found herself dizzy with realization. Cholqhuin. She flipped her head toward the water.
This is the beach where Haranda brought us. The cave below me. That’s where we entered the Means that led to the Land of the Goddess.
She dropped the talisman and floated down to the sand in front of the cave. Where were the others? Haranda, Adelsik, Henny, Thad, Eletha, Saldia, Zarenia, Kal. And little Nym. Not so little anymore. They had all been here with her. And there were others, once they got to the Land of the Goddess, numerous Gypsies, new-oathed and younglings, servants from every part of the world. Birek. My betrothed. She looked around for him. For anyone.
Where has everyone gone? “Hello! Anybody there?” The cave was empty. Nothing, save the sea birds and waves outside. “What am I doing here?” Memories flooded her again. Storms forced them to camp just outside Lost Miner’s Hamlet. Yes, that’s where I should be. But why am I here? Think, Maesa.
She pulled memories through her mind as though working in a dense fog. “I’m a Gypsy-child. A youngling mind-healer.” She hoped the sound of her own voice might trigger something. She had learned that from the other mind-healers. “I’m not new-oathed, yet. “But that had to come soon. The image of two stone buildings popped into her head. “Cass found her root father in a tavern. The Elders put him in The Big Iron.” Her spoken words seemed to help her focus and the large, iron cage filled her mind. “Ebbi, the new girl servant, came with Cass.” Yes, everything began to make sense now. “It grew late and we went to bed. That’s it! I’m asleep. Slumbering.”
> As she envisioned everyone asleep, the sun dropped behind the ocean’s edge and the sky filled with gleaming stars. Yet the darkness glowed from the nimbus around everything. How had she created night if she slumbered? She couldn’t alter her surroundings in that manner, would never have that talent. She simply wasn’t strong enough. And she couldn’t be dreaming. She was too aware of everything. Panic filled her and she concentrated on waking.
Several tries later, she still stood by a vast ocean and a brilliant starry sky. Why can’t I wake?
She certainly had enough slumbering Energy to do that simple task. Perhaps her body was too tired and didn’t want to stir just yet. Perhaps the images around her changed just because she thought them, not because she tried to alter them with her minimal slumbering Energy. She thought of Birek again, thought long and hard. To her dismay, his image didn’t appear.
“All right, so I’m not dreaming. I must be slumbering. I just don’t have enough Energy to create an image of him.”
She gazed around and searched for the dream bubbles that filled the Netherworld. They floated in the distant darkness, iridescent balls of light, farther than she had ever seen before. She had never slumbered this long, didn’t have strong Energy in the Netherworld. Yet there could be no other explanation. She decided to try one of Wren’s beginner lessons and concentrated on changing a small thing. A tiny shell lay at her feet and she gazed at it. In her mind, she envisioned the shell turning from bright gray to brilliant orange. Nothing. She tried again. Again, nothing.
Though she wasn’t strong enough to receive the title of slumberer, she had enough Energy to change the color of a tiny shell, had done it numerous times. With a huff of disappointment she decided to try flying again. That happened almost as she thought it, and she floated a ways down the sandy beach closer to the dream bubbles. There, she attempted to alter the color of a fan-shaped shell that she plucked from between her bare feet. Nothing changed.