The Sage Seed Chronicles: The Unraveling (32 page)

Erin was subtly walking her nearer Gyan.
“Would you like to meet Gyan? It looks like the crowd is thinning.”
“Sure,” she said with a smile.

Gyan looked up as Erin and Chelbi approached,
alerted by the warming of his pendant. “Gyan, I would like you to
meet Chelbi. She does beautiful things with leather scraps.” Erin
said pointing to the bag on the woman’s shoulder.

Gyan shook her hand. “It’s nice to meet you!
I noticed several unusual vests and coats in the crowd. Was that
your work also?”

“Yes. I have just set up my shop here and the
people have really welcomed me and my craft. It’s been nice.”

Gyan took her arm and walked her toward the
bench that Erin and Ree had sat at several weeks ago. “Chelbi, I
have a proposal I would like to discuss with you. Do you have a
moment?” She looked a little confused but she nodded.

Drune walked up as Gyan and Chelbi sat down.
He stuck out his hand to her. “Hi. My name is Drune. I’m traveling
with these two.” He gave her a grin. Erin quietly noticed that Keir
was on the branch behind the bench and Bast was casually conversing
with two other security men. His positioning discouraged people to
approach the Great One.

“Chelbi,” Gyan started, “Have you heard of
‘Timeless Ones’?”

She thought a moment and shook her head. “I
have heard of sages and that you are one. Is that the same
thing?”

Gyan smiled. “Yes. You’re absolutely correct.
What I’m going to tell you is not for public consumption,
especially after the witch misinformation that has recently caused
the realm so much trouble.”

She nodded somberly. “You have my word.”

“What have you heard about sages?”

“Not that much. I have heard that there are a
small number of them in the realm and they are important but I
don’t know why.”

Gyan thought just a moment. “You’re right on
both counts. The maximum amount of sages in the realm at any given
time is fifteen or sixteen. This because a sage is born only every
two or three generations. They are important because there is an
unusual quality at the cellular level that bonds with the planet.
Without them the planet destabilizes and reverts to what it was
before the ancient’s found it: volcanically active with horrendous
storms and uninhabitable. When Bure and his relatives started
killing a few months ago they killed six sages.”

Chelbi’s eyes got very big. “Then the weather
and quakes... The stuff you said about the henges was a smoke
screen then?”

Gyan shook his head. “No, both are correct.
What we are getting now was triggered by the sage count dropping to
nine. But now that the link is so weak the henge issue just makes
it worse. We have been pouring through the Ancient’s archives. We
must correct both and we have little time. The Ancients left us a
back door to increase the sage count. We didn’t know about it until
less than two weeks ago. Apparently there are latent sages. These
are people who carry the sage seed but it hasn’t activated due to
the governing condition that regulates the birth timeline by the
ancients. They gave us the means to locate the latents and to
activate them. That has been part of our mission along with the
henge issue. Chelbi, you are a latent sage. It is your decision to
be activated or not. If you choose to be a sage your body will age
slowly and you will live several hundred years. You will also
develop some special talents that the rest of the population
doesn’t have. For instance I can receive information from people or
objects by touch and have a very strong intuitive sense. The good
side of all of this is that you have a lot of time to learn and
perfect your skills and will have a built in support system with at
least fourteen other sages. The down side is that you will outlive
many friends and loved ones.”

Nothing more was said and clearly Chelbi was
processing the whole thing. “Well I don’t like the idea of living
beyond many loved ones. I have a young daughter. I suppose that I
will be able to enjoy her entire life fully without getting old and
tired. Is there a chance that she is a sage also?”

Gyan shook his head. “Frequently sages have
normal offspring. It is a random thing.”

She thought again. “But you are still short
in your sage count, aren’t you?” The three nodded at her. “And if I
say no then I am dooming all of my loved ones to storms and quakes,
where if I say yes I am allowing them to live on a more stable
world?”

Gyan nodded with a shrug. “We don’t have all
of the answers. We’re only going on the information we have found.
Our count is almost up and we are correcting the henge thing. We
may have a short period of time of turbulence as the planet
readjusts. I don’t know at what level it would settle if we were a
few short. I can’t answer that.”

Tempo walked into the group and sat beside
Erin. Chelbi looked down at the little skunk then back up at Erin.
“Sometimes I forget that this hardship is happening to more than
people. Okay. I wish to be activated.” Drune sat down beside her
and placed his hands on her wrists. Erin knelt down as if she was
petting Tempo and put her hand on his knee. Less than a minute
later Gyan and Erin’s pendants pulsed warmth.

Gyan smiled at Chelbi. “Welcome! There is one
more thing. Each of us has something that we carry with us always
that helps focus our link with the planet. We call them enhancers.”
He opened the bag and laid them on the bench beside her where Drune
had just been sitting. “Choose one or two that seem to resonate
with you, to have more meaning, than the others. We will give you
some space to concentrate.”

She stopped them as they were getting up.
“None of these holds any meaning for me except this beautiful
piece.”

Gyan smiled. “That is perfect for you! That
is labradorite and the three bees are an old celtic design! In a
few months your skills will be evident. I will be in touch with you
before that. Store up your questions and I will answer each one, I
promise, but right now we really need to leave. We don’t know how
difficult it will be to find and rebuild the henge.”

They all stood up but Chelbi put her hand on
Erin’s arm to stop her. “I don’t know if intuition or clairvoyance
will be one of my skills but I want you to have this.” She took the
‘messenger’ bag off her shoulder and handed it to Erin who looked
at her in bafflement.”

“As you can see it is empty. Somehow I feel
that you’ll need it. You’ll have to get back to me and let me know
if I was right.”

Erin smiled and briefly squeezed Chelbi’s
hand. “Thank you, Chelbi! I will indeed let you know.”

The group returned to the center of town and
made their goodbyes. “Gyan, I know you have to travel. Our bakery
made you and your party a warm lunch that you can eat as you ride.
If you have need of any workers on an emergency basis as you
complete your tasks in the next few days just send a man to us. We
know how important your job is and the time is slim. No questions
asked.” The city elder offered. Gyan smiled at the man. “Thank you.
I really appreciate the offer and will take you up on that if the
need arises.”

Bast and Gyan led the expedition due east
from Terresville. They knew that the henge was on that heading and
before they hit the Mear River, so they checked their compass and
rode. The group had traveled a little over an hour when the saw a
horseman approaching them. He was wearing dark blue, similar to the
colors the security men wore. As he got closer they recognized
Mikl, the messenger that Lor had sent. He had been riding hard. It
didn’t look like he had taken much time for sleeping or eating.
They paused long enough for him to hand over the pouch and for the
men to give him some of the fresh food from Terresville. He joined
the group as they moved further east.

They were losing light fast as a lot of very
thick and dark clouds were moving in. They were out in the middle
of the prairie, half way between Terresville and the Mear river,
when the wind came up strong. They found a depression in the land
and got off their horses. Erin spoke to all of the animals and told
them to lie down. There was no way that anyone in the party wanted
to be the high point in the land during a storm. It was too windy
to set up tents so the men huddled against their horses and hoped
the storm would pass soon. It got darker yet.

Tempo, who was next to Erin and her horse
crept closer yet. ‘If I had a burrow I’d be in it. This is worse
than the storm you watched. This one is close!’

Erin reached out the stroke her little
friend. ‘Lightning then? Not the funnel cloud?’

‘I feel the lightning. I’m not sure of the
rest.’

Erin reached out to the horses with her mind.
‘Stay down and you should hopefully be safe. We are going to have
lightning. It will be startling and the thunder will be loud but
just stay down!’

They could see the lightning overhead
shooting between clouds. It was fascinating and beautiful to watch.
Then it struck the ground. They couldn’t see where because they
were in a swale but it did hit the ground. The storm was coming
closer and the thunder indicated that the strikes were within five
miles. Some of the horses were getting jumpy and that was a whole
lot of muscular animal to try to hold down. Erin kept the
reassurance and instructions going into their minds. She didn’t
want to pass on any startling reactions on her part. That wouldn’t
help so she concentrated all she was worth, focusing on their
minds. Then there was a lightning bolt so close and bright that the
after image seemed to stay on the backs of Erin’s eyelids.
Immediately the thunder roared, deafening the party. It was all
Erin could do to keep the animals down. More hits. More smashing
noises. The storm was right over them. The top of the swale, no
more than ten feet from them, was hit. The air sizzled and the
thunder was immediate and ear-poppingly loud. One horse, a young
stallion, spooked and started to get up. His fear was making him
deaf to Erin’s voice. Omin was trying to hold him down. Erin had
control of the other horses but couldn’t hold the stallion. Byan
jumped to Omin’s aid and both men were pulling on the fractious
animal. The air snapped again and Byan and the horse sank to the
ground as if a puppet master had cut their strings. The storm moved
on. Behind the lightning came the rain. It wasn’t really heavy or
they would have been in some danger in the swale, but it was enough
to wet everybody down.

Erin asked Tempo, ‘Is the air still
crackling?’

When he answered no, she got up in a crouch.
Holding the animals’ minds, she urged them to stay down. She ran in
a crouch to where Byan, Omin and the stallion lay. The horse was
stunned but alive. Erin spoke to it verbally and mentally. It
couldn’t hear her voice but was aware of her mental speech. She saw
that both men were sitting up. Byan’s curly brown hair was gone on
one side of his head and his hat was smoldering. Omin was fine.
Chai came over and started to examine Byan.

Zar was looking over the horse. Erin
approached Zar and said. “He can’t hear.

Does he have any blood in his ears?”

Zar shook his head. “We’ll watch it. It may
never come back.” Byan seemed to be fine except for the hair and
his hat.

Everyone was up. Some of the horses were
going to stay down until Erin told them it was alright to stand.
They weren’t going to take any chances. She circulated through the
animals and reassured them. Soon all were standing and the sky was
clearing as the storm moved to the north. Gyan checked with each
man, particularly Byan. The consensus was to get their tails off of
the center of the prairie. Erin asked the stallion, Dash, if he
felt up to being ridden and well enough to leave the area. ‘I can’t
hear but I understand how Omin moves. Let’s go.’ then he added in a
quiet tone, ‘I was stupid. Sorry I didn’t listen.’ She stroked his
side. ‘You’re still alive.’ then she gave him one more pat and
nodded to Omin.

She returned to her horse and scooping Tempo
up, swung into the saddle. When they moved out of the swale
everybody looked around. There were scorch marks at the top of the
rise. Erin’s body gave a shiver to how close they came. Soon they
had moved into a lope and were heading east with all speed. Luna
rose and gave them enough light to keep moving. The slowed their
pace but forged ahead. When Cear came up they could see the remains
of a stone hut ahead. They walked their horses to the abandoned
structure. It had parts of two right angle walls. They put the
horses into that structure and put up their tents around it. Chai
set up the fire and started to prepare the meal. The security team
took care of the horses while Gyan talked to Mikl. The young man
had volunteered to ride as fast as he could to get the pouch to
Gyan. Beyond that he didn’t know what it contained or what they
needed it for. Gyan slapped Mikl on the back and told him to bed
down as soon as he had some food. The food was ready and the tents
set up. Everybody had had a chance to get into dry clothes before
they sat down to eat. The mood was light with roots in seriousness,
as is often the case when a brush with a deadly situation. The
security men were teasing Byan for his unusual hair style and Zar
volunteered to even it up after dinner.