Shared Skies (23 page)

“
It would be a pleasure.”
Alasdair was beaming.

Renny clapped her hands. “Oh, this is so
exciting.” She turned to Gaiah. “Hey, Gaiah, y’know the way Earth
weddings have bridesmaids? Can we do that? Oh please? Can I be your
melding maid? Pleeeaase?” She waved her prayer-clasped hands in
front of her.

“
I’d love it, Renny, I
really would,” Gaiah said with a big grin. With the maximum of
fuss, chatter, plans and suggestions about the ceremony, the Ten
shifted to Gaiana. Gaiah suddenly yawned, hugely.

Kaley laughed. “Melding or no melding–you’re
going to bed. It’s been a long and eventful day.” She put her arm
around Gaiah and frog-marched her to the door. “Neal, you can have
the sofa bed in the front room.”

“
Thanks Kaley, that would
be great. Actually, I have just realized I am wiped. I’d sleep on a
doorstep now.”

“
Oh, our sofa bed is a bit
better than that.” Alasdair smiled, “This way.”

Neal took Gaiah’s face in his hands as he
passed, and whispered, “You know, we won’t really be separated. I’m
with you always.”

She smiled and nodded. “I know. Sleep
well.”

He followed Alasdair out of the kitchen.

It was a peaceful, happy house that night.
Gaiah, content with her sense of being wrapped in Neal’s love,
quickly fell into a deep sleep. Neal sank into the plush, softness
of the sofa bed, turned to enjoy the warmth and crackle of the
glowing log fire, and drifted off within moments.

Renny spent some time pondering what to wear
at the melding ceremony, and if she should make a little speech.
But her thoughts soon became jumbled, and luckily when she was
deciding to wear orange clown shoes and a red tuxedo–she was
dreaming. Alasdair and Kaley talked softly, their arms around each
other. Kaley always slept that way, with her head on Alasdair’s
chest. They talked, but their voices became slower and soon the
gaps between words became a silence, filled with peaceful
breathing.

Chapter
Eighteen

The next morning, Alasdair made his
speciality breakfast dish: scrambled eggs with loads of pepper,
piled on top of thick slices of home cooked ham and served on brown
toast.

Renny was laughing as she told them of her
dream decision. “It seemed reasonable at the time. Maybe we should
have a circus theme?”

“
Aaargh. No way!” Gaiah
rolled her eyes at Kaley, who laughed. Two pots of tea later,
Alasdair was trying out his ‘knock knock’ jokes, and was delighted
with Neal’s offering of, “Knock, Knock”

“
Who’s there?”

“
Isabelle.”

“
Isabelle who”

“
Isabelle really necessary
on this door?”

Alasdair's guffaw rang around the
kitchen.

“
Don’t encourage him,”
groaned Kaley as she got up from the table. “Renny and I are going
to shift now. Alasdair will follow with you two later. I know you
want to return to the woods for a little while. Be careful of
yourselves. See you later.” She kissed them all, and shimmered from
view.

Renny stood. “Neal, don’t get side-tracked
and spend days in the wood. We’ll all be ready and waiting to
welcome you to Gaiana. Powers! What fun! I can’t believe we´re
going to organize a melding ceremony at home. It’s sooo not normal
there. Imagine! A melding, and me a melding maid. Okay, I’m off.”
In a shimmer, she was gone.

“
Right,” said Alasdair.
“I’ll wash up here, let you two get going.”

“
Thanks Grandpa, see you
in a while.” They wrapped up well and headed for the door. Alasdair
called Gaiah back and handed her a backpack. “Supplies.”

She kissed him. “You're the best. Thanks a
million.”

They disappeared down the drive. It didn’t
take long to get to the woods, but as before, Gaiah loved every
second of the bike ride because of the close contact with Neal–his
bulk protecting her from the worst of the wind and cold. She would
have been happy to be travelling the length of Earth like this.

The car park was deserted. Weak sunshine and
blustery winds had dried up the ground underfoot, so the hike up
the paths wasn’t too slippery. They weren’t in a rush, so for the
most part they strolled, holding hands. Gaiah told Neal all about
her father and her London life. When she paused, he turned and
lifted her up. Wrapped in his arms, he kissed her eyes, her face
and finally her mouth; soft gentle kisses.

“
These are kisses for my
poor, lonely Gaiah who I wasn’t there to look after, and these,” he
paused for more kisses, “are for my poor, sad Gaiah who I wasn’t
there to cheer up and these,” more kisses, “are for the poor, cross
Gaiah who I wasn’t there to tell her–get a grip!” Gaiah felt a
happiness and lightness of spirit she hadn’t felt since her mother
was alive.

Neal wanted to put his art at the entrance
to the fort. They spent a while searching for exactly the right
place; climbing, crawling, stretching, hammering and measuring
until finally they had the work mounted at different angles in the
trees at both sides of the entrance to the old fort. The gun shot
added a texture to their appearance which gave an extra depth and
meaning to the work. “I think it's time for whatever it is Alasdair
put in our backpack,” Gaiah said, and they both sat leaning back
against a tree stump in the centre of the fort so they could admire
his art from a distance while they ate.

Alasdair had packed cheese, apples, two
wedges of Kaley’s fruit cake and a flask of coffee. “Oh
wonderful.”

Neal inhaled the intense aroma of the
coffee. He looked down along the scrubby winter grass to his
work.

“
They're a memorial for my
parents; this was where they met. My mother told me she was drawn
to this place all her life.” He looked around.

Gaiah’s heart wrenched
with the depth of sadness and pain he was feeling. Her breath
caught as she sensed his building anguish.
What was coming?

“
I have to tell you, this
area is a portal for Or’kans shifting Earthways.”

Gaiah's eyes widened and she jumped to her
feet. “What? What are we doing here?”

“
We’re safe. Or’kan
shifting is a slow process compared to Gaianans. Anyway, they
rarely shift. Can you see the stone over there, by that tree? The
stuff that looks as if it has been melted? There's quite a lot of
that around here. It has always defied explanation. It was caused
by the blasts of an Or’kan energy gun.”

Gaiah sat again, held his two hands and met
his gaze with serious eyes. She waited for him to continue.

“
It was directed at some
slaves who were trying to escape by joining a group who were
shifting Earthways. A guard blasted them just as they set foot on
Earth.”

Gaiah shuddered. “How awful.” She looked at
the solid, rugged rock transformed to shining, fused plates. “What
a powerful weapon.”

“
Yes,” agreed Neal. “It’s
not quite so extreme on Or’ka where the energies are equal, but
here on Earth, it’s devastating.”

She stared at the melted rock. The thought
of the evil behind these moss-covered, ancient Earth curiosities
made her feel ill. It was an evil she and Neal were expected to
deal with. She changed the subject.

“
How did your parents
meet?”

“
My father had been sent
here as support for an Or’kan project. They fell into each other’s
arms, literally. She tripped as they passed each other. She said
the minute they touched they were rooted to the spot, and could
have stayed there forever.”

He smiled at Gaiah. “I always thought she
was exaggerating, now I know exactly what she meant. She didn’t go
home and he never continued his assignment. They made a home in
deeper woods in the highlands. Afric, my father, spent his days
painting and my mother grew their food.”

“
But what did he tell her?
How did he explain things?”

“
He told her everything.
She found it easy to accept; she said she’d always known there was
more to life than what we saw. When he was eventually found and
ordered back, he refused. I was born at that stage and he knew he
would rather die than leave us. But of course they did get him, or
rather, they drained his energy, until he literally disappeared.”
He stared at the copper pieces, now glinting in faint sunlight.
“You can imagine how impossible it was for my mother to recount
that story to anyone. So she became a silent ghost of herself.
Everyone thought she was a bit mad. I was the only person she spoke
to about what had happened, but I was young, and more influenced by
everyone around me. I kind of dismissed it as ‘just my mother’s
stories’ but she had been severed from her melded self. If it
hadn’t been for me, she would have let herself die too, years
earlier.”

Neal’s head was against the tree and his
eyes were closed, but his grip was firm on her hand as he recounted
his parents' history. This part of his story really resonated with
Gaiah. She finally understood how her father must have been
suffering all these years. And, unlike Neal’s mum, he never had an
idea why he couldn’t cope.

Gaiah shared Neal’s sadness, but said, “How
proud they would be, their melding’s child, now a melded man, is
back to celebrate their lives and their love. And I’m here to give
thanks to them for you.” She cupped his face in her hands, kissed
him gently and sat back. “I hate to bring this up now…but Graeme?
His car was parked where that poor old lady attacked me.”

Neal’s face tightened. “I can barely stand
to talk about him, but he will have to be dealt with. He’s a full
Or’kan-”

“
That’s impossible! He’s
at school and everything. He asked me out…” Revulsion and
indignation made Gaiah’s voice shrill.

Neal shook his head. “Graeme was
orchestrating that attack. Look, there’s an awful lot more to say
about him and it’s all even worse, but we’ll need help to do
anything about him, so for now, let’s not talk about it?”

Gaiah shuddered, trying to imagine what
could be worse than turning an innocent old lady walking her dog,
into a killing machine, but was happy to change the subject. “I
wonder what they’ve got planned on Gaiana for us?” She finished the
rest of the coffee and started packing away papers and cups.

Neal took the backpack and pulled Gaiah to
her feet. He looked serious. “I don’t know, but I do know you and I
are going to be totally one. A melded couple for eternity.” He
paused, ran his eyes from her head to her toes and back again. A
grin lit up his face. “And I can’t wait.” He fell on her like a
villain from an old movie, kissing her neck and laughing. Warmth
surged through them both and the laughter stopped. Kisses became
intense and deep.

Neal's hands inside her
jacket were radiating heat and Gaiah could barely breathe.
Reluctantly, they broke apart, both experiencing the pounding
hearts and rushing blood they were trying to subdue. Gaiah was
blushing. “Wow. We
definitely
better go now.”

Neal ran his thumb over her swollen lips.
“Yes, we'll have all the time in the world to do this properly.”
They walked back in silence. Their senses were so attuned that they
may as well have been talking.

However, their shared happiness and
excitement was made bittersweet by the dark knowledge that the fate
of the trinity was on their shoulders, and they had no idea what to
do.

End of Book One