‘It will protect us from trickery and entrancement; will give you courage should you need it, little one.’ Her mother had said as she sliced and pulped the bright red berries into a sauce for the table. There were Birch trees attractive and graceful, its bark used for tanning leather, its sugary sap used for healing and wine and its branches and twigs, not only used for protection against evil but also symbolising love and fertility and there was the Holly, used for protection and balance. Balance, Lemba thought as she both recognised and characterised the abundant growth around her. A cold shiver slide down her spine and her eyes turned to the wolf, closing them she tried cautiously to enter the ether to find the way to the root as she had so easily done before, there was nothing. What need’s all this protection, what is this all for…? She asked herself as her eyes slid to Gideon now sitting quietly, also alone at the edge of the glade.
‘What do we do now Sonal?’ Young Jed asked, as he sat beside Lemba amidst the crocuses and ivy at the opposite edge of the clearing, he had said he would give the wolf time and he would do so, but already he was itching to move on, to go back, to follow his parents and family. He resigned himself to be still. Sonal glanced at Varan and both men looked to the wolf.
‘We wait,’ Sonal said without looking at Jed. ‘We wait,’ he said again, as he too sat down.
Rhoàld walked to the centre of the clearing where a raised tree stump also covered in bright yellow and green ivy stood slightly proud of the ground and looking up saw the darkening blue sky high above them. He closed his eyes as he had done a thousand times that day and felt for Bastian, there was no response from the magic but strangely, he felt no despondency as he had done when he had previously lost the connection.
There was something familiar about this clearing but he could not fathom it out, the answer was there in front of his eyes but somehow eluding him and he had no Bastian to offer advice. He knew he had never been here before, he had never been to this part of the country before but he definitely recognised something. In an attempt to figure it all out he also walked over to the edge of the clearing and sat on another log only this time it was covered in moss.
Time passed slowly, the light in the glade lessened as the sun passed its zenith and eventually lowered and began to set; sending the light in the sky above them orange and red, night flowers opened and began to give off their own heady perfume.
‘It is still winter… isn’t it?’ Mayan asked sleepily as she recognised yet another summer evening flowering plant beginning to unfurl its petals alongside its spring brothers.
Varan stood and all eyes turned to follow him as he walked to the centre of the clearing in an effort to stretch his legs. The moon suddenly appeared from behind one of the evening clouds bathing him in light. Rhoàld looked up as the moons brilliance suddenly hit the glade and he saw Varan covered in a perfect shroud of silvery light, a great beam of intense energy straight from the heavens. He turned white as he watched the man from the bleak.
“By the Journey’, it’s you…’ he whispered, pointing at Varan. The wind caught the whisper and it swirled around the glade until everyone had heard it.
‘What’s me,’ replied Varan with a puzzled expression on his face and he looked at Rhoàld in confusion.
‘The carving in your cell at the castle, it’s this; it’s here, here…’ said Rhoàld suddenly animated, he walked toward Varan emphasising with his hands toward the trees and the moonlight. The shadows had lengthened turning the ivy and the flowers into multi shades of black, white and silver while the trees had become the solid, massive columns supporting a vast roof, its centre left open to the world like a window to the gods. Varan was standing on the ivy-covered tree stump that represented the Dias in the carving, the Dias rose from the floor with an occupant sitting in the centre shrouded in light, Rhoàld turned to his companions.
‘Do you see…’ he began, as excited as a child given a promise of sweets, he took a deep breath as he realised even the people in the cave carvings seemed to be represented by members of their own small company. By now they were either sitting up or standing against those dark strong columns, no features or gender, their shapes seen only by silhouette, by base relief, as if projected from the seemingly smooth surface of the columns themselves, part of the column but different.
‘There is a difference…’ he continued, ‘the tattoo shows a …a stone hanging above your head, here there is no stone, a…’ he stopped as Varan finished the sentence for him.
‘A crystal, there is no crystal.’
Blue howled loudly to the moon and began to race around the glade jumping and gambolling like a small puppy, his huge shaggy head seemed to be smiling as he ran from one member of the party to another. His tongue rolling out of his mouth and almost scraping the ground as he bowed, his forelegs and front of his body close to the ground as his hindquarters stuck up in the air.
‘Can someone tell the rest o’ us what’s goin’ on?’ Gideon’s father asked in frustration as he joined the group in the centre of the clearing, closely followed by young Jed with Lemba and Mayan. Varan sat down on the raised stump like a teacher about to give a lecture.
‘Please sit down everyone,’ he said, ‘perhaps the time is right for the telling of tales.’
Gideon sat still only half listening as Sonal told the company his tale of the Guardians, his family who for generations had guarded the Bleak knowing most of the tale he had already heard. The group looked animated under the silvery light of the moon and they did not notice as he slipped away from them to take a seat against one of the huge trees closely followed by Blue. He had to think, he knew this whole business was about him and just who he was, so taking the unfinished carving from the pocket of his jerkin and the knife from his belt, he carefully began to ease slither after tiny slither from the figure, knowing it always helped him to think if his hands were busy. Blue sitting close beside him put his huge head upon Gideon’s knee, even in the moonlight; the wolf’s eyes shone a piercing silvery Blue. Gideon smiled at the wolf and scratched its ears.
‘Who am I boy?’ He whispered as brushed the tiny wood pieces from the wolf’s fur before he sat back to resume his carving. The wolf nudged Gideon’s knee and Gideon looked up once more into eyes that were so blue and so deep he thought he would surely drown if he fell into them, eyes that seemed so fixed they could see into his very soul. Gideon felt odd as his head became light and as he looked at the wolf, his hands continued to carve, piece by piece the razor sharp blade cut and gouged the wooden figure in his hands, taking a wedge here and a slither there. The blade worked slowly and carefully as the figure was at last finished. Shaking his head to regain control of himself Gideon smiled again at the wolf.
‘Don’t quite know what ‘appened there boy.’ he said, ‘day dreamin’ me da would ‘ave called it, ‘cept its still night.’ He looked over to his companions still listening to Sonal and turned back to his carving. As he stared at the carving, he saw the face of the man he had seen in his grandfather’s house, his dream rescuer, he had been about to fall into… blue eyes, he thought, this man would ‘ave blue eyes…’ He could see in the wood carving an old man dressed in long robes, he pictured him as he had first seen him grey and blue robes, hair white, thick and glossy with a black streak running down one side. Gideon knew he would have the bluest eyes he would ever see on anyone other than the wolf.
In the dream, the old man had extended his arm, his fist tightly clenched toward Gideon. Gideon in turn had slowly raised his own hand, palm up and underneath the old man’s closed fist.
‘This is who you are my boy,’ the old man had said with a smile. Gideon had closed his hand over the object that dropped with a tinkling sound into his palm and it had been warm from the old man’s touch.
‘Open your hand when you are ready young Gideon,’ he had added. ‘I don’t unnerstand…,’ Gideon had replied.
‘Understand.’ The old man said, correcting his speech. Gideon smiled and stood abruptly, staring at
the now completed figure in his hand and he glanced around at the others to ensure they were still engrossed with Sonal’s story.
‘Don’t yer go tellin’ no one ‘bout this Blue,’ he said as the wolf rubbed its body against Gideon’s legs, ‘but, stranger things ‘ave ‘appened on this Journey,’ the wolf moved in front of Gideon to watch, its blue eyes dark and staring. Gideon felt a bit of a fool but he had an idea he wanted to try.
Holding the figure still and at arm’s length, he held his other palm flat, open and beneath the clenched fist of the small wooden statue.
‘Who am I?’ He whispered quietly.
From the Dias, Sonal felt the sudden shift in the magic, something he had not felt since entering the forest, Varan looked at him enquiringly, it seemed most of the company had felt something as they were all looking slightly dazed.
‘Gideon, look at Gideon…,’ whispered young Jed as he finally noticed his friend and brother was not among their small group but in the centre of a glowing ball of intense sparkling light across the clearing and as they watched Gideon began to fade into the brilliance. Varan gasped with horror as the glowing ball grew brighter and brighter.
‘No… no…not here,’ he whispered as he hastily clambered to his feet, joining the others who were now also standing and watching as the light grew in intensity.
‘Gideon…,’ Mayan screamed as she felt him call to her and launched herself toward the ball of light. Rhoàld grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to the ground preventing her headlong flight, sobbing she fought with him amongst the sweet smelling night flowers, as her desperate bid to reach Gideon failed.
The glowing ball changed as pinpoints of black appeared to mar its shiny brilliant surface, the tiny spots of darkness grew and expanded into small hexagons that also seemed to be growing, spreading out across the shape like water poured from a bowl across a clean floor. Ribbons of light now ran like rivers of liquid fire around the sharp edges of the solid black shapes deeply embedded in the brilliance. The hexagons continued to grow crushing out the intense sparkling light as they spread; leaving strange patterns deeply entrenched on the retinas of the impassioned watchers. Through her tears, Mayan could see hundreds of tiny reflections of her own image, as the hexagons grew and finally joined as one with a sudden snap, tessellating, cutting the light from view. For a moment the outline of the hexagons could clearly still be seen but then, as the change completed the large circle flattened and became still, deep black and solid looking, it stood quietly as if it were waiting.
The clearing now seemed dull in the moonlight as the glowing brilliance of the hexagon shape turned into smooth velvet darkness. Its surface absorbing the available light, it seemed to pull the light toward it somehow. Mayan, first to recover pushed Rhoàld’s hands away from her.
‘E needs me,’ she said as she clambered to her feet and walked slowly toward the darkness before her, determination making her voice stern.
‘Mayan, no…, it’s a gateway…,’ whispered Varan his voice full of horror.
‘Where’s Gideon?’ Asked his father worriedly as he too inched toward the silent gateway, ‘where’s me boy?’ He asked again as he reached the warm black shape hanging patiently in the air and he stood beside Mayan as she too silently stared hard into the glossy black substance, trying to find Gideon in its hidden depths. ‘It’s warm,’ Jed said as he lifted his fingertip to touch the black surface.
Lemba still standing beside the dais reached out her hand to touch young Jed as Varan stood trembling next to her, his fear almost palpable.
‘NO,’ shouted Varan as he watched Gideon’s father also attempt to touch the oily black surface, ‘No, please…,’ he called again, as he quickly crossed the few feet between the mound and the couple standing before the shining black shape, his glance nervously moving quickly between the velvet nothing and his friends. ‘Please come away, even now we are too close, far too close.’ Varan pleaded, as Gideon’s father hesitated, he heard the panic in Varan’s voice and holding Mayan’s arm securely he turned to him.
‘Well man, what is this?’ He asked quietly adding, ‘me son’s in there…’ the silence in the clearing became deafening.
‘Jed,’ Varan begged, ‘I have seen a thing a little like this before, in the bleak. Things came through… Sonal tell them, behind the wall, the barrier at home …Sonal!’
As Varan stood before the darkly gleaming hexagon imploring Jed and Mayan to come away, the ivy around his feet spread and grew, silently entwining Varan’s ankles with its sinuous vines. Varan turned to beseech Sonal’s aid in explanation of his home, of what lived behind the barrier the Guardian’s had protected all their lives and his movement caused the vines to tighten, Varan’s attempted stride, coupled with his feet caught up in the ivy made him trip, he fell headlong into Jed and Mayan. Lemba saw the panic on his face as the trio fell against the seemingly solid surface of the gateway and they fell through. The surface absorbing them as it did the light of the moon, it rippled and then steadied once more, the tiny undulating waves causing oily black colours to shimmer and shine as they made their graceful way to the edge of the circle. It reminded Sonal of a pond near his childhood home where both he and his brother would skim stones on lazy days watching to see whose could make the most skips. He grinned ruefully to himself remembering Varan had always won. The gateway was now still once more and in just a few moments, their company had halved.
‘What d’ we do now?’ Asked young Jed, Rhoàld watched the light bend and play around the gateway as a tiny moth attracted to the light fluttered near to the inky black surface. He watched as it make a wrong turn and disappear the way his friends had done, seconds later the moth reappeared fluttering toward the light once more. Gasping with realisation, he walked toward the still shimmering disc.
‘Come on,’ he called, ‘it is a gateway, if we can go in, we can come out again, like a door… like a door.’ He said, and promptly walked straight through.
‘Well?’ Jed said looking at Sonal as he squeezed Lemba’s hand tightly for comfort, ‘do we or don’t we?’ Sonal touched the long scar on his jaw, made by the creature that had pulled Varan through the rift in the barrier so many years ago.
‘I’m not about to fail my brother again,’ he said as he walked toward the still surface, trying to force away the pictures of the monster that caused the scar. ‘I’ll not lose Varan behind a wall again, so we may as well, don’t you think?’ He added as he slowly walked toward the darkness. ‘After three then,’ said Sonal, when Jed and Lemba joined him next to the wall. ‘One… Two…’
‘No, wait…’ interrupted Jed as he turned to Lemba, ‘If we are going ter die, I’m glad I knew yer,’ he said as Lemba lifted her hand to cup his cheek. ‘I love you,’ she mouthed in reply as small tears fell glistening down her face leaving silver trails reflected by the moonlight. Jed raised his hand and held the back of her head, loosening her carefully constructed braid allowing her hair to fall as freely as the tears. The moonlight caught the soft silver tresses as a gentle night breeze blew them around the couple like a perfect silver shroud cocooning them in a separate world. He pulled her toward him and kissed her, his tongue slipping easily between her lips into her open mouth and, for a moment, Lemba stiffened as she thought of her tongue, the rough stub left by Gath’s shears but as Jed kissed her, her mind filled only with him and the thoughts of a future that might never be. If my life were to end now, she thought, I would die complete. Sonal turned away; he felt like an intruder, instead he stared into the depths of the mirror like surface. The wind took Lemba’s tresses and teased them gently as they crossed through the barrier of the gateway and returned moments later. Sonal watched as Lemba’s silvery hair again seemed to pass through and return unharmed, his mouth opened to speak as he realised what Rhoàld had been trying to tell them as he walked toward the disc. A door, it’s just a door. He thought as a slightly red-faced Lemba appeared from behind the curtain of hair. Jed was grinning happily like a dog with a bon
e and for the moment, all his cares were gone.
‘Hrummmp!’ Sonal said, feeling slightly embarrassed but privileged at witnessing such a tender moment, ‘shall we continue then?’ He asked with a smile as he linked his arm through Jed’s. ‘Ready then, on three..., three…’ The three friends stepped directly into the darkness and vanished, leaving the clearing empty and silent, with no one to witness the pin points of light appear once more as the tessellation broke apart and the hexagons begin to shrink, becoming smaller and smaller until they too finally disappeared along with the brilliant light.
Chapter 26
The Valley
Gideon stared at the old man before him; he looked just as he had remembered from his dream, his blue eyes kind and sparkling with humour.
‘It took you a while longer than I anticipated young Gideon,’ he said as he dropped something from his closed fist into Gideon’s outstretched palm. The sun twinkled through the leaves and caught the crystal in the silver pendant as it fell the short distance causing sparkles of dancing colour to race across his hand. Gideon held the pendant by the chain, his free hand reaching up to his neck.
‘It’s like mine,’ he said, as he withdrew his own amulet and pulling it free from his neck held it next to the first.
‘They are not exactly the same,’ began the old man, ‘although they do look identical, watch...’ the old man said as he held out his hand once more, Gideon let the pendant fall softly into the man’s hand while allowing his own to fall back into his shirt. As he watched the pendant with its chain nestling in the palm of the man’s hand it began to glow, suddenly it was so bright Gideon could not look directly at it, as fast as the glow appeared it vanished taking the little silver and crystal amulet with it.
‘As I said they were similar and looked identical but yours was real. Sometimes Gideon you must look outside the box and think laterally.’ The man smiled at him fondly and reached forward to lift Gideon’s chin, closing his open mouth. Gideon thrust out his chin defiantly, angry for being treated like a child who could not learn his lesson.
The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' Page 20