Temple of the Winds

"Not yet." He cupped his big hands to her cheeks. "We must walk through the city, through it all, to get away. You have seen too much already. I don't want you to see any more, or hear any more. I would spare you that much, at least." "But I don't see how we can ever get past the Order." "You let me worry about that. For now, I am going to put a spell over you. You will be blind, so that you don't have to see any more of what is happening to your city, and you will be deaf, so that you don't have to hear any more of the suffering and death that now possesses this place."

She suspected that he feared she might panic and get them caught. She didn't know that he might not be right. "If you say so, Nathan. I will do as you say."

Standing there in the dim light, two steps below her so that his face was closer to hers, he gave her a warm smile. For as old as he was, he was a strikingly handsome man.

"I have chosen the right woman. You will do well. I pray the good spirits grant you freedom in return for your help."

Holding his hand as they walked was her only connection to the world. She couldn't see the slaughter. She couldn't hear the screams. She couldn't smell the fires. Yet she knew that those things had to be happening around her.

In her silent world, she prayed as she walked, prayed that the good spirits would keep safe the souls of those who had died here this day, and for those who still lived she prayed for the good spirits to give them strength.

He guided her around rubble, and around the heat of fires. He held her hand tight when she stumbled over debris. It seemed they walked for hours through the ruins of the vast city.

Occasionally they stopped, and she lost the connection to his hand as she stood still and alone in her silent world. She could neither see nor hear, so she didn't know the exact reason for the stop, but she suspected that Nathan was having to talk their way out. Sometimes those stops dragged on and on, and her heart raced at the thought of what unseen danger Nathan warded. Sometimes, the stop was followed by his arm around her waist pulling her into a run. She felt confident in his care, and comfort, too.

Her hip sockets ached from walking, and her weary feet throbbed. He at last placed both hands on her shoulders, turned her, and helped her sit. She felt cool grass under her.

Her vision suddenly returned, along with her hearing and sense of smell. Rolling green hills spread away before her. She looked around and saw only countryside. There were no people anywhere. The city of Renwold was nowhere to be seen.

She dared to feel the budding of sweet relief, not only at having escaped the slaughter but at having escaped her old life.

The terror had burned so deep into her soul that she felt as if she had been recast in a furnace of fear, and had come out a shiny new ingot, hardened for what lay ahead.

Whatever she had to face, it could be no worse than what she would have faced had she stayed. If she had chosen to stay, it would have been a turning away from helping others, and from herself.

She didn't know what he was going to ask her to do, but every day of freedom she had was one she wouldn't otherwise have had if not for the prophet. "Thank you, Nathan, for choosing me." He was staring off in thought, and didn't seem to hear her.

CHAPTER 23

Sister Verna turned to the commotion and saw a scout leaping from his lathered horse before it had skidded to a stop in the near darkness. The scout panted, trying to catch his breath, at the same time as he relayed his report to the general. The general's tense posture visibly relaxed at the report. He gestured in a jaunty fashion for his officers to stand down their concern, too.

She couldn't hear the scout's report, but she knew what it would be. She didn't have to be a prophet to know what the scout would have seen. The fools. She had told him as much.

The smiling General Reibisch approached her, his heavy eyebrows arched with his good humor. When he came into the ring of firelight, his grayish-green eyes searched her out. "Prelate! There you are. Good news!

Verna, her mind on other, more important matters, loosened the shawl around her shoulders.

"Don't tell me, general; my Sisters and I won't have to spend the whole night calming nervous soldiers and casting spells to tell you where panicked men have run off to hide while they await the end of the world."

He scratched his rust-colored beard. "Ah, well, I do appreciate your help. Prelate, but no, you won't. You're right, as usual." She snorted an I-told-you-so.

The scout had been watching from atop the hill, and from there could see the moonrise before any of them down in the valley.

"My man said that the moon didn't rise red, tonight. I know you told me it wouldn't, and that three nights of it was all there would be, but I can't help being relieved to know things are back to normal. Prelate." Back to normal. Hardly.