The Light-Field (23 page)

Lucian was still trying to find all his clothes when he realised he was dressed in them and the bedroom looked as good as knew. ‘You're quite the little housewife, aren't you?'

Taren smiled graciously to accept his praise, and thought she'd best bring Lucian quickly up to speed. ‘I have given Amie a Juju stone —' Taren held her upper left arm, where her stone was hidden, ‘— to protect her from Khalid, but she knows nothing of its origins, or that I even have a Power.'

Lucian was very confused by this. ‘Are you implying Amie has a Power?'

Taren nodded, knowing Lucian would be as surprised as she was to learn this; although it did make sense in retrospect. ‘She makes you forget things, or can make you believe in something that never happened.'

Lucian appeared horrified and yet enlightened at once.

‘But she has no power over anyone who carries the Juju stone,' Taren told him, to alleviate any lingering fears he might have. ‘I know Amie is one of us, but until she realises that and can prove her allegiance, I cannot trust her.'

‘Understandable,' Lucian concurred. ‘I don't know that I will ever trust her again; you are too forgiving.'

‘It wasn't me she betrayed.' Taren understood his position completely. ‘Still, Amie was also cheated out of a happy life with your brother, by Khalid,' Taren pointed out, as the door chimed and she moved to open it.

‘I'll take your word for that.' Lucian removed himself from the bedroom and was not surprised to find the rest of Taren's unit as spotless as usual.

‘Amie.' Taren opened the door to greet her.

‘I'm so sorry to delay your lunch meeting,' she said as she entered, ‘but I really need your help with something.' Her focus was on Taren as she said this.

‘Sure.' Taren directed Amie past Lucian in the living area, to the balcony beyond.

‘Do you know where Swithin is?' Lucian asked Amie on her way past him.

‘Not really, no,' she replied, with a nervous smile, and kept going.

Lucian looked to Taren, puzzled.

‘I'll see what I can find out,' she murmured quietly to him, and followed Amie out onto the balcony. The temperature was bearable under cloudy skies. All the furniture was saturated, but something told Taren that Amie was too on edge to sit down.

‘Is there a problem?' Taren closed the door to inside behind her, so that Amie might feel free to talk.

She waited for Taren to join her at the rail overlooking the water, and kept her back to Lucian as she spoke. ‘I know this is going to
sound like an insane question … but have you ever heard of someone's Powers rubbing off on someone else?'

Taren gasped on the inside — she'd forgot to mention to Amie that the Juju stone brought out dormant powers in others of their soul group, but Taren couldn't tell her that without explaining how she knew. ‘Swithin has shown signs of having a Power?'

‘He brought a fucking fish back to life at brunch!' Amie spoke in a stressed whisper. ‘All he did was touch it! He's completely
freaked out
… I don't know where he is.' As desperate tears welled in Amie's eyes, Taren reassured her.

‘Go back to Swithin's place, in case he comes home,' Taren advised calmly. ‘I'll see what I can do to locate him.'

‘How?' Amie appealed.

‘Never ask me how,' Taren suggested and Amie settled for taking Taren's word.

‘What do I tell him if he does come home?' Amie was beside herself with guilt.

‘I would tell him the truth, if I were you.' Taren's resolve startled Amie. ‘Over the course of your lifetime together, he's going to find out anyway.'

Those welling tears finally fell and Amie was not so sure. ‘What are you, a prophet or something?'

‘I'm a friend,' was all Taren would admit to. ‘Give Swithin this,' Taren placed another Juju stone in Amie's hand, ‘for his protection,' Taren explained, ‘and it will stop him passing out every time he gets close to you.'

‘How did you know about —'

‘Never ask me how,' Taren repeated. ‘And he's not to know where it came from,' Taren instructed.

‘What will we tell Lucian?' Amie delayed her departure, not wanting to answer his questions.

‘You let me worry about that,' Taren excused her from the chore and Amie was happy to be exonerated.

‘I'll call you if I hear from him,' Amie made a point of saying as they walked through the living area where Lucian was seated on the couch.

‘Do that.' Taren let Amie out the front door and once they were alone again, Lucian threw his hands up in question and Taren pulled an agonised face.

‘I screwed up!' she admitted, as Lucian shook his head in question. ‘I forgot to tell Amie about the Juju's ability to ignite the psychic power in others we are intimately close with, and now your brother is showing signs of being a resurrectionist.'

‘A what?' Lucian queried.

‘Someone who brings the dead back to life!' Taren replied and, after a second to digest this, Lucian burst out laughing.

‘It's not funny,' Taren said, although she had to admit it was a little amusing. ‘Your brother is horrified!' she added, but Lucian only laughed harder.

‘I can imagine,' he explained his amusement. ‘It just seems so ironic that Swithin, who is ultimately fairly selfish, should be granted a Power that can only serve others.'

Taren appreciated the satire. ‘Well, now that he is one of us, it does save me worrying about how to swing him around to our cause.'

‘How much do you intend to tell him about that?' Lucian curtailed his mirth.

‘About as much as I've told Amie,' Taren replied. ‘Nothing. I'm working on a need to know basis, and right now these two don't need to know anything, more than I have a means to protect them from the PMD, the MSS and Khalid.'

Lucian nodded.

‘I should go find Swithin … put his mind at ease,' she decided.

‘Do you want me to come with you?' Lucian offered.

Taren shook her head. ‘It's nothing I can't handle. Won't be long.' She closed her eyes and envisioned seeing Swithin from a distance.

 

Taren felt her hair and clothes being ruffled by the strong winds on the cliff top on which Swithin stood facing out to sea. As she was some way down the lookout path, Taren bolted toward him. The sound of her approach was drowned out by the wind, until she was quite close and Swithin turned about.

He urged her to stay away. ‘I don't want company right now.'

‘I've spoken with Amie —'

‘Fuck!'

‘She's concerned about you —'

‘Concerned? Revolted, don't you mean?' He looked back to the large drop in front of him.

‘
No
, that's not what I mean.' Taren was adamant. ‘Amie is at your place right now, hoping you are going to walk in the door, so that she can share a little secret of her own with you.'

Swithin looked doubtful and dismissive, but then frowned, as his curiosity got the better of him. ‘Do you know what the secret is?'

Taren nodded. ‘But it is not my place to say.'

‘Why would Amie confide in you?' Swithin wondered out loud; the two women were not close.

‘Because I have worked with many people with the Powers in the course of my scientific research, and I do not fear or resent them as most do. To the contrary, I have spent my life trying to prove that they are a gift to creation and not a curse. Everyone has a Power, Swithin, but only a rare few have ever been in tune with themselves, and fearless enough, to develop their gift.'

Swithin was bemused by this; obviously he'd never heard anyone speak favourably about those with Powers. ‘Is that really what you believe?'

‘That's what I know,' she stated resolutely. ‘And your secret, like all those I have known before you, is very safe with me … and Amie, I dare say.'

‘How can you be so sure about that?' Swithin stepped away from the edge.

‘Come home and find out,' she teased with a smile, and Swithin's heavy mood lifted, as he too ventured to grin.

‘Are you bullshitting me? 'Cause if you are —'

‘I wouldn't kid you about something like this,' Taren said sincerely and then in the next breath joked: ‘And it's not so bad, just no more eating with your bare hands, is all.'

Swithin sucked in his cheeks, hard pressed to be as light-hearted about it as she was. ‘But why, out of all the Powers I could have developed, did I get this one? It's completely useless to me! I can't heal myself after I'm dead!'

Taren was grinning broadly and Swithin was annoyed.

‘What?' he appealed for her to share the joke.

‘Maybe this is the universe's way of telling you that you need to be more of a team player?' She backed up, hoping he would follow. ‘As part of a team, you'd be the most prized member, I would imagine.'

‘I ain't planning on going to combat.' Swithin joined her on the path back down to the road.

‘But you are planning on going into space.' Taren corrected his thinking.

‘No, I was planning on running the base operation here on Frujia,' he argued.

‘With Amie going into space for an indeterminate duration of time?' Taren suggested he might want to rethink his future.

Swithin served Taren a sideways glance. ‘You're a real busybody, you know that?'

‘No,' Taren disagreed, ‘I just have more foresight than most.'

‘Is that right?' Swithin liked what she was implying although he had a bone to pick. ‘Well, if you have so much foresight, then why haven't you figured out that my brother is crazy about you?'

‘I have figured that out,' Taren said. ‘And we plan to marry this afternoon, if you'll be our witness.'

‘What the fuck?' Swithin was bowled sideways and then figured she had to be joking. ‘You're shitting me, right?'

Taren shrugged. ‘Talk to Lucian, it was his idea.'

‘That's really great news,' he lied through his teeth, ‘I just need to speak with Luc a sec.' Swithin, concerned that his little brother might be rushing into something, began to run toward home.

‘He's at my place.' Taren called after him as he raced off down the beach path road to their project units.

 

Lucian answered Taren's front door and found his brother panting in the doorway. ‘Have you fucking lost your mind?' Swithin queried as he gripped both of Lucian's shoulders and forced him back inside.

‘I gather that's your way of congratulating me?' Lucian made light of his brother's distress.

‘One date and that's it?' Swithin reasoned.

Lucian grinned, having experienced several lifetimes in that one date. ‘I know it seems sudden —'

‘Sudden!' Swithin stressed the understatement. ‘You barely look at a woman in a hundred years and now you want to marry this one after one date?'

‘That just goes to show you how sure I am.' Lucian wasn't fazed by his brother's lack of support.

‘Sure, okay, she's a great lay, I get it,' Swithin reasoned, ‘but marriage is a little extreme, don't you think?'

‘I can get someone else to be a witness.' Lucian found his attitude tiresome. ‘But you're the only family I have, so I'd rather it were you.'

Swithin cringed, tortured between his own fears and pleasing his brother. ‘Well, Taren is a great catch, and if she makes you happy then, whatever …' He threw his arms up in the air. ‘Guess we're going to a wedding this afternoon.'

Lucian smiled, appreciating his brother's support, despite his reluctance to give it.

‘You dumb bastard.' Swithin grinned sincerely. ‘Give me a hug.'

It was a long time since Swithin had hugged Lucian, and he was even a little surprised by how emotional he was. It wasn't until
Swithin began to waver in his stance that Lucian realised that his brother was being overpowered by the protective stone, and so Lucian let him go. ‘Are you all right?'

Swithin staggered back to a seat, holding his head as he did so. ‘I've been having dizzy spells the past couple of days.'

‘It's symptomatic of your condition,' Taren fibbed as she entered through the open doorway.

‘Why, you're not pregnant are you?' Lucian joked, and Swithin served him an unamused expression.

‘Well, if you're both determined on getting married today …' Swithin, having recovered his sensibilities, raised himself. ‘I'd best go take a shower.'

‘Amie is welcome to come,' Taren suggested on his way past her to the door.

‘Provided she's still talking to me,' he chided.

‘And you her,' Taren commented.

Swithin was puzzled by the comment, but did not linger to question it.

 

Out of her mind with worry, Amie was so relieved when Swithin walked through the door that she ran and flung her arms around him. ‘I've been so worried.'

Swithin gave a laugh, genuinely surprised by the reception. ‘I thought you would have run a million miles by now.'

Amie pulled back to look him in the eye. ‘No, I couldn't —' She noticed his eyes struggling to remain open and quickly led him to a seat, and made him sit.

‘I'm sorry, babe, I keep getting these giddy spells.' He nursed his head a second.

‘I know all about the dizzy spells and I have a cure.' Amie held up the piece of stone that Taren had given her for Swithin. ‘Apparently, it's Phemorian, and besides shielding you from being found or manipulated by other psychics, it prevents you passing out
when you come into contact with someone else who is wearing one of these.'

Swithin was completely stunned a moment, and did not touch her offering. ‘What are you saying, that you —'

‘— have a Power.' Amie completed his query with a nod as she kneeled down in front of him. ‘I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid that if you found out you'd disown me.' She held her breath as she awaited his reaction, which was looking like it might be rage, but he gave a large exhale before he spoke.