by I. T. Lucas
Sari didn’t expect it to happen so fast. “Isn’t it too soon? What if he relapses?”
“He won’t.” Bridget put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s over, Sari. David is fine.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. Thank the Fates. I had very little to do with it.”
When the doctor left the room, Sari leaned over David and hugged him gently. “I was so scared.”
With noticeable effort, he lifted his arms and dropped them over her back. It wasn’t an embrace, but it was good enough. “I have so much that I need to tell you,” he whispered in her ear.
She wondered what it could be. Did he hear her and Annani talking about Gudbrand?
“I have a lot to tell you too, but it can all wait for when you regain your strength. I’m just so happy to have you back. You gave us quite a scare. You couldn’t breathe, and you needed a ventilator. I wasn’t sure that you would make it.”
“I almost didn’t.”
Her heart sank to her stomach. “You were aware of that?”
“I saw the doorway to heaven.”
Her heart skipped a beat. “How did it look?”
“Just a bright light, but it wasn’t about how it looked but rather how it felt. Endless love and peace. It called to me, and resisting the pull was nearly impossible.”
“But you chose to stay.”
“I love you.”
A knock sounded at the door, and a moment later, Steven walked in. “Ready to get rid of all the wires, David?”
“I can’t wait.”
“You should wait outside.” Steven smiled apologetically. “I know that the two of you are a couple, but some things are better not witnessed unless you are a medical professional.”
Sari had a good idea about what he was referring to, and she didn’t want to embarrass David by staying.
“I’ll get David a change of clothes.”
“That’s an excellent idea. Something loose and easy to pull on and off would be best.”
55
David
Once Steven was done removing all the wires and tubes that had been attached to David’s body, David ran a hand over his stubbled chin. He needed to shave, brush his teeth, and wash the hospital smell off before embracing Sari again.
“Can I take a shower?”
“Yes, but not by yourself. I can help you, or I can call Sari in. What do you prefer?”
It was stupid machismo, but David didn’t want Sari to see him so feeble. “I’d rather you do it. I’ll make it quick.”
“No problem.”
When Steven helped him out of bed, David was glad he had chosen the doctor. His legs felt like noodles, and he had to lean heavily on the guy to get into the bathroom.
Steven opened the shower enclosure and helped him to the built-in seat. “I’ll give you some privacy and get your clothes from Sari. When you are done, I’ll help you get dressed.”
“Thanks. When are you going to perform the immortality test?”
“In a couple of hours. There is no rush.” Steven grinned. “Don’t worry, you are transitioning. By now, we have enough experience with transitioning adults, and your case is classic. After your induction, you went through a very predictable sequence, except for the breathing. We never had to put a transitioning Dormant on a ventilator before. You are lucky that we even had one.”
“I’m luckier than I deserve to be.”
Steven’s expression turned serious. “Sari was frantic with worry, and she didn’t leave your side unless she absolutely had no other choice. I just hope that you care for her as much as she cares for you. She deserves the best.”
“I might not be the best man out there, but I can promise you that I will do my best to make her happy.”
Steven nodded. “That’s good to hear. But just so you know, she has an entire clan at her back. If you misbehave in any way and hurt her feelings, the consequences will be dire for you.”
“Duly noted. It warms my heart to see how much Sari’s people love her.”
“The love is well earned.” Steven smiled. “I’m done issuing warnings. Welcome to the clan, David.”
“Thank you.”
“When you feel better, I want to talk to you about your experience. As a doctor, you might offer us more insight into the process.”
“Gladly.” It was strange to discuss professional observation while sitting naked on a shower bench.
Steven really needed to work on his bedside manner.
“If you need me, just say my name.” Steven tapped his ear. “I’ll hear you.”
“Okay.”
As the door closed behind the young doctor, David lifted the handheld and turned the water on. His arms were weak, and washing off the sticky residue took longer than he’d expected, but he managed to scrub it all off.
Wrapped in a towel, he made it to the vanity mirror and inspected himself to see if anything had changed. But the only noticeable difference was that he’d lost some weight and there were dark circles under his eyes. His feather-like wrinkles were still there, and the slight discoloration on the left side of his jaw hadn’t faded.
Perhaps Steven was wrong, and he hadn’t transitioned?
Shouldn’t his hearing and sight have improved?
Probably more time was needed for that. Or so he hoped.
A knock sounded on the door. “Are you done?” Steven asked.
“Yes.”
The doctor walked in with a bundle of folded clothes in hand. “You look better already.” He put them on the counter. “Do you need my help, or can you manage by yourself?”
“I can manage.”
Barely, but he did it without falling on his face, so he was all good.
Showered, shaved, and dressed in a pair of loose sleep pants and a T-shirt, David leaned on Steven as he made his way back to bed, but not as heavily as he had on the way to the bathroom.
“Sari brought coffee and porridge for you, but if you don’t want to barf all over the bed, I suggest that you go easy on the porridge.” Steven covered him with a fresh blanket.
“Right now, coffee sounds heavenly. I can do without the porridge.”
The doctor nodded his approval and headed for the door.
“He’s decent now.”
“Thank you.” Sari walked in with a tray and put it on the bedside table.
“You look so much better.”
He looked as feeble as he felt.
“You are being generous, but thank you.” David reached for her hand. “And you look amazing.” He glanced at the tray and inhaled the sweet aroma. “I swear that coffee never smelled as good before. Is that my new and enhanced sense of smell at work?”
She chuckled. “I doubt it has improved so soon. You just crave coffee right now.” She poured him a cup. “Can you hold it? Or should I hold it for you?”
“I think I can manage.”
She handed him the cup but held her hand hovering nearby. “Just in case you are not as strong as you think you are. I don’t know if your body can already heal fast, and after all that you have been through, I really don’t want you to get burned by hot coffee.”
“I’m sorry for giving you a scare.” He took a few grateful sips.
“Don’t apologize. You had no control over it.”
He handed her the cup back. “For now, it will do.” Scooting to the side, he patted the spot he’d vacated. “Come here. I need to hold you.”
Sari hesitated only for a moment before kicking her shoes off and climbing on the hospital bed.
“Fates, I missed that.” She laid her head on his chest and draped her arm over his middle. “You feel so good, so solid.”
“I missed it too.” He tightened his arm around her. “Sometimes I could hear you talking to me, but I couldn’t respond, and it was so damn frustrating.”
Sari looked up. “Did you hear others as well? Or just me?”
“I heard Steven and Bridget.”
He debated whether he s
hould mention hearing Annani as well. He wasn’t sure if the conversation he’d heard had been real or imagined, but if it had been real, at some point they would need to talk about it.
“I think that I heard your mother and you talking, but I might have been dreaming. I had many strange dreams.”
“What did you hear?”
He would have preferred to wait with that, but perhaps it was better to find out for sure whether everything he’d experienced while unconscious had been real or imagined.
“I heard your mother telling you about her experience with someone who she thought was me in one of my previous incarnations. She called me Gudbrand.”
Sari’s body tensed against his. “It wasn’t you. We both need to remember that. Thousands of years have passed since that incident, and you probably reincarnated dozens of times since. You are not the same man. You are not Gudbrand. You are David.”
So it had all been real.
He let out a breath. More than the revelations about his past life, David was glad that his brother had really been there, talking to him and promising that they would meet again.
“I know that.”
“Good. I don’t want you to feel guilty for something that you didn’t do.”
“I dreamt about being Gudbrand. He was obsessed with her.”
Sari lifted her head and looked into his eyes. “Did he love her?”
“Gudbrand loved himself. What he felt for her had nothing to do with love.”
“Is that how you felt in the dream?”
“I got to know him pretty well during those dreams. Gudbrand was a selfish man with an overblown ego, and he blamed her for his obsession instead of taking personal responsibility for his actions. He suspected Ania of enchanting him to forsake everything and everyone to be with her, so she could suck all the vitality out of him. When he saw her skin glow, his suspicions were confirmed, and he lost it.”
“Did he really intend to kill her?”
David nodded. “I’m glad that she stopped him, and I don’t hold it against her.”
“Annani still feels incredibly guilty about it. She is not sure whether Gudbrand would have actually done it. She thinks that he might have been bluffing to get his brother to stand down.”
“Gudbrand was crazed, and he wanted to end her. She did the right thing by defending herself in the only way she could. Losing him only affected his family, but losing Annani would have impacted all of humanity. Imagine what would have happened to the world without her influence. The Dark Ages would have gone on forever, and Navuh would have ruled supreme over a miserable, enslaved earth population.”
Sari shivered. “I can’t even conceive of a world controlled by Doomers.”
“I can. North Korea would seem like a paradise compared to what Navuh would have done.”
56
Sari
They were both tiptoeing around the big elephant in the room, and even though Sari would have preferred not to bring it up, it was better to get it out into the open instead of obsessing over it and letting it grow into mammoth proportions.
“I have to admit that it weirds me out knowing my mother was Gudbrand’s lover, and that a tiny part of him still lives inside of you. But I’ll get over it.”
Surprisingly, David turned to her with a bright smile illuminating his handsome face. “The part of Gudbrand that still lives in me is much smaller than you think.”
That was a healthy way to look at it, but he seemed way too happy over something that should have made him feel awkward. Perhaps he was joking?
She could play along. “It’s barely there.” Sari brought her thumb and forefinger together, leaving only hair-width space between them. “It’s so small that it can be ignored.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Still grinning, he cupped her cheek and looked into her eyes. “I am not the reincarnation of Gudbrand. I’m the reincarnation of Olek, Gudbrand’s brother. I’ve never been Annani’s lover.”
Sari felt like a tremendous weight had been lifted off her chest, but the relief only lasted a couple of seconds.
“I don’t understand how that’s possible. You dreamt about Gudbrand’s life, not his brother’s.”
“I also dreamt about Olek’s. I was married to a woman whom I loved dearly, but she died during childbirth. Astrid had asthma, and it got worse because of the pregnancy. She went into premature labor and died.”
The sense of relief returned, along with deep sorrow for Olek’s tragic life.
“My mother told me about that. I’m so sorry for you. That must have been a terrible experience to live through twice.”
David sighed. “Dreaming about Gudbrand’s life was much easier than dreaming about Olek’s. The poor guy was dealt one blow after another, and it took him many lifetimes to heal his soul. Thankfully, whoever is in charge of giving me a window into that past life did it in a merciful way. In the dream, I was an outside observer of Olek’s life. I didn’t live it. It was still difficult to watch, but the impact wasn’t as devastating.”
Sari hated to ask, but she had to know. “Did the baby survive?”
“Olek’s son survived birth, but he was tiny and weak, and he died a day later. Those were primitive times. Many mothers and babies perished in childbirth. Not that it was any consolation to Olek. He was crushed, and then on top of that, he also carried the guilt for killing his older brother. Frankly, I would have preferred to have been Gudbrand despite his lousy character. At least he didn’t have to drag such a heavy burden into his subsequent lives.”
Sari moved her hand on David’s stomach in small, soothing circles. “I can empathize, but I’m so incredibly relieved that you were never my mother’s lover in any shape or form. Does that make me a bad person?”
“No, my love. It makes you human.” He chuckled. “Not that you are, but you get what I mean. It’s natural to feel that way.”
“Why did you dream of Annani, though? Was Olek obsessed with her as well?”
“I need to backtrack a little to explain that.” David leaned back, reached for his cup of coffee, and took a few sips. “I skipped over the most important revelation I had during my coma. My twin brother Jonah came to talk to me. After he died, I wished for a sign from him that he was still out there in some form, but this was the first time he was allowed to do so. I think that the Fates or some other higher power wanted to set the record straight and relieve Annani from the guilt she’s carried for all those years. Or maybe they wanted our union to be free of the uncomfortable cloud that Annani’s history with Gudbrand was casting over it. That’s why Jonah was allowed to tell me the real story.”
“How is Jonah connected to all of that?”
David smiled. “Jonah was Gudbrand, and I was Olek. Jonah told me that we reincarnated many times as brothers, or best friends, or as father and son. But this time around we were twins, which made our connection much stronger. Apparently, we shared each other’s dreams. Jonah dreamt about Annani, and I gave his dreams the Ayesha spin. My dreams were colored by the book and the sorceress who shared many of Annani’s attributes, especially as seen through Gudbrand’s filter.”
“That actually makes sense. He thought of her as an evil seductress who was out to suck the life out of him, and that reminded you of Ayesha.”
“Precisely. Also, both Annani and the sorceress had glowing eyes and skin and could compel others to their will.”
“Annani didn’t compel Olek. She thralled him.”
“I still don’t understand the difference between the two.”
“Compulsion forces the will of the compeller on the compelled, while thralling makes him or her experience reality in a different way and influences their choices accordingly. In a way, thralled individuals still retain their free will, but they base their decisions on a made-up set of circumstances.”
David frowned. “Are you saying that Olek could have refused to kill Gudbrand?”
“It would have been difficult for him to do while believing what A
nnani made him think, but if he were really incapable of killing his brother under normal circumstances, even compulsion could not have made him do that.”
“There was nothing normal about the circumstances, even without Annani’s influence.” David put his hand on her thigh. “Both brothers were enraged, and while in their berserker mode, they were thirsty for blood and not thinking straight. Olek might have killed Gudbrand even without the thrall.”
Sari shook her head. “He wouldn’t have done it if Annani hadn’t commanded him to defend her. I’m sure she will be relieved to hear your version of the story, but I don’t think it will eliminate all of her guilt for Gudbrand’s death. She had feelings for him and wanted him to father her child, so he couldn’t have been all that bad.”
For a long moment, David didn’t respond. “Gudbrand was strong, handsome, and smart. Just like Jonah. And just like Jonah, he had some issues that he needed to work out.” He turned on his side to face her. “I hope that Jonah will reincarnate as a member of your clan. That way, he and I will have eternity to overcome our differences. Do you think there is a chance it will happen?”
“First of all, it’s our clan now, not mine. And secondly, all we can do is beseech the Fates and hope that Jonah’s reincarnation into the clan fits their grand plan.”
57
David
When a knock sounded at the door, Sari pushed out of David’s arms and slid out of bed.
“Come in,” she called out.
The door opened, and Bridget walked in with Steven in tow. In his hands was a tray with a surgical knife, an antiseptic, and several squares of medical gauze.
They were about to conduct the test.
“Are you ready to find out for sure?” Steven asked.
David swallowed audibly. “Yes.”
Bridget moved the coffee and porridge out of the way, making room for Steven’s tray. “You didn’t eat your breakfast,” she admonished.