Seer's Hope

by Anderson, Maree

  “A settlement full of people.” Daryon’s quiet words effectively cut short the banter.

  Panic squirmed in Nerraya’s belly. All her carefully rehearsed niceties laced with hidden barbs and innuendos had fled from her mind. As she struggled to recall the phrases, Dayamar stepped in to take over the introductions.

  She had to duck her head and grit her teeth to stop herself from childishly protesting him usurping her role. She examined him furtively beneath her lashes. Regardless of his advanced age he was still a handsome man, with his feline golden eyes and spare but muscular physique. And the grace with which he moved, combined with that indefinable aura of power and mystique, had always attracted her. Gods. How she despised him still for humiliating her, for choosing his higher calling over her. For breaking her heart.

  She clenched her hands to stop them from shaking. “Thank you for your introductions, Sehan Dayamar,” she said, raising her voice to be heard. “I’ll have someone show you to your accommodations and we’ll meet in a couple of hours to discuss what is to be done.”

  “Your courtesy is appreciated, Leader Nerraya. But I feel we can settle this matter without wasting precious time on meetings. I’m sure you agree.”

  She bristled. Unfortunately she couldn’t think of a response that wouldn’t make her seem more interested in upholding her own status than the welfare of her people, so she responded with as much dignity as she could muster. “Thank you for coming, Sehan Dayamar. I have no doubt our people will be in good hands.”

  He inclined his head to her, every inch the arrogant Sehan. He hadn’t changed. He never would. Dayamaria would always come first.

  She sighed. And when she found herself silently thanking the gods for his dedication to his people—and hers—she clamped her lips shut lest she say something she would regret.

  ~~~

  “Thank you, Naytan.” Dayamar had listened attentively to his description of Geramar’s findings from the old journal and asked his usual probing questions. “I’ll search the boundaries of the spiritual plane for traces of the dead,” he said. “The spirits of any who have not yet passed on may still linger and be of use to us.” Effortlessly he sank into a trance.

  Hope smothered her worry and blanked her expression.

  Naytan lowered his voice so as not to disturb Dayamar. “That was a pretty nifty way of traveling,” he said to Blayne. “I’m sure Daryon would have liked that more than the one Hope used.”

  “Care to enlighten me? Dayamar would only say you had assistance.” Blayne picked up her hand and ran his thumb over her wrist.

  She leaned into him. “Shikari called mounts for us. I don’t know what you call them here, but they felt similar to horses. We sat on their backs and he played with time to get us here quickly.”

  “Why didn’t you transport everyone like Dayamar did? Surely it would have been easier.”

  “I think Shikari plucked the idea from my mind and I must have been wishing for horses at the time. I doubt it would have occurred to me to use the same method as Dayamar because I don’t know everything there is about being a Sehan. How long did it take you to learn to be a healer?” Her tone wasn’t as sharp as her words suggested. She was too drained to waste her energy on petty anger.

  “It wasn’t a criticism. I’ve noticed you Dayamar use completely different methods to achieve similar results. And the methods you choose often seem purely instinctual.”

  Naytan fidgeted. She suspected he had something to say but was unwilling to interrupt.

  “Dayamar once commented that the things he finds challenging I can do easily,” she said. “But the converse is also true. He believes it’s a strength. I’m not entirely convinced, though.”

  Naytan couldn’t contain himself any longer. “Perhaps it’s because of your blindness, Hope. You interact with the world around you very differently to a sighted person. That would have to make a huge difference to the way you use your powers, don’t you think?”

  “Interesting,” Blayne said.

  She didn’t want to get into a philosophical discussion about the way she used her Sehani powers. Even the thought of it made her head ache. She cast about for a change of subject. “How’s Varaya getting along with Willem? Do you think they’ve finally—?” Heat flushed her face. “You know.”

  “Having her wicked way with him was the last thing on Varaya’s mind. She was very upset about your disappearance—as were we all. If you hadn’t contacted me when you did I was contemplating murder once I caught up with your abductors.”

  The flat, emotionless tone of his voice told her he’d been deadly serious. “I wasn’t that badly hurt,” she insisted.

  The thumb rubbing sensuous circles on the back of her hand halted. “Don’t lie to me, Hope. Dayamar could barely detect your life-essence.”

  “It was a bump on the head. And you know I self-heal.”

  “Are you willing to test exactly how serious an injury you can heal, because I’m not. And your capacity for self-healing is beside the point.”

  She knew she’d put both herself and Degan at risk by venturing so far from the settlement. Still, it rankled he didn’t trust her to take care of herself. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “You ventured out alone. You didn’t tell anyone where you were going. What if you’d miscarried? You could have died out there before anyone could get to you. Anything could have happened—and it did.”

  “I’m not helpless. And I had Degan with me.”

  “A simple-minded boy?” He snorted. “Some protection.”

  He was right—about Degan affording her little protection, at least. But she was tired of being wrapped in… in… whatever the Dayamari used instead of cotton wool. “I managed on my own for two years after my parents died, Blayne. And—”

  “Calm down,” Naytan pleaded. “You’re making things difficult for Dayamar.”

  She lowered her voice. “Let’s fight about something really important. Like, when you planned on telling me about the other two settlements. And the Usehani, too. How am I supposed to help you all if I don’t even know half of you exist?”

  “Dayamar asked us not to mention it to you. I guess he thought it would be too overwhelming for you on top of everything else. I don’t really know.”

  “Well, he was right about that. I am overwhelmed. How many people are we talking about, Blayne? Just how many people have I been brought here to try and save from who-knows-what?”

  “At last count the three settlements numbered around seven thousand people.”

  She bowed her head, the responsibility weighing heavy on her soul. She’d been too late to save many of the Usehani. What if she couldn’t save her friends, either? The sickness had already spread to two settlements.

  She swallowed the lump that constricted her throat. If she dwelled on the very real chance she’d not live up to Dayamar’s expectations—that all her friends would die and she’d be to blame—she’d make herself ill. She changed the subject. “How is it Varaya and Maya came with you? Surely they weren’t in your original search-party.”

  Blayne’s thumb resumed stroking her skin and the distance that’d yawned between them closed. She knew from the colors swirling in his aureya that he was still angry. She cut off her seer-sight. Sometimes it was better to take things at face value.

  “The original party had Taran, Cayl, Willem and a couple of others,” he said. “After you contacted me, I sent a runner back to inform Dayamar, but he must have been tracking us psychically. When we stopped for a meal-break, he appeared out of thin air right in front of us, along with Varaya, Maya and Lukas. It’s quite a useful trick, that bulging bubble thing. Though I prefer my own two legs.”

  “Why?” Naytan asked.

  “It’s like being sucked up and encased in liquid. Your first instinct is to panic and hold your breath. Although you can breathe, it takes more effort. It’s extremely cold, too. And silent—like being underwater. Anyway, Dayamar sent two of the men home. And when I qu
izzed him, he would only hint about making sure certain people were around in case Hope needed her friends for the task ahead.”

  “More secrets.” She grimaced. “Gods I’m tired of him keeping secrets from me.”

  “Sshh!” Naytan said.

  Too late. “Are you discussing me, Hope?” Dayamar asked.

  “Have you discovered anything?”

  He didn’t call her on the pathetic attempt at a diversion. “I found traces of those who died,” he said. “They’ve been prevented from passing on and they inhabit a twilight world, neither of the physical plane nor the spiritual. They’re traumatized and only capable of emoting their pain and anguish. I dared not tarry any longer. Something malevolent was drawn to my essence.”

  “The Sehan of that era hid those six people and the hiding place must have been disguised somehow, or his people would surely have discovered it. I can’t believe they would have accepted their Sehan disappearing without doing their utmost to find him.” Naytan’s tone leaked his inner frustration.

  “You make a good point,” Dayamar said. “I’m inclined to believe the Sehan expunged all memory of himself and his six charges from his people’s minds. That’s what I would have done. And remember, Sehani were more numerous in those days. Likely there was a trained successor to take over his role.”

  “What now?” Naytan asked.

  “We call a public meeting of everyone—Dayamari and Usehani—to discover whether anyone has heard of this valley, or recognizes the images that Hope saw.”

  “But it’ll take months to organize that. We haven’t got time!”

  “I’ll contact the elders of each settlement. At sundown tonight, I’ll have them gather together everyone in and around each settlement’s meeting hall. A simple linking of minds will accomplish the rest.”

  “Won’t that take an awful lot of energy?” Hope asked. “And how will you transmit what I saw to everyone?”

  “That’ll be your task, Daughter. You will implant the images in everyone’s mind and I’ll lurk and See whether anyone recognizes them.”

  “Wonderful,” she said tartly. “I’m sure I’ll figure out how to do that in no time at all.”

  Blayne squeezed her hand.

  “You already have the ability,” Dayamar said. “Simply recreate the image in your mind and then join the mind-link. As long as you open your mind, everyone will be able to access what you See.”

  “Surely no one now living will have seen this place?” Naytan said. “Those six people were interred centuries ago.”

  “Everyone has a repository of past memories,” Dayamar said. “Memories that have been passed down through generations by their ancestors. I’m hoping the images Hope transmits will trigger some sort of recognition—even the tiniest bit. I’ll identify those people and investigate further.”

  “Ah.”

  Hope guessed Naytan was carefully filing this information away in his orderly mind. One of these days she must ask him to tell her everything he’d learned about Sehani. It’d be worthwhile having another perspective.

  “Let’s join our hosts,” Dayamar said. “We shouldn’t keep Nerraya waiting any longer.”

  “Of course, Sehan Dayamar.”

  As Naytan preceded them from the room, Blayne held her back. “When Dayamar could barely sense you I wanted to kill somebody. I don’t like to think about what I’d have done to Daryon and his men if you had died.”

  “I’m sorry, truly. But I’m a grown woman and—” She struggled to explain. “I felt stifled by the way everyone looks out for me. Degan isn’t so careful of me. Since coming to Dayamaria, I’ve fallen into your arms and my every need has been provided for. I just needed some time away. From everything.”

  “You can have a place of your own if you’d prefer.”

  Gods. The pain in his voice. “No. It’s not that. Aaaargh, I’m making a mess of this.” She raked a hand through her hair and tugged on the ends. “The couple of weeks we traveled together when you first found me have been the only time we’ve had alone. Ever. I couldn’t have you to myself so I opted for the next best thing, which was time for myself. Kind of. If you ignore the fact I dragged Degan along with me. Does that make any sense?”

  His silence made her want to throw herself into his arms and beg forgiveness. “Yes, it does,” he said finally. “I was hoping to whisk you off somewhere—just the two of us. But there always seemed to be some crisis looming that put my plans on hold. Maybe when this is all over?”

  “Sounds wonderful.” She hugged him, relieved he understood her needs. A pity she couldn’t imagine this crisis ending any time soon.

  ~~~

  Nerraya addressed the assemblage and pushed aside the gut-wrenching sense of loss that threatened to overwhelm her. So many faces missing. “I am your co-leader. Any decisions regarding our welfare must go through me.” Gods, that she should even have to remind them, that she should even have to justify herself. But her people were so desperate they’d thrown themselves on Dayamar’s mercy. If he told them to hang upside down from tree branches and howl like wolves they’d rush to oblige him. If he told them the sun shone out of his apprentice, they’d fall at her feet. That girl didn’t deserve to be worshipped. No Sehan did. They weren’t gods.

  She thrust back her shoulders and tilted her jaw. “I’m not convinced this cave and these things threatening our spirit world aren’t figments of an overactive imagination. She’s embarrassed to admit she doesn’t know what to do, and has concocted this tale to make herself seem important. I’ll not have her wasting any more of our time.”

  She’d drawn a breath to continue hammering home her point when she realized her audience’s attention had shifted. The fine hairs on the back of her neck rose. She pivoted on her heel to face the newcomers.

  Naytan refused to look her in the eye. Panakeya Blayne glowered. They’d heard enough to know she believed the girl was a fake. Too bad. It needed to be said.

  Her defiant gaze flit to Dayamar but his smooth countenance revealed nothing. Finally, she spared a glance for the object of her belittling speech.

  The girl merely sighed.

  Nerraya’s lip curled. She wasn’t even going to defend herself? Useless, weak-minded creature. A strong man like Panakeya Blayne deserved better.

  But the young Sehan did have something to say after all. “Please Nerraya, don’t force me to call on your gods to convince you. They won’t be impressed with you wasting their time. And I don’t believe you and Kunnandi would get on. He does like to take over—as Varon discovered. I will do it if you press me, though. Because unlike your own people, I don’t have to put up with your prejudices.”

  Heat crawled up Nerraya’s face. “How dare you speak to me like that!”

  The girl’s other-worldly golden eyes flashed. “How dare you, Nerraya. I haven’t got time for this. Your people don’t have time.” Her gaze didn’t waver as she said, “Apparently I must convince this foolish woman of our danger, Dayamar. Else she’ll be working against us the instant we turn our backs.”

  “Apparently so, Daughter.”

  Nerraya ripped her gaze from the girl. Daughter? Since when did Dayamar have a daughter?

  “Later, Nerraya.” Dayamar cut short the questions that had bubbled to her lips. “I suggest you resume your seat. Hope is somewhat… flamboyant when she demonstrates her abilities.”

  She would not to be told what to do, not even by a man who held the highest Dayamari rank. She was Usehani co-leader. Here, Dayamar was nothing. She remained standing.

  “You don’t have to do this, Hope.”

  Daryon’s anxiety unsettled her and Nerraya chewed her lip. What was she missing?

  “If necessary I’ll overrule Nerraya and disband our settlement,” he said. “I’ll move the Usehani back to the Primary Settlement. I’ll do anything to help our people. Anything.”

  He heart skipped a beat and settled like a lump of clay in her chest. “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “Just wa
tch me,” he said. “I’m the founding leader of this settlement. And if I were you, Nerraya, I wouldn’t put my loyalty to the test right now.”

  Blayne spoke into the tense silence. “You should be careful who you target, Nerraya. Hope is my Promised, and she’s blood-related to all of us here save Taran and Lukas. But none of us take kindly to your insults.”

  A cold chill swept Nerraya’s body. She darted her gaze about the room, pleading for support. But all she saw was desperation. The mass burning and her too-public breakdown had taken their toll. They’d lost faith in her. She had to prove that she was capable of leading them or she’d lose everything she’d worked so hard to achieve.

  “What are you going to believe?” she asked. “Childlike fantasies spun by a young, untried girl desperate for attention? Or facts laid out by a proven, dedicated leader?”

  “If it’s proof you need, Nerraya, then proof you will have.” The young Sehan raised her arms. Her eyes glowed incandescent as she created skeins of brilliant color and manipulated them with power of her mind.

  A harsh rasping, like a piece of coarse fabric being rent in two, made Nerraya’s teeth throb and ache. A man-sized horizontal fissure had appeared in the air. She locked her awed gasp in her throat.

  The Dayamari backed up, leaving her alone by the young Sehan. Nerraya locked her knees, unwilling to concede an inch.

  The young Sehan gestured sharply, and the fissure ripped vertically, then horizontally, and finally diagonally, with each tattered remnant of… of… whatever substance it might be, folding back on itself and molding seamlessly around the fissure’s perimeter until only a large circular gap remained.

  Nerraya slanted a glance about her, saw eyes and mouths rounded in wonder. She might feel the same, but damned if she would show it. She firmed her lips and fixed her attention on the conjuring again. Now she beheld a slowly rotating globe of blue, white and deepest green, dotted with glowing multicolored sparks.

  Comprehension burst in her brain. The girl had opened a window to another plane of existence.