The Drifting (18 page)

I nod again, “Okay… how?”

“Once we’re there I’ll take care of what’s going on.  Just stay to the side in the shadows.  When it’s over, I should be able to bring you back.”

“Tharin!  Will you just tell me already?”  I look at him frustrated.  I’ve never seen Tharin in pain and witnessing it now is scaring the hell out of me. 

“All right, Lily.  First, try to remember that everyone is connected by the stream of life…we’re all connected.”  He gasps again at another attack, but this one is less painful.  He swallows before continuing, “When we’re
drifting
, it’s the stream, the silver lining that keeps us tethered to our bodies.  We can see our own silver lining, but not another’s.  So, I’m going to visualize mine in my mind and send it to you.  That way…”

“Okay, I see it.  Now what?”  I interrupt. 

I see the silver lines, but they look more like one continuous string of twinkling white light.  I follow mine to the bed where my body lies.  The line seems to be attached to the area where the solar plexus is located.  I look at Tharin’s, but his light isn’t as strong as mine.  I don’t know if it has to do with the distance he was talking about, or with the pain he’s experiencing.  I turn to Tharin and find him staring at me with a startled expression, his mouth open as if stunned.  “What?” I ask.

Shaking his head, he answers, “Nothing, never mind.  We’ll talk about it later.” 

I give him a perplexed look, “What?”

He ignores me.  “Look at my life stream, Lily.  Concentrate on it and hold on to me.  If for any reason I’m unable to go on, you need to picture my body at the oak thela to continue the journey back.”  He sends me an image of him lying on a large block of wood within a thela.  The room is empty so there’s not much for me to memorize.  I concentrate on the details and after a moment I give him a nod.

I take a deep breath and hold on to Tharin for dear life. 

“Stay focused and whatever happens, don’t let me go.” Tharin takes a step forward following the silver lining.  I take a tentative step with him and then another and another until we’re walking through the walls of the kavi thela and out into the open.  I look about me and then down below us. I wonder if I’ll ever touch the ground again.  

As soon as we’re out, Tharin is once again attacked.  He collapses and his full weight is on me and I almost buckle under him.  I look ahead to see Tharin’s life stream waning and fading even more in the distance.  I look behind me and my silver lining grows bright and strong and continues into the kavi tree to where I left my body.  I have to give Tharin what energy I can and without knowing what I’m doing, I place my hand on the center of his chest where his lining feeds into him.  I breathe deeply and will my strength to him.  It takes only a second, if that, for me to feel as if I’ve just run a hundred-meter race.  The exhaustion is quick, but I open my eyes when I feel him shift against me.  I look up and the look he gives me makes me forget my earlier anger.  He slowly takes my hand from his chest and brings it to his lips.  He softly kisses the inside of my palm and places another at the pulsing area of my wrist.  I feel weak.  He catches me up in his arms and lowers his head to my ear.  He nuzzles it gently before whispering, “Don’t let go.”

And for once, I do as he says…just this one time, I lie to myself.  I cling to him and close my eyes for a moment wanting so much for this closeness to last forever, to never come down from this high.   

My stomach finally drops when the realization hits me that it’ll never happen.  He kissed my hand because he was grateful for what I did.  When it’s over and done, he’ll send me back to Sema and he’ll go home to Kalis.  Damn it.  Why do I always have these afterthoughts?  Why can’t I just enjoy the damn moment?

I open my eyes and watch as the trees rush at us, going out of focus as we travel at a tremendous speed.  We shoot out of the trees into the open, and we’re going so fast the rain doesn’t seem to touch us.  Within minutes, I feel us slowing down and I look below to find that we’re above a forest of thick trees.  They’re not as big as the kavi as we seem to be moving above them and I can see the actual ground.  We slow further as Tharin lowers us into an open area surrounded by trees.  A rocky cliff nearby roars as a large waterfall thunders to the lake below.  Everywhere you look it’s lush and green.  As we near the ground, Tharin shifts us to the left and we speed through the forest of oaks until we reach a smaller open area.  The sound of voices can be heard the closer we near the opening.  We stop at the edge and find two women in black clothing standing in the middle of the clearing.  Humans?  There are humans in Velesi? 

Tharin pulls me closer and whispers, “They can’t see us, but let’s not take any chances.  Keep holding on to me, Lily.”  He moves back until he’s looking into my eyes.  I swallow and nod silently.  I turn back toward the women and note they’re not much older than me.  The taller of the two has red hair cut shoulder-length, hanging in braids.  Her brown eyes match that of the girl standing next to her.  The shorter one is a dark brunette, her hair tied at the back of her neck, falling down to her waist.  Their clothes are tight black pants, black jerseys with black buckle knee-high boots. 

They each hold small crystal balls in their hands.  The taller one would point out three different trees and they would throw a crystal ball at their targets.  Each time the trees are hit, the crystal balls explode silently, giving off a vibration that spreads out to the surrounding trees.  I shield myself, but I think being in the
drif
t numbs me a little against their pain.  That’s why I didn’t feel any distress from the trees as we neared. 

I get it now.  The women don’t know which tree Tharin is in, so they’re attacking all the trees in the clearing.  That’s why there’s been time between each of Tharin’s attacks and why the first attack was worse than those that followed.  Focusing, I reach out to the trees around me and I’m almost knocked to my knees.  I try to calm them but don’t seem to make much of an impact.  I have to touch them, to let them feel me in return.  I let go of Tharin as he turns to make his move.  He comes up short when I pull away.  “Lily!”

I ignore him as I reach for the ground and concentrate on putting my fingers to the grass, to feel the dirt underneath it.  I close my eyes and focus on reaching past the surface.  In my mind, I see my energy move underground and seek the roots of the trees around me.  Once I touch the roots of the first tree, my energy quickly spreads like fire from tree to tree. 

“
Peace
,” I soothe gently. 

As quickly as I reached out to them, the trees reach back to me as if dying of thirst and I’m the only source of water to them.  Greedily they drink from me, filling what energy they’ve lost by the women’s assault and I freely open myself to them.  I feel myself go rigid as eons of waiting weigh down upon me.  The songs rush me in myriad of pitches, tone, senseless rhythm and chaos.  And somewhere within its crescendo, we become one. 

I witness the seasons come and go in an endless loop and still I wait.  I witness the creatures of this place nest, nurture and die here and still I wait.  I see the storms of nature, the fires of beings and the ravaging of beasts and still I wait.  I am forever.  I am eternity.  I am nature.

Strong hands pull my own from the earth, disconnecting me from the waiting, the damnable waiting. 

“It’s all right, Lily.  The trees are safe now,” whispers Tharin.  I look up at him and reach to touch his face only to have my hand go through him.  I look at him confused at what’s happening. 

“Sema is calling you back, my love.  I’ll come for you again…I promise.”  I watch as Tharin and all that surrounds me fade away.  The sensation of traveling, speeding through space once again comes over me, but I ignore it.  I feel so tired, so drained.  It’s as if I’ve run a thousand hundred-meter races.

“Sleep, Lilianethia.  I
will
stay with you until the old woman has you back
safely
.”
  She’s back, the voice from the mountain. 

“Where have you been,”
I ask, a little irritated with her.

She gently laughs,
“Always here with you, child.  Always.”

Her words comfort me and like her voice, I also fade.  Unable to keep my eyes open any longer, letting the exhaustion take me.

~ * ~

Chapter
Thirteen

~
Tharin
~

Lily slowly disappears from my arms, leaving me feeling empty.  For a moment while I held her close, my world was right again.   

In an instant, I’m back in my body and I start awake.  Sitting up quickly, I look around me to see that the entire thela is crystallized.  I walk to the oak’s wall and feel its surface with the palm of my hand and feel the smoothness of wood.  I bend down to touch the floor and like the wall it’s the same texture of the warm oak wood instead of cool crystal. 

I ask the oak to let me out and I find myself looking at a crystallized landscape.  The entire clearing; the grass, the trees, the plants, everything within a hundred-yard radius is crystallized.  I turn to the oak and feel its trunk and as if in its original appearance, the bark feels like…well, it feels like an ordinary oak tree bark.  I reach my hand upward and call a leaf to me.  As it lands in my hand, I touch it gently and rub it between my fingers.  An ordinary oak leaf that’s pliable to my bending of its corners and light twisting of its stem, but again in crystal form.  I look down at the ground and bend to touch the grass, to run my fingers over it and again, the pliable edges of grass tickles my palm and its fresh scent reaches my senses.  How is this possible?

Lily.  In the Binding the Earth Spirit had taken a small piece of our hearts.  I remember seeing the piece she took from Lily, a crystal sphere as clear and pure as the clearing I’m standing in now.  My own sphere was of pure gold.  When she combined the two, the symbol of our Binding is that of a crystal sphere engulfed in a fire of gold.  I look about me and wonder…what if…?

I place both my hands to the ground.  I picture Lily as she was positioned earlier and when she summoned her will to pass on her energy to the earth.  I calm myself and take a deep breath.  I will my energy into the ground and set it free to spread through the clearing touching all of what Lily’s energy touched.  I watch as my energy flows out and hear the soft breathing of nature around me.  The trees sighs gently; the grass and rocks, the plants nearby and the small critters dance with joy at my touch.  Is this what Lily felt – this joy, this endless sense of freedom and wonder?  The gold energy spread to the treetops and it covered all that was made crystal by Lily, and I find myself standing in a place of wonder.  I marvel at how my energy dances within the crystal casings like specs of gold dust.  Looking farther up at the leaves, I laugh as the sun catches the gold sending off sparkling brilliance everywhere.  I walk to the middle of the clearing and serenity envelopes me. 

I become still, letting the creation of my will twist and entangle itself in an endless dance with Lily’s.  The moment that she laid her hand upon my chest and gave a part of herself to me for the second time, I knew at that very moment that I love her.  I love her and I don’t care who knows.  I lift my hands up to meet the sky to let the heavens know that I love her.  I spread my arms out to welcome all within the clearing to witness my newfound strength, my new world, my new will, my new life…my Lily. 

I am still caught up in the moment when I finally notice the two young women who attacked the trees earlier lying before me.  I almost missed them, as they are now crystal and gold, blending into their background.  They rise as if waking from a long sleep.  Once on their feet, they look down as if seeing themselves for the first time.  They reach out with their hands, fingers splayed and look at them with child-like wonder.  They touch their faces, their hair; they run their hands over their bodies and the clothes they’re wearing.  They look to one another and reach out touching the other in wonder, ending in an embrace.  Their foreheads touch as I watch in silence.  They start to smile, then giggle and then laugh out loud.  They start to dance in a circle before me – happiness coming in sounds of laughter and joy.

“Ahem,” I interrupt.

The dancing suddenly stops and the two become still.  Finally, the one at the left steps forward slowly.

“My prince,” she says bowing her head, hands clasped before her.