The Seeker - Finna's Quest

by E L Russell

  Jamal’s eyes widened, revealing his enthusiasm.

 

 

  Leeth waved a hand in dismissal and continued his own line of thought. he shrugged,
  Finna poked him with her finger.

 

  Jamal asked.

  Yasmin leaned in close.

  Leeth hesitated, and Finna folded her arms and waited. It was his practice to buy time to fabricate a story, yet time travel was interesting enough. She didn't know why he needed to dress up the facts.

  He refreshed his empty mug before continuing.

  He slapped the table.

  Finna tapped his arm. Noises behind her rumbled, and she feared they would be interrupted and she would never hear the rest of the tale. Knosh sang out a "good morning," but went on his way. She held her breath, and subsequent sound abated. To her relief, Leeth picked up where he'd left off.

 

  Jamal asked.

 

  Yasmin wore an expression of disbelief.

  He held a finger to his chin and tapped it.

  Jamal asked.

 

  Finna provoked him.

  He scowled at her.

  Yasmin poked her ribs with her elbow and whispered, “Let him talk.”

 

  Finna winced.

  Leeth lifted his mug as if to drink then put it down again.

  Without believing any of this was possible, there was no way Finna could overcome her confusion. The whole idea was preposterousness. Absurd.

 

  Jamal was spellbound

  He pushed back from the table and stood abruptly. He took two deep breaths, and he ran a hand through his hair.

  Finna was afraid she would never hear the end of the story. She leaned toward him and noticed Jamal and Yasmin had done the same. For a change, her question was gentle and concerned.

  Leeth spun around to face them.

  Jamal voiced the question they all wanted to ask.

 

  Leeth's eyes grew unfocused, and he stopped his explanation. He was quiet so long Finna grew concerned. She glanced at Yasmin, and they gave him the time he seemed to need.

  Jamal was less patient. He jumped in with a question. "Then what happened, Sir Seeker?"

 

  62

  A New Word

  A Question is Answered

  Finna heard Jamal’s tone in his use of ‘Sir Seeker’ and knew it contained the respect of a title, which was far removed the sarcasm she used. She nudged the twelve-year-old in the arm and wondered when he’d turn thirteen.

  She sipped her mead and peered over the lip of the cup, every bit as curious as the Jamal. It was Yasmin who eventually requested more.

  Leeth held the top of his head with one hand for the longest moment before he spoke again. He gazed into the distance. His enthusiasm died. Again, he was quiet.

  Jamal's eyes radiated admiration.

  Finna had so wanted to scale the walls, to take the city back from the infidels, to fight in the glorious battle.

  Leeth laughed and slammed the table both fists.

  Finna’s head jerked back in surprise. “What did you say?”

 

  Her brows lowered. “No-o-o-o-o, that word you left out.”

 

 

  Leeth pulled in his chin. “Oh, shit.”

  Finna exclaimed. She tried it on her lips. “Fuck. Fucking. Yes, there’s great satisfaction in saying that word.”

  He covered his face with both hands and put his elbows on the table.

 

  He shook his head and groaned.

  Jamal, more interested in Leeth’s dilemma tan his language, pursued the story. “What happened to the real you? Did you ever go back to your own time? Can you get back there now? So now, who are you?”

  Leeth tapped his temple for a mind-to-mind reminder. t vized the glean on Leeth Letholdus, had died of a heart attack at the same time my host had a stroke. Leeth Letholdus recovered from his stroke. I did not. The me in the future I mean. My original body, that is.>

  Jamal held up his palms.

 

  Finna lifted her hands, turning them over as she spoke.

  He shrugged with a deep exhale. "People die, and we say their soul leaves the body. What you see is Leeth's body. The body I had remains in some lab in the future where it is being examined. To answer your question about how this all took place, I—"

  Everyone spoke at once. “You have no idea.”

  He frowned. “This is difficult to explain. How about I ask you to believe that we exist more in our minds than we do in our bodies?”

 

  The Time Overlord who monitors me said I was the only person who had ever made a successful mind transfer from one body to another. He wasn’t very happy about it and said he hoped it never happened again. You can see how it could get to be sticky if people changed bodies and minds all the time.> He stretched out his legs. < I’m . . . he . . . this body is a bit larger than my own.>

  Yasmin asked.

 

  He smiled, and it reached deep into his eyes, making Finna, smile too.

  He laughed and returned to his seat at the table.

 

 

  He punched the palm of his hand with each phrase. He furrowed his brows.

  Finna waved her finger to get his attention. She couldn’t help looking all around, foolish as she knew it was.

  He chuckled at her antics.

 

  He lifted a hand.

  Finna had spent so much time adjusting to each new catastrophe for so long she had not thought much beyond each day. This time travel thing, though, it warranted a great deal more thought than she had given it. She squeezed her eyes half shut and gave Leeth a calculating glare. she let the half finished statement dangle a moment.

  He shook his head and poured everyone another mead. She pushed hers away. < No more, Seeker. You will have us pie-eyed. This war. Who wins?>

 

  Finna didn’t like the sound of that at all and looked at Yasmin to see if she was following what the damn man had said. Leeth sounded as though he was no more enthralled with losing his memory than she was.

  < You're making a joke, right? We're fighting a war we don't care about, and now you are saying we won't even remember it? > Jamal's questions were of disbelief.

  Finna chimed in.

  63

  Death and Corruption

  Betrayal

  They had arrived on the beach of the Combat Planet for repositioning to the far shore. Leeth filled them in.

  Merde.

  Finna had a premonition, and it wasn't good. Leeth and his team were battle-honed and impatient to fight for the first time as a unit. This gathering of information didn't sound like what they had in mind.

 

  Great. Her last choice for a partner turned out to be his first choice for her. She was glad Jamal was with Yasmin, though, where she could keep an eye on him.

 

  Finna didn’t like the Silva. They seemed to enjoy taking the life away from anyone who disagreed with their way of thinking. She wished she were a solitary spy, working alone except Leeth had said there was something about a team of seven that made them ‘more.’ Somehow that number gave the unit additional strength.

  Leeth snapped.

 

 

 

  Make sure you keep your ass under the low canopy of the green fronds. What do you see now, Tood?>

 

 

  Twice, a small flock of birds exploded into the air only a few feet from one of them, and they dropped low until satisfied the Silva believed the birds were taking flight for natural reasons and not because an enemy had startled them. The only other interruption to the endless sea of green ground cover and skinny black tree trunks was Leeth'
s continuous demand for each couple's report.

  * * *

  After hours of stealthy creeping, the heavy gravity leached their energy and Leeth’s call for a break was a welcome relief. He instructed the teams of two to sit back-to-back against a tree trunk, so each team had a complete view of the surrounding land. Finna evaluated her view as if it were a battlefield. Chances were, it could become one at any moment.

  When Leeth told them to tuck green fronds into their belts and under their caps, for camouflage, Finna had a flashback to her childhood when she and a friend played wood fairies using fern fronds draped for houses, for clothing, for monsters, and for hiding. reminiscing over happier days, she didn’t notice her eyes close.

  Leeth noticed.

  She knew a war zone was not the place for daydreaming and refocused her attention on the landscape. The memory cleared. Her childhood had no place in this time and thanks to Miri, noisily chewing fruit behind her, the present was hard to ignore.

  Miri’s voice came as though the thought of her was an invitation. Miri asked.

  Finna thought back with reluctance. < We starved and marched for months on end. Sometimes it was exciting . . . Mostly, It was frightening. Bloody. So many died before getting to Jerusalem. Many . . . many—> The faces of Cecilia and Helena drifted in a haze before her eyes.