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“It’s not so bad.” Nadia shrugs uncomfortably. “When we return to the human world, we stay in a cave that has been Beranabus’s base for many centuries. I haven’t seen the outside world since I joined him. I’m not jealous or regretful. Not really.”
She tries to make it sound like she honestly feels that way, but it’s clear that she’s deeply unhappy.
“Why?” Raz asks softly. “Why did the master ask this great sacrifice of you? What is your gift?”
“Fortune telling,” Nadia says with a giggle. “I was a child fortune teller. I’d dress up as a gypsy and read people’s palms, tea leaves, a crystal ball — whatever. When my parents realized I could make money doing it, they set up a special room in our house. Later they took me on the road with a traveling fair. I had a tent of my own. They billed me as Nadia Le Tarot. It was fun, but frightening sometimes — I could see people’s deaths. I was supposed to just tell them good things, but if I saw something upsetting, I couldn’t always hide it. That got me into trouble.
“I don’t know how Beranabus found me. He just turned up one night, and whisked me off into the madness of this. I was terrified. I didn’t know who he was or what he wanted. And all the demons...”
She shudders and glares at Beranabus. I try to imagine what that must have been like. It’s not difficult, since I’m in much the same boat as she was. But at least I made the decision to come here.
“In time I learned why Beranabus took me,” Nadia says. “I can sense things which have not yet happened. There are many people who claim that gift, but I’m one of the few who can really do it. Beranabus says my kind are even rarer than magicians.”
“How much can you see?” Sharmila asks, and there’s an edge to her voice. “Can you see when we will die? And by what means?”
Nadia shakes her head. “Not yet. I have to focus to gain insights like that. And I prefer not to. I don’t like knowing such details.”
“You say you can see the future before it happens,” Raz says slowly. “But if that is true, surely you can act to change it.”
“No. It’s not that specific. I might, for instance, see that you’ll die in a fire, but I won’t know when or where it will happen. My insights are never something that can be altered. If I get a glimpse of a future event, it’s because it has in some way already happened. It can’t be undone or prevented.
“But it is possible to use my gift to our advantage — that is, to Beranabus’s advantage.” She goes quiet, staring at her fingernails. Most are bitten down to the flesh, except the smallest nail on her left hand. Maybe she’s saving it for an especially stressful moment.
“There is a weapon,” Nadia whispers, and we have to lean in to hear. “A demonic weapon, maybe legendary, maybe real — Beranabus doesn’t know. They call it the Kah-Gash. According to the legends it’s ancient, even by the standards of the Demonata. We’re talking millions of years. It was broken up into a number of pieces eons ago, and they’ve been missing ever since.”
“How many pieces?” Raz asks.
“We don’t know. We don’t think any demon knows either. But certain demon masters have been looking for them ever since. Beranabus is searching for the pieces too. Because whatever the Kah-Gash is, the legends claim it has the power to destroy universes. They say it can wipe out either the universe of the Demonata, and every demon in it — or our own, and everyone in that.”
“What weapon could be so powerful?” Raz gasps. “Even a nuclear missile cannot destroy an entire universe.”
Nadia shrugs. “If I had the answer, I’d know more than Beranabus or any of the Demonata. But I know this much — one of the pieces will soon be found. I’ve seen it.” She starts chewing at the smallest nail on her left hand. “Beranabus has had me concentrating on the Kah-Gash ever since he brought me here. I spend hours of every day brooding about it, running the word through my thoughts, trying to find out where the pieces might be.
“A few days ago I had an insight. I sensed that part of the Kah-Gash was going to be discovered in the near future. I caught a glimpse of a demon — Cadaver. Words popped into my thoughts — ‘The demon thief will guide you. Find the thief.’”
Find the thief. That’s what Mrs. Egin said when she was freaking out, and just before she exploded! I start to tell the others, but Sharmila speaks up before me.
“Cadaver stole the baby — Kernel’s brother.”
Nadia nods. “Beranabus was ecstatic when that happened. It confirmed that we were on the right track, that Cadaver was a demon thief.”
“So that’s what this is about,” Raz says, nudging my right arm. (It doesn’t hurt now. It’s been healed by magic.) “Nadia and the master came for me — having already collected Sharmila — a day or so ago. The master said he needed me, but didn’t say what he wanted me for. Now I see — it was to help search for the Kah-Gash.”
“But I don’t see what difference you or I can make.” Sharmila frowns. “Were we in your vision, Nadia?”
“No,” Nadia says.
“Then why involve us? If Beranabus has searched for this weapon by himself all these years, why come to us for help now?”
“Because of what I saw and sensed,” Nadia mumbles. “If we pursue this, there will be a confrontation. I caught glimpses of a battle with forces greater than our own.” She pulls her finger away from her mouth. Sets both hands on her knees. Looks at each of us slowly, one after the other, as she speaks. “Beranabus didn’t tell you about this because there was no time. But I doubt he would have told you anyway, in case he frightened you away.”
“I’m not frightened of a fight,” Raz snorts.
“I am,” Sharmila says. “But I would fight regardless, if Beranabus asked me. He knows that. I have fought before. Raz too. You said that is why he chose us.”
“Yes. But it wasn’t just a fight that I sensed.” Nadia lowers her eyes and looks at the hands on her knees. They’re trembling, but only slightly. She stares at them hard. When they stop trembling, she looks up at us and says directly, without any emotion, “I also sensed death.”
OPENING WINDOWS
