Anathema - The Song of Eloh Saga, Book 2 (6 page)

A free gifted couple with the power to
enchant a cloak. It seemed unbelievable, but I’d seen gifted slaves
use their powers and I knew it was real. Ranee and her invisible
whips that left all too real welts. Kandek’s healer had once
repaired a gash to his face within a day, not even leaving a scar.
I had taken them for granted as tools of the Malborn, never as a
force fighting for freedom, no matter what the old prophecies
said.

“Tania was a slave once,” Ivy said. “Someone
rescued her long ago just like she rescued us. She has the gift of
disguise, which is why she was able to manipulate you into thinking
she was a man. Jon has some affinity with nature, that I do know.
It’s how they make their living. They sell vegetables at
market.”

“They must be so wealthy with a gift like
that.”

“I thought the same thing, but Tania
explained to me how they live modestly and don’t produce too much.
They don’t want to be caught. She told me that they just want to
live like normal people. Blend in.”

“Hard to imagine after a lifetime of
slavery, isn’t it?” I asked. “Did their masters know about their
gifts?”

“No. I don’t even think Tania and Jon knew
until they were rescued. That’s when they were told.”

“They were rescued and then found out about
their gifts?”

“According to Tania, no one knows what their
gift is until they’ve discovered it for themselves. Other gifted
can see the spark, but not the specific gift. That’s all up to the
individual.”

Ivy paused after jumping over a fallen tree.
She turned to look at me.

“Tania saw the spark in me once in the
market. It’s why she chose to rescue me. And she looked nothing
then like what she actually looks. I think she was probably afraid
that if I didn’t want to be rescued I might turn her in. Disguise
is a great gift to have.”

“What’s your gift?” I asked. Part of me
thought I should already know having spent years with Ivy, but I
didn’t have a clue.

“I’m a soother. I can help anyone who is
stressed or worried to feel better. I’ve known it for years. I just
never knew it was a magical gift or that I could manipulate it.”
Ivy smiled and I knew it was true. She had calmed me down more than
once, especially at night when everything, not just light, seemed
darkest.

“Thanks for begging them to rescue me,” I
said. “Without your friendship I’d still be stuck there with a
fresh fox brand on my neck.”

Ivy rubbed her neck. Still slightly swollen,
her month-old brand was a painful reminder of what she had done for
me.

“That’s true. Had Tania not gone in to get
you, no one would know how powerful you are.” Ivy said.

“Huh?”

“Your spark. It shines so brightly that
anyone who can see it is blinded,” Ivy said, putting her hand on my
arm. “You have gifts far beyond me.”

I stopped walking and stared at Ivy. Gifts?
I had no idea what she was talking about.

“Me?” I laughed. “There’s nothing special
about me, much less having a gift.”

“How did Tania act the first time she saw
you?” Ivy asked.

“I was in the dungeon and she was suddenly
outside my cell door. I didn’t hear anyone approach. Somehow she
got the guard to sleep and then she whispered to me through the
door. She told me to run when I had the chance.”

I shuddered, remembering those few miserable
hours.

“Is that all?” Ivy prompted. “Think hard.
How did she react when she saw you?”

I thought for a moment, remembering how
Tania had frozen in place before giving the orders. She had stopped
and stared at me, as if she had been startled by what she saw.

“She did seem a bit taken aback,” I said. “I
just assumed it was the situation, not me.”

“It definitely was you,” Ivy said. “Now that
I know how to see the spark, I can’t believe all of those years we
were together and I never noticed it before. I guess it’s all about
looking in the right way.”

“Can you show me?” I asked. “If I’m special
too, I ought to know how to recognize others like us.”

Ivy pulled me down on to a huge tree trunk.
The rain had let up a while ago and while the trunk was damp, it
had absorbed most of the fallen water. The green moss tickled my
fingers as I settled myself.

“Stare into my eyes,” Ivy said cupping my
chin in her hand.

I squinted, looking at her eyes, not seeing
anything different than the blue that was always there.

“You see the pupil? The black part in the
middle?” Ivy asked.

“Yeah.”

“Look directly into the center, do you see
anything there?”

I focused on the center of Ivy’s eyes. They
were black and reflective. For a moment I saw myself, a girl I
barely recognized with a dark wig, but as my eyes unfocused, I
gasped. A light emanated from deep inside, twinkling lightly. So
lightly in fact that had I never been told where to look, I
wouldn’t have seen it.

“I see it!” I squealed. “So I have that in
my eyes too?”
Ivy laughed. “Yes, you do. I’ve looked into Tania and Jon’s eyes
and I saw it in theirs. But yours, Reychel, the spark is so strong.
It’s a good thing only those with gifts can see it or everyone
would have thought there was something wrong with you. It’s also
lucky that Kandek’s gifted slaves never got close to you. Eloh only
knows where you’d be right now if they knew.”

“I still can’t believe that I have some kind
of gift,” I said. “I don’t really think there’s anything special
about me. You said you’ve known forever that you can soothe people.
I could have told you that. It’s how we became friends.”

“Ah, yes, the incident with the rat,” Ivy
smiled.

“You talked me down from the bookcase I had
climbed. Good thing too or I might have knocked it over and both of
us would have gotten hurt,” I laughed.

We sat for a moment giggling, but as the
late afternoon sun broke through the clouds we realized that moving
again was what we had to do.

“We’re about halfway there, I think,” I
said. “At least based on how long Jon thought it would take us to
travel. I don’t really know.”

“Neither do I,” Ivy answered. “We should
start walking again before it’s too dark.”

“I can see pretty well in the dark,” I said.
“All those years without sunshine does that to a girl. So if it
gets a little dark, I can keep an eye on things.”

Tossing our packs on our backs, Ivy and I
pulled ourselves away from our respite. It was time to move on. For
a moment I felt safe. Even though they were looking for me, we were
ahead of them. It allowed me a feeling of security. I began to
believe that everything was going to be okay. We had managed to
escape and our new lives were about to start.

As we walked in the silent, wet leaves, a
crunch startled us to attention. The road lie to the left and it
was littered with rocks and gravel. We weren’t alone.

“Drop,” Ivy whispered as she fell behind the
stump.

I joined her among the fallen leaves as my
heart pounded.

Chapter Six

“Do you think it’s them? Have they found us
already?” I whispered, watching the road through the trees. I could
hear the crunching but no one had come into view yet.

“I don’t know,” Ivy said, her eyes wide as
she too stared at the road.

We sat holding hands and didn’t move from
our spot as the gravel continued to crunch in slow, metered beats.
Two horses, I figured based on the rhythm. They weren’t traveling
fast, but rather slow.

“They’re looking for us,” Ivy said. “I just
know it.” Her hands began to shake as she let go of mine and
reached out towards the road.

“What are you doing?” I yanked her hands
back, afraid someone would see them.

“I thought maybe I could soothe them.”

“From this far away?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never tried.” Ivy looked
at me, her eyes filled with anxiety. “This might be the best time
to try.”

“Try what?” a male voice boomed behind
us.

I jumped to my feet as Ivy leapt up in front
of me. A man stood not ten paces behind us. His rough clothes told
me he wasn’t a guard. The dark, faded pants, and rumpled plain
shirt spoke of a different profession. A farmer? A laborer? But not
a soldier.

“Trying to make it to Keree before
nightfall, good sir,” Ivy said. “We really don’t know how much
farther we have to go and we were debating whether or not to camp
for the night. Then we heard you and your horses, so we decided to
hide. You never know who you’ll meet on the road.”

He stared at Ivy and then at me. As his eyes
drank me in from bottom to the top and then down again, I felt the
hair on my arms rise. His piercing gaze scared me. I’d been warned
of how men can hurt women, but I’d always been protected within the
castle. Even though we were slaves, Kandek made sure we were all
unmolested.

“What should we do, Aron?” he asked, looking
behind us.

I whirled around, seeing a second man
standing between the trees, two leads in his meaty hands. The
horses behind him nickered, blowing air through their nostrils.

“I don’t know, Kerk. Two young girls out all
alone on the road. Seems like they need the guidance of two older
and experienced men.” My stomach flipped and my jaw shook as his
smirk showed his black teeth. I knew what he wanted and it wasn’t
to give us guidance.

“Now, now,” Ivy said, her eyes focusing on
Aron. “You have your own business to attend to. But you forgot your
goods at home.”

I looked at the two horses, their saddlebags
full. They had forgotten nothing, it seemed.

“We would only slow you down,” Ivy
continued, turning to Kerk. “You have deadlines and now that you
have to go home and pack up again, you’ll lose a lot of time. You
may not get paid if you don’t deliver your goods in a timely
manner.”

“She’s right,” Aron said. “Look at that. Our
packs are empty! You were supposed to pack them.”

“Me? Packing is your job. It’s mine to ready
the horses,” Kerk argued.

“Now we have to go back and we’re going to
lose out on that big payment we was promised.”

“C’mon, let’s get out of here. Them two
girls ain’t worth our time. Not when money’s involved.”

They bickered as they mounted their horses
and raced back down the road towards the Wendak, their heavy packs
slapping against the poor horses’ haunches. I didn’t dare to
breathe until they were out of sight and the cracking noise of the
horses hooves disappeared.

“It worked,” I squealed, dancing around Ivy.
“I can’t believe you did it. That was amazing.”

Ivy stood still, her eyes wide, a smile on
her face.

“I did, didn’t I? This is the first time
I’ve intentionally used my gift.” She whirled around in a circle,
her arms thrown out. “And it feels good. I can’t even describe to
you how I feel right now. I relaxed them so much they were willing
to do whatever I said.”

I grabbed Ivy, pulling her into a tight hug.
She didn’t hug me back nearly as hard, but I was crushing her. Her
eyes were staring off into the distance while her smile grew by
tiny increments.

“We should keep moving.” I tugged on her
sleeve to remind her I was still there. “They’ll be down this road
again.”

“Oh, I doubt that,” Ivy said, snapping out
of her reverie. “It’ll be too dark to leave by the time they get
home. We won’t see them again.”

***

“Do you see the symbol?” Ivy whispered as we
crept out of the woods on the outskirts of Keree. I strained to see
anything in the black night, but the majority of the village was
sleeping, along with their lights. Only far off flickers from the
windows of what was probably the town tavern cut through the
darkness.

Tania had instructed us to see Johna, an
herbalist living in Keree. It was the safest place for us to stay
until we learned how to make our own lives and function in the
world.

“We’re looking for the sign with the hops on
it?” I asked peering into the darkness.

“Yeah,” Ivy whispered back. “Can you read
that sign?”

She pointed in to the first house about
forty paces away. I squinted my eyes, trying to make out the symbol
on the sign hanging above the doorway. “What do hops look
like?”

“A green plant with little flowers that look
like cones,” Ivy said.

“Then this is the place.” I could barely see
the symbol on the sign as the wind danced with it. Back and forth
it creaked, the only sound in the silent night. “What should we do?
It’s so late. Should we just knock on the door?”

“Why don’t you talk a little louder?”
whispered a voice behind us.

I spun around, as did Ivy, and we were face
to face with an older woman. She’d appeared out of nowhere, nothing
signaled her approach.

“Where did you come from?” Ivy asked. “No
one else was in the woods with us.”

“I was out collecting nightbloom. Only
blooms at night, you know,” she said with a wink.

“
My goodness, child.” The
woman walked straight towards me, her black cloak billowing around
her. “You must be Reychel. You do sparkle, don’t you? Tania warned
me, but my, oh my, you are beyond any expectations. Like a beacon
in the dark night.”

“Are you Johna?” I couldn’t see much beyond
the hood on her cloak to see if she matched Tania’s description of
a middle-aged woman with long silver hair and a crooked nose. Her
bright smile was supposed to make up for the crone image.

“That I am. And you’re lucky it’s me and no
one else. You two need to be more careful. They’re looking for one
of you and anyone would be out of their minds not to turn you in.
Tania’s message spoke of a high reward.”

“Message?” Ivy asked. “We just got here
ourselves, how could you have received a message already?”

“We have our ways.” The woman rebalanced the
basket she held under one arm to stare at Ivy. “You sparkle too,
Ivy, though not as strong as Reychel.”