5.Death of Chaos
LXIV
DAYALA-SILVER-HAIRED and her age distinguishable from that of a young girl only by the darkness behind her pupils and the barely visible fine lines radiating from the corners of those too-wise eyes-stood before the sand table of the Great Forest of Naclos.
“What will be, will be, but let me see the course of the Balance and the vision of the sands.” She bowed, then straightened.
She stopped speaking and concentrated on the sands. In time, a map of eastern Candar began to appear. Piercing green eyes fixed on the sands, and sweat beaded on her forehead, though her hands remained by her side, seemingly relaxed.
In time a small spike of sand appeared on the thin line of darker sand that represented the road from Weevett through Certis to Jellico. She nodded. Patches of ugly reddish sand continued to chum up around the Great North Bay and at a point in Sligo that bordered Freetown.
For several long moments, she studied the map before taking another deep breath and concentrating once more. A wave of darkness spread from the southeast and began to creep toward the chaos. Another appeared at the edge of the Great North Bay and began to creep westward.
Then, the sand sprayed into the air in a column, with the force of a contained explosion.
Dayala stepped back, then turned away, and rivulets of tears streamed down her cheeks as she walked out into the ordered darkness of the grove beyond.