Exile (The Oneness Cycle)
Page 17
It was true, wasn’t it? It wasn’t revenge—it was the only thing to do. Without David’s leadership the core would lose its power. The hive would eventually disintegrate, losing the unity they needed to function together. In the moment, his death would lend her friends the strength to survive, confusing their enemies badly enough to allow them to fight their way free.
There wasn’t even an inch between them and freedom.
Tears ran down her face. Feebly, she tried to reach out for Oneness—to feel the companionship, the faith, the unity with the others that was her greatest strength. To feel the love that bound them all together.
She could feel nothing but the almost physical pain of exile.
“Reese,” she finally heard Richard say. “This is not the way.”
She closed her eyes, desperately trying to find some semblance of clarity—the conviction needed to stop herself from killing David in what she knew, deep down, would be nothing more than a desperate attempt to set herself free.
Maybe it would work.
After all, he was the cause of all this, and untold other pain. He had killed the hermit, had nearly killed April, had fractured a cell.
Justice had to be done.
Didn’t it?
Eyes still closed, she saw a woman’s face.
Diane.
And slowly, she backed away.
She pulled the sword tip back. The blade cooled and then vanished. She pushed herself off her knees, off David’s chest, and reached her hand out to him.
His eyes went black with madness, and he spat at her hand.
“There is no exile, David,” she said. “Not me, and not you. Love holds the Oneness together. And love does not give up on anyone.”
She turned and faced the cloud of demonic beings hovering in waiting. The sword reappeared in her hand.
“We are here,” she announced. “And we are not running.”
The sword heated white. Across the warehouse floor, the swords of her companions did the same. Richard was crouched, sword in hand, smiling, swaying in his physical weakness but ready to fight as much as he could. In the doorway, Tyler stood with his feet apart, sword ready.
Reese looked across the entire warehouse to Chris, who had hidden himself in a corner away from the fight he could have no part in, and smiled.
The demons shrieked and threw themselves back into the fight.
But David ran, and some of the demons followed.
The core, fractured, shook with confusion.
They fought.
But the Oneness was stronger.
* * *
“Well,” Diane said slowly, turning around and around with the torch held high. “You do have eyes to see, don’t you?”
It was early morning. She had driven out here hours after Reese and Chris left the village, following the one thing Reese had told her that she felt courage enough to face.
It had taken her hours, but she’d finally found the cave.
The rock painting took on shadows and dimensions in the torchlight. In two places, figures stood out. One was a man wreathed in darkness, shadows going out from him like rays from an anti-sun. As they went out from him, they took on the shapes of demons and then of other men and women with their eyes lit by evil. The detail was incredible.
The other was Reese, standing in the centre of a battle. Smiling.
Victory seen and painted ahead of time.
Diane set the torch down, leaning it against a crop of rock on the floor, and gingerly lifted April’s head and shoulders, trying to administer water from a flask. It dribbled out—April couldn’t respond even involuntarily. Not surprising. It was Sunday; she’d been three full days and three full nights without food or water. And was injured besides.
Clucking softly, Diane put out the torch and set all her attention to picking April up. The girl was small and she was lighter than Diane expected.
“I’ve got an IV in the car,” Diane explained. “You’re coming home with me, and you’re going to be all right in no time.”
To her surprise and delight, April stirred in her arms.
“That’s right,” Diane said. “You’re coming home.”
Diane stepped into the sunlight with April in her arms. The bay glistened far below. A strong sense of peace, of rightness, pressed down with the warmth of the sun.
Diane did not put words to what she knew.
That she too, for the first time in twenty years, was truly going home.
The End
The story of the Oneness continues in Book 2: The Hive.
Coming in July 2013!
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Other Works by Rachel Starr Thomson
Novels
Worlds Unseen—Book 1 of the Seventh World Trilogy
Burning Light—Book 2 of the Seventh World Trilogy
Coming Day—Book 3 of the Seventh World Trilogy
Taerith (A Novel)
Theodore Pharris Saves the Universe
Angel in the Woods
Lady Moon
Reap the Whirlwind
Short Stories
Magdalene
Butterflies Dancing
Fallen Star
Ogres Is
Journey
Wayfarer’s Dream
The City Came Creeping
War With the Muse
Shields of the Earth
Non Fiction
Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled
Heart to Heart: Meeting With God in the Lord's Prayer
Letters to a Samuel Generation
Fifty Shades of Loved
Mind Soul Ink Paper
Now for the Not–Yet