Chrystal Bones (Finding Home Book 1) (38 page)

The last straw had been learning that there was no way to lower the shield. It was locked in place. No one could get on or off the planet. Scientists were trying to get it down in order to help those wounded in the battle.

The visitors who had been stranded during the blockade were demanding that something be done. They wanted to go home. The King and Idris were kept busy dealing with all of it.

Jayden ignored it all once the battle was over and it became clear that there was nothing more he could do. Most of the Haldairian ships had been sent home. A few that remained undamaged chose to stay with the Shillidon fleet and watch over the planet below.

Jayden spent his days at the tower with both Leo and Blue’s mother. Leo had taken a strong liking to Janteel and was often at her side. She was the only one who could coax him to eat. At first she had been leery of the big white tiger but seeing his devotion to her daughter she soon came to love him.

She peppered Jayden, Idris and the rest of the guys with questions about Blue until they had no more answers to her questions. Then she started over again and had them tell her everything all over again. None of them mentioned Blue’s torture at the hands of the human scientists but she was not a stupid woman and she knew something terrible had happened to her daughter.

People made trips to the tower in constant streams. Some out of curiosity, some out of hope. Most brought flowers to lay at the base of the perimeter the guards had established. The news was broadcasted far and wide and a live feed of the spinning chrystal had been set up to run continuously. The whole planet was waiting with bated breath to see what was going to happen next.

Chrystal Bones Billie Jo Hanlin

Chapter 35

Blue became aware of the whispering first. She was cocooned in a warm soft bed and didn’t want to wake up. If she woke up the pain would come back and she was in no hurry for that. The whispers would not shut up though and she eventually opened her eyes and looked around.

Her breath caught when she saw nothing but an ice blue chrystal wall surrounding her.
Oh crap
, she thought in disgust,
I have become a living chrystal.
She started to struggle when the whispers penetrated the panic starting to build.
“Come to us. Fly with us,”
they said seductively.

She stilled and strained to listen, then she understood. She left her body behind and flew in her spirit form out the top of the enclosure, following the whispers. She was joined by several women who looked like ghosts to her.

This was the first time she had ever encountered others like her. Others who could fly in this form. No bodies to hold them back. They were not like the ribbons of pure energy and emotion she met in the anomaly. No, these women were the Chrystal Women who had come before her.

She followed them flying first over the planet, then into space. Through the shield that might as well not even be there for all the ease she passed through it. She saw the battlefield. The blackened hulls of destroyed ships littered the space around her. She felt a distant sadness at the deaths as she passed them but nothing could interfere with this feeling of freedom. The absolute joy of flying with others like her.

She saw wonders of color and strange lands with even stranger creatures as they dipped to explore anything that caught their attention. She flew through solid earth into the cores of planets and through space flares. She witnessed the stunning birth of a star and the death of a sun.

In this form she could go anywhere she wanted, explore anything. She thought of Jayden and his dragon and the women led her to Haldairia.

She danced with the dragons of his world and gave a laugh of pure joy as one raced through the sky with her. Haldairia was beautiful and stark. The ground was a deep copper color and spirals of rock reached high into the sky. Dragons were everywhere and they knew she was here with them. The cities were not laid out neatly. Instead they blended in with the landscape. Meshing form and function perfectly with the land. The setting sun bled colors of rich reds and blues onto the land.

Haldairia didn’t have an ocean but it did have rivers and lakes dotted all over the place. She dove into a deep lake with the one dragon who stayed with her when the others had flown off. They dove deep and came out into a cave that sparkled with light.

Veins of gold and silver made the place shine brightly even with no other light. There were sapphires, rubies and diamonds in neat piles. It was true Dragons really did hoard shiny things. Without being told she knew this dragon had wanted to show her his special place. She embraced him and they flew back out.

He showed her the baby dragons playing in a field watched over by an older female dragon whose colors were fading. She played with them and knew they were his children. For just an instant she wished she had her body so she could pet them. She left the dragon behind reluctantly when the women called to her. It was time to go. They led her back to Shillidon. To the Chrystal Bone yard.

She landed and her ghostly image walked among the dead and dying chrystals. Her heart bled from the waste. The oldest of the women walked beside her. “They do not understand and it is always too late for us to tell them when we die that they need to return the dead chrystals to the sacred cave to be reborn. This is the longest that Shillidon has gone without a living chrystal woman to tell them.”

“Why couldn’t you tell them?” Blue asked.

“We did not gain this form until we died. It was our blood and life force that fed the planet. The knowledge of the sacred cave was lost through history. You are the only one to be able to walk among us in spirit form while your body is still alive.”

Blue snorted, “Yeah, encased in a chrystal cocoon.” She touched her throat and felt the chrystal embedded there even in this ghostly form.

“You will be able to break free if you choose to,” the ghostly woman said calmly. “You have a tough choice to make. Stay with us or go back to your body and the pain it brings you.”

“What happens to Shilllidon if I chose to stay with you?” Blue asked after several long minutes.

“Shillidon will survive. Your blood is feeding the planet what it needs right now. It is renewing the chrystals that still have life in them.” She paused and then reluctantly added, “It can not produce new chrystals with out these,” she made a sweeping gesture with her hands, “being returned to the cave to be absorbed and reborn.”

Blue swept her gaze over the bones of dead chrystals. They were not what most people would call bones but to her that’s exactly what they were. Bones of a dying planet.

The childish part of her wanted to rail at an unfair fate that had tied her to the planet but she could not. Nothing in her life so far had ever been fair and yet everything in her life had brought her to this moment, this decision. Which really wasn’t a decision at all.

She could not please herself and let these chrystals stay here or keep the planet from thriving if it was in her power to heal it and it was. She would go back and do what she had to.

There was also Jayden and Leo to consider. She had dragged Leo with her across the universe. She wouldn’t abandon him on Earth and she wouldn’t abandon him now.

Jayden had brought so many new things into her life. He had shown her what it was to love and be loved. To be accepted for all her quirks and faults. He had brought her out of her shell, made it possible to live life instead of hiding from it. He brought laughter and tears and he could make her angrier than anyone ever had. He had brought her a brother and men who were like brothers. He wasn’t perfect and that made him perfect for her.

Blue remembered the last real words he had said to her before she had gotten shot.

“None of us will ever make the mistake of thinking you need us.”

The words burned in her mind. She couldn’t let him think that. She did need him. She needed him with every part of her being and she needed to make sure he knew that.

She turned to the woman who stood quietly next to her. “I have to go back. I have to let them know about the bones. I have people who I need to see and a man I love waiting for me.”

The woman slowly nodded her head and said, “I did not think you would choose to stay. We are all tied to our destinies and this is yours. Remember we will be waiting for you. We are always here and you can come fly with us anytime you want.” She laughed and it was a wonderful sound full of joy. “You are not what they are expecting. Be true to yourself and you will be who and what you were meant to be.” She started to float up towards the other ghostly women waiting for her to join them.

“Wait,” Blue called out. The woman paused.

“What is your name and why do they not know much about you and the other Chrystal Women? Why the secrecy?”

“In my time of flesh we were not that advanced, no written records were kept. After that,” she shrugged and smiled. “You know how we women are. We like to appear mysterious. That is one thing that will never change,” and then she was gone.

Blue floated across the boneyard thinking about moving the dead chrystals to the sacred cave when it hit her. She had forgotten to ask where the cave was. She started to laugh. She laughed until the laughter turned to tears for the second time in her memory.

She sank down among the chrystal and let her essence spread across them. They didn’t have anything to tell her and it wasn’t long before she gathered herself together and flew around the planet, looking for the sacred chrystal cave.

She closed her eyes and let all of her senses go still. She felt the slight pull and allowed her body to flow towards the direction it wanted to go. She opened her eyes and watched the scenery fly by. She flew over valleys and rivers. Mountains and lakes.

It was beautiful, this planet of hers. With all the colorful trees and grasses it looked like something out of a child’s fairytale. She stopped at the edge of the ocean. The water was not the blue of the oceans she was familiar with on Earth. This water was a bright orange and the sand was grass green.

She had a flash of memory of playing on this beach or one like it as a child. Apparently she had always loved the water. It was no wonder she had made her home on the coast of Oregon. She would have ended up there even if the janitor hadn’t told her to go west to find the Merrots.

She stared out at the small Island and knew that was where she was supposed to take the dead chrystals. She knew there would be a cave leading deep into the planet to its core. She flew towards the island and down into the tunnel deep in the earth. It was a good thing she wasn’t claustrophobic.

The tunnel went on for miles before it opened up into a chrystal cavern that was huge. Easily spanning a mile in length and width. The chrystals grew out of the floor and the ceiling in abundance. An ice blue tree as big as a redwood made entirely out of chrystal grew in the center of the cavern. Its limbs reached high into the ground above. It looked like the tree was holding the earth up. She could believe that it was the tree of life.

Smaller caves were dotted here and there. Each waiting to be filled with the dead and dying bones of Shillidon. Blue, green, red, orange, pink and purple, all of the colors were here. The cavern pulsed with life. This was the true heart of the planet and Blue could literally hear the heartbeat of Shillidon. It pounded through her with a primal cry of joy at having its chosen daughter home.

Blue had no idea how long she stayed before turning and heading back to her body. It could have been hours or days but it was time to rejoin the living. It was time to go home.

Chrystal Bones Billie Jo Hanlin

Chapter 36

Blue hovered over the clearing watching the people who had gathered to wait for her. Jayden was leaning against the tower with Leo beside him. They both looked so sad. Jayden had lost weight and once again so had Leo. Poor Leo. This trip had been so stressful on him. She was a lucky woman to have two such devoted companions.

One a tiger who had patiently listened to her over the years and been at her side constantly and one who had come to mean so much to her in a short amount of time.

Her lover. The man she would spend the rest of her life with. She was his and he was hers. It was just that simple.

She saw her mother and father, Idris and Sparks. Jos and Vihan, they were all here. Her family. She could scarcely believe that she had a family. She never thought to even wish for one. Three months ago she had Riley and Leo. That was it. Now she had all of these people waiting for her and from the looks of it they may have been waiting for a bit longer than she thought. It was time to join them and put a stop to the waiting.

She swooped down to fly among them, unseen for just a little longer. Leo’s head whipped up and around to look right at her. He let out a loud roar and leapt to his feet. Leo always knew when she was back. She didn’t know how but he was able to sense her.

Jayden slowly got to his feet. His expression was enough to show her that he was hers in the same way she was his. This strong stoic man was making no effort to hide his feelings of hope that blossomed on his face.

Everyone in the clearing stopped and turned to stare at them when they heard Leo’s roar. Idris hurried over to them, “Is she here?” he asked, anxiously looking around.

“What is going on?” the King demanded following his son.

“Blue is here. Leo always knows when she comes back from her little trips.”

Janteel gripped his arm tight, “She is here. Oh Daret, our daughter is here.”

Idris had told them both of Blue’s ability to travel without her body. They had trouble believing him at first. It was not that they thought their son was lying but they had never heard of anyone from Shillidon being able to do that. Dro had confirmed that it was not only possible but that Blue did it in a way he was not familiar with.

They also knew that Jayden was deeply in love with their daughter and the hope on his face was enough to break their hearts. Enough time had passed for them to get used to the idea that their little girl was all grown up with a life, and a lover. They had been so afraid that they had gotten her back only to lose her again.