“Come,” she said. “Let me show you your new home”.
She slipped her hand into mine, it was cool and her touch was light and airy. I however, sensed the same vein of strength as before; it ran through her. This woman, while not malevolent in personality, was strong, decisive and did not suffer fools.
She walked along the bridge and I tried not to let my fear of falling overcome me.
She must have sensed my nervousness because she said:
“There is support to the right and the left, you will not fall I promise”.
She smiled and it reached her shining eyes. I was transfixed.
“Come”.
I walked along the bridge, chancing a look above me at the plentiful stars twirling above as if we were inside a glass globe. To either side of me were strong wooden railings, two on each side. Each step felt study and I started to feel less terrified as we walked. I did wobble when I realised how far away I was from both “my” tree and the one we walked towards.
I followed the Queen, her blonde hair waving behind her and shining with the luminescent light of the moon, teased by the slight breeze.
We reached the end of the bridge and to the top of another tree. I realised that it was actually the width of three or four wide trees that had grown incredibly close together. Far above I could see a dwelling.
We walked inside. There was a small bannister and stairs that led up and downwards. A rug decorated the floor and a pleasant tapestry adorned the wall. The Queen walked upwards and I followed. Little rivets in the walls held small balls of light, whose source I could not identify, they cast little radiuses of light around. There were little windows also cut into the tree and small rays of the fiery moonlight dazzled me occasionally as we walked.
Finally, we reached the top of the stairs where I was greeted by a small black haired girl. She bowed low to the Queen and was dressed in a fitted tunic complete with a dagger strapped to her right. Her hair was cropped short which seemed to emphasise her sharp cheekbones and pointed features. She smiled at me and then looked away, seemingly a little overcome at the presence of the Queen.
“My Queen” she said.
“Auriana,” said the Queen, “This is where I leave you in the care of Larcen”.
Larcen bowed again and I followed suit.
“I will see you tomorrow. I am sure we will have plenty to discuss. I am looking forward to it,” she said.
I smiled, slightly overcome. She then dazzled slightly and faded away. I gasped in shock and heard a giggle from Larcen.
“She is magnificent is she not?"
I nodded in agreement.
She held out a hand to me and I took it tentatively. She smiled encouragingly.
“You need to get some sleep, we’ll show you around and explain everything in the morning”.
“Who are you?” I asked, too tired to think of a better way to word the question.
“I am a servant in the House of the Queen” she said smiling. “It’s a great occupation for me and my family is very proud”.
She seemed to recover herself quickly.
“Come, you look very tired”.
She led me up another short flight of steps and through an arch into a beautiful room, which had in it a small bed and table and a huge window with shutters.
Larcen smoked again, showing beautiful teeth.
"If you need anything, I am just downstairs."
She bowed, left the room and closed the door. Larcen had anticipated my needs and had left me a tunic to sleep in.
I undressed and collapsed onto the bed. Once again I was in a completely different place, with people I did not know who were also my people, and I was scared.
For now however, I was so tired I could barely comprehend all that had happened that night; the death of the Gleema, the meeting with the menacing leader and finally, being spirited away to this place.
I felt myself fall into sleep and was immediately by my dream river.
My toes sank into the cold, slimy mud and made me shiver as the breeze picked up and blew through my flimsy dress. To either side of me were the reeds and rushes I remembered seeing my whole life. In front of me, the seemingly endless river I could only just see across. The stick helped me stand up but I was sinking.
The moonlight glinted on the stick, for second I saw markings on it, markings unlike any I had ever seen before, even in that book in the library.
The singing started, or had I only just noticed it; carrying over the water and mingling beautifully with the lush flow of the water and the breeze that played with my hair.
Once again, I was completely on my own, except for the singers on the other side I longed to join and, yet, felt fearful of on a deeper level than before.
Interrogation
I woke with a shudder and found myself in the strange room on the top of the trees again. I looked at the shuttered window and wondered how light it was, some of my tiredness had abated and I was ready to see exactly where I was and figure out how I was going to protect myself in the situation I found myself in.
I stood up, my feet finding the warm wood gratefully; then the floor moved upwards and met the hands I had outstretched in instinct.
With my face pressed against the floor I wondered what was happening. It wasn’t like the weakness I had experienced before; more like an extreme dizziness. I tested moving the fingers on my right hand; I was correct, I could move. This at least was comforting, at least no one else would die today.
It was the same feeling I had felt upon entering the tree, that all-encompassing thwack of presence, something I could not put my finger on or even think of the words to describe. It was big, I knew that; it was powerful too, a huge entity that was sentient. Something was here, something more powerful than I could ever have imagined.
What was it?
I felt the dizziness subside and slowly eased myself to my feet. The room seemed to move from side to side as I righted myself. I wondered where Khalashaya was sleeping, whether he was awake at that moment thinking about how happy he was to be amongst those who loved and cherished him.
He had his mother, no father from what I had seen, but a loving and tender group of people he would die for. Had he not even crossed the universe to save one of his own? Me.
Yet there were so many secrets between me and this strangely beautiful man with the inner pain and plentiful scars, who had also suffered so much in his quest to live life and practice his natural magic on his own terms.
I walked across to the window, trying to put Khalashaya out of my mind. It would only add to my feeling of sadness and the ever-present undercurrent of anger that had grown and grown in recent days.
My trembling fingers found the gap between the shutters and prised them open. They were stiff and unyielding at first but soon responded to my efforts.
The resulting sight was a just reward for my work.
I was staring out onto a wonderland of trees, which were connected by bridges and lit by small balls of light that shone in the darkness.
I was unsure of what would happen the next day, but in that moment I felt somewhat at peace. I would trust in the Lord to make everything OK, if indeed he could find me so far away from New Earth.
Curling up in the bed, I fell asleep again, comforted by the thought.
I woke to the sound of voices outside my door and quickly took stock of my surroundings as the memories of all that had happened the night before came into my head. I sat up quickly, feeling fatigue try and pull me back down to the bed.
Sunlight fought the shutters for entry and pinpricks illuminated the dark floor.
I tried to concentrate through the dizziness and touched my feet to the warm wooden floor. Again, I sensed rather than felt something almost pulsing through the wood into my feet. There was some sort of entity here, some force that was pulling me.
I heard a knock on the door.
“Come in” I said tentatively.
The door opened and a smiling Kh
alashaya walked in.
“Are you ready to meet everyone?” he said.
“You are in good spirits this morning,” I said, looking at him; he looked younger somehow and wore a dark blue cloak. His green eyes shone happily.
“I am happy to be home” he said. “Come, get dressed and meet everyone”.
I was about to reply that I had nothing clean to wear when Larcen walked in with some clothes draped over her arm.
Two minutes later, Khalashaya, Larcen and I walked down the many stairs I had almost crawled up the night before and exited onto the bridge where I had met the Queen of the Falaira again.
The thick forest looked incredibly different in the bright sunlight that beat down. I was struck once more by the thick heat and realised that I would find it hard to get used to the weather back home if I ever went back. It was even hotter here than with the Gleema. I wondered how far we had actually travelled. It then struck me once again, as it had done over the last few weeks, how very far I was from my home.
I pushed thoughts of New Earth from my head and surveyed my new home.
In the daylight I could see a vast network of interconnected bridges between trees leading to a central structure that rose far above the lush green tops of the trees. It seemed to be a tall spire. I wondered how anyone found their way around.
Dotted around, as far as I could see were what looked like hundreds of dwellings built into the trees. Falaira went about their daily business. The scent of magic was stronger than I had ever experienced and throbbed through the forest like a silent, invisible earthquake.
Eventually, we reached the other side of the bridge and were met by Woodarch and Prenaslavka. Woodarch looked apprehensive but Prenaslavka seemed to be in a good mood; her dark hair shining in the sun. She smiled at me and wished me a good morning. I reciprocated, still grateful to her for taking my part the night before despite her anger and disappointment at her plans being aborted due to my frankness with the Gleema.
Woodarch seemed to try and shake himself out of his mood and smiled.
“Ready to meet the family Long-Lost?”
I smiled nervously.
Woodarch started along another bridge that led to a tall house. Khalashaya put his hand in mine. We reached the house and were met by two Falaira I recognised from my magic training. They greeted us and stepped aside for us to enter.
The room I entered was huge and looked far bigger than the dwelling had from the outside.
In it, around a hundred Falaira sat in rows with a raised stage at the end of the room that hosted the Queen of the Falaira.
She smiled at us and gestured to Larcen.
“She wants you to go to the front and meet her on the stage” whispered Larcen.
I looked at Khalashaya who gave a very slight, almost imperceptible nod.
I swallowed hard and then moved to the front, feeling the eyes of the Falaira scrutinising me as I went. I picked up bits of pieces of mental conversations that were equally scrutinising, yet none were scathing. They were curious, and there was a hunger there; a hunger to find out about me and by default, the fate of the sacred Long Lost.
I reached the front of the stage and saw some small steps to the right, which I walked up quickly.
The Queen took my hand at the top and led me to the middle of the stage.
The assembled Falaira looked even more imposing from this angle and I gulped. What was going to be expected of me?
Then there was silence.
I felt the Queen’s soft hand in my own, it felt (as per the observation I had made of her the night before) almost pliable and meek and yet radiated understated strength.
I chanced a glance at her, she looked excited but there was an undercurrent of tension that ran underneath the smile.
Then she spoke, in clear tones that reached right to the roof and the back of the large room.
“Auriana is a Long-Lost, she has been working with us to recapture her natural magic in order to defeat the Eurikaya that killed her father, a native of the blue planet and several of the Gleema and their associates recently”.
I felt that familiar pain upon having to hear my father’s death discussed.
A frenzied muttering came from the assembled audience; clearly, they had not been told everything.
I heard a whisper in my ear.
“Tell them of where you came and of how you have been learning magic”
I obeyed and opened my mouth to speak. It felt dry all of a sudden.
“My name is Auriana.” I said, “I was born on a planet called New Earth, which is far away from this planet. I am Falaira, descended from those of you who left Deloran in search of a new life across the stars”.
The muttering, which had only dimmed while I spoke, now started to get louder again. I raised a hand and was about to request quiet when they obeyed without me having to say a word.
“I am the last of the Long-Lost”.
I felt Khalashaya’s approval.
I took this as an encouraging sign and continued.
“My parents were of a race called Mankind; they also refer to themselves as people or human beings. My world is very different to this one and I lived amongst humans my whole life, always feeling different and knowing I had to hide it every single day in order to stay alive”.
I felt the Queen’s hand tighten around mine and sympathy permeated through her skin like water through a sponge. I had her, and their, attention.
“As you no doubt know, the Eurikaya found their way to New Earth and killed…murdered my father in its quest to destroy me; destroy me for being Falaira, however many generations I was removed from the line that had defeated them all those millennia ago”.
Silence, the muttering had stopped.
“I am here now to carry on learning, to become the Falaira I was supposed to be and help defeat our enemy”.
The Queen tapped my hand with a finger softly; somehow, I knew this was her attempt to convey that this part was over.
“Auriana”, she said, “Will be available now to answer any questions”.
She looked at me and smiled.
“Auriana, if you could sit on the front of the stage on this…”
She waved a hand and a small chair appeared in front of her on the stage.
She flicked a finger and the chair rose smoothly and glided to the front of the stage where it set itself down quietly. I went and sat in it, fixing my eyes on Khalashaya; he was my talisman.
A dark haired male at the front coughed and stood up.
“Lereno Harvana, my name that is”. He looked unsure of how to word his question and made a couple of false starts before finally articulating it.
I noticed his dark hair was quite thick and curly and that he had a dimple on one side of his face that showed whenever he spoke.
“So you knew you were Long-Lost? Are there others on your world?”
I thought back to the times I had hidden myself from my own mother and felt sad. I also remembered my recent statement that I was the last of the Long-Lost and felt anger that he did not seem to have listened to me.
“No, I did not know. I knew only that I could do and sense things that others could not. My mother…she…”
I coughed, running out of words myself. I had been about to talk about her warnings to me but that had suddenly seemed too intimate to tell a room of strangers.
I tried again. I told them about meeting Khalashaya and then finding the results of the Eurikaya’s attack.
“My parents knew nothing and neither did I – except that I knew I was different”.
“And, the others?”
“Oh, the others; there were none. I mean,” tripping over myself. “I mean, as far as Khalashaya and myself are aware, again, I am – or was – the only Falaira on New Earth”.
There was frenzied muttering amongst the Falaira, I felt uncomfortable again. I was growing tired of having to explain myself to new groups of people. I felt a wave of irritation at the mutterers. Who d
id they think they were, scrutinising me like this, as if I were the enemy that had slaughtered their kind.
I sensed Khalashaya looking at me, he had a puzzled expression on his face. I stared back at him defiantly. My life had been difficult before he had crashed into it, but I had had a father and had felt more in control of my life. Here I had been transported from pillar to post and frequently forced to relive the worst experiences of my life to satisfy the ghoulish curiosity of people I had never met.
I felt my blood start to boil as my pulse quickened.
A sound of someone coughing meaningfully cut through the haze and I realised Lereno was asking me a question.
“How did that happen?”
“How did what happen?” I worked hard to keep my voice even.
Lereno coughed nervously and looked to his neighbour, a pretty woman with dark hair, and then back at me.
“How did the demon not make an attempt on your life before now?”
I let my irritation manifest itself above the layers of calm I was trying to paint over it with; I could not stop the rush of anger that fizzled through me at that moment.
“I do not know; however, I am exceedingly pleased that it did not”.
Lereno smiled nervously.
“Thank you”.
He sat down quickly.
I looked around at everyone else and felt the aggression inside me rise. Who else wanted to question my existence and survival?
Khalashaya walked over and came to stand beside me.
“Auriana has had a hard journey and needs to rest”.
He looked down at me and smiled slightly. I stood up and followed him down the steps and out of the room. I had not realised I had been clenching my teeth until I stepped onto the bridge outside and felt the suns on my skin. I leaned on a pillar and breathed deeply; feeling the tension throb through me.
Khalashaya looked at me quizzically.
“I am sorry” I breathed, it was an effort. Part of me did feel regretful of my anger but I was too in the midst of the storm to see clearly. I knew I needed some time alone to get myself together.
“I thought you were feeling better about everything”.
The Long Lost Page 20
