The Binding

Chapter Twenty-Three

   Slow rhythmic drumming pounded in my head. It was dark, enclosed like a tent. There were wisps of smoke lingering in the air coming from a small fire in the middle of open space. The smell of offal permeated the tent from somewhere far away. Something else was burning closer that wafted wisps of smoke from person to person, sticky and sweet. I could also smell the sweat and dry dirt. Someone began a low hum. Others followed, the drums beating steadily underneath.

   I scanned the crowd of people lining the edges of the tent and found Yisu sitting next to an older boy. She was young... maybe between three and four years old. A woman was standing behind the fire humming with her eyes closed. She wore a long, roughly woven fabric that draped from her shoulders to the floor. There was a long slit down the front down to her navel, and it was flared open, revealing her breasts. She had long dark hair and what looked like ashes matted in it. She held her hands out slightly from her sides, and I saw a long bronze knife in her right hand. The humming grew louder as the drumming climbed in intensity.

   Slowly she lifted the knife and sliced an extended cut along the tops of both her breasts. Blood dripped and ran down the sides of each breast to her stomach while the humming reached a fevered pitch, and she let out a long keening wail. The drums pounded, spinning me around as everyone howled. 

   Holy Crap! I yanked my hands away from Yisu's. She blinked back at me, surprised. "What happened?"

   I shook my head, trying to dispel the vision and quickly described what I saw. Yisu turned to look at Sria. "I don't remember that."

   "I'm not surprised," I muttered. "You looked young, and I'm pretty sure it was opium they were burning in that fire."

   "But that was two different visions," Sria said. "We should try to get you to see the same vision at will. Or you should choose a specific moment and try to see it."

   "Alright." I reached out for Yisu's hands again. Having no desire to see the second vision again, I opted for the first one. Nothing happened at first. I got a flash of a fire for a moment, and it disappeared. I gripped her hands tighter and waited.

   The wood in the fire popped, and sparks flew out of the flames then died as they fell back to the earth. Yisu sighed and rolled over onto her back. She turned her face away from the fire toward the dark grass and closed her eyes. Everything was still. The only movement was the rhythmic breathing of the sleeping forms and the flickering of the flames.

   I opened my eyes and nodded. I described the rest of the vision to them. Yisu was delighted with the new game. Ezra also seemed particularly pleased, nodding quietly to himself.

   "Now try to see a specific moment in Yisu's life," Sria said.

   "What moment? I don't know much about her life."

   "You're not always going to know about someone's life ahead of time," Ezra said. "Just pick something you know must have happened to her."

   I decided on the moment she first met Sria. I closed my eyes. Ezra brushed my hair away from my shoulders and traced along my shoulder blades in his familiar absent-minded way that made my heart tremor. I gripped Yisu's hands tighter.

   I was in a field. There was a long wooden fence next to me enclosing some kind of paddock. I could smell hay and something heavy and organic. In the distance, Ezra was walking in a wide-brimmed hat. He had a trimmed beard and was wearing a loose blue cotton shirt with dark trousers. A brown spotted dog loped happily next to him, its tongue hanging out the side in an enthusiastic wolfish grin. A long rifle was slung over Ezra's shoulder.

   I opened my eyes and turned to Ezra with a mildly annoyed expression. "You look good with a beard, but the hat was too big for you."

   He looked at his hand, resting against my neck and snatched it away. "Uh... sorry." Yisu giggled.