As she brushed the last of the hair from the girls face, she gasped. This was Jed’s face, her Jed, the chestnut red hair and creamy golden skin. Mayan, the name reverberated in her head; this was Jed’s twin, Mayan. She could be no other, the likeness was too great and she looked up to tell Dotty, who was busy wrapping the rapist’s leg. Clapping her hands to gain attention, she flashed her fingers angrily wanting to know why Dotty was helping the creature.
“Journey’s Will’ left him alive and who am I to go against that.’ Dotty answered, adding, ‘He’ll never walk again without a stick and he’ll be in pain fer the rest of his life. Maybe the Gods think he’ll repent at leisure but it’s not for such as me to kill him....’ she finished, turning her attention back to the silent figure.
Rhoàld stood at the side of the clearing, the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up and icy cold sweat ran down his back. The clearing was grey, nothing lived and if the area had been devoid of the bodies strewn around and a river had flowed near, this would have been his vision. Tentatively he looked carefully around the clearing expecting to see the pale child with the dead eyes. He had tried not to think of it and had not gathered up enough courage to ask Varan about it, though he was sure the vision had come from him whilst he was still a prisoner in Gath’s dungeons. Shaking himself free of his gloom, he ran across the clearing toward Varan to assist him if he could.
Three men all dressed in soldiers clothing were dead, Rhoàld shuddered as he turned the vomit covered face of the young blonde lad.
‘He will have blue eyes,’ he predicted as he recognised Gideon, both from the portrait of Lydia and the face of his king.
‘The young man has nothing broken,’ said Varan aloud as he ran his hands lightly over the boy’s limbs adding almost to himself, ‘but he seems to be the cause of the disturbance. The magic is alive around him.’ He moved on to examine the older man and smiled as Jed opened his eyes.
“By the Journey’ Sonal, what ‘appened?’ He asked as he tried to move, Varan gently reached out and touched his head.
‘Oooh, me ‘ead, aww... me arse…’ Jed added, as a pain shot through his left buttock. He pushed Varan’s hand away.
‘I ain’t in no need o’ yer ‘ealing Sonal, I ain’t dying yet.’ Jed complained as Varan moved back to Gideon, who was beginning to rouse. Jed stood up unsteadily, favouring his left leg.
‘Aaww!’ he exclaimed painfully as he removed a large piece of wood from his behind. As he had fallen, he had inadvertently landed on a small branch lying discarded on the forest floor; it had pierced his trousers and his skin, tearing into his butt cheek quite badly. Blood began to flow copiously, as he pulled the branch free.
‘It is nasty but only a flesh wound,’ stated Varan as Jed twisted and turned trying to see his behind. Varan smiled as he worked on Gideon, Jed had reminded him of a small cat he and his brother had owned as children, it had often chased its tail, twisting round and round in exactly the same way as Jed was attempting to do now. Jed, sore and angry looked up at Varan and seeing the smile, growled at his friend.
‘Tain’t funny Sonal, yer should be seeing ter Gid…’ Jed stopped short and stared at his friend hard, suddenly moving as fast as his injuries would allow him to take a protective stance before his son.
‘Yer no be Sonal,’ he said angry with himself for not recognising a stranger.
Rhoàld who had noticed a body lying slightly apart from the main group in a small gully below the bleeding man and the boy laying on the floor, turned to stare at Varan, the likeness between the two men before him was astonishing; he helped the injured man to his feet.
‘It’s all right Jed…, he is my brother, this, this is Varan,’ said Sonal, as he gestured toward Varan. Blood had congealed on a head wound Sonal had suffered but still Rhoàld stared, totally bemused, he helped the man who looked so like Varan, back up the rise toward the clearing. The silence was palpable, the twins stared at each other, their faces unreadable and Jed crouched low over his son ready to defend him, his knife in hand.
Dotty called out angrily as she noticed the sudden tension in the air.
‘This young lady has been …em…, she needs help and you all stand there blustering!’ She said coldly, her hands on her hips and fury in her glare as she stared toward the men across the clearing. ‘I’m all for family reunions, ‘she continued, ‘but can we find a more suitable place to have it?
Gideon’s voice broke the tension.
‘She was raped...,’ he stated and his voice cracked with pain as he fought against the blackness that tried to engulf him once more. ‘Toby Hollins will die fer this.’ He added, quietly shaking his head, his tears falling freely as he looked at his unconscious and helpless fiancée. His father replaced his knife at his waist and shamefacedly tried to help him to his feet, failing miserably.
Dotty remained where she was with her hands on hips sending waves of fury across the ether at the men before her, she felt insulted that men could bristle and preen so, when injured people needed help. Using as much force as she dared she screamed at them silently, feeling herself aging slightly as the magic balanced. The twins and Rhoàld looked back at her, shame apparent on their faces.
‘Rhoàld,’ Dotty called aloud in a voice demanding to be obeyed, ‘you get back on the wagon, help that one ter get there too,’ she said pointing at Jed who had blood trailing down his leg. ‘Varan you and your brother carry the poor girl to the wagon and make her as comfy as you can and pile the dead in at the front so we can bury the corpses, Lemba, you have to help young Blondie, get him on to the wagon and we can get out of here before Gath sends in the troops. He must have heard this clear down in Devilly.’ She finished, as she smacked her hands together like small cymbals.
At last, she looked toward the unconscious Toby still lying where she had left him.
‘He deserves to be left to die…,’ she scowled, as she thought of the young girl who was even now being gently lain in the bottom of her wagon.
‘I’ll take him,’ offered Varan as he came up beside the small woman, marvelling at how she had immediately taken charge and he could see now just how she had managed to avoid Gath and his seekers all these years. ‘I’ll take him,’ he said again adding, ‘as far as the road anyhow and I’ll leave him where he can be found.’ Gathering the man up in his arms, he prepared to walk away. ‘Someone will find him and help him. I’ll meet you…where?’ He asked, as the wagon prepared to move.
‘Varan, I will come with you and show you the way back.’ Sonal said, looking at his brother in wonder, ‘and if you leave the bodies Mrs, em Madam, Varan and I will bury them here,’ he said looking to his brother for confirmation.
The twins, carrying the unconscious rapist walked in silence back to the roadside Varan had left barely an hour before. Making Toby as comfortable as possible against the trunk of a large tree, Varan built a fire as Sonal easily collected enough wood to maintain it throughout the night and on into the following day, he placed the pile within easy reach of Toby, thinking of Dotty’s last instructions.
‘Don’t you leave him to die.’ She had ordered as they left the clearing, ‘it’s not our place to kill him, even if he deserves it.’ She added before giving them a spelled blanket, one that would shake off damp and cold and enough food for him to keep himself alive throughout the night.
‘That be a well-travelled road, mores the pity,’ Gideon’s father said as his contempt for the boy became obvious, ‘so someone should find ‘im afore it’s too dark...’ he called after the disappearing twins carrying the unconscious man.
Varan pushed a small healing spell into the badly damaged leg, not to heal it completely but enough to relieve the pain until someone found him. They left Toby propped against a tree, with food within easy reach and enough equipment to be warm and dry, before they returned in silence to the dead clearing.
The area was as they had left it. The corpses, dry and lifeless awaited a burial, the soil was grey and dead and the tiny
bodies of birds and small mammals seemed to litter the entire clearing.
‘Well…, let’s do this thing!’ Varan said as he looked at his brother and as if they had never been apart, they faced each other, held and locked both forearms and began to sing. As the magic built, they released one arm and stood side by side perfectly in balance, two halves of one whole. With the magic holding a natural balance this way nothing was impossible, no destruction, no death no itching or aging. Perfect balance, Sonal felt the tears run down his face as he remembered what he had lost when his own stupidity had seen his brother pulled through the rift so many years ago. Gazing at him now he realised Varan was crying too, he smiled and tightened his hold on his forearm, Varan returned the smile, a look a pleasure on his face.
As one, the twins sang to the earth, harmonising in a soft encouraging way, making their hearts glad, filling the atmosphere about them with promise, and re-energizing life within the soil. The very air about them seemed to thicken and thin tossing the notes of the voices around and around creating echoes of sounds, alternating and dancing with the cadence of tuneful harmonies like a beautiful never-ending poem.
The twins continued their song… They could not, undo, the deaths but they could make the ground and the earth receptive to the seeds that blew in on the wind and those that birds flying overhead dropped as they flew past. As they sang, the clearing slowly lost its cold dead feel and once more seemed to be waiting for spring and new growth, new beginnings.
Then the song changed becoming sorrowful and yet still melodious, earth began to fall out from the ground underneath the bodies of the soldiers. More and more earth piled up before them and as the song continued, the bodies began to sink into the soft soil as if the soil had become liquid and the bodies made of lead, unable to float on the surface. Deeper and deeper the bodies went more with more soil falling in on top of them until there was nothing left to see, just a quiet winter clearing awaiting a new season and new life; slowly and gently, the song stopped.
‘From the Gods we come, innocent and pure; from the gods we have life and choice. On our Journey we judge how we used what we were freely given.’ Varan said quietly, as he faced his brother once more holding both forearms tightly.
‘As we judge ourselves may we not be too harsh, may the gods forgive us and not be severe, and as our journey ends, may we have fulfilled our set tasks.’ Sonal replied ending the rite of passage.
Sonal held his brother’s arms tightly and at the last, pulled him into a tight embrace.
‘The harshest of all judges is ourselves brother,’ Sonal sighed, thinking of the life his twin must have led. Varan returned the embrace before breaking away and staring hard into Sonal’s eyes, noticing the changes time had inevitably wrought.
‘There is much we must talk about Sonal,’ he said before sitting on a damp log not too far from where Sonal, after being rendered unconscious by the butt of Toby’s knife had fallen down the embankment. Sonal felt his guilt like a heavy burden as he sat down beside his twin and struggling to find words, he sighed.
‘Varen, forgive me… brother,’ he said finally.
‘Sonal…, there is nothing to forgive, the Journey wills us all.’ Varan replied.
Chapter 11
Jedadiah Bleeds
Lemba sat in the wagon with the comatose girl’s head on her lap thinking of Jed. Gideon, still feeling ill nursed his stomach and rocked back and forth gently, his eyes only leaving Mayan’s face as he drifted off into unconsciousness himself. Rhoàld laid his head back against the buckboard and closed his eyes, cold fingers stroked his cheek and warmed his heart. ‘I told you, it begins,’ Bastian said in his head.
Dotty looked under her lashes at the older man beside her on the driver’s seat. He was strong and lean with thick brown hair shot through with streaks of grey, his eyes looked kind under the now scowling brows and his nose had a slight bump in the bridge where it had once been broken. She smiled, thinking of how astonished he had seemed when she had starting ordering the men around. As the wagon bumped over a particularly large rut, her footing slipped causing her to lose control slightly and she slipped against him. The man howled in pain, he was trying hard not to show it but at every bump and rut in the ground, his bottom became more painful and bled further. The cart bumped yet again and as his bottom bounced once more spreading more blood across the seat; he leant toward her favouring his wound.
‘Woman,’ he growled quietly, ‘I wanna see me parents whilst I’m still alive, iffen yer please,’ he turned to look at Dotty and almost lost himself in her eyes, her gaze seemed to hold him fast.
‘My name is Dotty, Dotty Bramble,’ she said as she smiled at him, beaming inside. I like him, she thought as he answered her, growling again.
‘Jedadiah Green,’ he mumbled finally, tearing his gaze away from the younger woman. He kept his eyes fixed forward but nothing could stop the blood rushing up his neck and infusing his face with colour under his tan, Dotty noticed the flush and smiled to herself as she drove the cart onward.
The cart pulled up at Green Cottage, the home of Gideon’s grandparents, and a soldier opened the front door looking warily at the carriage, Jed, forgetting his injury jumped down from the driver’s seat and walked menacingly toward the younger man pulling his knife once more from his belt. Blood poured from his leg leaving a red trail across the ground.
‘Iffen yer’ve ‘urt me ma or me Da…,’ he left the threat unfinished as his father swiftly followed the young man out of the house.
‘Jed lad, stop!’ Exclaimed his father, ‘this be Jayse, ‘e’s only trying ter protect yer ma an’ me, ‘e’s gonna be stayin’ with us,’ his father said, as his mother came out of the house pulling a shawl around her shoulders to protect her from the cold.
‘E’s already ‘ad ter bury one o’ the brutes that attacked us, an’ if yer don’t mind I’d not ‘ave ‘im bury me own son!’ She reproved her husband for his wanting explanation with a chuckle and added, ‘now come in, come in all.’
Cooing and clucking like an old hen, she welcomed the visitors’ to her home and soon realised there were injured people amongst them.
Dotty, Lemba and Mrs Green tended to Mayan as well as they could. Jayson carefully lifted her from the cart, gently carried her up the narrow staircase and laid her on one of the beds. Lemba watched as the couple washed and tended the young girl and finally, Dotty administered a healing spell after calling Lemba to get a few flowers and instructing her to build a small fire in the grate.
Dotty’s skills as a healer impressed Jed’s mother, even if the fire starting up of its own accord and its needing to be continually fed for such a long time, slightly worried her.
‘She hides away from us,’ Dotty said as she prepared to leave the room with Mrs Green, adding, ‘her mind needs to adjust to the violation she has suffered, I’ve added something to help ease the memory, she’ll not forget but it will be easier for her as she remembers.
Lemba stayed beside the sleeping Mayan after the others left the room, she wanted so much to talk to her, needed her to know she would eventually recover and be strong again but she could not. Therefore, she just sat stroking her forehead and praying for the girl’s peace, knowing that with her body cleaned and mended, her sister had ensured there would be no permanent physical damage and no issue from the evil attack.
Mrs Green took her new friend into the room where her unconscious grandson lay; they bathed and tended him before leaving him to sleep soundly, again with a gentle push from Dotty. The small fire burned warm and bright before Dotty had finished her ministrations but this time Gideon’s grandmother, a little more prepared for the itching and strangeness of the magic paid it little attention. Gideon’s Grandfather sat beside him, just as Lemba sat beside Mayan, each ensuring neither of the sleeping pair would awaken alone and frightened. Tired but content, the two women made a last check on Mayan before finally making their way at last downstairs towards the sound of an argument.
Chapter
12
The Twins Talk
Sonal and Varan talked into the afternoon and on into early evening, finally bringing each other up to date on their lives. The brothers knew they had not heard each other’s entire tale but both were unwilling to push as they had only just found each other again. When he’s ready he will speak, they thought in unison, readily willing to forgive each other anything.
The weather began to change and the wind whipped through the clearing pushing dead leaves and twigs along before it, a pinecone tumbled through as if thrown by a child and it stopped before the two men as the wind eased for a moment. Sonal reached forward for the cone now resting beside his foot and Varan watched as the seeds from the cone fell through his brother’s fingers into the newly receptive earth. Life from death…or, is it death from life, he thought wryly, thinking of the deaths that the young boy had unknowingly caused. Sonal’s thoughts had been along comparable lines emphasizing their similarity even after so many years apart.
‘It was Gideon, Varan, but how…?’ Varan looked to his brother knowing exactly what his brother was asking.
‘Sonal, I think you and Jed survived purely because you had both been behind and below the young man when his power had surged before him in all other directions. The unfortunate girl, Mayan, I think you called her and the man who raped her, were luckily far enough away to be only rendered unconscious, not killed as the soldiers were. That boy is powerful and his potential obvious to any magic wielder but his power is untrained. Can you tell me anything about him?’ Varan asked. ‘I ask only because I think he may possibly be the one we search for and the reason our beloved king grows stronger,’ he said, his voice full of sarcasm as he thought of Gath and the last time he had seen him.
The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' Page 8
