Chenda and the Airship Brofman (28 page)

The war started, and your father was obliged by the government of the Republic to become involved once again. When your father's ship came too close to the Empire, it was shot down. Most of the crew died in the accident, but Alexander and Edison survived. They found themselves adrift on the Kohlian Sea.  Luckily, a ship sympathetic to the Resistance picked them up. Alexander spoke enough Tugrulian to ask to be brought to me. Your father was dying, and he begged Edison to collect you and care for you when he returned home. Edison, gravely injured himself, rested here as he recovered.  I taught him all about the prophecies and he saw the value of the Resistance to the Republic. He shared a good bit of his military strategy with them. He discovered that the Emperor was using the rare Singing Stones as a way to control several Tugrulian generals. The Emperor found that he could harness the power of the stones to listen to the thoughts of various people, and even command them, from great distances. Edison knew that he could cripple the Empire if he could capture the stones. Without the stones to help them, all of the coordinated attacks would fall apart.

Edison's plan to steal the stones was brilliant, but as he entered the chamber where the stones were harnessed, something went wrong. When Edison stepped into the place reserved for the true Pramuc, he touched the stones, and they somehow infused him with a special sensitivity. From that day on, his mind was bombarded by the presence of others. He couldn't make sense of it and it pained him greatly. I believe it has to do with the vibration created by the sounds and motions of people. Somehow they were amplified within him, just as sound is amplified in the Singing Stones. That is why he held himself apart from the world once he returned to the Republic. He spent much of his time looking for a way to make his nightmare stop. The closest thing he could find to relief was separation.

As the prophecies detailed, the stones were the birthright of the Pramuc. Before your father died, Edison made a vow to unite you with the stones, and help you find a way back to fulfill your destiny. The Resistance agreed to help him get home, and helped him to communicate with me over the years. I had much concern, however, about his fondness for you. You see, he considered it a curse, what the stones imbued in him, but I think that your stillness enhanced his preference for your companionship. It soothed and pleased him, and he fell in love with you as the years passed. Fate had a hand there as well you see. As you said, your love compelled you to come home.

Edison saw his death approaching; he heard Daniel's torment. He also knew that he had waited too long to bring you to your birthright. The spies from the Empire found a tool in that boy, Daniel Frent. These spies controlled him just as the Emperor controlled his generals. It was not in Daniel's nature to murder, but by grouping the Lesser Singing Stones, the ones that surfaced and disappeared in the West, the Tugrulian spies were able to manipulate him – just as the Emperor had done with his generals. In his last minutes of life, Edison did what he could to help you. He wrote you that letter and hid his soul among the stones to help you get onto your fated path.

Pranav Erato's eyes bubbled with excitement.
And here you are.

“
It's too much,” Chenda said. “You've shown me too much. What you've told me, it helps me to understand who Edison and my father were, but I feel like it has all been built on a grand misunderstanding. I am not the Pramuc. It's just not me.”

I'm sure you're right.
Pranav Erato bounced to his feet, his arms and legs waggling like a marionette's again.
The pull you felt to return here is inexplicable.
His sparkling eyes charmed her
. Let's take a walk and I will tell you another story.

Pranav Erato's bouncy gait led Chenda out of the chamber and down several twisting and turning tunnels. She followed him in silence, her mind working through the avalanche of information she now possessed. The text of Edison's final letter tugged at her memory. She had focused on the passages instructing her to find Pranav Erato almost exclusively, but she had glossed over the other task he had set before her:
to believe
.

What is it that I need to believe...?
she thought to herself.

Pranav Erato's thoughts sounded in her head.
Now you are asking the right question!

They entered a long gallery with very high ceilings and very straight walls. This chamber had been carved from the solid rock. The mystic lowered his lamp to a channel in the floor that ran the length of the room. It caught fire, and the space filled with light. Chenda could now see deep, intricate carvings covering the high walls of the gallery.

Stories are so much better with pictures!
Pranav Erato danced with excitement. He pulled Chenda to stand before the first stone image. He waved his arms theatrically.
BEHOLD!
his voice boomed in Chenda's head. The sound of snickering followed as she staggered under the weight of Pranav Erato's shout.

 
Ah, I love doing that....
He started again, with less drama.

Behold! the prophecy of the First Pramuc of the East. One-hundred and thirty years ago, or there about, these images were committed to the rock by him at the time of the Great Distribution. The gods of the various people were being pushed out, set aside by the One God of the Tugrulians.

He turned his crystal eyes to Chenda.

The gods are powerful, but only when there are people to worship them, to believe. It's the biggest flaw that gods have. See, even the gods have problems!
He turned his face to the carved wall again.

The gods, as they were dying, for lack of a better term, pulled together as one and shot what remained of their power into the future. They set in motion a series of events that would result in the eventual coming of a great liberator, one who would help the people of this land free themselves to discover their gods again. They gave this vision of the future to a man, dubbed him Pranav, and bid him to keep the spark of their existence alive until the Pramuc arrived.

Here is what each of us Pranavs have been tasked to look for in the Pramuc:

He pointed to the first image, a woman straddling the world with each foot on a continent and a hand resting on the sea.
The Pramuc will be one with the three great peoples of this world.

He dragged Chenda to the second image, a child held aloft by a circle of women wearing long robes and halos.
The Pramuc, the Holy One, will be a held apart and raised by Holy Ones.

He stepped to the third tableau, a woman flanked by three others: a man clenching a fist, another with a halo and a third with a book.
The Pramuc will be companioned by the Soldier, the Saint and the Scholar.

The fourth carving showed a woman burying three stones in the dirt.
The Pramuc will hold the Great Singing Stones and return them to their home.

The last image showed a woman circled by waves, clouds, swirling sand and fire, all of which seemed to be spiraling toward her.
The Pramuc will hold the Four Elements within her, to command as she will.

Pranav Erato vibrated with excitement, dancing in a small circle.
I
t's uncanny, no? You see yourself there as if you gazed into a mirror.

“
Um, I don't see it. None of that describes me,” Chenda said with relief.

Are you so sure? Wasn't your mother Tugrulian and your father Mae-Lyn, yet you were raised amongst the people of Kite's Republic? Three worlds can claim you.

Chenda shrugged and said with a voice full of doubt, “Maybe...”

Pranav Erato plowed ahead.
Your whole childhood was spent with the nuns of St Elgin... women of a holy order.

“That doesn't make me a holy one, though.”

Your companions: Fenimore is your most fierce protector, your own personal Soldier. Verdu works to bring you to what he believes, as all Saints do, and Professor Candice Mortimer...

“
A Scholar of the first order,” Chenda finished.

You have the stones, yes?

“
Yes,” she said, her hand clutching her chest where the velvet bag lay hidden. Chenda's head snapped up and she looked defiantly into Pranav Erato's gleeful eyes. “But I don't know anything about controlling any elements.”

Don't be so sure.
Pranav Erato said as he took both of her hands again. A blazing blue spark flashed before her eyes again. A series of memories flashed before her eyes: Falling into the fire while struggling with Daniel Frent, the pain of the fire entering her hands as she beat the flames out of her hair. Standing near Fenimore in the bow of the Brofman, the wind filling her and carving her sorrow away, her tears blowing and splashing against Fenimore. The sting of the salt water as Verdu squeezed the sea from her lungs. The grit of the wet soil mixed with mineral water sipped from Candice's hand, an earthiness that permeated her whole body.

From the first moment you touched the stones, the elements have been assembling within you. When you are ready, you will be able to command them. You will have power beyond imagining.

Chenda pulled her hands away from the willowy man, shaking her head in denial. “No, not me.” She sank to her knees, her minds so occupied with rejecting these new ideas that she could hardly remember to breathe.

Pranav Erato laid one finger on Chenda's shoulder.
Peace, my child. Take your time and think things through.
He folded his legs beneath him and sat next to her. He waited beside her for a long time, listening to her disjointed thoughts. On the one hand, Chenda felt the original impetus of her journey had been resolved. She had found the man she had been sent to find, and he had the answers she sought. By all rights, her most pressing goal achieved, she was free to choose what she wanted to pursue next in her life. She felt whole in that respect, resolved. However, this fulfilling information, these answers she understood deep within her to be the truth, also cut her off from the free will to choose her next path. If she chose to believe the answers for which she traveled so far, she would have to believe that destiny ruled her life. She could not accept the truth in slices. She had to accept it all, or none of it.

“I can't decide what to think,” she said at last.

I can see that.

“
It's a lot to take in,” she said. “And even if I accept it, that I am the Pramuc, what am I supposed to do with that? Where's the carved stone wall that tells me what I'm supposed to do with all the great power of the Pramuc?”

Oh, that's written on the wall behind you.

Chapter 16

DECISIONS

Chenda leaped from the ground and ran to the wall at her back. It was perfectly smooth. She scuttled the length of the wall, brushing her hands along it, looking for any kind of carving or writing. There was nothing. Chenda felt the panic start to rise in her. She wanted to find an answer.

“Where is it?!” She stumbled back toward Pranav Erato. looking with wild eyes at the blank wall.

The mystic, his face serious, drifted toward Chenda with his hand outstretched. She clasped it, hungry to hear his thoughts.

What do you see?
His voice asked kindly in her head.

“Nothing. It's just a blank wall. You said the answers would be written in stone there, and there's nothing. Why would you lie?”

Lie? Who lied? I am offering you one last fact, perhaps the most important fact that will help you decide whether to embrace your destiny or turn from it.
He turned her to face the long, empty wall. He stood behind her, lifting her hands and stretching his thin arms out wide.
That is your future.

Chenda stood stunned.

“My future is blank?” She turned and faced Pranav Erato.

Yes! Isn't that wonderful?

Chenda stood there, blinking.

Only your potential is set in stone. What you do with it, your future, is yours to decide. Accept your destined gift, and you will still be able to choose for yourself what you do. Prophecy only gets you so far, the rest – you make up as you go along – as you encounter the destinies of others. You can choose to liberate Verdu's people, and we all know that's what he wants, or you can choose to return to Kite's Republic and pick up life where you left off.  Live among the boat people if you choose. You fear that accepting destiny means that you will be devoid of choice, and that is not entirely true. To put it another way, I was destined to become Pranav, but once I did, I made the most of it, through my choices.

My advice is that you claim the gifts the gods have left for you, then do what you feel, or do as you please.
He smiled at her.
I doubt you will be able to consider yourself complete until you do.

“
You make it sound so simple.”

I think it is, but then again, I talk without moving my lips and I live in a cave, so perhaps my reasoning is unconventional.

Chenda snorted.

Think about all I've said. When you want to claim your place as the Pramuc, you can.