Enaya: Solace of Time

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Enaya: Solace of Time Page 20

by Justin C. Trout


  “I want to thank you for helping with Bancroft,” Nile said, saying the first thing that came to his mind. He had been thinking of what to say to her for a while now.

  “It’s not a problem at all,” she said.

  “I know that you two are going through a rough time—”

  “Stop,” Ashera interrupted. “Stop pretending that it’s about other people. We are all hurting, Nile.” Ashera walked her left hand across the railing and placed it over Nile’s. “Let your heart roam free.”

  Ashera’s hand on his made him feel like a nervous wreck, but at the same time made him feel alive again. His heart was a rotting fruit, and by her touch, it became fruitful, strong, and warm. It was a feeling he had not felt since before his mother and brother died. He rolled his hand around to accept hers in his palm, and they entwined fingers.

  “I’m glad you’re with us,” Nile said.

  “So am I.”

  Then there was more silence, but it was good. Nile could not help but smile. Maybe it was the thought and the feeling that everything was going to get better. Maybe it was because Ashera was making him feel real again, but whatever the cause, he loved the feeling. Tears streamed down Ashera’s face, and he wondered if he had done something wrong.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Ashera turned to Nile. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

  Nile turned to her. “I know . . . I can’t either.”

  Ashera hugged him, resting her head on his chest. Nile embraced her and ran his left hand through her hair. She cried a little harder, and Nile could feel her face and neck jerk to the reaction of her crying. She closed her eyes and tightened her grip on Nile, and he welcomed her in.

  “Everything has a reason; we just have to believe it will get better.”

  “That is all we can do,” Nile remarked.

  Ashera pushed herself away and turned back to the open sky while wiping the tears away. Nile grabbed her hand and kissed it, then kissed her on the cheek. “I promise you, Ashera. I will fix this.”

  “I hate crying in front of people. I’m sure it makes me look ugly.”

  “From where I’m standing, you look beautiful.”

  “Thank you.” She kissed Nile on the cheek and went back into his arms.

  Nile played with her soft hair, staring off into the abyss as she rested against his chest. Everything had come down to this. There had to be an ending and he was going to see to it that there was one. By promising her that he would fix it, a glimmer of hope streaked across Nile’s heart. There was no other way around it. He was going to set things straight as best as he could.

  “I want to show you something.”

  “All right,” she mumbled.

  Nile closed his eyes and squeezed her hard. His heart desired to see Solace of Time with her, to show her the beauty. Then Enaya began to spin in his pocket, and he could feel it. With a flash of light, they disappeared and were traveling through Time’s Space.

  A bright blue sky and millions of white lights flashed before Ashera. She knew they had to be traveling a hundred miles a second and she grew nervous. A sickening feeling hit her stomach and she closed her eyes and gripped Nile harder as they floated through the space of time, knowing that it would all be over soon.

  Chapter 28

  A Place of Solace

  The sunlight warmed Ashera. There was a sound of chirping birds. There was an ocean somewhere. The smell of grass tickled her nose. A breeze soothed her spirit. It was a feeling she had never had and all seemed at peace until Nile pushed her away and held her.

  “Open your eyes.”

  Ashera did, and the grass was heavenly. The trees filled the landscape like a spring painting. Her heart was beating regularly, and her smile spread across her face like a little child with a wonderful surprise.

  “We were just on the Ancrya,” Ashera said.

  “I know,” Nile said, following Ashera as she walked through the trees.

  “Where are we?” she asked, dazzled as orbs floated upward from the ground.

  “Solace of Time.”

  Ashera looked at him. “Are you a wizard?”

  Nile put his hands on his hips. “No.”

  Ashera looked to the ground and pondered hard. “What are those people called who can travel through dreams?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m not one of those either.”

  Ashera looked around. “Then how are we here?”

  “What would you say if I told you that we were inside my mind?”

  “I would laugh.”

  Nile threw out his hands and smiled. “Then I guess you’re laughing.”

  And she did, but immediately stopped when she saw that Nile was not laughing. “Are you being serious?”

  Nile nodded.

  “Wow! How can we get into your mind?”

  “Dreaming is one way,” Nile replied. “Enaya is another.”

  “Enaya?”

  “An element.”

  Ashera nodded. “And this element can do what?”

  “From my understanding,” Nile said with a quirky smile, “it can do anything.”

  “And how does Enaya help you travel to your mind?”

  Nile shrugged. “It just opens up a secret door in the back of your mind, a place where memories that you don’t remember are stored.”

  “Only memories you don’t remember?”

  “No,” Nile laughed, “your other memories as well.”

  Ashera walked to a tree. She touched it, pressing her fingertips against its bark, and she circled the tree. She came back around and stopped in front of Nile. “What a beautiful mind you have. I could only imagine what Leo’s mind looks like.”

  “Why is that?”

  Ashera crossed her arms. “Please, I’ve seen the way he stares at me.”

  Nile scratched his head gently behind his right ear. “Yeah, he can be pretty strange.” He laughed.

  “But he loves you; I can tell by the way he acts around you.”

  “We’ve been close since we were kids. I love him like a brother.”

  “You two are perfect for each other.”

  Nile and Ashera both laughed hard.

  Ashera walked across the land and came to the cliff. She stared down into the ocean and it crashed against the rocks. Several orbs released from the crash and floated upward, and when they got to Ashera, she saw images of Nile and other people and places and things going on.

  “What are these?”

  “Memories.”

  “All your memories?”

  “Yeah,” Nile said.

  Another orb crossed in front of her and she saw Nile kissing Dywnwen. She backed away from it and glanced across the field to Nile. “Do you have anybody in your life?”

  Nile hesitated for a minute. “No.”

  “You took too long to answer that.”

  Nile shrugged and looked down at his feet. “There’s nobody.”

  Ashera placed a hand on his cheek. “If so, she is a very lucky girl.”

  Nile stared into her eyes, feeling the sincerity that she meant. He nodded and said, “There’s nobody.”

  Ashera said nothing, but removed her hand.

  “And you?”

  “I have nobody,” Ashera replied.

  Nile buried his hands in his pockets and walked toward the cliff, but Ashera grabbed him and spun him around. She placed her hands around him as if they were dancing, and before Nile knew it, they were. Ashera slowly moved with him, forcing him to place his hands on her waist. They stared at each other. Nile was nervous.

  “What is this about?” Nile asked.

  “I’m opening you up,” Ashera said.

  “From what?”

  “You need to learn to live,” Ashera said, stepping closer to him.

  Nile said nothing.

  “And you need to kiss me.”

  The nervousness swelled inside him. He gaped into her eyes. What if he messed up? Did she do tongue? Did he kiss her for two seconds or
six seconds? Did he hold her as he kissed her? How exactly should he move his lips? All these things and more made Nile sweat.

  He gulped. “You have to say ‘please.’”

  Ashera smiled, then batted her eyes. “Pease kiss me.”

  “Pease, that’s cute,” Nile said with a laugh.

  Ashera pulled him to her, their lips locking. Nile pulled away and she followed, but he was able to distance himself from her. Their lips turned and twisted against each other, and Ashera ran her fingers through Nile’s hair, pulling him in.

  He wrapped his arms tightly around her, moving his lips at her hungrily. Their teeth scraped and their mouths widened. Nile pressed his tongue against hers, still caught in the movement of her lips. She fought to gain control, but Nile pushed his lips harder into hers, catching her lower lip between his. He pulled on her lip and she grabbed the sides of his face.

  It felt so good. Almost like he had never done this before, but he and Dywnwen used to kiss all the time in the kitchen, in her room, in the throne room, catch each other and kiss in the great hall, in the courtyard, on her terrace, in his house, in a canoe—everywhere they could, they would kiss. For a moment, Nile believed that he was kissing Dywnwen, almost like he had forgotten.

  Ashera’s arms ran across Nile’s shoulders and tightened around his neck. Her lips were lustrous and felt so good that for a second Ashera replaced Dywnwen in his memory. Nile dipped down with her, holding her straight, her back parallel against the ground.

  “It’s been a while since I’ve kissed anybody,” Nile whispered to her, getting lost in her brown eyes.

  “Pease kiss me again,” she said.

  Nile did so, and when he pulled her back up on her feet they were standing on the Ancrya, and the calm feeling disappeared. They pulled away from each other, and Ashera’s face swam in disappointment as she looked around. The pain and the misery sank back into their hearts. Ashera released Nile’s hand.

  “Will you take me back?” Ashera asked.

  “In time,” he replied, laying a hand upon her cheek.

  Chapter 29

  Peoria

  Leo was sitting in the cabins with Bancroft who had his head in his hands, wondering exactly what had happened. There was silence between the two and had been for the past fifteen minutes. Leo finally broke the silence. “I’m sorry for the loss of your family.”

  Bancroft looked up at him and smiled. “I remember the time my wife and I met. I was a blacksmith, and she brought in a broken sword her father owned and asked me if I could repair it. Now, I saw how beautiful she was, my boy, and I knew immediately that I had to have her, no matter what the consequences were. So I said, ‘You can have it, for a small price.’ She asked me how much, and I said, ‘For a kiss.’ She giggled and agreed, and then, after that, we courted on a daily basis. We were married in a month.”

  Leo smiled. “I’m sure she was a great wife.”

  “She was more than a great wife, my friend; she was a great mother. She loved her kids most of all.”

  Leo looked down to his feet, feeling remorse for the loss of Bancroft’s family. There was a part that was to be blamed on him, and he knew that, he had to. He was there with Nile when they were immediately warped into Silvago. “How many children did you say you had?”

  “Five, but now they are in the arms of angels.”

  “You’re holdin’ it in really well.”

  Bancroft leaned closer to Leo. “You know, boy, if you assume the worst then the worst will happen. I, no matter the situation, always tend to lean more toward the positive side, because I know that no matter what happens in my life or yours, or the next persons, everything will be all right.”

  “Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better.”

  “Indeed it does, but tomorrow is a new day.”

  “A chance to start it all again?” Leo asked.

  Bancroft grinned. “Of course, my son. Nothing will ever replace the joys I had in my family, but my faith will get me through. I will see them again, in this life or the next.”

  ***

  It was around noon and the sun was smoldering. Nile walked into the Ancrya with Ashera behind him. She sat down in a chair in the resting area, and he continued into the cockpit with Locklin.

  “How she doin’?” Locklin asked.

  “She’s fine,” Nile replied.

  “I’ve been takin’ us east.”

  “That’s fine. I don’t care where we go as long as we get somewhere. I wouldn’t mind if you stopped at the next village.”

  Locklin chuckled. “I might just do that.”

  Nile closed his eyes and leaned back. “Locklin?”

  “What?”

  “I’m so tired.”

  “Well, there is no sleepin’ on the Ancrya unless it is nighttime, and as ya can see, that the sun is out, the day is young, and we have some more escapin’ to do.”

  “You’re something else.”

  “My purpose is to make people laugh, eh.”

  “And you do it well.” Nile sighed. “Ashera is a piece of work.”

  Locklin giggled. “Oh, I bet. Ya need a woman who takes charge, eh, puts a little hair on your chest.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Ya know, turns you from a boy to a man, someone to grab ya by your hands and lead ya in the right direction. A girl who knows how to not play games.”

  “Right,” Nile said, raising his eyebrow. “Do you have any music?”

  “No, but I tell ya, we do have a guitar on a top shelf in the cabin’s closet. A soldier I flew around used to play it all the time, but since I’m a bandit with ya guys, I guess ya can have at it.”

  Nile jumped from the seat and rushed into the cabins where Bancroft and Leo were. He opened the closet and rummaged through all the clothing like a wild animal, searching for the guitar. There was a shelf about a foot above his head, and he stood on his tiptoes and searched it, but he did not see the guitar. There was another shelf a foot above it. He stepped back a few feet and looked up there to see a black guitar case. He jumped up, grabbed the handle, and pulled it down, catching it as it fell.

  Leo and Bancroft had watched Nile struggle to get the guitar down, and then continued to watch him throw the case on the bed and open it. Leo envisioned gold releasing from the case and shining on Nile. Nile pulled the guitar out with a childish smile. He rubbed the wood with his right hand as he placed his left hand on the fret board.

  He strummed and the sound was beautiful. It was already tuned and ready for him to play. “Bancroft, you like music?”

  “Why of course, my eldest son plays.”

  Nile picked at the strings, his left hand choosing the chord. He closed his eyes and licked his lips. The sound of the instrument was so soothing that it was the only time he really felt alive through all of this. He stopped playing the song after a few minutes and looked at his audience.

  Bancroft laughed. “That is great, my boy.”

  Nile played another song.

  Leo nodded to the beat. “He is a great guitar player.”

  Ashera was sitting out in the resting area and heard the angelic sound of the guitar. She got up and followed it, the music leading her into the cabins where Nile was playing. She sat down on the bed with Leo and watched him.

  Nile decided to go from picking the soft tune to strumming completely with his thumb. He closed his eyes to concentrate, and after a few seconds of cycling through chords, he brought the song back to the soft tune he was playing earlier. Watching Nile play reminded Bancroft immediately of his son Medwyn, who was learning the guitar by a fellow neighbor who would teach him on Friday afternoons.

  Ashera smiled as she watched Nile play. She tilted her head to the right and sat back, resting on her palms. He was handsome, and she found him even more attractive since he was a musician. As she watched him, she closed her eyes and thought about him, how he would kiss her, about him holding her. They had not even known each other for a day, but she felt like she had kn
own him for years. When Nile finished the song, Ashera opened her eyes and clapped.

  “Thank you,” Nile said with a smile.

  “Play something else, my dear boy.”

  Nile placed his hands in a new chord formation and strummed gently, playing another beautiful song and then switched to a new chord. He missed a note and quickly recovered by playing the next note.

  Ashera giggled, and when Nile heard her, he couldn’t help but giggle as well. The song was beautiful and made Ashera miss her home, the rock houses with brick chimneys and large oak trees surrounding the village.

  Locklin burst through the room and Nile stopped playing. “Hey, I found us a village, eh.”

  Nile set down the guitar. He jumped up, followed Locklin to the cockpit, and saw a very beautiful village of stone. Two mountains were split right down the middle, and all the way down was a river that led out into the ocean. A large bridge was built over the gap connecting two similar pieces of village together. On the west part, there was a large tower in the corner that overlooked the rest of the village. The houses were made of limestone and had oval windows. There was a courtyard in the east with a fountain in the shape of a sun, and there was a round metal piece that was filled with spikes that portrayed the sun’s rays that continuously moved around the sun.

  “I believe I know where we are," Nile said.

  “Where?”

  “Peoria,” Nile said. He rushed back to the cabins and informed Leo, who was eagerly excited about being there. He jumped up and down, and Ashera was relieved that they had finally found a place to rest.

  Locklin turned the Ancrya and landed on the edge of the eastern mountaintop and opened the doors. The group descended down the staircase and started toward the entrance of Peoria, where there was a man in a leopard robe waiting to meet them. He had long blond hair and eyes of those like a cat. His ears were nearly as a cat as well, and his teeth were reasonably sharp.

  “How may I help you?” he asked in a quavering voice, but a voice that was wise and full of knowledge.

  “We need a place to rest,” Nile said.

  “I’m sorry, but we do not take visitors,” he replied, then turned around.

 

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