Chapter 15 A Gypsy Trick

Sada has a strange vision as we ride out of the village. It’s getting ready to rain. Iris and we wrap ourselves tighter in our cloaks, but the prophet does not seem to notice the cold weather. She looks straight in front of her, transfixed.

I can penetrate her vision, but the images are blurry and I can’t see everything. There are a lot of people. They speak loudly to each other, in a cacophony of unfamiliar voices. One young woman with black hair and piercing eyes holds something in her hands. The object is made of a lustrous silvery metal, flashing bright where sun hits its surface.

What is it? Sada’s face sows no expression. Does she recognize the object? Does she know why she is having this vision?

“Is everything allright?” Baron Leo moves his Chirita as close as he can to my Sarji, and a loving touch of his hand brings me back to reality. We’re in the forest. It is raining, but not very much. The air is filled with the smell of wet earth and fragrant flowers.

What an amazing setting for Iris’s stunning beauty. His long hair is flowing in the wind, and his eyes are full of tenderness for me. These are the moments when I swear that nothing will ever get between us. I do not lie, I just give in to a weakness when Kallitris shows up.

Admiring my husband I notice a figure walking slowly in the forest right along with us. The figure appears and stands motionless, then it moves, disappears behind the trees, only to be seen farther and farther, walking away.

I’m not frightened, but I want to know, as it looks very unusual for someone to be alone in the woods so far away from any dwelling.

“Did you see that?” I whisper to my friends.

“What?” Iris gets tense. “No, I didn’t!”

I turn to Henessada, but she’s still in her vision. Or who knows where she is. Her eyes stare in the distance, never blinking once, receiving information from the unknown sources. Some say she’s got a gift of clairvoyance. I know better. It is never a gift. It’s always a well-earned skill. Mystic, but real.

“Hold on” I jump off Sarji, who is unhappy about my move and wants to follow me.

But I firmly ask him to stand by Iris, and then I run after the elusive figure. It seems to be a woman…

It is nowhere to be seen, though. I look for her, when a loud thunder rocks the vicinity. I wince instinctively, and feel big, heavy raindrops on my face. They burn me with condensed, unprocessed information, and I can’t hide. Where is that woman? Was that a person at all? Or was I hallucinating? I’m about to go back, when a quiet voice behind makes me jump.

“I only ever wanted the best for you, Demi! I’m so sorry!”

I turn around and find myself face to face with Leozarit Gidealis. She looks the same way she looked the day she vanished. Her long black hair is all the way past her shoulders, and she’s got a necklace with a sparkling star on a chain around her neck. She always had that, but after a dream of Ari’s Faith Star I look at it differently.

“Mother?” I gasp.

“You are looking for the spaceship. The prophet has a key to how to find it. You will be met on the road. Whatever you see, listen to the metal. It will lead you to the spaceship.”

“You are not dead, aren’t you? Please tell me you’re not dead!” I beg her.

My mother’s youthful face is full of sorrow.

“I have failed Ari and Leot. Save our honor. Make me proud!”

It thunders again, and it seems that a bolt of lightning strikes really close. I get distracted by the screams on the road, afraid it was my friends who were hit. I look back, and my mother is gone. Just like that. My heart gets filled with pain and even anger.

Guilt, pride, self-pity. She is feeling guilty that she let down Leot?! Does it bother anybody that he abandoned us all here without any care or neurotoxin?! When my mother and I suffered the worst, since we were the direct descendants of Ari of Estelian strain, who was addicted most of all, more than other crew members? This really makes me mad.

“Domiarn?” Iris runs to me. “A lightning hit a tree right in front of us, and Sarji bolted and ran away!!!”

“You! Did your father feel guilty that he let someone down in his life because he was a son of an alien?!”

‘What? No. He was always fond of his mother. Triana was a biologist on the ship. She worked for Ari. You know that.” Baron Leo is concerned, he touches my face, and kisses me gently in the lips. “Are you allright?”

I sigh. No, I’m not allrght. I just saw the ghost of my mother, and she was wrapped in guilt. I hate that invertebrate, I hate him so. And now my horse is gone. Lovely.

We walk to the road. Sada is back to normal, waiting for us. I get ready to vent, when distant echoing voices fill the air.

And then a whole bunch of people appears on the road. They sing and dance as they walk. The woman are dressed in every possible color there is – red and green scarves, yellow and blue skirts, white, black and purple shirts and everything in between.

Henessada is watching this avalanche of noise and laughter with a lot of interest and anticipation. As if she was waiting for it. Iris looks alarmed. The crowd notices us, and immediately a couple of women start walking faster, and approach us, smiling. I’m the only one without a horse, so they come up to me.

“Hi handsome man… How would you like us to tell you all about your past and future?”

“Go away you gypsies!” Yells Iris, more scared than angry.

A younger of the two women starts laughing, her gaze is fixed on me intensely. There is something in her laugh, giving me a fleeting, inebriating feeling of freedom. I was never as free as these people. They are so beautiful, so unrestricted by anything.

A man dressed in white shirt, black pants and tall shiny boots comes to us with a guitar, and starts playing a melody, sweet and soft. It floods me with memories.

I stretch my hand to a younger woman, and she takes it, smiling still.

“You will travel a lot in your life” She says “Do you have a golden coin?”

“That’s it? You said one thing and you want to get paid?” Baron Leo scowls, annoyed.

“No, it’s not it. But you must pay first before the magic begins!” The second woman says, confident, that she is going to impress us beyond our wildest dreams.

I pull out a coin from my pocket. It glitters in the sun, barely reaching out though the thick ceiling of tree branches above us.

“Good!” The older woman puts away the coin, and the man behind her begins to play a faster melody, his fingers flying up and down the strings of his guitar.

All three of us are anxious to see the magic. Even Iris, immune to persuasion, stopped talking and is waiting.

The young woman digs in a bag at her hip, and pulls out a weird looking object, its metal sides are silvery and shiny. It has a shape of a thick tube, with appendages and unknown things sticking from its sides.

Immediately I hear a sound in my head. By my programming I was tuned in to hear certain metals, so, for example, I recognize the voices of copper and silver. This voice is unfamiliar to me, but very distinct nevertheless.

“Don’t get all mushy on me now… But you are lucky with women, and my magic tells me you will have a lot of them!” The gypsy holds the object to her ears, as if listening. “You cutie! My magic never lies!”

“He better not have many women!” Growls Iris, as Sada starts to smile the first time since the gypsies showed up.

There is more noise in the crowd, as a cart, covered with some cloth and hides, driven by two horses comes from around the bushes, and more colorful women come down the road. The two groups merge, and happily greet each other. Loud voices of children can be heard from the cart.

“Ahhh!!!” Says Leo, and his eyes widen, as his jaw drops “Demi, look!”

One of the women leads none other, but my Sarji.