The Last Oracle

by Colvin, Delia

  On the jet, Lita hooked Valeria up to equipment that kept her heart and lungs working as they took off toward home. Alex sat helplessly by, clinging to Valeria’s hand and refusing to believe anything except that his love would survive.

  A few hours later, they arrived in Innsbruck and a medical helicopter transported them to Morgana.

  CHAPTER 26

  The romantic bedroom where Alex had first proposed to his beloved no longer looked quite so romantic—as it continued to fill with even more hospital equipment that Mani ordered. Still, Alex consoled himself knowing that it was better than the hospital where he had been barred from entering her room due to the quarantine.

  Alex listened as Mani performed an ultrasound; he closed his eyes, praying for the familiar, reassuring sound. A moment later, Alex heard that rapid heartbeat. He opened his eyes and stared at Mani. He couldn’t bring himself to ask him if the baby was all right.

  “The baby appears to be unharmed,” Mani said flatly.

  Caleb and Tavish sat in the great room by the fire, lost in their pain. Paolo sat by himself until an hour later when Daphne arrived and held him tightly.

  Alex didn’t ask Mani how his wife was—he knew. He had watched her die too many times before. It was late in the evening when Camille and Jonah arrived. Most of the family had not met Jonah, but there were no hugs or introductions—only a shared grief.

  Finally, Alex felt Mani’s hand on his shoulder. “Alex…”

  Shaking his head, Alex covered his face. “Don’t, Doc!” Alex tried to stop the trembling in his chest.

  Mani rubbed Alex’s arm.

  “I am sorry, my friend. These are just not injuries that will heal.”

  It was a few minutes later when Camille came in, sobbing, and hugged Alex, who didn’t want to be hugged. He didn’t want anything except for his wife to open her eyes and smile at him. After all the centuries of waiting for her and despite all of their enemies now being conquered, he had failed her.

  Mani cleared his throat. “She is breathing on her own for now. She may even regain consciousness briefly and rally. But at this point, my only goal is to keep Valeria’s heart going for at least another week to improve the chance of the baby’s survival.”

  Alex held on to his sobs. “I can’t talk about that now.”

  Later that evening, Lita came in and rubbed Alex’s back. “I thought you would like to know that Myrdd has recovered. Ava and Lars are bringing him back.”

  Alex nodded and then crawled into bed next to Valeria. He brushed her hair back from her face. Her eyes were still open, but he could see no life that was Valeria in those beautiful oracle blue eyes. He brushed his hands over her lids to close them.

  Camille tried to find something to say. “You don’t think about it now…but,” Camille swallowed, “let’s just pray that…well, you know…” Alex tried to distance himself from the emotion—unwilling to accept that this was the end.

  ∞

  The next morning, most of the family waited on the porch or in lawn chairs under the newly blossoming trees. The grass was green and Homer and his wife brought baskets of pansies to hang from the porch.

  Alex had fallen asleep and when he woke, he saw a faint light back in Valeria’s eyes.

  “Thank, God!” he choked as he brushed her hair back and swallowed. She tried to speak from under the oxygen mask and he pulled it from her face.

  “Is it spring yet?” she whispered.

  When Alex nodded, she closed her eyes and smiled.

  “Can I…”

  “What beautiful? Anything you want—anything.”

  “I…I want to lay under our tree.”

  “I think you should take it easy right now! Let’s get you recovered first!” Alex said.

  Mani approached Valeria’s bed as Camille went to the door, relieved.

  Mani smiled kindly at Valeria and said, “Alex, I think if we all help, we can take Valeria outside. The weather is quite pleasant.” Alex looked at Mani as if he were insane.

  “But, Doc—shouldn’t she...”

  “Sometimes the needs of the soul outweigh the needs of the body,” Mani said.

  Lita touched Camille’s shoulder and whispered, “Camille, she’s rallying.”

  Stepping into the great room, Camille asked, “What does that mean? That’s a good thing, right? I mean...she’s conscious!” Camille said quietly, so that Alex couldn’t hear. But when Lita shook her head softly, Camille repeated, “She’s...conscious, though!”

  “She needs to say goodbye,” Lita whispered softly. Camille began to sob as Lita held her.

  Mani, Alex, Paolo, and Tavish, gently lifted Valeria onto a stretcher and then carefully carried her out the front door, down the steps, and then around the side of the house to her ginkgo tree where a million diamond shaped leaves had recently sprouted on nearly every inch of the branches. Valeria kept her eyes closed until she was there. She looked up and smiled at her ginkgo tree and the blue sky beyond, as she held Alex’s hand.

  Mani patted Paolo and Tavish on the back. “Let’s give Alex and Valeria some time alone.” Reluctantly, Paolo went back to the porch where he could continue to see her, his face frozen in a mask of despair. Caleb and Elliot returned to their game of chess, while Daphne and Tavish competed in archery.

  “See how it’s thrived here? I always knew it would,” she whispered.

  “How could it not? When it’s surrounded by so much love,” he said.

  “Promise me...” she said, as a tear escaped. “You won’t be so sad that you forget...her.” Valeria ran her hand over her stomach.

  “You and I will take good care of her! You and I will,” he said as he battled his emotions.

  Her eyes closed for a moment.

  “Val?” Alex cried out.

  She nodded and opened her eyes as a tear rolled down her cheek. Then she looked at him with wonder. “Do you know how beautiful you have made my life?” she said brushing her fingers over his face. Alex kissed her palm. Then she lowered her brows and tightened her jaw, battling the tears. “I’m so...sorry for this. I know this won’t be easy.”

  “You’re going to be fine, now,” Alex choked. “That, my love, is our destiny.”

  She closed her eyes again and nodded. He wasn’t ready for the reality.

  “Will you come for me?”

  “Please don’t go!” Alex cried.

  “Promise you’ll come for me,” she whispered.

  “Please don’t die!”

  “My love...” She opened her eyes and they were crystal clear as she smiled. “We never really die.”

  He kissed her once more as she released her last breath.

  ∞

  The family gathered around Alex as he lifted his wife—his symbolon—and carried her back into the bedroom in the cottage he had built for her. Then he stepped back as Mani and Melitta tied down her limbs and inserted a tube down her throat to automate her breathing, while hooking up another machine to compress her heart and keep her alive long enough to safely deliver the baby.

  CHAPTER 27

  It surprised Alex when he woke the next morning to the sounds of birds singing. How could nature go on as if nothing had changed? He sat inconsolable, next to his beloved wife’s body. He couldn’t think of eating. He didn’t want to talk…he didn’t deserve to sleep…he didn’t deserve life. He had failed her—again.

  Always before, he could cling to the vision of their marriage—his vision from 3,000 years before. He had always imagined that vision was a promise of their happily forever after, but now he knew that vision had been trickery.

  Still, he couldn’t regret an instant of his time with her. That was his dream—he only wanted more of it—he wanted an eternity with her and anything less was just not enough. He could see how the others felt; their need to say words that might somehow make a difference...but words could never change the reality, nor ease his pain.

  The only thing he seemed able to do was watch as her chest mechanically
rose and fell to artificially keep her and the fetus—that was never quite real to him—alive. He knew what was to follow...that terrible time of watching her body disintegrate or when they tried to take her from him. The agony of those moments had tormented Alex during most of his existence, and now he would have an even more painful memory to add to those—the loss of his wife, having almost survived this time. And now, there were no visions of the future to cling to.

  ∞

  A few days later, Mani ran another ultrasound. He thought that perhaps the baby might be ready to survive outside of the womb. But he decided to delay the cesarean section until absolutely necessary. He didn’t believe that Alex was ready to see the equipment turned off. Frankly, Mani wasn’t certain he was ready to confront that.

  That afternoon, a delivery truck arrived. Alex’s eyes moved to the window and he saw Camille sobbing as she asked the delivery man to take the package up to the main house. Alex saw that it was the cradle that he and Valeria had purchased in the Azores, but he felt no emotion over seeing it He shook back his thoughts again—it was better not to think.

  “Alex?” he heard Daphne say. He opened his eyes and saw her enter the room hesitantly. She stood nervously angled between the door and the bed, as if posing for escape, her hands balled into fists.

  His face was gray and he could not speak.

  “I…uh…I have two things. One is...well, I brought...” Daphne swallowed and then raised a coin. “She’ll need this.” Alex turned away and so Daphne sat the coin on the table by Valeria. “It’s for Charon,” she said in almost a whisper. Alex shook his head and closed his eyes as he pressed back the emotion. “She’ll need it to go to the Elysian Fields and uh...” Daphne’s voice faded.

  Alex didn’t acknowledge her comment. He couldn’t bear to think of waiting 500 years—or even 50—to see her again. But even more, he couldn’t bear to think of her being gone forever; and the coin represented finality. It was better not to think about that.

  Daphne stepped away from the bed and toward the door as her chest rose and dipped a bit too fast. “Alex, I have something I must tell you.” Her voice sounded strange, causing Alex to awaken from his fog. He blinked and then tried to focus on her, but the vision of his wife obscured most of his world. Then he noticed the tears in Daphne’s eyes. In the eons that he had known her, he had never seen her nervous and had certainly never seen her cry.

  “I really don’t want to tell you this…but I must,” she said, as if convincing herself.

  “What is it Daph?” he said, forcing the words out.

  “It…it’s a secret that I’ve kept for 3,000 years.” She looked up nervously and then choked. “I do hope you can forgive me.” She clamped her eyes shut for a moment. Then, in a brief moment of bravery, she blurted, “I am the reason for so much unhappiness in your life.” She opened her eyes, knowing it was cowardly and a tear escaped. She quickly dismissed it with her hand.

  “What are you...talking about, Daph?”

  She fidgeted and then said, “Did you ever wonder how it was that you were the only oracle to survive the drowning by Aegemon that day?”

  He wasn’t in the mood for this. “You were there when Aegemon threw me in. I’m grateful to you for that.” He brushed his fingers through his hair. He was really too exhausted to care about some minor infraction that happened 3,000 years ago.

  She drew a deep breath and quickly brushed away another tear. “I knew you would be there. I merely waited for you.”

  “You knew?” He gazed up through the haze with this sudden revelation.

  “Yes.”

  He waited for her to continue but she just stood there, hanging to the doorframe like a life preserver. “A vision?” he guessed.

  “No.”

  “Daph, just tell me,” he said, exhausted.

  “Before Apollo went on to the Elysian Fields, he came to me and gave me a task of great importance. I was to save you from drowning and then take you to Cassandra...in Troy,” Daphne said, nodding toward Valeria. Alex lowered his brows, it didn’t make any sense.

  “See? Apollo did try to protect you—he just never imagined that I would....” She glanced at the floor unable to make eye contact with him. “I have always had a penchant for competition...well, you know that. So when a woman I knew—we all know her now—Circe, well, Kristiana, began to speak of a man and how she would steal his heart, I challenged her to a contest. It was harmless at first. Both of us believed that if you chose us over Cassandra, who was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world, then that would mean that the winner was...well, you get the idea. Still, I always planned on following through on Apollo’s request, until...”

  “Until when?” Alex asked, his heart rate now climbing.

  “Until I saw you.” Her chest moved heavily with fear.

  Alex began to feel the shock of his and Valeria’s 3,000 years of agony. If Daphne had followed through, Cassandra would not have been so hopeless, and would not have ingested Aegemon’s poisoned drink. She would not have drowned. And, perhaps, Troy would have survived and the two of them could have been together all of these years. “I don’t...understand how this... Why, Daph?”

  In a brief moment of courage, she looked him straight in the eye. “You know why.” Alex nodded slowly.

  “I had never cared about anyone else before.” She glanced up for a moment, admitting, “Well, except for myself.” She looked down again. “I kept thinking just a little more time...surely, there could be no fault with a few more years. Of course, I always planned on assisting Cassandra. But I thought if we waited a little longer then you might,” she gulped, “care for me.”

  “Oh, Daph!” Alex whispered in a sudden moment of realization. All the years of pain his beloved had suffered—all the loneliness—it all could have been avoided. Suddenly, the anger began to boil within him.

  “Alex, I truly did not intend any harm to come to her…or to you. I truly did not. I knew that if you did not come for her, Cassandra would take matters into her own hands—and she did! And when you found her drowned, and I realized that she had been cursed by Circe...” She shook her head in denial. “I knew that I could never tell you. But...see? I’ve...grown and here we are. And now you know. I am so very sorry.”

  Laying his head in his hands, he sat quietly, wanting to shout and blame Daphne for it all. Instead, he worked to control the rage that welled inside him like a wild cat trapped and seeking its escape.

  Daphne took a few steps toward Alex and started to move her hand to his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

  “Please, don’t touch me right now,” Alex said flatly, battling the pain of her confession.

  “Alex, please tell me that you can forgive me someday,” she said, holding her ground.

  “I’m going to go for a walk and when I return, it would be best if you weren’t here.”

  Pressing her lips together, she restrained her sobs. As she started to step out of the bedroom, she stopped and clung to the door frame for a moment. “I always loved my blue eyes. I thought they were beautiful with my hair—everyone said so. But after Cassandra...drowned...the first time, I knew that my eyes should have always been green for the wicked creature that I had become. I didn’t have the courage to actually change them. That’s why I wore the contacts. Not really to be different, but to remember what my envy did to your life. I am so sorry.”

  Daphne broke down, sobbing as she exited the room. Lita went to her and held her. Immediately, Alex stood and walked past them both, and out the front door without speaking.

  As Daphne watched him leave, Lita said, “He’ll forgive you. He’s just in pain right now.”

  “I don’t think he ever will,” Daphne said as she brushed a tissue under her eyes. Camille came in.

  “Lita, can you help me?” Camille asked. “I want to put the cradle back in the nursery before Alex returns.”

  “Of course, Camille!” Lita said and stepped outside.

  Daphne glanced outs
ide and, with no one else in the great room, she returned to the bedroom and picked up the coin and placed it in Valeria’s hand and closed her fingers around it. Then she went back to the great room and glanced at the place where she had spent so much time with the man she adored—who would never love her—and she left.

  Outside, Alex saw the flowerpots and lattice covered with Bougainvillea—Valeria’s favorite. Homer was evidently unaware that the reason for the flowers was gone forever. Alex wondered what he would do with the cottage now. He wondered if he could bear to be here and then he wondered if he could bear to leave.

  CHAPTER 28

  “Alex,” she said, as she brushed the side of his face. Feeling her touch, he opened his eyes to the miracle of his symbolon, alive once again.

  “You’re back!” he cried joyously.

  She smiled and took his hands in hers. “For now...but, this is a lousy substitute.”

  Alex lowered his brows. “What do you mean... You’re...back!” Then he began to wonder if it was a dream. Something felt...different. “Beautiful, tell me you’re back.”

  Valeria continued to smile, but it faded into sadness. “We have things to do...and they must be done now.” She looked up and drew a quick breath. “We haven’t even discussed a name for our daughter.”

  “I was thinking, Jenni—that was your name the first time that I kissed you,” Alex said.

  Valeria smiled. “How about Genesis—for our new beginning. We could call her Genni for short.”

  Alex nodded as he held her hands and glanced out the window. He saw the tulips that broke through the ground by the ginkgo. Eventually, the hydrangea would climb back to its original height just above the porch railing. Alex drew a deep breath.

  Suddenly it occurred to him that his love had been wearing a blue print, hospital gown—not the white flowing gown she now wore. The wounds around her chest were no longer there. He brushed his hand along her mouth and there was no warmth...no breath. Then he moved his hand, hesitantly down to her heart and there was no beat. Valeria’s expression turned sad and concerned.