The Sage Seed Chronicles: The Unraveling (34 page)

Erin returned to the henge location and stood
in the third post hole. She called. There was no answering voice.
She looked worriedly over at Gyan, who had been watching her. She
closed her eyes and put everything behind the next shout. There
might have been a response. It was hard to tell. She felt Gyan put
his hands on her shoulders. “Try now, Erin.” She called as loud as
she could. She could feel Gyan’s connection increasing her
expressive and receptive skill. She could sense an answer, farther
east. She took off running. A quarter of a mile away she and Gyan
stopped to try again. The answering, deep voice was closer. Flin,
the youngest of Gyan’s security team, rode up pulling two horses.
The two sages mounted and rode further east. When they stopped
again Erin called without help. The answer is now understandable.
“He said that he is on a sandbar in the middle of the river. Due to
the cold weather the river is lower and the sandbar is exposed.”
Erin told to Gyan and Flin. The three rode into the river and cross
to the sandbar. Now in constant contact, Erin learned that this
third post, from the wild henge, was called Mait, and that Mait
thought that another post might be nearby on the shore. Erin
reassured Mait that this time that the ropes go around him, he will
be moving back to his place in the henge. She left him and rode to
the shore to call.

Erin had been starting her calls from the
post holes in the henge. This time she tried to call without that
aid. She made a general call. “Wild Henge posts. I am trying to
find you so you can be returned where you belong. If you can hear
me please answer.” She could just make out a deeply resonant ‘post’
voice. Erin whipped her horse around and started to pick her way
through the log and rock debris that lined the banks of the river,
calling the whole time. The voice was getting louder as Bast rode
up to her. They had gotten Bonl and Twis out of the ground and over
to their respective holes. Drune had a bucket and a brush and was
cleaning the accumulated grime off of them. The rest were coming to
help. Gyan and Flin had been joined by Tyn and together were
freeing Mait. Bast looked over at Erin then scanned the debris on
the bank. “He says his name is Sel and we are almost beside him.”
They got off their horses and started poking into the log piles.
Erin was reaching under a hollow by a drifted log when she jumped.
Bast was quickly beside her.

“What is it, Erin?”

“Sorry, I touched his face. I wasn’t prepared
for the contact. You know, you brush your hand against a log and it
is just a piece of wood, then you're touching something that thinks
and is aware. It just startled me. Oh man, we are going to have to
have the horses pull all of this stuff off of him!”

Bast turned and shouted, “Omin, Byan, We need
your ropes and horses to pull apart this rubble. There is a post at
the bottom!” Erin explained to Sel what was going to happen then
rode back to Gyan.

“How is Mait?” “It took three of us to get
him across the river and up the bank, but we made it. Flin is
taking him in.”

Erin nodded, “I don’t know which spot Sel
belongs to.”

Gyan leaned over the side of his horse and
patted her knee. “Go ask Sel who he stood by in the henge and tell
him that you had two more to find.”

Erin blinked at him. “Of course. How
logical.” She was laughing as she turned to look toward Bast. She
was quiet then turned back to Gyan. “He said he understands. He
stood between Bonl and Xant. That gives us a pattern. I need to get
back to the henge. I’ll take more water to Drune while I’m at
it.”

Both of them grabbed the buckets that the men
had brought to the river and filled them. They rode back to the
site where Drune worked. Approaching the site from that direction
was lovely. The beginning of the home and the henge were framed
against a rise in the land at their back. In the spring the prairie
grasses would be gracefully rippling in the wind with areas of wild
flowers. This time of year the place was surrounded by golds and
browns as the prairie settled down for the winter. Erin got off her
horse and gave Drune the buckets she had carried. Tempo was asleep
in the sun against a stone for the house and Keir wheeled on the
air currents above.

“Two more to find. Those herders pulled two
to the river. The post, Mait, is coming now. He goes here. They are
trying to get Sel free and I think he stands over there by Bonl.”
Drune nodded and stood to get the other buckets from Gyan. She
admired the cleaned post’s wild beauty for a moment then went to an
empty spot in the pattern. She closed her eyes and concentrated on
her call, listening hard for an answer.

Immediately she heard an answer from the
direction of the prairie. Erin crossed in front of the house site
and climbed the rise, all the time keeping in contact. It was Xant.
She told him about the lost information and the crisis that caused
them to find out about the ‘Wild Henge’. Erin told him of his
fellow posts that had been found and about the sage that would live
there. By the time she had crested the rise she saw a glint of
black granite. She called out loud to Gyan and Drune who came
running. Bast wasn’t far behind shouting for men who were free.
Erin knelt by the piece of black that was exposed above the prairie
grasses and touched the post. ‘We’re here and you will be free soon
and standing as you were intended.’ Gyan and Drune ran up. “This is
Xant. His spot is where I was standing. I believe Sel, who was
under the drift wood on the beach, is beside him. We have one more
to find. I’m going back to the henge.” Gyan nodded. “I’m going with
you. You’re doing a great job, Erin, but I want to be there if you
need me.”

They left Drune and a few security men with
shovels and returned to the henge. Flin had just arrived with the
post, Mait. Erin showed him where the appropriate hole was for
Mait. She could see the rider in the distance bringing Sel. “Flin,
when they get here with the post that was buried on the beach it
goes here. We found one over the rise that will go beside it.
Okay?” Flin smiled a nod as he laid Mait by his spot.

Erin moved to the post hole just down a
little ways from where Flin was and closed her eyes. She called.
There might have been a response but it was so weak she wasn’t
sure. She motioned Gyan over without opening her eyes and felt his
hands on her shoulders. She punched her call with all of her mental
energy and actually felt Gyan take a step back but his hands didn’t
leave her shoulders. This time she heard an answer. It came from
behind her and was a ways out. She held onto the contact and
opening her eyes, turned and started in the direction of the voice.
She kept walking. The voice wasn’t far but it appeared to be
deep.

Erin got on a rise and looked at the land
critically trying to see it as it may have been fifty years ago.
She walked off of the rise, angling left in the general direction
of the river. There was a soft ripple in the land that would direct
run off toward the river in the rainy season. Erin moved toward
that and the voice got a little louder. When she was about four
hundred yards from camp she felt the voice getting weaker again and
she turned. By slowing and narrowing her turns Erin got to a point
where she couldn’t get the voice to be any louder. ‘Boin, I believe
you are really buried. If I jumped and stamped would you be able to
tell me if I were over you?’

‘Try, Erin. I really want to be found. I have
been here so long. I’ll listen hard.’

Erin looked at Gyan and Bast who had followed
them. “Come close and jump with me. He’s down a ways.” Bast put
down the shovel and the two men did as she asked. Every few jumps
Erin would stop and check with Boin. The fifth time they did it
Erin got an excited response. ‘You’re right above me. Erin you
found me!’

She looked at Bast and gave him a big smile.
“Here.”

He grabbed his shovel and started digging. By
that time the rest of the posts had been pulled to the henge and
Drune was cleaning them. Flin, Zar and Tyn were digging the holes
deeper so each post could be set in place. But Omin, Byan and Chai
came running with there shovels and rope. They finally found the
carved granite post four feet down. It appeared that he had been in
a gully that had caved in and over time there had been more
sloughing, then the prairie grass took over. By early evening all
of the posts had been found. Erin was drained of energy and Gyan
had Chai fix her some nourishing tea to have with a warm meal. She
sat and watched as post by post the Wild Henge stood once more on
the Pastarham prairie in the center of the realm. When Boin was
firmly planted everyone stood and cheered. They were really a
breathtaking sight with their slightly sinuous wild beauty carved
and polished into black granite. It was awesome!

The whole group basically called it a day.
Those with energy still worked with Drune to set the foundations of
his home. Tents were erected and the team settled down. Tempo, who
had been watching the activity but had stayed out of the way of the
workers, approached the henge with Erin. She asked the posts if
they minded the wild ones in their midsts. ‘I have some companions
that have been invaluable on this quest. This is Tempo.’ Erin
motioned to Keir and Nuit, who had just arrived. She introduced
them in turn.

There was an eerily beautiful chorus of henge
post voices speaking in unison in her head. ‘We are glad to meet
your companions who have helped you. We are sincerely grateful for
being in the fresh air again. Thank you, Erin. We have a question
for you. Did you know that you found us just in time? The total
eclipse will occur in less than four days.’

Erin’s jaw dropped. ‘You know when it will
be?’

‘Yes.’ came the low bass answer. ‘We are
aligned with the cosmos and linked to the planet. We know.’

Gyan sat alone in his tent. The camp was
quiet and he could have had Erin and Drune with him but he had let
them retire. Erin had been really tired. He had seen her use her
skills and mental energy non-stop all day. He didn’t know anyone
who could do that! He had been a sage for years and had worked with
many of his kind. They were all different with strengths and
weaknesses in their special skills. But never had he seen anyone go
full speed and strength all day, like Erin. When she had made that
one call and he had been enhancing her strength, she had rocked him
back on his heels. She was phenomenal! He wasn’t sure if it would
inhibit her natural abilities if he told her that technically she
shouldn’t be able to do what she could do! He was going to make
sure she was low key for a couple of days. He didn’t want her to
burn out due to overload and by the ancients, she had earned her
rest. He had to chuckle about the henge telling her that the
eclipse would be in less that four days. No one had thought to ask
them.

She had given back to him the small piece of
black granite and the pendant for finding the latent henges. Her
job was done. She had played an enormous part in stopping the
decline and in putting the realm back on its feet. The very least
she deserved was a home.

He took a breath and let it out. ‘Cesler, how
are you coming with the extra project I gave you?’

‘Gyan, good to hear from you. We are working
in shifts, non stop. The fact that Luna and Cear are both almost
full has been a big help. Jes’s studio dismantled more easily than
we expected and with the extra building materials we have we should
be finished by midnight tomorrow. We’re basically moving four walls
from here to there and joining it to the home structure.’

Gyan smiled. ‘Great news! I really appreciate
it. Erin has more than earned it. Cheroan is sending your way the
remains of her life with her parents: her father’s loom and the
contents of her mother’s still room. Those things might possibly be
arriving by sundown tomorrow. The eclipse is on schedule so I will
be sending Erin in your direction in a couple of days. That young
woman found the site of the wild henge and located the six posts
that were scattered all over the place. I tell you, she impresses
me. Robse and Shamra would be proud. Thank you for pulling off this
task.’

‘Gyan, I am more than happy to do it. Keep me
informed.’

Gyan took a deep breath. As he let it out he
thought, ‘Lor, how are things at Aerie?’

‘Well, I found the passage, but it’s my guess
that you don’t need it anymore.’ Gyan laughed. ‘I figured to be on
the safe side and assume that sages needed to be in residence. Go
ahead and tell me what the ancient’s said.’

Lor’s voice had a smile,“To keep the binding
strong, sages need to dwell at the three wild henges. Eclipses,
though, particularly total eclipses, are so important for the
bonds, that it is best that sages be at those specific residences
at those times.“ So tell me, what is the residence situation?’