Mrs. Winter wasn’t happy about me
leaving after dark, not like she or the bodyguards could do anything to stop me,
though.
Inside the front doors of the motel
lobby stood three men wearing robes. As I neared, one opened the glass door and
called me by name. I remembered what Maetha had told me about the protection of
the pouch the diamond was in. The spells would protect my mind from being
probed about its presence. I was confident no one would be able to tell I
carried the diamond or that it was the source of all my powers.
“Hello, Calli, I’m Charles
Rhondell.”
I shook his hand and immediately
viewed his future. Charles’ wife had been seized by the Death Clan and they
would be reunited after the exchange. Experiencing their joy brought tears to
my eyes.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes, I am.” The other two men,
Grant and Steven, shook my hand introducing themselves as images flashed
through my mind of their futures. Grant would relocate near the east coast and
assist the leaders of our country with his abilities, and Steven would get
married to a woman he’d been courting. For once, I was encouraged to see happy
futures. No death, no destruction, just peace, joy and contentment.
They led me to the couches in the
lobby.
“Your walls are extremely strong,
Ms. Courtnae,” Charles told me with admiration.
“You can sense my walls?”
“Yes, and I must say, they are
unlike any I’ve encountered. Blocking takes training and time to achieve what
you’ve done in a matter of days. Who instructed you?”
In truth, no one; Maetha placed the
walls within my head so I had no doubt they were impenetrable. But I decided to
give the credit to Chris. “Chris Harding instructed me.”
“He is the topic of our discussion,
Calli,” Charles said with concern.
Grant joined in with a quiet voice,
“He’s been feeding information to the enemy.”
“What? I thought Justin was the
spy.”
“Justin is an afterthought. His
intentions are self-serving, Chris, however, is dangerous. His connections go
much higher than Justin’s.”
I didn’t like hearing Chris was
worse than Justin. No one is worse than Justin, period. However, Chris told me
the secrets in his own mind put the entire clan in danger. Yet, from the roof I
envisioned Chris’s future and the positive outcome for him. “So, the important
information you couldn’t tell me over the phone was Chris is more dangerous
than Justin?”
“Yes.”
“That’s it?”
The three looked at one another in
confusion. Charles spoke, “Calli, you obviously don’t understand the severity
of the situation.”
“Maybe so, but I’ve been inside
both Chris and Justin’s minds and believe me, Justin is the one to be worried
about, not Chris.”
“None of us were able to break into
his mind, how did you?” Steven asked.
“I don’t know, I looked and found
it.”
“But his defenses are impenetrable
like yours. Clearly you possess a much stronger ability than we do; perhaps
it’s because you are the first multi-powered individual.”
Grant asked with complete
sincerity, “What can you extract from my mind? I would that you test my walls.”
Knowing his future as a political
assistant, I used the knowledge and entered his mind; the trick I’d learned
from my experiments with Beth. “You wish to work with the president. You’ve been
fascinated with politics since childhood and you’ve spent countless hours
researching the world’s governments.”
“Amazing! I felt you enter that
part of my mind. It’s been years since anyone was in my head. Truly incredible!
How did you access my childhood dreams?”
“I don’t understand my abilities or
why I can do what other learned Readers can’t,” I said calmly.
I turned to Charles and entered his
memories about his wife. “Your wife is beautiful and I’m sorry for your pain. You
two had many happy years together.” He bowed his head.
“I hope someday you can marry her,”
I said to Steven. His eyes widened at the shock of me so carelessly entering
his mind and memories about his love.
None of them understood how I got
into their minds and a little nagging voice in the back of my mind said to keep
it a secret. Let them continue to think I was all powerful.
Charles spoke, “Do you understand
how many years of training a Reader goes through to develop the ability to see
memories?” I shook my head. “Years of training, years of learning, in fact it
took me five years to learn how to retrieve recent memories. Here you sit, mere
days of mind reading under your belt, and you can pull up Grant’s childhood? Incredible!”
I said nothing.
“Calli, you broke through our
walls. We three are the strongest of our clan, but still cannot read each
other.”
“How do you do it?” Grant asked
assertively. Knowing his political aspirations I understood why he would want
to know. I thought about the repercussions of telling him and if it would affect
his future. I imagined myself instructing him on the technique and then peered
into his future. I found evil and the misuse of power in his hands. No, I
couldn’t tell him.
“I was kind of hoping
you
could help
me
understand my ability.”
Charles informed me of what I
already knew, “Never has a clan member from any clan been multi-talented. You
are an anomaly. You tell
us
what it’s like.”
“This is a burden.”
That was the
truth.
“I witness and experience the insecurities, depression, and anxiety of
everyone around me. I don’t
—
”
“You feel? You actually experience
others’ emotions?” Grant was astonished.
“You
don’t
feel emotions
when you enter minds?” I asked the three of them. I watched their heads shake
in unison. I looked to the floor.
Great! Just great. Another ability unique
to me.
“How do you walk amongst the Shadow
Demons?” Steven asked.
I shrugged my shoulders.
Charles leaned forward, “I’ve
searched the archives of prophesy and found nothing that tells of a girl with
the multiple powers of running and intense mind reading.”
They were not aware of my other
abilities like Future Seeing, Hunter and Healer. I decided I would always be
careful about what I volunteered up to anyone until I figured out what they
knew about me.
“I should get going now,” I stood,
as did they.
“Are you a witch?” Steven asked
suddenly almost surprising himself. “That would explain how you can do these
things, why the Demons ignore you. Are you?”
“I don’t think so. Just a few days
ago, I was a less-than-popular girl trying to fit in and now I’m a freak living
in a world I didn’t think existed. Does a witch gain abilities or does she
learn how to enchant herself with them?”
Charles intervened, “She’s not a
witch, Steven, she’s simply a girl with a destiny. I’ve spoken to the Seers
about the emergence of her power. They foresaw her running ability surfacing,
but nothing more.”
“I don’t know what I am or if this
is destiny. I’ve always wanted to be able to read minds, but I now despise it;
I wish the ability would go away. I don’t want these powers, I haven’t
enchanted myself with them; frankly, I’m at my wits end.” My frustrations were
evident in my tone of voice.
Charles extended his hand to me
which I shook, “It was a pleasure to meet you Calli Courtnae. I wish you the
best with the meeting tomorrow.”
“As do I. Goodbye.” I turned and
left the building not looking back once.
As I walked back to my motel, I
realized a group of Mind Readers would be able to communicate with each other
non-verbally by dropping their walls and placing their thoughts at the front of
their mind; definitely a handy advantage in a situation such as the upcoming
gathering. Telepathy would be better, but to my knowledge that power didn’t
exist.
I walked past Chris’s window on the
way back to my room. I paused and peeked through the narrow opening in the
curtain. The mirror on the wall was angled just right displaying Chris sitting
in a chair against the opposite wall. He was unaware I was watching him and I
tried to enter his mind. It didn’t work. I tried thinking of a specific detail
to gain entry, but was unsuccessful. I deduced a mind cannot be read unless the
subject can be seen in person. The same way I wouldn’t be able to “read” a
photograph of Chris. Interesting.
However, I continued to harm Justin
through the bathroom door even after I couldn’t see him. An idea came to me and
I repositioned myself so I could see Justin’s reflection through the mirror. I
tried again to upset his stomach but nothing happened. I wasn’t surprised. The
night I “tortured” Justin, I had eye contact with him to begin with. The
connection to his body’s energy remained even after he placed a barrier between
us. Looking at his reflection at this moment, I felt no connection.
Mrs. Winter was waiting anxiously
when I entered the room. My incompetent bodyguards stood directly behind her
with grimaces on their faces knowing it was pointless to think they could guard
or protect me.
“Calli, how did it go?” Mrs. Winter
tried to sound calm.
“Like I expected, they were full of
questions, but I had no answers for them. I’m tired. I’m going to bed.” Everyone
quietly moved aside and let me lie down. I closed my eyes so I couldn’t see
their minds and tried to channel Maetha. If I could speak with her, ask her
some questions, it would help out a lot. I was unsuccessful.
Chapter 12
The Clearing And The Clans
The next morning started early. We
left the motel as soon as the Shadow Demons were gone and ran through the
forest to the delivery location. Tents needed to be set up, floodlights erected
and generators assembled. As more clans arrived, the small tent city grew
around the edges of the clearing, escalating the level of my nervousness to
near suffocation.
I stood staring at the stone table
in the center of it all. My heart beat mercilessly in my chest with the
knowledge that these were my final hours of life. However, while wallowing in
my depressing thoughts, the Sanguine Diamond warmed up against my stomach,
almost as if it was trying to comfort me.
Like an eerie dream, the crowded
clearing quieted to complete silence as the Death Clan arrived. White robes
shrouded their bodies and the small amount of exposed alabaster skin seemed to
glow. They were the embodiment of heinousness and even the insects and birds of
the forest seemed to freeze with fear. Several looked directly at me making my
skin prickle.
The hostages exited the back of a
large military type truck and were escorted to the tent. I read their
collective minds and found their spirits succumbing to the expected dismal end.
They all believed death was imminent. Once they had disappeared inside the
tent, the sound picked back up in the clearing with everyone resuming their
tasks.
I sat down on the matted grass and
contemplated on my decision to keep the diamond. My bodyguards remained nearby.
Had I exhausted all the avenues? Was there no other way to end this? I don’t
know how long I sat staring at the stone table imagining myself lying upon it,
waiting to die.
Mrs. Winter brought me back to reality,
“Calli, come inside. You’re too vulnerable out here.”
Everyone stopped what they were
doing and fell silent when we entered the tent. My eyes searched the large
crowd as Mrs. Winter addressed everyone. “The meeting is scheduled for this
afternoon at three o’clock. Give Chris, Justin and Calli their space until
then.”
We were ushered inside a curtained off
private cubicle within the tent. Three folding chairs were positioned in
triangular fashion and I sat down. I had to stop and think of when the last
time was the three of us were together like this; Harold Bates’ office. Our
journey here with our accompanying entourage and having to divide up for the
hotel rooms made it so the trio was never alone. So much had changed since the commencement
of the delivery. I’d climbed the muck ladder to one step higher than the top,
Justin’s traitorous nature surfaced along with his insatiable desire for
complete power, and our leader, who appeared like he had everything together
when we began our journey, looks to be falling apart at the seams. The two of
them had watched as every ability and power surfaced through me. Chris was
intrigued while Justin was intimidated and jealous. I didn’t perceive a need to
probe their minds at this point, and the last few hours of my life would be
spent in the presence of someone who loved me and someone who hated me. The
thought actually seemed to balance.
I watched as Chris pulled the box
out of his pocket and removed the fake diamond. He held it in front of himself
and examined the beauty. He didn’t understand in actuality he wouldn’t be able
to physically handle the real stone. He said, “The word Sanguine is actually an
adjective meaning positive and hopeful and is the outlook of this meeting. This
diamond is meant to gain the release of the prisoners and to render the Death Clan
powerless; thus securing an optimistic future for all.”
Justin eyed him curiously, “Thanks
for sharing, Chris, like we didn’t know already. It also means an eagerness for
bloodshed and violence. Bet you didn’t know
that
, Chris.” Justin’s smug
gaze shifted to me, “What will happen at the meeting, Calli?”
“Success and the outcome being good
for all clans.”
“Don’t you see details?” Justin pressed.
Chris came to my defense, or so he
thought he was, “Of course she does, Justin.”
I stated simply, “Sometimes those
are better left unknown,”
“Will anything bad happen?” Justin
asked.
My eyes met Chris’s, “Nothing
nature doesn’t intend.”