Finding The Soul Bridge (The Soul Fire Saga Book 1) (20 page)

“Maybe you were tired.” said the old man.

“No, I was well rested,” said Thist.

“No.” said the old man. “You cannot truly sleep if you are not tired, and you cannot truly dream if you are not asleep. You are dreaming so you must be tired.”

“That sounds very clever.” said Thist “who are you?”

“I am the wise man. I can tell that something is amiss with you and that I have been summoned by your soul to guide you.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” said Thist as he wondered what could be amiss within himself.

“Oh, it is part of yourself that you have become so used to that you no longer question it.”

The wise man spoke in riddles but Thist tried to make sense of it.

“There is one thing that has ailed me for many years.” said Thist.

The wise man said nothing as Thist struggled to verbalize his feelings.

“I see recurring visions.” said Thist.

“Of what?”
asked the wise man.

“Of things that go on around me, they seem connected.”

“Give me an example, will you?”

“I see the same number in things several times over in one day,” continued Thist. “Then I hear the same word several times on another day. Then on another day I might meet several people of the same name. Why, what is that?”

“Those are the omens that guide you, you should be wary of them.” said the wise man. “As long as you see these odd reoccurrences then you will know. The omens are with you.”

“But they seem to have no meaning and yet they persist. It has become a bad joke to me. What is happening? What is the meaning of these omens?”

“The omens are guiding you to a place,” continued the wise man. “Go where they take you.”

“They don’t seem to be taking me anywhere. They just seem to be there, at every corner and at every turn.”

“You misunderstand what an omen is,” explained the wise man. “It does not appear of its own will. It is something ordinary that was always there to start with. An omen is the manifestation of your own interpretation of what an ordinary thing means to you.”

Thist seemed disorientated, tired, slow and confused. He rubbed his face with his hands. He tried to control the dream and make himself not tired, but he couldn’t.

“Why am I dreaming and sleeping? I was…” Thist’s voice trailed off, he couldn’t remember what he was doing before he fell asleep.

The wise man stood up and started to walk across the water, shuffling with his hands on the staff in front of him.
“I was like you when I was young.”

Thist looked at the wise man; he squinted in the sunlight that was penetrating the clouds behind the wise man’s head. “In what way were you like me?”

“Full of fire, your soul is like a thousand suns.”

“How is it different from the souls of others?” asked Thist.

“Not at all different, everyone’s soul is like a thousand suns, but the omens guide the fortunate few. If you are seeing them and you question them, then they will lead you on like a teasing lure.”

The wise old man shuffled over to the centre of the pool in front of the waterfall and started to stir the water with his staff; the water obeyed the movement of the staff rather than be stirred by it.

“What are you doing.” asked Thist.

Suddenly all the water leapt up and hit Thist in the face knocking him over.

Thist opened his eyes. He was covered in mud and was soaked to bone. Jem and Kelvin were trying to help him to his feet but he seemed to be fighting with something.

“Just relax buddy,” said Jem, “it’s just me and Kelvin.”

Thist looked around. He was confused, delirious and weak. His eyes were bloodshot and he mumbled incoherently.

Kelvin and Jem braced him on their arms and carried him a few yards to the tavern veranda and plopped him into a tattered armchair. His head lolled to one side and he let out a long groan.

Kelvin wiped his hands and brushed off the mud from his arms. He looked displeased with the whole situation. “We have to get this dumb ass over the raging river canyon on a rope bridge that is made entirely out of one or two pieces of rope.”

Jem looked at Thist in his disabled state. “He just faints. I wonder if he is ill or what.”

Jem cradled Thist’s face in one hand as he raised his head to a more comfortable position. Thist opened his eyes for a moment.

“Kelvin,” called Jem, “Do you remember the other times that Thist did some mage-like upgrades to your arrows?”

“Yes,” said Kelvin.

“Did you notice how tired he was and how red his eyes were?” said Jem.

“Yes,” said Kelvin. “I noticed that, and that it’s worse this time.”

Jem watched Thist as he started to snore, “I just think that he overdid it.”

“And there is something about that tea.” said Kelvin “I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamed we were here in this wretched tavern in its heyday and you were drunk and trying to cross the bridge by tightrope walking and I was gambling.”

Jem looked perplexed as he saddled his mouth onto one cupped hand. He listened to the story as Kelvin told it verbatim to how he remembered his own dream. Then he interrupted Kelvin. “…and the tavern keep was exacerbated and helpless as he tried to help and serve everyone but nobody listened or intervened.”

Kelvin stopped explaining his dream, “How can you know that like you were there?”

“I had exactly the same dream down to the last exact words the people used.”

“It’s the tea that Thist makes.” said Kelvin. “It gets him all ruffled up and if we drink it we get it as well.”

Kelvin seemed to have an uncanny gift to know what had happened just by looking at the things that lay around. “You know Jem; this place didn’t run down before the tavern keeper killed himself. It fell into disrepair right after he died. It was in good nick before. I just realized something else, looking at Thist and the situations that I saw in the dream.”

“What?” asked Jem.

“The tavern keeper cut the bridge on purpose,” said Kelvin, “I just know it.”

Jem looked at the tattered old bridge remains as the rotting pieces dangled in the distance. They were barely visible, but they were there, swaying in the breeze. “I wonder why he would cut the bridge.”

“It doesn’t matter now.” said Kelvin. “We are going to start the new one. We will cross it and then leave the unfinished bridge for someone else to complete. We have spent far too much time loitering and preparing for this and I’m sick of this stupid haunted tavern, aren’t you?”

Thist raised his head just a little and waved his index finger in front of his neck.

“Yes.” agreed Kelvin as he nodded at Thist’s gesture. “It’s decided then. We will cross today or die trying, is the grapple and rope ready Thist? Let’s load this puppy.”

Thist opened one eye and signalled to Kelvin with one thumb up in the air. Then he gestured for Jem to come closer as he tried to speak. Jem approached, and Thist croaked, “You have to speak to the grapple and give it your instructions.”

Kelvin and Jem retrieved the grapple and rope where Thist had cast his imbuing spell. The two buckets that Jem and Kelvin had used to throw water on Thist were lying to one side in a pool of mud. Jem laughed at the buckets, “That is the second time today that we had to wake him with buckets of water.”

“That is rather funny,” agreed Kelvin, “But what if he decides to faint when he is halfway across the bridge?”

Jem considered Kelvin’s notion. “Let’s jump that bridge when we get there.”

“Yes, we have to build the bridge first.” said Kelvin. “Are you sure that it is going to work?”

“The potential is there, but I’m not sure what Thist has done to the shot. So we will see.” said Jem.

Jem loaded the heavy shot at the far end of the Trebuchet, he stroked the grapple.

“Now you fly high and true and carry the rope across the canyon, see?” said Jem.

Jem felt a little awkward giving instruction to a grapple. Kelvin had taken the rope over the top shaft of the trebuchet and had started to wind large coils in front of it so that the rope would unwind as it was pulled away by the shot.

“Come on Thist.” shouted Jem, “Its show time, come and see your baby fly!”

Thist opened his bloodshot eyes and stared for a moment at the trebuchet and the rope and shot. He looked over at the far side of the canyon. There were no figures loitering in harm’s way. “One thing.” he said. “Did you tie off the end of the rope so that when it flies into the sky one end is anchored here?”

Jem covered his mouth as he gasped; a chill ran down his spine, “Imagine if we shot the rope across without tying it off?”

Kelvin stared at the loose end of the rope for a second, “That would have been stupid.” He started to tie it off to the main pillar on their side of the canyon.

“Okay, let’s fire the sucker.” shouted Jem.

Kelvin held the string in his hand that would release the firing pin and checked with the other two, “Everything ready?”

Thist folded his arms and squinted to the far side to check if all was clear. “It’s now or never.” said Jem.

At that Kelvin counted down. “Three…two…one.”

Kelvin pulled the pin. The grapple dragged across the firing bed. As the counterweight moved down and forward, the boom swung past to the left and up at an increasing pace. The grapple started to glow as soon as it lifted into the air. The upgrades to the trebuchet were working. The extra power was evident in how the machine creaked and jerked. The glowing grapple flew from the ground.  It swung in an arc and soared at an angle to the ground over the canyon, flying straight for a long time. The rope following the shot as it was pulled, hissing and whipping up dust as it uncoiled from the ground. The three boys shielded their eyes from the sunlight as they watched the grapple reach the apex of its trajectory and started to arc back down. “It’s working.” shouted Thist as he jumped out of the chair.

On the far side of the canyon was a narrow wedge of rock near the pillar, a perfect place to snag the rope. The grapple was careening straight toward it as it came down on the far side of the canyon.

Jem, Thist and Kelvin stared for a long while as they saw the rope cascading down on the far end. It was hard to make out if the grapple and rope had hit its mark and snagged or not.

Thist looked impressed with himself. “Tea anyone?” he offered.

Kelvin looked at him, in surprise, “Your grapple shot worked very well, but I think you should lay off the tea for a while, don’t you? We don’t need you to fall asleep and have funky dreams when you get halfway across the bridge.”

Jem nodded. “I think you need to pace yourself on the tea. The imbuing job was unbelievable but I doubt if you can do more than one per day. Have you seen what your face looks like?”

Thist looked perplexed. He didn’t know if he should feel complimented or insulted.

“What’s wrong with my face?” said Thist.

Kelvin was impressed by the shot, even a good trebuchet should never have made that distance even with Jem’s newly invented upgrades. “Go and find a mirror.” said Kelvin.

38

Tayah sighed.

She had been feeding Thist’s lorikeets every day since he had disappeared. Every time she stood in the aviary she would look at the birds and see the longing in their eyes or maybe she was just feeling her own sorrow. She stroked her neck and ran her hand down her chest and over her waist. The aviary hadn’t been cleaned in weeks and the smell was becoming worse. It made her nauseous and she decided to ask one of the other young men to help her clean it. She wasn’t prepared to do it herself but she knew it had to be done.

She had felt a deep connection with Thist when they were in each other’s arms in the strawberry field. Over the past two months her feelings for him had grown stronger and she ached for him. One of the lorikeets perched on her shoulder and sang a long chirpy birdsong. Tayah looked at the lorikeet as it sang and felt her connection with Thist wrench at her soul. “How could he just leave so suddenly” she asked the lorikeet. “What is wrong with him?”

“Cheap!” chirped the lorikeet.

Tayah looked away as if embarrassed but it was just a silly bird. The lorikeet looked Tayah in the eye and then cocked his head to one side and chirped a strange tune before flitting to the perch.

Tayah threw out the dish of old water onto the ground with a splat. It dissipated into the droppings on the floor of the aviary. She filled the dish from a jug that she had brought with her and gave the cage a quick glance to make sure everything was fine. The spilled water had agitated the droppings, giving the smell a pungent tang that burned the throat. Tayah gagged and choked back the urge to vomit.

Tayah realized that she was fighting a losing battle. She dropped the pewter jug and made for the small wire door, flung it open and dashed out. As she fumbled to close it behind her, the one lorikeet that had perched on her shoulder darted out of the aviary and flitted to the rooftop of the nearest house. Tayah swore. “Oh no, how stupid of me!”

She latched the door and looked hopelessly at the escaped bird. It chirped a cheerful tune and Tayah was sure that it was mocking her. She called to it, “Here birdy, birdy, birdy.” The lorikeet flitted to the next house. Tayah lifted her long autumn dress so that she could move around quickly. She ran a few steps to try to catch up to where the bird had gone and then she stopped. She could feel her face and neck go green as the nausea overwhelmed her. She bent over and vomited on the ground. It splashed on her feet which only served to revolt her even more.

“Stupid birds.” she cursed and started to cry.

She cupped her hands over her face and wept for sorrow and loss. She longed for Thist and had promised to look after his birds. She had tried to be brave but it felt like the world was conspiring against her. She felt loss as well as lost, responsible but failed and she felt sick. Kaylah came trotting up to her with a concerned look. “Hey Tayah, are you alright there?”

Tayah started to sob with renewed vigour while trying to explain. “One of Thist’s birds escaped and I messed myself… why did those silly boys just leave like that… they didn’t even greet or anything… and he made me promise to keep his birds fed and safe… while he was…” she brushed at her dress with her hands as she gasped for breath between sobs “…he knew he was going to go… and I thought it was just one of his silly jokes… or he was trying to be romantic… Why was I so stupid?”

“Oh shame you poor dear…” Kaylah tried to console her friend “…how did he get out then? Can we catch him again? Where is he now?”

“I don’t know…” sobbed Tayah, “…he said they were going to see the circus or something.”

“No, Tayah, silly,” said Kaylah. “I mean the bird.”

Tayah pointed up to the rooftop of the second house. “He was just there a moment ago.”

The bird was gone. Tayah started to cry with passion. “How am I going to explain this to Thist…? I’m so stupid.” she stopped talking and held one hand on her stomach and the other hand over her mouth.

“What’s wrong? You look ill.” said Kaylah.

Tayah took a moment to compose herself. “It’s that stupid bird cage. It’s so dirty and stinks and it’s been getting worse. I thought it would be fine until Thist comes back but now I know I’m going to have to clean it. Do you think you can help me with that?”

Kaylah made a face that gave away her blatant unwillingness to help with the task. “Let’s get you cleaned up and then we can talk about it. My mom is making guinea fowl pie.”

The two girls went to Kaylah’s house just a town block away.

At Kaylah’s house Tayah just sat at the table and didn’t eat any of the pie. She looked revolted by it. Kaylah’s mother was a sweet lady with a cheerful smile and could usually lift anybody’s spirit just with her demeanour. “Oh Tayah, you look so crestfallen. You know those boys were silly to go to the circus like that. I have heard of some people who went there and were given fantastic opportunities by the circus masters. But some fell into a trap and lived a life of misery, cleaning animal cages.”

Tayah started weeping again at the thought of animal cages and how she had blundered. “I can’t understand why I am like this; I must be coming down with something. I don’t feel like eating, I was sick in the road, I’m clumsy, and if Thist was here I think I would strangle him.”

“I know that feeling.” said Kaylah’s mother. “Why don’t you have some tea, I’ll make you some quickly. Don’t feel shy now we’re all having.”

“You know, I don’t want to impose on you or anything but I would really like to have some lemon, with a sprinkle of salt.” said Tayah.

Kaylah made a disgusted face at this notion and at the same time Kaylah’s mother dropped a cup and it smashed to the floor. She ignored the cup for a second and then seemed a little confused about what to do next as she fumbled for her broom. “Lemon? Lemon? With salt?” said Kaylah’s mother, “Oh dear… Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. You are coming down with something.”

“What? What is it Mum?” said Kaylah. “Is it the affliction?”

Kaylah’s mother seemed a little stricken not knowing at first how to handle the situation until she composed herself. “No, no, it’s okay it’s just a condition that we haven’t seen in a long time.”

“Is it serious? Is there something we can do about it? Am I going to die?” asked Tayah as she started tearing up again.

“It will all be okay,” said Kaylah’s mother as she started to bite her nails. “But first we will have to get some lemon. Kaylah darling, can you go over to the grocer and buy us five lemons?”

Kaylah dashed out not knowing what the problem with her friend could be. She had been the nurse’s apprentice for the last couple of seasons and salted lemon wasn’t the cure for anything she had ever seen.