Out of the Faold (Whilst Old Legends Fade Synchronicles) (16 page)

“Where are they?” she hissed. She looked around the room
carefully. “They belong to us.  They have been marked. You can’t keep them from us. The gods have spoken. They are to study with us. You think you are the only one who knows the truth? The future. It rests on them. Where are they?”

“The gods don’t speak to you,” a small voice accused from behin
d Coral.

She screamed inwardly realizing Glory had emerged from under the bunk. No! She was told to st
ay there. Why did she come out?

The Sister turned toward Glory
and stood very straight and tall, her hands folded in front of her. “The gods speak to me often,” she crooned. “They told me to train you, to make you powerful.”

“I have already spoken to the gods,” Glory told her confidently. “And they told me I am already powerful and I don’t need you to train me.”

The Sister laughed out loud. “The little princess is hearing voices. Maybe your corset is too tight.”

“They told me I might have to hurt you if you tried to hurt me or my friends. And they told me how.”

Uncertainty flickered in the Sister’
s eyes. She looked to Coral, who was so swelled with pride and fear, she spilled tears for both emotions. The Sister walked toward the barracks to
search for the other two girls.

“We’ll see ab
out that,” the Sister muttered.

Glory ran for the door and just as she hit the threshold the Sister spun around and froze her in place. Coral’s eyes, so filled with tears but unable to blink, just stared, horrified that the girl would now be taken without a fight. But Glory crumpled. She dropped to the ground then
stood up and faced the Sister.

She held up a hand, made a fist and backed up, out the door and down the two steps to the ground. The Sister
struggled,
tilt
ing
backward against an unseen
force that pulled her forward.

Coral simply stared. Then she realized what Glory had done. And what Pearl had done before her. She made her muscles go to mush and she fell to the ground. She was free.
Her heart beat with pride for the little girls who had figure
d out how to fight the Sisters.

Befor
e Coral could tackle the Sister
, she saw the Sister stiffen then
get
yanked with such force she flew over Kel’s head and into a tree behind him.
Unfrozen with her death,
Kel spun to see the sister
slowly
slide
down the trunk. He
rushed to Glory to protect her from the sight of blood and other mess
the Sister left
on the tree. The girl should never know what she
had done
.

Glory immediately started crying but it wasn’t fear. It was anger and determination. She looked around her, searching. “Pearly,” she yelled, dashing off toward the barn. Coral and Kel took up the call as well. They found her atop a horse, her nightdress flying in the breeze as she chased down a Sister who appeared to be trying to outrun her. The woman fell but stayed down with Pearl
standing guard from horseback.
T
wo Marshalls took her from Pearl
’s custody and dragged her back to the door of the hall, where two more Brothers and
a Sister were also being held.

The bar
n still blazed but the horses had been freed in enough time to get safely away. A bucket brigade was set up and soon the last of the flames were extinguished. Coral searched for Krisa and Pat, who had disappeared completely with the Siri. She worried they had taken the tw
o without consulting her first.

S
oon the five Siri, Krisa and Pat walked up the road. Two of the men
had slung
fully covered Sisters
over their shoulders. T
hey were
later told those sisters
were responsible for the storm. The Siri had surrounded them and silenced them.
They were alive but would not
be conscious for a long while.

Coral hugged Krisa tightly. She demanded to know that she was ok and the girl smiled and nodded. Coral thanked the Siri for helping and Pat for sticking with her. They all returned to Kel who was now barking orders. Glory had returned to the barracks to grab her cloak, as she felt uncomfortable standing around in her night dress. She stood tall and proud,
overlooking the clean-up
with a look of confidence Coral had never seen in her
before
.

She smiled to herself and truly believed, for the first time, that Glory would be the powerful Queen the gods had told her she’d becom
e.

The Sisters and Brothers of the
Faold
were handed over to the King’s guardsmen waiting at the garrison to the east. It was a substantial military holding, due south by a day of the city of
Danyc
, the King’s seat. Main
roadways
to
the east and wes
t met another running north and south to create the most i
mportant crossroad in the land.

It was there they learned about the attack on the King by the Sisters and Brothers and how all over the land they were being brought into custody. There were reports th
at this had forced some of the Faold
into hiding. The soldiers worried this would be difficult to control.

Coral knew the very foundation of faith in the land was about to be undermined. Would people believe the king? Would they believe the
Faold
? T
hey
had s
een
the
fear
in the people
. Were they already aware something was wrong? As a Brother she was not aware of any mysterious Sister movement plotting or using sorcery. How had they hidden it? She hadn’
t exactly been around the Sisters. S
he was required
,
as a Brother
,
to stay with the men. She was sent with Brothers to deliver messages, bless new Sanctuaries,
served at retreats, she spent an entire
season tending gardens and grounds at an all-Brother retreat several years before. She’d never heard of any of this.
Coral
was baffled.

The gods told her the
Faold
had corrupted the true faith.
Coral now questioned what that true faith was. What had she been taught that was wrong? The life she had lived was fraudulent, in more ways than one. No, she hadn’t been raised a believer, she
had
read and studied,
had
forced herself to believe for the sake of those she served. But she was a normal woman. She lusted, she longed, she dreamt of stepping out of the robes into a different life. She had known she couldn’t…until that day.
Until t
he Well.

That day changed everything. Her faith crumbled, her dreams blossomed, her purpose intensified. And all of this because the gods she hadn’t believed in really did exist and had come to her. She was to serve them. They didn’t demand her devotion, they didn’t threaten her,
and they
just expected her to protect and care for those she loved and to make sure th
ey lived up to their potential.

The world had turned upside down that day. The faithful turned demons and the fait
hless became disciples.

Sign posts along the highway westward were marked with X’s as th
e Marshalls, Coral and the girls
passed trails and lanes leading off to farms along the main road. Paths were marked forcing them to detour around villages. The stench of burning met them at three villages as black smoke billowed from a spot in the fields.
Coral
would turn away and attempt
not to retch thinking about what they were burning. The girls looked on curiously but did not question aloud. Perhaps they knew but in their innocence couldn’
t truly know. The men stared ahe
ad, stepping into danger
in the call of duty
.
T
heir families were suffering. Each one of them thought of people at home, wondered if they would survive to see them. Several had wives and children.

“Did the Sisters make the fever?” Pearl asked. She asked the question everyone seemed to want to ask
but were afraid of the answer.

“I don’t kn
ow,” Coral told her truthfully.

“Why would they?” Glory asked.

“Fear,” Kel answered. “They want people afraid so they can convince them to do things. Do you remember when the storm came? The people wanted to believe the Brothers and Sisters could save them.”

“W
hat do they want?” Krisa asked.

“There mu
st be a purpose,” Coral agreed.

“They are angry the gods don’t
talk to them,” Glory told them.

Startled, Coral turn
ed
in the saddle toward Glory. “How do you know?”

“That Sister,” Glory said, remembering the one she had faced. “Her eyes told the truth. They were evil and scared. She knew the gods talked to me. Someone is talking to her but it isn’t the gods. And she knows.”

Dread ran down the spines of half the men.
Coral shuddered trying not to think of who or what
the Sisters could be following.

They rode on in silence only to stop at mid-day for a meal and rest.
Kel sat next to Coral as they ate and drank hot tea. He looked at her as though he wanted to say something but didn’t. He took another bite of bread. He looked up at the sky then out to the road and into the di
stance. Again he looked at her.

“What is it, Kel?”

He smiled and looked down at his food. He took time answering, s
cratched at his overgrown beard.
He
kicked a rock out from under his boot. “When we get you home we have orders to report to the King.”

“Yes, I know,” she told him, looking into her dish of food.

“The men need to go home to their families. For a time anyway.”

“Yes, they do. They must be worried about fevers. I pray they will be fine.”

“Thank you,”
he said smiling. With a squint he said, “I am going to go to my home for a short time but I’ll come back if you want me. I don’t have a wife to stay for. I can be here for you and the girls. Until I get more orders, I mean.”

“Oh, Kel, you don’t have to. You have your life. You have no obligation to us beyond getting us there.”

“I do.”

“Did they tell you that?”

“No. It’s in my heart. It is not an obligation to the gods but to you and the girls. You are all in my heart and I can’t abandon you.”

She put her hand on his shoulder and leaned her head against him. “Thank you.”

He kissed her forehead then got up. Pearl stood nearby making kissy noises at Kel so he grabbed her up into a hug and smothered her face in kis
ses. She screeched and laughed.

Before they set off again
a rider
appeared from the west. He increased the pace when he saw them, waving as he approached. One of the scouts went out to meet him and they returned. When
the rider saw Coral he grinned.

“Lady!” he called. “
We had news of your arrival soon. It is a blessing
.
”

“Thank you,” she responded, only half recognizing the older man who must have w
orked for her father for years.

“I was on my way to the post to get word but here you are! I will go back and prepare them.”

She nodded.
“Is everyone well?”

“Oh, we’ve had fever but the worst is past,” he said sadly. “There are no new cases.”

She was thankful for that. Maybe they had missed the worst of it.
“I got word of Ruby.”

He shook his head sadly. “The poor dear. But we can’t be sad right now. You are home. I’ll go straight back. Ride like the wind,” he told the Marshalls. “We are anxious for our girl to come home.”

Kel saluted the older man as a sign of respect as he turned and galloped of
f from the direction he’d come.

“Lady, huh?” Kel chuckled. “Guess he never saw you in your Brother robes.”

“Men,” she called out to everyone, “…a feast and warm beds await us.”

A cheer rose among them and they set off once more, the last leg of their trip ahead of them. Coral imagined life at her parents’ home in the days to come. She wanted nothing to do with a horse for a very long time. The men would leave them but they’d just have to
carry on
without their companionship.