“No, child, let me talk to Benedek. This is important to me. I know he is Carpathian. I know he has suffered betrayal of the worst kind. I saw what was done to him and his iron will to survive it. I knew he lived to bring others to justice, Carpathians and vampires and any others who took advantage of the weak.”
“It was you,” Silke said. “The shawl. That long beautiful shawl I am wrapped in right now. I feel you when I have it around me. I’m never lonely when you tuck it close. You were wearing it when you went to Benedek’s aid.” This time there was awe in Silke’s voice. “He showed me the memory of what those horrible people did to him. I couldn’t understand how he lived through such a horrific attack.”
“We heard his call for aid. He sent it on the ancient pathway, not the Carpathian one. He used the ancient forest, the trees and the mushrooms running beneath the ground. He called to Mother Earth, and we were close. We are seers and we knew we would be needed.”
“I thank you for saving my life. You and the others returned often and called to me to give me blood. Your kindness was remembered throughout the centuries.”
“Others were not so kind,” Fenja recalled. “There was a youngwoman being trained as a medicinal healer. She apprenticed under one of the other spirits who provided for you.”
“The betrayer,” Benedek said. He spoke in his usual low voice, the rasp pronounced. Inside, where rage burned beneath the glacier, hot glittery fury leapt like magma from a deep pool. He saw in splashes of red and had to take a deliberate breath. “She came very close to getting me killed that day.”
Fenja nodded. “I remember. She sold your resting place out to a group of vampire hunters.”
“She knew the difference between vampires and Carpathians,” Benedek said. He kept his tone mild. “She wanted their money and the trinkets they offered.”
“Yes, but she wasn’t the only one to blame that day. Her mentor was a seer. How did she not know that Evangelica would betray all of us? She not only told the vampire hunters where your location was, but she also implied to them the medicine women were worshipers of the vampire and his servants.”
“I was unaware she had betrayed you as well,” Benedek admitted. “I was awakened by Mother Earth and heard them digging above me. The sun was still up and I was in the paralysis of our kind.”
“How did you escape them?” Silke asked.
Benedek shrugged, looking more casual than ever, when he didn’t feel that way. He had memories. Those memories should have faded. He had been in enough conversations with his brethren to know their memories were long gone. There were no childhood vignettes running around in their minds to haunt them. He didn’t know which was worse, remembering every betrayal or losing all memories of one’s family.
“Benedek?” Silke prompted.
“Mother Earth delayed them. Earthquakes made it impossible for them to dig. While the earth trembled, she constructed solid rock around me. I was encased in that rock their shovels couldn’t break to get through to me. They were in a frenzy, seized by a kind of madness.That was when I understood true fanaticism. There would have been no talking to them. They only had the desire to kill. They believed me to be vampire, and they were determined to find me.”
“How did you escape them?” Silke asked her mother. “They must have come after you.”
“They did. They murdered Colleen first and then Maeve. Evangelica’s mentor was Sabine. I believed her to be involved in the conspiracy to kill us all. When I tried to see her and her motives, she deliberately muddied the images. She was very adept. I was new to that world and not yet so strong. I ran. I tried to get to the meadow to warn you, but they were already there, with Evangelica urging them to dig faster, to beat the setting sun. Then the earthquakes began. Creatures came out of the forest and attacked the men who were digging. I left those lands, but I already knew you would escape.”
“You saw that in the future?” Silke asked.
Fenja nodded. “Yes, I saw the sunset and his attack on them. Even as weak as he was, he managed to kill them all. And Evangelica. She tried to sneak up behind him with a shovel, and he brought down the lightning. Even though I wasn’t present and just had the vision, I felt satisfaction in knowing she died. She had killed two of my friends.”
“What of Sabine?” Silke asked.
“I ran across her years later,” Fenja said. “She didn’t live through our meeting.”
Benedek felt Silke’s shock.
Witte wievendo not kill. They are healers, Benedek, gentle souls who save lives, not take them.
“When you met Sabine again,” Benedek said, “did she try to kill you?”
Fenja sent a small smile. “How did you know? I knew before she made her try what she was doing. She must have forgotten that medicine women are often seers. I have a strong gift. I guess that she didn’t. She came at me with a knife. She waited until my back was turned, but I knew what she intended because I saw it in a vision.”
“It was still taking a chance with your life, Mama.”
Benedek couldn’t help looking at his woman. She sounded distressed, as if Fenja had just met the woman instead of the meeting taking place years before Silke was born. In another life. Silke couldn’t conceive of being centuries old. Fenja had transitioned several times, unlike him. He had simply lived his life, the centuries passing, time meaning little. Fenja had chosen to return as awitte wievento serve others.
In their way, all three of them had chosen a life of duty to others. All lived by a code of honor. The one other person Silke was close to was Tora. She also had chosen a life of service and lived by a code of honor.
“Not so much of a chance,” Fenja said. “I knew I would transition. I wanted to come back. I foresaw my future and knew if I continued to return, my reward would happen in this life. You would come to me.” She sent Benedek a smile. “I knew you would arrive in time to help us defeat Lilith’s army. And that you would be perfect for my daughter.”
“You never said one word to me about Benedek,” Silke objected.
“You have to find your way, my little one. You always have. You needed to arrive at the truth, that you two were made for each other.” She sent Benedek a small smile. “She can be stubborn. Her best and worst trait.”
