The Gunpowder Society

16. "I Am The Sandmaiden"

"Can you repeat that Madam?" asked Fr. Maven. He wanted to be sure he clearly heard Madam Tu before he began putting all the pieces together.

"They are called The Hand of Od," Madam Tu answered with tears in her eyes and Sabra still in her arms.

Father exchanged glances with Francois who was helping the priest to his feet now that he had fully recovered from the fight with the white lady and swordsman.

"Do you think?" HP asked.

"Certainly," Father confirmed.

"What does it mean?" Madam Tu asked picking up that the men knew more.

"I'm not sure what it means Madam," Father explained brushing himself off and inspecting the tatters of his shredded new clothing. "A fellow priest of mine who we met with before coming to Nepal had learned of a plot that involves and probably targets people who are gifted like us. He was given a short list of clues and one of those was the name Dr. Od."

"Who is he?" asked Tu fearfully.

"Unfortunately, we have only the name," Father replied.

"What is the plot?" she followed.

"I'm sorry Madam, we have merely uncovered the plot and have almost no information including what the plot is itself," Father admitted, "What we do know is that gifted people like us have joined forces with at least three other groups that we, to put it mildly, have a confrontational history with. They joined together in order to achieve some goal, and their carrying out of this plan often leads to the hurting and killing of others."

Father nodded thankfully to Francois, who was still steadying him, letting him know he could now stand on his own again, "I believe it is more than coincidence that we met this group at the same time that we have come to the temple to collect young Sabra."

"Wait, what?!" exclaimed Sabra.

"Hold on" Madam Tu stopped the girl, "Which groups..."

"No," Sabra pushed back, "what do you mean by collect, and how the hell were you able to use those powers? My powers."

"Stop," Tu said commandingly as she turned to face the girl with an angry look and an upheld hand demanding the rules of etiquette be followed.

Sabra fell back in line as she quieted herself, but she turned her head, clinched her fists and with fire in her eyes inhaled deeply through her nostril and then out through gritted teeth furiously. She looked up and saw that Francois had caught her display of frustration, and the young Irishman's eyes darted away nervously. Sabra then looked at HP who had also seen it and HP chuckled uncompassionately. Sabra made a mental note that she didn't like HP.

"Do you mean," Tu continued, "they are killing other gifted people?"

"Yes, to such an extent where we believe that their goals might included eliminating the gifted," Maven explained.

"But why if they are gifted too?" she asked.

"I don't know. It's this type of info that makes it impossible to know if I'm getting close to the truth or not."

"What if," Sabra interjected, "they are trying to collect gifted people to their cause and kill anyone who won't join or tries to stop them?"

This hypothesis produced silence among the group as the possibility of the scenario sank in.

"Actually..." Madam Tu spoke ominously starring at the ground, "I think there is truth to what Sabra says."

The men remained silent wondering what Madam Tu knew. Tu looked up at Sabra with a sorrowful look. Sabra asked, "What happen?"