‘Me ole bones are tired so I’ll be sayin’ goodnight ter yer all. I too am goin’ ter bed,’ he said nodding toward the almost empty hall, ‘an’ I’ll see you all in the mornin’, Journey Willin’ o’ course,’ he added as he walked out of the room.
The tension eased as the boys laughed and joked remembering various tasks Gideon had always bested Jed at and the ones he lost until Mayan also yawned once more.
‘I got ter get some sleep, comin’ Lems?’ She asked as she stood and moved away from the table. Rhoàld quietly said goodnight and followed the two girls from the room, arm in arm the young men began to follow behind their companions.
‘Gideon,’ called Thaddrick, before he had gone too far, ‘please be so good as to carry Jonus back to his room,’ he said, indicating a bundle of rags curled up in one of the large chairs before the fire. He had gone unnoticed, as the company had talked, listening as long as he could until he had finally fallen asleep dreaming of skimming stones, that hopped across the water forever.
Gideon picked up the young boy and carried him off as Thaddrick smiled after their disappearing backs.
‘You have a question for me Sonal?’ Thaddrick said as he moved over to the fire and sat in the chair so recently occupied by the small boy. ‘Please, join me, sit,’ he said indicating a second chair nearby. Sonal move to the chair and perched himself on the edge, he felt cold. The weak and dying flames of the fire giving off little or no heat; he rubbed his arms around his body and clapped his shoulders to bring a little warmth to the surface of his skin. ‘The void is colder…’ Thaddrick said matter of factly, ‘that is what you wanted to ask about is it not? I felt you trying to bridge the ether even though it is almost impossible here,’ he said, his glance becoming deadly serious.
‘I wanted to ask about opening the gateway, if Gath does open the gateway how do you know it will open into the void and not on your home planet?’ He said in a rush. Thaddrick pulled at his beard before he answered.
‘Firstly, it is our home planet. Secondly, because I was able to construct the spell to fully open the gateway onto Earth. I made notes and kept them close by me always thinking I would find the spell for closing as easily as I made the spell for opening, balance again you see, but I never found the correct sequence or used the right intonations. I’d not been able to construct the closing spell here on Earth and then, if I had opened the gateway and led us all back to Arotia, assuming it was still there of course, would I be dooming the Earth to the mercies of the void, and what if something went wrong and I destroyed both worlds. In the end, the point became moot and I gave my notebook to Valeria for safe keeping, when..., well, I gave the notebook to Valeria and it was lost… If I could find my notebook…’ Thaddrick said almost to himself, ‘if I could find the notebook and open the portal onto Arotia we could close the gateway from there…’ Sonal sensed Thaddrick had almost forgotten he was there and wondered if his original question had even been answered.
‘What will you do now then?’ He asked instead and stood indicating his questions had finished.
‘Now…? Well, for now, I will teach young Gideon, we don’t have much time but I will endeavour to do my best. Goodnight Sonal.’ Thaddrick said in a hurry as he too stood and walked quickly toward the door leaving Sonal before the dying fire. ‘My best for all our sakes...’ Sonal heard as Thaddrick left the room.
Sonal stared at the ashes of the fire, he thought of the revelations he had heard, Gideon being his great nephew. The king, Gath, being a dark mage, a man who steals souls and bodies, the same man being married to Lena, his small and fragile sister, her death her after she had given him a child and not to mention the ring, now sitting prettily on Mayan’s finger as a love token from Gideon. Then of course Thaddrick himself, another member of his family though distant, and once he thought about it, he realised Thaddrick did have the look of his grandfather about him and he should have known they were related somehow.
‘Grandfather...!’ He suddenly thought of the book he held so precious, the book his grandfather had given him so many years before and his vision, the man he had seen writing in it, staring at him as the vision ended. ‘Is it really beyond the bounds of possibility that my book is the book Thaddrick seeks?’ He whispered, and making his mind up quickly, he quietly walked to the room he shared with his brother. He could see by the light of the candle that Varan had cried himself to sleep; his pillow was wet with tears. As gently as he could he removed the pillow from beneath Varan’s head and replaced it with his own dry one and Varan smiled, gently smacking his lips together once or twice before settling down again. Satisfied his brother was comfortable once more; he moved back to his own bed and retrieved the book from its habitual hiding place under the bed. Re-crossing the room, he blew out the candle and silently closing the door behind him headed out toward the hall, intent on finding Thaddrick.
Through the dark corridors that looked so different in the light of day, Sonal moved as quickly as he could but as he entered the hall, he heard the main door open and close quietly. Turning quickly toward the main entrance in a vain attempt to catch the old man, Sonal walked straight into a chair knocking his shin painfully and sending the chair flying with a loud clatter. Hurriedly he picked up the chair and with a quick cuss and a brief rubbing of his shin, he quietly limped to the front door, opened and passed through, again as quietly as he could. He could see Thaddrick within hailing distance but it was still not quite dawn and people were still asleep, so Sonal limped as fast as his painful shin would allow after the old man. Before long, the pain in Sonal’s leg eased and he was able to move a little faster but he still could not seem to move as fast as the old man did.
‘Thaddrick,’ called Sonal softly as the old man stopped beneath the huge tree on the hill, it stood out in stark relief against the predawn sky as Thaddrick stood beneath it and began to sing in a low but harmonious voice, his arms moving in intricate patterns as he sang. Sonal moved closer as a pinprick of light appeared, growing brighter by the moment, the light held a dark centre and the centre began to grow and split, making more dark spots appear, Sonal realised he was watching the birth of a gateway, in wonder he watched the beautiful lights shine and sparkle as Thaddrick sang. The dark spots changed shape as the surface of fiery light broadened and once more, he recognised the shapes as hexagons, soft dark hexagons, they swam and spun in the brilliance of the light. Sonal could see Thaddrick’s face, serene and peaceful as he sang the gateway into being and just as before, the shining sphere flattened and the hexagons stopped moving quite so fast, gently they tessellated and became solid, a solid black velvet mass.
‘Thaddrick,’ called Sonal softly once more just as Thaddrick stepped through into the darkness. Annoyed with himself for waiting so long before calling again, Sonal rushed toward the gateway all evidence of his painful shin gone. He was beginning to feel very sleepy all of a sudden and taking a deep breath and praying his journey was not about to start he fell rather than stepped through the inky black surface.
As the dawn chorus began and the first light of day began to creep over the pretty, white stone buildings and their sleeping inhabitants’ time seemed to freeze. Birds stopped in flight and song, the wind ceased to blow and the sun seemed to stop in its tracks.
The pre-dawn sky would stay a pre-dawn sky until Thaddrick’s return.
Chapter 32
Sonal Returns Home
The wolf crouched by the large rocks hiding the gateway’s entrance, it thought it had heard a voice as it entered the portal but unable to distinguish the owner or stop his momentum, having already begun the journey along the short corridor through the void, it hid to check that it was not followed. The time-lapse spell should have kept the inhabitants of the valley in suspended sleep until my return, the man inside the wolf thought, but I am sure I heard something…
Within seconds of Blue’s hiding the tessellation occurred, the shimmering black hexagons stilled and seemed to spread, joining fast together giving the ill
usion of a solid base, the inky black surface rippled slightly and an almost comatose man fell through, landing hard but heavily asleep in the moon washed dirt and stone before the entrance of the portal. As the sleeping man lay sprawled on the ground the portal shimmered once more and the hexagons changed, taking on a mirror like appearance, the rivers of fire usually so bright and impressive becoming dull, the whole construction taking on the reflection of the world of rocks around it. Blue looked at the gateway in deep satisfaction, it had taken him a long time to change the spell and alter the design, any observer now coming across the portal would see only a reflection of the sky or the mountainside upon which the gateway stood. A sudden noise from the man on the ground reminded Blue he was no longer alone and suspicion filled him and his hackles rose, his eyes narrowed dangerously and his usually prominent ears lay back against his skull. Gingerly he stepped toward the sleeping man allowing the man’s scent to wash over him, as he recognized the smell he relaxed slightly. With his wolf sight and in the moonlight, the man’s clothes were a combination of different densities, ranging from deep black where the shadows lay, to a light grey where the jerkin faced the moon’s pale light. Blue knew this particular jerkin was usually a mix of green and faded black, as a wolf, his eyesight was extremely good and he could with difficulty see colour but even he had to admit not very well and especially in this light. Sonal, thought Blue, realising whom it was what on the journey are you doing here.
Sonal moved as his enforced sleep began to wear off, no longer under the influence of the spell his body reacted fast bringing him around within minutes after falling through the portal. Rather dazed, Sonal sat himself up and looked around him.
‘Well, this surely isn’t Green Home Forest,’ he said as he took in his surroundings, all was quiet and still in the moonlight apart from a soft hiss, what’s that? He thought absently, it’s like, like air escaping from one of my old balloons, he ignored his own question as he saw the wolf standing so close to him and stood up. ‘Blue, I guess this is going to be a one way conversation then,’ he chuckled as the now relaxed wolf pushed its head under Sonal’s hand. Sonal responded and pulled at the wolf’s ears.
‘Where are we boy?’ He asked as the wolf moved away motioning with his head for Sonal to follow. Slowly, Sonal clambered the well-trodden animal track, his larger feet finding it slightly more difficult to traverse as easily as the wolf and his eyes stayed fixed firmly on the ground to find his footing and prevent a fall. To Sonal, they seemed to walk for moments only until the pair finally rounded a corner and stopped. He was totally unprepared for the scene before him, the mountain range suddenly seemed to open up and from his position he could see a large dome like shape covering almost the entire valley before him. The dome shimmered in iridescent beauty as it reflected the moons pale light and he felt tears sting his eyes as he realized he was home, he had returned to the Bleak. He fell to his knees and softly began to cry.
‘Home,’ he whispered. ‘Blue, I lived near here; my family has a small farm… no, by now it will be inside the wall…’ he cried as he realized the wall had indeed expanded. He looked once more at the pearly, shimmering barrier before him, in places, the wall looked thin and dull, almost gone, strands of the original spell structure still held but barely. They added their lustre to the shining brilliance as if a cord were stringing together shining pearls, a vision of his mother swam before his eyes, smiling and happy holding a long sting of the pale white orbs.
Sonal’s mother had always worn a string of white stones around her neck on special occasions, they had been a gift, her brother, a second son himself had been allowed to leave the Bleak when he was a young man and much like Sonal in his turn had always yearned for a different life. Many years later, he returned with jewels and trinkets from a lifetime of sea faring and he had filled Sonal’s head with the tales and wonders of the outside world. Sonal’s father, fearing the influence on his susceptible older son had discouraged the visits when he could but not before his brother in law had given a string of pearls to his sister, Sonal’s mother. The pearls radiant beauty and shape had done nothing but remind the young man of the barrier he hated and in his mind he could still see them, only now, they were dull and patchy; not with shining iridescence he knew they, like the barrier before him had once held.
‘How has it deteriorated so fast?’ He asked still staring at the wall, ‘where are the Guardians... why have they let it get into this state, what happened here?’ He asked again, the questions falling off his tongue like water from the sky in a rainfall. The wolf, unable to answer, led the man further into the valley and nearer to the failing wall. Sonal could see that in places, the curtain of magical fabric was actually torn and to his horror, he could see that where the rents had occurred, already life outside of the barrier had already begun to wither and die. Walking toward the nearest of the small rents, Sonal rubbed the scar on his chin gently, as if trying to remind himself how he got it. He shook his head and deliberately stepped carefully and quietly through, that hiss is louder here, he thought. Blue opened his mouth and emitted a low-key breathy whuff, clearly upset at Sonal having moved inside the dome. His ears flattened against his head and he lowered himself to the ground inching forward almost on his belly as he trailed after the man. Sonal kept moving through the gloom, the moonlight refused to penetrate the wall leaving the whole area dull and unreal, like walking through fog, Sonal thought, suddenly feeling like each step was a labour, his arms and legs felt heavy too and it was difficult to breath. He walked on regardless, passing places he knew he had known as a child but now was barely recognisable; dust covered everything and nothing seemed to be alive. The fog like atmosphere thickened, broken only by the occasional beam of muted light as it filtered through a tear in the dome high above his head, as he walked he removed his scarf from his neck to tie it across his face in order to stop the dust and fog from penetrating his lungs too deeply. I condemned Varan to live like this…, he thought, the tears drying in his lids before they became viable. On he walked, mile after mile of nothing but dirt, fog and death, with Blue as silent as the grave loyally following.
Finally, Sonal saw in the periphery of his eyesight what he had subconsciously come to find. A long low wall stood before him, the petrified remains of a small grove of trees and a stone well, miraculously still intact; then the remains of a barn with its doors open and swinging awkwardly off the hinges, its cavernous interior making the shadows look deeper and more threatening as they passed by. Still Sonal walked on, slower now and with dread holding every step, making every footfall scuff up the sand and dirt beneath his feet, the only obvious movement among the miles of desolation. On he crept through the dead village, past outlying tumble down shacks and lost faded buildings that had once held his friends. His chest became tight as he struggled to breathe the thin air and again he slowed down, almost not wanting to see. Then, out of the gloom appeared what had once been another building, it was just as ramshackle and dead as the rest of the village but this one the breath still in his chest. A still sturdy chimneystack grew from a ruin that had once been his childhood home, here and there, the roof remained intact allowing him to glimpse inside the once lively house, rotten wooden floors, doors hanging from hinges and torn rags flapping at broken windows threw him instantly into the throes of memory. He walked slowly around the building seeing the rooms for what they once were, tears for himself and his family refusing to fall from his eyes, drying even before they were born. He saw ghosts from his past, his mother sat with her twin sons and daughter before the roaring fire telling the three children stories before bedtime. His father, teaching him how to use his magic to repair small hurts in trees or animals and how to maintain the balance the magic required, all in preparation for his duties as a guardian. He saw Analeen crying on the last day he had seen her alive, her small face contorted with tears and sobbing because she didn’t want to go visit an old aunt of her mother’s, she had wanted to stay at home.
‘With the boys
and grandpa,’ she had said, he remembered how happy both he and Varan had been when their mother had refused to allow her request. Lena had always been able to tell us apart, he thought, she would have spoiled our game of swaps, his thoughts continued guiltily. Maybe she would still have been alive if she had stayed; he shook his head to remove the depression that had settled over him. He thought of his grandfather, the grandfather who had put so much trust in him, the grand old man of the family, so loved by all of the children.
‘It’s a secret from me to you…,’ the words entered his head with such force they startled him.
‘The book, of course, grandfather’s book,’ he said whirling around to face the wolf sitting alert but unhappily beside what had once been the life force of the house, the now dead hearth.
‘I came to give you this.’ Sonal said, suddenly angry at the overwhelming emotion engulfing him within the confines of his old home, guilt laying heavily on his mind. ‘Did I make this happen Blue?’ He whispered as he placed the book before the wolf on the dirt floor. ‘Did I cause them all to die, Lena to die?’ Unable to shed viable tears he sat breathing heavily and with difficulty as he leant against the outer wall of his old home his head held low in his hands. ‘Some secret, grandfather,’ he sobbed aloud, his voice raw and filled with pain.
Blue looked quizzically at the book before him before lowering his head and sniffling and snuffling all around it, his attention suddenly transfixed, he began pushing the old book gently with his nose. Sonal looked up as he heard the scraping of the book across the ground as it inched its way with the help of Blue’s paw toward a single patch of pure moonlight and following the moonbeam’s upward path as far as he could toward the ceiling of the large domed barrier, Sonal sighed.
The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' Page 29