All eyes turned to him as he stood before them, then as he looked directly at Gideon, the dead young queen’s face swam before him.
‘Lena was Lydia’s mother,’ he whispered, your grandmother Gideon.
Thaddrick looked at Roidan who sat silently beside the bright flames; she smiled in response to her husband and nodded her head as he turned his gaze toward Gideon and his eyes twinkled merrily.
‘This is who you are boy,’ Gideon heard in his head, ‘this is who you are,’ before he could utter a sound his father erupted.
‘What..., ‘ang on, are yer sayin’ that my boy is Sonal’s nephew?’ Jed asked, with an astonished look, one equal only to the look on Gideon’s own face.
‘The pendant is, was, a family heirloom, the females of our line have always handed it to the next in line. It’s the only one of its kind,’ Varan added, as if seeing Gideon for the first time. ‘If you have the pendant then it must mean…,’ he said and closed his eyes, pain again close to the surface.
‘Lena must be dead.’ Sonal finished for his brother. Rhoàld watched the men as they realised their beloved little sister was dead. Guilt flooded him as he remembered Gath ordering the dungeon keeper to make the cut, so he himself could watch death as it slowly claimed his young wife. He remembered the sharp knife cutting into the sweaty pale white skin after the young girl had given birth; then Gath ordering him to collect her blood carefully, he didn’t want any wasted, he thought and it pumped so slowly… his memories continued as he remembered how long it took the exhausted young girl to die. For a second time guilt washed over him as he remembered Gath holding the newborn infant up to her mother as her eyes had finally clouded over.
‘Say goodbye my dear.’ Gath had said and laughed maniacally as life finally left Lena’s pale form. Rhoàld remembered washing the poor girl’s body and removing the pendant from her neck and a small silver ring from her delicate but rapidly cooling finger. He remembered hating the cruel insensitive man then, still I never left him I just thought more of my own position and power, Rhoàld thought. Again, shame and disgust filled him as he recognised the grief in the twins faces.
‘I’m so sorry; If Lena was your sister she died a long time ago.’ Rhoàld finally said, ‘I knew her, she died on the childbed, giving birth to Lydia.’ Rhoàld said nothing further to explain how the young girl had died, thinking the pair had suffered enough. He prayed to the gods to allow him licence with the truth.
The silence in the large room was almost physical, a solid thing stopping further conversation.
Gideon’s father looked around at his companions.
‘Well now, who’d ‘ave thought it, tis a rare an’ funny way the journey takes us,’ he offered as he looked again, first at the older twins, then at his son, ‘lad it seems yer’ve got more fam’ly ‘en just me an’ yer granparents’ after all,’ he said, moving to clap Sonal on the shoulder. ‘I always knew there was a reason I liked yer so much, even iffen yer wine making skills aren’t ser good…’ he laughed lightly, as Sonal slowly but still unsure smiled back.
‘I‘d not seen Lena for a long time, but she would have been proud of her daughter I am sure and of you, her grandson Gideon. If you will allow me, I know I speak for Varan too, we welcome you into our hearts and our family…’
‘What there is of it anyway,’ Varan added his assent by throwing his arms around the still surprised young man.
‘Let me add to your tale’ said Thaddrick speaking quietly as Roidan moved across the room to join him. As before, she stood behind him her hands resting protectively on his shoulders. Thaddrick reached to take the pendant Varan still held in his fingers. ‘You say the pendant is one of a kind. You will be surprised then to hear then that it is one of a pair.
A long time ago a man named Thurlson commissioned a gift on the announcement of his wife’s first pregnancy. He had ordered a ring made for his first child but when his wife birthed twin boys he gave the ring to his wife and he ordered identical pendants of silver and Dakar crystal made for his twin sons...’ he paused before he spoke again. ‘They were called Themos and Thaddrick,’ he said and carried on before anyone could speak. ‘Thurlson and his wife also had a third child, his name was Théoden and her ring was passed on to him. When the older boys were grown men, Themos, knowing he would never see his sister in law again gave his pendant to her, moments before she passed through the gateway to Earth.’
‘Valeria…’ whispered Mayan as she began relating the story to the tale Thaddrick had told the night before. Thaddrick smiled at her nodding his assent before taking a deep breath and looking at Roidan. She also smiled and pulled her own pendant from beneath her dress, the one her husband had given her on their wedding day, the twin of the one Gideon wore.
The silence was almost deafening as Thaddrick spoke again, ‘In short Gideon, you, Sonal and Varan are all descendants of my brother Théoden and as such are related to me and also by marriage to my wife.’ Roidan reached forward and took Thaddrick’s hand.
‘Welcome to the family Gideon, we have waited a long time for you,’ she said, her smile reaching high up into her eyes.
“By the Journey,’ this be confusin’,’ began Mayan who had been relatively silent throughout the morning so far and despite the revelations, something had stuck in her mind. She stood up and began to pace, her hands moving to emphasise her thoughts as the company watched her.
‘Sonal, apart from Thaddrick bein’ so very old…,’ she glanced at Thaddrick who saw the unanswered questions in her eyes and smiled as she continued. ‘There ‘as ter be sommat…. sommat that connects us all together, there is, ain’t there,’ she said not expecting an answer. Thaddrick opened his mouth to speak but as Mayan continued voicing her train of thought; Thaddrick closed his mouth and joined the rest of the company as they listened quietly.
‘Sonal an’ Varan are twins; Gid, is the son of their little sister’s daughter…,’ she said, working things out in her mind and aloud not really noticing as both the older twins and Thaddrick nodded in agreement. ‘If Thaddrick an’ Roidan are yer uncle an’ aunt, well… sort o’ anyway,’ she smiled apologetically at Thaddrick and Roidan who gave a nod of encouragement in return, ‘an’ they be yer uncles,’ she added, nodding toward Sonal and Varan forging on with her theories. ‘Jed, you an’ me are twins too but not really connected ter the others…’
‘Gideon has shared his blood with Jed remember, on the night of your eighteenth birthday, the winter festival when Jed joined the army.’ Sonal interrupted.
‘Oh yeah, the blood brother thing, the night Gid give us our stones…,’ Mayan said smiling at her fiancé as her hand reached to her neck and the stone hidden under her clothing.
‘Go on May, coz yer makin’ more sense ter me than me own brain is…,’ Gideon laughed weakly.
‘My own brain...’ Thaddrick said, sighing at Gideon’s speech.
‘I also have shared my blood with Jed,’ said Varan holding up his palm that was clearly showing a pink scar, Jed held out both his hands, palm outwards. Two scars almost identical, one clearly old and white, the other slightly raised and still pink ran from the base of each thumb to the base of the little fingers. Lemba ran her finger over the pink scar thinking of how ill Jed had been and how worried for his life they all were after his being poisoned and suffocated by the red ants.
‘Rhoàld an’ Lemba ‘ave this magic in their blood too,’ continued Mayan as her thoughts went on, ‘an’ Thaddrick says they are ancient’s…,’
‘She don’t look that old ter me…,’ young Jed said lightly and promptly rubbed his arm when Lemba punched him hard grinning.
‘Jed,’ Mayan said, addressing Gideon’s father, seems we be mice among the cats,’ she added ruefully, concluding her train of thought. ‘We ain’t connected.’
‘I beg to differ young woman, Thaddrick said, ‘Jed, you, as Gideon’s father, effectively allowed Gideon to live and you Mayan, are Gideon’s life, you seem to forget I have been around you all you
r lives, though not always in this form. All of us here are connected; even you Rhoàld, each of us who has even a cupful of the ancient blood have a connection. If we traced the family lines back far enough you would find most of us have a blood connection to Arotia where all have the same magical abilities as we do, to varying degrees too, just as we do here.’ Thaddrick continued to look around the room at his guests almost willing them to contradict him.
‘Ain’t no magic in me blood Blue, I’m tellin’ yer.’ Gideon’s father snorted with a horrified look on his face.
‘Jed my friend, if there was absolutely no ancient blood in your veins you would never have heard me speak to you in my other form, I admit it was hard to get you to listen most of the time but you did hear me,’ he said.
‘Why did yer never speak to me then, iffen me blood is ser strong,’ asked Gideon.
‘Only now Gideon, have you believed in the possibility of your blood being different, only now do you believe in the magic. If I had spoken to you, you would have dismissed it and possibly ignored it. In a similar way, I could not speak to young Jed here or Mayan, any more than I could speak to Varan or Sonal unless they were touching. Your mother Jed,’ Thaddrick said addressing the young man. ‘She named it herself I believe, ‘the twin thing, she called it. You and Mayan, Varan and Sonal, two parts of one whole, twins... so whilst they are together, I could speak to Varan and Sonal here, unfortunately though although you have a degree of old blood by courtesy of the transfusions you have received Jed, Mayan does not, so neither of you would have heard me.’
‘Good thing yer love me then Gid, else there really would be no use fer me….’ Mayan smiled wryly, a quizzical look on her face.
‘Lemba,’ Thaddrick continued, ignoring Mayan for the moment and turning his gaze toward the tiny girl sitting beside Jed. ‘Your powers have only recently been returned to you and I am not sure how much control you have. As for you Rhoàld, I would not speak to you as I did not know you or if you posed a threat and once I had found out you had been used by Gath I was already a man again so the point became moot.’ Lemba who was listening intently suddenly thought of a question that had burned in her mind for days.
‘Rhoàld, how did you manage to live with Gath for so long and not be discovered by him?’ She asked.
‘I know not,’ smiled Rhoàld sadly, ‘it seems I did not know I was any different to anyone else until my blood began to flow freely after… after I held the knife that killed Bastian,’ he added quietly, ‘for some reason Gath could only feel my blood then,’ he finished.
‘I can answer that question,’ replied Varan to Lemba, ‘I’m sure Thaddrick will tell me if I am wrong…’ Varan looked at Thaddrick and accepted the nod the old man returned as confirmation.
‘Rhoàld wears a spelled charm, the black hexagon around your neck is a powerful spelled charm of protection, I have seen one like it before and took the liberty of strengthening the spell whilst we journeyed here,’ he said, as Rhoàld placed his hand to his neck and puzzled pulled the charm from beneath his clothing.
‘I have always worn this, since I was a child, I don’t really remember ever being given it, though I like to think it was from my mother,’ he added. Roidan moved across to Rhoàld to examine the charm and bending at the waist slightly to see better she rubbed its surface between her fingers.
‘The charm is a form of dark crystal found only in the Dakar Mountain’s on Arotia,’ Thaddrick smiled as Roidan answered, adding, ‘once, someone in your past must have walked the land there.’
Gideon’s father looked around the table at the satisfied smiles and the beginnings of new relationships, a thought also burning inside him. He had inadvertently overheard a comment about his son on the evening Lemba had her magic returned to her and it had disturbed his sleep and gnawed away in his belly countless times, as he tried to make sense of it. It seemed to him everything strange that had happened had happened since young Jed had left home to become a soldier. Using his hands to indicate the importance of the words, he asked the question that had bothered him so.
‘Now we ‘ave all worked out where we fit in, could someone please tell me why both Sonal and Varan think my son an’ their nephew is the one and what fer ‘Journeys Sake’ is it anyway?’ Thaddrick looked at the older twins, both of whom blushed and looked away from him.
‘To answer your question let me continue with my story Jed,’ he said smiling sadly.
‘Remember I said we arrived through the gateway to a beautiful green valley beside a lake...’ He looked around his listeners to gauge their understanding before continuing. ‘Well, very soon after we arrived something happened and a prophecy was given by a mage who was old even then, prophecy that spoke of a healer, a sage magician who could right all the wrongs and send death back into the void from whence it came.’
Sonal looked meaningfully to his brother as Thaddrick began to mutter under his breath and almost without meaning to, the twins as one joined in. Thaddrick had not heard the words spoken aloud for many years; he had given the prophecy himself as he lay dying from a knife wound beside a tree. It had been the last time he had truly felt his own brother, his own twin. Their unique magic and balance had combined as Themos struggled to heal him from within, they had created an unheard of direct contact to the root and the words had tumbled from Thaddrick’s mouth as they had screamed inside Themos’s head.
‘Soul to soul will evil be
Two become one
Two will die
Life from death will be the key
Unity is flawed.’
Thaddrick felt Astin’s knife once more as it pierced his body and his brother’s struggle to complete the healing. Once more, he watched through blood-shot and weary eyes as Astin, the body the Gatherer had stolen escaped unnoticed, slipping away into the trees.
‘I felt the Gatherer as we entered through the Gateway onto this world,’ Thaddrick said as the older twins sat quietly, astonishment on their faces, ‘and I am sure now that Gath is he,’ he added looking at Gideon who sat quiet and still. Mayan reached out for his hand and almost recoiled when she felt the cold tension lying under his skin.
‘The Gatherer has transferred his soul from his son to his son throughout the generations, becoming weaker and weaker as the blood line thinned and became more dilute. I had believed he was dead, no… hoped he was dead but he found Lena, and we know from Sonal and Varan her blood was nearly pure. He was cursed at the time of the prophecy never to have a daughter, a son from his daughter would be all-powerful but such is the nature of balance, denying him because of the curse and then giving all, her blood was strong enough to fight the curse.’ He continued to look at Gideon as he spoke. ‘Do you see Gideon, you are his son from his daughter, you are also of the blood line of Théoden, and in, Two become one, two blood lines become one, in you. Rhoàld tells us he wants you for your blood, he wants not only your blood but your body and your powers too, with his evil soul inside you his power would be immense, I believe now he wants to return to Arotia and seek the revenge he has always been denied.’ Thaddrick finished.
Varan looked at Gideon’s father and smiled sadly, ‘although we didn’t know then what we know now Jed, both Sonal and I could feel the power lying dormant in Gideon, it’s why we believe your son is the one.’ Sonal too looked at his friend Jed, avoiding eye contact with Gideon who was looking incredulous and annoyed once more.
‘Jed, you told me yourself Gideon was cut from Lydia’s belly after she had died, ‘Life from death will be the key’;’ he quoted the prophecy.
‘Wait… this is tellin’ me who and what I am?’ Gideon said, bristling with anger, ‘well, let me tell yer what I’m not, I’m not sum sort o’ magician born ter right someone else’s wrongs!’ Gideon finally exploded, his face as cloudy as a stormy day, ‘I might o’ been bred like a dog fer a specific purpose but I’m me own man now, an’ I’ll not be doin’ anythin’ I don’t wanna do.’
‘Doing, anythin’ and, want to.’ Thaddr
ick said correcting Gideon automatically.
‘Will yer please stop correctin’ me like I’m a child who ain’t speakin’ properly!’ Gideon raged as Thaddrick smiled apologetically.
‘I’m afraid it’s a habit Gideon but please feel free to ignore me.’ He smiled, a rueful expression settling on his face.
Incensed, Gideon stood up scraping his chair back, he had a lot to consider and he wanted to be alone, he looked apologetically at Roidan who still stood beside her husband.
‘Sorry mam,’ he said as he turned and squeezed Mayan’s frightened hand.
‘Stay Here, love,’ he said, looking at Thaddrick and daring him to comment again on his speech. ‘I need ter, sorry, To go for a walk..., Alone,’ he added as Mayan began to rise. She watched, worry and fear for Gideon written across her pale face as he walked away, she turned to her twin.
‘It’s all right May, I’ll go after him.’ Jed said as he quietly followed his blood brother out of the hall.
Gideon’s father stood up and crossed the hall to the window, looking out he spoke to the company behind him.
‘Ow came you ter be ‘ere then, Blue?’ He said as he watched his namesake following his son across the road and into the young forest.
‘A few years later,’ Thaddrick continued, ‘after our arrival on this planet, we realised something was wrong, we made a decision to split the colony up, half of us came here,’ he indicated the surrounding hall and the area outside.
As Jed turned from the window the sunlight shone through onto Thaddrick’s face showing each wrinkle and crease, even with the explanation of slowed time Thaddrick looked ancient. Jus’ ‘ow old are yer? He thought as Thaddrick spoke.
The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' Page 25