Dreamer (The Seeker Series Book 2) (3 page)

“I do know, but it’s good to hear. I love you too. Good night.”

***

I had to get up early on the morning of the 26
th
because we were scheduled to meet with the council at 8 a.m. sharp. I was pretty nervous and had no idea what to expect. I realized I didn’t even know where we going to meet them. I was picturing a medieval castle and a huge, round table when Cassie began steering me toward the conference room right here in our hotel. I was sputtering my surprise when she stopped and turned me to face her.

“Listen, Ally. I know this is probably going to make you angry, but please believe they had a really good reason for it.”

“For what, Cassie?” I asked.

Instead of answering, she opened the door of the conference room and ushered me inside.

Sitting around a perfectly normal hotel conference table were Caoimhe, Fionnuala, Maire, and four other ladies cut from a very similar cloth. Seriously? Maybe I should have seen this coming, but apparently the stress of the last couple of weeks had dulled my normally suspicious nature.

“Welcome, Ally,” Fionnuala began. “Please come in and have a seat so I can introduce the rest of the council.”

“Gardening conference, huh?” I said a bit petulantly as I flopped down in the chair they indicated.

The rest of the ladies chuckled, but Caoimhe actually had the grace to look somewhat penitent. “I’m sorry, dear, but we wanted a chance to meet you and get to know you a bit before we had you before the formal council. Forgive us, please. It was in your best interest.”

Fionnuala completed the introductions. In addition to the three I had already met, there was Aine (Anya), Eithne (Enya)—which wouldn’t be confusing or anything—Bridget, and Iona. Today, as they were not masquerading as garden conference attendees, they were dressed in what I guess could be described as trendy business casual. They looked sharp and even somewhat funky. I was impressed, although I didn’t want to be since I was still a little pissed.

Fionnuala appeared to be the leader or spokesperson for the council and called the meeting to order. “Council members, we have gathered today to begin the examination of a new Seer, Alethiea Grace Moran.”

I raised my eyebrows in alarm at Cassie, who shook her head slightly.

Caoimhe must have noticed, because she turned to me and said, “No, Ally. We don’t drag every new Seer to Ireland to stand, or sit really, before the council, but your grandmother and Cassie have reported your powers seem to be more powerful than usual.”

“And you are developing more powers as time passes,” added Iona. I grudgingly appreciated the ladies were all wearing the ‘Hello My Name Is…’ name tags still, or I would never be able to keep them all straight. “That is very unusual. Most Seers manifest one simple power. Your case requires extra examination.”

The first thing they asked me to do was give them a rundown of the events of the past few months, ever since my first vision showed up. So I rehashed the whole thing, starting from seeing Veronica was pregnant and getting beat up, to my weird future visions of Megan losing her tooth and of Veronica and myself covered in blood. I noticed them all shifting in their seats and looking nervously at each other when I told them about these visions. I also told them about how I was able to block a vision as it was happening, which I still felt guilty about. I ended my story by telling them what had happened in Coach Trevino’s office a little over a week ago. They all expressed horror and Caoimhe actually got up and came around the conference table to examine the stitches in the back of my head. I was touched when she smoothed my bangs back and kissed my forehead.

“You poor child. It’s so much to bear, and at your young age. It’s a shame!” she exclaimed before returning to her seat.

They produced a few miscellaneous items and asked me to touch them, like I had done for Cassie. I concentrated and was able to see in my mind where each item came from and to whom it belonged. For some reason, it seemed so much easier this time than when I had done it for Cassie.

“Very well, my dear,” intoned Fionnuala. “We have much to discuss this afternoon. Cassie, bring her back here tomorrow morning at the same time. You may go now.”

Well. We were clearly dismissed. Cassie and I gathered up our things and left to enjoy the rest of our day in Galway.

***

December 27

The next day the ladies wanted to see more of my ‘powers’, for lack of a better term. I certainly wasn’t comfortable referring to them as such, but whatever. It turned out Bridget was the one with the ability to touch me and see, like Cassie had done. The room was deathly quiet while Bridget held my hand, nodding and humming a little.

“Yes, yes.” She set my hand back in my lap and patted it. “There is so much going on in your head.” She turned back to the council. “It’s as Cassie told us, sisters. She has remarkable powers, and I sense much more to come. It’s waiting in her mind, ready to spring forth!” she enthused.

Aw, crap. I really, really didn’t want to hear that. I am seriously freaky enough, thanks anyway. More powers showing up were really going to cramp my style.

“But could she be the one?” asked Iona.

Wait, what?

“That’s not at all clear yet, but she is the most promising Seer in many years. We will have to wait and see,” warned Fionnuala. “This will take a lot more time before we can be sure. She has barely turned 17. She has an entire year to finish developing her powers.”

I was pretty close to losing it by now. What in the heck were they talking about?

Caoihme noticed my distress. She seemed to be the one most attuned to my feelings. Perhaps it was part of her gift? “Sisters, it’s time to tell her. She needs to know.”

“Yes, yes,” said Fionnuala. “Eithne, you tell the story better than any of us.” She nodded to one of the ladies I had yet to hear from.

The thin lady wearing black leggings and a red tunic cleared her throat and began to speak. “The Celtic Seers trace their lineage back to the time of Oliver Cromwell and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, when Cromwell and his forces landed in Ireland. Their brutality was legendary. Cromwell hated the Catholics and absolutely refused to tolerate anything he considered pagan, including the Druids. The Druids were the keepers of the ancient knowledge, the true intellectuals of the Celtic world. They refused to write anything down, so much of what they knew has been lost forever. A priestess, whose name has been long-since lost to history, escaped the siege of Galway in 1650 and found sanctuary with a local farm family. She was very beautiful and kind and she and the farmer’s son fell in love. They married and had several sons, although nobody remembers exactly how many. The priestess lived the rest of her life as a simple farmer’s wife, all her Druid knowledge and power apparently lost when she passed. But the couple had one daughter. She began to show astonishing mental powers when she reached young adulthood. Those powers were passed on to her daughters, who passed them on to their daughters. This continues to this very day, however weakened and diluted the powers have become. Every few generations, however, one daughter is born who has the powers of the original Druid priestess. We call this woman the Oracle. Our last Oracle was born 75 years ago.”

“Who is she? What happened to her? Is she one of you?” I looked around at the elderly faces surrounding me.

“No, dear. None of us are the Oracle. It is a very sad story, the saddest story we have experienced since the time of Cromwell. Fifty-five years ago, when our beloved Oracle was 20 years old, she was taken from us,” Aine responded.

“How did she die?” I asked in a hushed voice.

“Oh my dear, she didn’t die, at least not then. She was literally taken from us. She was stolen, kidnapped by the Gaulish Seers. We have never heard from her since, and all of our requests for her return have been ignored. We have no idea whether or not she still lives.”

“What? Gaulish Seers? There are more of us out there? What does that mean? And how can they just steal our Oracle?” I was outraged.

“So many questions.” Fionnuala shook her head. “Yes, dear Ally. There are more of us out there. Wherever there was a significant group of Druids, there appears to be some vestige left in the form of Seers, although not everyone calls them that. We used to have a tentative relationship with the Gaulish clan, but it ended when they stole our Oracle. We continue to send missives every few years requesting her return, but we have been ignored completely,” she ended with a disgusted sniff.

“Well, why doesn’t someone go get her? You know, rescue her? Who are these Gaulish types, anyway?”

“It’s not that simple, Ally. There is quite a rivalry between the two clans, made so much worse when they stole the Oracle. But maybe we can finally begin to recover now.”

“Oh, how are we going to…” I let my words trail off as I noticed them all staring at me expectantly. “Wait, you don’t think I…I mean I couldn’t…” They stared at me, eyebrows raised, some of them nodding slightly. “Do you seriously think I should go rescue her?”

They all exploded into peals of laughter. Even Cassie joined in the apparent hilarity. I sat with my arms crossed, staring back at them. I didn’t see what was so funny. They finally laughed themselves out and Fionnuala said, “No, sweet girl. We don’t expect you to go rescue her. I’m sure she’s long gone by now. No, Ally, we are hoping you
are
the next Oracle.”

Talk about dropping a bomb. I can honestly say I didn’t see that one coming.

CHAPTER THREE

“
When
the mind’s free, The body’s delicate.”

Shakespeare –King Lear (3.4.11)

The plane ride home seemed endless. I desperately wanted to sleep, but it wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t seem to turn off my mind since the council had dropped the enormous Oracle-shaped bomb on me. What were they thinking? I can’t possibly be the Oracle. I can barely manage to keep my own head straight, much less be the example of wisdom for an entire group of people! I was starting to hyperventilate even thinking about it. After the ladies sprung their little surprise on me, they proceeded to tell me all about what an oracle does. She is all about interconnectedness and communication with plants, animals, and all kinds of nature.
An oracle knows how to move in and out of altered states as a vehicle, and a birthright. Most importantly, an oracle is a prophet. I don’t even know what half of that means, and they think I might be their Oracle? Yikes!

That wasn’t the worst part, either. I mean, it’s bad enough, but no, the worst part was they wanted to get to know me much better over the next year, to figure out whether or not I’m really the next Oracle. And by “get to know me better” I mean they want me to spend all my vacations in good ol’ Ireland. Actually, they really wanted me to stay there and forget about Albuquerque. Yeah, whatever. It’s so not happening. I was only able to get them off my back by promising to spend a good portion of my summer with them. I was planning to make sure it was the same eight weeks Jack was at basic training for the army. They also wanted to see me for spring break, but I had plans for putting the kibosh on that. I let them think I was fine with it so I could get out of there. I was completely done in and so needed to get back home to some sanity. This was a bit too much for me right now.

I guess I was more exhausted than I realized, because about an hour and a half before we landed I fell asleep. Unfortunately, I found myself back in the middle of the recurring nightmare, which had plagued me since arriving in Ireland. Every night I would “wake up” in the back of a vehicle of some sort, bound and gagged, knowing I was being kidnapped. Since the first time I had this nightmare it had evolved from flashing back across the memories of my loved ones, wondering why I was in this predicament, to trying to figure out the glaring “who” question. Who would do this to me? Now when I had the nightmare, I could hear and feel the vehicle driving, bouncing along an uneven road. I was starting to get really irritated by this nightmare. Disconcertingly, I still felt like I was pregnant in the dream and longed for someone named Scott.

I woke to my seatmate poking my shoulder and saying, “Miss, are you all right?” Apparently I had been sort of crying or whimpering in my sleep. That’s a bit embarrassing. Cassie had elected to stay a few weeks longer in Galway to spend more time with the council researching the chances I was the Oracle, so I was seated next to a stranger. By some miracle I had been bumped up to first class, which made this flight home so much better than the flight to Galway. Overseas flight in economy class? Yeah, not so much fun. The flight attendants brought around warm washcloths for us to refresh with and I took the opportunity to duck into the bathroom to brush my teeth and freshen up my makeup a bit. I was about to see my boyfriend after nearly two weeks apart and I sincerely hoped there would be some serious kissing involved. I didn’t want to scare him away with manky breath and a shiny face. As I stared into the mirror, applying cherry-flavored lipgloss, I wondered what on earth these horrible nightmares were about. They were really starting to bug me. I was also beginning to regret not mentioning them to the Seer Council or at least to Cassie. Well, if they didn’t stop after I got back home, I would talk to Grams about them.

We finally landed at the Albuquerque Sunport and I made my way towards the baggage claim, wondering who would be there to pick me up. I exited the revolving doors from the secure area of the airport and saw a beautiful sight: Jack leaning against a pillar, hands in his pockets, watching the disembarking passengers. His face lit up in a huge smile when he saw me, mirroring the giant one on my face. Within seconds I was in his arms, my carry-on bags forgotten in a heap next to me, being hugged and kissed within an inch of my life.

We finally came up for air and Jack held my face between his two big hands. “Let me look at you for a minute. God, Ally. I missed you so much.” And he was kissing me again. I’m really glad I thought to pack my toothbrush in my carry on. It felt incredible to be back in his arms. I had almost forgotten how good he smelled and how wonderful it felt to be surrounded by his strength, held securely against his hard chest.

“Where’s Mom and Grams?” I asked when we finally got our momentary fill of each other and we were on our way to the baggage claim, my tote bag over his shoulder.

“I’m it for your welcoming committee. Disappointed?” he asked with a crooked smile.

“Not even a little bit,” I said with an answering grin. “But how did you manage to pull it off?”

“Well, I had to practically swear on a stack of bibles I would take you straight home where they are preparing a homecoming feast for you. Tara and Megan are both there, supposedly helping.”

“You’re staying for the feast, aren’t you?” I asked anxiously.

He grabbed my hand. “Of course, querida. Don’t worry; wild horses couldn’t drag me away from you tonight.”

I filled him in on the lighter details of my trip on our way home. I decided to wait until we had a more significant chunk of time to tell him about the whole oracle thing. That would take some explaining and I needed his undivided attention. It was barely dusk as we exited the freeway toward my neighborhood and Jack pulled into a church parking lot set off from the busy street.

“I thought we had to get straight home?” I asked curiously.

“Yeah, well, I know I won’t have you to myself for the rest of the night, so I’m stealing a little time now. I figure I can fudge about ten minutes into our trip home by claiming a traffic jam on the freeway. It can be our secret.” He turned off the ignition and leaned over the center console to kiss me. I was having none of that and climbed over the console to sit in his lap, straddling him. We had perfected this over the last few months. We spent a few precious minutes getting reacquainted. Suffice it to say I would need to reapply my lipgloss and comb my hair before we got home. I did, giggling a bit as Jack also had to comb his hair and tuck his shirt back in. Don’t judge me. I needed to have my hands on his skin a wee bit. He, as always, remained a perfect gentleman. Mostly. My world was back in alignment.

Mom and Grams had really pulled out all the stops for my homecoming. They took turns nearly squeezing the life out of me and telling me I couldn’t be gone for such a long time again. There was a “Welcome Home, Ally” banner Tara and Megan had collaborated on, probably to get them out from under foot in the kitchen, and way too much food for six people. They had prepared all my favorites: labor intensive spinach lasagna, garlic bread, a strawberry-feta salad, and a wondrous, gooey chocolate cake for dessert. It was so good to be home. Everyone admired my haircut, Megan embarrassing both Jack and me by asking if he had run his hands through it yet. Tara said it made me look at least 19, except for the fact I’m still as short as most middle-schoolers. She’s sure not one to sugarcoat anything.

After dinner, I sat by Jack on the couch, his arm around me, as I told everyone about the trip. Since Megan was there, I left out all the details about the council and the true purpose for the vacation, focusing instead on the sightseeing we had done and all the beauty of Ireland. I gave everyone the small trinkets I had chosen for them, but I was holding the Claddagh rings back for Jack’s birthday in a few days. It was close to 9:00 p.m. and I was beginning to droop when Jack kissed the top of my head and suggested I get to bed.

“Come on, sweetheart. You’re exhausted.” He pulled me up off the couch and dragged me toward the stairs to my bedroom. I said goodnight to everyone, kissing my mom and Grams and thanking them for a wonderful homecoming dinner. I hugged Tara and Megan, promising to catch up more in-depth with Tara the next day. As soon as we were out of sight of the others, Jack pulled me into his arms for a sweet kiss. “You get some sleep, okay? I don’t like the look of those dark circles under your eyes. I don’t think you got enough rest over the past couple weeks.” He kissed my forehead, a worried look on his face. “Call me when you wake up. I will try really, really hard not to call you, no matter how antsy I get.”

I laughed, kissed him again quickly, and went off to my own bed with my own pillow, which I had sorely missed.

***

I woke late the next day, appreciating that Mom and Grams had let me sleep in. I’d had a wonderful night’s sleep without a trace of the awful nightmare. I tried to remember what day of the week it was, but gave up when I couldn’t grasp it. I headed downstairs, following a mouthwatering smell. Mom was at the stove, flipping pancakes. I grabbed a cup of coffee and asked her what day it was.

“Sunday, sweetie.” She chuckled a bit. “Jet lag’s no fun, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s a bitch, Mom.” At her raised eyebrows I muttered, “Sorry.”

She came over and hugged me. “I’ll forgive your potty mouth this once, since I missed you so much,” she teased. “Your grandmother is not the best influence on your language.” We shared a secret smile over my audacious grandmother, whose language could, indeed, be colorful. She held my face in her hands, her thumbs running gently over the dark circles under my eyes. “You still look tired, Ally. Did you not rest well over there?”

It was the perfect moment to tell her about the awful nightmares, but something held me back. “I really missed you all,” I said as I hugged her, tears close to the surface. Later, I would need to analyze why I was reluctant to talk about these dreams. Hopefully they were a thing of the past, anyway.

“Okay, enough of this.” She stepped away, wiping her eyes. “Let’s get you fed and then I think you better call your boyfriend. He may have promised not to call, but I have a feeling he’ll be here pounding on the door before too long. And when your grandmother gets up, we want to hear about what happened with the Council.”

We feasted on blueberry pancakes, Grams deigning to join us halfway through, making her entrance wearing a purple silk caftan. “Darling, you still look exhausted! Why don’t you go straight back to bed after breakfast?” She had a mischievous look on her face. “I’m sure Jack won’t mind.”

“Cute, Grams. I already texted him.” When Grams was seated with her breakfast and coffee, I filled them in on the details of my meeting with the Seer Council. They laughed at how the ladies had tricked me by pretending to be at a gardening conference, but were shocked by what I told them about possibly being the next Oracle. We hashed it out for a while, but were ultimately unable to come up with anything new or useful. They related all that had happened while I was gone and how they had spent their Christmas, Grams at the senior center and Mom with her boyfriend, whom Grams and I had yet to meet. It was so good to sit and talk with them; I am lucky to have such a happy, if somewhat unusual, home life. After about an hour I had to call an end to the fun. “Jack’s picking me up in about an hour, so I need to get ready. I smell bad and I’m stewing in my own filth, so if you lovely ladies will excuse me?” I rushed upstairs to shower, shave my legs, buff, polish, powder, and otherwise make myself kissable and touchable.

Jack had let me know he was at Mass and would pick me up right afterward and take me to lunch. When he showed up driving my car, the VW Bug he had restored and given me for Christmas, I assumed we would resume our driving lessons. I had made some progress in regaining my behind-the-wheel confidence, but had a ways to go with the whole stick-shift thing. I had lost my nerve for driving right after I got my license when I got in a nasty fender-bender, but Jack was determined to help me regain my confidence, and thus my independence. I opened the door before he even had a chance to ring the doorbell and launched myself into his arms, sealing my lips over his, letting my tongue invade his mouth to taste everything I had been missing for the past two weeks.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said huskily when I finally pried myself off of him. “That’s quite a greeting.” He was adorably flushed. “Let’s get out of here before I change my mind and find somewhere dark and private to take you. We could stay there about a week.” He drew me back for another kiss.

“Ahem,” Grams coughed, purposely disrupting us. “Ally, let the young man up for air.”

I smiled against Jack’s lips. He smiled back, putting his arm around my waist and pulling me close to his side. “Hi, Mrs. Moran. Sorry about that. It’s been a while; I mean…” he said.

“Oh, Jack, calm down. I understand. I was in love once or twice myself. And please, please call me Adele. Mrs. Moran makes me feel so old.” If 58 isn’t old enough to be called ‘Mrs.’ then I don’t know what is.

“Okay, Adele. Thanks. Ally and I are going out to lunch and then I’m taking her driving, if that’s all right?”

“Of course. You two have fun.” She pulled me close for a hug. “Don’t keep her out too late. You do look more tired than usual, Ally.”