The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' (27 page)

‘It is still
winter… isn’t it?’ Mayan asked sleepily as she recognised yet
another summer evening flowering plant beginning to unfurl its
petals alongside its spring brothers.

Varan stood and
all eyes turned to follow him as he walked to the centre of the
clearing in an effort to stretch his legs. The moon suddenly
appeared from behind one of the evening clouds bathing him in
light. Rhoàld looked up as the moons brilliance suddenly hit the
glade and he saw Varan covered in a perfect shroud of silvery
light, a great beam of intense energy straight from the heavens. He
turned white as he watched the man from the bleak.

“By the
Journey’, it’s you…’ he whispered, pointing at Varan. The wind
caught the whisper and it swirled around the glade until everyone
had heard it.

‘What’s me,’
replied Varan with a puzzled expression on his face and he looked
at Rhoàld in confusion.

‘The carving in
your cell at the castle, it’s this; it’s here, here…’ said Rhoàld
suddenly animated, he walked toward Varan emphasising with his
hands toward the trees and the moonlight. The shadows had
lengthened turning the ivy and the flowers into multi shades of
black, white and silver while the trees had become the solid,
massive columns supporting a vast roof, its centre left open to the
world like a window to the gods. Varan was standing on the
ivy-covered tree stump that represented the Dias in the carving,
the Dias rose from the floor with an occupant sitting in the centre
shrouded in light, Rhoàld turned to his companions.

‘Do you see…’
he began, as excited as a child given a promise of sweets, he took
a deep breath as he realised even the people in the cave carvings
seemed to be represented by members of their own small company. By
now they were either sitting up or standing against those dark
strong columns, no features or gender, their shapes seen only by
silhouette, by base relief, as if projected from the seemingly
smooth surface of the columns themselves, part of the column but
different.

‘There is a
difference…’ he continued, ‘the tattoo shows a …a stone hanging
above your head, here there is no stone, a…’ he stopped as Varan
finished the sentence for him.

‘A crystal,
there is no crystal.’

Blue howled
loudly to the moon and began to race around the glade jumping and
gambolling like a small puppy, his huge shaggy head seemed to be
smiling as he ran from one member of the party to another. His
tongue rolling out of his mouth and almost scraping the ground as
he bowed, his forelegs and front of his body close to the ground as
his hindquarters stuck up in the air.

‘Can someone
tell the rest o’ us what’s goin’ on?’ Gideon’s father asked in
frustration as he joined the group in the centre of the clearing,
closely followed by young Jed with Lemba and Mayan. Varan sat down
on the raised stump like a teacher about to give a lecture.

‘Please sit
down everyone,’ he said, ‘perhaps the time is right for the telling
of tales.’

Gideon sat
still only half listening as Sonal told the company his tale of the
Guardians, his family who for generations had guarded the Bleak
knowing most of the tale he had already heard. The group looked
animated under the silvery light of the moon and they did not
notice as he slipped away from them to take a seat against one of
the huge trees closely followed by Blue. He had to think, he knew
this whole business was about him and just who he was, so taking
the unfinished carving from the pocket of his jerkin and the knife
from his belt, he carefully began to ease slither after tiny
slither from the figure, knowing it always helped him to think if
his hands were busy. Blue sitting close beside him put his huge
head upon Gideon’s knee, even in the moonlight; the wolf’s eyes
shone a piercing silvery Blue. Gideon smiled at the wolf and
scratched its ears.

‘Who am I boy?’
He whispered as brushed the tiny wood pieces from the wolf’s fur
before he sat back to resume his carving. The wolf nudged Gideon’s
knee and Gideon looked up once more into eyes that were so blue and
so deep he thought he would surely drown if he fell into them, eyes
that seemed so fixed they could see into his very soul. Gideon felt
odd as his head became light and as he looked at the wolf, his
hands continued to carve, piece by piece the razor sharp blade cut
and gouged the wooden figure in his hands, taking a wedge here and
a slither there. The blade worked slowly and carefully as the
figure was at last finished. Shaking his head to regain control of
himself Gideon smiled again at the wolf.

‘Don’t quite
know what ‘appened there boy.’ he said, ‘day dreamin’ me da would
‘ave called it, ‘cept its still night.’ He looked over to his
companions still listening to Sonal and turned back to his carving.
As he stared at the carving, he saw the face of the man he had seen
in his grandfather’s house, his dream rescuer, he had been about to
fall into…
blue eyes,
he thought,
this man would ‘ave
blue eyes…’
He could see in the wood carving an old man dressed
in long robes, he pictured him as he had first seen him grey and
blue robes, hair white, thick and glossy with a black streak
running down one side. Gideon knew he would have the bluest eyes he
would ever see on anyone other than the wolf.

In the dream,
the old man had extended his arm, his fist tightly clenched toward
Gideon. Gideon in turn had slowly raised his own hand, palm up and
underneath the old man’s closed fist.

‘This is who
you are my boy,’ the old man had said with a smile. Gideon had
closed his hand over the object that dropped with a tinkling sound
into his palm and it had been warm from the old man’s touch.

‘Open your hand
when you are ready young Gideon,’ he had added. ‘I don’t
unnerstand…,’ Gideon had replied.

‘Un
der
stand.’ The old man said, correcting his speech.
Gideon smiled and stood abruptly, staring at the now completed
figure in his hand and he glanced around at the others to ensure
they were still engrossed with Sonal’s story.

‘Don’t yer go
tellin’ no one ‘bout this Blue,’ he said as the wolf rubbed its
body against Gideon’s legs, ‘but, stranger things ‘ave ‘appened on
this Journey,’ the wolf moved in front of Gideon to watch, its blue
eyes dark and staring. Gideon felt a bit of a fool but he had an
idea he wanted to try.

Holding the
figure still and at arm’s length, he held his other palm flat, open
and beneath the clenched fist of the small wooden statue.

‘Who am I?’ He
whispered quietly.

From the Dias,
Sonal felt the sudden shift in the magic, something he had not felt
since entering the forest, Varan looked at him enquiringly, it
seemed most of the company had felt something as they were all
looking slightly dazed.

‘Gideon, look
at Gideon…,’ whispered young Jed as he finally noticed his friend
and brother was not among their small group but in the centre of a
glowing ball of intense sparkling light across the clearing and as
they watched Gideon began to fade into the brilliance. Varan gasped
with horror as the glowing ball grew brighter and brighter.

‘No… no…not
here,’ he whispered as he hastily clambered to his feet, joining
the others who were now also standing and watching as the light
grew in intensity.

‘Gideon…,’
Mayan screamed as she felt him call to her and launched herself
toward the ball of light. Rhoàld grabbed her around the waist and
pulled her to the ground preventing her headlong flight, sobbing
she fought with him amongst the sweet smelling night flowers, as
her desperate bid to reach Gideon failed.

The glowing
ball changed as pinpoints of black appeared to mar its shiny
brilliant surface, the tiny spots of darkness grew and expanded
into small hexagons that also seemed to be growing, spreading out
across the shape like water poured from a bowl across a clean
floor. Ribbons of light now ran like rivers of liquid fire around
the sharp edges of the solid black shapes deeply embedded in the
brilliance. The hexagons continued to grow crushing out the intense
sparkling light as they spread; leaving strange patterns deeply
entrenched on the retinas of the impassioned watchers. Through her
tears, Mayan could see hundreds of tiny reflections of her own
image, as the hexagons grew and finally joined as one with a sudden
snap, tessellating, cutting the light from view. For a moment the
outline of the hexagons could clearly still be seen but then, as
the change completed the large circle flattened and became still,
deep black and solid looking, it stood quietly as if it were
waiting.

The clearing
now seemed dull in the moonlight as the glowing brilliance of the
hexagon shape turned into smooth velvet darkness. Its surface
absorbing the available light, it seemed to pull the light toward
it somehow. Mayan, first to recover pushed Rhoàld’s hands away from
her.

‘E needs me,’
she said as she clambered to her feet and walked slowly toward the
darkness before her, determination making her voice stern.

‘Mayan, no…,
it’s a gateway…,’ whispered Varan his voice full of horror.

‘Where’s
Gideon?’ Asked his father worriedly as he too inched toward the
silent gateway, ‘where’s me boy?’ He asked again as he reached the
warm black shape hanging patiently in the air and he stood beside
Mayan as she too silently stared hard into the glossy black
substance, trying to find Gideon in its hidden depths. ‘It’s warm,’
Jed said as he lifted his fingertip to touch the black surface.

Lemba still
standing beside the dais reached out her hand to touch young Jed as
Varan stood trembling next to her, his fear almost palpable.

‘NO,’ shouted
Varan as he watched Gideon’s father also attempt to touch the oily
black surface, ‘No, please…,’ he called again, as he quickly
crossed the few feet between the mound and the couple standing
before the shining black shape, his glance nervously moving quickly
between the velvet nothing and his friends. ‘Please come away, even
now we are too close, far too close.’ Varan pleaded, as Gideon’s
father hesitated, he heard the panic in Varan’s voice and holding
Mayan’s arm securely he turned to him.

‘Well man, what
is this?’ He asked quietly adding, ‘me son’s in there…’ the silence
in the clearing became deafening.

‘Jed,’ Varan
begged, ‘I have seen a thing a little like this before, in the
bleak. Things came through… Sonal tell them, behind the wall, the
barrier at home …Sonal!’

As Varan stood
before the darkly gleaming hexagon imploring Jed and Mayan to come
away, the ivy around his feet spread and grew, silently entwining
Varan’s ankles with its sinuous vines. Varan turned to beseech
Sonal’s aid in explanation of his home, of what lived behind the
barrier the Guardian’s had protected all their lives and his
movement caused the vines to tighten, Varan’s attempted stride,
coupled with his feet caught up in the ivy made him trip, he fell
headlong into Jed and Mayan. Lemba saw the panic on his face as the
trio fell against the seemingly solid surface of the gateway and
they fell through. The surface absorbing them as it did the light
of the moon, it rippled and then steadied once more, the tiny
undulating waves causing oily black colours to shimmer and shine as
they made their graceful way to the edge of the circle. It reminded
Sonal of a pond near his childhood home where both he and his
brother would skim stones on lazy days watching to see whose could
make the most skips. He grinned ruefully to himself remembering
Varan had always won. The gateway was now still once more and in
just a few moments, their company had halved.

‘What d’ we do
now?’ Asked young Jed, Rhoàld watched the light bend and play
around the gateway as a tiny moth attracted to the light fluttered
near to the inky black surface. He watched as it make a wrong turn
and disappear the way his friends had done, seconds later the moth
reappeared fluttering toward the light once more. Gasping with
realisation, he walked toward the still shimmering disc.

‘Come on,’ he
called, ‘it is a gateway, if we can go in, we can come out again,
like a door… like a door.’ He said, and promptly walked straight
through.

‘Well?’ Jed
said looking at Sonal as he squeezed Lemba’s hand tightly for
comfort, ‘do we or don’t we?’ Sonal touched the long scar on his
jaw, made by the creature that had pulled Varan through the rift in
the barrier so many years ago.

‘I’m not about
to fail my brother again,’ he said as he walked toward the still
surface, trying to force away the pictures of the monster that
caused the scar. ‘I’ll not lose Varan behind a wall again, so we
may as well, don’t you think?’ He added as he slowly walked toward
the darkness. ‘After three then,’ said Sonal, when Jed and Lemba
joined him next to the wall. ‘One… Two…’

‘No, wait…’
interrupted Jed as he turned to Lemba, ‘If we are going ter die,
I’m glad I knew yer,’ he said as Lemba lifted her hand to cup his
cheek. ‘I love you,’ she mouthed in reply as small tears fell
glistening down her face leaving silver trails reflected by the
moonlight. Jed raised his hand and held the back of her head,
loosening her carefully constructed braid allowing her hair to fall
as freely as the tears. The moonlight caught the soft silver
tresses as a gentle night breeze blew them around the couple like a
perfect silver shroud cocooning them in a separate world. He pulled
her toward him and kissed her, his tongue slipping easily between
her lips into her open mouth and, for a moment, Lemba stiffened as
she thought of her tongue, the rough stub left by Gath’s shears but
as Jed kissed her, her mind filled only with him and the thoughts
of a future that might never be
. If my life were to end now,
she thought,
I would die complete.
Sonal turned away; he
felt like an intruder, instead he stared into the depths of the
mirror like surface. The wind took Lemba’s tresses and teased them
gently as they crossed through the barrier of the gateway and
returned moments later. Sonal watched as Lemba’s silvery hair again
seemed to pass through and return unharmed, his mouth opened to
speak as he realised what Rhoàld had been trying to tell them as he
walked toward the disc.
A door, it’s just a door.
He thought
as a slightly red-faced Lemba appeared from behind the curtain of
hair. Jed was grinning happily like a dog with a bone and for the
moment, all his cares were gone.