Temple of a Seer
an excerpt

Elmae ducked behind the grain building. She seated herself in the cold dirt, the rough wood splintering at her back as she slid down the wall. Her breath struggled against her tight chest. In the middle of market, sun high in the sky, had she really seen that? Was it a vision? Is that what she should she call it? Maybe she was crazy, the wallows taking her early in life.

But it had been so crisp and clear and the images before her packed with emotion and knowing. They almost knocked the loaf of bread right out of her hands. What must the baker think of her? The vision still twirled in her head. The image of a woman, dark and deep. Hair in waves of black blue. The woman kneeled before her. Elmae didn't need to know who the woman was she knew beyond all doubt that the woman was important. Yet here she was kneeling to a fetching girl. She knew it wasn't crazy just like she knew everything about the woman in that moment. But what could she say of such things. Her master would surely beat her for such stories.

Elmae wished she could hide here. That she could run the image through her head again and again. Feel that rush of blood in her ears. But the loaf of bread was already getting cool. Her master wanted it hot in her hands so that she could be sure Elmae paid top price for a fresh one. Elmae closed her eyes and let the vision pass before her one more time. She watched the dark woman, covered in sparkling clear stones and laced metals. She ran her eyes across her silk hair. Hair spun around itself again and again creating a feast for her eyes. What cause would such a woman have to bow to her? She took one more deep breath, faint smells of foreign herbs and sweet flowers drifting up to her nose.

The smell lingered in her nose as she ran. She knocked another fetching girl over as she took a fast corner. The market sack banging against the back of her thigh. She leaped puddles and dodged mules. Never before had her legs carried her so fast. The power of her secret invigorating her muscles. Elmae burst into an empty cooking room, her master taken with another chore. She left the bread on the table. Her run bruised the loaf in a few places and she worked the crust a little to straighten it out. She hoped her master didn't notice. A cold loaf was one thing, a damaged one was another.

Elmae hurried herself onto the next chore. The water jugs waiting by the back door. She lifted them and ran down the hill, to the river. She could waste time at the river. Lies curled around her lips and her mind spun a tale of a wash woman upstream. Her baskets of clothes tinting the river with dirt and dyes. That would buy her some time.

She slowed her pace. Placing each foot as she would imagine a royal woman would. Her head high, the jugs disappeared from her hands, replaced by royal rings and a jeweled walking staff. She wasn't walking down a servant ally she was walking through the courtyard of her house. Servants asked her what she wanted for dinner. Plump, smiling servants. Well fed and well cared for. She smiled and answered them politely.

“Clear the way we have ourselves a real genuine lady.” She knew the voice, Gelden a horse boy, the worst of the boy slaves. Her face reddened. Her daydream dangling on her sleeve.

“My master wanted me to present myself better. I was just practicing.” The laughter of the boys stung her. Stupid boys, they always teased her and the other girls so.

“I think your master wants you to fetch the water faster.” The other boys stood in a group behind their leader, Gelden. They wagged their tongues and made lewd gestures at her. She could feel the hot water in her eyes. She sniffed it back.

“You stupid boys! You should be nice to me! Someday I will be important! Women so beautiful you couldn't imagine them will kneel at my feet. You and my master will bow at my feet. ” The last of her words caught in her throat. Her skin burned with her error. She could already feel the whip on her back. Elmae looked around to see who else had heard her. Every servant in the ally had stopped. They all stared at her.

“Is that so? I think the only one who will be doing any bowing around here will be you.” Gelden whispered to one of the boys behind him and the boy took off running. She knew where he was going. She knew how badly she would be beaten. But her vision still lingered in her head. She didn't care. No one could beat that vision out of her.

“We will just have to wait and see won't we.” Elmae narrowed her eyes at Gelden as she spoke. She turned on a heel and headed to the river. She kept her head up. She had seen the future. She knew better than a stupid horse boy.