The Awakened: Book One (37 page)

The beat of his heart, the cadence of the prayer, and the rhythm of his own breathing grew louder and louder until they became one symphony of sound.  At some point, Kael lost all sense of direction and feeling of his body, but it didn’t matter because the feeling of intense joy drowned out everything else.

Kael opened his eyes and saw nothing but darkness.  The cavern, the High Priest, and all of his friends had disappeared.  It wasn’t a scary feeling, but a feeling of intimacy.  There was another presence there with him and Kael felt comforted.  He seemed to float in nothingness with the company of this other being for minutes before any perceptible change took place.  When it happened, it was so subtle that, if he hadn’t been paying attention, he could have easily missed it.  It was as if he was at the bottom of a large lake staring up at someone who was talking to him from above the surface of the water.  But the change wasn’t anything as simple as a vision.  Neither did it make as much sense as words.  Instead, ideas floated into his head from somewhere else.  Peaceful feelings that made him imagine that he was waiting on the front porch of his home and an old friend was walking toward the house.  The friend waved and Kael waved back.  A wild excitement welled up inside him, although he couldn’t make out the face of the visitor.  After several minutes, the friend stood in front of Kael.  His features could not be seen, but his calm presence could be felt.  He didn’t speak but Kael could feel that he had been traveling a long distance and wished to come inside and rest.  Kael turned and opened the door and led the friend inside.  Kael realized that the house was nowhere that he had ever been before, but he knew exactly where everything was located.  He showed the man to a sitting room with many comfortable chairs and gave him the best one in the room.  As the man made himself comfortable Kael took a seat across from him and eagerly sat down, not knowing why he was so excited to visit with this stranger who seemed so familiar.  As he watched the figure across from him, a fleeting thought crossed his mind and vanished just as quickly as it came.  There was a sense of being in this situation before, but then he lost the thought and the man was talking and Kael forgot all about it.  His words carried no sound, but Kael had a vague sense of satisfaction, as if the communication were making sense.  It must have been hours that Kael sat and listened to this man speak, when the memory returned in a flash.  Suddenly, Saba was sitting across from him, dressed exactly how the stranger had been dressed.  Saba spoke in his soft, gentle voice and Kael smiled at the sight of an old friend.  All of a sudden, Saba’s face vanished in a grimace of pain and the stranger sat before Kael once again.  His demeanor was different this time, replacing the calm friend was the body language of one who had been severely offended.  Kael reached his hands out and pleaded with the man.  He apologized for thinking of someone else and tried to explain that he was only reminded of Saba because of his kindness.  The stranger didn’t want to hear any explanations and abruptly stood to his feet.  Kael ran to the man, but he was too fast.  The stranger had already turned and was running toward the staircase leading up to the topmost portion of the house.  Suddenly, Kael began to panic, as if there was something up there that he didn’t want this stranger to see.  The man was fast and could leap several stairs at once.  Kael quickly lost sight of the man, but continued to run as fast as he could.  By the time he made it to the top, he could see that the door to the top room had been smashed in.  Kael ran into the room and skidded to a stop.  The stranger’s back was turned to him and he was kneeling down, about to open a wooden chest that lay in the middle of the floor.  Suddenly, Kael became aware of a pitchfork in his hands and a feeling drifted to him from somewhere in his memory, a frenzied sense of protection for what was lying on the floor.  Then he ran at the stranger and drove the pitchfork into his back.

Abruptly, the vision vanished and Kael was once again aware of his body.  Only this time, he was lying down in the sand.  His eyes wouldn’t open and he could still feel the presence of the stranger in his mind.  His body began to simultaneously itch and convulse as if someone else were trying to get inside of it.  Kael drew in a deep breath and tried to block out all other thoughts except for his own heartbeat.  He could feel the extremities of his body and began to flex his muscles.  First his fingers, then his toes and slowly the rest of his body came under his control.  Eventually his vision returned and he opened his eyes.  Briefly, he caught sight of an orange glow like a dying fire and then the attack returned.

This time, it was in his mind.  Hundreds of images flashed in front of him, some were from his childhood and it seemed that some were from his future.  He watched himself crawl on the floor as a baby and then the vision changed to himself as an old man crippled on the floor.  Images of dying people and feelings of suffering shot through him like lightening.  The most intense feeling of hatred that he had ever felt washed over him like an ocean of sewage.  He felt hopeless and alone and all of a hundred other negative emotions at the same time.  He reached out for help and suddenly the images stopped and the stranger stood over him with an extended hand.  Kael felt exhausted and dirtier than the lowest human being on the face of the earth.  But something inside him, something that was truly his own, would not let him take that hand.  Instead, he kicked at the man and spit on him.  Just as quickly as the defiant thoughts came to him, the flood returned.  He saw his mother being hacked to pieces by a barbarian.  When he turned his head he saw his father being stretched by horses until his limbs pulled away from his body.  As the images flashed in front of him, he grew cold and numb.  It was like being in the presence of a massacre and not being able to blink or even close his eyes.  Kael knew that his eyes were deceived, but he still cried at the horrible things that he saw.  Hours seemed to pass before the images in his head stopped.

The first pleasant feeling was the cold sand beneath him.  His body had sweat so badly that his clothes stuck to his skin as if he had been swimming in the ocean.  The cavern ceiling was far overhead and the moonlight that had been streaming down before was gone now.  The only light was from the fire, which was now only a small pile of glowing embers.  He turned his head and saw several figures lying on the ground but could not make out who they were.  Whoever was to his left was still standing and he thought it might be Narian.  Suddenly, the figure began to wobble and lean back.  Footsteps crunched by Kael’s head as one of the monks ran to catch whoever it was who had just lost consciousness and lay them safely on the ground.  When the monk walked back to wherever he had been standing, Kael could see who it was that was next to him.  Donagh’s calm face leaned slightly to the right where Kael could get a good look.  He didn’t seem to be in any pain, but just laid there in the calm posture of someone in a pleasant dream.  The exhaustion of the events caught up with Kael and he found his eyes drooping.  He tried to resist sleep, for fear of experiencing any more of what had happened, but sleep overtook him.

Chapter 21

Bright morning light was shining in Kael’s face when he awoke.  The soft rocking motion of his bed told him that he was back on the ocean.  He opened his eyes and sat up.  The other young men were all in their beds sleeping soundly.  Kael wondered, but doubted that the others experienced the same thing that he did.  The sound of footsteps startled him and he lay back on his bed, pretending to be asleep.  For some reason, he felt guilty, like he shouldn’t be awake.  He could hear Ukiru walking around the room, stopping at each sleeping body.  Kael’s heart was beating loudly as he waited for Ukiru to pass by.  Unexpectedly, he felt a warm spoon against his mouth and the aroma of soup filled his nostrils.  He allowed the nourishment to be poured down his throat.  Ukiru lingered over Kael a bit longer than the rest before moving on and eventually going above deck.

When he was gone, Kael sat up to see if any of the others had been awakened by the feeding, but he was still the only one.  His head ached and his muscles hurt like he had been training for combat all day.  He rose to his feet and stretched his weakened body, surprised by the toll that the ceremony had taken on him.  After more than an hour of pacing around the room in silence, Kael returned to his bed and tried to sleep again, but couldn’t get comfortable.  It was like torture, waiting below deck for someone else to wake up, but there was nothing he could do.  So Kael passed the time by imagining what had happened in
Bastul
while he had been away and he was alone with his thoughts until dusk.

The sun had dipped toward the western horizon, off the port bow of the ship, when Kael’s thoughts finally resolved into a decision.  All day he had been struggling with how to continue at the monastery.  He wasn’t sure of when they would finally be sent out into the world, but he knew that he had to leave soon.  If the being that attacked his mind and body was really the All Powerful, then Kael didn’t want any part of him.  He still felt like he needed to bathe after the whole experience, though he knew it wouldn’t do much to clean the polluted feeling inside of him.

“So, you’re awake too?”

Kael spun his head around and saw Berit sitting up on his bed.  “Yeah, I just woke up,” he lied.

“My head hurts,” Berit grumbled, and turned to look out the porthole situated above his head.

“Mine too,” Kael lied again.  His headache was actually gone, lessening and eventually disappearing over the course of the many hours he had been awake.

One by one, the others began to wake up.  The only one who seemed to be in the mood for conversation was Coen who immediately began talking about his amazing experience.  As the sluggish mood wore off, everyone began to chime in about this or that incredible feeling or experience.  After several minutes, Kael realized that he was alone in his experience.  Everyone else had done exactly what they were supposed to do except for him.  Suddenly the conversation stopped and Kael realized that someone had asked him a question.

“What?”

“I said,” Arden repeated, “how long before you passed out?”

Kael tried to look mystified to share in their excitement.  “I lost all sense of time, so it’s hard to say.”

“I know,” Jorn blurted out.  “That’s exactly what happened to me!”

“So you are all awake now,” announced Ukiru who was standing on the stairs, watching his group of students.  “Why don’t you continue your conversation up here and get some fresh air.”

Coen was the first one up the stairs and Kael waited to be the last.  The group assembled at the bow of the ship and Kael leaned over the railing to watch the water as it split around the ship in smooth strips of white foam.  The chattering continued around him and he was content to just look at the ocean until Ukiru tried to draw him in.

“Kael.  What was it like for you?”

Is that skepticism in his voice?
  Kael wondered if he knew what happened and then dismissed the thought because there was no way that he could.  “Uh…” he stammered, searching.  “I just don’t have the words.”

Ukiru nodded, apparently satisfied.  “That’s a good way to describe it.”

* * * *

Saba
sat on the floor against the door, with his ear pressed to the wood, straining to hear anything that might be happening outside.  He heard a footstep near the door and pushed himself back, frightened that someone was coming.  He waited for a moment, then leaned in again.  As soon as his hands touched the door, he felt a strange sensation pass through his body.  It lasted only for a second, but in that moment Saba could swear that he
felt
the inner workings of the lock on the door.  Reeling back in surprise, Saba listened carefully for movement outside while his mind raced with questions.

Slowly, he leaned forward against the door.  But nothing happened. 
Did I imagine it?
  He placed his hand near the lock and waited, attempting to recapture the feeling.  When he closed his eyes, it came again.

The sensation was dulled somehow, muffled at first, but with concentration, Saba regained the clarity of the first occurrence.  And then it was obvious, like looking at a picture, only more interactive.  Saba could feel the bolt running through the iron lock on the door into the housing on the door jam.  And just as one might wiggle their finger, Saba knew without even testing his knowledge that he could move the bolt without having to touch it.  But his excitement at the discovery was too great to allow him to be satisfied with that knowledge; he had to test it.  And just as he expected, the bolt slid back at his will.  It screeched slightly, grating on the inside of the door jam, and Saba paused to make sure that no one heard.  When nothing happened, he tried again and the bolt slid free of the door jam. 
How is this possible?  And who am I that I can do such things?