Tomorrows Child (35 page)

“And we’ll
figure this out as soon as we stop clinging to old systems where
the struggle for power is our primary motivation. People like Lon
can’t maintain a stronghold over others while offering them
nothing. Two sheets of tin and a chunk of beef may have been enough
in the early days, but it won’t sustain a new society.”

“So why does
everyone hang out at the Sanctuary?”

“They have
nowhere else to go. Heather told us that even though she was
desperate to leave, she had nowhere to go. Lon has used their fear
as a means to control them. I don’t know what he’s thinking because
he doesn’t have the skills or resources to help in the long term.
Lon was a cattleman, so he is giving them the only thing he has,
beef. Soon the people will realise that this isn’t enough.

“We should stop
here,” Phoenix announced. We stood on the bank of sandy creek. The
creek had cut a deep ravine as it wound toward the east. The bank
dropped away to a narrow stream about thirty metres below. It
seemed impassable. “I need to see if there’s another way to
cross.”

Phoenix pulled
out the map. “See this? We should have turned here,” he pointed to
a spot we passed about an hour earlier. “We should be at a bridge
now.”

“How did we
miss it? The turn, I mean.”

“I guess we
made better time than I thought and passed it without realising. If
we can find a place to cross here, we’ll only be about two
kilometres from Emma Creek.”

“Only two, how
is that possible?” I looked at the map, I could see our planned
path took a huge sweeping curve away from Emma Creek to follow the
highway and allow us an easy pass over a bridge. But the tugging in
my chest pulled me forward. I had no sense that we should have been
anywhere else or turned to cross the bridge.

“That’s why the
signs and images you got seemed strange. Even by foot, it’s easier
to cross at the bridge. But if I had to plan the trip myself, I
would have chosen this way, it makes more sense to take the
shortest distance.”

“Well there
must be an easy way down.” I pointed to a cow and a calf drinking
from a small pool of water below us. “Pigs might fly, but cows
don’t!”

We walked up
and down the bank and found several small, well-worn paths that
meandered gradually down toward the creek. The path we chose headed
one way then turned and headed the other, twisting and turning, but
always descending. Within a few minutes, we found ourselves
standing in the sandy creek bed.

The cow mooed
and nuzzled her calf, annoyed that we were interrupting their
afternoon.

We arrived at
Emma Creek hours earlier than we planned, giving us plenty of time
to explore.

It was almost
spring, still the dry season, and the rain still weeks away, so the
water in the creek was reduced to a small narrow stream. The water
was crystal clear and cool. Pushing through the pain, I walked into
the knee-deep stream. My blisters screamed and my muscles tensed
against the cold water, but it was soothing and a welcome relief
from walking.

“We need to
find a safe spot to set up our camp.” Phoenix picked up my backpack
and tossed it over his shoulder. He made it look lightweight.

Deep within, I
felt the tug, drawing me further up the creek. It wasn’t something
tangible or something I could convey to Phoenix, so I just walked.
But I was learning to trust myself, so I walked towards the
magnetic pull and Phoenix followed.

Breathing
deeply, I watched the world dissolve around me. Colours faded and
muted into misty greens and grey. A beat pulsed loudly, as sure and
steady as my heart, but not my heart. It was stronger, more alive,
more alive than even I, standing in the creek, breathing with the
earth’s energy flowing through me.

I saw a light,
radiating from the bank of the creek, as bright as the sun. In this
moment there was nothing else, just the pulsing light and me. I
stood there, suffused in a ray of pure light, allowing myself to
feel the energy and knew for certain that I had found my way.

The pulse
stopped and the light faded. My world returned to normal and I
stood before a grey and dusty riverbank. Water had eroded the earth
and gnarled roots protruded into the air. I wondered why I had been
drawn here. I looked at Phoenix and shrugged.

“This must be
it, Psyche. You just walked over five hundred metres, so whatever
it is, it must be important.”

I reached out
and dusted the grey dirt away to reveal a few clear stones. I
scooped away more dirt and revealed thousands of tiny clear stones.
Small sparkles caught in the light of the fading afternoon sun. The
stones were square. Perfectly square. I dug with my hand and
watched as hundreds and thousands of them flowed from a hole carved
in the bank of the creek. As the stones fell, they grew bigger,
still square but smoother on the edges. The stones slowed to a
trickle and I reached deep into the hole to scoop more away.

The stones
became larger and smoother as I reached into the bottom of the pit.
The pulsing returned. The pit was dark, but a glow emanated from
the depths and the stones were warm to touch. One stone pulsed
stronger. Guided by an unknown, but familiar force, I reached for
the stone. I drew my hand into the light revealing a stone as large
as my palm.

“Psyche, that’s
a diamond!” Phoenix said, “They’re all diamonds.”

I looked down,
surrounded by a pool of glittering brilliance. I’d been mesmerised
by the task at hand, immersed by duty and absorbed in the moment. I
never questioned what I was doing. I didn’t wonder what the stones
were. It didn’t matter.

“This is it,
Phoenix! This is why we came,” I breathed. “This stone! This one is
special.” I knew each stone was special in its own right, each
stone beat with life beyond my own and separate to the earth, but
the one I held in my hand had a purpose.

“This stone is
part of me, I can feel it.” It wasn’t mine, at least, not as one
possesses a diamond, but the stone pulsed and my heartbeat felt
connected to it, as one.

A year ago, I
would have placed every stone in my backpack, knowing that my
future was secure and wealth assured, but not now. I returned the
stones to the pit, the largest first and then the smaller ones and
finally the tiny square stones, until every last one was returned
to its home on the bank of the creek. All except the stone that had
called to me. That one I held in my hand and pressed to my
heart.

By the time I
finished, the air was cool, the horizon was alight and the trees
silhouetted by a fireball as the sun slipped out of sight. Phoenix
had set up camp and I was thankful for the warmth of the fire. As I
sat, I realised how exhausted I was. Part of me was energised, but
my body felt heavy and dull. It was as if two separate entities
resided within the same body.

“You’re
glowing, like a fire in the night.” Phoenix was smiling and looked
at me the way he did when we first met. “Your aura’s changed, too.
It’s brighter, clearer, more alive than ever.”

I didn’t have
words that could explain how I felt, so I just smiled and said
nothing.

“There’s a deep
pool of water behind those rocks, if you want to take a swim.” I
did. Three days without a real bath had left me stinky and sticky.
Phoenix held my hand and led me to the water. In the cover of
night, I stripped to my underwear and plunged into the pool.

The water was
cool and refreshing and as it washed away the dirt, it also washed
away the daze that hovered since I first sensed the stone. A tiny
breeze caused ripples on the water and glistened in the moonlight.
I shivered as goose bumps travelled down my arms in waves.

“We’ve got to
get home now,” I said as my chin trembled with cold. Phoenix drew
me close.

“Not now, but I
think you’ve had enough water for one night.”

We walked up
the sandy bank and toward the fire. Large round rocks jutted out of
the ground and surrounded us, forming a natural circle of stones.
Tall, golden grass grew to the edge of the clearing, dancing in the
breeze. I took in the scene before me, huddled in Phoenix’s arms as
we walked.

Fear hit me
with a jolt and the air sucked out of my lungs in a rush. I
struggled to breathe as I realised this was the place of my
nightmare.

“This is the
place,” I gasped. “We have to leave!”

“I know,” he
whispered and pulled me closer.

“You know!” I
yelled. I pushed my way out of his arms, ran through the clearing
to the tent, and struggled to force my wet body into clean clothes.
“How could you?” The jeans felt like sandpaper against my wet skin.
“Why didn’t I notice this before?” Was I so caught up in duty that
I had failed to see the real danger that surrounded me?

“Don’t worry,
Psyche, we have seen how this dream ends. You know that I will
protect you. Some things can’t be changed, no matter how hard we
try or how much we want them to be different.”

“But to stand
and face danger? That is stupid and wrong. How could you do this?
When did you realise? Hell Phoenix! When did you realise?” I was
angry and afraid.

“When you were
returning the stones.”

“And you set up
camp here anyway?” I looked at Phoenix, unable to believe he would
put us both in so much danger. “We need to go.”

“Think about
this for a minute. You have had this dream a hundred times. We have
seen it from every angle and we know what to look for. We know
everything about this night. We are prepared, Psyche. If we leave
now, we will be wandering around in the night and won’t know where
we are. The outcome may be very different.”

Maybe he had a
point, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that continued to
grow. The problem with Phoenix was that once he made his mind up,
he was more stubborn than I was. So we sat and waited. We ate rice,
yams, and hard biscuits and drank some mysterious herbal brew
blended by Libby.

I fell asleep
beside the fire and dreamt. But I didn’t dream of the beast that
hunted me, I dreamt of the stone. And finally, the stone revealed
the truth.

When I awoke,
the fire was burning low. Phoenix held his finger to his lips, but
he didn’t need to. The air was thick with the familiar stench of
death. I held my breath in the silence. Phoenix stood, his hands
gripping the rifle. In the dream, there had been no rifle, but
Ruben had insisted we bring it.

In the dream,
one pair of eyes had hunted me, but in the firelight, four pairs of
red eyes glowed against the darkness. A low, frightening growl
rumbled and one of the beasts lunged over the fire, hitting Phoenix
squarely in the chest. The gun discharged and was hurled aside.

“Run!” Phoenix
screamed, but I was already running, away from the fire and from
Phoenix. The man I loved was left to face the demons alone, but I
ran on into the darkness. This had never been part of my dream. I
could hear the beasts struggling, snarling, and snapping their
yelps. They seemed so near. I feared that Phoenix could not have
survived.

I slowed. There
was no point now. I could not outrun the hellhounds and I couldn’t
fight them. If I did one last thing in this life, I would stand
beside Phoenix. If he weren’t dead already, I would be by his side
in the end.

As I turned, I
realised I was in the clearing at the centre of the stone circle. I
felt a subtle change in energy, a denseness that I hadn’t felt
before. It pressed in on me with a suffocating strangle and I
struggled to take a breath. At my feet, I noticed a circle was
marked on the ground that extended to the edge of the clearing, but
didn’t touch the standing stones beyond that. The moon shone
brightly but the light seemed to disappear; absorbed into the
blackness that formed the circle. I had stood in the centre of a
sacred circle before and noticed the light and energy were always
more intense, as if the moon shone just for us. But this was
different, this was wrong.

Something was
very wrong and I knew that this wasn’t part of my dream. Phoenix
had been wrong. We hadn’t seen it from every angle and we didn’t
know every move. But a dark circle?

Instead of
running away and returning to Phoenix, I retreated and stepped
backward, away from the circle and out of the darkness. As I
reached the black line that defined the circle, I felt the energy
hold me and grip my chest, expelling any air that remained. I
pushed through the pain until I stood outside the circle and
pressed my body against the standing stones. I sucked in a gulp of
fresh air as I tried to make sense of what was in front of me.

The circle was
marked in black crystals, maybe black salt or charcoal. The energy
had been raised and the circle was complete, but this didn’t happen
by accident. People raise energy and form circles. This energy
wasn’t something I had ever felt in the past, not that I had much
experience. It was forceful and filled with feelings of death and
evil intent.

In the light of
the moon, something else moved, a shadow, tall like a man.

“Phoenix?”

“If only life
was so predictable,” the woman’s voice sliced the air. Ice ran
through my veins. Even in the darkness, I knew it was Volante who
stood before me. Evil twisted her face as she smiled. Tears spilled
from my eyes and ran down my cheeks. Now, it was hopeless.

“Don’t be
afraid, Psyche. I will not let you suffer, we are connected after
all. Your blood flows through my veins, don’t you remember?”

“How could I
forget!” Memories flooded my mind and I felt a new type of hatred
growing inside me.

“I had hoped
the poppy and datura powders would save your mind. It was never my
intention to kill you, though I am most surprised you lived. Now
you leave me with little choice.”