The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' (34 page)

‘Sonal, apart
from Thaddrick bein’ so very old…,’ she glanced at Thaddrick who
saw the unanswered questions in her eyes and smiled as she
continued. ‘There ‘as ter be sommat…. sommat that connects us all
together, there is, ain’t there,’ she said not expecting an answer.
Thaddrick opened his mouth to speak but as Mayan continued voicing
her train of thought; Thaddrick closed his mouth and joined the
rest of the company as they listened quietly.

‘Sonal an’
Varan are twins; Gid, is the son of their little sister’s
daughter…,’ she said, working things out in her mind and aloud not
really noticing as both the older twins and Thaddrick nodded in
agreement. ‘If Thaddrick an’ Roidan are yer uncle an’ aunt, well…
sort o’ anyway,’ she smiled apologetically at Thaddrick and Roidan
who gave a nod of encouragement in return, ‘an’ they be yer
uncles,’ she added, nodding toward Sonal and Varan forging on with
her theories. ‘Jed, you an’ me are twins too but not really
connected ter the others…’

‘Gideon has
shared his blood with Jed remember, on the night of your eighteenth
birthday, the winter festival when Jed joined the army.’ Sonal
interrupted.

‘Oh yeah, the
blood brother thing, the night Gid give us our stones…,’ Mayan said
smiling at her fiancé as her hand reached to her neck and the stone
hidden under her clothing.

‘Go on May, coz
yer makin’ more sense ter me than me own brain is…,’ Gideon laughed
weakly.

‘
My
own
brain...’ Thaddrick said, sighing at Gideon’s speech.

‘I also have
shared my blood with Jed,’ said Varan holding up his palm that was
clearly showing a pink scar, Jed held out both his hands, palm
outwards. Two scars almost identical, one clearly old and white,
the other slightly raised and still pink ran from the base of each
thumb to the base of the little fingers. Lemba ran her finger over
the pink scar thinking of how ill Jed had been and how worried for
his life they all were after his being poisoned and suffocated by
the red ants.

‘Rhoàld an’
Lemba ‘ave this magic in their blood too,’ continued Mayan as her
thoughts went on, ‘an’ Thaddrick says they are ancient’s…,’

‘She don’t look
that old ter me…,’ young Jed said lightly and promptly rubbed his
arm when Lemba punched him hard grinning.

‘Jed,’ Mayan
said, addressing Gideon’s father, seems we be mice among the cats,’
she added ruefully, concluding her train of thought. ‘We ain’t
connected.’

‘I beg to
differ young woman, Thaddrick said, ‘Jed, you, as Gideon’s father,
effectively allowed Gideon to live and you Mayan, are Gideon’s
life, you seem to forget I have been around you all your lives,
though not always in this form. All of us here are connected; even
you Rhoàld, each of us who has even a cupful of the ancient blood
have a connection. If we traced the family lines back far enough
you would find most of us have a blood connection to Arotia where
all have the same magical abilities as we do, to varying degrees
too, just as we do here.’ Thaddrick continued to look around the
room at his guests almost willing them to contradict him.

‘Ain’t no magic
in me blood Blue, I’m tellin’ yer.’ Gideon’s father snorted with a
horrified look on his face.

‘Jed my friend,
if there was absolutely no ancient blood in your veins you would
never have heard me speak to you in my other form, I admit it was
hard to get you to listen most of the time but you did hear me,’ he
said.

‘Why did yer
never speak to me then, iffen me blood is ser strong,’ asked
Gideon.

‘Only now
Gideon, have you believed in the possibility of your blood being
different, only now do you believe in the magic. If I had spoken to
you, you would have dismissed it and possibly ignored it. In a
similar way, I could not speak to young Jed here or Mayan, any more
than I could speak to Varan or Sonal unless they were touching.
Your mother Jed,’ Thaddrick said addressing the young man. ‘She
named it herself I believe, ‘the twin thing, she called it. You and
Mayan, Varan and Sonal, two parts of one whole, twins... so whilst
they are together, I could speak to Varan and Sonal here,
unfortunately though although you have a degree of old blood by
courtesy of the transfusions you have received Jed, Mayan does not,
so neither of you would have heard me.’

‘Good thing yer
love me then Gid, else there really would be no use fer me….’ Mayan
smiled wryly, a quizzical look on her face.

‘Lemba,’
Thaddrick continued, ignoring Mayan for the moment and turning his
gaze toward the tiny girl sitting beside Jed. ‘Your powers have
only recently been returned to you and I am not sure how much
control you have. As for you Rhoàld, I would not speak to you as I
did not know you or if you posed a threat and once I had found out
you had been used by Gath I was already a man again so the point
became moot.’ Lemba who was listening intently suddenly thought of
a question that had burned in her mind for days.

‘Rhoàld, how
did you manage to live with Gath for so long and not be discovered
by him?’ She asked.

‘I know not,’
smiled Rhoàld sadly, ‘it seems I did not know I was any different
to anyone else until my blood began to flow freely after… after I
held the knife that killed Bastian,’ he added quietly, ‘for some
reason Gath could only feel my blood then,’ he finished.

‘I can answer
that question,’ replied Varan to Lemba, ‘I’m sure Thaddrick will
tell me if I am wrong…’ Varan looked at Thaddrick and accepted the
nod the old man returned as confirmation.

‘Rhoàld wears a
spelled charm, the black hexagon around your neck is a powerful
spelled charm of protection, I have seen one like it before and
took the liberty of strengthening the spell whilst we journeyed
here,’ he said, as Rhoàld placed his hand to his neck and puzzled
pulled the charm from beneath his clothing.

‘I have always
worn this, since I was a child, I don’t really remember ever being
given it, though I like to think it was from my mother,’ he added.
Roidan moved across to Rhoàld to examine the charm and bending at
the waist slightly to see better she rubbed its surface between her
fingers.

‘The charm is a
form of dark crystal found only in the Dakar Mountain’s on Arotia,’
Thaddrick smiled as Roidan answered, adding, ‘once, someone in your
past must have walked the land there.’

Gideon’s father
looked around the table at the satisfied smiles and the beginnings
of new relationships, a thought also burning inside him. He had
inadvertently overheard a comment about his son on the evening
Lemba had her magic returned to her and it had disturbed his sleep
and gnawed away in his belly countless times, as he tried to make
sense of it. It seemed to him everything strange that had happened
had happened since young Jed had left home to become a soldier.
Using his hands to indicate the importance of the words, he asked
the question that had bothered him so.

‘Now we ‘ave
all worked out where we fit in, could someone please tell me why
both Sonal and Varan think my son an’ their nephew is
the
one
and what fer ‘Journeys Sake’ is it anyway?’ Thaddrick
looked at the older twins, both of whom blushed and looked away
from him.

‘To answer your
question let me continue with my story Jed,’ he said smiling
sadly.

‘Remember I
said we arrived through the gateway to a beautiful green valley
beside a lake...’ He looked around his listeners to gauge their
understanding before continuing. ‘Well, very soon after we arrived
something happened and a prophecy was given by a mage who was old
even then, prophecy that spoke of a healer, a sage magician who
could right all the wrongs and send death back into the void from
whence it came.’

Sonal looked
meaningfully to his brother as Thaddrick began to mutter under his
breath and almost without meaning to, the twins as one joined in.
Thaddrick had not heard the words spoken aloud for many years; he
had given the prophecy himself as he lay dying from a knife wound
beside a tree. It had been the last time he had truly felt his own
brother, his own twin. Their unique magic and balance had combined
as Themos struggled to heal him from within, they had created an
unheard of direct contact to the root and the words had tumbled
from Thaddrick’s mouth as they had screamed inside Themos’s
head.

Thaddrick felt
Astin’s knife once more as it pierced his body and his brother’s
struggle to complete the healing. Once more, he watched through
blood-shot and weary eyes as Astin, the body the Gatherer had
stolen escaped unnoticed, slipping away into the trees.

‘I felt the
Gatherer as we entered through the Gateway onto this world,’
Thaddrick said as the older twins sat quietly, astonishment on
their faces, ‘and I am sure now that Gath is he,’ he added looking
at Gideon who sat quiet and still. Mayan reached out for his hand
and almost recoiled when she felt the cold tension lying under his
skin.

‘The Gatherer
has transferred his soul from his son to his son throughout the
generations, becoming weaker and weaker as the blood line thinned
and became more dilute. I had believed he was dead, no…
hoped
he was dead but he found Lena, and we know from Sonal
and Varan her blood was nearly pure. He was cursed at the time of
the prophecy never to have a daughter, a son from his daughter
would be all-powerful but such is the nature of balance, denying
him because of the curse and then giving all, her blood was strong
enough to fight the curse.’ He continued to look at Gideon as he
spoke. ‘Do you see Gideon, you are
his
son from
his
daughter, you are also of the blood line of Théoden, and in,
Two
become one,
two
blood lines become
one
, in you.
Rhoàld tells us he wants you for your blood, he wants not only your
blood but your body and your powers too, with his evil soul inside
you his power would be immense, I believe now he wants to return to
Arotia and seek the revenge he has always been denied.’ Thaddrick
finished.

Varan looked at
Gideon’s father and smiled sadly, ‘although we didn’t know then
what we know now Jed, both Sonal and I could feel the power lying
dormant in Gideon, it’s why we believe your son is the one.’ Sonal
too looked at his friend Jed, avoiding eye contact with Gideon who
was looking incredulous and annoyed once more.

‘Jed, you told
me yourself Gideon was cut from Lydia’s belly after she had died,
‘Life from death will be the key’;’ he quoted the prophecy.

‘Wait… this is
tellin’ me who and what I am?’ Gideon said, bristling with anger,
‘well, let me tell yer what I’m not, I’m not sum sort o’ magician
born ter right someone else’s wrongs!’ Gideon finally exploded, his
face as cloudy as a stormy day, ‘I might o’ been bred like a dog
fer a specific purpose but I’m me own man now, an’ I’ll not be
doin’ anythin’ I don’t wanna do.’

‘
Doing,
anythin’
and,
want to.
’ Thaddrick said correcting Gideon
automatically.

‘Will yer
please stop correctin’ me like I’m a child who ain’t speakin’
properly!’ Gideon raged as Thaddrick smiled apologetically.

‘I’m afraid
it’s a habit Gideon but please feel free to ignore me.’ He smiled,
a rueful expression settling on his face.

Incensed,
Gideon stood up scraping his chair back, he had a lot to consider
and he wanted to be alone, he looked apologetically at Roidan who
still stood beside her husband.

‘Sorry mam,’ he
said as he turned and squeezed Mayan’s frightened hand.

‘Stay
Here,
love,’ he said, looking at Thaddrick and daring him to
comment again on his speech. ‘I need ter, sorry,
To
go for a
walk..., Alone,’ he added as Mayan began to rise. She watched,
worry and fear for Gideon written across her pale face as he walked
away, she turned to her twin.

‘It’s all right
May, I’ll go after him.’ Jed said as he quietly followed his blood
brother out of the hall.

Gideon’s father
stood up and crossed the hall to the window, looking out he spoke
to the company behind him.

‘Ow came you
ter be ‘ere then, Blue?’ He said as he watched his namesake
following his son across the road and into the young forest.

‘A few years
later,’ Thaddrick continued, ‘after our arrival on this planet, we
realised something was wrong, we made a decision to split the
colony up, half of us came here,’ he indicated the surrounding hall
and the area outside.

As Jed turned
from the window the sunlight shone through onto Thaddrick’s face
showing each wrinkle and crease, even with the explanation of
slowed time Thaddrick looked ancient.
Jus’ ‘ow old are yer?
He thought as Thaddrick spoke.

‘The other half
of the population were left at the valley to protect all outside
from the growing menace within.’ Thaddrick said.

‘You are
talking of the Bleak and the wall; you are talking of the
Guardians.’ Varan said in a hushed tone.

‘Yes,’ the old
man replied. ‘I am.’

Young Jed soon
caught his friend up and the pair walked on in silence as they
moved away from the hall, they crossed green and yellow fields each
bursting with life, the new growth of small trees already showing
promise of the great and diverse forest this would one day become.
They continued to walk until, at last both hot and bothered they
came across the silver river they had seen from the hill and the
few trees that were older than saplings. They followed the course
of the winding water in silence and before long came to a point of
land they thought they both recognised. The river bent and spread
here creating a large pool just right for the valley children to
fish and play almost exactly as they did in their own time and as
children themselves they had fished for hours attempting to make
sense of the world they lived in, vowing to make it better.