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  "Did you tell Tarya Selindria about your dream?" Lendel asked curiously. His shirtsleeve had a small tear in it from his struggle with the Snake Vines and a small laceration on his forearm created a slight stain on his shirt.

  "No, I was hoping to keep that between us," Celdic replied dryly, with a meaningful glance at Cha'le and Li.

  "Oh,” Lendel said, looking slightly abashed. "Just pretend that you didn't hear that,” Lendel said to the two women.

  Cha'le's eyebrow had already shot up and Li had automatically assumed the hands-on-hips stance.

  "Why don't you go ahead and tell us what you are talking about right now and save us all a lot of arguing,” Cha'le suggested in a sweet voice that contrasted the sudden hardening of her large blue eyes. "In the end you will tell us."

  Sighing, Celdic gave Lendel a hard look and then turned back to Cha'le and Li. "I have had some really odd dreams for the last couple of months. They are so vivid they seem real. Last night when I was washing my face in the washbasin, I went into a kind of trance. I saw a stranger enter the west divide. It was as if I was the Guardian. I went to apprehend him and suddenly I was staring into the wash basin again."

  Cha'le and Li stared at him with a mixture of incredulity and skepticism.

  "So you think the stranger that Tarya Selindria mentioned is the man you saw?" Li asked doubtfully, watching Celdic carefully.

  "It seems to stretch coincidence just a little too far, don't you think?" Lendel asked them pointedly. "I mean, what are the odds that Celdic has what he thinks was a vision of someone breaching the barrier and the next day we find out that someone has?"

  Li was tapping her slender finger to her exquisite lips thoughtfully. "It does make sense,” she agreed finally. She took a deep breath, "I guess the real question is how Celdic had this vision? I have not ever heard of anything but the Chasel that could predict the future. Could it be trying to work through him for some reason?"

  Cha'le felt her skepticism gradually fading. She had lived with Celdic long enough to know what he was thinking by the expressions on his face. The uncertain, slightly strained look in his blue eyes made Cha'le hesitate to question him further, before he had more time to think it out for himself. "I think we better continue this discussion tomorrow. Our parents are probably already looking for us, especially if they heard what happened. Maybe Celdic will have another vision tonight. I will keep an eye on him tonight to see if anything odd is happening with his yar."

  Celdic gave her a grateful nod, picking up the practice swords they had brought with them earlier. Lendel and Li nodded reluctantly, obviously wanting to discuss the subject further, but they followed her as she began walking toward the path at the other end of the practice yard.

  "Do we still have time for our duel?” Lendel asked Celdic hopefully.

  "No, I don't think so,” Cha'le said quickly, not giving Celdic a chance to answer. "We are probably already in trouble."

  "Since when has that bothered you?” Lendel laughed, his blue eyes twinkling. He had such an infectious smile that she could not stop herself from joining his laughter.

  "Very rarely,” Cha'le admitted, smiling at Lendel fondly. He brought his hand up to scratch his head, and, once again, Cha'le saw the blood stained tear in his shirt. Moving closer to him, Cha'le took hold of his heavily muscled arm in her small hands. "We need to do something about this."

  "It's just a scratch,” Lendel muttered, trying to pull his arm away.

  Cha'le tightened her grip. "Scratches don't bleed like this.” Cha'le examined the cut closely, wincing at the sight. It ran vertically from his wrist to his elbow, with blood oozing out to saturate his sleeve. The cut did not seem very deep, certainly not deep enough to continue bleeding this long. "I think that something in the Snake Vine is preventing your body from healing it,” Cha'le said worriedly. "We need to see a healer."

  "My mother should be able to fix it,” Lendel assured her confidently. "She was a healer for several years before she began working for the Department of Agriculture."

  "Let's get you home then,” Cha'le said briskly, picking up the pace. She reached out with her yar, feeling his resonance. She could feel the warmth of his familiar resonance emanating from his body as strongly as ever. However, a slightly discordant overtone accompanied his resonance, as if there were two beings inside of Lendel's body.

  Lendel looked at her questioningly when he saw the worried look on her face. "What is it?"

  Cha'le shook her head, "I don't know. Hopefully your mother will know more.” Cha'le decided that it was time to talk about something else, before she worked herself into a frantic ball of worry.

  "Has your dad made any progress with his study on the Rajan Gardens losing their strength?" Cha'le asked Li, who was once again brushing shoulders with Celdic.

  "A little," she replied, taking Cha'le's hint to talk about something else. "He thinks that the gardens are getting bigger and that whatever force makes them the way they are is spreading out over a larger radius, causing the force to thin."

  "Bigger?" Celdic’s eyebrows shot up. "How does he figure that?"

  "Lendel knows more about it than I do," Li replied, glancing at Lendel. He seemed to be lost in thought and did not respond until Cha'le nudged him.

  "What?" he asked, looking around at them.

  Celdic repeated the question as they turned down the street that led to the gates.

  "Oh, that.” Lendel's face brightened with interest. "There is a boundary marker where the normal landscape begins changing into the Rajan Gardens that was put in place to keep people from accidentally walking into the Gardens and getting hurt. In the last five years, the effects of the Rajan Garden have spread to about a mile beyond the Boundary Marker."

  Celdic stared at him. "How is it that this has been kept so quiet? I would have thought that it would be the main topic of conversation. I mean our whole lifestyle depends on the Gardens."

  "I have no idea," Lendel shrugged. "I thought it was just another project they were working on. I do not think we are in that much danger of losing the gardens. The Gardens are probably just going through a cycle or something."

  Celdic shook his head. "I think we would have a record of it if the Gardens had ever gone through a cycle before."

  Waving to the two heavily armed watchmen that stood at the gates, the four of them continued up the path into the small forest outside of the city. Cha'le was so preoccupied with this latest revelation about the Gardens that she did not even notice how tense the watchman were, and that the walls had twice as many watchman as usual.

  When they arrived at the meadow where they met in the morning, Cha'le turned to Lendel and hugged him tightly. "Take care of that cut as soon as you get home,” she commanded firmly. "I am already going to be up all night worrying about, but I will feel better if I know that you are taking it seriously."

  Lendel stood looking startled as Cha'le's small arms pulled him tightly against her, hesitantly wrapping his uninjured arm around her. "I will have my mother look at it as soon as I walk in the door,” he promised, squeezing her tightly.

  "I'll make sure that he doesn't forget,” Li told her, patting her back reassuringly.

  Cha'le released Lendel before she and Celdic began making their way up the trail that led to their farm.

  "Jen de' le, huh?" Cha'le said with a raised eyebrow. "You know, I did a study on the Jen de' le and I don't think you are one. What you described doesn't sound like anything we have been taught and from the reactions of the Elders, it doesn't sound like anything they have seen before either."

  "I agree,” Celdic said quietly. "It just doesn't fit. It seems to me as if they are grasping for something they are familiar with and trying to make it fit into that mold."

  "Do you remember what this stranger from your vision looked like?" Cha'le asked curiously.

  "Yes,” Celdic replied, frowning slightly. "He was taller than average and had light-colored hair with blue eyes. I remember the eyes, becaus
e I had made contact with them right before the vision ended and I found myself back staring in the washbasin. They were as intense as Tarya Selindria's eyes, but they were not shaped like cat eyes. They seemed to radiate power. He was wearing normal looking clothes, but they were all black. I didn't see any color on him."

  "What did his face look like?" she probed, studying Celdic's features as he retold the account. Deep concentration creased his face as he recalled the odd experience.

  "I don't know, just a face,” Celdic shrugged. "I have never been good at describing the way people look."

  "I will bet you could describe Li fairly well," she said archly. Cha'le had never seen Celdic so out of countenance as he had been for the last few months around Li. Li had always been beautiful, but Celdic had thought of her as a friend for so long he had not realized just how beautiful she was until Cha'le had asked him if he thought Li was pretty. Once the thought had entered his head, he seemed unable to notice anything else about her anymore.

  "Well, that's a whole different story," Celdic said dryly. "I enjoy looking at Li. I didn't particularly enjoy looking at this person."

  "Just out of curiosity, are you ever going to make her an offering?” Cha'le was watching him sideways, a hint of a smile on her generous lips.

  "Every time I work myself up to it, I get these huge butterflies in my stomach and I lose my nerve,” Celdic laughed sheepishly. "It doesn't make any sense. I mean I have known her all of my life."

  Cha'le nodded her head knowingly. "It is uncharted territory for both of you, so it is only natural for you to be nervous. You do know she is completely besotted with you, don't you?"

  "Really?" Celdic asked, grinning broadly. "Do you think I should give her an offering? I am going to feel like the biggest fool in the world if she turns me down."

  "Trust me," Cha'le said with a mysterious smile.

  ---

  The two of them reached the top of the rise where their house sat solidly on a rock foundation. Opening the gate to the front yard, Celdic walked across the grass-covered ground where chickens wandered around pecking at seeds and made his way to the front door. He could see his mother working in the kitchen. The dull thud of the axe coming from the other side of the house meant his dad was in the back yard chopping the firewood for the kitchen; Celdic’s nightly job. Trying to think of the best way to describe why they were so late, Celdic walked through the front door. He wished that he had spent some of the time walking home trying to work on his explanation.

  "We're home," Celdic announced, as he walked through the sitting room to the kitchen.

  His mother looked up at him, a searching expression in her dark eyes. She was wearing a plain apron and had her long dark brown hair braided behind her back. She was a slender woman with a youthful face that could convey a wide range of emotions. She did not get angry like many of the other women he knew. She had always let them know what her expectations were. When you fell short of them, her expressive face would communicate all of the disappointment she felt. All in all, Celdic would have preferred her to scold him. His father was also a strong believer in allowing a person's own guilt to punish them. He would never say a word of reproach, but he did not need to. His expression said it all.

  Tonight was different though. Instead of the cursory glance followed by the question of where they had been he had expected, his mother pulled him and Cha’le into a close embrace, and then called for their father to come in for dinner.

  Celdic glanced at Cha'le who stood looking dumbstruck at the unexpected welcoming.

  "Is everything all right, Mother?" Celdic asked nervously, sharing a look with Cha'le.

  "Yes, I suppose things are as well as it could be,” she said, sounding resigned. "We will talk more about it when your father is with us. Help me set the table while we are waiting for him please. Wash your hands first."

  Moving to the washbasin, Celdic looked down, half expecting to go into another trance. His reflection stared back at him, wavering slightly. He washed his hands and began setting out the plates and cups while Cha'le set out the silverware. Their father came in through the back door with an armload of firewood he set in the basket under the baking oven. As he straightened, he looked Celdic in the face for several moments, as if he were trying to memorize his features.

  "Let's all sit down, shall we?" their father suggested.

  Starting to feel slightly alarmed, Celdic pulled a chair out from the table and sat down. Cha'le sat down across from him, looking just as puzzled.

  "I will just cut to the meat of this," their father said briskly. "The Elders were down to visit earlier. They told us about some of your eventful day. They also said that they spoke with the Chasel. The Chasel told them you and your sister are going to be leaving soon. They do not know when, where, or why. They just know that it will be very soon."

  Celdic was stunned. "Leave? For how long?"

  His father looked like he was struggling with himself. Clearing his throat, he said, "They were told you wouldn’t be coming back. Ever."

  Cha'le slowly shook her head in disbelief. "They must have misunderstood. Where would we go? This is our home!"

  "We don't know any of the details," their father replied, "but the Elders think that soon means within the next couple of days."

  "Does this have anything to do with what happened this afternoon," Celdic demanded, looking back and forth between his parents, "with the stranger that breached the boundary?"

  Their parents shared a quick look and then his mother answered, "It might. The Chasel has never spoken to the Elders like this before. It told them that you and your sister would be leaving as well as five others."

  "Which others?" Cha'le cut in before Celdic could ask.

  "It only named you two. They just referred to the others as the other chosen ones that would be required to leave. Your father and I have prepared travel packs for you that will be ready at all times if you have to leave in a hurry."

  Cha'le stared at her parents suspiciously. Why was their mother so ready to let them leave when she thought they would never return? Did she have that much faith in what the Chasel could see?

  "What else did the Chasel tell them?" Cha'le asked directly. "You are leaving something out I think we have a right to know."

  Their parents shared another quick glance. Their mother gave a small nod of her head and their father let out a sigh. "There is going to be a war," he said with a sigh. "Not for a couple of months, but we are supposed to finish training everyone before it starts."

  Cha'le was beginning to feel numb with all of the shocks of the day. "Why would anyone want to attack us? What have we done to make them so angry?"

  "It has nothing to do with that," their mother said. "Somehow they have found out about the Chasel. Our people have only used it for choosing who will lead us and for warning us of things that will affect our home. It is capable of much more though. We do not understand it or know what else it can do. We suspect that the people that will be attacking the city know of other uses for it. Our people have sworn to protect the Chasel since we were brought to the mountain country. Now we will get our chance."

  "I want to stay and help," Celdic announced firmly. "I am not just going to leave when our people will need us the most."

  "Me too," Cha'le added resolutely. "I have certain investments here that I won't be leaving."

  "You two will be doing more for us by leaving than you could do here or I am sure the Chasel wouldn't have shown you leaving," their mother said just as determinedly.

  "Besides,” their father said, "the Chasel predicts the future. It does not suggest or command. It has seen that you two will leave. That is what will happen."

  They both looked at their father helplessly. He cleared his throat again.

  "You are both the most gifted of your age. Rely on each other for help and work together. If you do, no obstacles can stand in your way. Come here, both of you," he said, opening his arms wide. They both went over and embraced
him. Cha'le had tears in her eyes that she tried to hold back. Suddenly their mother was there, joining their embrace. First one tear and then another began to trickle down Cha'le's cheeks. They stood there for some time, knowing this might be their last chance to show their love for each other. Outside, the nearly full moon rose over the tops of the mountains to illuminate the mountain city of Chasel Ri’ Aven.

  Chapter 5

  The morning air was cold and crisp, with the sun still hiding behind the eastern horizon. The morning seemed to be holding its breath and even the crickets had quieted their evening serenade. Several leagues outside the city, a covey of quail launched themselves into the air, as they were startled out of their roosting. Near the cottage where Celdic and his family lived, the roosters were beginning to crow into the still air. It was time to wake up. A few groans from within the house made it clear that some of the inhabitants did not agree.

  Celdic seriously considered not getting out of bed. The morning noise interrupted his dream and he was trying to recall it. He thought that it had involved Li and they were in one of the meadows located in the small forest outside the city. She had said something to him that had brought a warm flush to his skin. He was just getting ready to respond when another rooster crowed right outside his window, demanding he arise. Then he remembered what had happened the previous day and he jumped out of bed. He heard a small yell and immediately jumped back in the bed.

  "Watch where you're putting those boats, human!” a small voice threatened. "Next time you try to stomp me like that, I'll bite them off!"