The 13th Descent: Book One of The Rosefire Trilogy (24 page)

The
second he forcefully sits at his corner of the mat, Mum and Aunt Romey pull me away from our locked stare and pivot the three of us towards the West. Tallulah then awkwardly marches through the Arch on her land legs I’m sure she hasn’t used since all of those Midsummers ago when the Three Roses where last here together at the Clearing.

Now all
Three Roses and all four Luminaries are present, Mum, Aunt Romey and me move from our place in the centre of the cross and stand outside of it, passing the balance over to the Luminaries. Uncle Craig opens his fist and carefully places the North’s offering of five golden apple seeds into the centre of the cross and announces that he and his two representative Tor clans come in love and light.

Avira
presses her lips to a magnificent blue feather, similar to the one Nanna kept in her rosewood chest, and places into the centre as an offering from the East. Mike then places the South’s offering which is the small piece of volcanic glass my mother wore into the centre, and Tallulah places the West’s offering of a small glass vial of sea water beside it.

Now all
Four Corners of the Earth have openly confirmed their alliance, the Luminaries all turn to face their Arches, and as the sun hovers at its highest point in the Midsummer sky, the chosen Tor clans from the North, East, South and West come pouring through the gateway between realms like frantic shoppers at the opening of a Boxing Day sale.

As the c
lans mill and assemble at the foot of the mound at the point where their Luminary just pledged their co-operation, the seven of us in the centre quickly pull together in a tight circle to share what we know.

Avira
is the first one to speak. “Three Bloodstones arrived here this morning by helicopter, and four Bloodstones left with Josh in the same aircraft,” she says.

“Zach,” Uncle Craig snarls.

“Left to where?” Mike asks Avira.

“I don’t know for sure yet. They are still in the air h
eading towards the mainland. I have a group of Sylphs following them,” she says.

Not wanting to bring it up
this way, but incapable of leaving unsaid with all of us present, I take a deep breath and announce, “They shot and killed Benni Dhoo.”

In response, all four Luminaires knowingly hang their head
s as Mum and Aunt Romey’s faces crumple in shock and fresh grief.

The seven of us stand
in silence as the flurry of activity goes on around us: some of us reeling, some of us weeping, some of us grieving, all of us remembering.

With his arm comfortingly
around Aunt Romey, Uncle Craig is the one to regretfully and necessarily break our contemplation by saying, “At least we all know they won’t do anything to hurt Josh. He’s their idol,” quickly bringing the subject back to the living.

“They just want
to keep him under their hold to make sure the balance stays in their favour,” Mike says.

“Just wait until I get my hands on Zach,”
Uncle Craig seethes.

“Josh is Zach’s
idol too, Arthos. He probably thought he was doing the right thing by bringing Josh into the Bloodstones protection,” says the always diplomatic Tallulah. “But, regardless, I want to strangle him too,” she adds.

“I don’t think you’ll
get the chance,” Avira interjects.

“What?
” we all ask in unison.

“I assumed
you all knew,” she says. “The Sylphs reported back that Zach jumped from the helicopter as it flew over the water,” she tonelessly explains.

“Or
maybe he was pushed,” Uncle Craig suggests. 

“Hopefully by Josh,” Mike
snarls.

“Josh would never-” I tr
y and add before being cut off by Avira.

“Maybe
he did,” she interjects.

What Mike wants for Josh and what Avira thinks she knows about him are
completely delusional: Mike has always wanted Josh to fight back, but deep down he has to know that will never be his style, and Avira shouldn’t be putting in her two cents worth about someone she clearly knows nothing about. I go to tell her so, but my Mum, the wallflower of the Three Roses, unexpectedly steps away from our little huddle, circles us and the mound with her arms raised to get everyone’s attention, and when all eyes are on her, she loudly addresses the many hundreds of Tor People filling the Clearing. “Why are Joshua and my daughter once again living on Earth together, here and now in the twenty first century?”

“To remind the world what was, and what can be again,” yells an older female Hamadryad seated in the North corner of the Clearing. I am reminded of the unique relationship the Hamadryads have with nature, of how their soul is shared with a tree from their region, and when the tree dies, so do they.

“To show lost how to find the light,” little Lavindi from the Fay
sings out.

“To
even the balance, as they tried to back then,” Salvina, a pretty winged Shimmerling from the East calls out.

“To believe, as they once did,” shouts
Tre, the Triton Clan Leader from the West.

“To love, a
s they once did,” calls out his wife, Diane, a Naiad Princess.

“Because they are the s
alt and the light,” hollers a Salamander sitting amongst the flames of the bonfire raging in the South corner he thankfully took upon himself to light.

Mum
stops, stills and asks the great Fire being, “Are they? Are Josh and Ren the salt and the light?”

“Of course they are. They were then, and they are now,
” he states.

A man wearing the traditional
ice-blue hooded robes of the Zephyrs of the East stands, and in a clear and booming voice I know all too well, he rhetorically asks the crowd, “What does it mean to be the salt and the light?” throwing back his hood to reveal the wise, thoughtful face of my father. “Like the Earth, our bodies need salt to live and thrive. Too little can leave us weak, too much, even weaker. And, like the Earth, our bodies and our souls need light to live and thrive. Too little can leave us weak, and too much takes away the darkness for it to shine and be seen.” Continuing to direct his words at everyone, but with his eyes locked on me, he says, “The moon can only be seen through Earth’s night sky because it mirrors the light of the sun. A fact we discovered
after
Joshua and Shoshanna’s time on Earth.”

“And the
light of our origins should no longer be found in death, but in life,” my mother loudly and passionately adds, “
This
life,” she whispers as she circles past me.

I gawp at her in awe
as the lady I thought was introverted and timid projects her voice so she can be heard by everyone with ears to hear: her animated actions reflecting the meaning of her words, and her words reflecting the believe in her heart. Watching her I am reminded of the teacher I once was, and who I learned this divine art from all those lifetimes ago.

“
Even after another two thousand years of evolution, the Four Corners of the Earth and its people are still discovering new ways to seek out the truth and the light. And, they are getting better at it, looking to the past for the answers, trying to decipher an ancient language they don’t fully understand, but what they don’t see is that truth has to be retold in
today’s
language for the lost to truly find their way.

“
And so, as bringers of the truth and the light, we need to help align the past with the present, our failures with our successes, our hopes with our fears, and our salt with our light to help balance a changing world on the cusp of a new age…a new age the Bloodstones can see coming, and taking Josh is just the beginning of their plans to stop it.”

Murmurs for and against my mother’s word’s buzz around the
Clearing like an unsettled swarm of bees, until Mike stands up and cut’s through the whirr by announcing in his no-nonsense way, “We have got until midnight tonight to get Josh back, and to start what it is we all came here for. If you don’t want to join us in this, turn and walk through your Arch and back to the Tor Realm. But, if you want to stay and help, to fight if it comes down to it, we welcome you, and we thank you.”

Our small group standing on the
mound in the Clearing’s centre move to stand beside Mike showing him and the Tor our assent and our support, all of us except Avira who stands in place, straight faced and silent. “Let’s send those Bloodstone bastards back to the Dark Ages,” yells a very wound up Tallulah as she throws her arms around Mike.

“Avira?” Mike questions her, looking confused and hurt as he extends his hand, inviting her to stand with him, with us.

The odd few Tor men and women run for the Arches and back to their realm, and without a regretful word or an apprehensive motion, so does Avira. However, she does stop and turn before stepping through the Arch and back to her atmospheric realm, and throws me a look so filled with hatred that it forces me to suck in my breath.

The
vast majority of Tor stays standing with their arms in the air, bellowing and cheering their support. The six of us left on the mound head straight for the clan members from the East who have chosen to stay and welcome them into this newly formed band that is older than time, consisting of kin, clan and corner, neighbours and friends, allies and adversaries, all here to plan the return of a man sacred to us, and a world sacred to us all.

About the Author

KY LEHMAN
is a teacher of swimming and water safety, a children’s author, and a novelist. She lives in the Yarra Ranges, Victoria, Australia with her husband and their three children where she is currently working on the second book in The Rosefire Trilogy,

The 13
th
Rising