Beauty and the Beast (36 page)

They all looked expectantly at Vincent, and he said, “I think what you have all experienced is a Tandin roll call!”

Chapter IX

Exodus to Zion

When Vincent informed everyone that they had been summoned by the Tandins, they all smiled with expressions of both relief and curiosity. Father spoke for the group when he said, “Well, I guess all we can do now is relax and wait!”

Father put his arm around Mary and guided her to the loveseat, where they sat down and held hands. Mouse went to the other side of Catherine’s bed and stood looking out of the window over the rosebush. Charles sat down in the rocker by Catherine’s bed and held her hand, while Devin leaned against the bathroom doorway, with his arms crossed, softly smiling at his big friend’s tender concern for Catherine. Restless Pascal paced around the room, unconsciously tapping his metal baton, which he used to tap messages on the pipes, against his thigh.

Jamie had laid her bow and quiver of arrows on the table, and then she sat down on the end of Catherine’s bed. Joe was leaning against the wall just inside the door, and he had his arms wrapped around Diana, who was leaning with her back against him. Peter and Susan had been the last to come in, and they sat down with the remaining eight, Laura and Jerry, Isaac, Rolley, Tony, Sarah, Brooke, and Rebecca at the big table. Vincent was standing by Catherine’s bed between Charles in the rocker and Jamie on the end of the bed. Vincent had moved Little Jacob’s crib into Catherine’s room soon after he had found her, and the baby was sound asleep in it.

They had all been chattering about the strong feeling that had brought them to Catherine’s room as they had arrived and had then found places to wait. Rebecca and Diana had been signing a chat with Laura and Jerry.

Now, they had all settled down and lapsed into contemplative silence, and the expectation in the room was palpable. All heads turned toward the doorway, and even Pascal stopped pacing when the elevator doors down the hall opened, and they heard footsteps approaching.

The Tandin man and woman who entered Catherine’s room looked truly mythical, as if they had just stepped out of a fairytale. The Tandin man was a little taller than Vincent but not quite as big-boned. His once-black mane of hair, as well as the fur on his face and hands, was now streaked with white. He still looked vigorous and powerful, though. He was dressed in comfortable heavy

khaki clothing, hiking boots, and an hunter green hooded cloak.

The small Tandin woman was not much bigger than Jamie. She was stunningly beautiful, with a flowing mane of jet-black hair, which had the softness of angora, down to her hips. Her upper black eyebrows were narrower than Vincent’s, beginning at her temples and then curving up over her eyes and coming together in a point over the bridge of her feline nose, like the curves at the top of a pretty black heart. A second pair of separated narrow black eyebrows was under those, positioned where human eyebrows are. Unlike Vincent, who had fur on most of his face, including down the full length of his wide feline nose, her delicate feline-featured face, with the exception of the extra set of eyebrows, was completely hairless. The backs of her artistic hands and the tops of her arms to the elbows were covered with short soft black fur which made them look like she was wearing long, fingerless, black velvet gloves. Unlike Vincent’s, her long, slim fingers were hairless, with slender tapered claws at the tips, which were longer than Vincent’s. Her skin was a lovely flawless olive color. Her thick mane was partially pulled up, fastened in place at the crown of her head with a gold hair clip studded with heart-shaped rubies, revealing slightly pointed pixie-like ears, pierced with ruby heart-shaped earrings. She was wearing a simple black calf-length dress, with elbow-length sleeves, and a rounded neckline with a narrow red collar. Around her tiny waist was a red braided silken rope, the ends of which were sealed with gold leaves. Her dainty feet were shod with low-heeled red velvet knee-high boots. She was wearing a fine gold chain, with an heart-shaped ruby pendant at her throat. Over this outfit she was wearing a black velvet hooded cloak with a red satin lining.

Devin was mesmerized by her, and he unconsciously dropped his folded arms and stood up and away from leaning against the bathroom doorway. Her head turned toward him, and she stopped, frozen in her tracks, as her almond-shaped deep-grey eyes pierced clear to his soul. She paused, momentarily surprised and fascinated by him, and then she smiled softly. There was instant chemical magnetism between them, and everyone in the room could feel the electricity. Vincent had caught the connection between them and watched in fascination as an instant bond was formed.

She spoke nonverbally to Devin’s mind, “You have been restless all of your life.”

Devin found himself thinking in answer to her, “That’s because I’ve been looking for you!”

She spoke to him telepathically again. “Well, you have found me now, but I must complete this mission first.” A look of peace came over Devin’s face which Vincent had never seen before.

Then she spoke in a soft, lilting tone to everyone in the room. “I am Vincent’s sister, Elisia. Uncle Tanimus and I have come here to bring all of you, together with Vincent

and Catherine, to our Tandin World. Once we are there, we will use our combined mental abilities, together with yours, to help Vincent to bring Catherine home from this nightmare she is trapped in. We have a special place there where we will perform this treatment. From a medical and scientific standpoint, it can’t be explained, but it is a method which we haven’t seen any need to change over the centuries, because it continues to work so well for serious cases which don’t respond to conventional treatment.”

Tanimus removed his cloak, and then he took Elisia’s off her shoulders. Diana extricated herself from Joe’s arms and took their cloaks from Tanimus. She walked to the table and laid them on it. Then she and Joe sat down together on the sofa near the door. Diana smiled at Tanimus and motioned for him to join them on the sofa, and he did so.

Elisia walked over to Catherine’s bed, beside Charles, and laid her delicate hand on Catherine’s forehead. She looked at Vincent and said, “This one has such a wonderful mind! When we felt her bravery in facing the mental storms caused in your mind by both attacks on you by Paracelsus, we were able to help strengthen her mind, so she could bring you back.”

Elisia then put her hand on Charles’ shoulder and smiled into his ecstatic face. “You have a kind and compassionate soul, Charles. That is powerful medicine for Catherine.” Charles face broke into an happy smile at her compliment. Elisia stepped around Charles and went to Vincent. She looked up at him with a soft smile, “My dear brother, you have certainly grown!” Vincent smiled down at his petite twin, and they embraced. Elisia then told him, “I think that you have already figured out that we waited to come, because we didn’t want to distract you and interfere with the process of your recovery and the repair of your connection with Catherine. Your family and friends were very wise to handle this the way they did. As I felt your mind healing and becoming stronger, I was able to help you by stimulating your memories.”

Vincent hugged her more tightly and said, “Thank you, Elisia!”

Then Elisia broke away from Vincent, stepped over to Little Jacob’s crib, and picked him up out of it. He opened his eyes and smiled up at his aunt. “My sweet little nephew!” she cried as she kissed him and then carried him to Tanimus. Elisia exclaimed as she put Little Jacob into his arms, “Isn’t Little Jacob adorable, Uncle Tanimus?”

Tanimus looked down into Little Jacob’s face with an expression of pure joy and said, “Oh, yes, he is wonderful!” He looked up at Vincent and added, “You have a beautiful family, Vincent. I have no words to express how happy it makes me to see what these people have done for you.” Tanimus looked around at everyone and said, “Thank you for taking care of my nephew and for loving him!”

Elisia turned to everyone in the room. “I know that you are all curious about the way we called you here. We had specific reasons for choosing the nineteen of you. Actually, we called twenty of you, but one hasn’t arrived yet. In order to most effectively treat Catherine’s condition, we needed people who had both very strong emotional attachments to Vincent, Catherine, and Little Jacob, as well as at least partially developed empathic abilities. You would not have been able to respond to our summons if you were not empathic. There are many others in your community who also have these attributes, but we didn’t want to cripple your community by taking people we can’t replace temporarily. We can’t effectively replace everyone that your children depend on for continuity in their lives. We brought a Tandin team with us to leave in Father’s world to help take care of your community in your absence. The team consists of a doctor, a nurse, a midwife, two engineers, and six sentries.

“We will be traveling through the tunnels to the northern region of The Bronx. Our world is far lower than yours, where the pipes you use for communication don’t reach. That is one reason we brought our people to leave here, so we can be in communication with them telepathically. It is a long journey below ground, so you will need provisions and either flashlights or lanterns.”

Pascal spoke up and asked, “Why do you live below the pipes? How can your human population communicate

without them?”

Devin answered, “They don’t need the pipes when they are living with telepaths, Pascal.”

Pascal frowned and shook his head. “That’s no fun!” Elisia turned to Pascal with a brilliant smile, which revealed dainty pearl-white upper fangs, giving her the appearance of a gorgeous vampire. Pascal melted, and he said in a dreamy voice, “But, then again, who cares about fun?”

Elisia spoke telepathically to Pascal’s mind, “You have been these people’s first defense with your communication system. You are very brave, with a generous heart.”

Pascal couldn’t take his eyes off Elisia as he exclaimed, “I’m converted!” Everyone chuckled at his enraptured look.

Elisia continued aloud, “Actually, Pascal, your question is a good one, because we do have many humans in our community who aren’t living in chambers with Tandins. We do also have our own closed telephone system. We use land lines, because we don’t want to take any chances that wireless transmissions might be picked up by those living in the world above.”

Pascal was awestruck. “You have telephones?”

Elisia smiled at his surprise. ”Yes, but before you start thinking that it is too miraculous, just remember that Father has only been developing your world for the past forty years. We have been developing ours for the past two-hundred years! Now, I need to test my telepathic

link with each of you. I know that I have a telepathic connection with Pascal and with Devin, but I need to test it with the rest of you. This is a safety precaution. You all need to be aware of the risks involved in traveling to our world. Unfortunately, there are still some of Paracelsus’ followers living in the tunnels along the way. Also, I have felt anxiety from your community over the threat that Adrian still poses.” Elisia looked at Joe. “You still haven’t incarcerated him, have you, Joe?”

Joe nodded at her. “That’s correct. We don’t have any idea where he is, and he was determined to kill Diana. I don’t believe he would skip the country without attempting to follow through with his threat first.”

Elisia shook her head sadly. “Well, that is why I need to test my telepathic communication with each of you now. If you should get separated somehow from the group, or if you get into any kind of trouble, you can send me a telepathic message. I can then communicate telepathically to whoever of my people is close enough to help you. We have sentries posted along the way back waiting for us.”

Elisia looked first at Laura, and Laura’s eyes became huge with excitement. Vincent translated the conversation as Laura signed enthusiastically to Elisia, “I heard you in my mind! I don’t know what I heard, but I did hear!”

Elisia smiled at Laura and signed back, “There is nothing wrong with your mind, just with your ears. If you

get into trouble, just scream in your mind, and I will know it is you. Do you understand?”

Laura smiled happily and signed again. “I understand. After Catherine is awake and well again, can you teach me how to use words in my mind, so I can speak telepathically with you?”

Elisia signed in reply. “It would be my pleasure to teach you!” Then Elisia tested her telepathic ability with each of the others, and they all lit up as they each replied to her in their minds. She spoke last to Tony’s mind.

“You are very wise for one so young, Tony. I perceive that loss and hardship have made you strong.”

Tony replied telepathically. “I guess that is just part of being a Gypsy!” Elisia smiled at him and nodded her head.

Brooke spoke up and asked, “Elisia, how is it that you already know all of our names?”

Elisia replied, “That is actually a two-part question. When I was little, Uncle Tanimus patiently taught me how to use my empathic and telepathic abilities. However, just like Vincent, I am half human. When Vincent became very sick after the incident with Lisa as a teenager, I was clumsy in my attempts to help him. Vincent and I were sixteen, and I was also suffering from the effects of raging teenage hormones. It was difficult for me to concentrate, and my efforts to support Vincent’s mind were too invasive. I ended up reading his mind pretty thoroughly, and I learned everyone’s name that he was closely

associated with then. During that illness, when he came so close to death, I practically climbed into his mind and screamed at him to wake up. Fortunately, he did!”

Vincent was shaking his head as he remembered her voice in his head, and he chuckled. “I remember that now. You really were screaming! That is why I didn’t recognize your voice when you spoke to me in the dream about the attack on our parents. You spoke to me very softly that time.”