Chapter 9 SIGNS THAT FRIGHTEN

A dozen women, clairvoyants even, were in a large wood in a huge remote soil in Darlia, at the border betwixt Darlia and Zedzka. Joy was gleaming in their eyes even as they busied themselves with gathering spices, herbs and nuts, and they were somewhat amused at the badinage that stood afoot through them.

Each of the women was beautiful in a full-length belted dress that stood plain. In the hand of each of the women was a keen knife with which she was harvesting. Very close to each of the women was a largish wicker basket, and the baskets might become full of harvest before long, for they were almost halfway full of harvest.

There were scents of wild flowers and spices and herbs in the woods, for the woods abounded with aromatic wild flowers and spices and herbs, and the several kinds of scents formed an aromatic harmony. Many evergreens stood proud and verdant. Their leaves relished the delicious wind.

The bucolic verdure gloried in the rich soil plus the light of the afternoon sun that stood aglow. Manifold birds appeared joyous; some twittered, others made liquid birdsong, and a lot of them had feathers whose colours were mellow. And again, there were rooks and ravens that were letting out caws as though they were trying to make their caws overpower the tweets and birdsong.

As springtime appeared to be at its zenith, bushes were in bloom. The crown of the woods appeared a vast roof that was made pocked and fair by a few glades and swards that lay beneath as a rare harmony of manifold domes of different sizes.

It was all but as effulgent as a measureless emerald that was sitting in the air, beneath the welkin, shading the ground, moreover, for the rest, birds sometimes took it to be a lovable celestial base.

There were a few springs and freshwater pools in the woods, where all the inhabitants of the woods did slake their thirst. Birds of prey at times went there to get food, drink some water and preen themselves.

The springs and freshwater pools, therefore, were paradoxes; idylls which could suddenly turn snakepits for smaller animals. Nevertheless, the glory of the springs and freshwater pools surpassed the peril that they carried. Around a freshwater pool were wood pigeons and bustards that were feeding their thirst plus preening themselves.

Suddenly the power of the wind started to intensify. The day had begun to lose its brightness whilst running bleak, hence the women who were in the woods were amazed at the weather. The females were sibyls, although the rest of the day was unpredictable in their eyes.

All the birds were fleeing the woods, whereupon there came the end of the happy tweets and birdsong. Animals had started to take to their several havens. The heavens had started to fall sullen, making anxiety hold the whip hand over the women's spirits. The women beheld the leaden clouds and refulgent flashes of forked lightning, hereupon a glacial gale fell on the sequestered area.

The power of the wind went into the stratosphere, and the wind was sweeping the woods and the purlieus of the woods. Damage, alas, would supervene. The eerie howl of the gale filled the woods and the gale was very singular and minatory.

Bushes would lose flowers and leaves. Trees would lose branches and many leaves and fruits. Some shrubs might soon cease to get support from their roots since the wind was bent on powering them to where they might brown and then wither.

The leaves and branches of the trees were tossing in the gale. Leaves that had gone adrift were flying about in the woods as well as in the purlieus of the woods.

"We must stop gathering!" one of the clairvoyants declaimed. "A great storm approaches!"

Astonishingly and staring skywards, a swarthy clairvoyant made a gurner. "An omen, it is!" she roared. "This is a very terrible omen!"

"Indeed, it is!" a blonde sibyl declaimed. Her ice-blue eyes were halfway shut, and she seemed afraid vaguely. "Now we must run!"

"We must take to the temple!" an ash blonde declaimed, holding a largish wicker basket that was somewhat full of herbs. "Carry your baskets! Waste no time!"

The howl of the wind and the unending rustling of leaves in the woods were a noise. The wind kept powering about as if it had a craving to convey an adult bison from the face of land. So 'twas that each of the sibyls put her knife in her wicker basket and then made towards the temple with haste.

The temple to which the clairvoyants were heading was the Temple of Ordess, moreover, 'twas a large stone building where very devoted clairvoyants and priestesses of Ordess were dwelling. All the clairvoyants and priestesses that dwelt in the temple were the Roses of Ordess.

The gale kept howling, unbalancing the verdure, and the firmament had already become sullen. Dark clouds were scudding southwards and a tempest might happen after a short while.

The sun had been enshrouded; it was overshadowed by the dark clouds which then set up the murk, hence the afternoon seemed well-nigh as dark as overcast dusk, an hour of gloom. Dark clouds kept gathering. Glaring flashes of lightning kept coming.

There came rolls of thunder. Vibrant claps of thunder kept coming. It seemed as though the sullen skies were making a slow descent, veiling hilltops and mountaintops, looking like a vast pall of smoke, coiling, and there came the rare nearness of uncommon gloom which was rendered horrific with the most glaring flashes of lightning e'er.

Shortly after leaving the woods, each of the women, now wishing that she could shoot forth like a divine arrow that had been fired from a divine bow, was herding fairly fast on the short grasses which, albeit would look verdant on a fair day, seemed as though they had lost their greenness due to the obnoxious half-light.

The grasses stretched wide athwart the great foreland of the temple. The temple was close to the woods. A great stone statue of Ordess, the goddess of earth and wife of Rezos, reposed at the midst of the foreland of the temple, and, not more than a score yards away from the statue, a well stood.

Because of the frigid headwind, the loose tresses of some of the women fluttered like storm-tossed flags. Similar to an invisible wall that was standing before the sibyls at the foreland, the headwind was.

The women, trying to power forth, were struggling forth against the invisible wall, making it seem to back and back hesitatingly, whereupon they were making headway while protecting the leafy harvest that they had gathered lest it be made to fly away. Sheet lightning coruscated over a hilltop, moreover, not long after that, a very piercing clap of thunder shook the soil in its entirety.

Upon a bed in a guest room in the Temple of Ordess, Tarvi, who was Zeranah's only sibling, was slumbering and oblivious of the gale. Neither the howl of the gale nor the thunder was pungent enough to waken her up from her deep repose.

Not e'en the vibrant thunderclaps that made the soil quiver were able to make her take notice of the perilous weather. Owing to the incredibly strong wind, the curtains were fluttering at the open window.