DREAMWIELDER Book 1 of The Dreamwielder Chronicles

Chapter 21: LORE FROM THE PAST

Taera sat bolt upright in her bed and screamed. Across the stone chamber, Makarria jumped up in her own bed, startled by the sudden outburst.

"What's wrong?" Makarria asked when she gathered her wits and remembered where she was. The wick on their lantern had burned low in the night and all Makarria could make out was Taera's wide eyes and pale face from across the room. The bed, covers, and walls all were lost in the shadows. Makarria feared that someone or something had snuck into their room. "What is it, Taera?"

"I saw Lorentz. He was in pain. And dozens of women and girls screaming. They were dying, Makarria. They could have been us."

Makarria let out a small sigh of relief, realizing the danger wasn't imminent. She threw her covers aside and toed her way across the cold floor to sit beside Taera. "It's alright, you just had one of your visions."

Taera could only nod. She hadn't experienced a vision in days, and these new visions were not the manner in which she had hoped to rediscover her power. "I'm scared, Makarria," she said, and she realized she was crying.

"I know," Makarria said, hugging her. "Don't worry, I'll help you."

~~~

The next morning in her training chamber, Taera said nothing of her visions to Roanna, but the sorceress too seemed perturbed. "You had a vision, yes?" she asked Taera.

"Yes."

Roanna pursed her lips grimly. "I do not have the clarity of vision you do as a seer, Taera, but images still come to me on occasion. Last night... their faces were not clear to me, but I saw many women—some of them girls still—in great pain. And I saw enough of their killer to know it was him."

"Him? Who?"

"Who else? Wulfram." Roanna drew in closer to Taera, and spoke in almost a whisper. "Always, women with power have been feared. Even Vala, I imagine, was feared and hated by Sargoth, Pyrthin, Norg, and Golier when they came across the Spine to create the Five Kingdoms. In their greed and lust for dominion, men have always gone to great lengths to subjugate women. But at no time in the history of the Five Kingdoms or the Old World have we sorceresses been so hated as we are now, Taera. Do you know why?"

"No."

"Because of the prophecy. When Thedric Guderian was still a boy, he was exiled in the Old World and a mighty seer came upon him. This seer foretold that a sorcerer with great power and the blood of one of the Five Monarchs would be the downfall of Guderian. Guderian and Wulfram have known this from the start, and for decades now they have toiled to root out all magic. People already feared sorcerers from the time of the Dreamwielder War, but Guderian and Wulfram declared a secret war on those with power, especially women. It was Wulfram himself who skulked into the villages and cities of the Five Kingdoms and performed the atrocities the Emperor then blamed on the sorcerer guilds. And when the last of the guilds were destroyed, and the great sorcerers killed—including Trumball, whose cave we now inhabit—Guderian and Wulfram continued to wage their war, particularly against women with power. And women of royal blood of course. King Larimore sacrificed his own daughter, who had some minor ability as a beastcharmer so as to appease the Emperor. She was only five.

"Certainly, plenty of male firewielders and beast charmers and stormwielders have been killed during the Emperor's reign, but always the focus has been on finding women with the power to wield magic. Why is this the case, I have always wondered. Is it merely because men fear women, or is it something more?"

Taera looked on at Roanna intently. "I don't know."

"Nor do I for certain," Roanna continued. "But I have my suspicions. Kadar does not share my belief, but could it be that there was more to the prophecy than we've heard? Possibly the mighty seer in Khail Sanctu foretold it would be a particular sort of sorcerer who would kill Guderian. Did you know, Taera, that it is dreamwielders who have always been the mightiest of sorcerers? Not firewielders or stormbringers. Dreamwielders. Of all the sorcerers, only dreamwielders use their power to create something rather than destroy it. And like with childbirth, only women are able to become dreamwielders. You did not know that, did you?"