Stone of Ascension

by Lynda Aicher

  Unsure of what had just happened, of what was causing Damian’s pain, Amber slowly moved to his side. The look of utter defeat on his face was a deep contrast to the victory and relief she was feeling. They were alive. They survived.

  But Damian looked as if he wanted to die.

  She hesitantly reached out to touch his arm and held her ground when he winced and pulled away. She kept her grasp firm and refused to back off. The need to comfort, to help him, overpowered any fear or need to retreat.

  “Damian.” She kept her voice low, but strong. “We need to go.” The misery that swept through the energy tore at her heart. But she wasn’t going to broach the subject of his pain right now. She knew they weren’t safe and getting out of there seemed obvious.

  He nodded, then swayed. Amber shoved the knife into her coat pocket then tucked herself next to his side to hold him steady. Supporting two hundred and thirty odd pounds of man was no easy feat, but she pulled on the last of her strength and kept him standing. He groaned under his breath and grimaced, but stayed on his feet.

  He had kept his word and risked his life to save her. She owed him.

  “The tower,” he mumbled low and husky against her ear.

  “What?”

  “Newport Tower,” he said on an exhale. “Go there.”

  “Can’t you port us out of here?”

  His head shook. “Too weak…”

  Great. “Why Newport Tower?” Even as she asked, she realized the question was irrelevant. Damian had done nothing but protect her since he’d pulled her out of the council chamber. He had to have a valid reason for going to the strange circular structure. Amber got her bearings and calculated where the city landmark was located. “This way.”

  Together they shuffled down the street, his weight pressing down on her shoulders. The night was silent, the shadows offering both protection and danger. This time she stayed out of the light, aware that Damian’s barely conscious and beat-up state would draw too much attention if they were seen.

  The energy pressed on her, blending with the wind and pushing at her back. Nudging her forward, shoving its will alongside her resolve and forcing her onward. Amber stumbled, and Damian followed, his weight throwing them forward and close to tumbling headlong into the cement sidewalk. Bending deep, she forced them upright, knowing she wouldn’t be able to get him back up if they fell.

  The sweat ran in steady streams down the side of her face and soaked through the back of her shirt. Her hair, a constant cause of annoyance, hung around her face in limp, sticky strands.

  A movement in the darkness ahead of them had Amber slowing, then she stopped, her senses alert. Fear gripped her even as she gathered her courage. Her limbs quivered and strained under Damian’s weight, and she wondered how she would make it to the tower.

  A figure moved within the shadows, definitely a person.

  The energy slipped through her, sluggish, drained, but desperately trying to vitalize and prepare her. Her bird circled, swooped and arched, claws extended.

  She would fight. She would defend.

  Or she would die.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The wind gusted icy and cold down the deserted street causing a can to clatter against the pavement, pushed along by invisible fingers. The sound rankled Amber’s already frayed nerves and only served to highlight just how alone they were. The empty tree branches swung and bobbed against the pressure of the wind, their shadows dancing over the ground, shifting and swaying in a rhythm set by another.

  Amber brushed her hair back from her face, tightened her jaw and waited.

  She tensed as the silhouette moved. Coming closer, the sound of boots clumped on the sidewalk. She had no idea how she would defend them, but she’d already done so much that day that she’d never thought herself capable of. This was just one more hurdle she would manage.

  Joseph stepped out of the shadows into the dim light of the overhead streetlight, a deep crease of concern pressed into his furrowed brow. Amber’s breath expelled in a deep gush of relief, causing her knees to sag under Damian’s weight.

  “Will you let me help?” Joseph’s seemingly odd question caught her off guard and gave her pause.

  “Do you mean us harm?” She didn’t feel that he did, but then she’d learned so brutally today that impressions didn’t mean anything. Her bird—the intrusive mark that had come to life so vividly that day, the one she had intuitively begun to listen to—tucked its wings in rest.

  “No, child. I would never harm you.” He cast his gaze over the slumping form of Damian and took a step closer. “I will help, if you allow it.”

  Her limbs shook under the strain of holding Damian upright, and the shaman’s offer of help seemed like a gift from the universe. She nodded.

  Joseph stepped up and tucked himself under Damian’s other arm, mindful of the gaping wound on his shoulder and upper chest. Damian groaned in protest and tried to pull away.

  “It’s okay, Damian,” Amber soothed. “Joseph’s going to help. I don’t think I can get you to the tower by myself.” Her words must have registered because he stopped his struggles. She knew Damian was still semiconscious because she wouldn’t have been able to hold him up if he had been completely passed out. As it was, her legs and back sighed in relief when Joseph took some of Damian’s weight.

  Together, they moved slowly through the city blocks, Joseph silent the entire way. He never even asked where they were heading. Amber had a hundred questions for the shaman, but it took all her effort and concentration to keep Damian upright, to keep her feet moving. Each step felt like a giant leap with cement blocks tied to her feet as they hiked up the hill toward the tower. The physical strain kept her mind blessedly blank.

  Finally, they made it to the park where Newport Tower was located. The circular, stone structure was ancient and had been the topic of speculation and research for many years. Amber had never given it much thought, but now the anomaly of a building pulled at her. It seemed to welcome her with a warm rush of belonging.

  The tower itself was about two stories tall and made entirely of stone. The intricate masonry work was stunning and amazing given the time period when it had been built. The best guess was sometime predating the 1400s, thus the questions of who had built it and how.

  It had eight cylindrical columns that formed symmetrical stone arches around the base with smaller windows along the upper portion above the arches. The top, if there ever was one, had long ago toppled, leaving the building open to the environment.

  Amber paused at the edge of the park to catch her breath and process her next steps. The tower was completely enclosed by a high, black, metal fence. It was also lit up like a flaming Christmas tree. Big floodlights were situated around the perimeter of the structure in an effort to keep vandals out. Which was all good and nice, but didn’t help her at all.

  “Come, child,” Joseph prompted as he started moving toward the tower. Amber had no choice but to trudge along with him. She didn’t even question how the shaman seemed to know that was her destination.

  The stone on her chest warmed and began to pulse in time with each step she took closer to the tower. And with each step, Amber felt the energy thicken around her. It brushed against her cheeks in soothing caresses and hovered around her mind in acknowledgement.

  All around them the darkness stretched into the silence. The unusual quiet was unsettling given that it was still early evening. The wind blew strong and hard into her, blowing her hair off her face and out of her eyes in a helpful stroke of assistance.

  Joseph led them to a gate in the metal fence that was sealed with a large, bolted lock.

  “Great,” Amber sighed, the strains of defeat settling through her. “There’s no way in.”

  “Do you believe?” Joseph looked at her around the stretch of Damian’s chest. His eyes were shadowed. But the expectation was there in his voice.

  She let her head sag in resignation, heavy under the physical and mental weight. “Believe
in what, Joseph?”

  “In what you are. In what you are meant to do. Meant to be.”

  Did she? It was a question she simply didn’t have an answer for. “I’m not meant for anything. I’m just me.”

  “And just you is everything,” the shaman insisted. “That’s what you need to understand. You, in all your innocence and simplicity, are exactly what you need to be.”

  Damian groaned. Amber’s gaze lifted to his face, and she was shocked to see him looking at her. His lids hung heavy over his midnight eyes, pain etched into his furrowed brow, exhaustion evident in the effort it took to keep his eyelids up. He didn’t speak, but the impact of his gaze slammed into her, snapping hard and fast against her chest.

  “What do I do?” The question escaped her lips without thought.

  “Use what is around you to get to the circle.” She felt the approval in Damian’s voice as his instructions whispered hoarsely through the night.

  The slamming of a car door echoed through the silence followed by the bleep, bleep of the doors locking. A tree creaked in resistance as the wind blew across the park and pulled at her hair. But Damian wasn’t talking about those things.

  The energy, the force that she was just starting to accept, swept over her skin, bypassing her doubt and denial to wrap itself around the tiny ember of belief. And once it found the kernel, it fueled the acceptance until it burned through her.

  Amber reached out and wrapped her fingers around a cold, metal bar in the gate. The vibration caught her by surprise and she inhaled against the feeling. She closed her eyes and listened. Ancient lyrics of power and struggle flowed through her. So much information, but none of it understandable. Confusion riddled her, and she closed her eyes harder in her effort to block out the jumble and focus on the immediate need.

  It was Damian who cleared her thoughts. She felt his energy as it joined with hers. His was weak, faded, but pushed forward to aid her anyway. Amber opened herself further, to the possibilities, to the unbelievable.

  Her bird screeched in joy and turned its face into the wind in delight.

  The power surged and burned from the stone. Once again, it wound around the mingling energy and strengthened the bond. She focused on the bar within her grip and thought of her need for the lock to open and the lights to go off. She pushed the thought along on the energy, used the invisible power to obtain her wish.

  The soft click and slide of the lock opening on the gate pounded against her eardrums and barely preceded the plunge of darkness behind her eyelids.

  Amber gasped and opened her eyes to total blackness. She jerked her head around to see that every light surrounding the tower was extinguished along with every streetlight lining the perimeter of the park. The metal gate squeaked on its hinges, her movements forcing the door inward to open slightly.

  “I did that?” Her voice shook, her disbelief coming out in the wobble of words.

  She looked up at Damian, but his eyes were closed once again. His head hung down and bobbed slightly as she gave him a small shake. Her own doubts were forgotten when pressed against the need to help Damian.

  “Damian,” she said sharply, hoping to keep him awake. “Stay with me. We’re almost there.”

  She gave a shove to push the gate open farther then stepped forward to enter the enclosure. Only Joseph wasn’t moving with her. She shot the shaman a questioning look.

  “This is where my journey ends,” he answered. “I cannot enter. The rest is up to you.”

  Doubt reared its ugly head once again. “But I can’t do this by myself.”

  “And you are not alone,” the shaman said. “Reach out to what is around you like you did just now. Trust what is within you. Trust the one you are with.”

  “Do you ever give a straight answer?” Her annoyance at the man, at the entire situation, vented itself in the angry tint of her words. At the same time, she knew it was useless to sputter at the shaman. It wasn’t going to change what she needed to do.

  She released an exaggerated sigh and pushed her shoulder into the gate as she braced her legs and back for Damian’s weight. “Let’s go, Damian. Just a few more steps.”

  Joseph stepped away, and she looked back for one last indication of support. The shaman took another step back, smiled slightly and inclined his head, returning the silent plea with the grace of his age.

  She bit her lip and looked forward. She stumbled through the gate with Damian, over the small grassy area and through one of the tower arches. The second she entered the building, the power struck her hard and strong. Her steps faltered, but she regained her balance and pressed forward to the center of the circular structure.

  Slowly, she lowered herself and Damian to the ground. His arm slid off her shoulders as he executed a controlled tumble to lie on his back on the cold, stiff grass. His head tipped sideways and his lips parted, letting a small groan escape before he appeared to pass out completely.

  She blinked back the hated tears and bit down on her lip when the overwhelming feeling of defeat sunk hard and fierce within her. What was she doing? Who was she kidding? There was no way she could do any of the things everyone seemed to believe she could do. All the wild and crazy assumptions that so many had made about her weren’t true. It was too much.

  But there before her lay a man who needed her right now. Who for some reason, did seem to believe in her. He’d risked his life for her.

  And as much as she wanted to shut her eyes and deny it, she had watched fire shoot from her hand. Flames that had exited her palm with a force strong enough to take down two powerful men.

  She inhaled hard, held the air deep in her chest then exhaled, blowing away the self-pity in a gust of carbon dioxide. She watched the fog form before her face, the vapor cloud billowing up before disintegrating. Damian’s big coat gapped open as it pooled around her knees in a puddle of fabric. She shivered, the coldness of the night creeping in to chill her heated skin.

  She looked toward the gate for Joseph, hoping he could tell her what to do, but the gate was closed, the shaman gone. There was no one left to lean on. Her fist clenched in her lap, and she reined in the thoughts that threatened to crumble her last wall of internal strength.

  With a quick shake, Amber raised her head and looked around the interior of the building. It was about the size of a small dining area with the arches providing an open feeling of exposure even though the two of them were bathed in complete darkness. As she looked at the tall, thick columns that supported the structure, she knew instinctively that they aligned with the cardinal points of a compass. The configuration was comforting in a strange way. One she didn’t understand.

  The power in the small space was strong and old. It pushed against her exposed skin and she let it in. Let the external energy enter and mingle with her own. And it whispered to her once again. Built her up and strengthened her from within. She reached out and grasped Damian’s cold hand between her two warmer ones. His eyes fluttered open at her touch and she leaned over to look into his eyes. The visual connection pulsed through her with the power of the energy.

  There, in the very center of the circle where the energy was a pinpoint of strength, she connected with Damian in an unspoken thread of understanding. His energy flowed into her from the callused palm of his hand. A hand that was strong and capable. One that had defended her without hesitation.

  The pull was impossible to resist or deny.

  It made no sense. Blood still oozed from both his shoulder and leg wounds, and he was clearly weak and in need of medical attention. Why didn’t she take him to a hospital? Why did she bring him here to this lonely, mysterious circle based on his one command?

  Because she trusted him.

  The realization dawned bright and clear in her heart and mind. On both levels, she trusted this man who, with his mere action of appearing in the shop that morning, had forever changed the course of her life.

  For good or bad, she was connected to this man in a way she didn’t fully understand
.

  Her bird tumbled and preened, swiping its feathers in a dance of joy. The satisfaction filtered through Amber, confusing her even more. It was obvious the strange mark approved.

  Damian still held her gaze, his eyes dark pools that blended into the night. He tugged lightly on her grasp, pulling her closer. She leaned in, expecting him to tell her what to do next. Why they were there in the ancient circle.

  He whispered something that she missed.

  “What?” She leaned in closer. “I can’t hear you.”

  Her hair fell forward, casting them in a veil of further darkness and creating an illusion of total isolation. He lifted his head with apparent effort and caught her lips in a deep, aggressive kiss. The power assaulted her, and she opened her mouth to let him in. To feel his tongue as it caressed hers, claimed her and demanded more. His hand came up to palm the back of her head even though she had no desire to pull away. She wasn’t afraid.

  No. She wanted more.

  The ancient power surrounded them and flashed with bright pops of light. The world spun and tilted as she sank into the kiss and the longing that stirred within her. To everything she had dreamed of, but never reached for. The rightness plunged through her, gripped her hard and sent her reeling.

  The energy built and crashed around them, pulsing with each brush of his tongue against hers, with every breath that drew them together, that bound them tighter, until it shifted, split, then slammed together in a shattering clash of power.

  The ground rolled, and the wind gusted and howled around the circle. Amber broke the kiss and braced herself over Damian, providing as much protection over his weakened body as she could. The energy pressed hot and heavy on her back. Her muscles strained in the effort to keep her weight off Damian, to hold herself above him and away from his injuries.

  The eerie creaking of metal, the distant roar of an angry beast pummeled her mind and froze her blood. A shiver wracked her from the inside out and sent rivers of fear racing through her.

  The weight lifted from her back at the same moment that the wind died and the ground stilled. Her eyes flew open in the sudden stillness; she’d been unaware of their clenched-tight state. A quick check showed Damian still and unconscious once again. The dark red tinge of his lips stuck out sharply against his pale skin, emphasizing his vulnerability.