Seer's Hope

By Maree Anderson

Chapter Twenty-Three

Hope's journey through solid rock felt like pushing through a wall of not-quite-set Jell-O. Every time she moved, the rock seemed to flow back to fill the gaps her body left. The trick was to keep moving steadily and not think too hard about what she was doing. And, just when she was getting the hang of it, she broke through into a tunnel.

"This is the main tunnel leading down to the cavern," Dayamar murmured. "It should be much easier going from here."

They continued onward, picking their way carefully along the rubble-strewn pathway. Chryss had squeezed past Hope, and now he grasped her hand, assisting her whenever needed. Not once did he falter, however. She wouldn't have been at all surprised to learn he could see in the dark.

Since adapting to her blindness, lack of light had never concerned Hope overly much. But this darkness oppressed and unsettled, and led her thoughts down a sinister, twisted path. Chryss squeezed her hand, offering reassurance. Doubtless he'd divined her thoughts, too.

Abruptly the darkness morphed into something more intense, reeking of malevolence.

"We're getting closer to the cavern," Dayamar whispered for Hope's benefit. But his caution was unnecessary. She could sense it. Nameless fears battered her. Dread wormed down her spine.

I'm going to die horribly, painfully—here in the darkness, alone. I'm going to die. I'm going to— Shut up! I know what you're trying to do and it won't work. Leave. Me. Alone!

Instantly her mind quieted... only to be filled by Chryss's mental voice. Good work, girl. Chin up. Nearly there.

That's what I'm afraid of.

No point being afraid. What happens, happens. We can only do our best and trust we will prevail.

What if our best isn't enough?

Can't dwell on 'what ifs'. That way lies a direct path to insanity. Have faith in yourself. You were brought here for a reason. Dayamar believes in you. Those people waiting aboveground believe in you. And I believe in you, too. Now you only need to believe in yourself. You are the key.

What do you mean? But his voice had faded from her mind.

"The cavern is just around this bend in the tunnel," Dayamar whispered. "Be ready!"

Ready for what? Hope desperately wished she knew.

Chryss held his breath as Dayamar poked his head around the edge of the tunnel. He told himself—as he'd done time and time again—that nothing was set in stone. That sometimes the future could be changed.

The transition from gloomy darkness to brightness momentarily dazzled the old Sehan. That was when it struck, and Dayamar screamed for an excruciatingly long moment before he crumpled.

Chryss dragged him back into the shadows. He knelt to check Dayamar's pulse... and swore beneath his breath. The vicious attack had stopped the old man's heart. He pounded on Dayamar's chest. "Live! Dammit old man, don't give up yet. Live!"

"Weaklingsss. Sssso easy to kill. Sssso easy to hurt. Do you fear usss? You should. We are worthy of your fear. Yesss, fear usss. Feed usss with your fear. We hunger for you. We need more... a body. Then we will be free to feed unencumbered. Free to rule again!"

For the first time in countless centuries Chryss was gripped by true fear. They had all made a fatal error. In their determination to rid Dayamaria of this monster, they had brought it not one, but three potential bodies it could use to break free from its imprisonment. He fed more power into Dayamar's aureya, and muttered a prayer.

The eerie echoing voice hissed again. "A sssstrange one. Not like the othersss. Come here to usss, little one. Let usss know you."

Chryss glanced up to witness Hope take a jerky step forward. Horror speared his soul. He lunged in a desperate attempt to prevent her leaving the puny safety of the tunnel.

"You will not interfere," the voices said. "Your turn will come sssoon enough."

Chryss found himself immobilized. The veins on his neck bulged with his efforts to free himself from the stasis. Useless. He was not going to be allowed to change fate.

With his mind he sought Dayamar's rapidly waning life-spark. Gods. I'm sorry, old man.

Don't be. You of all people should know we have to play by the rules. I'm glad you'll be here for her when I'm gone. Teach her well or I'll haunt you the rest of your days.

And Chryss could only watch, helpless and heart-sore, as Dayamar's life-spark faded.... And died.

~*~

The instant Hope stopped fighting the compulsion, it eased. And as she picked her way over the rubble-strewn ground, she prayed her acquiescence would afford Chryss time to escape with Dayamar.

For the first time since her Sehani transformation Hope was truly blind. She could no longer See with her senses. She took another step and— Something crunched and snapped underfoot. Shocked, she inhaled sharply, and acrid dust coated her throat. Gods.... She had a horrible feeling her disability might prove a blessing.

"Interesssting. Not of thisss world. Young and powerful, eager for knowledge."

The voice seemed to come from many directions. It sounded... layered, as though multiple voices had achieved some sort of imperfect synchronization. Something probed at the barriers Hope had erected in her mind. When they cracked wide open, she knew it was pointless to resist. She opened her mind.

"Sssso fearlesss. Why do you not resissst?"

Curiosity? Good. She could work with that. "Many times I've wanted to die. If that time has come then so be it."

"We are sssstronger than you. We will consssume you."

"Yes. I kind of got that." She hoped they couldn't sense the fear beneath her bravado. "You're obviously very powerful. And I know that you're ancient. But what are you? How did you become a being that preys on human souls?"

"Tell her what she wants to know."

"Tell her nothing. Consssume her!"

"Yesss. Consssume her now."

"Wait! She isss different from the othersss. We mussst be cautiousss."

"Hungry.... Feed now!"

"No! Wait. She should join usss, make usss sssstronger."

Hope thought she could identify six distinct personalities. "I want to hear your story," she told them.

"Why?"

"It interests me. You interest me. I'm sure you can consume me any time you want but if you tell me what I want to know I might be willing to join you. As an equal."

"Very well. We will tell you our story."

The voice sounded normal, now, as though one personality had detached itself from the rest. Something rustled, swiftly followed by a succession of creaks and cracking sounds, and then a musty odor wafted to her nostrils.

"We are old, ancient," the voice said. "We were human once. We lived amongst others but we were different. There were six of us. We were Sehani, young and powerful. Curious. We read ancient books, searched for ways to increase our powers. We discovered many secrets, found we could link our minds and transcend our weak human bodies. We melded and became a six-fold entity—six times as powerful as one alone.

"Our people feared us and forbade us to use our melded powers, but we heeded them not. We fed on their fear and it increased us. We became unstoppable—godlike. Never would we have to beg mere gods for favors again. They had no power over us and we stopped believing in them.

"But the oldest Sehan was cunning. He put a block in our minds while we slept so we could not become Six. He drugged us, brought us here and sealed us in the darkness. But he could not block our minds forever. One by one we broke free. We were weak but we killed him. His bones lie here still."

A scraping sound, like something being dragged across the ground, and then a rattling like... like... bones? Gods, yes. It was bones.

"Do you wish to see them?" it asked.

"No." Hope clenched her fists and fought not to shudder. "I believe you." She snatched a breath and willed herself to speak calmly. "I presume you finally became strong enough to mind-meld again and become the Six?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"We fed on the life-forces of animals and humans who stumbled into this area. Eventually we grew strong enough to send our essences beyond this place, and we used the lights to lure more victims. We have trapped the souls of those we drained between this world and the next, and soon we will have an unlimited supply of soul-energy to nourish us. Their pain and suffering will be ours to feast on for eternity. All of you will soon be ours. You are merely fodder to satisfy our appetites."

A loud thud echoed throughout the chamber. And then they invaded Hope's body. She was powerless to resist. The violent throbbing of her skull kept perfect time with each panicked beat of her heart. The agonizing pressure inside her skull built and built. They were inside every part of her, a seething mass of bickering beings, each jostling for dominance. She fell to her knees, clutching her head, praying for it to end.

"Cannot ssssee. All is darknesss. Why?"

They sent signals to her battered brain, forcing her to blink her eyelids, open them wide and blink again. They made her rub her eyes with her fists until tears coursed down her face. "I'm blind!" she shrieked at them. "I can't see! I live in the darkness too, just like you!"

And then she had control of her body again.

Relief was short-lived. They had left of their own accord, and if they wanted her, she would have no choice but to surrender.

"Poor little one, living in hateful darknesss. We lived in darknesss for centuries until we were sssstrong enough to make the lightsss. We offer you light. You will not need eyesss if you join ussss. Join usss. Thisss isss what we offer you."

Chaotic images cascaded through Hope's mind. They tested her desires, learning from each inadvertent physical and mental reaction—no matter how tiny. Each image became more seductive than the last until finally, Hope saw herself walking amongst the people of the First Settlement.

Supplicants prostrated themselves before her, begging for her favor. All were young and beautiful and eager to serve her. She saw herself selecting a handsome youth, leading him to her lair, leaving those unworthy of her favor weeping. Her chosen one pleasured her, responding to her every whim and craving with no thought for his own desires. And in the throes of her orgasm, her eyes glowed a poisonous green. Her lips curved, body thrumming with anticipation, and then she lowered her head to his heart and sucked the life-force from his body. While he screamed with ecstasy she fed, mindless with greedy lust.

Hope's body jerked and shuddered as though caressed by a knowing lover. Her skin flushed. The juncture of her thighs moistened with longing. "I'm hungry!" she screamed at them. "I want more. More!" And a small part of her soul despaired, knowing she was lost.

The orgasmic flush receded from her mind and body. She sank to her knees. What she now recognized the as bones of countless victims stabbed her skin, and because the pain was real, because it was true, she welcomed it

"Yesss, little one. You have tasssted the pleasuresss we offer. Now you will join usss!"

They took her again.

She fought. A tiny portion of her mind was still hers to command and she focused on the people waiting for her aboveground. Her lover. Her family and friends. A healer scarred by recent deaths. A broken woman who'd lost too much already. People who prayed for her to save them. Her people.

New images invaded her senses, speeding through her mind like a fast-forwarded home movie. She cherished the memory of each and every one of her Dayamari family, and those memories strengthened her. But they were not enough.

And then she was making love with another man. This man she could not see—had never seen except in a dream or through someone else's eyes. She knew him intimately though, body and soul. When he entered her, joined with her, she was whole at last.

The memories of him coursed through her, heating her blood and filling her mind. The seductive ecstasy the beings offered paled in comparison to the depth of her love for this man. Blayne. And the certainty that he loved her back strengthened her resolve. She couldn't fail him—wouldn't. She couldn't fail her people. Gathering her will, Hope stepped back from the abyss. She would destroy herself rather than let these beings use her. But first, she would fight.

They recoiled, distancing themselves from her. "What isss thisss? We do not remember thisss emotion."

"Love."

"We do not need love."

"You're wrong. You've never felt it. You will never feel it. And its absence makes you weak."

"We feed on your pathetic human emotionssss. We are sssstrong!"

"I pity you."

"Enough! It isss time for you to join usss."

"No."

It attempted to invade her again, to possess her mind and her body. But this time she was ready. She stood firm and resisted, repelled its advances with all her remaining strength. And this time it could not take her.

"You think you are sssstrong, young Ssssehan. You think you have won. But we do not need all of you. One small part of you will do."

Somehow, Hope endured the excruciating pain of her soul being torn from her body. She clamped her jaw shut, refused to give the monster the satisfaction of hearing her scream. And she prayed she could bear the agony for however long it took her to die.

And then it was over and she felt no more pain.

Why am I still alive?

She cast her seer-senses over her body and discovered the terrible price she had paid.

"Nooooo!" Her wail echoed throughout the cave.

And as if her sacrifice hadn't been punishment enough, unexpectedly she could See again. She could See the pulsing silvery-gray aureya of her fetus, surrounded by six pairs of gloating, inhuman green eyes. She watched them enfold it with skeins of energy drawn from their own life-forces. With sickening care they cocooned it, womb-like.

Hope screamed until her throat closed and she could scream no more. "Not my baby!" she croaked. "You can't take my baby!"

But they could. And they had.

She curled into a tight ball on the cold stone floor of the cavern to await her fate.

Don't give up, Hope. You can beat this evil! Trust in yourself. Believe in yourself. Have faith you will prevail. I believe you will save us. I've always believed—that is why I brought you to Dayamaria.

Dayamar! Chryss had saved him. Thank the gods.

No, my dear. He could not. But my spirit is with you. It will always be with you.

Dead? No. He couldn't be. No!

Hope's mind sank beyond rational thought until it seemed to her that foiling her adversary was laughably simple. She'd lost her family because of one careless man behind the wheel of a car. She was not going to lose everyone she held dear again. Not to six selfish beings who thought they deserved to rule the world. She would teach them a lesson they'd never forget. She would make them pay.

As she crawled to her feet, her hand brushed the pouch at her waist. Wisa's Promising gift. She fumbled with the pouch and drew out the small dark gem. "Light!" she said, and Saw the small dull stone transform into a glowing opalescent gem bursting with light. She infused it with her Sehani powers. Everything she was, and everything she had the potential to be, she gave to the gem. And it grew until it spanned the palm of her hand.

"What isss that? A weapon? Sssseize it!"

"You're too evil to be redeemed. I must destroy you. I will destroy you." Hope hefted the gem in her hand, testing its weight. She'd given it everything. She was blind again, and with no Sehani powers to enhance her senses the doubts crowded in.

Go for it, girl! Chryss's voice echoed again in her mind. Throw it as hard as you can and trust yourself.

She heaved the gem into the air. Unerringly, her weapon found its target and the instant it made contact with the entity, the gem shattered into six jagged pieces.

"No!No!No!No!No!No!" The entity split into its individual life-forces. Five of the creatures had been pierced by a glowing crystal shard. Desperately they attempted to re-meld but the shards held them separate and apart. The wounded ones retreated to separate areas of the cavern, cowering and gibbering at one another, their sickly green amorphous forms pulsing with rage and fear.

"I can still hurt you, young Sehan!" the sixth shrieked.

Hope flung herself to the ground, instinctively reaching for her powers, forgetting she'd drained herself dry. A rush of air ruffled her hair. And somehow, something inside her answered, sending a blast of energy at the being. It loosed an eardrum-splitting yowl before it was abruptly silenced.

Pain stabbed Hope's stomach. She doubled over, clutching her midriff. Before she could give voice to the agonized cry bubbling in her throat, the pain dissipated. And by the time she crawled unsteadily to her feet, she could no longer sense the sixth being.

Chryss could move again. He stormed from the tunnel, bristling with power, wielding a light-sphere like a shield. One-by-one, he sought out the entities and drew them to him, capturing them in the sphere. They flitted about their prison like large, sickly green fireflies.

"Where's the sixth one, girl?"

"I— I don't know."

He scanned the cavern, inspecting every nook and cranny. "Hmm. You must've zapped it when it flew at you."

"I guess. Chryss, what happened? I thought my powers had gone forever. How did I manage to blast that... that... thing?"

"Not so, girl. You drew on as much power as you could hold and released it all at once. It leaves you defenseless and too weakened to access them for a time, but that doesn't mean they're gone for good."

Her beautiful face twisted with loathing. "What are you going to do with them?"

"Can't risk them getting loose again. Can't trust them to behave themselves, either. Their fate is in the hand of the gods. Come and get it, you three!"

The light-sphere immediately solidified to opaque white with five small smudges of palest green barely visible within. Chryss tossed the sphere into the air and it vanished.

The shrouds covering six perfectly preserved corpses crumpled as the physical shells beneath each one disintegrated to dust. He incinerated both shrouds and dust motes with a concentrated burst of energy. Best to be safe than sorry. "Nothing will be using these bodies again," he said for Hope's benefit.

"Why didn't you destroy the beings, too?" she asked. Her voice hardened, infected by hatred. "They deserve to be obliterated after the atrocities they've committed."

"Nothing deserves to be obliterated, girl."

Hope's jaw worked and her fists clenched at her sides like she'd dearly love to hit something. So long as it wasn't him, Chryss was tempted to let her have at it. "They are evil," she said. "Evil should never be permitted to live."

"Evil is part of life, girl. Light and dark, good and evil, love and hate—one couldn't exist without the other."

She sagged, all anger draining away. And then she heaved a sigh that about broke his heart and knuckled her eyes. "Dayamar's dead."

"I couldn't save him. I'm sorry, Hope."

"I've lost my father. And my baby, too."

"Eh? What are you talking about?"

But she'd shut down, withdrawing from the pain, creating a hardened shell to imprison her emotions.

"Hope... Hope!" He shook her gently until her dull eyes focused again. "Your baby's not dead."

"I don't believe you."

"It's not dead. How could it be dead?"

"They took it from me. They needed a... a living body to inhabit. But I was too strong. They couldn't take me so they took my baby."

"Look inside yourself. You're still pregnant. It was all a trick of your mind. Those things don't have the power to keep a fetus alive outside of its mother's womb. They were playing tricks with your mind."

"Really?"

"Really. Now look deep inside yourself."

She did as she was bid. Her palms cradled her belly... and the smile she gave him was the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen.

"We won?"

"Yes, girl. We won."

She launched herself at him and Chryss enfolded her in his arms. Silently, in the depths of his heart, he mourned Dayamar's passing as he comforted the girl the old Sehan had loved like a daughter.

Hope pushed herself away from his embrace and wiped her eyes. "What does this place look like now?" she asked. "I couldn't see anything in my mind's eye much of the time—I was completely blind."

"Just as well," Chryss said. "Wasn't a pretty sight. But the remains of the old Sehan who brought them here have now crumbled to dust and it looks pretty much like any other underground cavern. Dark and dingy and uninviting. You get the picture."

"What about the lights?"

"Extinguished."

"One more thing, Chryss. I'm too drained to check the spirit world. Is it still diseased?"

"Rest easy, girl. It looks bright and beautiful—just as it should. Those trapped souls can now continue their journey."

"The Usehani will be pleased to know their people are at rest." She sighed. "It's really over, then. What—?" She exhaled a shaky breath. "What shall we do with Dayamar? I don't want to leave him all alone down here. It's not right to leave him in this place"

"Leave it to me, girl." Chryss led her over to Dayamar and scooped the old man's body from the ground. "Whatever you do, keep hold of my hand."

They materialized from thin air before Blayne's startled gaze. The welcoming shout died on his lips as he spotted the body Chryss had slung over his shoulder. Chryss shook his head and Blayne closed his eyes, locking away the pain. He allowed himself one deep breath and then he rushed toward Hope to pull her into his arms and hold her tight. "You're back."

"I promised, didn't I?"

A sighing moan echoed around them. That lone voice was joined by others, the eerie wailing interweaving to form a sonorous song of farewell.

"What in Wisa's name is that noise?" Cayl shouted, just as the sound abruptly abated.

Hope heard the flapping of huge wings and followed the sound with her Sehani senses. She Saw Wisa gathering the lost souls about her. She Saw the pure joy shining from each phantom. And she Saw the goddess leading the hundreds of souls onward, showing them the way.

"Those were the voices of the dead," she told Cayl. "That monster fed on the energy of souls it had trapped between planes of existence. The souls of the dead can now move onward to the spirit world, where they'll find peace."

Unlike those left behind.

~*~

Copyright 2013 Maree Anderson

www.mareeanderson.com