Levels of Ascension BoxSet

by Amy Proebstel

  It was now Copa’s turn to be surprised. Not only did Amanda believe what Copa had said, she had already begun the quest to fulfill the vision. “Yes, I know the whereabouts of one other. I gave it to a woman named Vinia. When I met her, I believed she was the one to whom it should belong. I see now I was wrong.”

  “Why would you believe Vinia should have been the owner?”

  “It is irrelevant now.” Copa fluttered her hand in front of her dismissing the question. “Let me tell you where she has left it.”

  “Left it? Are you saying it has no guardian?” Amanda’s heart began to race as she thought of all of the evil things which could happen should the samara be found by the wrong person.

  “Be at peace, Amanda. It is well hidden. There are no people in the area anymore as they are now residing in the woods here. If you allow it, I will share the location with your mind so you will know exactly where it is located.” Copa leaned forward and held out her hands toward Amanda’s head, waiting for approval.

  Amanda had no choice other than to say, “Yes. Please show me quickly.”

  Copa touched her hands to Amanda’s skull and shared her knowledge with Amanda. It was a simple and quick method to deliver vital information without a chance of anyone overhearing. She removed her hands and sat back down across from the young woman.

  “Thank you. I will retrieve the samara today.”

  “Do you have any other questions for me?” Copa could feel Amanda’s desire for assistance in another matter entirely. Her skill at reading people was quite acute which made her very good at her occupation.

  “What can you tell me about the man who was taken captive with me? His name is Nealand. Jehoban has told me he is still being held captive by Elder Vargen. He also told me he has been addicted to resh,” Amanda said hastily.

  Even though she should have expected no less from this remarkable woman, Copa was surprised at Amanda’s question. Not only did she have knowledge of Nealan, she had been to his house only two weeks before. “Oh, dear! If your friend has been taking resh all of this time, then he is definitely in danger.”

  “What makes you say that?” Amanda leaned forward anxiously.

  “Resh is a painkiller and a sedative for the people of Tuala and is considered relatively harmless. To people from Earth, it is a very different matter. For some reason, your kind are very susceptible to becoming addicted to resh and are not able to keep it from becoming toxic. Over time it poisons the body, eventually killing the addict. If your friend has been taking it as long as you say, I’m surprised he’s lasted this long.”

  “This is worse than I imagined,” Amanda mused as she sat back on the couch and considered what she should do. At first, she had thought to give him the option of going home, but this information changed everything. Neal would die if she left him in Tuala. “What can I do to save him?”

  Copa thought over the situation and realized there was only one option. “You must drug him senseless with resh and take him home to Earth. Crossing the veil will eradicate the drug from his body entirely. This is his only hope of surviving.”

  “I see. Where can I get the resh? For that matter, how will I give it to him?” Amanda was beginning to appreciate the complexity of this rescue.

  “I can help you with the first part. As a wise-woman, I have a supply of resh. I will give you what you require. As for the second part, Nealan is living with Vinia. Before you ask, yes, she is the same woman who had the samara. Tell her what I have told you and she will give Nealan the drug. She loves him and would not want to see him die.”

  Amanda thought it all sounded too simple and rather convenient. She should have known her intuition would lead her to the right people to complete her tasks. It still seemed rather remarkable and coincidental to have everything work out so perfectly.

  “Let me gather your provisions so you may be on your way,” Copa said as she rose from the chair and left the room.

  Amanda sat staring after her. For some reason, the thought of Neal living with and loving another person hurt her. She had moved on and married, so she was surprised to find she still cared so much for Neal. She was also thankful for him moving on with his life as well, even though she was about to ruin anything he had created for himself here on Tuala. Although she felt bad about it, she knew the alternative was for him to die a slow, wasting death.

  Soon, Copa returned with a small leather bag in her hand. She held it out for Amanda to take. “Tell Vinia to put all of this in a cup of strong steena tea. Make sure Nealan drinks all of it. He should be incoherent after half of the cup and completely knocked out after all of it. Transport him speedily after he’s taken it. This dosage could kill him if you don’t get him back to Earth swiftly.”

  Amanda looked down at the leather bag and wondered if she were going to be responsible for Neal’s death after all. This plan had to work.

  Copa held out two pieces of paper and said, “One of these is the directions to where Nealan and Vinia live. The second one is a note for Vinia. She has to know how serious this situation is and that I believe your help is necessary for him to live. I have also given her the instructions for the making of the special tea so she won’t mess it up.”

  Amanda took the two papers and folded them carefully in half. She could not think of anything else she needed to ask Copa and she was grateful for her assistance. She did not want to take up any more of her time, or bring suspicion to her house for an extended visit. Amanda stood up and said, “Thank you so much for everything. If you ever need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

  “Good luck, Amanda. I wish you the best in your tasks. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again in the future.”

  “Did you have a vision about it?” Amanda asked with a smile. She enjoyed Copa’s company.

  “Not exactly. Call it intuition,” she said with a wink.

  Amanda laughed even as she moved across the room toward the front door. She tucked the bag and the two notes into her pants pocket. The last thing she needed was for Copa’s neighbors to talk about her taking strange things away from the wise-woman’s house.

  Copa followed her to the entrance and gave her a quick hug before she opened the door.

  Amanda hugged her back and whispered into her ear, “Thank you.”

  “You’re quite welcome. Safe journeys.” She stood in the entrance and watched Amanda retreat down the empty avenue until she turned the corner. “You’re going to need every bit of luck,” she said to herself as she closed the wooden door with a soft thud.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  AS AMANDA TRAVELED back to her house in Florida, she made up her mind about what she would do next. Amanda had the coordinates for the samara in her head. Since she could tell it was located in a very remote area she decided it would be a good opportunity to take Valentina for a ride in the telepod. For some reason she had it in her mind it was important to have Valentina on board and comfortable with the idea of Tuala.

  After parking the telepod in the garage, Amanda entered her house. She went into the office and uncovered the patil from its secret hiding place. Wanting to know if there had been any news from either Daven or Bryon she touched the screen to display new messages. Unfortunately, there was nothing new to read.

  Disappointed, she turned off the device and stored it back away. She left the office and walked down the hall to the library. She opened the secret wall to where the samaras were located. Spending time alone with the three they had in the room seemed like something important to do. Just being near them was enough to satisfy Amanda’s curiosity. She did not have any desire to touch one and risk being held enthralled for hours on end.

  “What are you doing, Mom?” Juila asked from the doorway to the room.

  Amanda jumped and turned with a quick intake of breath. “You scared me!”

  “I’m sorry, Mom. Did you find anything out today? Is that why you’re in here?”

  “I did find something out. Do you think Valentina would be av
ailable to come over in a little bit? I’m thinking of making a short trip into Tuala and I thought she might want to come along.”

  “I’ll go call her right now. I’d like to come, too. Do you think that would be okay?”

  “I don’t see why not. I’d love to have the company and you could be my co-pilot since you’ve already been certified in a pod similar in size to mine.”

  Juila laughed and said, “It may have been similar in size, but I can assure you the ones we trained in were positively archaic compared to yours!” She turned and hurried from the room to go call Valentina.

  Amanda followed more slowly and carefully closed the door to the hidden room. She had been careless when she had come in. Juila should not have discovered her in there since she should have closed it behind her. What if someone else had walked in and seen it open? She did not want to be the one to make the room unusable because other people had found out about its existence.

  When Amanda entered the living room, Juila was already talking on the phone and sitting next to Jena on the leather couch. It was clear from Juila’s expression that they would be having company for the trip.

  Juila held her hand over the mouthpiece and said, “Mom, Behn wants to know if he can come, too?”

  “I don’t know, Juila. My pod only has four seats. Where would he sit?” Amanda answered reasonably.

  “I’ll stay home, Mom,” Jena offered.

  “Are you sure?” Amanda was slightly saddened to hear her other daughter would not be coming along.

  Jena nodded with an understanding grin. She knew her sister wanted Behn to come along so she was willing to forego the opportunity to make her happy.

  “Tell Behn it’s okay then,” Amanda said as she sat down next to Jena. “Are you really sure you don’t want to come?”

  “I’ll have an opportunity to work on my homework. Plus I want to find out if the link between Juila and me works across the veil.”

  Again, Juila held her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone and asked quietly, “Val says they are planning on having Thanksgiving dinner at two this afternoon. Do you think we’ll be home before then?”

  Amanda looked over at the clock on the microwave and saw it was only just after ten o’clock in the morning and chuckled as she answered, “I should hope so. I can’t see this taking any longer than an hour, tops!”

  Juila nodded and relayed the information to Valentina. “Okay, we’ll see you in about ten minutes.” She hung up the phone and smiled eagerly with the idea of the outing. “They’ll be here as soon as they can get dressed!”

  “I guess it means you should be doing the same then, Juila!” Amanda said as she could see her daughter was still in her pajamas.

  Amanda watched with a grin as Juila dropped the phone onto the couch, jumped up, and jogged over to and up the stairs.

  “What are you guys going to do today?” Jena asked curiously.

  “I found out the coordinates to another samara. I want to go and get it before anyone else gets it.”

  Jena leaned toward her mother in excitement. “Seriously? Another samara? Be sure to take something to pick it up with and carry it home in. You don’t want to touch it until after you get home, if then even.”

  “Good point! I’ll get a shoebox from upstairs and some gardening gloves from the garage on my way out.”

  “I’ll have Juila remind you just in case it slips your mind,” Jena suggested. She communicated the conversation to her sister through their mind-link. Jena was surprised to find out Juila was not as happy with their planned itinerary as she had been. Before she could find out the cause, Juila withdrew from her mind. “Why don’t you get your box now? I’ll stay down here and wait for our guests to arrive.”

  “Thank you, honey,” Amanda said as she got up from the couch. She took her time going across the foyer and up the stairs. There were so many things going through her mind. She wanted this trip to be a good one for the brother and sister who had been displaced from Tuala. It was a good sign since Behn wanted to return. Maybe this time, it would trigger more memories for him.

  On her way out of her bedroom, she met Juila at the top of the stairs. She could see Juila’s eyes look down on the box in her hands.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about the samara?”

  “I would have after your guests left. I figured you and the kids would go off on your own while I went to retrieve the samara. The less that is known about it, the better. I really just wanted Valentina to have the opportunity to visit Tuala again since she’s become interested in it.”

  “Hmmph,” Juila responded as she went down the stairs faster than her mom. Just as she reached the bottom step, the doorbell rang. She took the next couple of steps across the foyer and opened the door with a flourish. Her smile beamed out at the two visitors. “I’m so glad you two could come with us. This is going to be so much fun!”

  Behn grinned at Juila as he gestured for Valentina to precede him into the house. He knew what to expect with this trip, but Valentina was bursting with curiosity and nerves. She had asked him several times on the ride over to explain how it felt to travel in the telepod. He did not mention anything about being blindfolded so he kept his description very vague.

  “We should get going right away if we’re going to be back in time for all of us to get our turkey dinners,” Amanda said as she took the last couple of steps down to the foyer.

  Valentina was grateful for the fact they were going to leave before she convinced herself this was a very bad idea. She hated the idea of Behn having been there before her. She wanted to see if being back in Tuala would help her remember more of her lost childhood.

  The group of four walked past the living room and said their hellos and goodbyes to Jena on their way to the garage. “Don’t forget the gloves in the garage, Mom!” Jena called out just as they reached the exit.

  “Thanks, Jena. I’m on it right now,” Amanda called out as she took the step down into the garage and grabbed a pair of gloves from the side table.

  “What are the gloves for, Mrs. Stel?” Behn asked. He noticed for the first time the box she was also carrying and raised an eyebrow in question.

  “I need to pick up something while we’re there,” Amanda said vaguely.

  Juila rolled her eyes and kept walking toward the telepod. She wished this could just be an exploratory field trip and nothing more. It was still going to be an adventure with Behn and Valentina along.

  Juila had reached the telepod and touched the side panel to open the door. She stepped to the side to allow it to drop down. Since she was going to be the co-pilot, she went into the telepod first and settled herself into the right-hand seat up front.

  “Hey, this is a different telepod than the one I rode in last time! Where did this one come from?” Behn asked even as he walked up the ramp and sat down in the furthest passenger seat from the door. He buckled himself in and watched as Valentina did the same in the seat next to him.

  Amanda was last to enter and she answered Behn’s question by saying, “This was Riccan’s original prototype to the one he flies now. He brought it home for me to use.” She moved through the main cabin and settled herself in the pilot’s seat next to Juila. Amanda touched the button to close the side door and watched while the door rose and sealed shut.

  She initiated all of the start-up procedures and confirmed all of the green lights. This trip would be slightly different as she was going to have to program their destination from a location in her mind rather than a known coordinate. She switched the navigation system over to manual entry and put her hand on the manual control module. For several seconds, Amanda concentrated on the coordinates in her mind until they appeared on the navigation screen in front of her.

  Juila leaned forward and said, “Hey, isn’t that where we went before?”

  “I’m not sure,” Amanda replied. She turned to the passengers in the back and said, “You two are going to experience a feeling of nothingness for the duration of approxima
tely six seconds. You won’t have any of your senses during the transfer. To keep yourself from panicking, count slowly in your mind until you get to six. It might also help to close your eyes, if you want.”

  The passengers nodded their heads in understanding.

  Amanda faced back to the front of the telepod and asked Juila, “Are you ready?”

  “Absolutely! Let’s get back to Tuala!”

  Amanda grinned at her daughter’s enthusiasm at the same time as she hit the navigation button to begin the transfer. Darkness engulfed them as Amanda continued to visualize the coordinates of their destination. She trusted Riccan’s system, but she also remembered his instruction to maintain a continual focus as a backup. Since she was busy with maintaining their destination in her mind, she did not have the opportunity to count off the seconds.

  Light suddenly poured through the windows as they appeared back in Tuala. Even as she circled to locate a good landing area, she had to agree with Juila about this being the place they had come before with Behn. When Copa had given her the coordinates, she had failed to mention it was the location of the Roanoke Colony.

  Thinking back on their conversation, Amanda was relieved to know about the colony having moved out of this area. The chances of them running into anyone were very slight which pleased her greatly.

  Amanda turned the telepod toward the beach and settled the craft down onto the sand near where Riccan had landed before. She had scanned their surroundings and had not seen any people. As a precaution, she would also use the cloaking program to keep their vehicle safe from predation.

  “Okay, everybody, we’re here!” She unbuckled and turned in her seat to see how her passengers had fared. “How was your first flight, Valentina?”

  “Terrifying and fantastic all at the same time!” She could not contain her huge grin.

  Behn nodded his agreement, but kept his comments to himself.

  Amanda opened the side door from the main console. She grabbed the gloves from her lap, bent down and picked up the empty box she had set on the floor by her feet, stood up, and exited the vehicle. Since this was a new location, she thought it was only right for her to go outside and look around while her passengers disembarked behind her. The sand shifted under her feet as she moved over for her companions to step off of the ramp. She palmed the side panel to activate the door to close. Once everything was sealed again, she used the remote to cloak the telepod.