by C. A. Farlow
Merilyn sat at the table and removed one of the tray lids. Steam rose from the eggs. “When you desire food, or anything else for that matter, simply call me. I will bring something up.”
Lost in the trays of breakfast treats, Lauren selected sausage, bacon, and ham to go along with her eggs and finally a pastry that appeared to be filled with fruit. Alex chose nearly the same, but without the pastry. I see her sweet tooth is still intact. Where did that come from?
“I must agree with Merilyn. You must consider this your home, and we do not want you going hungry or being uncomfortable.”
“Really, I’m here at your command and under your control. Merilyn has stated clearly I’m not to leave these rooms. I do believe that’s for my safety, and I’ll abide by her wishes. For some unknown reason I trust Merilyn as much as I trust you.”
Alex watched Lauren shake her head. I hope she starts seeing this as her home. Bowing low, Alex acquiesced. “Accept my apology, Lauren, I do not mean to presume. It is true that staying in is for your safety. We can protect you here. Things are uncertain now with the Council. It is rare for a ruler to be challenged. Since we do not know those in league with the Hebrideans, or their motives yet, we ask that you stay here. As soon as we get this situation under control, and we will, then you will be able to move freely about the Keep and the surrounds.”
Lauren waved her comments away. “Fine, fine. For now, I just want to work on this mystery disease.”
Breakfast continued as they discussed the plague and Lauren’s theories but the atmosphere was subdued. After the meal, Merilyn left to attend to Keep matters, while Alex took up her place on the sofa with the eReader. Lauren settled in the broad window seat, examining the data once more. Alex left her to her own devices, losing herself in reading. Lauren’s voice startled her out of her story.
“Don’t forget the sword this morning. You disappeared yesterday before I could give it to you.” Lauren said, without lifting her head from her work.
“What sword?” Alex swung her feet to the floor and promptly kicked Ice in the side.
“I am sleeping here.”
Alex glared down at the wolf. “Ice, do not be such a wimp. I am sorry to disturb your precious rest.”
Lauren rose from her seat. “Alex, did you just hear Ice? You answered her.”
Ice swung her head up to look at Alex. “Alex, can you hear me?”
The quiet finally shattered. Alex’s heart raced. “You need not shout, Ice. Wait. I can hear you!” Alex knelt beside the excited wolf and grabbed her ruff. “I can hear you!” She buried her face in her fur.
“Me, too, can you hear me, too?” Snow tumbled into the kneeling pair, knocking them to the rug.
Alex couldn’t believe it. “Yes, I can hear you, too!”
The trio rolled around on the floor in glee. Alex stopped her roughhousing with the wolves when she noticed that Lauren wasn’t joining in. “Lauren?” The pile of swirling tartan and fur slowed and the three sat up, similar frowns on their faces. Looking up she saw Lauren staring out the window from her place on the sill. She seems sad, why? “Lauren?” She cannot hear me. I cannot hear her.
Lauren turned back to the trio. “Okay, break it up. Alex needs to meet her friends for the afternoon.”
“She’s right. I need to meet the boys.” Standing, Alex stretched. Trying to soothe Lauren, she continued, “Thank you for another wonderful morning. I will see you again tomorrow.”
“Before I forget again, you’ve gotta take your sword back.” Lauren moved to the chest at the foot of her bed and opened it to reveal her meager belongings. She reached in for the sheathed weapon.
“Stop!” Alex leapt to her side to stop her from touching the blade.
“It’s okay. I’ve touched the sword before.” Lauren pulled the weapon from the chest and handed it to Alex. “I’m afraid that the baldric was lost along the way.”
Alex looked at the sword. The sapphire looked different, marred and cloudy. Fear settled in her chest. “Lauren, what have you done to my sword? The sapphire is flawed. It has flecks in it that never existed before. I also feel the blade’s bond link is different.” Alex pulled the blade from its sheath. She stared in disbelief at the bare steel. “Where is my dragon?”
Lauren stepped back, a hurt look crossing her face. “I’ve done nothing. How dare you accuse me of damaging something that saved our lives! I used what I had to, to protect and heal you. To get you into the Keep so you could be healed a second time. And here’s your dragon!” Alex watched Lauren pull the sleeve of her sweater up. Under Lauren’s skin was Alex’s dragon. She blinked up at Alex and slowly rolled over on her back.
“Well, you must have done something because the sapphire is changed! And you stole my dragon. What have you done? I cannot carry this blade as the Ruler’s Sword. The blade and stone are damaged.” Alex shoved the sword back in the sheath and swung it toward Lauren. As Lauren grabbed the weapon in self-defense, the room exploded with psychic energy.
Sensing the psychic energy release, Merilyn rushed into the solar to find Alex and Lauren on the floor. They were unconscious and bleeding from their ears and noses. Snow and Ice were huddled in the corner, quaking with fear. Emotional energy still rolled unchecked around the circular room. The sword continued to hum with stored energy and stone pulsed with a blue-green light.
Kneeling down, Merilyn reached out and placed a hand on Alex’s head. “Alexandra, can you hear me?” she queried physically and mentally.
A groan rose from Alex. “What?”
“Everything is all right. Stay down until your head clears.”
“My head is ringing. I can barely hear you, Merilyn.”
“I can only imagine. You two released another emotion-energy burst. I felt the psychic wave downstairs. Hopefully, my shields contained the energy, or we will have the entire Keep in here.” Merilyn reached over and touched Lauren’s arm. Another release of energy burst forth, tossing Merilyn on her backside.
Merilyn stood, rubbing her rear. “You two must learn to contain this or we will level the solar with another incident. I am uncertain how much more the walls can take.” She noticed that the damage to this room matched the blast damage that marred the walls in Alex’s solar.
With a groan, Lauren rolled over. She rubbed her jaw, her voice drifting into Merilyn’s mind. “It’s not the stones I’m worried about. I don’t think I can survive another one of these episodes either.”
“You two must learn to control your bond,” Merilyn chided.
Alex’s voice floated into Merilyn’s mind. “We must worry about the Council. If they realize my sword is compromised by bonding with another, they will have a right to challenge me.”
Merilyn was going to respond, but Lauren cut in. “Alex, can you hear me?”.
“Yes, I can hear you, as clearly as I can hear the wolves.” Alex crawled over and grabbed Lauren in a hug. “This is wonderful!”
Merilyn watched energy crackle along their bond, finally realizing what must have happened. When they touched the sword at the same time, the blade reconnected them across their bond. And the psychic energy released reenergized Alex’s damaged mindspeak center. A true miracle and none too soon. “Enough, my aging heart cannot take any more.”
“Your heart is just fine, Merilyn. And mine is finally whole again. I’m not giving up this feeling anytime soon.” Lauren stood with her face buried in Alex’s chest.
“Nor am I. The Council be damned. This is what has been missing. No wonder I could not stop looking north, that was where Lauren went.”
‘Yes, I acknowledge all of this, but we have other matters at hand.” Merilyn tried to refocus the pair, but they continued their hug. “Is the sword undamaged?”
“The sword appears fine. The only changes are to the jewel and the loss of my dragon.” Alex drew the blade from its sheath. Holding the blade in her hands, she turned the pommel to Merilyn. “See, the stone pulses with a double beat. It transmits both our heartbeats. An
d it is marked by the emerald green of Lauren’s eyes.”
Merilyn watched green streaks flash through the depths of the stone. She nodded. “I noticed this same change in both your eyes, Alexandra. It would seem that you share a bond of incomparable strength. One not seen since the Doouglas. The First Foremother is said to have shared such a bond with her soulmate, the Fraser.”
“I never heard they shared a soul-bond.” Alex seemed stunned by this revelation. She sat down, pulling Lauren with her. Merilyn sat as well.
“Hey, you okay?” Lauren asked quietly.
“Yes, I’m fine. My mindspeak has reestablished and having my sword back is a great relief. But learning something so fundamentally important about my Foremother is a shock.” Turning to Merilyn, Alex said, “Why was this not shared? It is incredibly important.”
“Yes, it is, but they recognized how incredibly dangerous it was as well. Their bond could have been seen as a weapon and been used to influence or attack or even kill. Only one member of each Doouglas generation was given the detailed information about their bond. That person waited to see if the bond would reappear during their lifetime. If it did, they would then be ready to protect not only the bond mates, but the foundations of our government as well.”
The three sat in silence, digesting this information. Merilyn noticed that Lauren reached out and grasped Alexandra’s hand. A physical link in the face of this revelation. “I don’t see how Alex and I can have a bond like that. We’ve only been together for such a short time. I’m not even from this reality. How did we bond that easily?”
Merilyn smiled. “A bond such as this transcends everything quantifiable. Your bond exists at a quantum level, much as the nexi do. Alexandra’s soul vibrates with quantum frequencies that have bonded harmonically with yours.”
“Right.” Lauren’s voice dripped with skepticism.
“It is much the same way you were interacting with your data this morning. You were creating a harmonic connection. Alexandra and I heard it.” Merilyn looked to Alexandra for support, who nodded in reply.
Lauren shook her head. “Harmonic connection? No way. I was just moving inanimate data around within a holographic matrix, and reacting to the simulation’s results. It wasn’t working, except in the one volume where I input your DNA genomic sequence. But I couldn’t recreate my results elsewhere within the matrix.”
It would be difficult for Lauren to understand. Merilyn frowned. It was difficult for her to understand. “You were creating a harmonic wave that was generating a discernible audio output. I believe the data were vibrating with an audible frequency.”
“That isn’t possible. It’s just data. I didn’t hear anything.”
“You could not have heard anything if it bit you in your backside, you were so absorbed in your calculations,” Alex said.
Lauren glared at her, but before she could say anything, Merilyn responded, “I do not believe the data are responsible, but it is in the calculation results as your simulations were performed. We heard the vibration much like Lauren and Ice heard or felt the frequencies of the nexus.”
Lauren sighed. “Once we get all this sorted out, I would love to read more about nexi. I know I don’t have the whole picture here.”
Merilyn raised her hand. “Before we start off on another tangent, let us ensure the sword is undamaged and get it back to Alexandra’s solar undiscovered. It is only safe inside the weapons vault. And if another Council is called, she will have the proper blade with which to conduct Keep business.”
Alex stood and reached down for the blade. Lifting it from the floor revealed a shadow of the blade etched into the hardwood.
Lauren gasped. “The blade burned the floor.”
Merilyn chuckled. “Not burned, Lauren, molecularly reorganized. The sword aligned the molecules within the wood to match itself.”
“You’re not saying it bonded with the floor, are you?” Skepticism thickened her voice.
“No, it is an inorganic response of the wood reacting to the energy released by the blade. Nothing in the floor is sentient. The floor cannot bond with the blade.”
“Then you’re saying the blade is sentient?”
Merylin shook her head. “Not sentient per se. It does however contain a part of Alexandra’s life-force. And now it contains some of yours as well, Lauren. That energy would contain a bit of sentience from each of you, though I doubt it is self-aware.” Merilyn noticed a brief flash of light from the sapphire at her off-handed dismissal of the blade’s awareness and shook her head. These two have something unique, and now the blade is involved.
“I feel much better having it back. I will store it safely away in the vault.” Alex sheathed the blade and slid the weapon into her belt.
“Then let us get you both back where you belong. I will see you in the morning, Lauren. Sleep well.” Merilyn disappeared down the stairs.
Lauren watched Merilyn rush off once more. Alex didn’t follow Merilyn out of the solar. “Goodnight, Dearheart. Be well until I see you again tomorrow. I will miss you tonight.”
“Oh, Alex, you do remember, and you feel what I feel, don’t you? I finally feel whole again.” Lauren snuggled into Alex’s warm hug.
“As do I.” Alex sealed her words with a gentle kiss to her forehead. Lauren smiled. It feels so good to be whole again! “Thank you for all you have done for me and for Terra. You are a savior, Lauren.”
“No way. I’m just me, Lauren Beckwith, nexus traveler.” That comment lightened the mood as they both dissolved in a fit of giggles. Warmth spread across Lauren’s heart.
“Well, nexus traveler. Until tomorrow.”
“And you, Dearest. Sleep well.” She tightened her hold on Alex, afraid to let her go and lose their reawakening bond.
Chapter Fourteen
OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL days, Alex strengthened her mindspeech and rebonded with her companions and Lauren. Lauren worked through the bioweapon data. The soul-bond pulsed between them, each knew where the other one was and what they were doing. Each day their bond grew stronger. Now, even during sleep, they could reach out and touch the mind of the others.
Their mornings were spent with Merilyn, sharing breakfast and enjoying lively conversations about everything and nothing. Lauren still asked myriad questions about the Keep, their technology, their journey from their Homeworld, their longevity. Now they also spent their evenings together. Alex relaxing with a new story on the eReader or listening to music she discovered on Lauren’s iPod. Lauren continued sorting through more data about the Comin plague.
During one evening while Alex was reading, Lauren asked, “Do you think Merilyn would let me go outside?”
“Outside, as in outside the solar? No, I do not think that would be possible.” Alex noticed the frown that crossed Lauren face before she tried to hide it. “Is there something you need?”
Lauren shrugged. “I need to get some exercise. This is the longest I’ve ever gone without regular exercise. I need to run or just walk around to stretch my legs. I need to see the stars and feel the wind. I want to see the library Merilyn spoke about this morning. I’m reaching a place in my research where I’ll need to have more information. Perhaps even be able to speak to your technicians. Merilyn has been great with providing me reports, but she can’t know everything I need. Sometimes I don’t know what I need. I need to shift through the reference materials to see what’s there. And I want to see the Keep. I want to hug Ffrwyn and take a ride with her.”
Alex could relate to Lauren’s desires. But she knew the danger outside the solar was real and potentially lethal. “Perhaps you should open a window.” Alex tried to deflect Lauren’s focus. Her frown showed Alex had failed in this effort. “I do not see how we can safely move you outside the shields of this solar. If your psi-energy leaked out, you would be easily identified.”
“There’s gotta be a way.” Lauren stood and began pacing the perimeter of the circular room.
“Let us discuss it with Merilyn in th
e morning. She may have some ideas, but be prepared for her to refuse.” Alex intercepted her on her circular path. “I could move some exercise equipment up here.”
“What would the Council think about that?” Lauren melted into her arms. “I don’t want to create any trouble for Merilyn, I just want a little exercise.” Alex felt her chuckle more than heard it. “I just wanna go outside.”
Kissing her forehead, Alex replied. “Let’s see what Merilyn says in the morning.”
The next morning Merilyn reacted in the same way as Alex. “No, absolutely not. We have no way to protect you outside the solar shields. I cannot imagine what we would be faced with if you were discovered.”
“But—”
“It is not safe.”
“Please, just for an hour or so. We could go late at night, on moonless nights, we could take the companions. It’d be fine,” Lauren begged.
“It would not be fine if you were hurt or caught. And how would we shield your thoughts?”
“I can see where Lauren is coming from,” Alex said. “She has a very active lifestyle.” Thinking out loud, Alex asked. “What if I asked the boys to come along? Between them and the companions, we would be able to protect Lauren. The companions could take turns shielding her thoughts. In fact, we could dress Lauren up like one of us. Leaving the one she was impersonating hidden in my solar. That way we are not seen moving about with one too many in my group.”
“You two do not relent, do you?” Tilting her head, Merilyn sighed. “All right, we will try this. But, Alexandra, you will need to introduce the boys to Lauren, and get their approval. They will be risking their safety, too.” Alex saw Lauren smile. It was a small step, but a step nonetheless. She knew she would do anything for Lauren, in any way she could.
“If you would invite them to dinner, we could use that as an excuse to get them to the eastern solar,” Alex asked.
“Of course, I will send a missive this hour.”