The Secret of Namana (The Arnaka Saga Book 2)

by Lucia Ashta

  30 The Illusion of Time

  “I saw her again,” Ashta told Anak while she stared into the clear water that rushed by them. Fish chased each other in play. One caught up with another, and the two tangled in a confusion of colors and scales before continuing on with their swim down the creek.

  Ashta and Anak finally had the chance to rest. After their narrow escape from the crow, they slipped away from their companions to take a moment for themselves. As always, the water beckoned to them. Today, they enthusiastically answered its call, sitting next to each other on the water shore.

  They removed the moccasins they wore for distance travel and immersed their feet in the water. The cool water refreshed and soothed their feet, tired from all the walking and running.

  Anak turned his head toward Ashta expectantly. He thought he knew who “her” was, and he wanted to hear more.

  “I saw the woman again, the one who reached through time to tell me about the doman, the one that looks and feels so much like me. I assume she saw me too. It was as if she felt what I felt. She ran while I ran. Her heart beat as mine did.

  “I don’t know what it means, but she and I are becoming more closely connected. I sense her even now.” Ashta trailed off, still speaking into the flowing water, mesmerized by it, soothed by its constancy and simplicity.

  Anak looked at his twin. She was beautiful and golden as always. He had grown to love her in ways that surprised him. The love they shared possessed a depth greater than he had imagined possible. The next spring equinox would mark a decade since they first met in the flesh. A decade of togetherness may as well be an eternity in their world.

  The sunlight reflected off Ashta’s yellow eyes, making them glow. Darker lashes framed her eyes, and the contrast between her lashes and glowing irises made the yellow look incandescent. Anak ran his eyes over the rest of her features. Ashta was undeniably beautiful, but her inner strength and joy were what was most magnetic.

  However, the beauty Anak now admired ran deeper; his very soul was drawn to Ashta’s. He understood now that he had yearned for her with his every breath until he found her. They were meant to be together. They had to be. There was no other way for them. There could be no other way. Their prophesied destinies ensured it.

  Anak listened to Ashta closely. He had not seen another version of himself. His lessons and Ashta’s often paralleled each other, but this was one he had not experienced. He was curious. What was it like to look at another version of your soul? Did you notice that spark, that recognition, instantly? Were you aware of everything that happened in that other life, since you share the same soul?

  Anak turned to stare into the water now too.

  “What color are her eyes?” he asked. He spoke aloud since Thom, the one who did not understand the language of Arnaka, was absent.

  Ashta held her stare with the water and smiled. A few breaths passed, and then she turned to Anak.

  “Guess,” she said.

  Her reply was playful and teasing. Bright amber eyes, afire with the glow of the sun, stared into their identical reflection.

  The twins’ breathing grew deep. Their stare grew deeper. Their eyes held, unwavering. And then there was nothing that could stop it.

  Anak closed the space between them. He leaned toward Ashta, and her breathing intensified in response. His mouth found hers, his soul found hers, and the rest was a flow of unconscious thought. Their bodies longed for each other as much as their hearts had for all the years until they finally reunited.

  Their tongues intertwined, the fire ignited, and their passion burst into flame. Ashta pulled away from Anak’s kiss for a moment. Immediately, he reached for her, needing her. Ashta giggled with the enthusiasm of exuberant youth. Anak reached for her again. Ashta nudged him away. She needed the space to pull off her shirt. She threw it toward the grasses that lined the water.

  She untied her pants while Anak stared. He studied her as if her body were new to him every time. She stood, slipped out of the last of her clothes, and threw the pants in the direction of the shirt, where they joined in a crumpled heap. Another giggle, another burning glance at her lover, and she dove into the water. The water was shallow. She dove long, skimming just below the surface of the water. The water rippled, shimmered, and reflected the sun as it caressed her naked body.

  Ashta surfaced just in time to see Anak’s feet leave the ground. Within instants, she felt his cool skin pressed against hers. His arms wrapped around her from behind, and he held her close. She leaned her head back against his shoulder for a moment. She pulled in a long breath that filled her, a long look at the bright blue sky above them.

  Then, she turned toward him, and they became one. He filled her, sharing with her the last remnants of who he was. She received all that he offered her, and she opened herself up to him fully, revealing every last bit of herself. Together, like this, they were truly one. Two individuals who were so much like each other, intermingled, and in the eyes of Creator, for this single moment, they were one.

  Ashta closed her eyes to the world, to thoughts of the dark raven, to the doman, and everything that was still left for them to fulfill while they walked this earth. For these eternal moments, it was just her and her beloved, twins since before time. She breathed in deeply, and Anak’s essence filled her.

  -----

  Elena sat next to Marco on the same large, flat rock she shared with Willem the night they met him. Sitting Bear sat to Marco’s left on another smaller rock, where he listened intently to what Marco was saying. Marco was explaining who Ashta and Anak were, the start of Elena’s visions, and their discovery that he, too, had similar visions while within the pyramids in Egypt. Marco struggled to summarize a journey that had only lasted several months in linear time, but that seemed like forever to him and encompassed several lifetimes.

  Sitting Bear understood that Elena and Marco believed they shared souls with these twins of golden prophecy, that Elena and Marco were another incarnation of the souls within Ashta and Anak. Sitting Bear’s people believed in reincarnation, so the concept was not foreign to him. All the same, it was amazing to hear Marco speak of such things. Sitting Bear listened raptly.

  Elena had surmounted the stage she had struggled with so much in the recent past. She no longer questioned or doubted what Marco spoke of. She accepted it wholeheartedly now. It had become a part of her. She was Ashta, and Marco was Anak. As incredible as that would have been for her just half a year ago, she believed it to be true now.

  Even so, Elena did not contribute to the conversation. She was back in her body, but still, she felt different. It was as if she were there and not there at the same time. She was dreamy, and she alternately shifted her gaze from the charred remains of the fire Willem had built the night they met to the orange mountains in the distance, and then back again.

  She smelled the air around her. It was incredibly alive. It carried an astonishing depth of information and knowledge. She realized she was more attuned to her surroundings than usual. It was as if by holding onto Ashta in the other world she was more alert to the magic that constantly surrounded them in this reality.

  “Ashta and Anak are the golden children of prophecy,” Marco said. “The prophecy foretells of twins that will change the world. They will come at a time of strife and greed, and they will bring peace and golden light to the world.

  “The twins were born on the spring equinox, just as the prophecy predicted. The stars shone unusually bright. They looked fluorescent as they announced the twins’ arrival.

  “Elena and I believe this prophecy refers to us in some ways as well. Since we are the same souls as the golden children of prophecy, we also have the responsibility to do whatever we can to fill the world with greater light and to transform the world for the better.”

  Then he looked at Sitting Bear. All that Marco had just spoken of were concepts that his own blood family would reject; neither his parents nor his surviving siblings would understand any of it. But they woul
d react. They would likely worry for Marco, thinking he had lost his mind. The only one in his family that would have comprehended him now was his sister, Angela. But she had left this plane almost nineteen years ago.

  Here Elena and Marco sat with a man they had met only days before, but, within his eyes, Marco identified acceptance and comprehension, not judgment. Marco supposed this should not surprise him. He could feel the pull toward the life as Swift Horse even now, looking into the eyes of the man who had been his older brother.

  “There is also something else, something I have not seen, but Elena has. There is another prophecy made by the same prophet. We do not know all of what it concerns yet, but it has something to do with an object of power called a doman. This doman must be very important because the dark shape-shifter is pursuing it.

  “That is the general idea of what Elena has shared with me. She may have more information.” Marco let his last statement linger as an opening for Elena to say more.

  Marco turned his face toward Elena, inviting her to join the conversation. But Elena was quiet. She didn’t want to speak. Even though she listened to everything Marco told Sitting Bear, she processed what Marco was saying in a different part of her mind than the one that held her attention now.

  Sitting Bear’s line of sight left Marco to shift over to Elena. Together, the two men took her in. She stared at their surroundings, her eyes glazed, fixed on one specific point for long, drawn-out seconds before moving onto the next. It was clear Elena was distracted, pulled away by thoughts of another time and place.

  “We must find a way to help Ashta and Anak,” Sitting Bear said, his voice low. “Based on what you’ve said, whatever they are trying to do must be very important. We have to do what we can to help. Even if they are in another time than we are now, there must be something we can do. If not, I don’t think Elena would be drawn into Ashta’s world right now the way she is.

  “Besides, there is no real difference in time and space when it comes to the war between good and evil. Its effects can trickle through all time and all lifetimes. There is no true separation. The sense of rigid time is an illusion.

  “The fate of our present world may rest on Ashta and Anak. We must be warriors of the light now, just as we have been before.”

  He was remembering what it was like to be Thunder Gods, sharing light through the pyramid. What he didn’t realize then was that it was partly the connection Elena held to other worlds that was causing him to connect to this other lifetime.

  “There is an evil envoy that pursues us now, just as there is one that hunts Ashta and Anak,” Sitting Bear said. Someone, or something, had given their attacker orders. It was unlikely that this person or force would yield because the attacker was in police custody for the time being.

  “The answer to what we can do to help may lie with the pyramid.” Elena shivered. Sitting Bear’s words rang true.

  Marco sighed loudly, but with determination. “It is what we came here for.”

  “Then there is no time to waste,” Sitting Bear said. “Let’s go to the pyramid now.”

  From wherever Elena was, she looked up suddenly. The whisper of Ashta trailed after her.

  “Yes, we must go now,” she said.

  She was connected to something greater now.

  Sitting Bear and Marco discussed the pros and cons of abandoning the campsite Marco set up when he and Elena first pulled into town. In the end, the only advantage they could come up with was the bubble of protection, and, although the security the shield offered was important, it wasn’t a strong enough reason to keep them away from the pyramid.

  The answer was with the pyramid. It had to be. It was why Elena and Marco were there to begin with. Willem could find them at the pyramid if he wanted.

  The men did not include Elena in the decision-making. It was apparent to both of them that Elena was in a place where these details did not matter. Instead, they allowed her the space to honor her spirit. As it was, Elena wasn’t even listening to their conversation.

  While the men quickly disassembled the tent and cleared the campsite, leaving the dismantling of the protective bubble to Willem, Elena let herself drift again until she smelled the familiar scents of Ashta’s world.

  Then, Elena walked through the ripple of energy that reminded her so vividly of Area and Arien’s ways. And, like Area and Arien, the twins of air from Ashta’s time, Elena floated toward the car.

  31 The Golden Ones

  The twins, Thom, and Kaanra sat together under the wide umbrella of one of the ancient trees of the forest. The trees had now righted themselves, the plants had assumed their usual positions, and the vines had retreated to their habitual spots. Birds chirped and fluttered from their familiar perches. It was as if the illusion to deceive the dark raven had never been.

  Despite the appearance of normalcy, the light warriors were acutely aware that the dark raven still hunted them. For now, the thick canvas of green above would shield them from his probing eyes, but they needed to afford the doman greater protection.

  Thom asked the woodlands and its creatures if any of them identified a danger to him or his companions. Ashta joined the wind to detect if a threat was approaching, riding the air currents. Anak held his hands against the earth, becoming one with her. The Mother distinguished light from dark easily, and Anak searched the earth that spread out around them for signs of encroaching darkness.

  Kaanra tilted his face toward the sun. He did not seek answers. He did not question. He did not think. Only gratitude for all that life could be coursed through him. He had fulfilled his part in Dann’s final prophecy. He had also completed every other divine purpose that was his for this lifetime. He would continue with the light warriors for as long as he could offer support and assistance, for as long as Creator gave him breath, but the rest of this journey belonged to the younger members of the party. They would determine their course now. The fate of the world was in their hands.

  Thom held the doman out for Ashta, Anak, and Kaanra to see. When the mother tree birthed the doman into Thom’s arms, entrusting the treasure of her womb to his care, there had been no time. Thom furtively tucked the doman under his cloak so the prying darkness could not detect it.

  Now, Thom held the doman in outstretched arms. He cradled the precious object in his hands, while the others leaned in, further closing the circle their bodies formed. The twins, Kaanra, and even Thom, who had not had the opportunity to study the doman either, peered excitedly at it. They were spellbound when, suddenly, Kaanra threw his head back in hearty laughter.

  The others looked at Kaanra curiously. Why was he laughing?

  But Kaanra could not explain. He was too busy laughing at the way the universe worked. Kaanra had wondered about the doman since Master Sina first shared Dann’s final prophecy with him many years before. For all this time, he had wondered. What could the doman be? What could it do? What did it look like?

  Finally, they found the doman. Now, no matter how he looked at it or at which angle, he still could not tell what it was, or what it could do, or what it even really looked like. What was it?! Kaanra laughed harder.

  The universe certainly had a sense of humor. But as much as it had a sense of humor, it also operated with poignant meaning. The item Thom held as tenderly as if he were holding his first-born child was an object of great power. It had to be.

  According to their interpretation of Dann’s final prophecy, the doman was vitally important to the world and to humanity’s survival. Yet its function, even upon close inspection, was still shrouded in mystery. The doman exemplified one of nature’s main tenets: Everything within nature functioned purposefully, with a very good reason for being the way it was, even if the human mind could not perceive the reason.

  The doman appeared to be deformed, as if something had malfunctioned in its creation. But Kaanra knew better, as did the twins and Thom. Creator’s design was perfect, and there was always a purposeful why for any seeming imperfection.

/>   The doman looked like a giant, deformed acorn. Life never ceased to surprise Kaanra, and he threw his head back again, loud laughter splattering off him. Kaanra rejoiced at the quirks and mysteries of life. They made life so rich.

  Thom tucked the doman away under his cloak again, where the beating of his heart soothed it. After touching the doman and looking at it from all angles, the light warriors had to satisfy themselves with knowing the doman would reveal itself to them when it was time. Besides, they were all a bit relieved when the doman was out of sight again. The threat was too great to take any unnecessary risks.

  They let their comfort dictate their placement around the now-haphazard circle. They leaned against roots, trunks, and stones. The last several days had been long and eventful, and they could not predict when their next opportunity for rest might come, with the dark raven in their pursuit. They took their rest when they could.

  A soft breeze rustled the grasses. Leaves fluttered in the wind as soft, filtered sunlight revealed the secrets of their cracks and crevices.

  Master, please tell us the words of Dann’s final prophecy again, Anak said.

  Kaanra sat up straight against the tree he leaned on. His posture was one way he showed respect to the great prophet’s words.

  Master of the isle will follow the stars to it. Master of the forest will cradle it, hidden in the womb of the world. With the golden ones, it can open the pyramids to unknown worlds. But be wary of the dark crow. If he succeeds, the world will suffer the fury of sunless night.

  Thom repeated Kaanra’s words. Then he said, With the golden ones, it can open the pyramids to unknown worlds. It is obvious to me that Ashta and Anak are the golden ones.

  Kaanra nodded his agreement. I also think they are, Thom. They are the golden children of another of Dann’s important prophecies. It is synchronistic that they should also be a part of this one.

  Our guides led us to Thom, Anak added, which makes it likely that we would also be further involved in the prophecy’s fulfillment. I agree that Ashta and I are the golden ones.