The Star Child (The Star Child Series) (19 page)

My eyes shot open and I turned again to Dagné. “Why are you away from your troop?”

“I have not left my troop.” She said this sweetly but my sense of unease increased. They were tracking me.

From somewhere behind me, there was a rumbling sound again and I could only surmise that either Dagné’s troop or the Hounds of Hell had located my whereabouts. Regardless, they were coming for me and I couldn’t hang out here any longer.

Looking around, I found that I was in a small clearing. To my right, there was a young birch tree that came to my shoulders. I took note of its location and height. I didn’t know if Dagné had told me the truth and I’d really traveled through time, but if I could… Well what did I have to lose? Maybe I could cut into the fabric of time again and travel to this same spot in another time?

Unsheathing the knife in my pocket, I held it up in front of me. Trying not to think too deeply about what I was about to do, I drew back my arm and stabbed the air, pulling the knife downward. The scene in front of me took on the consistency of canvas again and tore easily. Taking my time, I began to cut a slim opening about my height.

My theory was simple: If I jumped across instead of falling vertically, I should remain in the same place but reappear at a different time.

Without a backward glance at Dagné, I looked into the opening in front of me. This time instead of free-falling, I’d lunge forward. Giving myself a running start, I launched myself through the opening.

Focusing all of my energy on jumping across a divide worked, and I landed on an invisible ledge. Choosing not to look down, I reached out again and cut into the air. I stepped out into the exact same glen that I’d left.

Pleased that I’d guessed correctly, I looked to my right for additional confirmation. The small birch appeared several inches below my shoulder height. Did trees grow the same in Faerie? I didn’t know for sure, but this was the only comparison point I had.

As I looked around, I noticed that it was early winter. The ground was dead; the trees were bare. Closing my eyes, I tried to sense Calienta. She seemed stronger here, but not strong enough.

“Calienta?”

“Kellen?”

My efforts were validated when her voice echoed within the space. It did sound closer though it was still muffled, like it was coming through an old speaker system. Not quite there, I guessed. Without hesitation, I reached out and performed the same cutting motion again with the knife.

Yet again I jumped and was propelled across the black divide. Once more I landed on a slim ledge where I again used my knife to cut into the air, slicing the fabric of time.

“Please let me find her.” When I stepped into the clearing again, it was fall. Leaves were coming down around me everywhere. There was a crisp quality to the air that told me winter was on its way. I could practically smell the snow. When I looked for the birch tree, it appeared even shorter. Still a young sapling, it showed nothing of the magnificent foliage that it would grow in the future.

Again I closed my eyes, willing my senses to find Calienta. As I’d experienced before, I heard her voice, but now it was no longer muffled. Now it was clear. I’d found the right time at last.

Before I could begin my search, there was the most wonderful sound in the world, one that I couldn’t have conjured up in my dreams if I’d tried. Up ahead was the sound of a raging waterfall. Suddenly conscious of my own overwhelming thirst, I stumbled through the dense undergrowth, searching for the water. Finally, I found it.

It was a glorious place. Water fell from three hundred feet up into a small round pool below. Then it went…nowhere. There was no river, no outlet, nothing. The water fell into a circular pool and it looked mouth-watering. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten or drank anything, so I raced to the pool’s edge. I’d scooped my first drink into my palms when there was a ferocious barking and snarling. The growling and howling grew louder as thunderous footsteps approached with ever-increasing speed.

Despite the bad luck that I’d had before with water, I had no choice. Jumping into the pool of water was my only option if I wanted to live, so I took the plunge, sinking a couple of feet below the surface. The water was ice cold and I was soon soaked to the skin and shaking.

Swimming to the top, I broke the surface, not knowing what to expect. The hounds were tearing down the path straight toward me. They were spectral-looking, semi-transparent in nature, with gleaming red eyes that glowed in the filtered light. Each was the size of a grizzly bear, and they dominated the space around them. They made huffing sounds as they ran, which made them sound more like a herd of caribou than anything else.

I took a deep breath and went back under the water. As I looked around below the surface, I realized that what I’d initially mistaken for a shallow pond was about one hundred feet deep.

Following my instincts, I decided to swim deep below the surface. The hounds couldn’t be trusted and I feared that they’d either smell or sense me. Down into the depths I started to swim, praying that I didn’t run into anything worse.

When the animals appeared at the surface and began drinking the cold water, my heart started to slam against my ribcage. It was over now, that was certain. But looking down at my hands, I saw that Brigid’s protection had morphed me into some sort of water plant. It was a very odd sensation to look down at your hands and see leaves instead, but I wasn’t complaining; at least I was safe.

Safe or not, however, this facade was merely an illusion and my lungs burned as I hungered for air. My chest might explode at any moment, a match waiting for ignition. Turning in circles, I looked for a way out, but the pressure from the waterfall was so intense that it was next to impossible to see behind it, to identify an escape route.

The great beasts lapped greedily at the water and I prayed that they’d finish soon. The black around me began to turn blacker and I was on the verge of passing out. The heads suddenly disappeared from the surface. The beasts had gone.

Barely hanging on, I allowed myself to float to the top, permitting my face to break the surface so that I could take short, uneven breaths. Several moments passed while I caught my breath before I peered over the edge of the bank.

From my hiding place, I saw the animals return to the path and reassemble their pack. A cloaked figure dismounted from a black horse and walked forward to another transparent barrier I hadn’t realized was there. Cocking my head to one side, I listened for the password that I knew I would need to pass through to the other side. The animals, refreshed from the water, wanted to run and they whined impatiently as they waited for their leader.

“Alaunos,” the cloaked figure whispered and hopped onto his mount again so fast that I couldn’t believe my eyes. Both he and the ghostly animals vanished through the opening.

For a moment I remained in the water, feeling fairly freaked out. Yet it was too cold to stay in the pond, so I scampered out and did my best to dry off by dancing around and wringing out my clothes. This really did no good at all, but it would have to do.

My thoughts returned to Calienta. If I listened closely, I could almost hear her calling my name. Tentatively I took a few steps, first to the left, then the right, trying to gauge her direction. The closer I got to the barrier where the hounds had gone the clearer she sounded. It was no use. I was going in.

With only a small amount of hesitation, I walked up to the glass barrier and whispered the word that the cloaked figure had spoken. “Alaunos.”

The glass rippled and I passed through. When I reached the other side of the glass, there were Christmas trees. Not two or three, but hundreds upon hundreds of brightly lit decorated trees.

Falling from the sky in slow motion, like large tufts of cotton, were the largest snowflakes I’d ever seen. They were so large in proportion that they reminded me of the department store decorations that magically appeared back home immediately after every Halloween.

Unsure of what to expect, I put my arm up in front of me to protect myself, but the flakes melted against my clothes. These simple snowflakes weren’t a danger to me. They didn’t seem to have any effect on my clothing as I glanced down, examining myself.

What was strange, though, was that as damp areas appeared on the worn material they immediately dried again, failing to chill me. It was every child’s dream, a snowy day that never had to end because you got too cold. Oddly, that seemed to be the case as I didn’t feel cold at all. Instead, it seemed as though it was sixty degrees outside and I was taking a pleasant stroll, alone, through an underground world where dogs were chasing me while I passed through time portals.

Glancing down at my shoes, I stopped walking. “Wait a minute. I look like
myself
.” Sure enough, I had on my worn jeans again. The faerie costumes had gone on hiatus, it seemed. This must’ve been a safe place for me.

I didn’t know to whom I was talking, but I found that I was so unnerved by my appearance that even the sound of my own voice was comforting. The only reason that I would have changed into myself was if I was safe or possibly dead—the latter being a concept that I didn’t want to explore. Yet I couldn’t imagine being safe in Faerie; there was danger at every turn.

“I must be dead.”

“You’re not dead, my son.” The voice was oddly familiar.

“Who’s there?” I whipped my head around and started looking behind each tree, beneath every branch. Yet there was no one. It was too quiet as I searched for the source of the voice that I felt certain I recognized.

“I’m here, my darling.”

This second pronouncement caused me to fall backward onto the snow-covered ground. I would have known that voice anywhere. “Mother?”

I stayed on my backside in the snow, gaining my bearings as I looked around again and prepared to get to my feet. Then I could do nothing. I couldn’t stand, I couldn’t even speak, rooted to the spot as I was. Pain punched me in the gut like a prize fighter.

My mother walked toward me and it was as though not a single day had passed. Her dark hair fell past her shoulders in shiny waves like the night sky. Yet if her hair was the night, her skin, the sheer paleness of it, was the moon. Fair to almost translucent, her skin seemed to shimmer, and her green eyes, exactly the same shade as my own, were smiling, laughing.

What an idiot I was. This was a trap, a total set-up. I should have known better than to believe anything in this place.

“Who’re you? I’m sick of being your toy. You people have dragged me through all types of crap. How low would you stoop?” My voice cracked on this last sentence. I couldn’t bear this. Showing me my mother was too cruel; it was torture.

“This isn’t a trick, my son. I’m here. You’ve found me at last.”

“I don’t believe you.” I crossed my arms in front of me, a petulant child.

“Look to your heart, Kellen. Ask yourself if you truly believe it is me. Would you look like yourself if it wasn’t?”

“How do you know about that? How do you know about anything?”

“I know because I’m on your side. I’m here to help you.”

“That’s exactly the type of thing that you’d say if you were my enemy, too. I’m sorry, but my mother is dead.” It pained me to say the words. It cut me to the core, but it was true. There was no way that this woman could be my mother.

“You’re exhausted. When was the last time you slept?” There was reproach in her tone, and I was reminded of the time when I’d climbed the oak tree in our back yard. I’d almost made it to the first branch when I fell, skinning my knee in the process. She scolded me, but there was a twinkle in her eye then as well. Stephen cut down the tree the day after my mother died.

“That tree was always way too tall for you. You could have broken an arm or leg. How could we have played then?”

Horror washed over me as I realized that this woman could read my mind. “Get out of my head. Who are you?”

“I’m your mother, Kellen.”

“Prove it then. I’ve been messed with way too much in this place.”

She seemed to think for a moment before closing her eyes and singing. I’d known somehow that she’d sing this song, that this would be the first to pass her lips. “Come walk with me along the sea, and search for shells in the sand and see…”

There were goose bumps on my skin and a heavy anxiousness at the pit of my stomach. There was no way it could be her, but how could the faeries know about our song? Could this be real?

“How can you be her?” The last traces of my reserve were fading. I wanted to believe what I was seeing and was only kidding myself if I acted like I thought otherwise.

“You’re right, Kellen. I’m dead in a sense. But in Ireland, many believe that when you die you go to the faeries. That’s where I am now. We are in the realm of Contentment, but I call it Heaven.”

And as though she’d been there all along, Gran stepped out from behind a tree and clasped my mother’s hand. She looked exactly the same as I remembered. I couldn’t be mistaken about this, could I? I had to take a chance and trust them. I needed this too much. I
needed
to believe in something.

“Mother?”

She opened her arms wide and I stepped into them, letting her hold me close to her thin frame as she did when I was small. Tears streamed uncontrollably from my eyes as I stood there and let myself be held in a way that I hadn’t been in more time than I could remember. However I was still seventeen, and I found myself pulling away much sooner than I would have liked. But she pulled me closer, hugging me as though I were her life force.

“Sshhhh.” She held me close, rubbing my back the way I remembered from my childhood. Gran squeezed my shoulder, and I touched my hand to hers as I inhaled my mother’s sweet fragrance.

How long I sat there being comforted by my mother and grandmother, I’ll never know. But there in the snow, I shed silent tears for every moment of pain and loneliness; every micro-second away from her was relived before it could end. And then, as quickly as it all began, it stopped.

Somehow this was what I needed. I needed to say goodbye to them, to let them know how much I cared for them. “I’m sorry we never got to say goodbye.” I wasn’t sure which pair of eyes I should look into first.