Exhausted, Zilla lay back on her soft pallet. The Daughter would be Xantis Tey. Nothing could be done to prevent it, but she was also, still, Krindarwee. Somewhere in her mind, all her memories, all her training, remained. The Faj prince would never be able to access it.
Nennet stroked her shoulder with one hand while she covered her with the other.
Harbini murmured a prayer of blessing over her. “I’ve never seen you work before,” he said when he finished. “Not like that. You supported our Daughter all through the prince’s Absorption, keeping the hidden things hidden. It’s good to know that we have not lost the Daughter to these mind workers.”
Zilla heard them, but she drifted to heavily toward sleep to respond. She’s safe, she repeated to herself. And so are we. She found a place to hide everything from these new invaders. All Zilla had done was cover the memories with a heavier blanket of unimportant memories. The Daughter might have trouble finding the hidden cache of history and knowledge, but at least it was safe. She would never betray them, even by accident.
Her skills as a Life Weaver far surpassed anyone’s in the Village. Harbini was right to be impressed. But the Daughter was far more Threaded than anyone had ever foreseen. The Krindarwee could not afford to lose her. She would find a way to defeat these Xantis Tey.
In her dream, Zilla watched helplessly as the Xantis Tey witch, Alrenn ba Tir, enslaved the girl’s mind. In horror, she saw Alrenn order a Xantis Tey Colonel solder a band of bells to Tadessa’s wrists, deliberately allowing the flame to get too close to the skin, burning it. Tadessa did not scream, however, but offered her other hand for the same treatment, believing she deserved it.
Both wrists, then both ankles, received a band of beautiful silver bells as the flame bubbled and blackened the skin where the flame touched it.
What are they doing to her? Zilla wondered, weeping in her sleep as the prophetic dream refused to release its hold on her. She realized that her job to watch would require even more perseverance than she first realized. Why were they torturing her?
Zilla realized, even as the dream dissipated that her duty to watch and protect Tadessa had just begun. She was going to need to get other Lorekeepers like Nennet to oversee and train the new ones coming up. Khaadi was sure providing far more of them than was necessary for one small village. She wondered at that too as she finally fell into a deep sleep.
Counselor A’nton B’sheer woke later that day, fully aware that everything had changed. He paced through his apartment, angry, an uncharacteristic feeling for him. He agonized with his best friend the General Del A’nden. They hadn’t grown up together, but met in Discipline Master Virol D’ey Sol’s study back on Nevia II. From the time they turned three, they studied under the old Formalist priest daily, two hours a day until they were old enough to enter their separate academies.
But they never lost contact. After the fiasco of losing their families to the unexpected solar flare that took the last ship to leave Nevia, the one that held their parents, wives, and children, they held each other, weeping like babies. It was the only time B’sheer had ever witnessed A’nden in so much pain. His friend lost everything that day, except his title.
Although B’sheer never married again, A’nden did, adopting his beloved’s daughter, raising the girl as his own child. As he thought about the girl, who was now Princess ba Tir, and would forever be inaccessible to them, he grieved as if he, too, had lost a loved one.
The Xantis Tey never gave up one of their own. If she failed to comply to their Absorption process, they would kill or enslave her before they would let her go, a fact A’nden knew, a fact A’nden kept from his wife—a fact also hidden from the new princess. The Xantis Tey were a cruel race to those who refused their ways.
May the Path guide you, Princess ba Tir. Learn how to keep yourself safe.
END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born into an abusive home, Patricia determined to make a better home when she married. She realized as soon as her first child was born that she needed to relearn how to parent. After much reading, trial and error, and advice, she accomplished her goal so well she began to parent other children in her home.
That is the background Patricia brings into her stories. Her "children" are heroes, survivors who lived through tough childhoods and went on to become successful adults. Although her work is mainly science fiction, her characters are based on composites of real people who also must live with their decisions.
Patricia and her husband, live outside of Durango, Colorado, surrounded by national forest, a great environment for a writer.
To contact Patricia:
[email protected] @PatriciaRSchole (Twitter)
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PatriciaRenardScholes
Make comments. She would love to hear from you.
Other Books by Patricia Renard Scholes
Herbal/Survival:
39 Healthy Teas You Can Make at Home
Healing Herbs from Your Kitchen
30 Powerfoods – Plan Your Diet from These Foods
A Willowbark Tea Herbal Garden
Willowbark Tea and Other Backyard Remedies
Surviving Hard Times – A Livingbook
Lorekeeper of the Tapestry series
Her Darkest Beauty
Steps of the Dance
Her Dark Inheritance
Song of the Lorekeeper Series
Into Darkness
Counterweave
New Threads
Broken Thread
Bible Study
I AM – The Words Jesus Said About Himself
Co-edited with Christopher Renard:
The Fox and Abd al-Qadir, My March Toward Freedom,
as told by a prisoner of the Third Jihad
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