Myriam

Myriam called her watchers back with a sudden flick of her mind. A slight backward movement of her head, tossing long dark hair behind her right shoulder betrayed the effort it had taken. He had seen her watchers, of that she was certain. The watchers had followed the stranger for many miles through the forest, until he had stopped at the spring to take water. She did not panic, she did not fear the stranger. His emanations were far from hostile, though she felt violence, recent violence but heavily over laden with the sorrow which always accompanies forced violence committed in the most just of causes. The stranger was a young warrior, steeped in the glory of recent conflict, a defender of his people.

 Never before had her watchers been seen, not even the Howlim knew when Myriam watched their progress through the dead lands, warning the villagers of their approach with time enough to gather the children together and hide them in the burrows until they had passed on, taking only meat and grain, leaving some injured, more threatened. The watchers belonged to her and her alone, as they had belonged to her mother, before she had taken Myriam on that long journey to the eastern mountains and passed on the gift deep within the sacred cave before lying down to the first natural sleep she had experienced for many years, the first in fact, since the gift had been passed on to her by her mother. She wondered, was it possible that this stranger possessed the gift also. No.. that could not be so, only Myriam's family possessed the gift, and only the first born female, passed on down the generations since the time of Lena, who had come to the land from beyond the eastern mountains, from the forbidden lands that lay over the furthest ridges. Since that time no others of Lena's kind had found their way to the land of the Crelle. Lena had been the first and the only of the gifted to make her home amongst the Crelle, eventually taking Gareth as her husband to become the revered wife of the First Voice, leader of the Crellan people. Anyway this stranger had come from the west, from the rising mist, only the ocean lay that way, beyond the Great Forest many leagues distant.

 Myriam pondered the implications of this latest event in the spate of recent developments and at last admitted that for once, she was out of her depth. Javid would give good advice, he always did. When he returned from the city she would speak with him of her fears. After of course, she had made love to him. She smiled secretly at the "wicked" thoughts that flashed through her mind in anticipation of her husbands return from the city, then glancing guiltily at the sleeping room doorway, she sheepishly smoothed down her gown, pushing those deliciously shameful thoughts from her head. Even Javid was clearly shocked sometimes by her openness in lovemaking. Though he had never said so, she thought that he had felt more than a little intimidated by her frank sexuality when they had first fallen in love. It was just one more way that descendants of Lena differed from the other girls of the village.

 Lusana stood in the doorway of the sleeping room, she smiled knowingly as Myriam jumped, startled by her unexpected presence in the room.

 "Sometimes it is wise to keep a watcher close by", Lusana admonished, laughingly. "Just in case".

 "LUSANA!, how long...., you were spying", Myriam blushed.

 "Fine words for one who can spy anywhere, anytime, even in sleep!" Lusana teased.

"Come little sister, let me hug you, you've been away so long, I've missed you". Myriam's chagrin melted in the warmth of her sisters adoring smile. They embraced fondly.

 "Well?", Myriam enquired leaning back from the embrace but reluctant to release her sisters hands from her own. "How did it go?, tell me, do we have our first lady counsellor?"

 Lusana spun away, and holding herself as tall as she could manage, replied proudly,

 "Curtsy, commoner, in the presence of the newly appointed counsel for Crellendom".

Myriam's eyes opened wide with delight.

 "You did it?, you actually did it, you got yourself appointed...?" She glowed with delight.

 "You mean you weren't watching?, Lusana asked pointedly.

 "I couldn't bear it, so I went walkabout",

 "Walkabout?, where to?"

 "Across the plain to the Forest"

 "The Great Forest?"

 "Yes, why not?", it" not as if I was there in the flesh".

 "Myriam, you know how Javid fears your wandering in the Forest, what would he say?".

 "Will you tell..."

 "You know I wouldn't, but it's so dangerous out there, you could be....".

 I'm only watching Lusana", Myriam interrupted.

 "I know", Lusana capitulated, "But the way things have been changing lately, who knows what else might change, how can you be sure, I mean what if...."

 "What if..., what if..." Myriam mimicked smilingly, "What if the sky fell down on us, where would we be then?. Anyway, I will speak to Javid myself!. I've seen something, something's happening out there, something strange Lusana".

 "You saw something, saw what?, There's nothing in the Forest but bears....and....and the vermin-spawn".

 "Not any more, There's a stranger, I watched him, I followed him".

Lusana was intrigued. "Him?, you mean there's a man out there?".

 "Yes.., and what's more, he's a warrior".

 "A warrior?, Then it's just as well he's in the Forest. Warriors bring death, let him die out there. We don't need another warrior in Crellendom, how far away is this warrior?".

 "I can't be sure yet, he's so far away, but he's travelling as though he has no fear, so slowly, and in daylight. He must be fearless indeed".

 Lusana shuddered, "I don't like it, so many changes Myriam, I don't think.... I'm frightened by it all. I don't know what to expect".

 Myriam wrapped her arms around her younger sister and held her close, soothing her fears away, as she had done since they were children.

 Lusana had suffered the haunting dreams of all the second born females of Lena's descendants throughout her miserable childhood. She had borne the agony of possessing the great potential of a descendant of Lena, yet denied, out of necessity, the full gift of the sight. Throughout her formative years she had been plagued by the constant nagging awareness of the great yearning buried deep within her, like a maddening itch forever just out of reach. Myriam felt deeply the perpetual torment of her unfortunate sister, condemned to a lifetime of unfulfilled expectations, anticipating such wondrous revelations at every waking moment of her young life, only to experience, day after day, the ache of fathomless despair as the almost tangible essence of the gift slipped inexorably away like a quickly forgotten dream during those twilight waking moments, to return only as insubstantial wisps of remembrance at unsuspected moments throughout the day.

 All except the first of the female offspring of the descendants of Lena had gone through this agonising ordeal. Each second born female down the ages learned with dread the story of Lotte, the second born of Lena and Gareth, who had borne the curse well enough until her thirteenth year when, without warning, she had succumbed to the overwhelming power of despair and, flying into a demonic rage during the first dawn of the returning sun of that year, had horribly slain her two younger brothers, Liam who was ten years old, and Kevin, barely eight, as the family had slept, unaware of the horrific scenes taking place in the next room.

 Lena had found the bodies, terribly mutilated, in their shared sleeping room as she came to tend her children on the dawn of the great sun festival. Lotte was nowhere to be found. still unaware of the dreadful events of moments before, Lena had, in those first terrible moments, been convinced that some wild animal, or perhaps one of the vile vermin-spawn, driven to desperation by hunger, had broken the villages" defences and entered the family home to attack her precious children. Her shocked scream had woken Gareth and by the time the alarm had been raised Lotte had been spotted by the village guardians. They had her trapped on the edge of the Drop, a sheer fall of hundreds of arms to the raging river below.

 The Drop was just to the west of the village, beyond the large stone building that served for official ceremonies during Gareth's rule. By the time that Lena had reached the Drop the guardians had inflicted much damage to the ravaged body of what was once Lotte, beloved second born of Lena.

 She was almost unrecognisable.

 Lena froze with shock at the sight of her once beautiful daughter snarling and howling like some demented vermin-spawn, legs spread wide over the bloody corpse of a fallen guardian, as though reluctant to give up the fresh kill. The guardians were spread in a semi-circle around her, open end to the Drop. She had lost the lower part of her left arm below the elbow. It lay nearby, fingers still twitching convulsively. Her long dark hair was matted with blood and gaping red bald patches were visible where great tufts had been torn out in an earlier struggle. Her eyes had sunk deep into her skull and flashed venom at the surrounding guardians, daring them forward. She bled profusely from many gaping lacerations inflicted by the sharp swords and pointed spears of the confused, slow witted guardians. She fought on desperately, choosing her movements with the cunning of a wild beast as the guardians surged forward once more in a deliberate attempt to overpower the puzzling spectre of a human shaped vermin-spawn. But for Lotte's obvious human appearance she would have undoubtedly been stopped dead long before and the slain guardian, lying at her feet still gushing purple blood, would still be among his fellow guardians feasting on the corpse of the slain vermin-spawn that had fool heartedly strayed within the boundaries of the village.

 Lena stood wide eyed with terror, still unable to move as another spear darted murderously forward in the practised hands of one of the guardians, inflicting yet another gaping wound to the inside of her bare thigh. Blood gushed, still vibrant from the fresh wound, further staining her trembling legs as she fought to remain erect.

 Finally Lena's trauma blocked horror found release. Her agonised scream pierced the dawn.

 "MY BABIES..!!".

 The guardians froze, their uncertainty doubled by the distressed call of a second human on the scene. They backed off, heads lowered but staying in formation around Lotte, preventing escape into the village.

 Lotte's eyes darted frantically from Lena to the guardians then around to the edge of the Drop. She was still trapped, she spat, bloody spittle drooling through broken teeth, a steady flow of droplets falling from her chin and spreading obscenely across her bare breast.

 "Lotte....". Lena managed just one word, turning Lotte back to face her mother. For a moment it seemed that Lotte recognised her mother, standing in the dawn light enhanced by the torches of the guardians. The rage died as the two stood facing each other. Lotte gazed agonisingly into Lena's eyes, as if suddenly realising the horrific nature of her actions. She looked down at her terrible wounds as if seeing them for the first time. Slowly, she raised her eyes back to Lena's, tears of anguish streaming down her grimy cheeks, mutilated arms outstretched in supplication. Lena, torn between her love for her demented daughter and the building rage which the visions of her butchered sons fuelled, was for an instant, unable to send the message she most wanted to send.

 "it's all right".

 "You didn't mean...".

 "I forgive....".

 "We forgive...".

 In that single moment of hesitation Lotte turned to face the Drop and somehow drew from within the superhuman strength required to drag her battered body the two paces to the precipitous edge.

 As Lena's shattered heart found voice in the demented screech that poured forth from her gaping throat, Lotte launched herself from the edge of the cliff to the raging waters below.

 Gareth carried Lena's wasted, lifeless body to the edge of the same cliff less than one year later. By that time the guardians had already left the village, no longer sure of the validity of their worth as protectors of the humans in the land of the Crelle.

 Less than one year after the guardians left, the Howlim rode through the village for the first time, leaving more than one hundred dead and only six children behind, including Irma, Lotte's elder sister, Lena's first born. She had been initiated into the sight during the last year of Lena's existence. She had used the gift for the protection of the village, sending watchers out to look for the approaching Howlim raiders. So the descendants of Lena had found the primary use of the gift.

 Myriam sighed as she felt the tension slowly subside in her sisters frantic emanations. She continued to re-organise the jumbled patterns of her confusing aura at some small cost to her own highly disciplined mentality.

 Even for the chosen the path to womanhood was not uncomplicated. The deep rooted feelings of guilt exasperated by the certain knowledge that they and they alone among the female children would be spared the despair of denial wreaked havoc with the normal process of development taken for granted amongst other families in the village.

 This was the curse of Lena. Not all of the gifted survived to womanhood.

 Only after she was certain that she had abolished the subsiding swirls of panic within Lusana's confused mind did Myriam release her calming hold on Lusana's emotions.

 The story of Lotte haunted Myriam's consciousness daily.

 She said nothing of the strangers fascinating ability to 'see' her watchers.  

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