Passion Light (23 page)

Albert roared in excitement and hugged Doris.

Isabelle looked back and could see someone standing where Uncle had been vainly trying to decide what he would do. In his place was an old woman who looked…just like Uncle…if he was an old woman. It was not a pretty sight. Uncle made a passable looking man in a world where a man’s attractiveness tended to be measured by the size of his income, but women tended to be judged much more harshly. Money didn’t cure being older and unattractive for women.

Could this be Uncle’s new guise? Was it possible?

The old woman opened her mouth to yell or scream and just that quickly Ana and some others reached over and grabbed her by her scrawny arms. The amazingly unattractive creature screamed in fear and fought ineffectually against the people who had captured it. “This is my place,” she shouted. “You have no right to detain me.”

“I believe the laws of inheritance on most planets do not give you precedence over Isabelle,” Ana pointed out firmly. “You have broken many laws to get where you are. You may spend the rest of your miserable life regretting what you have done.”

“I am in the right,” Isabelle’s former uncle insisted. “A legitimate court condemned her. She should burn,” she shouted. 

“If you had lit the funeral pyre, you would have been the one to die,” Ana said calmly, a serene smile on her face. “As it is you will live out your life as you find yourself now. Perhaps you will learn from it, but I doubt it. You seem unable to exist with even a small amount of human decency. Still, you will live and you have a chance.”

Uncle was speechless and very frightened.

At the same moment the priest regained consciousness and he, too, had changed. He was now an amazingly ugly old woman, too, but one with a bloody nose.

Ana urged the two back onto the stage and stood back to see what reaction they might have to their new forms. She was very calm and smiled lightly and looked both beautiful and intimidating.

The two looked at each other in dawning horror. They looked a lot like they had before but they were appalled to be reincarnated feminine. Uncle was in a panic and not too modest to take a feel, trying fruitlessly to find his male privates which were no longer there. He whimpered and continued to grope himself, a futile exercise. She was very different from what he had been before, forever changed from a man with some power to a woman with none.

Ana still stood there looking at them, proving that not all women lacked power and influence. They looked at her in disbelief. Seven feet of a woman with weapons did tend to make an impression.

The former priest caught on immediately to what was worrying Uncle and stuck a hand under the dress he now wore. Pulling it up to his waist proved to him unequivocally that she was no longer male. Shock registered on both faces as the crowd began to boo their show. No one wanted to look at the two old hags dressed, much less exposed.

The two looked around at a totally different reality. The funeral pyre had completely disappeared. They noticed they were the only ones who even remembered what the day was supposed to include…or it seemed so. They shouted and demanded and yelled for attention, but it was a futile effort. They were reminded of the way they had treated others, but their knowledge came too late to save them from the frustration of being too insignificant for anyone to care what they wanted to happen.

They turned and looked at Ana who smiled an evil grin that was reminiscent of Uncle’s at them, enjoying their helplessness that they so richly deserved.

Banquet tables offered lots of food and entertainers sang and danced along with many others.

The crowd milled in confused celebration, the original purpose of the gathering forgotten by people who had come to see Isabelle burn. Now the gathering was simply a carnival or festival, planned to celebrate the wedding of Isabelle and Evan. All the Terrans who had missed the event because Uncle refused to allow them inside the castle were present and as welcome as the other guests.

Gradually the air warmed and flowers sprouted and bloomed. Many people were moving about in small family groups.

Albert and Doris stood with their arms around each other facing the gate. Tears ran down their faces as they watched two of their four missing children, a man and a woman walk toward them.

Olaf realized immediately that they were a family, something he envied and wished for above all things.

Ana turned and looked at him, sensing what he felt. Her attention had been divided and on very important work, but she could see into the essence of this lonely young man. He was somehow related to Terrans and he was also telepathic to some degree…untrained but still capable of some of what most Terrans could do.

She looked right at him until he noticed and walked to her side. He was young, only in his early twenties and untrained, but very interesting. Plus he had been injured in the wars and he knew little of his origins, but that could be remedied.

“Would you like to come with us on our quest here?” she asked him.

He did not really know what he wanted to do now that he was free of Uncle. He had planned to stay at the castle. He really had no other place to go.

Ana could sense his indecision. “You do have an alternative,” she told him. “Two, in fact. You can go with us on our quest or you can go to Terra with Evan and Isabelle to learn our ways and be fully trained before you go out on adventures. Now that I think about it that plan might be best for you. You are very young and you still have so much to learn, plus I think you will like it.”

The hunger woke in him for something productive and the realization that he had a future. His blue eyes warmed with life and passion as he looked at Ana. She smiled and said, “I see you have decided. Evan will make the arrangements.”

The original group of Terrans was gathering together to ready themselves for the monumental task of healing the Earth. No one, not even the Terrans were sure it could happen, but they intended to try. It was a great challenge to think of healing a dying planet and they were all eager to begin.

Brian was still trying to persuade Glory to marry him, but she was still resisting. Finally he asked her if she wanted to participate in the quest with the others. If she was able to accomplish something great it might make her feel worthy of the regard Brian already had for her. Their relationship could not really happen until she decided to accept it. He was ready, but she was not. He intended to stick with her until she was ready. She let him know telepathically that she was ready to go and join them in their quest, but she would make no other promises, certainly not the one he wanted.

Isabelle and Evan would be returning to Terra to begin their life as a couple. They worked their way to Albert and Doris and were introduced to their children, Mark and Alberta who had found their way back to their parents.

“I’m going with Evan,” Isabelle told them. “This place is yours now to turn into something better and more positive if you can bear to stay here. Ana has made my plans and knowledge into books and notes you can use and we will visit occasionally, but I cannot bear to stay here.”

Doris and Albert still remembered all that had happened. They were two of the strongest people Isabelle knew, but in this moment they, and she, too had tears of emotion in their eyes. They stood with their arms around their children and looked at the one they knew they would only see occasionally.

Isabelle walked forward and hugged them and said, “Thank you for everything you did to help me and all the rest of the people here. You don’t have to feel obligated to take on this place, but you could do it. You could make this place better with the help of your family.”

Evan drew her back to him. “Your hearts are in the right. You have the capability. If you wish the Goddess and the God will bless your efforts. Isabelle has made the offer with no strings attached. It is your decision. It will be your place. You will not be employees.”

Albert was accustomed to being in command and Doris was no slouch either. They looked at each other and simply nodded.

“We will prepare ownership papers to protect your rights,” Evan said. He knew it was what Isabelle would want without asking.

It freed Isabelle. She had been too unhappy in the castle to go on any longer. It was time for her to move on to her future.

They all had new futures to craft for themselves and the will to do it.