Brishan studied his hands, a pang of guilt turning to white-hot anger. “No. I’ve tried. Over and over. I can only imagine what’s going on inside her is blocking…I can’t get through.”
“Yes, that may be so. But she’ll return to us. I know it.”
“And Oriana?” Selina’s voice cracked as she spoke.
“Selina. My love’s beautiful sister, it hurts me to look at you right now, you’re so like her.” Dane took a deep, rattling breath. “That night, after the fire at the chateau, I followed them, to Mikulov. I could see her, through the windows of an old farm house, tied to a chair, blindfolded and…”
Selina gasped.
“Hush, Selina, we need to know,” Eamon said, his tone gentle despite his words. Selina bowed her head.
Dane’s eyes fluttered closed, then opened again with startling clarity. “Outside, ten or more men, I can’t remember, stood around, smoking, talking,” he sighed. “I felt like I could take them all on — smash their heads together and rid the world of their useless energy.”
“If I’d been there I’d…” Brishan felt the words escape through clenched teeth.
“Brishan, shh.” Again, Eamon strived to maintain quiet.
“Yes. I know what you would have done. And, for that, you would now be dead.” Dane’s good eye focused on him and Brishan lowered his head, shame burning his cheeks.
“I followed them here; to their headquarters, right near the Tower of London. My disguise, this revolting body I now reside in with muscles I don’t need, the shaved head, the beard — I did so I could infiltrate. And I have.”
“Who are they, exactly?” Selina’s eyes widened as her hand agitated her thick, brown hair.
Dane winced, as if the very thought of what he was about to say pained him more than his physical wounds. “It is as I thought. An underground prostitution racket, hidden beneath Seething Lane. They call it ‘The Lair’ and you can only get there through the bowels of London’s streets. Its…its prime function is to sell women, women from all over the world, to the wealthiest of men. They’re held in rooms and drugged, then dressed and put on display for an…auction of sorts.”
A deep sob from Selina tugged at Brishan’s heart.
“You mean my sister is one of these gilded birds? Waiting to be sold to the highest bidder?” Selina’s voice was barely audible.
“Yes. And I am now a security guard. I’m there to make sure their venture remains secret and protected from the eyes of the law. Not only me, and a team of thugs, but some of the city’s politicians, highest ranking police officers…these lauded citizens are some of the Lair’s best clients, in fact.”
“So, tell us of the first time you saw her in there.” Cosima spoke, her voice calm and clipped.
“You have seen some of this?” Dane asked, his eye flicking to the master healer.
“Yes, but only flashes. You are too clever at masking yourself.”
“I’ve tried to, yes, but only to save you all pain.”
“We know, Dane, please, go on. I’m sorry,” Selina said.
“I attend the auctions, standing in the shadows as the clients view the women. Oriana is among ten women they keep for the highest possible bidder. The others are rented out, by the hour sometimes — so she’s lucky in that. She’s not aware of me, or anyone, she is…her mind is…” Dane’s voice broke and a single tear escaped, running down his battered cheek.
Brishan stood and squeezed his uncle’s hand. “She’s only drugged, Dane, she can overcome that. She’s still there, inside. She can’t be broken that easily.”
Dane squeezed Brishan’s hand. There was strength there still and Brishan felt hope…hope for Dane’s recovery.
“You have a plan, yes?” Cosima moved around the van, whipping up a new, foul smelling potion to ease Dane’s suffering.
“The mastermind of the ring goes by a different name while he’s at the Lair, though I know he’s well known and in the public eye. I can’t get any more information from the scum I work with, they’re nothing but hired thugs. But, yes, I have a plan…for him.” The fire returned to his eye. “First, though, we get Oriana out. Every day, I get closer to the staff who look after the women — the housekeepers, the cooks. The first step is to—”
“Ahhh…” Brishan clutched his stomach as searing pain ripped through his body.
“Brishan, what is it? Where’s the pain?” Selina rushed to his side.
“Clau…” He ran out of breath as an imaginary knife attacked his knee. “Claudia.”
“Yes. I am seeing it too. She is rushing towards — death.” Cosima’s voice, vague and monotone, broke through the roaring in his ears.
Selina moaned and dug her fingers into Brishan’s shoulders. Brishan shook his head and clawed at his mother’s arms, desperate to pull himself upright. Get up, get up. Must help her.
“No, it hasn’t happened yet, Brishan. She is not dead. I can also feel the pain that’s coming…I think perhaps I have all day, but it’s been numbed by my broken body. I can’t reach her as I am.” Dane pulled his bruised head up from the pillow.
“She is rushing. Moving ever closer. To the crash.” Cosima stared at the wall, unblinking.
“What did you say?” Brishan rasped.
“A crash. A train.”
“Where? Where do you see the train, Cosima?” Eamon caught the fortune-teller by her shoulders, adding his energy to hers to help maintain her vision.
“Very close to the turrets.”
“Turrets? There are castles all over Europe, she could be anywhere! Spain! Italy!” Eamon’s face turned a deep shade of purple.
“No. She’s not that far away. I feel her close still,” Dane said, his voice unwavering in the midst of Eamon’s panic.
“Where then?” Selina whispered.
Brishan’s hands stiffened, almost paralysed. He tried to clench his fingers, but the movement was impossible. A lump filled his throat and when he opened his mouth to speak, no sound escaped.
“Oh God, Cosima, help him,” Selina cried as she took the weight of his falling body to the floor.
“He’s too connected with Claudia, he needs to fight the paralysis, so he can help her,” Dane said. Lifting himself to the edge of the bed, he bent down, “Do you hear me Brishan? You must fight it. It’s Claudia’s panic you feel, not your own. You are calm. You are taking control of your body.” Dane’s voice, as melodious as Brishan had always known it.
But the pain, it’s so deep…in your eyes. Don’t hurt yourself further, Uncle. I’ll deal with this. Why won’t my tongue move? Claudia, Claudia, I’m coming. Reach out. Tell me how to find you.
“Cosima. We will all concentrate with you. Hone in on your vision. We must know where the crash takes place,” Dane spoke to the master healer, keeping his unwavering gaze on Brishan.
“The countryside is flat and orange. She is with many people. I can feel she dislikes them. Well, all except one. He has eyes like ice and his grip on her mind is strong.”
An image flashed through Brishan’s mind — a tall, blond man, handsome, jumping from a train, staring at Claudia as he left. For a quick, painful moment a jolt of jealous anger whipped him senseless. I cannot waste time on that now. In the vision, the crooked, broken glass of a window shattered as the man jumped. Outside, the horizon gleamed with pointed turrets. Spires.
The City of Spires. Of course! Prague. She was on a train to Prague. She was going to the capital. He flung himself forward, violently straining against the paralysis. His parents stared at him, tears streaming down their faces, eyes searching his own for clues.
It took all he had to focus on Dane’s brown eyes, searching for the calm he knew would be there, desperate for help. The gypsy gazed back at him, his uninjured eye opening more as the energy flowed between them. Brishan tensed, trying to make a sound. His hands remained stiff and open. Can’t…even…write it down. His eyeballs strained against their sockets with the effort.
“I’ve never seen this befo
re,” Brishan heard his father mumble to Cosima, as they all leaned in towards him.
Cosima’s vision had faded entirely. She nodded at Eamon. “I have. It’s one thing to have visions of strangers in trouble, it’s quite another to feel your beloved in such pain. He can’t cope because he’s never known such a feeling. It’s debilitating. But he’s strong. He’ll overcome it. I know.”
Brishan took some comfort in the words; Cosima was not the type to pretend for the sake of other’s feelings. Dane pulled him close. How is Dane so strong, even as his own daughter faces…God…what?
He opened his mouth again, but only a rasping sigh came out of his dry lips. Selina put a glass of water to his mouth and he drank as if he’d thirsted for days.
“Just use your mind. One word, Brishan, concentrate on one word. Give it to us,” Dane said, closing his eyes as if ready to go into deep meditation.
Brishan closed his own eyes. Prague. Prague. Prague. He chanted over and over and prayed that their combined psychic connection was enough to force its way through the pain barrier. His eyes opened and he tasted the salt of a single tear, making its way down his cheek.
And his family stared back at him –their faces blank as they fought his emotions…emotions blocking the path to Claudia.
Chapter Thirteen
Lost
A tranquil breeze caressed Claudia’s cheeks and the lake shone with pink-tinged twilight. Jasmine vines crept up the old oak trees, filling the air with their sweet smell and fluffy, white seeds floated on the breeze like tiny parachutes, landing softly on her arms and in her hair.
Dane sat in the grass beside her, one leg crossed over the other, drawing patterns in the dirt beneath the largest oak tree she’d ever seen. She could feel the presence of the chateau — looming like a giant shadow blocking the sun — so she knew they were in the valley somewhere below her childhood home. But how did we get here?
Still, it was hard to care about the whys and the hows, with Dane so close and nature stirring all her senses.
“Did you know, those seeds that look like miniature clouds are colonising that mountain slope in the distance?” Dane pointed towards the horizon. “See how they all travel in the one direction? They instinctively know when the breeze is blowing towards their destination and they detach from their pods, ready for the journey.”
Claudia looked harder at the seeds. They were all on the same path, rising higher and higher as they drifted further away. “Yes, I see now.”
“Today, Claudia, when you helped that man with his heart, you followed your own instinctive path. You knew what to do, even without training. You knew, because it is in your blood…to heal, to help, to do great things.”
Claudia rubbed her temples. She didn’t want to remember what Dane was talking about. She could sense…danger, somewhere in her mind, pushing forward and trying to puncture her thoughts. But she wasn’t going back there. Not now.
Then, Dane smiled at her, his glorious, brown eyes twinkling through the laugh lines. His head was shaved, which was strange. Claudia wanted to ask why. But the temperature was so mild, the air so soft and scented, the grass so cushioning beneath her that questions, talking even, seemed ridiculously irrelevant.
Besides, it looked good; his scalp was brown and perfectly shaped and his hairlessness highlighted the strong contours of his face. Her father’s face.
“You’re studying me.” He chuckled and placed his thumb and forefinger under her chin.
“Do you think we look alike?”
“Hmm, let me see.” He stared at her mouth, her eyebrows, her cheeks and her chin. “Our eyes are the same colour. Your mouth is always ready to smile and your eyebrows make you look strong, they’re dark and straight like mine.”
Claudia smiled, outrageously happy with the resemblances.
“But we are most alike through our souls. The vehicle that carries us is not so important, not in the long run. You’ll come to know this too.”
Claudia swallowed, consumed by an insurmountable lump in her throat. “Dane?”
“Yes, precious one.”
“I…” The words stuck in her throat and tears flowed unchecked down her cheeks.
“It’s all right, darling, everything will be fine. Just speak.”
“Dad, I…”
A flush of colour swept over Dane’s neck and before she could speak, Claudia was caught in a tight hug, her tears disappearing onto his chest. She started to sob, gripping his shoulders and resting her cheek on his muscular arm. She had never felt so safe and so miserable at the same time.
“I can’t tell you how it feels to hear you say that,” Dane whispered in her ear. “I feel like I’ve been given the most amazing gift in the world.”
Claudia pulled back from his chest and tried to smile. “Something is very, very wrong with my vehicle now, isn’t it? I can feel it, somewhere in the distance, but it’s tugging me closer.”
“I know. Claudia, sweetheart, I know, but hold on here with me, for a little bit longer. I know you can do it.”
Claudia pressed her palm against her forehead, pushing against the current inside: the force that was determined to sweep her back. “Tell me more about where we are and how we got here.”
“Good girl.” Dane smiled. “We’re in the astral plane, you and I. You’ve managed this, you know. Your soul has travelled here, to meet me.”
“How?”
“You’re asleep, my precious. And I’m meditating on meeting you in the astral plane. Think of it as a long rope that connects us always. Not only us, but Brishan and Oriana and Cosima, all those with gypsy blood.”
“Brishan…” Claudia sighed as her hand involuntarily drifted over her heart.
Dane brushed the hair from her forehead. “Brishan’s connection to you is strong, stronger even than mine. Now, as we speak, he fights for you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will. Without our spiritual self, we are nothing but a vessel. It’s like we’re…well like a car and the car’s engine is the most important part.” Dane cocked his head to the side and smiled without showing his teeth. “But, I know…it’s hard to think about it like that. Your body feels so important when you’re young; there are so many things to discover about it.”
Claudia felt the blush creep up her cheeks, instantly remembering the day Brishan had first touched her while they’d swam in the lake. She’d come a long way from the screaming, frightened child she’d been then, physical intimacy didn’t only mean the gatekeeper’s vile touch.
Fresh tears coated her cheeks as she reached out to hug him again. “I have to tell you something…but you’ll hate me,” she whispered in his ear.
“Not possible.”
“I don’t know how to begin.” Claudia took a deep breath. “I was…I became…so hurt and angry that you’d all left me.”
Dane opened his mouth to speak, his eyebrows tugging inward.
“I know, more than anything, I know, why you had to, especially you,” she jumped in before he spoke, looking up at him from underneath her eyelashes. “I’m not brave enough to ask about Oriana. I guess you would have told me if she was…safe.”
Dane simply rubbed her shoulder and nodded encouragingly for her to go on.
“Grace and Edward…”
“Ah, yes. Grace.” Dane bent his head and stared at the ground for a long time.
“She’s arranged my marriage.”
Dane looked up and chuckled, softly, under his breath.
Claudia cringed, her shoulders rising upwards, as she mentally arranged her next words. “I fought the whole idea, of course. But, then he came. Preston, that is. At first, I hated him. So suave and polished, so…well…from Grace and Edward’s world.” Claudia held her face in her hands. “There’s so much to tell.”
“I know, I too, have much to tell. But I sense there’s one thing you want to get off your chest. You’re brave, I know you are. Tell me.”
She took a deep breath. “I started
to like him. He was so attentive and polite and, well, fun and…handsome.”
“I understand. You were intrigued.”
Claudia sighed. “Yes, so much so. Not in the same way I was —as I am — with Brishan. It doesn’t feel like love, or belonging, or trust. All the things I discovered when I met you.” She smiled at Dane and he smiled back in a way that tugged on her heart. She didn’t want to cry again, but emotion pooled in her stomach. It came bursting out, unheeded.
“But I kissed him,” she gulped in air. “And I got drunk and I let him touch me…and I liked it.” She hung her head, waiting for his shock and disappointment.
“Oh, Claudia.”
She rushed in before he could speak. “Worse than that, I almost wished that Brishan knew, wished that I could hurt him like he’d hurt me. I thought, if he was jealous, he’d come back for me and I thought this, so stupidly, just as I’d decided to come and find you all, to be with you.”
“Sweetheart…”
“I know! You think I’m shallow and weak. Maybe I am. I don’t want to feel like I do, but I was going to keep doing it anyway. I was going to Prague with Preston and maybe I was even going to marry him. It all seemed like a fairy tale and so, so easy and it felt like you were never coming back. Were you?” She sobbed, a great, heaving sound that ripped from her chest.
“Claudia. Stop.” Dane grabbed her shoulders, roughly, and turned her to face him. “This is the last time you berate yourself for something that’s simply a part of growing and learning, do you understand?”
“You’re…you’re not angry?” Claudia’s mouth dropped open.
“I can guarantee that Brishan will be mad enough for both of us.” He smiled and it took the sting out of his words, a little. “You need to experience life, Claudia. No one would have been happy if you’d stayed in the chateau instead of having adventures, least of all me.” He still held her shoulders, though his grip softened.
“As much as I disagree with Grace and all she stands for, I knew you’d be safe and that she’d introduce you to a different side of life, which is what living is about! You needed to have the choice between that life and ours. To do that, you had to experience it. And, my beautiful daughter, of course we were coming back for you. Don’t ever doubt us again, we’re yours for life.”
Gypsy Trail Page 18
