The Prophecy (7 page)

Breathing
in deeply through my nose, I concentrated on making the baby feel better. The
tingling started in the center of my chest, right where my heart was, and then
a bud of warmth blossomed into a full-headed heat. The warm feeling circulated
through my body and then flowed down my arm and out through my fingers.

Almost
immediately, the baby stopped crying.

I
slowly opened my eyes and found Starla gazing up at me, her nutmeg eyes open
wide. “There, now,” I whispered. “All better?”

Starla’s
pert little mouth formed an O and then broke out in a gummy smile. I handed the
baby back to her mother, whose own mouth and eyes were as wide as her
daughter’s.

“Thank
you,” Nova breathed, her eyes glassy with tears.

I
bobbed my head, all of a sudden very aware of the attention on me now that I
didn’t have Starla in my arms anymore. I returned to the front of the room and
headed for my chair, but not before Charley snagged my arm and pulled me to her
side.

“Brothers
and Sisters,” Charley called, “come lay your hands on our newest Spirit Keeper.
Those standing, please come forward first. Then we will begin at the back of
the room in an orderly fashion.”

Oh, the
humiliation! It was one thing to demonstrate my knack for healing, but this laying
of the hands was a little too much for me. I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking
out all light, and simply endured the next few moments that followed.

One by
one I felt hands touching my head or my elbow. Some members whispered a
muttered blessing, or what I hoped was a blessing, in some native language I
couldn’t understand.

I’d
been standing still for so long that my legs began to go numb, when a zing of
electricity shot through my body. I opened my eyes to see Caleb standing in front
of me, his hand on my shoulder.

“Welcome,”
he said, seemingly just as surprised as I was.

Without
warning, he grimaced and shuddered. His knees gave way, and he collapsed to the
floor in front of me.

“Omigod!”
I yelled, instinctively grabbing at him. 

The
room quieted and Charley rushed over at once. She knelt next to Caleb, putting
a hand on his shoulders. “Seizures,” she explained calmly to me. “He’s suffered
from them his entire life, but they’ve been coming more frequently lately.”  

After a
few agonizing moments, Charley helped Caleb to his feet and returned him to his
seat, where he sat with his head bowed. “He’s fine,” she assured the crowd,
though her own voice was shaky. “Please. Let’s continue.”

I
wasn’t so sure that was such a great idea, but apparently the others were used
to Caleb’s seizures. In fact, no one in the audience seemed to be overly
concerned.

To be
honest, the meeting wasn’t proceeding exactly as I’d envisioned. I had expected
that we’d congregate around a campfire at sunset and be enveloped within wood-smoke
and magic. Or maybe a small number of us would gather in a ceremonial hut where
one of the tribal elders would call forth the spirit of our ancestors, and we’d
pass around a peace pipe.

Priscilla
would accuse me of being racist, but what did I know? My entire family had done
a really good job of keeping me in the dark about anything having to do with my
heritage and people.

Charley
clapped again, disturbing my musings, and motioned for me to find my seat. “As
you all know,” she said, “a singular event fractured our tribe just over
seventeen years ago. Some of you remember that day—”

“She
should never have been allowed here!” someone shouted suddenly.

Another
voice rang out, “She’ll bring trouble to the tribe!”

At
first Charley just stood there, and I wondered if she was going to put a stop
to the heckling. Finally, she raised her hand and said, “Sarah is a very
special girl. You’ve seen proof of that already.”

At that
point Charley began to recount the whole sordid tale of the night my father, in
wolf form, entered Katori land and subsequently killed one of their own. The
story certainly didn’t help my case, and the angry muttering and jeering
continued. My face burned as I wondered exactly where she was going with this.

“It was
clear to all present that the wolf was the creature that had impregnated Melody.”
Charley spat out the word creature, making what my mother had done sound sick
and twisted.

“He was
defending himself,” I blurted out. Heads swiveled in my direction.

“What
was that?” Charley said, as though she hadn’t heard.

I rose
from my chair. My legs wobbled, and I felt suddenly lightheaded. I turned to
Adrian and was stunned to see the anger in his eyes as he carefully focused his
attention elsewhere. Given all the times he had assured me he didn’t blame me
for his mother’s death, I hadn’t expected to see that look on his face. I
turned back to Charley. My mouth worked, but no sound came out at first. Taking
a deep breath through my nose, I continued.

“I
don’t mean to minimize their loss,” I said, gesturing to my left at Imogene,
Shyla, and Adrian, “or to make light of the pain that was caused because of
what happened. But from the stories I’ve heard, I believe my father was only
trying to defend himself. Wouldn’t you? Try to defend yourself, I mean.”

My
question was met with stony silence, but I watched as the members of the
audience turned to their neighbors, shrugging and nodding. Of course they would
try to defend themselves. I cleared my throat and tried again. “If someone were
to come at me with a weapon, I . . .”

At
this, I fell quiet. Someone
had
come at me with a weapon. I flashed back
to that afternoon in the woods when Adrian’s dad Victor had chased me down with
a knife, intent on killing me. And all because my father—a father I didn’t even
know—had accidentally killed his wife.

“Look,”
I said. “I’ve never met my father, and I obviously wasn’t there to witness the
attack against Victor’s wife Aida, but there has to be some other explanation
for why, and even how, he came to be here.”

“There
is no other explanation,” a man yelled from the audience. I recognized his
voice. He was one of the people who had jeered me once before.  “This will
never be your tribe, so who are you to say what did or did not happen?”

“It’s
her tribe just as much as it is anyone’s here,” David shot back.

“Okay,
everyone. Let’s try to keep this meeting civil,” Charley said, raising her
hands in a placating gesture. “Sarah’s presence here today has obviously opened
an old wound.”

“A
wound that we need to let heal,” a woman shouted. “She’ll only make it worse.”

“You
all voted to banish my family from the only home they’d ever known, and all
because you thought I would be born a monster,” I said, growing angry. “But I’m
here to tell you, I’m not a monster at all. I’m just a girl. You can’t blame me
for my mother’s mistakes. And believe me when I say that I’ve already paid the
price.”

“Because
of the fire that Victor Hunt set,” Charley said pointedly to the crowd. “As you
all know, Victor recently attacked his son Adrian, who would have died had it
not been for Sarah’s healing power. The same power you just witnessed her use
on little Starla.”

Charley
pointed to me. “Victor also tried to kill Sarah. And yet, against all odds, she
is still here. So we must ask ourselves, what does that mean?”

The
entire room had fallen silent. I searched the faces before me, and for a moment
no one moved. But then, toward the back of the room, Nova raised her hand.  

“Go on,”
Charley said to her. “Speak up so we can hear you.”

Nova
held her now-sleeping baby slumped over her shoulder. Her young face may have
showed the lines and dark smudges of sleep deprivation, but her eyes were
eager.

“I know
I speak for many when I ask why the Spirit Leader spared Sarah’s life. There
are many among us who simply don’t understand.”

Of
course, there was no definitive explanation for my salvation. Even within my own
family, it continued to be a much-speculated topic of discussion. Imogene and
Meg were certain I was destined to play a much bigger role in our tribe than
any of us could imagine, but I wasn’t so sure.

“The
answer to that is not clear,” Charley said. Nova nodded and resumed her pacing.
“Only the Spirit Leader knows the true answer to that question. Only She knows Her
plan for Sarah. It’s best we not question it.”

A shout
rang out from the audience. “So we’re supposed to have faith in Katori that
this girl is more than just a girl?”

“She
saved Adrian’s life when he was on the brink of death,” Imogene said, her voice
raised among the growing mutterings of discontent from the crowd. “Sarah’s
demonstrated an aptitude far greater than any I’ve seen before. If that is not
proof enough of Katori’s plan for this girl, you are blind.”

The man
who had shouted sat back in his chair, his mouth pressed into a hard, thin
line.

Charley
clapped her hands together then, making me jump. “All right. If there are no
more comments or questions at this time, this meeting is adjourned. The sky has
cleared, so please stay for the potluck picnic. Those of you with a chair,
please fold it and put it away.”

There
was a scuffle of chairs being pushed back as everyone started to quickly clear
the building. I leaned over to Meg, confused. “Is that all? Is it really
over?” 

Meg shrugged,
seeming as confused as I. “Apparently so.”

Relief
rushed through me. I had fully expected to be bombarded with questions and more
angry jeers. All things considered, I couldn’t believe it had been that easy.
With the exception of Caleb’s seizure, it’s was sort of a non-event.

Adrian
circled his arms around me from behind and I flinched, remembering his angry
look from before. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“No,” I
relented. “Although it was weird when everyone came up to touch me.” I craned
my head. “I hope Caleb is okay.”

“He’ll
be fine.”

Charley
walked by just then and I called out to her. She stopped, but I could tell by
her face that she was distracted. “I just wanted to tell you thank you,” I
said.

“For?”
She was looking around, searching for someone I thought.

“For
making my introduction to the tribe an easy one. I hadn’t expected it to go so
well.”

Charley
ceased scanning the crowd and turned to me with an audible sigh. “Believe it or
not, Sarah, sometimes it’s not about you.”

SEVEN

The
rain had left the air cool and damp so that a fine mist blanketed my hair and
skin. Adrian and I sat on the rocky beach at the edge of the water with an old
quilt tucked loosely around our shoulders, huddling close together for extra
warmth as we waited for the sun to break fully through the clouds.

Caleb
had followed us down to the water and was presently skipping rocks across the lake’s
surface. He kept his back to us as though he wanted to be alone, but not really
alone. We didn’t speak much, but the silence wasn’t at all awkward. It felt altogether
peaceful and welcome after the week I’d spent stressing out, wondering how
today would go. And now that it was over . . .

“Do you
really think Caleb is okay?” I whispered, low enough that I hoped he wouldn’t
hear me talking about him.

“Yeah,”
Adrian said. “He’s had seizures off and on for as long as I’ve known him. He
always bounces back.”

“It’s
just that I’ve never seen anyone have a seizure before. It kind of freaked me
out.”

“Freaked
me out the first time I saw it happen, too. Everyone knows about his condition but
he doesn’t like to talk about it, so don’t bring it up.”

I
nodded. After a few minutes of sitting in silence I said, “Today seemed much
too easy. And when something seems too easy, that’s because it usually is.”

“Now you’re
just being paranoid.” Adrian stood and tucked the blanket more securely around
my shoulders. Then he picked up a smooth stone and sort of chucked it at the
water. He didn’t possess quite the skill at skipping stones as Caleb.

I
opened my mouth but hesitated, not really sure I wanted to know the answer to the
question I was about to ask. I forged ahead anyway. “What were you mad about during
the meeting?”

He
turned back to look at me, his brows pushed together. “Mad?”

“You
were scowling,” I said. “Just like you’re doing now. I thought maybe you were
mad that I had defended my father. I wasn’t really. Defending him, I mean. It’s
just that there’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense or add up. I can’t
stop thinking about it.”

Adrian’s
eyes shifted to Caleb and then back to me again. “Don’t worry about it. That’s
not what I was upset about.”

“Then
what—”

“Paintball!”
Caleb shouted suddenly, interrupting our conversation.

“Please
tell me he didn’t just say paintball,” I said to Adrian, getting a sick feeling
in the pit of my stomach.