I extended my wings, forcing a mass of air behind me as I took off into the sky. I quickly circled, trying to secure a tactical advantage against the other beast.
Do not attack me again… The voice resonated within my mind, though the black dragon’s mouth did not move. I tried to respond… I could not. Still, I knew that voice. It was Lily… she had shapeshifted, too. My dragon lips couldn’t form the words I hoped to speak. I had no idea how to connect… how to speak to her like she’d spoken to me. I huffed a puff of smoke in frustration.
Suppress the dragon’s instincts with your will… See how marvelous you are… how powerful we are, together. This is our destiny, brother!
I tried to scream again; instead, a roar escaped my throat as I lashed my tail violently in protest, striking my sister at the base of her scaly neck. She tumbled, but quickly gathered herself on the ground below and with a massive flap of her wings took off in my direction. Before I could evade her charge, she struck my gut with the arch of her back, flipping in midair and lashing her tail against my back, forcing me to lose my bearings. The strike forced a puff of air mixed with flame from my mouth as I fell from the sky, striking the hot soil below.
I do not wish to harm you. I have Emilie. It is not my purpose to harm her… but you must follow me.
A part of me both loved and resented my sister. I could not deny our connection… she was exactly what I could become if I embraced the anger and resentment I felt within, if I gave myself to the Wayward Tree. There had to be another way. I could not fight her. Even if I wanted to, I had no chance against her. She was well-practiced, and I was a novice… not only at flying in dragon form, but when it came to any of my newfound abilities.
We hovered in midair, two mythical beasts, each of our forms mirroring the other’s. We were twins, even in this form—only her scales were black, and mine were green. A red glow illuminated her eyes, and my vision was consumed by green. We were more alike than different. What she wanted me to do… to give myself to the Wayward Tree… the proposition did have an appeal to it. I could harness enough power to ensure that no one could take anything from me again. I could feel the power from the Wayward Tree calling me. It pervaded this place; even the dry air parching my nostrils was filled with the energies of the Wayward Tree.
Lily puffed a cloud of smoke from her reptilian nostrils as she turned in midair and darted the opposite direction. I followed her, doing my best to keep up. I had to rely on my newly discovered dragon instincts as I pushed the wind with my wings. Even in Samhuinn, the breeze striking my face as I pursued my sister was refreshing. With each flap of my wings, I flew faster. My eyes widened with exhilaration as I relished the power and speed I could assume in dragon form. Surely this was what Lily wanted me to experience—the power and freedom of a form unrestrained.
There were no clouds in the sky, but if there had been, our altitude would have certainly exceeded them. I could see everything… all of Samhuinn, completely overrun by blight. Still, the land reflected a distinct pattern marked by deep crevices in the landscape. Everything pointed in one direction, all focused on the giant tree toward which Lily began her descent.
I attempted to slow myself down as the ground approached, but still found myself tumbling head over tail into the parched soil. We were here. I looked around, but Lily’s massive form had disappeared from my view. I tried to release the energies that held me in dragon form, gradually resuming my natural frame. Still, it proved more difficult to distinguish my true mass from the one I had gathered into myself when I took on the form. This is why both my father and Nesbitt warned against this…
I let go of anything that felt out of place, anything foreign to myself. But so much of what I felt, at my core, was already torn. I willed myself to remain attuned to the Tree of Life. As I resumed my human form I clung to my staff, channeling energies toward the Tree of Life… but out here, I received no reply. There was nothing to reassure me that the mass I released was not my own, nor that anything I retained should not have been there. I searched my heart and mind, focusing on my friends. Emilie, Tyler, and Joni. I could sense their presence, their kinship, in my soul. I released everything else; already in human frame, my mass returned to its original size. Still, something haunted me within. Something remained… something of that reptilian instinct. I pushed it aside. Somehow, I’d have to deal with that later.
The tree was more impressive than I recalled from the dream with Lily. My vision before was hazy and unclear. Now in the tree’s presence, I could feel its allure tugging at my soul. It was lush, full of life. While the crooked trunk, dark in color, was enveloped with thorns, everything else about the tree was inviting. Its leaves were broad and green. Blossoms bloomed at the tips of its branches and it dangled a fruit, bright-red and bulbous, like apples but larger and flawless. It was as though any life that belonged to the surrounding lands had been consumed by the tree—it remained the only thriving organism in Samhuinn, prospering at the expense of everything around it. Even as the Wayward Tree thrived, it blighted its surroundings, sucking every bit of life and moisture from the soil.
I could see Emilie’s body mounted on the tree as we approached. Thorny vines embraced her form. “Emilie!” I cried. But she did not respond.
My sister appeared from behind the tree. She smiled at me. “It’s good to see you back to something like yourself.”
“Lily, I’ve come here as you demanded. Now let Emilie go.”
“But I don’t think she wants to go, brother.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why don’t you ask your Ovate?”
“My Ovate? Tyler isn’t here…”
“Isn’t he?” Lily extended her staff overhead and rested a single hand on the trunk of the Wayward Tree. A massive cone of red and gold spiraled upward from the tree into the skies.
“Lily, what are you doing?”
“Let’s say I had a change of heart. I’m issuing an invitation…” The cone spiraling above the Wayward Tree retreated back into the tree itself, and another tornado of energies, also red and gold, shot from its base and spun toward me. As it faded, Tyler and Joni stood in its place.
I lunged at Joni, giving her a huge hug. “Wow, you guys are here!”
Tyler scratched his head. “Yeah, I guess so… That was weird.”
Joni laughed. “Yes, we’re here…” Her smile at seeing me, however, turned grim as she turned and saw Lily looking smug and Emilie bound to the Wayward Tree.
“As I was telling Elijah,” Lily continued, “I’m not sure that Emilie wants to be free. Ovate, would you care to illumine the situation for us?”
Tyler looked at me for approval, and I nodded my consent.
Tyler hesitated a moment before extending his gauntlet and shining a beam of light toward Emilie’s frame. Her purple aura remained, but it was waning. A red aura was overtaking it.
“You see,” Lily explained, “now that she has tasted of the All-Knowing Tree, she won’t give it up. She’s hooked… on the power, the freedom that the tree offers.”
“You lie!” I said.
“Do I?” Lily extended her staff toward Emilie, and with a single beam of red light the tree released her. “Why don’t you tell my brother what it is you want?”
Emilie walked over to my sister, grabbed her tightly, and kissed her directly on the mouth.
“What the… Emilie! Lily, what did you do to her?”
“You wonder, Elijah, why she never wanted to be with you. You just don’t have the goods, brother.”
“Emilie, please, this isn’t you…” I pleaded.
She turned and looked at me. Her expression was empty, her eyes glossed.
“Lily, what did you do to her?” I repeated the question, hoping in vain for an answer.
“I did nothing to her. I simply gave her a gift. I showed her the way of the All-Knowing Tree—I gave her the freedom to take control of her own life, the power to escape everything that binds her, the chance to live withou
t rules, without restraint. That this meant she would desire me… Well, that surprised me as much as it does you. Though I cannot say I was disappointed.”
“I can see it in her eyes, Lily. She isn’t herself.”
“What you see is her true self, the real Emilie. An Emilie free from her responsibility, free from the trappings of an alcoholic mother and the need to act as mother to her brother.”
“Our true self is not some sort of vain pursuit of our passions, Lily. Our hardship, our trials… our losses. They shape us. We grow from that. It makes us better.”
A look of disgust settled upon my sister’s face. “I have simply given Emilie a choice. An opportunity. She can go back to her former life once you have embraced the All-Knowing Tree in her place. Or she can remain here if she wishes. Think of it, brother. You can live with me, with her… no rules, no restraint, enough power to live free… just like you felt in your dragon form…”
“That’s not the life Emilie wants… It’s not the life I want…”
“Evidently, brother, you have no clue what she really wants…” Lily kissed Emilie again, each girl tangling her fingers in the other’s hair. Then Lily pressed Emilie back against the tree and vines shot out, entwining around Emilie again, pulling her into its trunk. “She likes being tied up… Who would have thought? The little Bard, so kinky… Your loss, brother.”
“Lily, that’s enough!” I raised my staff in her direction.
“What are you going to do with that, brother? You don’t even know how to use that thing.”
“I know enough, Lily. I don’t want to hurt you. Just let her go.”
I scanned the staff, looking for a sigil, something that would give me an answer. They all seemed so foreign; I had no idea what any of them meant. And then I saw one near the base… the shape of an angel. If there was anything I could use right now, it was an angel. I gripped my staff and focused all my energy into the sigil. “Seraphim!”
A silence fell upon us. I thought the spell had failed, and then I noticed… Emilie… Lilly. I turned and looked at Tyler and Joni. All were frozen in place. Joni had grabbed her wand, apparently ready to channel whatever spell I had just cast. Time had stopped. Then I heard a voice… A voice I knew…
“Hello, Elijah.”
I turned. An olive-skinned, golden-eyed man in a white robe stood there. It was Michael. “Michael? The seraph, Michael? Thank God you came…”
“I’m here only in spirit, Elijah. The sigil you evoked, it allowed your father to communicate with me in times of dire need. For you, time seems to have stopped. When we are finished here, for them it will be as though time had gone on as before.”
“I have to ask, Michael… That night, after I first saw you in my father’s memory.”
“Yes, that was me. I’ve been watching over you, Elijah. What happens today, this has been a part of the All Father’s plan ever since I first appeared in your father’s village and guided the young Diarmid in the ways of the Druid. Everything has led to this moment, to your choice.”
“What can I do? I can’t give in to the tree. I can’t fight my sister… I want to save her. I want to save Emilie…”
“There is a way, Elijah. There is a way you can save them all…”
“Lugh said that love… it was the Wayward Tree’s weakness, its blind spot.”
“And how would you define love, Elijah?”
“How you feel about someone… when they consume you, all of you…”
“That may be infatuation, passion even. But love is not a feeling. Love is an action.”
“So what should I do… wake her with a kiss?”
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
I nodded soberly. I knew what that meant. “I need to die…”
“You need to lay down your life. The Tree of Life runs more deeply in you than anyone else ever born of man and woman. Cast it all upon the Wayward Tree… You will not destroy it, but you will release its hold on Emilie. You will release its hold on Lily. They may return to the Wayward Tree if they wish, but your sacrifice… it will open their eyes. They will have a choice.”
I nodded again, taking a deep breath. “I know what I need to do.”
“May the All Father be with you, Elijah.”
Suddenly everything came back to life.
I grabbed my staff tightly… I tried to focus my will, but it wasn’t a focus I needed. I needed to let go. To let all of it go, all of myself… I had to do this. To die for someone you love… truly love—there was supposed to be something romantic about that notion. Something noble. Something epic, even. But that was when it remained a vague idea. A fairy tale. A thing for the movies. I had never imagined I would be confronted with that choice.
A choice? There was no choice. Not really. I had to do it. But I was hardly a resolute martyr. I took the step that would, all at once, send me irrevocably to my doom while sparing my beloved, my whole world, from the same.
Trepidation filled my heart. Bitterness, too. It wasn’t my own death I feared. It was the death of what could have been. Perhaps some are destined to die for love. I wanted to live for it. I loved Joni, yes. But Emilie, I had loved her my whole life. Now I would love her with my life.
I would give up my life for her. My only wish had been to spend my life with her… someday. But that could never be.
Even Samhuinn had once been luscious, green, a part of Annwn’s groves until Ask and Embla made their choice. I would choose differently. This was not the garden of paradise. It was Gethsemane. But I was no savior. I was no hero. Would my death save the world? Possibly. But I would never have the courage to die for the world. I would only have courage enough to die for her.
A green glow illuminated my eyes, consuming my staff and then my hands. I gathered everything I could… everything I had ever felt for her. Everything I had ever hoped for. I drew upon every heartbeat… every breath I had ever taken… and channeled all of it into the staff… I needed no focus words… I simply screamed and released everything upon the Wayward Tree.
A green energy poured out of my soul and assaulted the tree.
Even Lily was taken aback, caught in the light. She tried to shield herself, but her shield was overcome and it consumed her.
I saw Emilie’s frame… Tyler was illuminating her aura, and as the red that had overtaken her faded, her purple aura returned… I dug deeper, releasing my last—my final—breath… The last thing I saw was Emilie free, stumbling, but running to me… tears in her eyes…
And then… darkness.
21. Druid Born
OUT OF THE darkness… a bright light. A single shadow, large and imposing, stood within the light. It resembled something like a bull… the Great Spirit Bull. Diarmid had mentioned something about that in one of the visions. A deep voice resonated from the Bull… Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends… You have done well, Elijah Wadsworth.
The light once again overtook the Bull’s figure, and he disappeared. Then out of the light, a thin figure emerged. The light was so bright that it blinded me from any of the figure’s features… until she drew near. Her green hair, her pale skin… it was not as I had remembered her, but it was as I had seen her in my father’s memory.
“Mom?”
“Hello, son.”
Tears welled up in my eyes. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you, too.” She gave me a hug, which I returned in kind. “And I am so proud of you.”
“Emilie… Lily…”
“You saved them both. You saved everyone…”
“I didn’t want to save the world. I was only thinking about Emilie. I was thinking about Lily.”
“That’s how love is. Love is not something abstract. We can’t love everyone… but we can love those whom we choose to love. And you love Emilie. You love Lily. You love Joni and Tyler, too. You would have died for any of them. They would die for you, too. That
is where love thrives… in the relationship between one person and another.”
“That day… when you died. I hated myself for not being there.”
“What happened to us… it was not an accident. It was all a part of the Morrigan’s scheme… to claim Lily, and eventually you.”
“So that she could spread the blight of Samhuinn to Annwn?”
“If she claimed you, you could carry the blight beyond the ley line separating Annwn’s groves from Samhuinn without ever having to cross it. She would only need to get you back to our world. If you and your sister were both connected to the Wayward Tree, then the gate between our home in the Ozarks, and the spring in Annwn, would be vulnerable.”
“Then why didn’t Lily just use the Shire gate before? When she was under the Morrigan’s influence?”
“She was never told how to access it. And Merlin would never have let her near it. Your sister is powerful; in time she will rival Merlin’s abilities, but she has much to learn. She would be no match for Merlin. The Morrigan knew she had to go through you. She knew that Merlin would be constrained at this point in time, and that this was her window of opportunity.”
“But those who follow the Wayward Tree… they are blind to love.”
“Indeed, son. They are.”
I looked around. The room seemed white, but there was a wood-like texture to the floors, the walls, and the domed ceiling above. “So, where are we? Am I in heaven?”
“You may call it that. You are within the heart of the Tree of Life. It is where I have rested since the day my mortal frame perished.”
“But you are a nymph… a Dryad. When Lugh’s time has passed…”
“Then another will take his place. My seed rests not in Annwn, but languishes on Earth. So long as my seed remains separated from this realm, I rest here only in spirit. My time of service to the Tree of Life has ended. Still, I remain one of the council of Dryads whose souls inhabit the tree… as does yours.”
“So, am I dead?”
Gates of Eden: Starter Library Page 25
