The Sage Seed Chronicles: The Unraveling (6 page)

Lor paused briefly then went on in a rush.
‘Kennet jumped in front of her and started yelling at the mad fools
that ‘witches’ don’t bleed and this was proof that she wasn’t a
witch and that they were misinformed and wrong to attack good
honest merchants. The band started milling around, questioning each
other about what they were doing. Little Flar, bless her brave
heart, walked up to Kennet, at the front of the guild members and
with her boot knife sliced her own arm. She held it out as it
dripped blood and said loudly, “See, I bleed just like you. Now go
back where you came from and leave good, decent citizens alone.
There are no witches!” There was more talk within the milling
thugs. One of them said to the man nearest him, “Bure didn’t say if
they bleed!” Shortly after that they all rode away.’

Lor’s mental speech finally slowed down.
‘Alliz is hurt badly. We have been traveling slower trying not to
jar her very much.... What rock slide?’

‘There was a rock slide, just before you
leave the ‘Tight Valley’. It happened right behind Drune and Erin.
A team of miners and road workers are there trying to clear it so
you can get through. I will send security and healers to you. Give
my love to Alliz and stay safe. Kennet and Flar have my highest
respect.’

As soon as the conversation was finished Gyan
was sprinting for the door calling for Sterling. After a quick
conference Sterling was running to dispatch Bact and a security
team with additional healers to intercept the caravan.

Gyan dashed to Erin’s bedroom. He barely
restrained himself from pounding on her door and just knocked. When
she answered, he abruptly asked if she could call Nuit. Erin,
sensing the urgency, didn’t even question the request. She silently
called as she opened the glass doors to her balcony. Drune hearing
the commotion came out of his room and stood there silently. Nuit
flew in and landed on Erin’s forearm. Everyone looked at Gyan. “The
caravan was attacked shortly after you left it. Alliz was injured.
The train has been moving slowly since then in an attempt not to
jar her. They haven’t yet gotten to the rock slide. I have sent
Bact with security and a few of our most experienced healers. I
would like you, if you’d be willing, Nuit, to go to the caravan and
have it watched by our wild friends. Maybe Keir could join the team
in the morning.” Nuit had been watching Erin closely as Gyan was
speaking, following the words though Erin’s mind. She turned her
head to gaze at the Great One then made a low sound and took off
into the night.

Gyan turned to the two young sages. His face
was lined with concern and fatigue as he filled them in about what
all he had learned from Char, Ree, Bas and Lor. Erin put her hand
on his arm. His eyes got an unfocused look for just a second then
he looked at her with dawning amazement. “You think you have found
a key!”

She grinned. “Yes. Rest on that thought. I
promise to share all of it with you in the morning. You need sleep
and to recharge, like the glow stones. With what I have discovered
it will still take time to find all of the information we
need.”

Tempo looked up at her. Erin looked from the
little skunk then again met Gyan’s gaze. “Tempo said to tell you
that Alliz will be alright. She is too tough to die from a little
knife wound and the realm will also eventually heal. He has
absolute faith in whatever information the ancients left us.”

When Erin got up just after dawn she told
Keir about the information from the night before. As soon as she
opened her balcony door Keir flew to the railing. The little merlin
turned to her and said, ‘I will recruit fellow merlins to watch the
caravan during the day. I will probably stay with them through the
night as I did when I was traveling with you. I am sure that Nuit
will be perched nearby also. Don’t expect to see either of us until
the merchant caravan arrives at Kunscap. Good luck, my friend, in
finding the pieces of information you need. I look forward to
hearing all about it.’ Erin lightly touched the soft feathers on
his chest in farewell, then Keir flew away toward the valley.

Erin closed her balcony door just as Drune
knocked on her hallway door. She was smiling as she opened the door
to let him in. “I’ll be right with you. I have given Keir, Gyan’s
message and he has left to watch over the caravan. I need to pull
on my boots and grab these books. Okay, let’s go to breakfast!” She
gave him a sunny grin and headed down the hall. Drune looked after
her bemused but there was no way he was going to miss breakfast and
her information on the ‘key’ she had found. The book that had
looked promising and he had taken to his room, had been fascinating
but without clues.

Erin, Tempo and Drune were met at the dining
room door by Gyan. By unspoken agreement each got his breakfast and
sat down to eat before discussing what Erin had found. Tempo, not
to be left out of the discussion, was eating a pile of nuts, leaves
and berries near the serving buffet. Erin got several bites into
her before she started.

“Gyan, I have been admiring the carvings
around Aerie which indicate the use of the room. Yesterday I found
a book relating the meaning of the carvings and symbols that the
founders used. I also found an herb book that interested me as my
mother was of that guild.” She took another bite and chewed as she
laid out the two books, carefully wiping her fingers on a damp
napkin before touching them. “The book of symbols was fascinating.
It had the meanings of all of the carvings that I have seen around
Aerie and more. When I was looking at the pages of patterns I
noticed a celtic knot similar to one I had seen at Ree’s home. Then
I noticed that embossed on the leather spine of the herb book was a
three sided celtic knot. So I looked for that pattern in the book.
There were several celtic patterns in the book. I found the
specific pattern.” she paused to open the book where she had marked
it, then pointed to the embossed pattern so they could see that it
was the same. “I read what it said the definition was.” Erin placed
her hand on the page and read. “Three sided celtic knot called a
triskeles is thought to have its roots in the Buddhist meditation
symbol. It represents the three aspects of dependent relationship
which gives existence to all functioning things, such as
earth/sea/sky. Inner working and lives connected. C3,
L33>>”

She looked up to catch their eye, then
resumed. “The definition seemed to resonate with me as to what we
were looking for. It was the numbers and letters after the meaning
that made no sense.” She took another bite, knowing that she had
better finish her breakfast quickly.

“I went back to the herb book, since it had
the pattern on the cover. The first part said, ‘C3’. I flipped
through and no C3 was spotted. So I tried Chapter Three. If C
equaled Chapter than, perhaps L meant line.” She opened the herb
book to the third chapter then ran her finger down to the thirty
third line. “The line itself didn’t mean anything special but there
was a small number four in that line referencing a note at the
bottom of the page. That could be what the arrow meant. The note at
the page bottom spoke of research about the fact in the text. But
there were two arrows. So I went to the back of the book where
further information might be and next to the corresponding page and
a number four I found the following line:
/resonating elements
we call “Sage”/
”
. She gave a smile as both Gyan and
Drune jumped up to look at the book. She quickly finished her
breakfast.

Tempo spoke in her head. ‘That got them
excited. It would seem that they agree that you are on to
something!’

Erin cleared her throat to get their
attention. “My guess is that we need to locate other books embossed
with this specific celtic knot to get the rest of the message.”

There was almost a stampede out of the dining
room to the library. Erin had picked up the two books and had made
her own quick exit with Tempo running after her. Drune and Gyan had
started in their chosen spots and were pulling out books and
looking at the covers then pushing them back in. She laid her books
on one of the large tables in the center of the room and climbed to
her books in the balcony. Starting at the beginning of the shelves
she, too, started pulling out books just to see if the cover had
the embossed pattern. The first thing they learned was that there
were similar patterns that were variations of the triskeles, but
those did not have any hidden message. It had to be that exact
celtic knot, a sort of apple shape with three loops emerging from
it to fill the points of the triangle around the whole knot.

Gyan was the first to find another book. It
was number two and read:
“/We have found certain individuals
carry a resonating/”
. Gyan got some paper from a nook so he
could write the connecting pieces when they found them. It was
almost lunch time when Erin found the next piece of the puzzle. It
was number eight.
“/activated if the sage population
drops/”.
It was uncanny how quickly books could be pulled out
and pushed back in as the three sages tried to speed through the
library in the effort to get the answer. Gyan made them go and eat
in the dining room. They needed to keep fuel in their bodies and
the age of the books demanded that they not eat and handle books at
the same time. It was a very quick lunch and with clean hands they
attacked the challenge again.

About an hour later, Drune found piece number
one which read,
“Planet Ose is naturally unstable/”
. Shortly
after that Gyan found number six:
“/due to keeping the
generational balance./”
By late afternoon Erin had located
number three:
“/elements in their bodies.”
and Drune found
number nine:
“/below thirteen and/.”
Everyone was pushing
hard but no more pieces were found before dinner time. They could
not keep looking all night but agreed to give it about two more
hours. The library wasn’t going anywhere but the information seemed
so close and it was hard to stop. They had managed to look at the
faces of all but a few racks of books. By the time they called it
quit for the night they still hadn’t found the whole message but
hope was high for the following day. Thus far the message read,
“Planet Ose is naturally unstable. We have found certain
individuals carry resonating elements in their bodies. Resonating
elements we call “Sage”. ____________________________ due to
keeping the generational balance. ____________________________
activated if the sage population drops below thirteen and
_________________________.”
Though it seemed that key pieces
were missing hope was high. Erin and Drune went back to their
respective rooms while Tempo went out to visit with skunks and
supplement his ‘inside’ diet.

Gyan retired to his study and cleared his
mind for the reaching conversations he needed to have. Settling
into his chair he sent his thoughts. ‘Mayor Harra, this is Gyan,
how are things in your province?’

‘Hello Gyan. Things have been getting rough.
There are some people here who are frightened by the upheaval with
the weather and quakes. Some of the storms lately have been very,
very bad. They want to believe Bure because that gives them the
power to change it back the way it was. But Bure’s way also scares
them because down deep they know it is wrong.’

‘Harra, four days ago some of those concerned
citizens attacked the guild train. They were carrying knives,
swords and harpoons. Alliz, the archival guild member, was hit just
above the collar bone by a thrown knife. Kennet managed to catch
them off balance by telling them that witches don’t bleed, so the
masked men were harming people like themselves. They left after
that.’

Harra was saddened and shocked. ‘Good for
Kennet. I will use that information to do what I can to quell this.
How is Alliz doing?’

‘She’s hurt. I have sent security and healers
to intercept them. On another note, we have had a breakthrough
today in our research and hope to have a plan for a solution soon.
I’ll keep in touch.’

He sat up and sipped some water, then taking
another breath he visualized the Mayor of Sherroton. ‘Cheroan, how
are you and your province?’

‘Gyan, good to hear from you. Bas told me you
would be in contact. I understand that Sawblen has had unrest.’

The Great One sighed. ‘There have been murder
attempts on a number of people and four days ago the guild caravan
was attacked. Alliz caught a thrown knife in her shoulder. Kennet
managed to dissuade the band by telling them that witches don’t
bleed. Feel free to use that should it come up. Any noise like that
in Arbreton?’

Cheroan closed his eyes, thankful that his
answer was truthful. ‘Not yet. I hope you are making headway in
finding an answer to this dilemma that Bure created.’