CALLIBRA: THE CURSED EYE OF ARAK

CHAPTER SIX

CASTLE OF VOCÍ

Tamara was standing at the window in her mother's room. Far off, deep in the night clouds her eyes caught a pigeon...moving so fast through the clouds in a way that made her conclude it was amplified by magic. 

"A messenger is approaching the tower," she said to her mother, who was sitting on her bed, studying a spell from the book that lay on her palms.

"A messenger?" She seemed as shocked as Tamara. She walked up to her and sat down next to her. 

"Do you think something might have gone wrong in Ivádia?" said Tamara anxiously. They had not seen a messenger from Ivádia in the last 365 days.

"Ivádia?" 

"Yes, Mother, Ivádia." 

"We have not heard from them in 365 days, could something be wrong?" said Grindila to her daughter. 

"Go. Daughter, tell our sisters to gather in the message room and wait for me," Grindila instructed her and she left the room.

She walked out of the room and went straight to the bell. She struck it three times and heard the footsteps of her sisters walking behind her to the message room. 

She heard footsteps behind her just as she was about to turn away from the bell and join her sisters. 

"Did Grindila ask you to do this?" asked Greba behind her, and she turned to face her. 

"Yes, sister. Our sisters in Ivádia have a message for us. I hope everything is all right, Greba," she said to her.

"Tamara, why are you worried?" Greba said to her, concerned about the expression on Tamara's face.

"It's just that... we have not heard from them in quite a while, and I wonder why they sent a messenger at this hour," she said, and Greba's eyebrows drew together.

"Let us go! And, where is your mother? We can not read the message without her," she said to Tamara.

"She will join us in the message room."

The blood of a dove splashed on the wall means nothing if it comes from an ordinary witch. Without the ritual, it remains just a bloodstain on the wall.

Tamara stared at the wall and saw streaks of dried pigeon blood everywhere. Soon they will have to ask the Mandrins to paint the walls with new paint.

"Sister Tamara!" called Soriya as she entered the message room. Tamara turned to her as she continued to walk toward them.

"Sister, is there a problem?" said Tamara, shaking her head slightly to indicate that there was no problem. 

"Your mother wants you to bring the messenger here before she joins us," Soriya told her.

"That is exactly what I will do."

Tamara left the message room, which was filled with hundreds of children, young women, and elders of the coven who possessed the same abilities.

She stood outside, inside the fences and called out to the pigeon that hovered high above the message room.

"Eres orisrenté ovidas carera atras!" she called out loudly to it as her eyes glowed blue. 

"Eres orisrenté ovidas carera atras!" She called again and it settled on her outstretched hands.

"Tamara!" shouted Grindila. She had just arrived 

"Today! You will be the one to open the message. Age has come upon me and I do not know what fate has in store for me. I want you to learn these things in case I am no longer around," she said and Tamara's brows drew together.

"Mother! Do not say such words. Your time has not come yet. Our sisters still need you, I still need you," she said.

"Tamara, you are old enough to handle things when I am gone. I was 16 when your grandmother died. She taught me everything I need to know to be a great leader to our sisters. You are 10 years older than I was when I took over," she told Tamara.

"Then show me. Tell me what to do," Tamara told her and she smiled.

They both went to the message room with the pigeon.

Grindila grabbed the pigeon tightly and lifted it from Tamara's hands. It tried to flap its wings, but Grindila held it tightly. She handed it back to Tamara 

Grindila cut Tamara's hair with a blade and she cut hers too. She tied them together and held them in her right hand. 

"It will not hurt, it will heal in no time," she told Tamara as she brought the blade closer to her throat. 

Tamara shivered as her mother brought the blade closer to her throat. "Shh!" she said to her daughter, wanting her to stay quiet as she wanted to ask questions. Tamara gasped as the blade touched her throat, beads of sweat quickly forming on her forehead.

Grindila slit her daughter's throat. Tamara gasped as she covered the cuts with both hands, struggling to get air into her lungs. She took her hands away and wiped the blood from the open wound with the hair she had knotted. After wiping the blood with the hair, she stared at the cut and Tamara's throat was instantly healed. 

Tamara took a long, deep breath and the air filled her lungs again. It was a brief but painful moment. 

She cut her own throat and blood oozed out as she gasped and tried to get air back into her lungs. She wiped the blood from her neck and her eyes lit up red, instantly healing her throat. 

"You can go ahead and open the message. You'll be able to read it now." 

Grindila walked down the platform and joined the others who were standing there waiting for the message to be read aloud by Tamara. 

Tamara looked down at the pigeon in her hands and raised it to her face. She looked at her mother, who gave her the go signal with a nod. She looked back at the dove and slowly put its head in her mouth. The moment the head was in her mouth, she bit the neck and chopped the head off with her teeth.

"It's open!" she announced immediately after spitting his head on the ground. 

Greba climbed up on the platform to help her and handed her a bowl to collect the blood. She accepted it and twisted the pigeon's neck into the bowl. The blood dripped until nothing could be seen. She gave the dead pigeon to Greba and she threw it out the window. 

"Hoi kanoi isturis lasvitus!" She chorused, and the blood in the bowl swirled. She splashed the blood on the wall in front of her and it formed a large red streak on the white wall. 

"Mother, I can not see!" She said to her mother and she came towards her. 

"I can not see it anymore because I gave you the ability. You have to concentrate, Tamara!" She said and Tamara nodded. She looked at the wall again and the stripes were nowhere to be seen. The four walls were all covered with writings, and not just any writings, but messages that they've received from their sisters in the past. 

"I see it now," she said to her mother.

Grindila herself could only see stripes all over the wall at that moment. 

"The Mandrins in Ivádia, they have found the cursed Eye of Arak. They were cursed and turned," she turned to her sisters with her eyebrows drawn together and a worried murmur filled the room.

"Callibra!" exclaimed Grindila, and her eyes widened. 

"We all know what it does to people who do not have the powers we possess. Those who behold it become a fire-breathing beast of the air. One strong enough to bring down the castle with a flap of its wings," Ingrid said as she stepped forward from the middle row and walked toward the platform where Tamara stood.

Ingrid was the oldest witch in the sisterhood. She could not climb the platform without help. Tamara walked down the platform, clasped her arm and helped her up.

"Tamara!" she said in a trembling voice. "Tell us more about the news, this can not be all. Tell us if our sisters are safe in Ivádia," she added.

"They only warned us to close the city walls, which they did. They think that the dragons might be after our sisters in Landiá, Piliá and also after us. Sister Isidora was there and saw them turn into this creature. She ordered the city walls to be cloaked, even though she was still outside trying to reach Callibra. From the looks of it, a dragon is watching over the city of Ivádia and Isidora has not returned since she left... ." She spoke to them and they all panicked. 

"Tamara, lead your sisters and make sure that no part of the city is left to the eye of a mandrin, not even a dragon. And see to it that no Mandrin learns of this, for if they do, it will threaten our supremacy," Grindila said, and they all left the message room.

CASTLE OF PILIÁ

"Katerina!" Maya entered the room.

"You should learn how to knock, Maya," Katerina admonished Maya.

 "I am sorry, sister," Maya said.

The Mandrin that was with her scrambled out of bed and walked past Maya. Maya's eyes followed him as he left the room.

"Is that him? Your husband," Maya asked.

"Yes," she said to Maya.

Witches who want to give birth to their own children are married to Mandrins, who they  eventually kill before the child is born to prevent future bonding. They try as hard as they can to kill the child's father so that the child will never know its father. This is because they believe that a strong father-daughter bond would develop and the child would turn against the sisterhood for its Mandrin father. 

"Why are you in such a hurry?" asked Katerina.

"There is a messenger here," said Maya, and Katerina walked up to her.

"A messenger from where?" she asked, drawing her brows together.

"Ivádia," she answered.

"Ivádia? Summon the messenger and inform our sisters to gather in the message room," she instructed Maya and left the room.

She put on her coat and quickly left the room in the direction of the message room. She heard the sound of the bell, which she assumed Maya was ringing, as she had instructed her to do.

CASTLE OF LANDIÁ

"Look! The news of our sisters in Ivádia," Dimitra said to them as she bit off the head of the pigeon and poured its blood all over the wall after draining it into a bowl. 

"The Mandrins of Ivádia, they found the cursed eye of Arak. They were cursed and turned," she said and everyone mumbled in panic.

"That's not all, sisters! There is more, and I think there is more to worry about," she said and everyone stopped murmuring and listened carefully. 

A few minutes later, Dimitra read out the message they had heard. Like everyone else, Lydia left the room worried.

"Lydia!" called Dimitra to her and she stopped. 

"Sister, is there a problem?" asked Lydia as she turned to Dimitra and furrowed her brows.

"I have been keeping an eye on you," she told Lydia. Lydia was not sure what she was trying to say.

She walked closer to Lydia and put her hand on her shoulder to turn her in the direction she was going.

"Did I do something wrong... Sister Dimitra?" she asked and Dimitra laughed.

"Come with me," she said and Lydia nodded as they walked to the inner gate. 

"I have a proposal for you," she said.

"What is it, sister?" asked Lydia and she grinned.

"Look at me, what do you see?" she asked Lydia and her question left Lydia confused about what to say. 

"I see the leader of our coven," Lydia replied and laughed.

"You are such a funny girl," she said and Lydia forced herself to grin.

"Well, what else should I see in you?" asked Lydia when she realized that she had misunderstood the first answer.

"Old age!" she exclaimed, "old age," she whispered.

"I have been a leader of this coven since this tower was built. I was only 40 years old when I was chosen by our sisters to lead this great coven. As powerful and gifted as we may be, we are still human and that means we cannot stop time running away from us. I am old now, and no matter how hard I tried, I was not able to get pregnant when I was young. I think you know what that means?" She said and Lydia nodded.

"Yes, I think I do. It means that after you die, your spirit must be passed on to one of our sisters," said Lydia and she nodded.

"You are such a smart young lady," she praised Lydia.

"But why are you telling me this?" she asked.

"I have seen you accomplish some tasks, and judging from the results, I believe you have the true potential to become a leader. I want you to be the one who will absorb my spirit," she said and Lydia grinned.

"Sister Dimitra, I am glad to hear that you think I am capable of leading our sisters, but you are still strong enough to lead us through this war," Lydia said and laughed.

"No, I am not. Who knows when I will be called upon to rejoin our sisters," she said.

"You should go, my dear, go and supervise your sisters in cloaking the city walls. Make sure it is strong enough to last us the night, and then send our messenger to Ivádia to confirm receipt of the message," she said, and Lydia nodded.