Kate let out a gasp of recognition. “Of course.” She said.
Beth just looked at her, “What?”
“This curse; you said this curse.” Kate replied.
“I did. That is how I see it, don’t you?” Beth was astonished at being reprimanded for the use of the word. But, Kate apparently wasn’t reprimanding her.
“Mom, do you know of anything else that people refer to as a curse that happens once a month for a couple of days?”
Beth’s eyes widened. How had she not seen it? “Menstruation?”
Kate nodded, “This is tied to someone’s menstrual cycle. We just need to find out whose.” Kate rose and dusted off her pants. “I need to get some rest and talk with Jenny about this in the morning. Who is the best healer in the Bluffs right now?”
Beth thought for a moment. “With Adam at the Hillside, that would be Jack Collins.”
Kate nodded. “Okay, we will figure it out tomorrow. Here is hoping we are soon through with this cycle.”
As Kate kissed her Mom and left the home, Beth said aloud, “I think we all hope this is over soon.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“Phineas!” Cliff called out. It was the first word the boy had uttered in days and there was a guttural sound to it. Ted looked to where he had shouted, and there, in the middle of the road was a being that was the torso of a man, connected to the body of a horse. Ted had just seen his first centaur.
The half man, half horse stood in the middle of the road, halted by the sound of his name. He slowly turned and looked their way, the slow clip-clop of his hooves sounding on the pavement.
“Who knows that name?” The creature shouted back.
“It’s Cliff.” The boy responded.
The swishing of the centaur’s tale mirrored his clear discomfort at being recognized. Ted’s group rode their bikes a little closer. The centaur turned and Ted saw the muscles in his flank flex, and knew they would never catch him.
“We helped your mate to foal.” Cliff shouted.
Phineas turned again, then slowly inched toward them, caution in his eyes and in his steps. “Cliff? Yes, you were the boy with the healer.”
Cliff rode right up to him. The rest of the group followed a little more slowly. “Right, I was with Jack. How is your mate, and the foal?”
A smile warmed Phineas’ features as he replied, “Mary is well, and the foal, his name is Chester. We are grateful for your help.”
“These are some other friends,” Cliff said, pointing behind him to each in turn, “This is Natalee, Antwon, Anthony and Emma. You remember Rich I am certain.” The centaur gazed coldly at Rich, something was wrong. “And this is the leader of the Council, Ted Craven.”
“You are from the Council of the Bluffs?” Phineas asked Ted.
“Yes.” Ted answered. “It is nice to meet you.”
“Have you come to give us aid?” This came out almost as a neigh. There was deep sadness in it.
“What kind of aid can we give? Is something wrong, Phineas?” Rich was the one who answered, he saw the same sadness that Ted saw.
“We must be protected from the Faith. They have declared war on all of us. They call us abominations and spawn of the adversary.”
Rich stepped forward. Matters of faith were generally left to Rich due to Ted’s well-known dislike of organized religion. “Can you tell us about them?”
The centaur looked around cautiously.
“Hmm,” Rich considered their surroundings. “Perhaps it would be best if we were not out in the open then. Could we talk about this in your camp? I know Cliff would like to see Annie again, and Ted really wanted to meet her.”
Ted recognized the response in Phineas’ eyes before he ever spoke. He had seen that response in the eyes of many soldiers over the course of his army career. It was the look of one who had lost someone close in combat. Phineas took a moment, but he did respond. “She is no more. The Faith, and their evil priest Sal, burned her at the stake for being in league with the devil and creating monsters.”
“No!” Cliff’s response was relatively expected, but its fervor was not. “She can’t be dead. Tell me that is a lie.”
“I am sorry, my young friend,” Phineas replied, lowering his head. Ted was struck by just how equine his attitude and interaction was. “She had that effect on people. She was truly one of the most generous and giving souls this planet has ever seen. But she is no more.” A single stream of tears went down his left cheek. Turning back to Rich, he said, “There is no camp.”
Having nowhere to go, they just moved along in the direction the group had already been heading. Phineas told them all he knew of the Faith, their leader Minister Sal, and his henchmen, the Lord’s Hammer. He told them of the Lord’s Hammers’ negating of people’s powers and how people had already begun to rely so heavily on their powers that when they were taken away, they were useless to defend themselves.
Cliff spoke up again. “Do they affect you? I mean, do your abilities change?”
Phineas lowered his head. “Sadly, yes, or they never would have taken her. I could not use my powers to defend her. But, if you are asking if we change back around them? No, we are what we are. That can’t change due to their ability, because ours is a change in our basic making, our DNA if you will. No, I and my family will learn to fight without our powers and on that day, we will avenge Annie Grace.”
Ted thought for a moment, then asked, “Phineas, do you know where the Bluffs are?”
Phineas smiled. “I was a construction worker in the old life. Red Rocks Bluff was a job we were assigned to work. I would have been there the day after, you know, but it was pointless after that.”
Ted nodded. “Good. The Faith has not come to the west side of the old city. Gather as many of your people as you can and go to the safety of our area. You can rely on our numbers and will be accepted by our people. We value difference and variety. Perhaps you can make a home there. When I return, we can discuss integrating your people into our community if any of you would like that.”
“You would do that?” Phineas asked.
“We stand together or die alone, I always heard.” Ted clasped the large hand of the centaur.
Phineas rode off with amazing speed to go tell his family. Ted was going to need to tell the group at the Bluffs, so they wouldn’t be startled. He also needed to find out what was going on with Cliff, the boy was taking the news about Annie hard and he had only met her once. Eventually, Cliff would also have to tell him about the rash. Cliff was wearing a hoodie, with the hood up, in the middle of summer. He had become moody and overly sad, and kept alone and off to the side most of their trip. Ted remembered what Cal had told him about Kyle’s adolescence, and he wondered once again at how to help a teen out of their problems, just as he wondered with Max all year. He wondered if puberty would be especially difficult now that the teens had powers, and what that difficulty would look like.
Maybe it looks like this, he thought to himself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Another warm September day made Adam Cross anxious. He was alone at the Hillside now. There were other people, but his love was not there. Erica had left a few days before for the safety of the Bluffs. She was off to give birth to their baby girl and he was here, an administrator at a school for healers. He desperately wanted to be with her.
They had celebrated the second anniversary of the Event with the students and other healers a little over a month ago. It was hard to believe two years had passed without technology of any kind. That was the smallest thing it was hard to believe. Taking his reprieve from the mid-afternoon sun, under the shade of the large aspen grove that grew next to the Hillside’s pond and stream, he closed his eyes while lying in the tall grass Emma had grown all that time ago. A warm, but pleasant breeze blew across the water and picked up a little coolness. Adam was grateful for that.
Opening his eyes, Adam saw Mitchell heading his way. Mitchell was a jovial man, one of the warriors that had
not been a cadet. He was one of those stragglers they had just picked up along the way. He was quick with a joke, and everyone enjoyed his company. He approached with purpose, but no seeming urgency.
“Hey, bro. Some dudes down the hill for you.” Mitchell said calmly.
“Who are they?” Adam asked, not moving from his relaxing spot.
Mitchell just looked at him and smiled. “Fuck if I know, man. You want me to walk back down and ask, then walk back here and tell you? They are just some dudes on horses.”
Adam raised up and dusted the grass off his clothes, his back a little damp from the moisture in the grass. “Horses, huh?”
Mitchell grinned again. “Four dudes on horses, you think they are the Four Horsemen?”
Adam laughed. “Well, this is the apocalypse, so I guess they could be. They asked for the guy in charge?”
“No, man.” Mitchell shook his head. “They asked for Adam Cross.”
Adam was a little shocked, but maybe his name had got around. It didn’t really matter; he would have gone anyway. He and Mitchell walked the windy road down to the first landing, not in a rush. After checking on a student group on that landing, they continued down to the gates and out into the meeting area. In the last two years, the area at the bottom of the Hillside had turned into a little community. This is not only where the students lived and learned, but a small town had developed from people who came there for safety. Kayla and her Terras had spent months building the area and enclosing it with walls for protection. They had left the original road leading that way as the main thoroughfare, and had left a large space in the middle for meeting and celebrations. Adam and Mitchell walked into this open area, where they saw the four horses first. The men were on the other side of the horses, standing in a small group and talking.
“Welcome to the Hillside,” Adam greeted them as he walked their way.
From behind one of the horses strode a tall, tanned man with shaggy gray hair and a medium length beard. He looked very different, but Adam would have known him anywhere. Major Eric Fine had made it inside their defenses. Adam stopped right where he was, and Mitchell took a defensive stance, though he clearly didn’t know why he was doing it.
“Thank you for the welcome, Cross. It is good to see you.” Eric walked over and reached a hand out to shake Adam’s hand. Adam was too shocked to respond and did not want to put his hand into that monster’s grip. He just stood looking at Eric.
“Ah,” Eric said, dropping his hand, but smiling broadly. “Don’t worry. I am not here for conflict. I need to talk.”
Adam was offended immediately. “What do we have to talk about?”
Eric laughed. “Oh, I don’t want to talk to you, Doc. I am here to talk with Craven.”
“He isn’t here.”
Another smile, this time a knowing one, crossed Eric’s face. “Yes. I know. He is at Council Bluffs. But, if I had gone up that long road, the fight would have been brought to me before I had a chance to talk. So, I came here instead. Since I have not hurt you, or the others, he can be assured I am here in peace.”
“Or you can hold us hostage, you mean.” Adam knew this man too well for this charade.
“Adam Cross, why so negative?” Eric walked forward and clapped Adam on the arm. “It seems that there is a bigger threat to both of us than either of us is to the other. I would like to discuss this and see if we can come to some kind of agreement. Is that so hard to believe?”
“Yes.” Adam glanced to Mitchell, who tightened his grip on the hilt of the blade that hung from his waste.
Eric crossed his arms. “Now you are being rude. I could dismantle all of your guards without my men even being involved. This is not a fighting post. I could have taken your pretty, and very pregnant wife, on her way to the Bluffs, if I had wanted hostages.”
Adam’s heart skipped a beat. Eric Fine knew too much. He knew about the Bluffs. He knew about their warriors. He knew about Erica. “You stay away from Erica.”
“She is fine. I saw her heading up the long road to the Bluffs, she was accompanied by three fighters. My guess is she was within the gates by an hour after I saw her. And, congratulations, by the way. Married and about to be a father. Good for you.” This time, it seemed Eric thought better of clapping him on the shoulder.
The man was certainly not there to fight, at least not right now. Adam turned to Mitchell, “There is a Shepherd out front. Go tell her what has transpired, send for Ted.”
“A German Shepherd? So, it is true. The girl speaks with animals, amazing!” Eric turned around to his men and waved them to go sit down. They all pulled canteens and some kind of pouch with food from their packs and walked to some nearby benches, sitting down to relax.
“It may be a long wait.” Adam said. “I mean it may be days, I am not sure Ted is at home right now. Perhaps you could come back.”
Eric smiled a knowing smile. “Adam, let’s not insult each other. I am going nowhere. You can either give us rooms to sleep in, or we will pitch tents right here in your courtyard. You choose.”
Adam couldn’t come up with a better solution. He called to some instructors who were waiting nearby. “Prepare the hospice rooms for them.”
Eric broke out in a laugh, “Hospice? Cross, good for you for keeping it lighthearted.”
Adam turned around and walked back toward the inner gates. He wasn’t sure who would like the wait less, Eric Fine or himself.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Walking everywhere had become easier over the last two years, but the robes were still burdensome. Sal had always been theatrical, but Cory did not love the robes he had made the Lord’s Hammer wear. Cory and his three friends, Tyler, Nate and Jim, made up the Lord’s Hammer. They did work they believed in, which was only a continuance of the work they did before the end times. They had been political operatives and culture warriors, working within Sal Martino’s operation. Now they worked directly for God, though the structure really hadn’t changed that much.
Years before, barely out of High School, Cory had met Sal when he worked to get the President elected by bringing cultural issues to the forefront. All of that seemed so long ago, and so unimportant in comparison to what they were doing now. Now, they were separating the wheat from the chaff in the end times. The apocalypse had not happened exactly as expected, but Minister Sal had shown everyone how it still conformed to the scriptures. Cory and his friends played an important role in these end times.
He did love the bond he had with the other Lord’s Hammer, a spiritual bond that had happened almost immediately upon the end of technology. Due to their almost shared thoughts, they did not need to speak, and Sal had made sure they committed to not speaking any longer before sending them out to do the Lord’s work. Sal was big on the theatricality of their unspoken bond. Capturing and burning the heretics and the demon-possessed was daunting, but it was made easier by their bond.
On this mid-September day, Cory and his friends went from street to street looking for the evil ones. God had granted the Lord’s Hammer the ability to take away people’s demonic powers. Most people thought it was permanent, but it wasn’t. The power drain was only active when the Lord’s Hammer were present. Occasionally, they had met people who were so full of the Adversary’s power that it took all four of them to blunt that power. The witch, Annie Grace, had been one of those. Most just melted when in the presence of the these four of God’s holy warriors.
This particular trip had a point. Sal had sent them out to track down the one known as the Wanderer, or the Traveler. They had been searching for weeks, following rumor and the hint of a story across the eastern and southern parts of the old city. They had left areas over which the Faith held sway, and searched in areas in which the use of powers was prevalent. After all their searching, Cory was not sure they weren’t tracing a rumor. This man was supposedly very powerful in the dark arts. He was a shadow of a man. No one had a good description, and those who mentioned something were usually grandiose descr
iptions born from fear. He had glowing eyes, supposedly. Some said he was a vagabond. Some said he was John the Baptist. He sounded like an urban legend to all of them. But all of that was about to change.
Turning onto a street covered in the leaves of autumns arrival, they saw a man standing in the middle of the street. They could feel his power tugging at them, as they turned as one toward him. He did not run, as some do, and he did not seem afraid in the slightest. When they were thirty yards or so away, he took the dark sunglasses off and Cory could see the sparkle of his eyes. They glowed with a golden light, and sparkled like gems. Without quickening their pace, nor slowing, the Lord’s Hammer walked toward him and he did not move. The glowing eyes were the first indicator they might have found their prey.
As they moved closer, the man looked down at his hands and flexed them. Cory knew what he was doing, this man was experiencing the power drain, it always threw the demons off. This was going to be easier than he could have hoped for. He had the right man. This mud-covered vagrant was the legend of whom so many stories were told, and at whom so many knees trembled. It was a joke. In reality, he was a vagrant, with matted hair and a long beard. Dirt covered his flesh and his clothes
He wasn’t sure which one of his comrades willed it, but as one, they all pulled the cudgels from their sleeves as they moved close to the Wanderer. Cory looked into those eyes as the power drain dulled the glow and removed the sparkle, and he stared into the dull green eyes of a common man. He would strike him down with God’s mighty power and rid the old city of his perverse abilities.
As he raised his cudgel over his head to strike the man, his friends did the same. Cory was closest, and relished the thought of ridding the area of this menace. The Wanderer moved with blinding speed in raising his own arm in an upward arc. He should not have been able to move that quickly. But, quickly he had moved, and something was in his hand.
Fear of Mystics (Saga of Mystics Book 2) Page 7
