The Bearens' Hope: Book Four of the Soul-Linked Saga

by Laura Jo Phillips

  Ellicia opened her eyes as the memory faded and looked down at the earring in her hand. She didn’t understand why that memory had come to her instead of an image of Hope, but she sensed that until she figured it out, she would get no further in her search.

  She stared at the earring and thought of her engagement ring. It had been the only piece of jewelry she had ever worn constantly. From the moment Harlan had placed it on her finger she had not taken it off. When she’d awakened from the healing tank, it had been gone.

  Nobody remembered seeing it, nobody admitted taking it off of her hand. She had tried and tried to use her psychic ability to search for it, assuming that since she had worn it constantly for several months that it would be easy for her to find. But, she’d been wrong. She had never gotten so much as a hint as to what had happened to her ring, and was forced to conclude that it must have been destroyed during the attack, or afterward. It had nearly broken her heart to accept that, on top of everything else, her ring was gone forever.

  After a while she had convinced herself that it didn’t matter. She remembered every single detail of the ring, but more than that, she remembered the love and thought that Harlan had put into selecting it for her. Those were memories that were forever etched in her heart, and that was something which could never be lost or stolen.

  Is that it? Ellicia wondered. Am I searching for the wrong thing?

  She closed her eyes again and deliberately remembered how she’d felt every time she had looked down and seen the ring on her hand. She remembered the happiness, the joy, the laughter, the love that had filled her heart to overflowing every time she looked into Harlan’s eyes. She reached for and embraced all of the hopes and dreams that the ring had symbolized for them both, and suddenly, she saw it.

  There, on the work-roughened hand of a middle-aged woman, her precious engagement ring sparkled and shone. As the image grew in Ellicia’s mind, so did the story of what had happened to it.

  How the blood on her hands had caused the ring to slip off as she was carried from the building and placed into the Med-Carrier for transport to the hospital.

  How the ring had bounced on the pavement and rolled into the gutter where it landed in a tiny puddle of muddy water.

  How it had sat there for days, unnoticed as the puddle dried up around it, leaving it caked with dirt.

  How a little boy walked by it on his way to school and dropped his stylus, which rolled off the sidewalk and landed next to the ring.

  How the little boy spotted the ring and picked it up, rubbing the dirt off to reveal the shiny metal beneath.

  How happy he was to know he had a gift to give his poor, hard working mother for her birthday. Something as beautiful as she was on the inside, even though she was so tired and worn on the outside.

  How the little boy’s mother had worried and fretted about the ring, so pleased that her son had thought of her, but afraid it belonged to someone who would want it back.

  How they’d taken it to the police station and filed a report, and the ring was put in a plastic bag and shut into a dark room on a shelf for many weeks.

  How excited the little boy was when he and his mother returned to the police station, and, since nobody had claimed it, the ring was the boy’s to give to his mother after all.

  How every day, as she scrubbed floors and washed windows and changed linens, the boy’s mother saw the beautiful little ring on her hand, reminding her why she worked so hard, day after day, never doubting that her beautiful son was worth it.

  Ellicia felt her heart swell with happiness for the woman and the little boy, She was so glad to know that her beloved ring was a source of such happiness to someone who needed it, and deserved it.

  And she understood that she had found her ring because she had looked for it with her heart, where the true importance of the ring resided within her.

  She opened her eyes and looked at the earring. She had to do the opposite now, if she were to find Hope. She had to search for the heart that was connected to this object. Not the earring’s twin, but the heart that loved the earring because of what it symbolized for her.

  Ellicia hesitated. She couldn’t find people. She’d tried that so many times she’d lost count years ago. But she had to try.

  She straightened her shoulders and wrapped her fingers around the earring once more before closing her eyes. She would find Hope. For Harlan’s sake. For the Bearens’ sake. And, most importantly, for the sake of her unborn children. She didn’t know how or why, but she knew that Hope Strigida was going to be essential in their lives. Therefore, she would find her, and she would not give up until she did.

  Jackson watched Ellicia worriedly. She had moved around a bit, opened her eyes a few times and stared at the earring in her hand before closing her fist around it again, but that had been hours ago. She hadn’t moved since, other than to breathe. Now the sun was beginning to set and he was trying to decide if he should try to bring her out of her trance. He wanted her to find their Arima more than he’d ever wanted anything before in all the years of his existence. But not at the expense of her own health, or that of her unborn children.

  Ellicia’s eyes popped open. “We have to go,” she said urgently, immediately trying to stand up. She fell back to the floor with a little gasp of surprise when her legs refused to obey her.

  Jackson hurried to her side and put out a hand to prevent her from trying to stand up again. “Take it easy for a moment,” he said. “You’ve been sitting there in one position for hours. Give your body a chance to wake up.”

  Hope’s eyes widened and she turned her head to look up at the dark window behind her. “Damn, why did that take so long?” she wondered. She turned to look at Jackson. “We have to go and we have to go now. We have to be ready to search at first light.”

  “Go where?” Jackson asked, still trying to keep Ellicia from standing up.

  “I’m not sure,” Ellicia said with a frown. “There’s a place, a training base I think, across the desert from here, to the west. I don’t know what it’s called, but we have to get there tonight so we can start searching in the morning.”

  “Clark, will you get General LeJune please?” Jackson asked, not taking his eyes off of Ellicia. Clark ran out of the room.

  “Ellicia, I want you to let me help you to your feet,” Jackson said as he held out his hands toward her. “You’ve been sitting in one position for many hours and you need to get up slowly.”

  Ellicia nodded and accepted Jackson’s help, a little surprised to discover how much she needed it at first. Once she was standing, and able to walk around a little, she felt better. She was stiff and sore and her back ached, but those were minor complaints that she pushed to the back of her mind.

  “What did you see?” Jackson asked after Ellicia had some color back in her cheeks.

  “Hope is in the desert,” Ellicia said. “Camped out in the open. She and two other women have been walking for a couple of days now, but one of them got hurt. Hope is caring for the injured woman while the other one went on ahead for help.”

  Ellicia fell silent as she paced carefully across the office and back again, trying to get more feeling back into her legs. “I know this much,” she said finally. “Once the sun comes up, I’ll be able to guide us to Hope, eventually. But if we can find the other woman, the one who went ahead, she’ll be able to take us straight to her.”

  “Why do you feel such urgency?” Jackson asked.

  “The others are closing in on them,” she replied.

  “What others?” Jackson asked.

  Ellicia turned to face Jackson. She didn’t want to say this, wasn’t even sure how she knew it. But it had to be said. She took a deep breath and answered Jackson’s question.

  “The Brethren.”

  Chapter 38

  “Thanks for staying with me, Hope,” Karma said weakly.

  Hope poured a small amount of water onto a strip of sheet and used it to gently wipe Karma’s face. She’d been aw
akened from a sound sleep by Karma’s thrashing, and now she realized she was running a fever. Not a very high one, but Hope was worried about what was to come.

  “You don’t have to thank me, Karma,” she replied, “but you’re welcome.”

  “Do you think Grace will get help?”

  “Yes, I do,” Hope replied with as much certainty as she could put into her voice. Ever since Karma had awakened, about two hours after Grace had left, she had been apologetic and thankful. Hope had expected her to be angry and accusatory, so the meek side of Karma was a bit of a surprise.

  “Hope, don’t do it,” Karma said suddenly.

  Hope frowned at her. “Don’t do what?”

  “I can see what you’re thinking,” Karma said.

  “You can, huh?” Hope asked as she turned to add another stick of wood to the fire. She had spent the afternoon collecting large rocks from the surrounding area which she’d piled up into a low wall about six feet opposite the base of the steep incline. She’d then stretched two bed sheets from the makeshift wall to the incline and anchored the edges with more rocks, forming a slanted tent-like cover over them. She draped another sheet partially over the top so it hung down on one side, making a three sided enclosure. She’d cut a hole in the center of one of the sheets to let the smoke out, and dug a shallow pit in the sand surrounded with rocks for a fireplace. If the wind picked up, it would all probably blow away. But so long as the wind stayed calm, they had some protection from the sun, and it even held in some of the heat from their fire.

  “You’re thinking that first thing in the morning, you’re going to light a smoky fire to draw in those assholes that are looking for us,” Karma said. “Don’t do it.”

  “Karma, if your fever keeps climbing, I’m afraid you could lose your leg, or even die. Waiting for Grace to bring help is not worth your life.”

  “Yes, it is,” Karma argued. “I would rather be dead than be a prisoner, or a slave. I sure as hell don’t want to be a brood mare for some reptile.”

  “I understand that,” Hope said. “But those aren’t the only two choices.”

  “No?” Karma asked.

  “No,” Hope replied. “Grace can get help and bring them to the compound. And while we’re waiting, you can get medical treatment.”

  “Hope,” Karma said, her voice weaker now. “Don’t you remember what Berta said?”

  Hope poured a little water into a cup and crawled over to Karma. She put one hand beneath the other woman’s head and lifted her up enough so that she could sip the water. When she’d had enough, Hope lowered her head gently back down to the blanket.

  “Yes,” Hope replied as she moved back to the fire. “I remember what Berta said. “No medical attention. But there’s a difference between emergency medical care and standard hormone therapy for age amelioration.”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Karma said. “I think that if I’m one of these berezi, that it won’t matter to them if I have two legs or none. If I’m not, they’ll just kill me. It won’t be worth their trouble to heal me, and you know that.”

  “I do not know that,” Hope argued. “And neither do you.”

  “Just don’t do it, Hope,” Karma said, sounding even weaker now. “Don’t.”

  “We’ll see,” Hope said finally. “Get some rest, Karma.”

  ***

  Grace walked until almost dark. She wanted to continue, and considered it. Her small flashlight was bright enough to illuminate the ground in front of her so she could be sure of where she was putting her feet. Karma’s accident had brought home to her just how easy it was to fall and be seriously injured. With everyone now counting on her, so she was not going to risk a broken bone or a sprained ankle.

  She didn’t know if the flashlight was bright enough for anyone to see from a distance or not, but she thought it might be worth the risk. What decided her against traveling after dark was direction. She couldn’t see the specific shapes in the distant mountains that Hope had told her to walk toward. If the moon were fuller she thought she might have been able to risk it, but it wasn’t. She didn’t want to walk all night long only to find out she had veered off in the wrong direction when the sun came up. She was going to have to camp, and wait for daylight before going any further.

  She came upon a scattering of gigantic boulders and decided to camp among them. She built a small fire and heated some water, wanting a hot drink more than food, though she forced herself to eat anyway. She made herself another cup of tea after she ate and sat staring into the dying embers for a long time. Finally she crawled into her blankets, determined to get some sleep and start out as early as possible.

  Sometime in the middle of the night a strange noise awakened her. Her eyes flew open, her heart pounding so hard it frightened her. It took her a moment to realize it wasn’t an animal she was hearing, or people. It was an engine of some sort. At first she was afraid it was a ground-car coming close to where she lay, then she realized it was too loud for that, and coming from the wrong direction. She sat up and tilted her head back, looking up into the starry sky. It was a VTOL, she was certain of it. And it had just passed over her, heading west.

  Grace fumbled around for her flashlight, flipped it on and got up, moving carefully around the boulder that was blocking her view. Once she was in the open she turned the flashlight off, closed her eyes, and waited for her night vision to return. She could still hear the VTOL as it grew more distant. It had to be flying low, she thought, otherwise it wouldn’t have been so loud.

  When she thought she had her night vision back she opened her eyes and stared into the west, gasping softly with surprise at what she saw. She closed her eyes again, then opened them to be certain. There, in the distance, was a small white glow of light.

  She stood watching it for a long time as she considered her options. She could only take a guess at how far away that light was from her current position, but if it was an airfield, which seemed possible considering the fact that she could still see the tiny blinking red lights of the VTOL in the distance moving toward the glow, then she thought it could be between 25 and 30 miles away. The town she was heading for was at least that much further to the northwest. She wasn’t really certain how far they had traveled, but even with the time lost that morning with Karma’s accident, she thought it possible she had made close to thirty miles that day.

  But the airfield, if that’s what it was, was in her line of sight. She knew it was there, because she could see it. And she didn’t think that she would run into their captors there either, a possibility that had occurred to her earlier that day as she walked.

  Grace stared at the glow in the distance for a long time, trying to make up her mind. Finally, she nodded to herself. She would head for the airfield. It was the safest option. What if she got off course the smallest bit and missed the town Hope had aimed her toward? What if she reached the town only to be captured again by the men who had already kidnapped her once? Men whom she would never recognize, but who would certainly recognize her.

  Her decision made, she turned her back on the distant glow and returned to her small camp between the boulders. There were still some embers glowing in the bottom of her fireplace so she stirred them up and added some wood. Then she climbed back into her blankets and lay watching the fire. She thought about breaking camp right away, but the night was not even half over yet, and she needed to sleep. She thought about Hope, and Karma. She hoped that Karma could hang on long enough for her to get the help they needed because she knew that, no matter what they’d agreed, if Karma took a turn for the worse Hope was going to do whatever she had to do in order to get the other woman some help.

  She was determined to walk fast the next day, and reach that airfield no matter what. As she tried to calculate how far away that glow of light was, and how long it would take her to reach it, she fell asleep.

  Chapter 39

  “Wake up, Ellicia, we’re here,” Rob said, shaking her shoulder gently.

  Ellicia
opened her eyes with a gasp. “I’m sorry,” Rob said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “It’s okay,” Ellicia said as she straightened up in her seat. “Where are we?”

  “At the Edward H. White Training Base,” Rob replied. “In a region known as Arizona. We still have several hours till dawn and General Grissom, the base Commander, says there’s a room in Visiting Officer’s Quarters you can use that has a bed and a shower.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” Ellicia said as she stood up and stretched. “I can hardly wait.”

  “Well come on then,” Rob said as he guided her to the door and lifted her down from the VTOL. Twenty minutes later Ellicia was curled up on a narrow military issue bed in one of the few private visitor rooms on the base, sound asleep.

  “Tell me a secret,” Ellicia said as she watched Harlan in the mirror behind her. He was sitting on the bed tying his shoes but straightened with an expression of surprise on his face. His eyes met hers in the mirror.

  “You first,” he said, taking her part in what had become a ritual for them over the course of the past several months.

  “All right,” Ellicia replied. “It’s a really good thing we’re getting married soon because I really want to have the same name as our children when they’re born.”

  “Children?” Harlan asked blankly.

  Ellicia just smiled, watching Harlan in the mirror as she waited for the news to sink in.

  Harlan’s eyes widened, then he bowed his head and covered his face with his hands. Ellicia’s heart stuttered in her chest and she turned to face him. It had not occurred to her that he would be unhappy about the news. Now she wondered how she could have made such a mistake.

  “Harlan?” she asked in a small voice as he continued to sit there with his face hidden from her. She saw his shoulders shake, then he scrubbed his face with his hands before standing up. She looked into his eyes, afraid of what she was going to see there but determined to face it head on.