Cetewayo began to raise his hand, to indicate for his guards to take the woman away and slit her throat, when Shakan took a step forward and knelt, hands upraised in supplication. “I have the Sight as my father had the Sight.”
All the men present went silent, eyes shifting from Shakan to Cetewayo, The Sight was a powerful thing and it had been years since any of the Zulu had been able to show they had it. Some believed it was not real and that Shaka had simply been a master warrior who had a string of luck in battle until he was assassinated by Dingane. Then there were the whispers that Shaka had had the Sight, but lost it in the insanity of his later years. Still, there was no record of Shaka ever having a child by any of his wives.
“Who was your mother?” Cetewayo demanded.
“Takir.”
Cetewayo’ s senior adviser leaned forward and whispered in his ear, informing that Takir had indeed been a wife of Shah, but she had disappeared just before the Zulu king’s assassination.
“What does your Sight show you?” Cetewayo asked, waving for his guards to stand back for the moment.
She pulled open the neck of her robe, revealing a glittering crystal on a leather thong tied around her neck. “I have been to a strange place where I received this,” she laid, indicating the crystal. “And I have seen in my visions strange things. I have seen three columns of men dressed in red along with Boer and native levies invading during the next cycle of the moon. One column along the coast to the Nyezane River. One to the south. And one in the center headed straight for this place. The other two columns will also turn and head here with the plan to bring three spear thrusts directly at you.”
The dispute with the British was serious, but not at that level yet, Cetewayo knew. Or so his spies told him. But before he could say anything, she continued.
“The center column is the key. It will encamp at Isandlwana Mountain.” Shakan raised her eyes to Cetewayo’s · and her voice took on a deeper tone. ‘’There you will meet the British in battle. A great victory will be yours.”
Cetewayo smiled. Predicting a victory in battle was always a smart move. But still —
“However,” Shakan continued, “while you will win that battle, you will eventually lose the war with the British.”
Several of his senior warriors leapt to their feet, brandishing their iKlwas. Predicting defeat in war was not a smart move for a seer, but Cetewayo waved the warrior’s back to their places, intrigued by both her bravery and her prediction. “Why do you tell me this?”
“Because great glory will unfold,” Shakan said, “and in our defeat we will sow the seeds of a greater victory.” She stood. “So I have seen.”
At the very top of Isandlwana the black bole opened once and three VaIkyries appeared. The two guards took up their flanking position while the center one placed the green tube on the ground, watching the display on the other end.
All had developed as planned deep underneath Isandlwana, over 98 percent of the diamond lattice-field was now connected with a low level of power.
It was just about ready to be harvested.
Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain IV was the latest · in a long line of warriors. Over three hundred years earlier his ancestors had fought in the American Revolution, then the War of 1812, then the little known Aroostoock War of 1839 with Canada and most famously, his great-great-great grandfather, Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain I had made his mark in the American Civil War.
Chamberlain IV had been a second lieutenant, fresh out of West Point, when the Shadow made its last assault, stripping his timeline of its ozone, most of the fresh water, and causing great devastation around the Pacific Rim as it Grew power from the core of the planet, destabilizing the Ring of Fire. In desperation, military forces from various countries made forays into the black gates through which the Shadow attacked, but no one ever returned from any of those attacks. Still they continued to assault as the situation grew more dire. Chamberlain was with the Eighty-second Airborne Division onboard an aircraft carrier that was preparing to go into the Bermuda Triangle Gate when all the gates abruptly closed, leaving behind a dying planet.
Chamberlain then participated in the evacuation of · Washington, DC, as it flooded when the ice caps melted. Then he fought in the brutal food riots of 2062 and 2063 and helped restore law and order to what remained of the United States. When the call came for volunteers for the First Earth Battalion he didn’t hesitate, even though the unit’s mission was classified and no one really knew what it was.
He’d been here fourteen years, rising through the ranks until he took command the previous year. They trained constantly, always ready, for exactly what, though, no one was quite sure. There had been encounters during the Shadow War with Valkyries and some of the suits had been captured. They were the basis for the combat suits Chamberlain and his soldiers now wore. Their weapons were designed to penetrate the Valkyrie armor, something scientists had been able to develop only after the war was over and the gates shut.
Chamberlain was currently on board an MH-90 Nighthawk heading toward the coast of Antarctica. The First Earth Battalion was not the only group of people who were waiting, and he was on his way to visit the other critical component in their readiness.
The coastline of the seventh continent was not much different-unlike the coastlines of the other six continents-despite the rise in ocean levels with the melting of both ice caps. Antarctica had actually had the most interesting transition of all, as the mile-thick layer of ice that had covered it had melted. The land beneath. Freed of the massive weight, had actually risen as the ocean levels around the world also rose.
Chamberlain looked over the pilot’s shoulder and saw the remains of Mount Erebus directly ahead. As part of its assault along the Pacific Rim, the Shadow had made numerous volcanoes become active, Erebus one of them. Half the mountain was gone, blown away during its initial eruption. Long strands of dark, cold lava stretched from the volcanic cone to the sea.
As they got closer, Chamberlain could make out a cluster of pod buildings on one of the strands that poked out into the ocean, just above the pounding surf. A wharf extended out onto the ocean with a tower at the end. New Delphi was the name of the station and it had been established just before the First Earth Battalion was formed. Indeed. It was the place where the concept for the First Earth Battalion had been launched.
The craft flared to a landing on the edge of the small center, and Chamberlain exited. He wasn’t in battle gear, wearing a one-piece pale blue jumpsuit and full headgear to protect his skin and eyes.
A woman waited for him, dressed in a similar outfit. Although he could not see a single square inch of her skin, he knew exactly what she looked like underneath the protective clothes. Chamberlain acknowledged her salute with a touch of his right hand to his protective visor.
“Anything, Captain Eddings?” He knew it was a stupid question, because if there was any news, he would have heard about it already. Thus he was momentarily stunned at her answer.
“Yes. We’ve had activity.”
“What? What happened?” After all these years of nothing.
Eddings put a hand on his shoulder. “Easy. Colonel.” She turned toward the pier. “Come with me and see for yourself.”
They walked along the steel decking out to the tower, Eddings punched in her access code to the door, and it slid open revealing an elevator. They entered and then immediately descended over fifty feet to the underwater headquarters of the Oracles.
The doors opened and they entered a circular chamber, completely enclosed in blast-glass, the ocean pressing against it in all directions. A dozen high-backed chairs were evenly spaced around the chamber, facing outward. Eleven of the chairs were occupied. Chamberlain knew the twelfth was Eddings’. She was the liaison between the Oracles and the First Earth Battalion. She’d also been his lover for the past year. In the very center of the chamber, less than five feet from the elevator entrance, on a black throne, sat the High Priestess Oracle.