Larkspur (46 page)

“
You have to command
them,” Heather said under her breath to Rodney.

“
I command you to return
to your non-work size,” Rodney said.

Abi grew into a tall, thin, athletically
built woman with rich brown skin. Mari grew into a medium-sized
woman with dark curly hair, dark eyes, and pale skin.

“
I know you,” Tanesha said
to Abi. “You’re a friend of my mother’s.”

“
I’ve been your mother’s
friend for many years,” Abi said. “She asked me to help your
father.”

“
Can you change out of the
slut clothes?” Heather asked.

“
You look silly,” Honey
said.

They changed from their fairy costumes into
human clothing. Abi wore workout capris, running shoes, and a short
top. Mari wore a thin cotton dress with wool socks and clogs. Mari
pointed to James, and Abi nodded.

“
What was that?” Tanesha
asked.

“
Nothing,” Mari
said.

The fairies gave each other a knowing
look.

“
What is going on?” Honey
demanded.

“
Our friend likes Brigid’s
son,” Mari said. “That’s all.”

“
Edie?” James
asked.

The fairies giggled.

“
That’s all well and
good,” Tanesha said. “What do we need to do to save our
friends?”

“
Jill too,” Sandy
said.

“
They can’t tell us,”
Honey said.

“
Maggots,” Tanesha
sneered.

“
No, Miss T.” Rodney said.
“They don’t have any idea how to save our friends. We have to
figure it out.”

“
How?” Tanesha
asked.

“
I’m going to go watch the
battle,” Rodney said. “Give me a few minutes.”

Rodney jogged down the hallway and up the
stairs. Heather shrugged, and they went back to work with the
bombs. A few minutes later, Rodney came back down the hallway.

“
Well?” Tanesha
asked.

“
What do we need to do?”
Sandy asked.

“
I need to think,” Rodney
said.

~~~~~~~

Blane woke up standing next to a tree. He
closed his eyes and opened them again. He shook his head to try to
clear his confusion. Somehow, he was in a weird bubble in a forest.
There was a historic reenactment going on outside the bubble, and
some sort of ritual happening right in front of him. He took a step
on weak legs. He dropped onto a knee, before catching himself.
Looking across the bubble, he realized he knew the women in the
stream.

“
Delphie?” Blane
asked.

“
Blane!” Delphie jumped to
her feet and ran to his side. The other woman seemed to float over
to him.

“
Where am I?” Blane
asked.

“
You’re on the Isle of
Man,” Delphie said.

“
I was driving home when I
heard about the earthquake.” Blane nodded. “I turned around and
started back, I think I got there . . .
and . . .”

He shook his head.

“
What
is . . .?” Blane gestured. “Celia?”

“
Hello, my dear Blane.”
Celia smiled at him.

She hugged him. Blane’s face flushed bright
red and his eyes welled with tears.

“
I have so much
to . . .” Blane started. He swallowed hard and
started talking fast. “Have you seen my baby, Mack? We’re having
another. And Heather, she’s made the little house a home for me and
our family and . . . Heather is amazing, and my life
now . . . and . . . oh
God.”

Blane cried into her shoulder.

“
I’m so very proud of you,
son,” Celia said.

“
Why am I here?” Blane
asked.

“
I would guess to help
Jill,” Celia said. “She’s in a trance.”

“
We think this is what
kills Marlowe mothers and their sons,” Delphie said.

“
Kill?” Blane rushed to
Jill’s side. He slipped his hand around her right wrist and then
around the other. He shook his head and scowled. He touched her
forehead.

“
Can you save her?”
Delphie asked.

Blane looked up at Delphie and then at
Celia.

“
She’s . . .” Blane nodded. “Oh, I see it now.
I don’t know. How long has she been like this?”

“
Five minutes?” Celia
looked at Delphie, who shrugged. “Ten?”

“
Good,” Blane said. “Not
too long.”

“
Do you have what you
need?” Delphie asked.

“
I should.” Blane started
humming.

“
Can you check on the
child?” Celia asked.

Blane leaned over to the boy.

“
He’s dying,” Blane
said.

“
If he does, he’ll take
Jill with him,” Delphie said.

“
Good to know,” Blane
said. “Is there any food here?”

“
Jill can eat?” Celia
asked.

“
No, I’m starving,” Blane
said.

“
I’ll see what I can do.”
Delphie’s words were lost on Blane. He was deep in thought looking
at Jill. Delphie touched his shoulder. “Blane?”

Startled, he jumped and looked at
Delphie.

“
I had a dream,” Blane
said. “Just like this except . . .
Heather?”

The ground shook, and the entrance to the
catacombs appeared.

“
Blane?” Heather’s voice
came from under the ground. “I swear I heard Blane.”

“
Heather, we’re up here,”
Delphie yelled.

Heather peeked her head out.

“
You guys!” Heather
shouted to the people below. “They are right here.”

Heather ran to Blane, and they held each
other.

“
Sam?” Delphie
asked.

Sam ran up the stairs to her. He hugged
Delphie and Celia at the same time. Sandy and Tanesha ran to Jill.
Rodney appeared with Honey on his back. He set Honey down and went
back for her chair. Once he returned, everyone was staring at
Jill.

“
What’s going on?” Rodney
asked.

“
Jill’s in trouble,” Sandy
whispered. “I can feel it.”

“
Can you help her?”
Heather asked Blane.

“
We can.” Blane smiled.
“Do you have your supplies?”

“
Right here,” Heather
said. She held up her backpack.

“
Is there anything to
eat?” Blane asked.

She dug through the backpack until she found
one of his special homemade, chocolate protein snacks. He scarfed
it down.

“
Let’s get to work,” Blane
said to Heather.

He told her what he needed, and she started
making the Chinese herbal remedy. He’d placed a dozen acupuncture
needles by the time she’d finished making the liquid. Together,
they forced Jill and the boy to swallow the liquid.

Sandy and Tanesha went to get Katy and
Paddie. When they returned everyone was sitting in a circle with
Jill in the middle. Delphie was leading them through a meditation.
They sat down with the children on their laps.

As the war raged outside the dome, everyone
turned their attention to the battle Jill was waging right in front
of them.

“
Now we wait,” Blane
said.

~~~~~~~~

“
This is the fiftieth
situation,” Jill yelled at no one in particular. She was standing
on a platform where a hooded executioner was sharpening his axe.
“I’m still not afraid of you.”

The crowd sniggered and someone threw a
tomato. Jill ducked this time, and it hit somewhere behind her.
Jill sighed. The executioner towered over her. When he touched her,
she healed him. He stood in a daze beside her.

She kneeled down and touched the guillotine.
Placing her hands on the wood, she worked to relieve the pain and
suffering in the device, and in this place.

“
I’m just getting so
tired,” Jill said.

The scene spun in place, and Jill rushed
through time again.

Chapter Two Hundred and
Seventy-six

Doing something different

“
You know, that’s okay,”
Jill said to the burly Viking standing in front of her. Worn out,
she decided to try something she hadn’t tried before. “You can take
him.”

The boy scowled at her. The men grumbled and
looked terrifying. Jill noticed that she was wearing a plain, thin
wool dress that fell to ground. She felt like she was a novitiate
at a convent.

“
I can always have another
son,” Jill said.

She gave the boy a wave and turned to walk
up the hill. A tall soldier grabbed her around the waist. He lifted
her from where she stood and carried her to a tall man wearing dark
robes. The moment he set her down, she started walking away from
the scene.

“
You have sinned,” the man
in dark robes screamed.

“
Yes, father,” Jill said.
Having dealt with more than her fair share of these monk-like men
in this never-ending nightmare dream, Jill decided to turn the
tables on him. “I’m going home right now to resolve my sinning
ways. Please tell me what I can do.”

“
Do?” the man
asked.

“
To make amends?” Jill
asked.

The man in the robes seemed confused. Like a
shadow cast by hand puppets, the man could only mimic a historical
script. Jill had stumped him.

“
How about if I fast for a
month and pray the rosary a hundred times a day?” Jill
suggested.

With a nod, she walked around the man and
kept walking toward a fort up on the hill. She had gone about a
hundred feet when she noticed the seven-year-old boy was walking
with her.

“
You weren’t supposed to
do that,” the boy said.

“
Why not?” Jill
asked.

“
Because that’s not what
happened,” the boy said.

“
We’ve been stuck in the
same situation over and over again,” Jill said.

She held out her hand, and he slipped his
small, cold hand in hers. They walked for a few minutes until they
reached a granite boulder. Jill gingerly set herself down on the
rock and pulled the boy to her. He didn’t resist, so she held him
while she rested.

“
Why don’t you tell me
what happened while I rest?” Jill said in a low intimate
voice.

“
What happened?” The boy
looked at her.

“
When you were taken from
your mother,” Jill said. “You don’t have to show me. You can just
tell me what happened.”

“
I can?”

The boy leaned into her. Jill looked out
onto the lovely seaside and held him close. After a few minutes, he
shifted away from her.

“
You’re sure?”

“
I’m sure,” Jill said.
“You can always show me if I don’t get it.”

“
I don’t know where to
start,” the boy said.

“
At the beginning,” Jill
said.

The boy nodded, and Jill settled in for a
long story.

~~~~~~~~

Rodney sat between Honey and Miss T. near
the wall of the safe bubble. While his eyes were shut, his mind
focused on the philosopher’s question:

Why do two armies fight day in and day out
when neither army is able to win or lose?

He hoped that discovering the reason would
help him stop the war before Valerie and Jacob were injured or
killed. He’d almost given up when a thought popped into his mind.
He looked up at Delphie, who was walking around the outside of
their circle around Jill. She smiled at him.

“
Do you mind if I ask Abi
something?” Rodney asked.

“
Go ahead,” Delphie
said.

“
Why did this war start?”
Rodney asked.

“
Start?” Abi looked
confused. “I don’t know. Mari?”

Mari shook her head.

“
You don’t remember?”
Rodney asked.

“
I doubt we were alive
then,” Abi said. “Mari and I aren’t very old, certainly not
compared to Gilfand. Even Edie is a hundred human years older than
we are.”

“
The war started a long
time before we were born,” Mari said.

“
The story says that the
war started because the prince defiled the daughter of a
neighboring kingdom,” Sam said.

“
What story?” Rodney
looked confused.

“
The Kingdom of
Marle
?” Tanesha said. “Mom used to read it
to me. It was one of Ne Ne’s books.”

“
Good Lord.” Rodney rubbed
his hand over his face and pulled it over his tight haircut. “Of
course. Ne Ne’s books.”

“
Of course?” Tanesha
asked.

Every eye was on him. He shrugged as if he
couldn’t explain what he meant.

“
Remind me,” Rodney said.
“It’s been a long while since I sat with my baby reading one of Ne
Ne’s books.”

“
The fairies say they drew
clues in the pictures in the hopes that someone would use them to
set things right,” Sam said.

“
Lots of fairies drew
pictures in the book,” Mari said. She nodded, and added, “My
mother’s a librarian.”

“
We grew up with the book
too,” Abi said.

“
The pictures in Ne Ne’s
book are different from Jill’s book,” Tanesha said.