This Fierce Splendor

door, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. Jesus, she was going to do it. She meant what she said and wouldn’t ask him again to take her to Kantalan.

The knowledge should have relieved him, but not when he realized what Elspeth’s next step would be. He started down the hall toward the door at the far end of the corridor. He should go down to the library to Da, but it would have to wait. At the moment it was urgent he speak to Rising Star.

11

A white mist, enormous dark eyes, and clear, gentle serenity.

Elspeth drifted softly up from the darker mists of slumber to look at the strange woman sitting in the tufted green velvet chair beside the bed. She felt no sense or unease or surprise, just the same tranquility that had flooded her when she had opened her eyes. “Hello,” she whispered.

“Hello.” The woman’s voice was mellow as dark honey and a lovely smile lit her dusky face. “I hope you will forgive my intruding on your privacy. I asked my niece to permit me to sit with you until you awakened from your nap. I am Rising Star. I am married to Dominic’s brother, Joshua.”

Elspeth sat up quickly. “I’m very happy to meet you.”

The woman before her was in her late twenties or early thirties and was as different from Silver as the sun was from the moon. The burning vitality that fueled every movement and action of her niece was missing in Rising Star. She sat in the chair as straight and graceful as a young queen, her loose white gown unable to disguise the fact that her slim body was heavy with child. Her thin high-cheekboned face was dominated by huge dark eyes that shone with humor and warmth, and her smile was truly beautiful. Glossy dark hair was pulled away from her face in a neat bun, every tendril carefully trained to smooth order.

“Dominic came to see me.” Rising Star’s lips curved in amusement. “He was most upset. I would be interested to know how you accomplished that feat. Dominic prides himself on his control. I haven’t seen him lose his composure since he was a young boy.” The smile faded. “He had reason to develop control; his life has not been easy.”

“You’ve known him for a long time? I understood he had returned to Killara only infrequently during the last ten years.”

Rising Star nodded. “Yes, but I grew to know him well the year after I married Joshua. We became very close.” She paused. “We shared… something. It became a bond.” Her lashes lowered to veil her eyes as she looked away from Elspeth’s face. “This morning he came to ask me to send a message to Quiet Thunder and tell him not to help you.”

A swift flame of anger sprang to life within Elspeth. “That wasn’t fair. He may not want to help, but he has no right to try to hinder me.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Rising Star said. “Dominic hasn’t learned that there are some patterns that can’t be altered no matter how we try. He thinks if he denies that Kantalan exists, the prophecy will not come true.”

“You know about Kantalan?” Elspeth’s face was alive with excitement and eagerness. “What prophecy?”

Rising Star leaned her head on the high back of the chair, her gaze on the green velvet of the canopy. “Dominic does not want you to know. He is wrong. I told him that I would not put barriers in your way, and that I might decide to tell you everything. We must make our own choices.” She shook her head wearily. “Though in the end there may be no choice for any of us. White Buffalo said the pattern was very clear.”

“The prophecy,” Elspeth said, scarcely breathing. She was so close after all these years. “Do you know where Kantalan is located? Did White Buffalo tell you?”

“Yes.” Rising Star was silent a moment. “I’ve known about Kantalan since my fourteenth year. After my rites of womanhood White Buffalo took me to his lodge and told me of the prophecy.”

Elspeth held her breath, her heart pounding, afraid to say anything, afraid to do anything that might stop Rising Star from speaking.

Rising Star’s gaze left the canopy to return to Elspeth. “What do you know of Kantalan?”

Elspeth moistened her lips with her tongue. “It’s a city as architecturally beautiful as Babylon, whose people were peace-loving and more civilized than the ancient Greeks. They had acquired knowledge that was truly astounding. They worshiped the sun god, Ra, as the Egyptians did, and they loved beauty and art and music and-” She stopped. How could she put it into words? She finished simply. “It was paradise.”

Rising Star shook her head. “No, not paradise. Kantalan was flawed.”

“No!” The denial was as instinctive as it was violent. Elspeth drew a shaky breath. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to raise my voice, but I think you must be wrong. The legends say it was a perfect city.”

“A city is only as perfect as its people, and people are never perfect.” Rising Star’s lips tightened. “We work, we try, but our perfection, or lack of it, is always in the eye of the beholder.”

There was a thread of pain in Rising Star’s voice and Elspeth realized suddenly that the Indian woman was no longer speaking of either the poeple or the city of Kantalan, but something intensely personal.

Rising Star shook her head and tried to smile. “Centuries ago a young man named Cadra came to our village. He was very oddly and richly dressed and he wore around his throat a necklace of silver and turquoise. The young man knew many strange and wonderful things. Our wise men were like children compared to him. He could have become a god in their eyes, but he did not wish it. He said he had been sent by his mistress to live among them and tell the tale of Kantalan and prepare the way for the four who were to come after. Cadra became the medicine man of our tribe and lived with my people until he died. He never took a wife and there were some who said that his love was so great for the clairana he had left in Kantalan that there was no room in his heart for anyone else.”

“Clairana?” Elspeth repeated. The word was unknown to her and yet oddly familiar. “That was the name of his mistress?”

“No, clairana was her title. Sayan was the high priestess of Kantalan, the keeper of the flames. She saw visions of what was to come and many times predicted disasters that enabled her people to keep themselves from harm. She was the most honored woman in Kantalan, and the priests of Ra were very pleased with her.” Rising Star smiled crookedly. “Why shouldn’t they be? They shone in her reflected glory and soon came to think of it as their own. Then their docile Sayan made a mistake. She fell in love with a young soldier and they lay together. It was forbidden for the high priestess to give herself, for according to the traditions dictated by the priests, the clairana must remain untouched. The priests declared her no longer the clairana of Kantalan and told the people that Ra had taken away her powers.”

“But it wasn’t true.” It was a statement not a question. Elspeth had the strange feeling she knew every word Rising Star was going to say.

“No, it wasn’t true, but no one would listen to her.” Raising Star’s brow wrinkled thoughtfully. “I’ve often wondered how she could bear it. I don’t know if I could have borne it in her place.”

“She had pride. She was the clairana.”

Rising Star nodded. “Yes, that must have helped, I suppose. But when she saw the last vision, the disbelief of the priests must have driven her mad.”

The last vision. The holy flames burning in the temple. The scented incense pouring slowly from her hand into the fire, causing blue sparks to fly, the flame to reveal its truth. Slowly Elspeth’s eyes closed and Rising Star’s words swept over her, painting pictures, lighting corners long darkened by time. She felt as if she could actually see the young clairana, her dark hair straight and flowing to her waist, as she stared into the flames.

“Kantalan is situated in a valley surrounded by mountains. The highest mountain was known as the Sun Child, a volcano. The people of the city became accustomed to the rumbling of its voice and the quaking of the earth. The Sun Child was Ra’s child and they looked upon it with affection. The vision the clairana saw concerned the volcano. The Sun Child was going to spew out great billows of black smoke, poisonous smoke that would cover the entire valley and kill every living thing. Sayan went to the priests and begged them to send everyone away, to vacate Kantalan until the danger was over.”