‘Basically, we’ve sent Gideon out for a walk, Jayson is with him,’ Varan added quickly. ‘Jayson will make sure Gideon gets home again safely if the mag…, err if he becomes ill or if the walk is too much for him I mean.’
‘I always knew there was summat wrong wife that Forest…’ mumbled Gideon’s grandmother almost under her breath. ‘I could always feel it waitin’, jus’ waitin’,’ she added as Gideon senior smiled indulgently at her. ‘You an’ yer Forest,’ she said sadly, a tear rolling slowly down her face.
‘Tis why I moved ‘ere, ter be with you love,’ he said, kissing her damp cheek. ‘Yer never took ter the trees so I brought me forest ‘ere with me,’ she smiled at him as he enclosed her in his arms, remembering how his wife had never been able to reconcile herself to the forests energy and its ambient feeling of possessiveness.
‘So,’ began Mayan as she continued to look out of the window and munch delicately on her toast, ‘Gideon is walkin’ about in the cold ‘coz yer think, iffen ‘e’s away from the ‘ouse ‘e’s gonna be ill,’ she held up her hand to forestall Sonal who had opened his mouth to speak. She turned back to face the room before she continued. ‘I’m sorry Sonal but I find it ‘ard ter believe a bunch o’ trees or some dead wood protects ‘im. Gideon don’t do magic, ‘e’s never done any magic, e’d ‘ave told me iffen ‘e could.’ She finished angrily.
‘Think about it love,’ whispered Mrs Green, ‘when I was a girl, no one ever went inter the forest. Yer gramps’ll tell yer, no one even went near, we thought it was evil, I ‘ad a friend once… ‘is name was Byron… ‘E never came back.’ Mayan watched her grandmother’s face crumple and leaving her tea, rushed to her side. ‘Listen to em love,’ her grandmother said as she pulled from Mayan’s embrace hurried through the kitchen and up the stairs. Mayan stared after her.
‘She be mighty worried about Gideon,’ explained her grandfather, ‘an’ what she said is true, the forest took ‘er Byron. It’s not safe, fer most folk anyway,’ he added as he followed his wife out of the room.
‘But we’ve played in the forest all our lives, nowt ‘as ever ‘appened ter us there,’ Mayan interjected angrily, adding, ‘even before yer came Sonal, we were always safe there.’
‘You were always with Gideon, you, your brother Jed and Gideon, can you name any others who played in the forest with you… and who else have you ever heard of with an ever-young wolf for a friend. The forest is magic… It drew me to it… there is a reason… we just have to find it,’ replied Sonal quietly.
‘The reason…, the reason we are all here… we believe it’s because of Gideon.’ Varan said softly as the girl turned her face to the window once more.
‘Jed…!’ She whispered suddenly as the blood drained from her face and her hands fisted tightly on the windowsill next to Gideon’s father.
Without warning she suddenly felt her brother and remembered her dream, Jed’s hatred was almost palpable, she started for the door at a run, knocking cups flying and bashing into the table causing her grandmother’s teapot to crash to the floor.
‘Jed no... Sonal, it’s Jed, Jed’s out there waiting for Gideon, he wants ter kill ‘im, I dreamt it, it’s what woke me up. E’s gonna kill Gid. I can feel it,’ she flung open the door and ran out into the cold, her chestnut hair flying behind her. Within moments as the kitchen emptied, the sound of running feet crunching on the crisp grasses filled the air as everyone raced into the trees shouting.
‘Jed, stop…Jed.’
They were too late; ten minutes later, they came upon the unconscious body of Jayson, lying awkwardly on the cold ground.
‘I’ll stay with him,’ said Rhoàld as the others rushed through the cold wood after Mayan.
***
Gideon had never been any match for his blood brother; Jed held him securely, his knife pressed hard at Gideon’s throat, just biting at the skin. Gideon wanted to be sick again and he had a pounding headache.
The illness had returned as they were walking so Jayson suggested they sit for a while to see if the pain and sickness would pass. As Gideon leaned forward to vent his stomach, Jed had hit Jayson hard and dragged away his unconscious body, dumping it beside a large tree.
With the soldier disposed of, Jed rested his back against the bole of a tree, he was exhausted and sick to his stomach with his head reeling but he would sleep as soon as Gideon was dead, so he waited whilst his brother again emptied his stomach.
He had found and followed the two men easily and laughed to himself as the pair sat down on the log, careless, he thought as no attempt to check the area for adversaries had been made, but then ‘e wouldn’t think o’ me as an enemy. The thought was banished as quickly as it came, Gideon was his enemy, he had raped and killed his only sister and only he would die for it, he toyed with the idea of plunging the knife directly into Gideon’s back but dismissed it, as it would have meant he would have to kill the guard. He might not be a soldier any longer but he did not want to kill one either, especially as this one looked rather a poor weak soul, not the kind of specimen Gath would usually chose as a bodyguard, Jed thought.
‘This way,’ called Mayan as she felt her brother close by, ‘this way, I can feel ‘im.’ The others followed as quickly as they could. Varan and Sonal, being twins themselves, knew and understood exactly how, what the twins’ mother, called the twin thing worked and they trusted Mayan implicitly.
Feeling weak from his illness Gideon had not the strength to fight back and now sat uncomfortably on the frozen ground with a cold knife pressed at his throat, absently he noted Mayan’s blue stone dangling across Jed’s forearm.
Gideon pushed himself against the knife involuntarily as his stomach heaved once more; bright red blood covered the knife and flowed over Jed’s hand as it bit deeper into his throat. Knowing his prisoner was helpless, Jed released the pressure on the knife slightly.
‘Why Gid, why d’yer ‘ave ter kill ‘er when she was already yorn... yer know that, she would ‘ave died fer yer…’ Jed sobbed, as Gideon again lurched against the blade and vomited, failing to respond. Infuriated by Gideon’s refusal to answer, Jed swung the butt of the knife hard against his blood brothers head and Gideon collapsed. As he lay unconscious, Jed sobbed again and cradled his brother’s comatose body into his arms, inadvertently forcing the blade to bite into his throat once again. ‘I loved yer Gid, I still love yer, why d‘yer do it?’ He cried and his heart broke, he realised he would never be able to hurt this man, the man he thought of as a brother. He looked up through pain-filled eyes full of tears and he saw Mayan standing in the trees, a little way away from him silent and still.
‘I’m sorry May,’ he said to her ghost, ‘I can’t kill ‘im, even though yer dead, I can’t do it.’ Insane with grief he rocked the unconscious body in his arms back and forth repeatedly, the knife held tightly in his hand. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said again and the phrase became a cadence for his rocking. ‘I’m sorry.’ ‘I’m sorry.’
Mayan slowly crossed to her brother, tears in her own eyes; somehow, she knew Toby was behind this. ‘I’ll do fer yer precious boys,’ he had said the day he had left Green Home. For the first time in her life, she knew what it was to hate and she did not much like the feeling. She sat beside her brother motioning for the others who had come up behind her to stay back and be quiet.
‘I’m no dead bro,’ she whispered, her voice calm and serene belying the terror she felt in her heart, ‘feel me,’ she added, as she placed her hand against his bloody one and let her warmth spread through his frozen skin. All the time her eyes on the knife still held so close to Gideon’s open wound, already copious amounts of blood were oozing down Gideon’s chest from the deep gash at his neck.
Sonal, alarmed at the sight of so much blood grabbed his brother’s arm and began to mumble in his old singular singsong voice. Supported as he was by his brother, he pushed his mind outside his body and along the invisible path toward Gideon, the path created as the party had travelled toward Branton and
when Gideon first become ill. As he entered Gideon’s body his entire being shuddered, his own heart, previously beating steadily, missed a beat and faltered slightly before slowly regaining its natural steady rhythm, Varan felt the change at the root of the magic and concentrated on supporting his brother, sending healing power along the lifeline Sonal had opened. He sat Sonal down on the damp ground still holding him tightly to maintain a strong connection.
Sonal wandered through waves of power like a man suddenly blind and alone in a new place. He slowly focused on Gideon’s heartbeat until he recognised the threads of the boy’s magic, and he stayed there, close to Gideon’s heart until he was comfortable and linked, knowing and acknowledging the essence of magic lying through the centre of Gideon’s power, then he moved deeper. The strength of the raw power, for the moment dormant in Gideon shocked him to the very core. At its edge, the power seemed to pulsate, to throb in tune with his heartbeat; this is what I felt, thought Sonal, recognising an abundance of energy that without a drain or an essence of control was slowly killing Gideon. Ignoring the intoxicating pull of power, he tentatively searched for the wound. Absently he noted living connections in the ether between Gideon and Jed beside him, shared blood, he thought, remembering the incident with the cut palms the night before Jed joined up so long ago. The fine wires between the two boys seemed to glow and throb through the roots, an invisible link, shiny and pure almost a beacon for anything looking for them from this side of the magic. Vulnerable and unprotected the threads throbbed with life, they don’t realise what they have done, I, I didn’t realise…, thought Sonal, as he watched the link begin to dull, drawing life force from Jed, it would kill Jed as surely as Gideon’s blood loss would kill him too, if the bleeding wasn’t stopped. A second thread he noticed connected Jed to Varan, this one was strong and protected, this thread glowed in tune with the line connecting Varan to himself and pulsing as Varan sent his strength to Sonal. Sonal made a mental note to ask his brother about it.
Finally, he found the wound, a deep cut in the side of Gideon’s neck; blood flowed slowly through it like a partially blocked drain as Gideon’s life leaked away. Sonal began to concentrate on the healing flow from his own body, afraid to tap into Gideon’s own vast pool of living energy, lest it disturb the dormant power and explode out killing them all. He had used this method of healing many times before as he fought whilst still a member, albeit a young one, of the Guardians but never before had he been afraid to use the injured parties own resources. Once known as an adept for this skill in healing he had been fearless but here inside Gideon, he felt a novice, frightened to awaken or touch the force at the heart of Gideon’s power anymore than was necessary.
Sweat began to pour from his brow and his heartbeat began to race as he took more and more from his own body. From the inside out, the wound in Gideon’s neck began to heal as the blood flow slowed and finally stopped. The deeply cut tissues began to draw together, knitting seamlessly, lastly as the skin closed and turned to a normal healthy colour under the smears of blood, Sonal’s heart beat slowed too and his breathing returned to normal as Varan continued to watch his twin closely.
In the ether, Gideon absolutely glowed with power, in his unconscious state the power ebbed and flowed along with his heartbeat, like a mighty ocean to the pull of the moon. The connection to the root of the magic was the strongest Sonal had ever felt and he could feel the power held at bay by what seemed to be vast wooden doors. The doors ever thinning and straining as the power built up behind them and as Sonal watched, he understood the cause of the sickness and headaches.
He had been right, Gideon had grown up under the influence of the Green Home Forest and for some reason, probably the same reason he himself had felt drawn to the forest, it had protected and nurtured the boy. Gideon had no control over his own power and this lack of control was what was killing him, he suddenly realised how dangerous Gideon had become.
Checking the site of the wound once more to ensure it was totally healed Sonal carefully allowed himself to begin to drift back along the lifeline but as he attempted to leave Gideon’s body he felt the hidden power grab him and he struggled against the remorseless energy trying to consume him, just as it was consuming Gideon himself. It was as if the magic was alive and hungry, panic set in as he began to feel his soul slipping away. Suddenly Varan was beside him, guiding and pulling him from the hold of the magic, the lifeline between their souls and their bodies thinned and threatened to break as the twins fought their silent battle. They knew if the line broke, both men would become trapped by the roots and forever forbidden to begin their journey into the afterlife, their human bodies left to die as empty shells. Varan too, slumped to the ground as they fought for their lives, for their very souls. Varan’s connection to Jed and through Jed to Gideon was holding them in a great circle without the power to get free.
Unaware of the battle raging around her, Dotty watched in awe as the wound healed, as a healer herself, she marvelled at the prowess of Sonal’s work, the wound itself, closing so perfectly and Gideon’s face returning to a normal healthy colour so quickly. Her heart was breaking for young Jed, so desperate in his grief and pain, then there was little Lemba, who so wanted to go to him. A disturbance in the ether caused her to reach for the roots of her own magic and she gasped, nearly losing her footing as she finally felt the fierce battle. Gideon’s father, standing beside her grabbed her arm to stop her from falling.
‘Let go of me Jed,’ Dotty gasped as she desperately tried to help the twins. Jed held on tightly to the unsteady woman, his vision changed and he could see faintly what Dotty saw, velvet blackness filled with ribbons of bright, bright light, each one pulsating and burning leaving burnt spots in his vision. Gideon, his son, the brightest light of all, he felt as if he had been looking at the sun too long in high summer. He closed his eyes attempting to shut out the light but the vision intensified.
‘Let go of me Jed, now!’ whispered Dotty again as she sent herself toward the magic, she knew the effort would probably kill her, unprepared as she was to use so much power without a balance but if she did nothing the twins would surely die and she did not want to drain Jed as she drained herself. Jed felt himself tingling and itching, he thought he had probably stepped on an anthill and disturbed the biting creatures but he remained holding on to Dotty tightly not wanting the woman to fall.
Dotty surrounded the twins in her brightest light, pale and wan in comparison to the others but she could do no more. Caught fast in the ether Varan could sense Dotty’s attempts to help; slowly she added her strength to the twins as they struggled to escape the pull from Gideon. As she fought to free them, she found herself also falling under Gideon’s spell in the same way the twins had fallen and almost in despair; she attempted to draw more from herself than she could safely give. Suddenly another light emanated from within her, it expanded and grew brighter, infinitely stronger than her own was and she marvelled at the beauty of it, its pearly iridescent sheen circled the twins and Dotty moulding itself to them following each contour and indent until it matched them perfectly, like a great overcoat it shielded them from Gideon’s pull. Varan, with a mouth that was not a mouth spoke quietly.
‘Lemba’s magic recognises the danger to its host, see Sonal, it shields us from the power of the root,’ Sonal watched in silence, not having strength enough left to answer as he struggled to be free. Slowly, so slowly, they managed to move away until finally the hold released and the twins re-entered their own bodies with a sigh, letting themselves relax for a moment recovering from the ordeal. Gideon began to rouse; the activity deep within his core had stirred his subconscious and begun to wake him.
‘Varan,’ Sonal said softly, ‘Gideon does not know, does not realise…who he is.’ Varan turned to him and suddenly he smiled, in his head, the child with the dead eyes frowned as a patch of green appeared in the dull brown grass.
‘Thank you Dotty,’ he said, sitting up and turning to the woman still held tightly in Jed
’s arms. ‘You saved our lives. Thank you,’ he said again, inclining his head in salute. Dotty smiled back shyly, embarrassed at the unexpected honour.
‘Well, I don’t want to be healing you both from colds so it might be best if you got off the damp ground and stood up.’ She turned in Jed’s arms and looked back toward the three young people still sitting on the ground. Jed continued to hold Dotty, his head was full of questions, he felt a little stiff from the cold and a little weary suddenly but he was surprised at the way he felt so comfortable with his arms this woman, the way he had always felt with his Mayan. He smiled anxiously as she patted his hand and he turned his gaze back to Gideon, covered in blood but no longer bleeding and still with the knife still at his throat.
The warmth from Mayan’s body slowly seeped into young Jed, his sobs quietened and the knife fell harmlessly to the floor. Mayan quickly kicked it away with her foot maintaining the fragile contact with her brother. She sent love and calm along their special bond, and smiled. Jed shifted his pose and cuddled his brother to him burying his face against Gideon’s neck.
‘Forgive me Gid,’ he whispered, ‘please forgive me…’ he wept quietly now, his tears leaving pale tracks in Gideon’s blood soaked skin.
‘Thought yer weren’t gonna kiss me,’ Gideon began, his voice croaking painfully as he woke. ‘Remember Jed, when I gave yer the stone yer said yer weren’t gonna kiss me.’ Mayan cried openly and threw her arms around both boys as best she could. No matter what Toby had done to her, nothing would ever be as painful as watching this and feeling so helpless. He will pay fer this, she thought again as Gideon’s father and Lemba rushed forward to help all three to their feet.
The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' Page 12
