The Wise Women

Chapter 14

'The envoy proposed a summit meeting,' Ada continued. 'King Otto will travel to Castle Stormont and meet with the Empress at the new moon. He hopes to negotiate, to appeal to her better nature and dissuade her from invading.'

There was a pointed silence from the assembled women. Everyone in the kingdom knew how intractable the Empress was. Once she'd set her mind to something it was almost impossible to make her change it. The heavy weight of their collective despair pulled Nesta down.

'Sisters!' the Burned One's sonorous voice broke the silence. All faces turned towards her. 'This is grave news indeed but let us not despair. Remember Otto and Sapphira were the best of friends growing up. Skaliff and Frailing were always close allies.' She shook her head, lined forehead furrowed. 'Something's happened to change Sapphira's mind and close her heart, but there's hope she still harbours affectionate feelings deep inside. We will send her our heart-energy. If she is receptive and her heart opens, we will be able to change the direction of events.'

Nesta felt the flame of hope kindle inside the women. Faces brightening, they shuffled in place, adjusting their sitting positions and sitting up straighter.

'Let us invoke the higher forces to work in and through us and I will conjure the Empress in the crystal.'

With one voice the women chanted a phrase in the Old Language, repeating it over and over again, as they all gazed into the crystal's depths. The gentle torchlight and the low susurrations had a soporific effect on Nesta. Lulled by the rhythmic chanting, her eyelids grew heavy. Just as sleep was about to close her eyes, she saw something that made her start awake.

A shadowy figure was moving inside the crystal. Nesta narrowed her eyes and peered in, trying to make it out. It had the shape of a woman, the shape of the Empress to be exact. She knew it well from the imposing royal portrait that hung above Ada's desk back in Chesterley's library – the tall long-limbed body with the proud bearing, the long oval face, chin tilted upwards, aquiline nose, heavy lidded emerald green eyes under arched brows and long thick black hair, elaborately braided and crowned with the diamond tiara of the Royal House of Chesterley. The tiara that, according to rumour, she never took off, even at night. The figure was dark and indistinct as if obscured by smoke. It seemed to fade in and out of sight, insubstantial as a ghost.

'Focus on her heart, sisters!' the Burned One's voice called them to action. 'Imagine a tiny flame burning there.' Nesta visualised the light of a candle glowing in the centre of the smoky figure's chest.
'Now bring your attention to your own heart. See it as a blazing ball of fire burning fiercely within you, powerful as the sun. Feel its heat radiating outwards.' Nesta sensed the inner temperature of the room rising. 'Now raise your arms and point the palms of your hands towards the crystal. Imagine your heart-energy like a waterfall of fire, cascading down your arms, out through your palms and into the heart of the Empress. Let it fuel her heart fire. Imagine the flame inside her heart growing bigger, burning brighter.' Nesta could feel the force of the women's collected power, the current of their concentrated heart-energy streaming through their outstretched palms into the dark form of the empress within the crystal.

But she could also feel that it wasn't working.

The Empress's heart wasn't responding. It wasn't growing any bigger or burning any brighter. She had the impression that there was some kind of barrier between them and the Empress. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't penetrate it.

Then all of a sudden, the smoky figure disappeared completely and was replaced by the shockingly vivid image of a man's face – dark penetrating eyes under thick black eyebrows, high forehead, hooked nose, black hair and beard. He leered at them with an expression of such malevolence, it sent shock waves through the temple.