Chapter 10 SIGNS THAT FRIGHTEN II

Anrik, a willowy maiden, who was one of the clairvoyants that were dwelling in the Temple of Ordess, herded out of a corridor with haste, then started to hasten forth along another corridor, a very long one.

A cerulean silk dress stood somewhat baggy about her body, and, even as she was fast herding forward, she was hitching up the skirt of the dress with her right hand. In her left hand was a brazen candelabra, and the candles were burning freely in that the gale was blustering not into the passageway.

The clairvoyant was beauteous and had a swarthy complexion and a long black down whose sheen, owing to the candlelight, possessed the fluidity of polished leather. She halted in front of the oaken door of the room in which Tarvi was bound up in a deep slumber, letting go of the skirt of her dress.

Sans a waste of time, Anrik turned the doorknob but vainly opened the door, for the door had already been locked from the inside of the room. Peals of rat-tat came up at the door. Nonetheless, the eyes of the sleeping maiden were still closed. It could be that Tarvi was dreaming, having the relish of utopia.

"Tarvi! Tarvi!" Anrik called, pounding at the door in all seriousness. Fear was like blood coursing through every blood vessel of hers, and she made a frown. "Open up the damn door!"

Her mouth vaguely open, Tarvi seemed unconscious on the bed where she was lying supinely. Anrik, who stayed busy with shouts whilst making raps on the door, was vainly getting the attention of the slumbering young woman.

It seemed as though her effort to catch Tarvi's eye would be a failure. She was anxious but not frustrated, gurning with the premonition of the dejection of all the seers who were in the temple, and, as there was an important thing that Tarvi should know at full pelt, she could not refrain from pounding at the door.

"Tarvi! Are you in there? Tarvi!" Anrik shouted. " Open the door! Get this damn door open!"

Anrik turned the doorknob again; be that as it may, her try to open up the door was to no avail. As she turned frustrated, she roared and then slapped the door several times. Before long an ear-piercing thunderclap caused the temple to shake. Anrik paused, her eyes wide.

A great force of fear, the thunderclap was, and it had hushed her forthwith. It was that very thunderclap that wakened Tarvi. Thus, Tarvi took notice of the startling afternoon and the gloom in the room. The door of the room was in easement with the pause in the raps, hence Tarvi had not yet known that someone had been trying to reach her.

Tarvi sat up on the bed, grimacing with disgust and a tinge of surprise. Her lips parted slightly. Her eyes narrowed whilst lightning coruscated, too eager to dwell upon the darkling skies and the visible mournful plants that were desirous to have legs.

The gloom in the guest room was one thing that she could not bear so she closed her eyes, ready to make the gloom go away by magic. She opened her left hand, whereupon a large tongue of flame supernaturally appeared on the palm of her left hand forthwith, killing the gloom.

There were two candelabras in the room; one on an oaken desk, the other wall-mounted. However, they were a carcass to a boar even now. Tarvi rendered her eyes open and made for the window once she had left the bed, not hitching up the skirt of her overly long rosy dress.

Looking through the open window, she beheld the sullen skies. She beheld the thick dark clouds that could be likened to a measureless pall of smoke that seemed fairly close to fruits. She saw despairing leaves tossing in the violent wind. Lightning flashed yet again. Thunder therewith exploded and then rolled.

Peals of rat-tat resumed at the door, whereupon Tarvi looked behind and espied the movement of the doorknob. To her eyes, somebody was trying to enter the room unbidden, and surprise glinted in her eyes. Anrik had let down the candelabra to the floor.

"Tarvi!" Anrik shrilled, hitting the door even as she kept turning the doorknob. "Tarvi! Answer me!"

Tarvi turned around, lingering on the door. Because of the way the sibyl was calling and rapping on the door, Tarvi had a hunch that something had gone egregious. Possibly 'twas a malady in relation to the dire weather.

Perhaps 'twas a perilous situation in which the sibyls, who were dwelling in the Temple of Ordess, had turned hopeless. Tarvi quickly revamped her auburn tresses so that they looked tousled no longer.

Zeranah was Tarvi's junior by two years, and Tarvi was nearly as statuesque as her younger sister. Tarvi was a powerful occultist like Zeranah. And again, she was a valorous and daring resister of supernatural detriments.

Perhaps to her own disadvantage, and unlike her sister, she was not a seer and was not very good at using any steel that did not appertain to the occult.

The refulgent flashes of lightning remained irksome. The thunderclaps stayed disturbing and horrifying. Tarvi abominated the untoward blustery weather.

She worried herself about the reason why the untiring hand of the unseen woman had not desisted from pounding at the door. She was rendered perturbed at the seemingly despairing tone with which the clairvoyant was reaching her.

"Tarvi!" Anrik shouted.

Tarvi no longer had any time to cogitate deeply in the suspense, let alone pine for an answer that could not be created by the head of her own. "Hang on awhile!" she declaimed. "I'm coming!"

The knock then stopped. Having got her feet slippered as quick as a flash, Tarvi hastened to the door. She closed her left hand and the supernatural tongue of flame disappeared from her palm.

She unlocked the door with the key that had been in the keyhole, and, just after she set the door wide, she noticed the haunted look that was on Anrik's countenance.

Here Tarvi had a belief that something had gone grossly tiresome. Here eagerness went out of the sibyl, although the power of trepidation was clinging to her spirit.

"Sumi requires your presence at the sanctuary at once," said Anrik anxiously.

Anrik took hold of the candelabra and was about to go when Tarvi clutched her by the forearm, hence she could quickly leave no more. She tried to disengage herself from Tarvi's hand, but Tarvi firmed the grip.

Curiosity was etched on Tarvi's face, and Tarvi strongly forced back the bewilderment of hers. Tarvi's eyes narrowed, staring fixedly at Anrik's visage.

"Let me go," Anrik growled.

"You look worried," Tarvi breathed. "Is this about the coming rainstorm?"

"There shall be no rainstorm," Anrik growled, wearing an irate frown on her countenance. "The weather we see now is the herald of what is worse than you've ever had."

"Please tell me," Tarvi breathed.

"I'm forbidden to tell you," Anrik replied. "Sumi will tell you by herself."

"Is it something that terrible?" Tarvi queried.

"Come quickly and you shall hear of it," Anrik hissed. She vainly freed herself from Tarvi's grip when she essayed disengagement for the second time. "Let me go now."

Tarvi believed that Anrik was truly forbidden to utter what mattered. She relinquished the grip reluctantly. The sibyl began to herd apace, away from Tarvi who was standing stock-still on the threshold.

Tarvi was staring at Anrik with gravitas. She had not been calculated to browbeat Anrik into saying what should be kept unvoiced by the Roses of Ordess save for Sumi who was their head.

Tarvi was only a guest in the temple, not one of them who were devoted to Ordess by oath and responsibility. Anrik, having moved over ten yards, suddenly came to rest. She looked behind soon, meeting Tarvi's gaze.

"If I were you," said Anrik, "I would be on my way to the sanctuary without delay."

Anrik afterwards hurtled to the end of the passage, moreover, just after she made a diversion, Tarvi lost sight of her.