The Seer (Blood & Fire Saga Book 1) Read online

  He looked back to Amorette. She wouldn’t agree to it. She couldn’t. She was always extreme in her reactions, and this was just crazy. He didn’t want her to agree. It was bad enough that his future was already changing Jun so much.

  Her pale eyes flashed. Her lips were pressed so tightly into a thin line they lost their color. She glanced over to Sojun, no doubt trying to figure out how they could both become so corrupted in such a short time. He waited for her to refuse, to shun them both.

  Slowly, tears sliding down her cheek, Amorette nodded. Then, just like she was supposed to, she walked out the door. He and Sojun were alone for their day together.

  Three

  “I figure,” Sojun began as he helped Kaie gather wood from the pile arrange it in the fire pit, “the most important thing to speak on is the oath.”

  Kaie pressed the dried grass in along the bottom of the pile, taking longer than was necessary as he sorted through his thoughts. “You shouldn’t be doing this. I shouldn’t let you. If you lie, you and Amorette will be exiled too. You won’t be family either.”

  Sojun’s easy smile didn’t look quite as convincing as usual. “There won’t be any driving off. We just have to sort out the right things to speak on and the right ways to say them. Then everything goes on like it’s supposed to.”

  “Until the fires and the armies,” Kaie muttered. “It’s lying, Jun. The barbarians lie to family. We keep no secrets, harbor no dishonesty.”

  “I know the words, Kaie,” Sojun growled as he handed him the flint, not playing at happy and carefree anymore. “If you know another way, tell me. Love of the gods, tell me. It was you and Amorette that put me together again after mother left. Without the two of you, my family is broken. I won’t have that. Not again. So if it’s a choice between being a barbarian or saying goodbye, I will lie happily. So will Ams.”

  He tried to believe that. He also tried to figure out some words that could touch on the depth of his gratitude or the guilt he felt. As he blew the sparks to life he gave both up as impossible. “I haven’t seen you this serious in years, Jun. It’s scarier than anything that old terror had to say. If you don’t crack a painful joke soon, I’m liable to start puking my stomach out all over again.”

  The younger boy smiled but the expression didn’t touch his eyes. “I’m sorry. I think I used up all my wonderful jokes this morning.” Sojun sighed heavily. “Honest, Kaie, I can’t think of anything to laugh at in this. My sense of humor left at the thought of you seeing visions of ashes and dragons.”

  “They weren’t visions,” he insisted, then sighed himself. “I know what you mean.”

  Sojun nodded grimly. Kaie didn’t know if it was in acceptance of his non–visions, or if it was just a general nod of acknowledgments of the whole horrible mess. “I need you to pull yourself together and help me think this through, Rosy. You’re the one who traded Delia for her own flowers. We’ll need that charmed tongue to get through this.”

  Kaie rolled his eyes. “That was ten years ago. And she only did it to keep me from crying.”

  “Exactly,” Jun insisted. “You had her so convinced you were about to start sobbing, I almost believed it. You know you’re good at making people think what you want them to. So quit obsessing about why we shouldn’t and start figuring out how we will.”

  Despite everything, Kaie couldn’t help but to smile. That had been a good day. And, no matter how he denied it every other day, Jun was right. He was good at making people believe what he wanted. “Alright. You’re right. The oath is the most important part.”

  Sojun grinned and nodded. “We’ll leave of the part about ‘none and all and none again’ right? That sounds kind of ominous.”

  He shook his head. “That’s good stuff. She flat out said I’m to lead the tribe there. If I’m supposed to marry a High Queen, they’ll expect me to lead.”

  “But the ‘none’ part is kind of creepy.”

  Kaie flexed his hands over the fire. “No, it makes sense. My mother leads now. Until she steps down, I lead no one. When someone else takes over for me, it will be no one again. It makes it sound like I’ll live a long time. Long enough to have an heir and step down, too.”

  Sojun nodded, cracking his knuckles. “It does make sense. And sounds good. I guess I’m seeing phantoms when there’s just an old woman being cryptic.”

  “I don’t think that’s what she was doing, Jun.”

  The other boy pursed his lips. “Maybe not. But everyone else will. That’s all that matters.”

  Kaie watch the fire growing to consume the wood they arranged. That was true enough, but only if the Lemme said nothing about her visions. So far as he knew, she didn’t tell anyone but the person involved and the witnesses. But that was when everyone was honest. There was no telling what she would do in this situation.

  He needed to go back and see her. The thought made his stomach roll again in all kinds of uncomfortable ways. If he was going to lie, to let his friends lie, he needed to be sure she wouldn’t ruin them. For all they knew, she saw this coming and was already planning to tell the whole village.

  He needed to wait until Sojun fell asleep before returning to her foul–smelling hut. He was going to ask her if he was a seer. She could tell him. And if she said no, there was no reason for the dishonesty at all. But if Jun was there with him, Kaie knew he would lack the courage. He wouldn’t be able to face his friend, so eager to risk everything for his sake, if her answer was yes.

  When Fate – the goddess Lemme – first left her mark upon her descendants, there were men and women in equal numbers. They were tasked with leading the children of Elysium along the paths she envisioned for them.

  But the genders perceived the future differently. Women saw in parables. Their glimpses of past and future were richer, but they were cloaked in imagery that could take many years to sort out properly. Even then, only the gifted daughters could truly decipher what they saw. Men experienced no such troubles. While their sight was shorter than that of their sisters and mothers, they could see events the way they would unfold. They were able to know exactly what was coming. Because of the differences, the two genders drifted, neither finding much value in the way the other dealt with the future.

  Then came the most gifted seer. His name was lost. Not even Lodan could recall hearing of a single soul who knew it. His story remained as a warning to all that would follow in his shadow.

  He was remarkable, able to see far longer and deeper than any man before him. As he grew into his ability he could surpass even the gifted daughters. And he was celebrated in every corner of Elysium for it. Until he saw Kosa, god of destruction, the one who would swallow the world on the last day.

  Always before, the movements of the gods were hidden from mortal sight. The days when they warred over souls was ended. Each god held the Accord, limiting their interaction with their children and settling their disputes with their Guardians. But Kosa, who was always fond of trickery and lies, wasn’t content with waiting for the final days to reclaim the power he lost in the Accord. He began moving slowly, extending his influence by such small degrees that no one noticed. Even Lemme and her partner Maal never voiced concern over the web Kosa was weaving.

  How the seer first recognized the danger was also lost to history. But when he did, he did not wait to determine the best way to unhook Kosa’s claws from the mortal world. He acted, ripped them out with no thought to the damage done. He shared his visions with every male seer he could find. Together they undid all Kosa’s carefully crafted plans. In a single generation, nearly all of the god’s followers were dead. Those remaining were so deep in hiding that no one was ever certain what became of them.

  Kosa was enraged. He moved to smite all seers from Elysium in an instant. Lemme was stirred to action, for she would never forget her children. She stood between Kosa and his vengeance, and she would not be moved. Turmoil raged in the abyss for a hundred years. The war that the Accord put an end to rose up again, pulling in the mor
tals as well. Soon all life was once more at the brink of extinction. Kosa, fat with his power, was preparing to open his jaws.

  In the last moments, Maal’s voice was heard for the first time in mortal memory. It said one word. “Stop.”

  When time resumed, a new Accord was reached. A compromise, which left all parties unhappy, was agreed to and bound in the blood of gods. Kosa was forbidden to kill Lemme’s line. But on the males he placed a horrible curse. They would be the center of his ire until the day the last of her descendants perished. Any who gave them shelter would suffer and die. Kosa would punish all they loved, as he could not punish them, for the mistake that one man made.

  If Kaie was a seer then that was the fate waiting for Sojun and Amorette. For the whole family. And he would survive it. He would watch as their misery unfolded, knowing it was because he loved them. Except he wasn’t a seer. They weren’t visions.

  “What do you think it means, Jun? What the Lemme said?”

  “It means you’re almost more trouble than you’re worth, Rosy.” Sojun dropped his hand on Kaie’s shoulder in the same comforting gesture from a few hours and another lifetime ago. “More than that, I’m not going to think on.”

  ***

  Sojun fell asleep quickly but it was the longest wait of Kaie’s life. His friend was out almost the moment the sun dipped below the horizon. It was a couple of hours; more than enough time for Kaie to drive himself crazy.

  The village seemed even quieter than before. He was back at the Lemme’s in less than half the time it took the three of them to walk the distance in daylight. There was light seeping out from beneath the Lemme’s door. The sight of it drew Kaie up short. He almost turned back. He wanted to catch her unprepared, maybe even to wake her. He wanted the upper hand. It didn’t matter that she was an old woman, or that she was visibly sick. She was terrifying.

  Kaie pushed back in to the horrible smell.

  She was sitting by her fire watching the door. When he stepped inside she locked her yellowed eyes on him for all of a moment. Then she dropped them to tend to the flames.

  “I expected you two hours ago.”

  Despite all the curdling fear, Kaie found himself smiling. There was something wrong with him, that he planned to sneak up on a woman who saw into the future. “Yes Lemme. I’m sorry.”

  She poked the fire with a fat stick, one too large for her fragile hands. The wood slipped from her fingers almost immediately. Kaie dropped to his knees and fished it out of the fire pit before it went up as well. Small flecks of heat glowed angrily as he set it aside.

  Before he thought about what he was doing, he took over the whole task for her. Fingers darting in and around the flames with the culmination of sixteen years of fascination with the dangerous beasts, Kaie nudged the logs until they were settled properly. The fire threatened to die out completely. But he waited patiently. Its dramatics unanswered, the blaze flared up again, this time burning more evenly in the new arrangement. Once the need for constant care was abated, he sat down across from her.

  The Lemme’s eyes were locked on him as though he just did something profound. He felt heat rising in his cheeks under her scrutiny and was on the verge of protesting that it was nothing. It was, after all. His father did the same thing all the time. He nearly said so when she took pity and spoke first.

  “I almost gave up on you coming.”

  “I almost didn’t,” he confessed. “I didn’t want to.”

  “I hoped you wouldn’t. I hoped you would refuse your friends.”

  Kaie rocked backwards. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be shocked. All he could manage to dredge up was a detached surprise. “I would be exiled. Driven off into the woods for the Finders to take away.”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  “Are you going to tell the family what you’ve seen for me? If I let them do what Sojun wants?”

  She sighed and sank back away from the light a little ways. “No. Your destiny is your own, to do with as you like. If you choose to conceal it, I will not stop you.”

  “You think I should tell them?”

  “I think it does not matter.”

  That got a bit more than surprise. “How can it not matter? It is my family, and I have to decide whether I’d rather lie to them for the rest of my life or lose them all in one moment!”

  “In the end, all will unfold as it is meant to. Whether you lie or leave will not change what must be.”

  “Then I guess you’re right. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters if I can’t change anything about anything.” This was his life, his family, and she was spouting out stupid comments that said little and meant less.

  She sighed again, the same sad sound as before. “What you decide matters, Kaie. Some things are written by Fate and cannot be altered. But that doesn’t make your actions meaningless. You will remember this moment someday and remember the decision you made. It might not change the here and now, but it will change how you see yourself then. That matters.”

  Kaie scowled. She was the Lemme. It wasn’t his place to doubt her. But it was all so convenient. It was a great way to convince him to do what she wanted without telling him what to do, to make him obey with nothing better than a promise of some vague reward ‘someday’.

  The fire cracked. It startled Kaie out of the languid state he was starting to float in. Fear curled in his stomach as he recalled the other reason he was here. The more important one. The one he would really rather forget.

  “Am I a seer, Lemme?”

  Her head shifted forward into the light again. It made her look like she ended at the neck, just a levitating head. “Can you see the flames? How about the rocks? Me? What does that make you, if not a seer?”

  He shook his head. “That’s not what I mean.”

  “You mean do you share my ability.” She considered him a moment with the same appraising gaze from earlier in the day. “It’s possible. You share my blood. And your mother was quite good at perceiving possible futures. That’s part of the reason she was destined to lead the tribe. It takes someone who thinks several steps ahead to keep us safe from our enemies in this age. So yes. It is possible.”

  Kaie scowled at the fire, not daring to turn the expression on her. “I need to know better than possible. I saw it. What you spoke of before. When you spoke the words, I saw them in my head. Does that mean I’m a seer?”

  She stood and it took so much effort that Kaie knew it pained her a great deal. Slowly, she waddled over to his side. He wanted to get up, to help her, to run away. But he was rooted in place.

  When she was beside him she took his head between her hands. He tried not to think about the way her skin felt pressed against his own. He tried not to notice the smell of her, strong enough at this distance to overpower the scents that made his mind float loose. Like sweat and refuse boiling beneath a surface of cloves and smoke.

  She stared down into his eyes for a long time. Kaie managed to hold himself still. Mostly.

  “You have your mother’s eyes. Brightest green I’ve ever seen.”

  He didn’t know what he was supposed to say that, so he said nothing. The Lemme didn’t seem to notice.

  “I had forgotten how young you are. How small and weak.”

  Kaie’s grimace hit her with full force that time. He was the smallest boy his age. Even the girls his age could peer over top his red hair. Most of the kids kept the comments and giggles about it down to a polite whisper, but not all of them. There were one or two who took great pleasure in pointing out just how tiny he was at every opportunity. Sojun kept things from getting out of hand. “My father says he was as short as I am when he was my age. He says he didn’t grow into his height until he was nearly at his eighteenth birthing day.”

  “His twentieth, more like. How he won your mother, scrawny and useless as he was in those days, was a mystery to everyone.”

  Kaie’s indignation grew with his discomfort. “I’m stronger than I look.”

  “You’d
have to be, wouldn’t you?”

  He thrust his chin out, giving no thought to how childish the gesture would look. “I’m fast. No one in the village is faster than me. And Sojun and I wrestle a lot. I beat him almost half the time.”

  “Oh? Half the time, is it?”

  “Almost,” he admitted grudgingly. Of course, that wasn’t true either. Sojun worked hard to hide it, but Kaie knew his friend held back. Jun wanted him to think he was strong, and Kaie didn’t want his heart’s brother to know it was useless.

  The Lemme saw that. Her eyes, which he thought were blue once, said it all. He could fool so many people. Sometimes even himself. But he couldn’t fool her.

  “You will be given the choice between sacrificing yourself or the ones you love over and over again. You draw pain to yourself like a magnet draws metal. It is the nature of your soul.”

  “So it’s true,” he whispered, his eyes dropping down to the dirt and staying there. He couldn’t stand to see the truth in her gaze. “I am a seer. Cursed.”

  “Cursed? I imagine you would call it that. But just as you draw the pain, you will draw joy such as the rest of us only dream about. You cannot have one without the other. It is a balance.”

  “I don’t understand.” Kaie was reaching now, looking for some way to keep it from being the truth. “How can I be a seer? I’ve never had a single vision before! And the ones I had… they weren’t direct. There won’t really be a sea of blood. There can’t be, right?”

  She sighed. “You are untrained. Your glimpses have always been haphazard and insignificant. Still, your mother recognized them for what they were. She came to me demanding the truth. A mother should never know her son’s destiny, but because I loved her I spoke it anyway. I was young and did not really understand how such a small thing could change so much.”

  “My parents knew? This whole time?”

  The Lemme nodded. “Because they begged, I worked with Lodan to find a way to keep it hidden from you. Scent was the key. Just as they help enhance the visions, they can dull the memory of them, until they can be mistaken for dreams. Lavender, sage and weir wood.”