The Gathandrian Trilogy 03 - The Executioners Cane

leadership to our people, simply in order for the land to continue its slow path to recovery and a new direction. But this time we must find fresh ways of doing it. So, we will link, as is the custom when a new leader is brought before the Council of Elders, but we will do it in public, where our people can see. Do you agree?”
    A long silence followed her announcement. Annyeke let it settle. She sat back on her stool and waited. She hoped she wasn’t a fool; it was obvious that asking old men steeped in tradition to change, even after so many difficult changes had already taken place, would be a hard demand. They would need to consider, but she wasn’t allowing them to leave until they had made their decision. She permitted that thought to be at the forefront of her mind; these men must make of it what they might. Whatever happened, she wanted no more secrets.
    Finally the Silent One nodded. He reached out and touched her hand. His fingers were cold against her skin. At once, Annyeke felt the strength of his thought colours in her own mind: cerise; lilac; gold. And beyond those, the knowledge of the other elders also, the four of them linking in ways she had never thought to imagine. For a heartbeat out of time – no, more than time, for it seemed to her time itself stopped while she reeled at the visions filling her blood – she saw and felt the vast expanses of the ocean and was transported across the far-flung regions of the sky. The clarity of blue and a sensation of floating. And then something else. Something other, overpowering her so she could not cry out. She had experienced mind-visions before – who amongst Gathandrians of-age had not? – but never as real or as physically felt as these. Was there magic in the elders’ traditions she had not understood before? Though how could she, when they had always been so secretive in their dealings?
    With a gasp, Annyeke tore her hand away from the Silent One’s grip. At once the link broke and she stood up. With all her being she wanted to walk away from these … these men , but she would be damned if she would give them the satisfaction. There had been something in the experience which gave a bitter taste to her tongue so she could scarcely speak, let alone think. What was it? The knowledge slipped away as suddenly as it had arrived and she pursed her lips, steadying herself. Perhaps it was nothing. They had taken her by surprise, that was all. Or one of them had. She could not see how it could be the Silent One, who held them together. It must have been one of the others. Well, she would say what she thought about it and damn the consequences.
    “Don’t ever,” she whispered, low and fierce, her gaze taking in all the gathered elders, “ ever do that to me again. Because I have had enough – we all have – of people with greater powers flexing their strength over us. I may not have the mind-skills you evidently possess, I may not have all the knowledge and mind-wisdom you have between you accumulated over the year-cycles, but I have something you do not possess in any measure. I have courtesy, and the desire to come to an equal agreement over matters that concern us all. I state my case but I do not force my will on you. You may choose whether you accept or not the mind-requirements I have asked of you concerning what you have done and what the people should know. If you do not, then we will have to search for another way to help our land. And, let me remind you. I may be a woman who has had little to do with your workings in my life, but I have been bequeathed the role of First Elder, and I will perform it to the best of my ability. With or without you. Is that clearer now?”
    When she finished, Annyeke expected either more hesitation or more mind-tricks. She dreaded to think what they might be. In the end the response was neither of these assumptions.
    The Maker of Gardens brushed back the hair from his face and smiled.
    “Yes, Annyeke Hallsfoot, First Elder of Gathandria,” he said. “We will do as you say.”
    Annyeke felt her shoulders relax at last, just a little. Still, she reminded herself, could she really trust any of them?

Chapter Four: Encounters

    Simon

    He decided at once he would do it. In any case he had no choice. There, in Jemelda’s darkened kitchen, he found himself agreeing to her terms. He would present himself before as many of the Lammas people as they could muster, he would not carry the mind-cane and neither would