A Gypsy Song (The Eye of the Crystal Ball - The Wolfboy Chronicles) (26 page)

Manolo was accepted to the tribe as Sara’s. He belonged to her and she was to feed him and take care of him, which she did not mind at all. Every day they would go into the forest and take a ride and then Manolo would soar into the air and fly them far, far away. One say he asked her about the ring.

“You did destroy it right?”

“Of course,” she lied.

“Good. A ring with dark powers like that can only come from the evilest of demons and will only cause you trouble,” he said.

Moeselman wanted to put Sami back into his cage, but Sara told him not to.

“He will end up eating someone one day,” her father argued.

“He saved my life, father. He eats nothing but animals in the forest at night. He is to no danger to anyone. I just know he is not. Look at him. He is just a kid. Like me. Let him walk freely in the camp during the day.”

Moeselman sighed and looked at Sara with discontent.

“Are you sure?”

“I am sure.”

“What if he smells blood and turns into a werewolf?”

“Then we put him in the cage.”

Moeselman sighed again.

“Okay, but you make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone.”

“I will.”

So Sara got to be with Sami every day as well. They had a great time playing with Moeselman’s dogs and helping out around the camp. Sami still had to go on stage and act dangerous with Sara’s father at the markets, but he played that role well, Sara thought standing among the crowd watching them on stage.

Settela put up her tent and soon people flocked to her for healing. Sara helped her get the right herbs and followed her closely. But Sara didn’t enjoy spending time in her mother’s tent as much as she used to. Not that she didn’t enjoy being close to her mother, that she truly enjoyed, but in the tent she felt strange. She couldn’t help but gaze at the
Book of Foresight
that was at the bookshelf among the others. She would always feel uncomfortable when she came too close to it. It was like it wanted her. Or it wanted something of her.

One day when she was helping her mother, it kept calling for her.

“Sara … Sara … Sara …”

She tried not to pay any attention to it but the calling kept getting stronger and stronger and soon that was all she heard.

“Sara!” her mother said when she tipped over a bowl of water making all of her mother’s dried herbs wet and ruining them.

“Where is your head these days?” she asked.

“I am sorry … I was just …”

Her mother sighed.

“What is going on with you?”

Sara bowed her head.

“I don’t know. I had my mind somewhere else. I am sorry.”

Her mother sighed again.

“It is okay. Just clean the mess up, then I will go and find some new herbs we can dry.”

So Settela went outside and left Sara alone with the book. While she was sweeping the water off the floor she tried to ignore its hissing voice calling for her.

“Sara … soon. Soon. There is a price to pay. You knew that when you opened me and used me. Nothing is free, Sara …. Soon.”

Sara stared at the book on the shelf. Was she imagining things? It hadn’t even moved. It couldn’t have been talking to her. She dropped the broom and ran outside. Her hands were shaking, her body shivering.

What kind of a price could it have been talking about?

As days passed by, nothing happened and although she couldn’t forget it, Sara began slowly to think that the book wouldn’t follow through with what it had told her. She stayed far away from her mother’s tent and helped her father prepare for his act instead.

But most of the day she spent walking through the forest with Marius on her arm, talking to Manolo by her side. One day she told him what the book had said.

He was quiet for a long time, thinking. Marius was laughing.

“If there is indeed a price to pay for using the book, it will definitely be collected some time soon.
The Book of Foresight
is some kind of dark magic, like the ring was, and if you are not careful with that kind of magic you can get in serious trouble. That is why I always stay away from anything that has to do with the dark spirits. You don’t want to mess with them.”

“But I had to do it. It was the only way to save my little brother.”

“I know. But there is always a price to pay when you ask help from the dark and evil spirits. They always want something in return.”

“So why hasn’t anything happened yet?”

Manolo shook his big horse head.

“I don’t know.”

That night Sara had a dream. And it was no ordinary dream. A thick cloud of silver mist seemed to be filling the caravan and she went outside. Out there in the middle of the campfire stood a figure. A woman it looked like. An old bony withered woman with long crooked fingers that were reaching out for Sara and signaling her to come closer. Her hair was gray and thin and her eyes yellow in the light from the moon above her head.

Her teeth were gnashing as Sara went closer to her.

“Come… Sara … Come,” she whispered.

Sara went even closer and reached out her hand to touch the old lady’s claws. As she did, a thousand pictures went through her head. Pictures from her own life. It was like it was all she had ever seen with her eyes.

Then a bright white light flashed in front of her eyes and everything was empty. It was like there was nothing. No camp, no forest, no ground, not even any feelings. It was nothing.

Next thing Sara saw was the face of her mother. Settela was calling for her.

Sara smiled at the sight of her mother, relieved to discover that it had only been a dream.

“You were tossing and turning in your bed,” Settela said while preparing Sara’s breakfast. “What were you dreaming?”

“It was just a stupid nightmare,” Sara said and ate quietly. The feeling was still tormenting her inside. The feeling of emptiness. The worst feeling in the world.

The next night Sara had another dream. It was very similar to the first one, but a little different. This time she woke up because someone was calling for her and she went outside. Now there were two women standing where they had the campfire earlier. They were two very similar women. Equally tall, equally crooked and bony. They  both called for her.

“Sara … come with us,” they whispered.

It sounded like it was the wind.

Sara wanted to resist them but she couldn’t. Again she found herself walking towards them and reaching her hand out, and when she touched their claw-like fingers it was as if all her life poured out of her. She felt the blood drain and her skin go pale. She felt like all her emotions and dreams were drained from her mind.

And then it was all white again. The nothingness was back. And Sara really felt nothing. She had no love for anyone, no emotions of any kind, not even anger was she able to feel. It was just emptiness inside of her.

Again she woke up by her mother’s calling.

“Sara. You are having a bad dream again. Wake up sweetheart.”

And she opened her eyes and immediately her heart was filled with love and she started to cry.

“What is wrong Sara?” Settela asked while hugging her.

“It was just such a horrible feeling. Like I had ceased to exist.”

At that time her hunchbacked great grandmother entered the room.

“Go back to bed,” Settela said. “Sara is just having a nightmare.”

Then the old woman said: “Nightmares are an omen that bad things are about to happen.”

Settela sighed.

“Well, not always, I would think.”

“You mark my words. The evil spirits are coming,” she said and left the room.

“Old fool,” Settela said and shut the door after her. “At that age they see bad omens everywhere they go.”

It made Sara smile.

“It was just a dream,” she said not too convincingly.

The third night, Sara went outside and found three crooked women waiting for her. They all looked very much alike and they were calling her name and signaled that she should come closer.

So she did.

This time they grabbed her wrists and held her tight, while they laughed out loud in a high-pitched shrieking way.

Then pictures were flashing again and suddenly she found herself back in the caravan next to her own bed. Her mother and father were sitting beside it, with their heads bent. She walked closer and then she saw … herself.

She looked pale and gray, like life had gone from her face.

Her mother and father were crying and that was when Sara realized that she was dead. Her body was there in the bed, not breathing any longer and she was watching herself from the outside.

Sara burst into a scream and woke up in the darkness. A second later her mother came running.

“What is wrong? Did you have another bad dream?”

Sara tried to catch her breath, her heart was pondering in her chest. She couldn’t calm down. The dream had been so real. It felt so real.

“Tell me what did you dream?” Settela asked.

Sara tried to talk but ended up sobbing.

“I was … lying here on the bed … and you were sitting there… besides me … and you were … you were … all crying … ‘cause … ‘cause … I was … dead…”

Settela looked at Sara with a worried face. Then she hugged her and held her tight for a long time.

“Everything will be just fine.”

Sara wiped her nose and looked at her mother.

“I am afraid it won’t” Sara said.

“What do you mean?”

“Remember the Book of Foresights?”

Settela sighed, worried.

“Yes. Did you open it again?”

Sara nodded still sobbing.

“Oh, no, Sara you didn’t?”

“Yes, I did. It was the book that told me to look for the Eye of the Crystal Ball and find the cure for Marius.”

Settela sighed from deep within.

“I told you that would get you in to trouble.”

“Is that why I keep having nightmares about the three old women and the emptiness and me being dead?”

Settela thought for what seemed to Sara to be a long time.

“The three old women are the death spirits. It is Fate, Doom and Death. They have come to get you.”

Sara looked at her mother with wide open eyes.

“Get me? What do you mean by that?”

“Remember how I told you nothing is free, especially when you have to do with dark spirits and the underworld?”

“Yes.”

“Well, using the book costs a price, and it has to be as big as the one you gained by using its advice.”

“So what does it ask of me?”

Settela sighed deeply again.

“It wants you in return. A life for a life.”

“My life for Marius’?”

“I am afraid so.”

“But …”

Sara’s mother stopped her.

“We will have to find a way,” she said and got up. “I will have to look in my books and talk to the spirits today. There must be another way.”

Then her mother stormed out of the room and left Sara waiting anxiously.

She was gone all day. Sara didn’t see her at all. Even Moeselman came looking for her a few times, but Sara told him that she had gone to talk to the spirits about an urgent matter. Moeselman only grumbled something about how they were supposed to get something to eat and then he went away.

Sara went to see Manolo and they took a ride in the forest. She told him everything and as always he was a great support for her.

“Your mother is a great sorceress. She is at good standing with the good spirits. She will be able to work something out, I am sure. If anyone can, it is her,” he said.

Heavy in her heart, Sara sighed.

“But what if she can’t?”

“She will,” he neighed. “Trust me.”

But Sara was still afraid. All day long she had that anxious feeling nagging her inside her stomach.

As sunset came and she went back to the caravan, she found her mother and father talking loudly inside of it. Having never heard them argue like that before, she opened the door.

Before they saw her she heard a lot of words like.

“… This can’t be the only solution …”

“ … Bring a sacrifice …”

“I will not let you go through with this …”

And then they saw her standing in the doorway.

“Sara. Sweetheart,” her mother said. “Please leave us for a second. We will be out in one minute and talk to you.”

Sara stared at her mother with big wet eyes and then she did as she was told. Outside, one of Moeselman’s German Shepherds sat next to her and let her pet him.

“What is wrong, Sara?” it said after awhile.

“I am just concerned. I am nervous for what is going to happen to me,” she said and petted its back. She scratched it in the middle where she knew it couldn’t reach.

“That’s the spot,” the dog groaned. “Right there.”

“What do you think will happen to me?” she asked the dog not expecting an answer.

“I am sure everything will be fine,” it said with a very reassuring voice.

“Well I am not so sure anymore,” she said.

Another hour passed before Sara’s parents came out of the caravan. They asked her to follow them to the campfire where they sat down. They found a secluded place where no one from the tribe could hear them.

Settela sighed deeply before she spoke.

“I have been talking to the spirits all day and they have tried to be very helpful. But a pact is a pact, Sara. And when you opened the book and used it, you very well knew that it would have consequences.”

Sara bowed her head and nodded. Moeselman put his arm around her.

“The dark spirits wants your life in return for Marius’.”

Sara nodded hoping that what would come next would be more comforting. But it wasn’t.

“So I managed to make a new pact with the dark spirits.”

Sara looked up at her mother.

“They still want a life for a life, so …”

Sara felt the pressure from the tears in her eyes.

Moeselman took over.

“So they agreed to take your mother instead …” he said with a deep sigh.

“No!” Sara screamed.

Settela put her hand on her shoulder.

“It is the only way,” she said. “You are more important than I am. You will be the leader of the tribe one day. It is prophesied that you will be a mighty sorceress one day and fight the great demon of Azinehr. This world needs you. My time here is up.”