The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' (11 page)

Dotty remained
where she was with her hands on hips sending waves of fury across
the ether at the men before her, she felt insulted that men could
bristle and preen so, when injured people needed help. Using as
much force as she dared she screamed at them silently, feeling
herself aging slightly as the magic balanced. The twins and Rhoàld
looked back at her, shame apparent on their faces.

‘Rhoàld,’ Dotty
called aloud in a voice demanding to be obeyed, ‘you get back on
the wagon, help that one ter get there too,’ she said pointing at
Jed who had blood trailing down his leg. ‘Varan you and your
brother carry the poor girl to the wagon and make her as comfy as
you can and pile the dead in at the front so we can bury the
corpses, Lemba, you have to help young Blondie, get him on to the
wagon and we can get out of here before Gath sends in the troops.
He must have heard this clear down in Devilly.’ She finished, as
she smacked her hands together like small cymbals.

At last, she
looked toward the unconscious Toby still lying where she had left
him.

‘He deserves to
be left to die…,’ she scowled, as she thought of the young girl who
was even now being gently lain in the bottom of her wagon.

‘I’ll take
him,’ offered Varan as he came up beside the small woman,
marvelling at how she had immediately taken charge and he could see
now just how she had managed to avoid Gath and his seekers all
these years. ‘I’ll take him,’ he said again adding, ‘as far as the
road anyhow and I’ll leave him where he can be found.’ Gathering
the man up in his arms, he prepared to walk away. ‘Someone will
find him and help him. I’ll meet you…where?’ He asked, as the wagon
prepared to move.

‘Varan, I will
come with you and show you the way back.’ Sonal said, looking at
his brother in wonder, ‘and if you leave the bodies Mrs, em Madam,
Varan and I will bury them here,’ he said looking to his brother
for confirmation.

The twins,
carrying the unconscious rapist walked in silence back to the
roadside Varan had left barely an hour before. Making Toby as
comfortable as possible against the trunk of a large tree, Varan
built a fire as Sonal easily collected enough wood to maintain it
throughout the night and on into the following day, he placed the
pile within easy reach of Toby, thinking of Dotty’s last
instructions.

‘Don’t you
leave him to die.’ She had ordered as they left the clearing, ‘it’s
not our place to kill him, even if he deserves it.’ She added
before giving them a spelled blanket, one that would shake off damp
and cold and enough food for him to keep himself alive throughout
the night.

‘That be a
well-travelled road, mores the pity,’ Gideon’s father said as his
contempt for the boy became obvious, ‘so someone should find ‘im
afore it’s too dark...’ he called after the disappearing twins
carrying the unconscious man.

Varan pushed a
small healing spell into the badly damaged leg, not to heal it
completely but enough to relieve the pain until someone found him.
They left Toby propped against a tree, with food within easy reach
and enough equipment to be warm and dry, before they returned in
silence to the dead clearing.

The area was as
they had left it. The corpses, dry and lifeless awaited a burial,
the soil was grey and dead and the tiny bodies of birds and small
mammals seemed to litter the entire clearing.

‘Well…, let’s
do this thing!’ Varan said as he looked at his brother and as if
they had never been apart, they faced each other, held and locked
both forearms and began to sing. As the magic built, they released
one arm and stood side by side perfectly in balance, two halves of
one whole. With the magic holding a natural balance this way
nothing was impossible, no destruction, no death no itching or
aging. Perfect balance, Sonal felt the tears run down his face as
he remembered what he had lost when his own stupidity had seen his
brother pulled through the rift so many years ago. Gazing at him
now he realised Varan was crying too, he smiled and tightened his
hold on his forearm, Varan returned the smile, a look a pleasure on
his face.

As one, the
twins sang to the earth, harmonising in a soft encouraging way,
making their hearts glad, filling the atmosphere about them with
promise, and re-energizing life within the soil. The very air about
them seemed to thicken and thin tossing the notes of the voices
around and around creating echoes of sounds, alternating and
dancing with the cadence of tuneful harmonies like a beautiful
never-ending poem.

The twins
continued their song… They could not, undo, the deaths but they
could make the ground and the earth receptive to the seeds that
blew in on the wind and those that birds flying overhead dropped as
they flew past. As they sang, the clearing slowly lost its cold
dead feel and once more seemed to be waiting for spring and new
growth, new beginnings.

Then the song
changed becoming sorrowful and yet still melodious, earth began to
fall out from the ground underneath the bodies of the soldiers.
More and more earth piled up before them and as the song continued,
the bodies began to sink into the soft soil as if the soil had
become liquid and the bodies made of lead, unable to float on the
surface. Deeper and deeper the bodies went more with more soil
falling in on top of them until there was nothing left to see, just
a quiet winter clearing awaiting a new season and new life; slowly
and gently, the song stopped.

‘From the Gods
we come, innocent and pure; from the gods we have life and choice.
On our Journey we judge how we used what we were freely given.’
Varan said quietly, as he faced his brother once more holding both
forearms tightly.

‘As we judge
ourselves may we not be too harsh, may the gods forgive us and not
be severe, and as our journey ends, may we have fulfilled our set
tasks.’ Sonal replied ending the rite of passage.

Sonal held his
brother’s arms tightly and at the last, pulled him into a tight
embrace.

‘The harshest
of all judges is ourselves brother,’ Sonal sighed, thinking of the
life his twin must have led. Varan returned the embrace before
breaking away and staring hard into Sonal’s eyes, noticing the
changes time had inevitably wrought.

‘There is much
we must talk about Sonal,’ he said before sitting on a damp log not
too far from where Sonal, after being rendered unconscious by the
butt of Toby’s knife had fallen down the embankment. Sonal felt his
guilt like a heavy burden as he sat down beside his twin and
struggling to find words, he sighed.

‘Varen, forgive
me… brother,’ he said finally.

‘Sonal…, there
is nothing to forgive, the Journey wills us all.’ Varan
replied.

Lemba sat in
the wagon with the comatose girl’s head on her lap thinking of Jed.
Gideon, still feeling ill nursed his stomach and rocked back and
forth gently, his eyes only leaving Mayan’s face as he drifted off
into unconsciousness himself. Rhoàld laid his head back against the
buckboard and closed his eyes, cold fingers stroked his cheek and
warmed his heart.
‘I told you, it begins,’
Bastian said in
his head.

Dotty looked
under her lashes at the older man beside her on the driver’s seat.
He was strong and lean with thick brown hair shot through with
streaks of grey, his eyes looked kind under the now scowling brows
and his nose had a slight bump in the bridge where it had once been
broken. She smiled, thinking of how astonished he had seemed when
she had starting ordering the men around. As the wagon bumped over
a particularly large rut, her footing slipped causing her to lose
control slightly and she slipped against him. The man howled in
pain, he was trying hard not to show it but at every bump and rut
in the ground, his bottom became more painful and bled further. The
cart bumped yet again and as his bottom bounced once more spreading
more blood across the seat; he leant toward her favouring his
wound.

‘Woman,’ he
growled quietly, ‘I wanna see me parents whilst I’m still alive,
iffen yer please,’ he turned to look at Dotty and almost lost
himself in her eyes, her gaze seemed to hold him fast.

‘My name is
Dotty, Dotty Bramble,’ she said as she smiled at him, beaming
inside.
I like him,
she thought as he answered her, growling
again.

‘Jedadiah
Green,’ he mumbled finally, tearing his gaze away from the younger
woman. He kept his eyes fixed forward but nothing could stop the
blood rushing up his neck and infusing his face with colour under
his tan, Dotty noticed the flush and smiled to herself as she drove
the cart onward.

The cart pulled
up at Green Cottage, the home of Gideon’s grandparents, and a
soldier opened the front door looking warily at the carriage, Jed,
forgetting his injury jumped down from the driver’s seat and walked
menacingly toward the younger man pulling his knife once more from
his belt. Blood poured from his leg leaving a red trail across the
ground.

‘Iffen yer’ve
‘urt me ma or me Da…,’ he left the threat unfinished as his father
swiftly followed the young man out of the house.

‘Jed lad,
stop!’ Exclaimed his father, ‘this be Jayse, ‘e’s only trying ter
protect yer ma an’ me, ‘e’s gonna be stayin’ with us,’ his father
said, as his mother came out of the house pulling a shawl around
her shoulders to protect her from the cold.

‘E’s already
‘ad ter bury one o’ the brutes that attacked us, an’ if yer don’t
mind I’d not ‘ave ‘im bury me own son!’ She reproved her husband
for his wanting explanation with a chuckle and added, ‘now come in,
come in all.’

Cooing and
clucking like an old hen, she welcomed the visitors’ to her home
and soon realised there were injured people amongst them.

Dotty, Lemba
and Mrs Green tended to Mayan as well as they could. Jayson
carefully lifted her from the cart, gently carried her up the
narrow staircase and laid her on one of the beds. Lemba watched as
the couple washed and tended the young girl and finally, Dotty
administered a healing spell after calling Lemba to get a few
flowers and instructing her to build a small fire in the grate.

Dotty’s skills
as a healer impressed Jed’s mother, even if the fire starting up of
its own accord and its needing to be continually fed for such a
long time, slightly worried her.

‘She hides away
from us,’ Dotty said as she prepared to leave the room with Mrs
Green, adding, ‘her mind needs to adjust to the violation she has
suffered, I’ve added something to help ease the memory, she’ll not
forget but it will be easier for her as she remembers.

Lemba stayed
beside the sleeping Mayan after the others left the room, she
wanted so much to talk to her, needed her to know she would
eventually recover and be strong again but she could not.
Therefore, she just sat stroking her forehead and praying for the
girl’s peace, knowing that with her body cleaned and mended, her
sister had ensured there would be no permanent physical damage and
no issue from the evil attack.

Mrs Green took
her new friend into the room where her unconscious grandson lay;
they bathed and tended him before leaving him to sleep soundly,
again with a gentle push from Dotty. The small fire burned warm and
bright before Dotty had finished her ministrations but this time
Gideon’s grandmother, a little more prepared for the itching and
strangeness of the magic paid it little attention. Gideon’s
Grandfather sat beside him, just as Lemba sat beside Mayan, each
ensuring neither of the sleeping pair would awaken alone and
frightened. Tired but content, the two women made a last check on
Mayan before finally making their way at last downstairs towards
the sound of an argument.

Sonal and Varan
talked into the afternoon and on into early evening, finally
bringing each other up to date on their lives. The brothers knew
they had not heard each other’s entire tale but both were unwilling
to push as they had only just found each other again.
When he’s
ready he will speak
, they thought in unison, readily willing to
forgive each other anything.

The weather
began to change and the wind whipped through the clearing pushing
dead leaves and twigs along before it, a pinecone tumbled through
as if thrown by a child and it stopped before the two men as the
wind eased for a moment. Sonal reached forward for the cone now
resting beside his foot and Varan watched as the seeds from the
cone fell through his brother’s fingers into the newly receptive
earth.
Life from death…or, is it death from life
, he thought
wryly, thinking of the deaths that the young boy had unknowingly
caused. Sonal’s thoughts had been along comparable lines
emphasizing their similarity even after so many years apart.

‘It was Gideon,
Varan, but how…?’ Varan looked to his brother knowing exactly what
his brother was asking.

‘Sonal, I think
you and Jed survived purely because you had both been behind and
below the young man when his power had surged before him in all
other directions. The unfortunate girl, Mayan, I think you called
her and the man who raped her, were luckily far enough away to be
only rendered unconscious, not killed as the soldiers were. That
boy is powerful and his potential obvious to any magic wielder but
his power is untrained. Can you tell me anything about him?’ Varan
asked. ‘I ask only because I think he may possibly be the one we
search for and the reason our
beloved
king grows stronger,’
he said, his voice full of sarcasm as he thought of Gath and the
last time he had seen him.

Sonal wrapped
his arms around himself and stared at the ground thinking of the
smoky pictures he had witnessed the previous evening, finally he
turned to Varan and began to speak. He told Varan of the previous
night’s revelations, of Gideon’s birth in the aftermath of the
storm and his adoption by Jed. He spoke of his own thoughts, how
his own powers somehow always seemed enhanced if he used them
whilst Gideon was present. He told Varan of the many occasions that
the boy had surprised him; he spoke on as the chill evening began
to chase away any warmth from the sun and the shadows began to
cluster and grow.