Ephemeral and Fleeting

by Patricia Reding

  Lilith’s soldiers capture Velia, an Oathtaker. Possessing the power to tell truth from falsehood, Velia learns of Lilith’s plan to kill Rowena’s seventh-born child. She agrees to accompany the woman, so as to gather evidence against her to take to the Council.

  Mara confirms that the great crown is in the City of Light, and she knows Lucy has the second of the artifacts, the sword, with her. When the oracle once again tells Mara to “Go,” she ponders whether it is telling her to go to Shimeron in search of the last of the artifacts, the scepter, where she believes it to be, or if it is telling her that she should go away from Dixon, whom she has come to love. She plans a trip to Shimeron and asks Basha, who was a palace regular, to accompany her there.

  Concerned over Mara’s state of mind, as she has been inseparable from the twins since returning with him from Polesk, Dixon encourages her to go walk with him. While out, she breaks down weeping. She tells Dixon that it pains her to leave the girls, as she left a child once before—one she’d sworn to care for. While comforting her, he confesses his love for her. Though she loves him in return, the two know they cannot act on their feelings, as Mara remains bound to her oath. Heavy hearted, they agree not to speak of such things again.

  Mara and Basha travel magically to Shimeron. There, Mara discovers she can create crystals that make powerful weapons, and that allow her and Basha to communicate silently, by magic. They search Lilith’s chambers. When Daeva shows up there in Lilith’s looking glass, Mara casts him out with a crystal. Then she finds the scepter. She takes it, and also some books she finds at the palace, back to the inn.

  Nina, to whom the ways of Oathtakers are largely unknown, asks Mara why she avoids Dixon when everyone knows they love one another. Mara tells her the truth: that subject to her oath, she is not free. Acting on her feelings would be an act of treason. At a minimum, it would mean losing the girls, and that is not a prospect she will consider.

  Mara sends part of her group ahead to Lucy’s with the scepter, for safekeeping, along with some books she wants to study later, including one that discusses an Oathtaker’s oath, and its “rules and exclusions.” As the group leaves, Dixon’s old friend, Edmond, arrives. Learning of the twins, he tells Dixon when Lilith is due back in the City of Light, then insists that he must set off for urgent business, but that he will return shortly.

  A guard escorts Velia to Lilith’s wagon, where Lilith introduces Velia to Edmond who has brought to her, news of Dixon’s whereabouts and of Rowena’s twins. Lilith asks Velia to accompany her and Edmond on a trip. They, with a single guard, Jabari, set out. When Lilith becomes suspicious of Velia’s intentions, Jabari reveals to Velia, his true identity. He, also, is an Oathtaker. He joined Lilith’s solders earlier, in appearance only, to gather evidence against Lilith to take to the Council.

  Lilith, Edmond, Velia, and Jabari, arrive in the City of Light. They check into an inn. Edmond messages Dixon, pleading for him and Mara to meet him at sanctuary the next day. There, he will share with them, news of Lilith. Although the Oathtakers had planned to leave the city the next day, at the oracle’s urging to “Go,” they agree to the meeting.

  Hiding her true identity, Lilith checks in at The Clandest Inn, then watches out a window as Mara and Dixon leave to meet with Edmond. Lilith goes to Mara’s suite. She stabs Erin, tortures Samuel with her evil magic, and then threatens Nina, demanding that she help her to get the twins to sanctuary. Meanwhile, Velia awakens at the inn, practically incoherent. Lilith had drugged her. Worse yet, Velia discovers, Lilith stole her Oathtaker’s blade.

  When Mara and Dixon meet with Edmond, Velia arrives at sanctuary. Distraught because she does not know where at sanctuary, Edmond’s meeting with Mara and Dixon is to be held, Velia goes to the inner prayer room to seek Ehyeh’s assistance. When an old woman asks her what is wrong, Velia tells her that she must warn two Oathtakers. When she reveals their names—Mara and Dixon—the old woman, Leala, rushes Velia to the meeting.

  In the meeting room, Velia accuses Edmond of seeking revenge on Dixon, and of assisting Lilith. He denies her accusations, claiming that Velia cannot even prove she is an Oathtaker, as she has no Oathtaker’s blade. Although Dixon finds Velia’s accusation impossible to believe, Mara wonders. She asks Edmond to reassure her. Feigning outrage, he swears he would protect the infant twins with his very life. When the earth does not shake, Mara knows that Edmond betrayed them. She grabs Dixon and they magically transport back to the inn. There, they find Samuel, who is just able to relay to them that Lilith took the twins to sanctuary.

  Returning immediately by magic, to sanctuary, Mara can smell and taste Lilith’s ever-present red clothing. Though they make her ill, the smells and tastes draw her to the inner prayer room. After fighting off a pack of grut that bursts forth, Mara makes it to the door. Velia warns her that Lilith is inside, then recalls that the woman has her Oathtaker’s blade. They all understand: Lilith can use it to cut off the girls’ line of power.

  Dixon and Velia enter the inner sanctuary through its front door. There, they find Lilith with Nina and the twins. Velia attacks Lilith, but Lilith spares the Oathtaker, as she needs her alive when she uses her blade to kill the twins on the altar, as Daeva has commanded her. Believing that the grut she had called up, attacked Mara, Lilith does not expect Mara to secretly enter the inner sanctuary through a back door.

  Dixon distracts Lilith while Mara enters and then sends Nina and the twins out to safety. When he urges Lilith to turn back to Ehyeh, Lilith uses her dark magic on him. Mara announces her presence, but Lilith refuses to stop torturing Dixon. Mara throws her blade. It meets its mark, and Lilith goes up in flames.

  Heavy hearted, as she has concluded she can no longer bear having Dixon so near, yet out of reach, Mara determines that they must part ways. But first, she calls a Council meeting to claim her rightful place as its leader, and to prove the twins’ identity. When the meeting is to begin, Mara discovers that Lucy is a Council member, a fact Dixon had kept from her, as an oath bound him to secrecy.

  Mara presents her witnesses. While testifying, Nina reveals that she recognized Lilith, whom she’d met in Chiran. There, Lilith acted as consort to Zarek, and went by a different name. Rumor had it that when Lilith left Chiran, she was pregnant. Mara and Dixon understand: Lilith bore Zarek’s child, the one now living with Lucy.

  As the hearing is closing, Lucy interrupts. There is an item of business remaining. Reports are that Mara and Dixon have fallen in love. Mara tells the Council that they need not worry, as Dixon will be leaving her. He, caught by surprise, is distraught.

  Lucy laughs lightly, then composes herself. She questions Mara and Dixon about what it means to be unequally yoked. They assure her they understand. Lucy then pulls out a book that Mara had sent ahead with a part of her group, along with the scepter, to Lucy’s. The book discusses the Oathtaker’s oath, its “rules and exclusions.” Lucy tells Mara and Dixon that, as they both swore a life oath to protect the same of the Select, and as Ehyeh confirmed the oath of each of them, they are not unequally yoked. In fact, they are free to be together.

  Synopsis – Select: The Oathtaker Series, Volume Two

  After moving to a compound for the safety of Rowena’s seventh born, nearly two decades earlier, the Oathtakers used magic crystals to fortify its perimeter against incursions from outsiders. But a recent storm knocked down portions of those protections. Consequently, encroachments into the compound had become more frequent.

  When Jules and Nina’s eldest, sixteen-year old Carlie, goes missing, Mara, Dixon, and some Oathtaker friends, search of her. Finding intruders, they battle them. After vanquishing the enemy, Mara is missing. Dixon finds her at the bottom of a cliff, an arrow through her shoulder, and unconscious. Kayson, an Oathtaker-healer, heals her shoulder. Then Dixon carries her back to camp.

  For three days, Mara remains unconscious. Dixon keeps her hydrated. Minutes after he goes to the compound sanctuary to pray, Therese informs him that Mara is awakening. He
and the twins rush to her bedside. When she opens her eyes, he sends the twins for Lucy. After they leave, Mara asks him who they are. Subsequently, he discovers that she does not know him, or Basha, either. He encourages her to sleep, although she insists she must return home, to her mother’s.

  Dixon, Basha, and Therese, agree that if Lucy finds out about Mara’s amnesia, she will try to have her removed as Oathtaker to the twins. To protect their secret, Dixon takes Mara from the compound. Once gone, those remaining discuss compound security. To Lucy’s chagrin, the twins insist they be included. The group decides to send Marshall and Jerrett into Chiran, the obvious source of their troubles, for information. Meanwhile, Basha and Therese will check things at the palace, and then go to the City of Light where they will arrange for a census of the remaining Select and Oathtakers in Oosa. Later, the twins overhear Basha and Therese discussing Mara’s condition. Feeling abandoned, they make secret plans to leave the compound to try to determine their callings.

  As Mara and Dixon make their way through the countryside, Mara is angry that Dixon will not share details of her past with her. He fears that if he does, she might reject the information and never learn the truth. When a mountain lion attacks, Mara takes the beast down. Thereafter, she suffers a severe headache and passes out, remaining unconscious for another three days. When she awakens, she concludes that she is trained in weaponry.

  While traveling to Chiran, Marshall reveals to Jerrett that Lilith, his former charge, abused her son, Broden, when he was an infant. Marshall rescued the child and then Rowena sent him to Lucy. After Lilith’s death, Marshall moved to the compound and was reunited with him. He tells Jerrett that Zarek, the evil leader of Chiran, is Broden’s father.

  When the two arrive at The Clandest Inn, they meet with the innkeeper, Ezra. One of his spies tells the Oathtakers about a weapon used there—a “channel.” Each soldier is assigned one to use it on himself rather than to give up any of Zarek’s secrets. But using one’s channel on another is forbidden. Magic would reveal the weapon’s rightful owner, who would be put to death. Later, a former Chiranian forges documents for Marshall and Jerrett that will help them infiltrate the Chiranian troops.

  Upon arriving at Camp Cark, Chiran, Marshall becomes Cark’s new second-in-command. He meets his wife, Chaya. Because of the mass infanticide of girls in Chiran over the years, her parents had raised her, intending to sell her later, as a “wife.” Cark purchased her, but he beats her. Chaya begs Marshall for a weapon so she can kill him and be freed from her torment.

  The twins set out on their journey. Stopping at an inn, they hear traveling thugs planning to kidnap a set of twins for Zarek. Certain the men refer to them, they quickly move on.

  With the oldtimers, Leala and Fidel, Lucy discusses crucial prophecy concerning the twins, and how the moons will act when Ehyeh tests them “through thirst, hunger and division.” While she keeps it secret, the prophecy also predicts the end of her days.

  The thugs invade the compound. When they take Nina’s youngest, Calandra, captive, Broden arms himself with the nearest weapon and then approaches the men. He offers to take Calandra’s place, and tells the men that he is Zarek’s son—a fact Lucy was unaware he knew. The men take him away, along with the weapon he had carried, which was the great sword.

  Basha and Therese visit the abandoned palace of the Select. They learn that Rowena’s sisters, Sally and Janine, disappeared shortly after Lilith’s death, and likely went to Chiran. Then they prepare the palace for the twins’ possible return. Thereafter, they go to the City of Light where they find Lucy. She tells them of the twins’ disappearance, the raid, and of Broden’s kidnapping. In exchange, they inform her of Mara’s amnesia.

  Broden’s captors take him to Chiran. Along the way, he recollects the day he learned his father’s identity. Faced with the truth that both of his parents were evil people, he made a decision then about who he would serve in his future.

  Broden is jailed. He meets Striver. Later, Zarek grants him an audience. His aunts—Sally and Janine—show up. They confirm his identity by a birthmark. Then one of Broden’s captors presents Zarek with the weapon Broden had taken from the compound. Sally and Janine identify it as the great sword. Zarek, pleased, promises Broden a reward for it. Then he assigns to him, two young slave women, Yasmin and Farida. He also agrees to let Striver tutor him in the ways of Chiran. Just then, a group of new slave women arrives. Broden reminds his father of the reward promised him. He wants to choose one of the women. When Zarek grants his request, he chooses a girl he calls “Mouse.”

  Zarek and his chief spiritual advisor, Brother Pestifere, meet with the underlords of Sinespe. The underlords inform them that the great sword provides another means for taking down the Select, and ultimately, of ending Ehyeh’s rule. Then Zarek and Pestifere inform the underlords of all they have done to infiltrate Oosa’s various institutions—including the Oathtakers’ ranks—over the years.

  Back in Darth, Chaya discovers a secret place where Cark takes refuge, under their house. There, he keeps gold he has stolen from Zarek. When Cark leaves on business, he puts Marshall in charge. When Marshall vows he will help Chaya, she shows him Cark’s secret place. The two go down into it and discover a tunnel leading away, beyond the camp.

  The twins come upon a desert known as The Tearless, or Kiln. Once inside, a person cannot find his way out. They set up their camp nearby. While Eden keeps first watch, someone knocks her out. At dawn, Reigna finds her missing, then sees hoof prints leading into The Tearless. When she sets out to save her sister, a windstorm erases all sign of the way out.

  Reigna finds Eden. Their canteens run dry. With nightfall, Eden suggests she would sell her soul for a swallow of water. From out of the darkness comes a man, Malefique. He offers the twins water if they will follow him for whatever purpose he might choose. They recognize his intent to trick them, and demand that he leave.

  Nearer Mara’s former home, she and Dixon camp at a place that seems familiar to her. When troubling dreams awaken her, she takes two canteens to the river, to fill. There, she finds the grut tooth she wears around her neck. Tired and confused, she travels magically, although she believes she is dreaming. She arrives in a desert where she finds the twins, nearly dying of thirst. She leaves the two filled canteens with them. Then, hearing Dixon call her, she returns, magically, to his side. Memories invade her thoughts and she passes out for another three days. When she awakens, Dixon confirms her suspicions—that she had been in the very place some time before. Although she is unaware, it is the place where Rowena bore Reigna and Eden, and where Mara had sworn her oath to protect them. When Mara recollects that someone had died there, Dixon confirms the person had been his charge. Then she shares with him, details of her “dream” of bringing water to the twins.

  Back in Chiran, Zarek sets out to visit Camp Cark to view the new barracks that Cark is building to house women enslaved for the soldiers’ use. Broden, Striver, Mouse, and others, accompany the emperor. Along the way, Zarek makes Broden study daily with Pestifere, text from Serving Daeva. Pestifere resents Broden’s questions. When Pestifere calls for Mouse to visit him, Broden, accompanies her. He insinuates that the priest teaches about abstinence, while he seeks Mouse’s favors. The priest throws them out. The next day, Broden finds Mouse severely beaten—at the priest’s behest. Zarek warns Broden not to displease the priest again, then tells Pestifere that he likes Broden’s spirit. Accordingly, from then on, Mouse is the one slave woman no one else may touch.

  Back in The Tearless, the water Mara brought to the twins, saves them, but then, it starts to rain. The rain turns to snow. The twins discover an abandoned cabin. There, they intend to wait out the storm.

  Mara and Dixon arrive at her childhood home to find her mother, Hedda, blind and unable to care for herself. She berates Mara and grows increasingly abusive. Then, just as Dixon suggests Mara accompany him to visit the local sanctuary one afternoon, her sister, Jo, arrives. Jo attaches herself to Dixon,
making Mara, who has fallen for him, angry. Again, memories invade her consciousness—memories of Jack, a man for whom she once cared. When Jo taunts Mara, she mutters that she needs “to go shoot something.” She takes off—on Dixon’s horse.

  Mara finds herself at The Meadow, a well-known hunting ground. She recalls events from days gone by: her interest in Jack; her discovery of Jo and Jack in Jo’s bed; Jo’s resulting pregnancy; Jo’s leaving her newborn son, Seth, to Mara’s care; and Jo’s later return—again, pregnant. Mara had believed Jo would leave that child to her, as well. So, on the advice of Channer, who cared for the local sanctuary and who secretly loved Mara, she left Seth with a couple that wanted a child, and then left the area.

  Back in The Tearless, the twins, now freezing, run out of food. They decide that, come morning, they will try to find their way out. They tear apart and then burn the shack to warm up. As the fire burns, Malefique shows up again. He promises them food aplenty, if they will follow him. The twins refuse and demand that he leave. Later, each spends time at watch. While doing so, each engages in an internal dialogue that eventually becomes a conversation with Ehyeh, himself. As a consequence, they discover their callings: Reigna is a warrior; Eden a peacemaker—although she knows warfare may prove necessary before peace may be known. The twins pass out in hunger.

  At dawn, Mara, all cried out, still wants to “shoot something.” She kills and then guts, a stag. Tired, she wraps an arm around its antlers as she searches for tools from Dixon’s saddlebag. Instead, she finds a book—the oracle she had discovered when the twins were infants—although she does not recognize it. Each page reads: “Go.” She travels magically, her arms still locked on the dead stag’s antlers. She awakens in a blizzard. Seeing a fire nearby, she goes to it. There, she discovers the twins. She takes cuts from the stag and puts them over the fire. The smell of food awakens them.