The Torn, Book One of the Holding Kate Series (11 page)

The Mother?

I jerked to a stop as we entered an enormous cavern. The ceiling was too high to see, but the walls glittered with soft blue luminescence. Dagan jumped from my shoulder and scampered up a walkway to a circular stone table where the soft blue light was concentrated. As he left me, my vision dimmed, but the eerie blue glow kept the room illuminated enough to see.

The cave encompassed a circular area with blue phosphorescent sand. In the sand several ovoid objects shuddered and rocked. Eggs! The other 39 eggs were nestled in the glowing sand pit. We had entered the very nursery of the dragon mother. I eased backward a pace and considered running back to the cave when a voice spoke. No not a voice, but a thought-voice that carried such resonance it seemed aloud.

“Dagan. You are back! I was worried about you.”

“Yes, I have found her, Mother.”

“The Mine?”

“Yes, she is perfect.”

“Bring the Mine to me.”

I took another step back. None of this was making sense to me. Dagan jumped out of the bright blue glow and ran to me.

“Come, Beauty, I want you to meet The Mother. She will taste and see that you are good.”

“No, I don’t want to be tasted.”

“You are Mine! She will not hurt you!”
His voice sounded shocked that I would think such a thing.

“Dagan, what is Mine?”

The Mother’s voice pierced the cavern and my head.
“
The Mine is the one who is searched, the one who is chosen to be. Come, let me taste your aura and see if you are good.”

Oh. My aura! Well. That didn’t seem so bad. I followed Dagan toward the blue glow, bracing myself for the frightening sight of a full grown dragon.

When I crested the table and gazed down into the blue glow, I lurched to a stop, and my jaw dropped. Dragons of every size and form were arrayed in a massive amphitheater. I couldn’t tear my eyes from their resplendent hides and varied colors. They were beautiful and their thoughts greeted me with warmth and kindness as they touched my mind. They had anticipated my arrival for decades, evidently. I was staggered at the strength and love that poured from them to me.

“Come to me, Mine.”

I turned my eyes to the sound of the ancient voice, anxious now to see the matriarch of these beautiful and peaceful creatures. What I saw sent shock waves through my core.

The Mother was elevated on a large dais where the blue glow was brightest. The glow actually seemed to originate from around her and the throne she sat upon. The Mother was not a dragon. The Mother was not an unfamiliar creature at all.

The Mother was human.

Old, beyond old, her shriveled skin and face were directed toward me. She held out a shaking hand and beckoned me forward. Her silver hair fell down her back through the opening of the throne and circled in piles around her feet. Her eyes were startling. Glowing with an opaque blue, like antique Christmas lights and completely eclipsed with cataracts, they stared blankly in my direction.

“Come, Mine. Let me hold you and taste your aura.”

I slowly crept down the stairs toward her with measured steps. Glancing around at the beautiful dragons, I could see young and old straining and craning to get a glimpse of me. When they did, their thoughts and whispers were so satisfied they smiled and swayed with happiness. I inched down the enormous amphitheater steps to The Mother.

At the center of the great half circle of dragons, I climbed the five steps to stop before her throne. I didn’t know what to do. It seemed I should do something to show reverence, so I knelt down before her. The collective dragon sigh that followed affirmed me in my choice to do so.

The Mother held her wavering hands covered in thin papery skin over my head and I felt warmth flow down into my brain. She scanned me. Every thought I’d ever had, every fear, every dream was hers in a moment. Instead of feeling violated, I felt peace. With every thought she touched, she left a sense of wellbeing. Even those memories that were unpleasant like my daddy leaving us, my mother’s depression, my brother’s anguished tears when they would fight, my broken arm incident, and the dead gold fish. The saddest and worse memories seemed to be cleaned by her probe. They were still there, but the feeling associated with them was purged, muted.

“You search for strength. We offer great power. You search for a place to belong, we offer you family. You search for love, we offer it freely. I have tasted, and you are good.”

The whole assembly of dragons roared in approval. It would have scared the liver out of me, except I could hear their accolades in their thoughts and knew they loved me and revered me above all others. It was an intoxicating feeling.

“Mine, do you accept these gifts we offer so freely?” The Mother’s kind voice echoed in my head.

Silence. Baited breath. They waited for my answer.

Of course all of the gifts seemed wonderful, as though they planned to envelope me into their society and make me feel loved and wanted. I thought about how knowing they would always have my back wherever I went, would give me courage and confidence. I would be cradled in their love and acceptance. It was all I wanted: a family, again, to hold me, cherish me, love me.

Little Dagan rubbed lovingly against my legs as they waited for my acceptance into their clan. I had so many questions, but this was not the time for them. I was pressed by an urgency to answer them so they could be free from this overwhelming anticipation of my acceptance or rejection of them.

So, I nodded. “I accept, Great Mother.”

“So be it!” She roared in unison with all dragon kind.

The blue light blazed and became a tangible thing that coiled around me, embracing me, enfolding me. The pleasant current that I had felt when Corey kissed me in the cave buzzed around me. Pure energy lifted me off the ground and I spun about in a joyful dance. I could see through the eyes of the dragons that I was being suspended by the light force and twirled, my hair spun out around me as shafts of light in a spray around my face. The light coalesced into a beautiful sapphire spangled gown, like The Mother’s and wrapped around my body. Wide cuffs, the color of the polished steel of a sword, appeared at my throat and my wrists and burned with the bright cerulean gleam. The blue light seemed to grow brighter and brighter until the radiance of the sun on fresh fallen snow it shunted out and blanched the faces of the dragons surrounding me.

I was the repository of all of their psychic powers. The energy flowed through me in waves of strength and charisma. I was everything. I could sense the whole world we were on. It was vast with kingdoms of landwalkers in the south. I had complete knowledge of every living being. The landwalkers in the cave above were stirring. I could see them, see through their very eyes as they spoke in panicked voices to one another. Every animal, every insect, every tree and flower and weed was a part of me. I was the source of life for everything in this world. I was The Mother.

I looked out on my children from the throne and saw their pleased faces. The light was renewed in my youth and burned more brightly than they had ever seen. They took great pride in me and new hope was restored in me. The source of power was perfected and rejuvenated. I was the jewel they had mined to give power to their collective consciousness. The prior mother was gone, spent. She had given her last remaining power over to me, the new Mother. I had been mined as a worthy soul, and now I was The Mother of all.

“Why would she
go alone?” Trip threw his backpack over his shoulder and cinched it around his waist, then bent down to pick up Kate’s pack.

“I don’t know. I can hear her but not like before.” Corey closed his eyes in concentration.

“What do you mean, not like before?”

“We were connected before.” He tapped his head. “At times we could talk back and forth. I think it was the dragonet.”

Trip’s face blistered and his brows crashed together. “Great! Just great!”

Tara whirled Corey around. “You didn’t think that was something we needed to know?”

“I didn’t.” Corey shrugged his shoulders. “I just thought it was a fluke because I pet the dragonet first.”

“So you have been reading our minds too?” Ash seemed very confused by everything.

“No!” Corey jerked back agitated. “Well, once.” He ducked his head and cast sheepish eyes to Tara and Trip.

They noticed and squared off shoulder to shoulder, arms across their chests glaring down at him.

“Tripoli.” Corey murmured.

“You saw that?”

“Saw what?” Ash’s gazed ping-ponged back and forth.

“Yeah, we all did.”

“All.”

“Kate, Me, the dragonet…”

“Crap! Corey!”

“I know, I know…now that I think about it, it was something you needed to know. I just didn’t think Kate would do anything this…this…”

“Bold.” Trip finished for him.

“Yeah, it seems out of character.”

“You are idiots!” Tara stormed. “Couldn’t you tell that dragonet was manipulating her? I don’t even like her and I could tell.”

Trip jerked his head around to her. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Now Tara looked embarrassed. “Because it was pushing her to choose Corey and intent on trying to split the two of you up.” She gestured to Trip.

Corey and Trip stared at Tara incredulously.

“I was okay with that.” She looked down, concentrating on the toe of her boot.

“Of all the self-serving, narcissistic, manipulative games ever played that has got to be at the top, Tara!” Trip spat on the cave floor. “I thought you were better than that.”

“Now, hold on, Trip, that was harsh.” Corey placed a comforting hand on Tara’s arm. Her face crumpled in despair at Trip’s words.

“YOU! Shut it!” Trip stalked across the cave and began picking out the strongest spears. “Arm yourselves. We are going to save her.” He tested the point of the spear he had chosen, and then snapped his eyes at Corey.

“You too. Don’t expect me to fight your battles for you. If you are too weak to fight for the girl you say you love, then so be it. I will rescue her alone.”

“No, Trip. Not alone.” Tara grabbed a spear and fell in beside him. “We are partners in battle. I am with you.” She brandished a flashlight that had come from her backpack.

He glared at her, mashed his lips together then gave a brisk nod and stalked into the darkness with Tara at his heels.

“Come on.” Ash handed a spear to Corey and they followed behind.

They paced the corridor until it came to a split and they had to choose a direction. Tara ran her flashlight along the floor and they saw footprints leading to the left. Trip nodded and they turned into the left corridor and continued deeper into the caverns.

“How could she see?” Ash wondered.

Corey shook his head. He was listening for the thoughts of his Kate. He got faint feelings mostly. He knew when she felt fear, acceptance, then a strange vibrating sensation reminded him of their cave kiss. Then suddenly, he could hear her no more. It was as if she were…no. He couldn’t bear to think like that.
My Kate is alive!
He determined and it became a mantra for him as they descended into the darkness.

“Turn the light off, Tara.” Trip whispered. He stopped at an archway.

When the flashlight went off another light became visible. Bright white beams dawned through the arch, illuminating dust particles.

They crept along the walls until they entered the enormous chamber, brightly lit with eye scorching radiance. Covering their eyes from the brightness, they paused inside the cavern.

As their eyes adjusted they saw a walkway leading to a ridge where the white light spilled over a ledge. Cresting it, they gazed into a bowl of tapering ledges. Circular rings of stone tiered down to a raised dais where the radiant light blanched the steps and cavern ceiling.

No dragons. No dragonets. Just an empty room with the light source.

“Where is she?” Trip turned to Corey.

“I can’t feel her anymore.” Corey’s face was consumed in grief.

“Is she dead?” Tara asked.

“NO!” Corey and Trip chorused in unison.

“What is this place?” Ash descended the steps to the foot of the dais and peered into the light source. He pulled his backpack off and wrangled out his object. It was a visor of sorts with a strap. He had tried it when he first received his pack, but it showed only darkness. He studied the visor and then the light.

Tara approached him. “Ash, what is that?”

“I don’t know. I call it a visor.”

Trip and Corey joined them with forlorn expressions.

“You might as well try it.” There is nothing else here to do. Trip cast his spear aside and sat on the edge of the step and placed his head into his hands.

Once again he had lost. The dragons had won, taken the only girl he had ever loved. They could be anywhere by now. They had taken Kate and he would never hold her again. There was so much he wanted to say to her. Most of all, thank you.
Thank you for opening your heart to me so readily. Thank you for giving me a reason to live in the arena. Thank you for quelling the rage inside of me. Thank you for showing me I was worthy of love, for unlocking my heart to the possibility of a life without murderous rage.

Corey, Tara, and Ash all looked at him with varied expressions. Tara’s was one of pain and pity. Ash seemed surprised and embarrassed. Corey’s expression was the most surprising, he seemed completely understanding.
Wait. Did you just hear my thoughts?

They all nodded, and then cast their eyes aside at the unintended intrusion. Tara and Corey walked around the dais. Ash climbed two of the steps and put on his visor.

How did we hear his thoughts? Ash wondered. This jump is so weird. First these two totally opposite guys fall for the same girl who is completely inferior in every way to Tara’s glorious body and beauty and then we all end up trying to save that girl just because Trip…wait! This is about Trip! This is not Kate’s jump. This is Trip’s jump.

Trip jerked his head up and stared at Ash. Corey and Tara stopped and listened.

“This is about Trip!” Tara confirmed. “His whole world for the past three years has been about getting home to rescue Kate.”

Corey whirled around, looked at Trip and shouted! “TRIP! BEHIND YOU!”

Trip swiveled around in time to see two large dragons bear down on him. They wrapped thick talons around his arms and flew him up to a ledge directly across from the dais. They clamped him in chains and then turned to charge his team mates.

Ash climbed the top step of the dais with his visor on, peering into the light source. Corey whipped his short sword out of his pack as Tara charged and executed a hand spring to end up on the back of one of the dragons.

Trip strained against the chains that locked him into place and watched helplessly as his team mates waged a battle they were ill equipped for.

Ash’s thoughts were still being projected, and he was unaware of the battle raging beneath the dais. Trip yelled at him. “Ash! Help Corey!” Tara was taking care of herself. Then Trip realized that the visor covered Ash’s ears as well as his eyes. He tried to scream with his thoughts, but only Ash’s thoughts were being projected.

“What is that?”

Corey circled with his sword drawn. “I don’t want to hurt you, dragon.” He reasoned.

“You come to harm The Mother! We cannot allow that!”
The dragon thought spoke to all of them.

“We don’t want to harm anyone. We are just looking for our friend.” Corey continued circling.

The dragon shifted his glance to Tara who was pummeling the dragon beneath her.

“You attacked us first. She is defending herself.” Corey held a palm up.

“There is something at the source of the light! I can see it. It’s a woman!”
Ash’s thoughts projected.

It wasn’t a woman. It was me, Kate, The Mother of All. I could hear every thought and sense every intention of everyone in this world. I watched the four landwalkers sneak into my throne room, felt their despair at losing someone dear, and watched my children as they defended me.

“It’s Kate! I can see her! She looks…wow…she looks awesome!”

Corey stopped and turned toward the light source. I saw the joy break across his face. He ran toward my dais and the dragon child impeded him.

“No! You cannot go near The Mother!”
she shouted mentally.

The dragon hurled Corey back against the cave wall. His head cracked against the stone and he slid down to land on the floor.
“My Kate! Are you hurt?”
He screamed into my head.

It shattered my apathy toward the landwalkers.
“My Corey?”
I reached out to him. I suddenly became aware of the shackles at my neck and wrists.

“Kate, oh God! You are alive. I thought I had lost you!”

“No Corey, I have loved you for a thousand...”

“Kate, Kate, I will love you for thousands more.”

Ash’s mental voice still projected. I had shielded mine and Corey’s moment from the others.

“She is chained to this generator or something. It is seeping the life from her. It’s like she is the battery.”

No, not battery, I am the source. I am the source of all.

“Get her out of there!” Trip shouted in anguish.

“I can’t. Augh!”
Ash was electrocuted and blasted off of the dais.

Tara wrestled her dragon to the floor and choked him with her spear. His mate turned on her and charged.

Trip screamed. “Tara!”

She rolled away just as the second dragon slammed her spiked tail down in the exact spot that Tara had just vacated. It lodged into the throat of her mate. The female dragon whirled around to see the damage she had done and let out an ear splitting wail. Tara took no mercy. She used the distraction to slam her spear up through the mouth of the wailing dragon and drove it deep into her brain. She slumped over her mate and joined him in death.

I was stunned. My children were bleeding onto the floor. My family was safe and alive, scraped, unconscious and bruised, but alive. My anguish and relief comingled to form a hurricane of emotion. I screamed mentally and audibly, the chair magnifying both sound and psychic tangent. The landwalkers in the room covered their ears in agony, except the one whose arms were chained. His mind was open and vulnerable as he sought me out. He passed out from the intensity of my devastating scream and mental penetration.

I was trapped! I was free! I was weak! I was omnipotent! I was being drained. I was the source! I was…I was…who was I? I couldn’t remember. I scanned the wide world for answers, but no one there knew me. I scanned the minds of my children, but they only had reverence for me, they did not know me. I scanned the room with the four landwalkers. The dark skinned boy did not know me at all. The female dragon slayer thought she knew me, but she was wrong.

I perused the unconscious thoughts of the warrior suspended above me. He knew me, and I fastened on to his thoughts of me. I directed my energy and released the chains at his neck, wrists, and feet, and lifted his limp body off of the ledge to place him on the ground at the foot of the dais. I gazed into his mind and tasted everything he knew. I was Kate Wilson, a frightened child. I was a small, beautiful girl who he needed to protect. I was intermingled with memories of a sister who he couldn’t protect. I was his key. He was in prison, and I was his key. He was the weakling, and I was his hope. The knowledge rocked me to my core.

I gently went into each memory and purged it. Releasing him from the bonds that held him to deceitful emotions, I unlocked the shackles that bound him to hate. I touched the memory of his step father, his sister, his mother, all the memories that had trails leading him to anger and bitterness. I planted a seedling of hope.

I was omnipotent, Mother of all and I had blessed him with a benevolent gift. I expanded again to fill the world with my magnificence. I was…I was…Who was I? I felt tendrils of thought reach out to me and gather me back to the cave.

I scanned the blond boy who had blood trickling down his neck. His body was damaged, but his thoughts were iron in strength. He latched onto me and held me. He knew me. I was life, I was light, I was flight, I was song, I was joy, I was passion, I was ecstasy, I was truth, I was purity, I was one with him and the One who sustained us and created me.

The One who knew me.

I suddenly knew who I was. I was not The Mother. I was Katie Lynn Wilson, daughter, sister, friend, lover, and cherished. I felt a wrenching sensation as though I were being ripped in half, the girl who was Corey’s Kate and the goddess who was the Mother. The shackles around my neck and wrists shattered and I lurched out of the throne and rolled down the steps.

Corey crawled to me and scooped me into his arms and held me tightly. “You’re back.” He breathed into my ear.

I nodded shakily, tears running down my face. He kissed my forehead and I clung to him, digging my fingers into his shirt and pressing my face into his chest. A cry of relief bubbled from me and he enveloped me in his warmth and love as his embrace secured me.

As one we turned our heads to the others, and Corey lifted me off of the cave floor and kept his arms fastened around me.

Tara knelt over Trip calling his name softly. We staggered over to them, and I knelt down opposite of Tara and placed my hand on hers. She froze and a look of revulsion crossed her face. I squeezed her hand and she looked into my eyes. Then she turned her palm up and held my hand and gaze.