by Dan Glover
There was an old tale told by her people that once someone had saved the life of another, those two people belonged to each other both physically and mentally. They were bound up in ways that neither could foresee.
Perhaps that was why Natalia loved Lily so.
The wollemi pines were whispering back and forth to the wattle that cried out all about them. In the misty distance she could see gum trees standing amid the she-oaks all blanketed in kangaroo paws and banksias.
She had loved the lands of old Scotland nearly as well as the mountains and valleys surrounding Lake Baikal but this place... perhaps the newness would wear off in time... she hoped not.
She had been tempted to follow the tall ship yet she dreaded the consequences of those actions that might result from the meeting. It didn’t bother her that Natalia had been with Kāne but the girl was radiating such an intense feeling of dread that Lauren thought it better to leave that relationship covered in the tracks of time.
"If Lily ever comes home again, do you think she'll follow us here, my sweet Lauren?"
There was such an aching in Natalia's voice that Lauren nearly burst into tears. The guilt that heaped itself over her was stifling. Lauren had the sudden desire to confess her sins to the girl, to reveal how she had hated Lily for centuries and desired only Natalia. Uncertain how the girl would react to such a revelation, Lauren deemed it best to stay silent in that regard, at least for the moment.
They had lost Lily forever. Lauren knew that yet she couldn’t break Natalia's spirit with that dread news. Once, there had been hope that perhaps Ena with her prescience might lead Nate to Lily's location but now the girl was gone too, vanished somewhere in both time and space.
"I am sure she will find us no matter where we are, sweet Natalia."
Lauren thought back to the days when Orchardton Hall was young and filled with the laughter of children and the sounds of love. Instead of reveling in the company of others she had isolated herself in her private gardens preferring the friendship of her flowers to that of the People.
Here, the flora seemed strangely unusual yet welcoming at the same time. She could almost hear the ever lasting daisies and the yellow billy buttons calling out to her, singing a mournful and yet a happy tune that spoke of time immemorial and homecomings unlooked for.
Lauren had gorged her mind on the plant life of old Australia to ready herself should they actually travel there... she told herself it was just a dream, the plans they had made of going to a new place and making another start, but here they were, under the cycad palms and nestled among trees of grass.
Upon hearing the music of the flowers, guilt emerged like tender tips of new sprouts reaching to touch the sun along with pangs of regret at having acted as she did. The path was so filled with twists, turns, and forks in the road that it was hard to see the way at times yet had she listened more closely to her hearts she might have chosen more wisely.
She had nothing but time yet that didn’t mean she had to waste it like she did. She could have been happy if only she had opened her eyes to the possibilities that blossomed all about the castle. Rather than wishing everyone away, she could have sought to bring them together.
She didn’t have to be so mean-spirited. Starting with the day Karen had showed up at Orchardton Hall hauling along five others, Lauren had hated them all. She didn’t want to allow them to stay. Lily insisted. Knowing that Karen had kept her lover as a slave, locked into a cage, did nothing to endear her, yet Lauren relented despite her intuition urging her to banish them all.
Lily was too soft. She saw the world through eyes tainted with kindness even as her actions only caused one disaster after another. The girl didn’t seem to hear the music, or if she did, she ignored it in favor of her own resolute thoughts.
There had never been anything like talking sense to Lily... perhaps that was why Lauren had gradually grown cold to her presence even as the feelings of love expanded to include Natalia.
Lily would never return to them.
The thought burst into Lauren's mind like a bolt of lightening striking her. Wherever the girl was, perhaps she was happy there. Lily had been drawing away from them for a thousand years... tentatively at first, yet always testing the waters, always plying the winds of foreign places they would never visit together.
She had been that way since she was a girl... impulsive, stubborn, and proud. Perhaps that's why Lauren loved her so, and hated her. Upon awakening each morning she never knew exactly how she would feel about Lily.
It was as if all her life she was living inside a dark and dirty cave and then one day Lily appeared out of nowhere all brightness and light showing her the way to escape. It had been so simple Lauren never understood why she hadn’t seen the way before. Maybe it was the light of love illuminating that which had always been there but hidden in the darkness.
Now that the girl was gone, a withering darkness threatened to return and what was more, Lauren knew it would never be lifted again. Natalia was a wonder in her own way but she lacked the perspicuity that Lily brought with her, wearing it like a cloak she had carefully chosen in order to hide her true nature.
It was all backwards now... instead of one of her own kind, Lauren had settled for a lesser species. Even though her hearts were full of love for Natalia, that love was more like the emotions reserved for precious pets, not one of her own kind.
Being in the backwater of old Australia seemed a perfect metaphor to balance her uneven life.
Chapter 53—Questions and Answers
She didn’t understand why Amanda was cussing her.
She was so sick Ginger couldn’t stomach the thought of wine... even the smell of the cask made her gag involuntarily. Yet her friend was forcing the vile liquid down her throat as if it was some sort of magical elixir that would banish the symptoms of the illness that beset them both.
"Drink it, Ginger."
Oddly, when a dribble of the wine ran down her throat, Ginger felt instantly energized, as if the fruit of the vine was imbued with sunshine and wind. She took a swallow and then another.
"It's good, sweet Amanda."
Something inside her was on fire, fighting off the ravages of the parasites that threatened to overwhelm her body and still her mind. It was as if one of the Lake people had returned but looking around she could see only Amanda.
"Drink some more, darling Ginger. The ingredients might help stave off our sickness long enough for us to reach help."
"Where did everyone go, lovely Amanda? Joshua was just here."
Amanda only shook her head as she proffered another glass of wine. Ginger's waning hopes of living to see the dawn began to grow again with each swallow she took. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the warehouse she could make out several vehicles parked in the back, cars and trucks that Nate had once kept at the ready.
He'd been gone for so long though. Ginger tried to reckon the years but soon gave up. Though it seemed a thousand years ago she remembered being but a girl and laughing at her husband Kāne and how he claimed he couldn’t remember how old he was. Now she understood why.
The tires were all flat. Knowing that the old vehicles had to have air in the tires to move caused her to sink deeper into a depression wondering how they could get more than a few kilometers on foot before collapsing.
Yet Nate had left another vehicle for them too... after a short stay at the Isle of Skye he had arrived back at Toulon with Karen and Pete flying a strange looking contraption that her husband claimed was an anti-gravity machine.
Ginger remembered laughing at her husband, as if he was playing some trickery upon her, and how his face had turned from one of joy to one of misery. She hadn’t meant to drive him away. Still, that is exactly what she had done.
Amanda had looked so happy to see him again but Ginger could only remember how Nate had left them both to live at Orchardton Hall with that bitch from the Lake. She had never liked Lily. The woman had treated her like a second class citizen all t
he time she was growing up. She always thought of Nate and Lily as the perfect couple yet the woman had left her husband for another man.
Ginger imaged that the Lady must have been incensed to learn how Nate had taken two wives, as if he was attempting to pay her back for the hurt she had caused him. When the three of them finally found happiness, all of a sudden Lily appeared again, or at least her visage.
She was in trouble and Nate felt it was his duty to go to her aid. Ginger had pleaded with him to stay but he refused. When he finally returned home he left again almost immediately, again to help the Ladies.
Eventually Nate came home one last time to announce that their marriage was over. Ginger saw it in his eyes. She already knew what he was going to say before he opened his mouth. She had long ago given up any hope of him staying at Toulon though for the life of her she couldn’t understand what Lily offered that Ginger and Amanda didn’t.
She had seen how the Lady treated him, not much better than if he had been human. Lily was haughty and icy allowing scarcely anyone near her unless it was Natalia and Lauren. Ginger got the distinct impression that if the entire population of the world had passed away Lily would have been content with her Ladies.
When she was much younger she thought about killing the woman. She had her opportunities. Just for fun Ginger had researched plants that were deadly to human beings and she suspected since the Ladies shared a common ancestor they too might well succumb to the poison brew. She had never worked up the courage to put the plot into motion, however.
"Can you walk, darling Ginger?"
She hadn’t realized she was sitting down. Apparently they'd been inside the warehouse for hours. She could see the new day blossoming outside the window and birds were beginning their morning songs.
"Yes, I think so."
It was true. Her strength had returned, or at least enough of it so that she could get to her feet. A wave of dizziness washed over her. She felt nauseous from drinking too much wine yet her muscles were no longer tight with the sickness.
"We need to get to the flying machine, darling Ginger. If we can make it to Orchardton Hall we'll be safe."
The mere name of that old castle sent a shudder of revulsion coursing through her body. She would rather go anywhere but that place. Seeing Lily now would only serve to further enrage her, and the two witches that she lived with would do nothing to calm her nerves.
"Why do we have to go there, sweet Amanda? Can't we try to find Joshua? I know my son. He wouldn’t leave us like this. Something bad has happened to take him away."
"Joshua can take care of himself, darling Ginger. We need to go right now while we have the strength. Otherwise, we're going to die here."
Ginger had forgotten that she checked before. The flying machine was gone.
"Joshua must have taken it... but why would he do that without telling us, sweet Amanda?"
She was ashamed of her own son... doubtlessly his thoughtless actions were going to lead to their deaths and though she racked her brain for a reason Joshua would leave them alone and marooned at Toulon she couldn’t come up with one explanation.
"Maybe he was suffering from a bout of forgetfulness... like his father."
Amanda's words touched a raw nerve in Ginger. She had never openly spoken of Kāne to anyone save his mother Lauren. For just a second she felt like telling Amanda to shut up and mind her own business, but what if she was right?
"I've never noticed anything like that with Joshua before, have you, sweet Amanda?"
"No... but something is happening here... we're under some sort of attack, my precious Ginger. I don't know how I know it, but I do."
"We should be dead by now, darling Amanda. Why are we still alive? It can't be the wine... something else is going on."
"Remember Nate telling us about Micah's inventions, my lovely Ginger, and how they kept him and three others men alive for a hundred years?"
"That is what was in those clouds."
It was coming back to her now... the Mediterranean Sea had been acting oddly... the waters had drawn back leaving the sea floor exposed for as far as they could see, and in the distance loomed great masses of clouds, as if a sort of super storm was forming.
It seemed as if the two—sea and sky—were conspiring together to eliminate any trace of human occupation in the south of old France. But the storm never hit. Instead, vast waves of dust descended over the castle as if they had been suddenly transported to the Arabian Desert.
"What do you mean, darling Ginger... what was in those clouds?"
"Micah's nanobots... he planned all this long ago. That's why he went away with Ena. He knew what was coming and wanted to avoid it."
"But why would he do that?"
"It wasn’t actually him, sweet Amanda... at least not directly. It was Kirk."
Chapter 54—Yes
The trip home was sobering.
Kirk had vanished and Nate's anti-gravity craft was junk... before their mysterious disappearance the nanobots had rendered the power source useless. Trekking to the coast they had located a derelict ship in old Nantucket which took all Nate's skill to repair. Even so, they had to rely on wind power as the diesel engines were beyond salvaging.
Chester guarded them while they worked, his enormous size and deep growls warning off any would-be predators that emerged from the dense forests that crowded the shoreline.
The ship they had discovered looked to be an old schooner that had been dry docked ages ago in a tattered but still intact warehouse just off the ocean shore. Since it was built on high ground the building survived the influx of sea water from hurricanes and other natural disasters over the last thousand years, its aluminum shell making it impervious to the salt water mists that would have disintegrated a steel building well before now.
"We don’t have the time to fix this ship up properly, Niall, but with luck we'll be able to sail it home. We'll need supplies though, especially with Chester aboard. I'm sure we'll be able to catch fish once on the ocean but why don’t you start gathering what we need now while I work on these sails."
Niall had grown into a reliable man. Nate recalled when he had been showed up at Toulon after running away from his home at the Isle of Skye and how he begged not to be sent home. Despite his trepidations, Nate had relented only to be disappointed in Niall time and again as the boy exhibited willful behavior by repeatedly taking off on his own without a word to anyone.
Finding material for sails had proved nearly impossible. Any natural fabric that once existed had rotted away with the passing of the centuries and though he scoured every extant building within walking distance Nate could find nothing that might suffice as a substitute for the cotton sails he had used for the Nautilus.
When he had nearly given up he remembered reading of synthetic fibers that had been used in the 20th and 21st centuries before the Great Dying with great success. Thinking how those products might better withstand the rigors of time, Nate made a search of some of the rotting sailboats still beached on the shoreline, no doubt where they'd been deposited long ago due to some storm.
Luck was with him. On a boat nearly gone to pieces he located a set of sails still furled away under the planking that once served as a deck. Though the edges were worn with time, the centers were intact. Making use of the skills he had picked up while rehabbing the Nautilus he was able to outfit a set of sails that while they might not be the fastest they would serve to get them home to Toulon.
Chester seemed to know what the plan was as the big cat helped Niall round up wild pigs and feral cattle roaming the vast prairies that now dominated what had once been cityscape. The only reminder of the humans who once flourished here were the outlines of old highways and byways that hadn’t yet crumbled back to dust.
Nate often wondered what it must have been like to live in those long ago days when the world was ruled by human beings. Reading their old books and collecting their art had instilled within him a wonder at their ingenuity and grace as well
as a repugnance at their malevolence and violence.
This was the center of it all. The peoples who had come to this land were an admixture of many cultures their blood mingling to create something new and unexpected. They had tamed a wild continent and by sheer willpower had harnessed the forces of nature to submit to their will.
Men had dominated their culture. Growing up with the Ladies as the recognized leaders of his small group had seemed so natural yet when Nate had started reading the old books still lingering in rotting libraries they all spoke of the men as the most influential members of society while the women seemed to stay in the background hovering like ghosts.
Growing up at Orchardton Hall Nate remembered Lily describing for him her years spent as a prisoner in the same medical facility where they were later to be trapped by Marilyn's machinations. A group of human beings had captured her on the shores of Lake Baikal when she passed out due to the pollution pouring into the pristine waters.
"I was taken captive by Karen and her cohorts and held against my will. Though I begged to be set free, no one listened. After many years I was finally able to escape by seducing the man who would become your father, my precious Nate. His name was Lance.
"I knew our liaison would mean his death... I had infected him with the parasites I carry in my bones. I asked Lance to come with me but of course he refused. Humans always turned me down at the oddest times. I left him thee to die little realizing he would later father the love of my life.
"I knew Karen and her compatriots would come for me... I held the secret of immortality but they knew I also had the ability to infect them all with a parasite that would kill them within hours. They wished to know how I could do such things.
"I had even discussed this with Karen. I told her exactly what she needed to know. But she didn’t understand... or maybe she did... I could never decide. Anyway, first I ran to Lake Baikal but I knew they would follow me... that would be the first place they looked.
"When Lady Lauren offered to bring us home with her to Orchardton Hall, I jumped at the opportunity. I thought there would be no way anyone could follow us there. But I was wrong."