The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' (17 page)

‘Let go of me
Jed,’ Dotty gasped as she desperately tried to help the twins. Jed
held on tightly to the unsteady woman, his vision changed and he
could see faintly what Dotty saw, velvet blackness filled with
ribbons of bright, bright light, each one pulsating and burning
leaving burnt spots in his vision. Gideon, his son, the brightest
light of all, he felt as if he had been looking at the sun too long
in high summer. He closed his eyes attempting to shut out the light
but the vision intensified.

‘Let go of me
Jed, now!’ whispered Dotty again as she sent herself toward the
magic, she knew the effort would probably kill her, unprepared as
she was to use so much power without a balance but if she did
nothing the twins would surely die and she did not want to drain
Jed as she drained herself. Jed felt himself tingling and itching,
he thought he had probably stepped on an anthill and disturbed the
biting creatures but he remained holding on to Dotty tightly not
wanting the woman to fall.

Dotty
surrounded the twins in her brightest light, pale and wan in
comparison to the others but she could do no more. Caught fast in
the ether Varan could sense Dotty’s attempts to help; slowly she
added her strength to the twins as they struggled to escape the
pull from Gideon. As she fought to free them, she found herself
also falling under Gideon’s spell in the same way the twins had
fallen and almost in despair; she attempted to draw more from
herself than she could safely give. Suddenly another light emanated
from within her, it expanded and grew brighter, infinitely stronger
than her own was and she marvelled at the beauty of it, its pearly
iridescent sheen circled the twins and Dotty moulding itself to
them following each contour and indent until it matched them
perfectly, like a great overcoat it shielded them from Gideon’s
pull. Varan, with a mouth that was not a mouth spoke quietly.

‘
Lemba’s
magic recognises the danger to its host, see Sonal, it shields us
from the power of the root,’
Sonal watched in silence, not
having strength enough left to answer as he struggled to be free.
Slowly, so slowly, they managed to move away until finally the hold
released and the twins re-entered their own bodies with a sigh,
letting themselves relax for a moment recovering from the ordeal.
Gideon began to rouse; the activity deep within his core had
stirred his subconscious and begun to wake him.

‘Varan,’ Sonal
said softly, ‘Gideon does not know, does not realise…who he is.’
Varan turned to him and suddenly he smiled, in his head, the child
with the dead eyes frowned as a patch of green appeared in the dull
brown grass.

‘Thank you
Dotty,’ he said, sitting up and turning to the woman still held
tightly in Jed’s arms. ‘You saved our lives. Thank you,’ he said
again, inclining his head in salute. Dotty smiled back shyly,
embarrassed at the unexpected honour.

‘Well, I don’t
want to be healing you both from colds so it might be best if you
got off the damp ground and stood up.’ She turned in Jed’s arms and
looked back toward the three young people still sitting on the
ground. Jed continued to hold Dotty, his head was full of
questions, he felt a little stiff from the cold and a little weary
suddenly but he was surprised at the way he felt so comfortable
with his arms this woman, the way he had always felt with his
Mayan. He smiled anxiously as she patted his hand and he turned his
gaze back to Gideon, covered in blood but no longer bleeding and
still with the knife still at his throat.

The warmth from
Mayan’s body slowly seeped into young Jed, his sobs quietened and
the knife fell harmlessly to the floor. Mayan quickly kicked it
away with her foot maintaining the fragile contact with her
brother. She sent love and calm along their special bond, and
smiled. Jed shifted his pose and cuddled his brother to him burying
his face against Gideon’s neck.

‘Forgive me
Gid,’ he whispered, ‘please forgive me…’ he wept quietly now, his
tears leaving pale tracks in Gideon’s blood soaked skin.

‘Thought yer
weren’t gonna kiss me,’ Gideon began, his voice croaking painfully
as he woke. ‘Remember Jed, when I gave yer the stone yer said yer
weren’t gonna kiss me.’ Mayan cried openly and threw her arms
around both boys as best she could. No matter what Toby had done to
her, nothing would ever be as painful as watching this and feeling
so helpless.
He will pay fer this,
she thought again as
Gideon’s father and Lemba rushed forward to help all three to their
feet.

‘Da, I think
the s’periment worked,’ Gideon smiled as he leant forward to clear
his mouth of bile. ‘I don’t ‘alf ‘ave an ‘eadache an’ me throat’s
real sore, Jed ‘elp me ‘ome will yer,’ he said as he held out his
arm to his brother. ‘I’ll try not ter throw up on yer,’ he added,
trying to smile through the pain in his head, ‘though it smells as
if yer threw up on yersel’ already’. Gideon grinned as he realised
they were actually both as filthy as the other was and he took
Jed’s arm. Jed felt humbled by the love surrounding him; he had
tried to kill his best friend, his brother.
I should ‘ave known
‘e were lying!
He thought berating himself. Even as tired, cold
and hungry as he was, even with the knowledge of his family’s
desperate plight, he should have known Toby was lying.

‘It was this
Gid,’ he said quietly as he handed Gideon Mayan’s stone, ‘Toby gave
it ter me, ‘e said as ‘ow yer…rap… ‘ow yer killed ‘er. I knew she’d
never ‘ave given it away.’ Silent tears fell once again down his
face, Mayan seeing the stone placed her hand to her neck.

‘Toby took it
from me Jed, it were ‘im who tried ter rape me after Jackie’s
weddin’. I gave ‘im ‘is scar, I never told yer coz I didn’t wanna
‘urt yer but yesterday, yesterday ‘e did do it,
he
raped me…
yesterday.’ Mayan said softly, taking the stone and wrapping her
arms around her chest. ‘Tis my fault,
all
my fault,’ I
should ‘ave said back then.’ She added quietly, her voice braking,
she turned to Lemba and fell into her arms her shoulders shaking
with silent tears.

‘Ner, love…’
began Gideon and stopped abruptly as another wave of dizziness came
over him.

‘Get the boy to
his grandfather’s, now,’ whispered Varan as Sonal silently
described the fragile wooden doors holding back the power of
Gideon’s mind. ‘Now…, go,’ he said again, a mixture of horror and
wonder on his face.

Gideon and
young Jed walked off in the direction of the cottage, Jed holding
his sick brother as best he could, Gideon stumbled and releasing
Dotty, his father ran to support his other side. Arm in arm the
trio walked, followed closely by Dotty, deep in thought with her
arms folded across her chest. The two young girls each still in
tears followed her arm in arm, guilt washed from one and relief
from the other, a tangible blanket covering them. Varan and Sonal,
both exhausted by the healing brought up the rear. Neither wanted
to talk,
not yet, the future is too big to think about, not
without a cup of Mrs Green’s tea anyway,
Varan thought and
Sonal smiled hearing the thought even though it had not been
directed at him.

‘Tea, yes,’ he
said, ‘I could do with a cup of tea.’

Rhoàld shivered
with cold as he and a bruised Jayson watched the company move away,
he closed his eyes and thought of Bastian.

‘
I’m
here,’
Bastian sang to him.
‘I’m always here,’
Rhoàld,
taking Jayson’s arm walked slowly along behind the others,
revelling in the love Bastian showed him and no longer cold, he
smiled.
‘Soon,’
Bastian whispered.

‘Yes, my
dearest, soon.’ Rhoàld replied following behind his friends.

‘Such power…’
Gath whispered as he suddenly stopped his horse and stared into the
ether, he watched the ebb and flow of magic at the roots.

‘His magic, my…
my magic is strong, so much more than I ever expected. Oh Lydia, I
knew you would be the one,’ he smiled drawing his gaze back to
Darnel, studying him intently.

‘We will be
leaving very soon, my dear,’ whispered Gath as he stroked his
horse’s neck, he smiled at Darnel, not expecting a response.
Darnel’s knees tightened into his horse’s flanks. ‘I must reach him
soon, before his power kills him because it will, if he doesn’t
gain control of it, it will. We have time yet though, time to find
him and take him, Hollins should have him soon.’ Darnel’s horse
snorted loudly, protesting at the pressure on its belly.

‘The funny
thing is Darnel, Gideon will have to come to me as there is no one
left alive to teach him the control he needs because, and this is
the ironic part, because
I’ve
already killed them all.’ He
began to laugh, louder and louder as the madness took over and as
the tears of mirth ran down his face, Darnel also cried, for
himself, his little sister and the boy Gideon who Gath talked about
constantly.
Gideon is as dead as I be, he just don’t know it
yet,
Darnel thought as he let his silent tears fall.

Mayan smiled at
the two young men as they talked in low voices, her ear again
catching the unfamiliar tones and inflections in Jed’s speech.

‘He’s changed
Gran,’ she sighed.

‘No dear, tis
the army, ‘e’s become more rounded tis all an’ e’s growing up, e’s
still the same boy,’ she said matter of factly, as she handed Mayan
another pile of clothing but she could not help but notice the dark
circles under Jed’s eyes.

‘No, I’m first
in line,’ stated Gideon calmly after he heard Jed’s tale for the
umpteenth time, he watched Mayan as she helped his grandmother pack
up their things. The memory of her lying pale and still with Toby
forcing himself on her fragile body remained with him. ‘Fer all e’s
dun, I’m gonna kill ‘im mesel’,’ he added, turning to his friend.
Jed stared at Gideon, astonished at his friend’s calm acceptance of
his own treacherous behaviour.

‘I tried to
kill you Gid; I would ‘ave done.’ Jed replied, his feelings of
shame and guilt edging every word. ‘I should ‘ave known you would
never ‘ave ‘urt ‘er. I’ll make it up to yer though, I swear it,’ he
vowed, placing his head in his hands.

‘Yer wouldn’t
‘ave killed me Jed, yer love me too much…’ Gideon replied with a
grin as he punched his brother on the shoulder. ‘Besides, what
brothers d’yer know that don’t fight now an’ again, an’ we ain’t
‘ome yet, iffen what the twins say is true I’m gonna be ill again
‘afore we get there an’ yer wouldn’t ‘urt a sick man would yer!’
Gideon laughed ruefully at the sudden expression of abject misery
apparent on his brother’s face.

‘The village...
‘By the Journey’ Gid; Jackie…ma an’ da…’ quickly Jed began to
explain about the villagers but Gideon stopped him.

‘We should all
‘ear about this I reckon,’ he said and called the company together.
Again, the parlour took on the cramped feel it had had earlier in
the day. Quickly and quietly Jed explained to the entire company
about his parents and the villagers he had seen the day before,
each of them in chains, each destined to be sold at the slave
markets in Devilly. Sonal, hearing the news paled, seeing the truth
of his vision of so long ago.

‘It’s been Toby
all along then,’ said Jed, as he looked at Lemba. She nodded in
agreement flashing her fingers fast.

‘What’s she
saying Jed?’ Gid asked, trying to smile at the tiny girl and
feeling his brother’s love for her.

‘She says Gath
ordered Toby to get you, to do what he wanted with the village but
to get you.’

‘What am I, who
am I, that a man would do this ter so many people?’ Gideon asked
quietly, a bell started ringing in the deep recesses of his mind.
Someone has said that to me recently,
who was it?,
Gideon asked himself as another voice broke his thoughts.

‘I believe the
answer to that question lays in Green Home Forest my boy,’ replied
Sonal, Varan nodded his head in agreement. ‘We must go there as
soon as possible, Gath will have felt us using magic in the woods
and he will come. Mark my words he
will
come,’ he added
solemnly.

‘I...I can’t go
Gideon, please don’t make me…,’ Gideon’s grandmother pleaded,
looking at her husband.

‘We can’t stay
‘ere love,’ he replied, unhappy at the obvious distress his wife
was feeling. ‘We killed the king’s soldiers an’ iffen we don’t
leave with the others…’ he began.

‘But not ter
the Forest, yer knows ‘ow I feel about that forest…’ his wife
interrupted.

‘Mrs Green,’
began Jayson suddenly, ‘we can go to Devilly, my mother’s sister
lives there,’ he said, adding enthusiastically, ‘we’ll be able to
see the villagers at the slave markets there too an’ be near enough
to help them.’

‘NO...’ said
Gideon’s father, rather more forcefully than he intended, ‘Jayse,
yer’d give up me parents ter Gath, I know it, I’ll kill yer first…’
he said menacingly.

‘Forgive me
Jed, but actually it’s a good idea,’ Rhoàld broke in, forestalling
an angry Jed from further outbursts, he smiled apologetically at
Gideon’s father, before adding, ‘Gath will never be able to find
them, ask young Jed how long he spent trying to find Varan.’

Rhoàld had
become stronger over the short time spent in the cottage, he glowed
with health and his mind at last felt his own. No longer could he
feel Gath growing insidiously like a weed in his head. He had
listened as both Varan and Sonal talked of the wood and had
questioned Jayson intently on his experience in the barn. If, like
Gideon, his blood appeared hidden from Gath by the wood of Green
Home he knew as soon as he moved outside the influence of the
cottage and grounds, Gath would be able to seek him once more but
without the compulsion he could once convey. He fully intended to
ask Varan how to shield the strange blood flowing through his
veins, after all until now he had never known he had it, but for
the moment and whilst he could, he would help these people with his
own unique skills.