Totem of Aries

by D. N. Leo

  “Much better, Alex. Since you asked politely, I’ll tell you. When I read your mind and saw your memories coming back, the bit of information you were missing was what happened inside the trading station in 1348. The soul trader would have had the same vantage point as yours, so it wouldn’t have been able to see inside the station. As you know now, I was with Arik inside the station. I know the chief died because of his greed. And the most monstrous crime he committed against his people was bringing the plague to England.”

  “That bitch soul trader must have traded me as bad soul against him as the good soul I murdered.”

  “Exactly. So she made a couple of mistakes. You didn’t kill the guy. Arik and I did. And he would have been dead anyway even if you hadn’t stabbed him. And she swapped the good and bad spirits—you were the innocent one in the whole thing.”

  “Don’t use the word innocent to describe me, Madeline.”

  Ciaran chuckled. “Yes, you’ll make him blush.”

  “Right. The point is that the deal should have been reversed. I asked the soul trader to confirm the trade. She did. And then…voila!”

  “Killing without a single drop of blood, Madeline LeBlanc,” Alex said.

  Madeline smiled and glanced at Ciaran. He seemed uneasy when Alex called out her full name.

  “Turn left here, Ciaran,” she said as she got a signal from the dog. She rubbed the poodle behind the ear as a reward.

  Now that the soul traders who wanted Madeline and Alex dead had been killed, their next step was to find Margaret. Ciaran theorized that Margaret had the key to his ordeal. But Madeline just wanted to kill the soul trader who was after Ciaran as quickly as possible and return to Eudaiz and her children. More importantly, she wanted the Ciaran of her reality to come out of the Still in one piece.

  They arrived at a small isolated cottage in the middle of the Yorkshire Dale. As soon as Madeline opened the car door, the dog jumped out and darted inside the house. Ciaran held her elbow and pulled her back before she followed.

  “Madeline, I understand you came here on a mission. But this is my reality, and there are decisions I must make now that are based on my existing knowledge and what I feel is the right thing to do by the people in my immediate reality.”

  “I get it. Your decisions now might not be optimal for future situations, but you can't base your decisions on future facts. However, I want you to consider one thing—not for me or for our kids, but for the billions of citizens who rely on you for the safety of their families. You are important to many people, and you told me your kingship is larger than your life. So whatever decisions you’ll make now, I’d like you to make them with that in mind.”

  He nodded.

  She turned to head to the cottage.

  Ciaran said, “One more thing…”

  She turned around and waited.

  “Can you please be careful?”

  She waited for a more intimate gesture, a kiss maybe, or a rub of his thumb over her dimple. Anything would be good. But he gave her nothing more than a slight squeeze on her shoulder as if she was his best friend.

  She nodded. “Sure.” Then she strode into the house.

  The inside was surprisingly spacious for what looked like a simple cottage from the outside. The elegant decor suggested the place was lived in and well taken care of. The room was perfectly square. Some of the walls were wallpapered, and others were painted white. The decorations were oriental in style, and the furniture arrangement reflected extreme minimalism.

  In a corner of the room, a small table sat with a lonely bonsai positioned on top. Next to the table, warm white light glowed from a shoji lamp, adding to the Zen atmosphere of the place. At the far end of the room, several shoji screens were standing in front of the entrance to the bedroom wing of the house.

  From the door, they could see an old man sitting on a tatami mat next to the wall on their left. Beside him, a pot of tea was brewing. His eyes were closed in meditation.

  The little poodle sat next to the man.

  “I’ve met you before. A dog stole your meal,” Ciaran said as he took in the decor. “I can see you’re not homeless. Did you set up that situation with the dog to test me?”

  The man opened his eyes. “Test you for what?”

  “Who are you?” Madeline asked.

  “Ah, here is the impatient one from another world, coming here to change fate and save her husband.”

  “I’m not a saint. I just don’t want to take care of the kids myself.”

  From the corner of her eye, she saw Ciaran arch an eyebrow.

  The old man smiled. “I am a prophet.”

  Alex chuckled. “Then can you tell us whether we can get out of this situation?”

  “Are you after a fairytale ending, Alexander?”

  “Alex, please. And no, I’m not one of the main characters, so if this is a fairytale, I can still die.”

  “You’ve lived for hundreds of years. I thought you would care less about life and death.”

  Alex shook his head. “Madeline can second me on this. I just got married, so it’s not just me now. We thought we could dash back in time from the future to fix a little glitch in the past. But it’s turned out to be way too complicated. You say you can tell the future, so can you just give us a simple answer—yes or no—of whether we can go home in one piece?”

  The prophet shook his head. “There are many variables to the story. I don’t know the ending, I’m afraid.”

  Ciaran nodded. “I think that's a fair answer. We’re trying to find Margaret, and your dog led us here. Is she here?”

  The prophet nodded and pointed to the left wing. Ciaran hurried in that direction.

  “Ciaran,” the prophet called.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m sure you know your decisions in this matter play a very important role in how things turn out. But there are decisions that are not yours to make. You don’t have to fix all the problems you come across.”

  Ciaran nodded and rushed toward the room in the left wing.

  Chapter 32

  Madeline had to admit Margaret was beautiful. In the dimly lit room, she lay on a plain bed, her long sandy hair spread out, spilling down from the pillow to the mattress. She was awake. Her deep blue eyes were almost dreamy as they watched Ciaran entering the room.

  Madeline’s stomach did a somersault.

  In the future reality, there wasn’t a Margaret. So why was she here? Why were things happening this way? Was it because she had made a few decisions against Jo’s advice and therefore changed reality both now and in the future. How much had she changed? The anxiety loomed in her mind and increased by the second.

  Ciaran sat down at Margaret’s bedside. “I’m sorry you’re here because of me.”

  “No, Ciaran, this isn’t your fault. I didn’t anticipate the attack in the cafe. It was my fault. I believed too much in the prophecy, and I made a mistake.”

  “What prophecy?”

  “There isn’t one for me as I thought. I was deceived by a witch called the Lady of the Forest. I spent my entire life searching for the answer to my sister’s death. The witch offered me a way to reclaim my sister’s soul, a soul she promised to you.”

  Ciaran stood up. “Who’s your sister?”

  “Lyla.”

  Madeline felt her knees weaken. Lyla was significant, both in the past and in the future. At the moment, Lyla was a painful memory for Ciaran. Nothing more than that.

  “The witch said my sister promised her soul to you, but the soul was unclaimed. So now she’s floating in the oblivion. If you release her soul, I can claim it back for her. Will you release her?”

  Rage hit Madeline like a storm. This manipulation of fate was too evil for her to accept. If Ciaran released Lyla’s soul, the future of Eudaiz would collapse. Billions of families in a universe so far away from here that no humans would care. But Ciaran didn’t know about that now. This was so unfair.

  He didn’t need Lyla’s soul. He never
wanted it. It pained him whenever he thought about it. So a simple and logical answer would be yes, he would release Lyla’s soul for good.

  Madeline stepped forward and was about to stop Ciaran from answering Margaret’s question when the prophet stepped in. “This isn’t your decision, Madeline. You will make things worse. With what you know, you are not allowed to interfere. You traveled across time to interfere with this, and that has already caused the most unnatural order of all things. Don’t make things worse. Let Ciaran decide.”

  “Ciaran!” She looked at him. She said nothing, but she couldn’t help tears from streaming down her face. She kept looking at him, waiting for his answer.

  He didn’t love her now. He couldn’t feel her now. But surely, if they were soulmates as he had said several times, he ought to feel the right answer even without the future facts.

  Ciaran gazed into her eyes. Then he looked at Margaret. “I would love to release Lyla’s soul for sentimental reasons. But because I don’t have enough information and the decision might have consequences beyond sentiment, I can’t give you an answer now.”

  Madeline burst into tears. Alex pulled her into his arms. “This must be hard for you,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  Ciaran looked at Madeline then back at Margaret. “The prophet checked you out of the hospital. I trust you will be fine in his care.”

  “I didn’t check her out of the hospital, Ciaran. I stole her from a vampire called Egon.”

  “He lured us into a trap before,” Alex said.

  “Egon is evil. The only weakness he has is Margaret. He loves her,” the prophet said.

  “But I’ve never met him,” Margaret said.

  “He’s been watching you his whole life.”

  Ciaran grunted in pain, and his knees buckled. He slumped to the ground and spat out blood.

  “That’s voodoo practice. I know Egon was trying to do that,” the prophet said.

  “Poodle!” Alex called out and walked back out to the living room to look for the dog. Both of them then ran out the door.

  Ciaran looked as if he was being beaten up by an invisible army. Madeline thought she could hear his bones breaking. His body was thrown up and down—from the ceilings, back down to the floor, then to the walls. She didn’t know how long he could survive the attack.

  Madeline charged toward Margaret, pulled out her sword, and pointed it at her neck. “I know you’re here, Egon. You love this woman, right? If you don’t stop your attack on Ciaran, I’ll cut her throat.”

  A shadow leaped down from the roof and passed by the outside of the room’s only window. Soon after, a vampire with damaged eyes walked in through the door. “Very well, Madeline. But as you can see, this old blind vampire has nothing to do with Ciaran’s pain. I’m afraid my newborn vampire baby just got a bit violent.”

  Ciaran crashed to the floor and spat out more blood. A this rate, he’d be unconscious soon.

  Egon stepped over to him, sniffed the air. “I can smell death. Do you want me to turn him into a vampire?” He smiled. His face might have been handsome if it weren’t for the damaged eyes and his evil smile.

  Madeline pulled her sword and charged at him. He was blind, but his movements were incredibly fast. She switched on her eudqi so she could move even more quickly than he could. She slashed at him a few times with her sword and could hear his blood sizzling. He hissed with pain, but his speed had not slowed.

  Suddenly a bony hand pushed through the floor, breaking the wood planks. It reached for Madeline’s left foot. She was paralyzed instantly as that was her fatal point. Ciaran rolled over and tried to pull her away. The hand would not let go. He couldn’t risk hitting it because he might inadvertently strike the fatal point on Madeline’s foot.

  Margaret chanted something. A woman’s scream echoed in the air, and the hand let go.

  Ciaran pulled Madeline far from the gaping hole in the floor. He then grabbed a piece of the broken floor and charged at the blind vampire. Egon roared. As they wrestled, Ciaran pulled the wooden stake out and stabbed him again and again. The vampire exploded into a puddle of black liquid. Ciaran collapsed. Madeline dragged him away from the black substance. He had nothing left in him. He wasn’t moving.

  “Prophet, please help. Please do something!”

  The old man looked at her. “I’m not supposed to help you.”

  “Please! I’ll trade anything with you. What do you want?”

  The old man sighed. “A soul trader can’t mark a dead person.” With those words, the prophet left the room.

  Madeline looked at Margaret and saw that the woman was looking at her, too. “Do you want my help, Madeline?”

  “Yes, please. We owe you.”

  Margaret smiled. “This will have to be a double deal. Do you agree?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re his soulmate. I can tell. I’ve seen Ciaran and his late wife together. There was passionate love between them. But they were not soulmates. You and he are meant for each other. Treasure that.”

  “Thank you.”

  “It is done now. It’s time for me to go. I’ll do my best.” Margaret’s image started to fade.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’ve used my soul to guarantee your deal. It’s worth it. I am happy.”

  “Margaret!”

  “Take care, Madeline. Take care of both of you. Don’t waste my soul.” Then she vanished into thin air.

  Alex walked in and said, “I seem to have missed a lot in here. But I managed to kill Egon’s new vampire.”

  “We killed Egon. Well, Ciaran did.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  The prophet came back in. “That’s a big debt that you took on, Madeline.”

  On the ground, Ciaran stirred and opened his eyes.

  “Hey there, welcome back.” She smiled at him.

  “What debt?” Alex asked.

  Madeline shook her head at Alex.

  Ciaran sat up. He looked at the prophet. “What debt?”

  The prophet looked at Madeline and sighed. “You have to let them know, Madeline. It’s only fair.”

  She looked at Ciaran. “You were dying. I let you be marked because that will keep you alive until you’re claimed.”

  He nodded. “Understood.” Then he waited. “Judging by the look on the prophet’s face, there has to be more to it.”

  She shrugged.

  “Your soul is too strong to make a deal, Ciaran. Please understand it had to be a double deal with a guarantee. That is, I am marked, too. And Margaret sacrificed her soul as a guarantor.”

  “Now we have to hunt and kill the soul traders who marked you to prevent them from claiming you both. There goes my dream of going home soon to my newly wedded wife!” Alex said.

  “We don’t have to kill the soul traders. We can negotiate with them,” Madeline said.

  “Wheeling and dealing is my department,” Ciaran said.

  The prophet chuckled. “Being in this job for a few thousand years, the one thing I know about soul traders is that they don’t negotiate. Not only that, when the deal has a guarantor, not executing the deal in full will kill the guarantor.”

  Alex shook his head. “Walk in the park.” He waved at the door. “Come on in, LP!” The dog raced in, wagging his tail frantically, and licked everyone’s hands.

  “What’s LP?” Madeline asked.

  “Little Poodle.”

  Part 2 - Totem

  Chapter 33

  Madeline saw Doctor Thomas to the door of a villa in a remote location in Oxfordshire. She had learned never to ask questions about the many properties the LeBlancs owned all over England and the world. All she knew was that whenever they needed a place to stay, it was just a call away for Ciaran.

  Before he got into the LeBlanc’s corporate car, he turned and looked at her. His fatherly features and kind eyes always tugged at her heart. She didn’t have a lot of time to interact with him before she and
Ciaran took off to the multiverse, but those brief encounters they’d had before resonated sweetly and pleasantly in her memory.

  “Madeline, Ciaran didn’t say anything, but I get the impression that we will meet again. Is there anything I can do for you?”

  “Yes, Doctor Thomas. There is one thing you can do, and it’s going to sound really weird.”

  He smiled. “I’ve been working for the LeBlancs for a long time. They redefine the word strange.”

  She nodded. “When we meet again, which I’m sure we will, you will have to consider it to be the first time.”

  “You can’t legally erase my memory—”

  “I have no intention of doing so. Memory isn’t the problem here. The less you know, the better it is for you. I don’t know a better way to say this.”

  The doctor nodded. “I’ve promised to forget a few things for the LeBlancs. So consider it done. But can you promise me that whatever is happening here won’t harm them?”

  “In the future, I’ll be part of the LeBlanc family. I don’t want any harm going their way.”

  The doctor nodded. “That’s sufficient. I could ask for more information. But as you’ve said, the less I know the better. I shall leave you two here. Ciaran is on painkillers. I gave him a strong dose because—”

  “His body can’t handle the sedative you might need for the surgery. I know, Doctor Thomas.”

  The doctor’s eyes twinkled. “You do know him well, indeed. Very well then, I’ll see you sometime in the future.” Doctor Thomas turned toward the car.

  “Doctor?”

  “Yes, Madeline.”

  “Can I ask you something I shouldn’t?”

  The doctor smiled. “I promise I’ll include that in the to-be-forgotten incident.”

  “Were Juliette and Ciaran really happy?”

  The smile faded from the doctor’s face. “They’d just been married. Of course they were happy.”

  “That’s what everyone’s been saying. Like he changed after she died and all. But there’s something no one will tell me, including Ciaran. And it’s something I need to know.”