Scars of the Earth (18 page)

“You know, I could go search for more fire wood if you two have more teenage hormones to get out.” Madgie said bluntly, which hit Cole’s funny bone.

“No, Maam. I have myself in check, though I don’t know that she does.” He said while suppressing his laughter. Amanda’s face turned beat red before turning and punching him in the arm. “Ouch!” He said rubbing his arm. She felt much better and less embarrassed after hitting him. She was actually more energized too, though she couldn’t understand why hitting him would do that. She turned her head and realized that the calming of her nerves was more likely due to the giant furry creature leaping out of the woods and landing next to her, though hitting him might have contributed a little.

Hey buddy I missed you. She thought absently stroking the giant head in her lap.

“Okay, enough fun. I need to talk to you about what just happened.” Madgie said flatly. “Amanda, what you did in there was amazing, but extremely confusing. I’ve never met a Healer that entered a Scar with more than one spirit. Let alone more than one Healer, you just seemed to suck us in with you.”

“Wait, how do you know that you or Cole didn’t suck me in with you?” She interjected, looking at them defiantly. Not wanting to be the odd one out-yet again.

“Well there are a few reasons that I’m guessing it was you. Let’s see, you were the one that knew what was going to happen, you connected with those spirits, and you were the one that stepped forward and healed the Scar. Not to mention the fact that you are apparently powerful enough to completely heal from a demon poisoning after four days!” Madgie said in frustration.

Amanda looked down at herself lifting up her arms and seeing that they looked normal, if not a little too bright. No dark venom tracing her veins, no pain came with her movements. She was healed. She wanted to tear off her clothes and see if her whole body looked like her arms, then remembering Cole, she realized that it wasn’t a great idea. Blood rose to her cheeks and Cole looked at her questioningly. She fought back her joy and thought about what Madgie was trying to tell her.

Is she trying to say that I am special or something? I am not anything; I am only healed because of my wolf. She thought looking down at his head as she stroked it. Her hand was almost glowing against his silver fur and she turned it over and saw that the strange pattern was still on her palm. It looked like a complex figure eight, as if an ice skater had gone wild while making it. She wasn’t sure how she had gotten it, but she knew it had to be from the demon.

“No Madgie, I am not completely healed. See?” She said turning her palm to Madgie. Her friend’s eyes grew wide in recognition. Madgie slowly moved towards Amanda with her hand over her mouth.

“What’s going on Madgie, you’re scaring me!” She yelled. Madgie reached out and gently took her hand. She lowered her head closer to the mark.

“When did you notice this?” Madgie asked quickly. Cole was at Amanda’s side with a hand protectively on her shoulder, apparently she wasn’t the only one freaked out by Madgie’s odd behavior.

“I said when did you notice this.” Madgie asked a bit louder while shaking her hand.

“I, I guess that it was Cole who really noticed it-the night you were missing.” Amanda stuttered. Madgie was silently studying her palm for what seemed like a lifetime before Amanda shouted. “For God’s sake Madgie what is the big deal, why are you freaking out?” Madgie straightening her tall frame and finally looked into her eyes.

“That is the Ancient’s mark.” Cole stiffened at the mention of the Ancients, a reaction to anger or fear she couldn’t tell. “I am sorry if I scared you, I am just trying to understand what it means.” Madgie finished in an apologetic voice.

“Well what does it mean? Why have they marked her, will she be easier for them to find? Is it some kind of tracking spell?” Cole asked in a rush.

“I honestly don’t know. I am a Healer and a teacher. I have never felt the wrath of the Ancients, though I don’t know how long I will keep that track record. This is way beyond me. I haven’t ever seen the mark on a Healer.” Madgie looked at her curiously. “How do you feel?” She asked.

Amanda thought about answering with a simple ‘I feel fine’, but she didn’t think that was completely honest. She felt power flowing through her like she had never before experienced. She wondered if it was the lingering rush of healing the Scar, but couldn’t be certain.

“I feel great.” Madgie and Cole both looked unconvinced as she said it, so she continued. “No really I mean, better than great. I feel healthy and powerful. I know ‘powerful’ probably sounds cheesy, but that is how I feel. I don’t know if I can find a better word.” Amanda finished, feeling awkward. Why did I say I feel powerful? That sounds so idiotic! She thought.

“Well, whatever the Ancients did, I think that they accidentally did you a favor. If that mark is giving you power, maybe it is why you healed so quickly.” Cole ventured. “I think it’s hilarious!” He laughed. Amanda thought that the mark might be giving her power, she could almost feel it. And if the Ancients did it on accident, then it was pretty funny. She felt a smile stretch across her face, mirroring Cole’s, but when the two looked at Madgie their smiles faded.

Her brow was creased in worry and she didn’t look happy at all. If anything, she looked more confused than when Amanda had first woken up after being attacked.

“I don’t know, the Ancients don’t do much by accident.” Madgie said. “I don’t like it, the sooner we get you to Shiphra the better.”

“What do you mean ‘we’, I thought you said that we should split up.” Amanda said. As much as she hated the idea of being away from Cole, she knew that he would be safer away from her.

“That was before this happened.” Madgie said gesturing to the mark. “If it’s a tracker, then splitting up won’t help your chances.”

“But it will help yours!” Amanda shouted, though she didn’t mean to raise her voice. Cole spun her around to face him, but she wouldn’t look him in the eye. “You have both done too much for me. We need to do whatever is best for you. I can take care of myself. But I can’t stand here and let you put yourselves in danger for me, it isn’t right.” She could feel Cole’s eyes boring into her, so she met his gaze. His dark eyes were wide and pleading. They pierced through her like a diver breaking the surface of water.

“Isn’t right?” He growled. “Would it be right for me to walk away and leave you unprotected? You know that I can’t leave you, you know that I won’t. So why even talk like this?” He asked fire burning in his eyes.

She looked down at her palm and the mark burned into it. ‘The Ancients don’t do much by accident.’ Madgie’s words replayed in her mind. She is right, whatever this mark is it isn’t going to help me. The Ancients don’t make mistakes. If they have marked me, I am as good as dead. She thought, realizing that she had to try to change their minds.

“Cole, you know that I want you with me, it’s just that…” She bit down on her lip to keep it from trembling. “I couldn’t handle it if something happened to you. The Ancients have marked me, I want you as far from me as you can possibly get. Just take Madgie and leave. Please.” She begged. Cole’s expression was unchanged and she knew that he wasn’t going to leave her.

“Don’t you think that I feel the same way about you?” He asked tightening his grip on her arms. “Do you think that I could just carry on if something happens to you? I spent two years of my life away from you and I’m not going to just turn and walk away. Not just because you want to be brave. If you don’t want me around, I’ll leave, but not until you are safe.” He loosened his hold and turned to Madgie. “So where do we go from here?”

“Well like I was saying, Shiphra is our only hope at survival.”

“And she can help me find Kaedin, right?” Amanda asked quickly.

“I don’t know she might be able to. Forget that for now, if your dead you sure as Hell can’t find that Scar. We all need to meditate, thinking of Shiphra. Her face, her name…it will be harder for you Cole because you haven’t ever seen her, she was long before your time.” Madgie took a breath and Cole quickly interjected.

“If the Ancients have been hunting her for decades, how do we even know that Shiphra is alive?” Reading his emotions, Amanda could see that putting their hope in someone that was practically a myth was not exactly what he wanted to do.

“Well that’s easy.” Madgie smiled. “How many Ancients did you see at Amanda’s trial?” She looked at them expectantly.

“Five.” He said certainly.

“Well there are always six Ancients in existence, if one dies another rises from the ranks. So since there were only five at the Hovel, Shiphra is still out here somewhere alive.” Madgie’s voice was so full of hope that Amanda couldn’t help but jump on board.

“See there you are, she is definitely who we need to find. So let’s get meditating. Unless the skeptic has more to add?” Amanda said looking at Cole. He shrugged his shoulders. “Okay, just tell me what to do.” She said to Madgie.

“Concentrate on her name, think of nothing but her. Try not to let your mind wander. It is quite hard, but some monks can meditate for days, so fifteen minutes shouldn’t be too hard. Even for you.” She said pointing at Cole.

“What? I’m not going to meditate!” Cole said. Seeing the anger on their faces he explained himself quickly. “It’s not because I am trying to be stubborn. I just don’t think it is a good idea to have all three of us sitting in a circle with our eyes closed, we are probably being hunted.” Madgie’s face relaxed.

“Good point, I guess I’m not very strategic.” Madgie said with a laugh. “Okay it is just you and me.” She looked at Amanda. “Try to think of Shiphra and location. Tie the two together as if they were one thought. When the time is up we will get together and discuss what we felt. I am hoping that we will have the same direction in our minds.” Madgie sat down and folded herself into a meditative pose that showed off her flexibility. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Amanda followed suit.

“Well if it is this easy to find her, how have the Ancients not found her?” Cole asked. Madgie stayed in the same relaxed position, but peeled one eye open.

“Because we will only find her if she wants us to. So if we have different directions at the end of this session, we can consider that an answer.” Madgie said in a patient tone, though Amanda could tell that her patients was wearing thin.

Once her eyes were shut, Amanda started to close out the environment around her one sense at a time. First she started with the sounds around her, the animal noises, and the wind moving through the trees. Every noise was muted one by one. She shut off all of her senses, saving scent for last. Scent was always the strongest, at least she thought so. One aroma had the power to take you back in time.

The smell of roses took her back to helping the nuns prune the garden at her orphanage. Every time she smelled the clean sent of rain she was back to cold nights on the street, when she had ran from the Hovel. Forever searching for shelter. Whenever the heavy scent of earth reached her, she was brought back to the first time that she had entered a scar. She remembered coming out of it quickly and trying to dig herself back in.

She slowly shut out all of the scents floating towards her, saving Cole’s for last. It was a strange sensation, being alone in ones mind-with no outside stimuli. It was like sitting in an empty theater waiting for a movie to start. She took a deep breath and began to roll through her memories of the person that had shared her cell back at the Hovel.

She brought herself back to the moment that she had held the large iron cuffs; the remembered sting of the cold metal was as real as the first time. Her muscles flexed at the memory of their weight in her small hands, not just their physical weight, but their emotional weight as well. She let the emotions flow through her, pity, frustration, sorrow, and anger. Slowly she brought up the image of Shiphra, letting it gain clarity before really studying it.

The woman’s face was just as sunken and haunting as the other Ancients she had seen, yet somehow joy and life pored from her. Seeing her wild hair waving in the wind made her seem so much more tangible than the others had seemed. Shiphra looked solid and real, she looked like she belonged in this world. The rest of the Ancients almost seemed like mirages to her, glimmering people that upon approach turn into cactuses. She remembered her first impression of them, thinking that they looked like crude two dimensional drawings.

You’re not thinking of Shiphra. Amanda chastised herself and returned to the task. Thinking of the strange Ancient’s name and face and location, over and over again. It was very hard to keep her mind from wondering, it felt like it took all of her energy to keep on task.

She was relieved to finally be pulled out of her meditation by Cole shaking her vigorously.

Jeez! He is really shaking me; it must be a pain to get someone out of the meditative state. She thought. She brought all of her senses back as quickly as she could; starting with scent. Cole was close to her and she had been wanting to catch a whiff of his amazing citrusy breath. But when the sense had fully returned, she didn’t smell Cole’s breath. She smelled the sickly sent of iron.

Blood.

She was immediately aware of everything around her, the ear splitting noise, the heat, and still the blood. Her eyes flashed open meeting Cole’s, sweat was dripping from his brow and his face was tight with strain.

“Which way Amanda?” He yelled over the sound of the earth crumbling. She jumped at the sight of a streak of silver whizzing by, but realized it was just her wolf running a perimeter around them. Beyond that she could see nothing but fallen trees and smoke.

“What is happening Cole, where is Madgie?” She asked desperately, still smelling the blood in the air.

“I have her! Now which way, we need to get out of here.” He said. She looked up and saw that he had Madgie’s thin body draped over his shoulder. For a moment all she saw was red.

A scarlet river flowed down the back of her friend, staining her delicate blouse and running down Cole’s arm. She couldn’t move or speak. She knew that she needed to say something. She knew that they needed to move, but she couldn’t bring herself to.