Awaken (35 page)

She chuckles then, a soft tinkling
sound and squeezes my hands in hers.

“
So curious and so full of
bravado. Just like your mother. I shouldn’t have expected any
differently. This is Sanctuary...and I am Lily.”

I awake from my sleep disoriented,
confused, and for a brief moment I don’t know where I am. Then the
previous evening’s events come slowly back to me and I remember.
Lily had found us! Rescued us. And we were now in a place called
sanctuary...that was still all I knew yet. As full of questions as
we had been last evening she had taken one look at us all and
refused to answer anything coming out of our mouths.

“
Look at you.” She had
clucked her tongue worriedly. “Tired, exhausted and probably scared
witless I’m sure. You need to rest...all of you. Zoe, take them to
their rooms.”

Our rooms? She had rooms prepared for
us? Like she knew we were coming? I had ignored the hooded woman
trying to usher us back out into the white hall and had tried to
question Lily again. There was so much I needed to know.

How had she found us...how did she know
gra’da...why was I told to find her...but she had laid a finger to
my lips and smiled that kind but firm smile at me again.

“
Shush child. There will be
time to ask all your questions in the morning, after you are all
well rested. You have been through an enormously terrifying
ordeal...things that would have broken even the strongest of
soldiers. You need to sleep. The boy needs to sleep.”

I had looked at Finn then and I knew
she was right. His eyes had been huge in his pale, drawn face and
he had looked befuddled, shocked, like someone had punched him hard
in the head. Did we all look like that, I wondered. She must have
seen the stubbornness on my face as well though ‘cause she
added...

“
Tara all your questions I
will answer in the morning...I promise child.”

I must have been more tired then I
realized ‘cause I had let the hooded woman lead us back through the
white hall to a bunch of doors I hadn’t noticed the first time
round, without so much as a peep of protest. She had opened three
doors, one for each of us and I had nodded at Finn that it was okay
before I headed into mine. I didn’t take much stock of the room at
the time, just for the fact that it held a bed and I had collapsed
onto it without even bothering to undress or even take off my
boots. I had immediately fallen into an exhausted sleep.

This morning however I take more
notice. The room is simple enough. It contains just a bed, a chest
and a small wooden table and chair sitting on the same smooth stone
floor as found in the white hall. The late morning sunlight
filtering through the high window above the bed falls onto a neatly
folded pile of clean clothes sitting on the chair and a basin of
water on the table. These were not here last night, I’m sure of
that. Were these things meant for me?

I unfold them. There’s a pair of dark
cloth trousers and a white tunic...both of them looking to be my
fit. Deciding it must be, I take off the dirty things I’m wearing,
give myself a quick wash from the basin, and dress myself in the
clean things. It feels real good to have the clean cloth against my
skin and I cain’t help but smile at how it makes me feel
so....normal just to be clean. Or maybe, I think, this happiness
has more to do with the fact that the sun is reflecting off of my
born day gift and that the person who had given it to me was alive
and here in Littlepass, in arms reach.

“
I will get you out of there
Ben,” I say in my head. “I promise you that.”

I can hear voices coming from the hall
now and I open my door. I find Finn and Jax standing there. They
are dressed in the same kind of clothing as I am, though from the
dirt still on Finn’s face I don’t think he bothered with the basin
of water. Jax, however, looks clean but the huge bruise on his
cheek and the cut on his lip tells the tale of Tater’s betrayal. I
nod at his cheek, trying not to let my anger take root.

“
Does it hurt bad?” I
ask.

“
Only when I smile,” he
says, making me laugh.

“
Well you should be fine
then since smiling ain’t one of your better habits,” I say and he
surprises me with his own deep laughter.

From out of nowhere seems like the
woman from the night before appears in the hall...minus the hood.
Zoe I think Lily had called her. She approaches us on strangely
silent feet and greets us.

“
Good morning...I trust you
all slept well?” She don’t give us a chance to answer though before
she speaks again.

“
If you would follow
me...Lily is waiting for you all at the breakfast
table.”

Breakfast? Now we’re talking! My
stomach rumbles loudly at the thought of food and all three of us
eagerly follow the woman. She leads us down the hall, through the
room full of books, down a flight of steps, and into another hall.
I look around all the while, overwhelmed at the vastness of each
room we pass through. What the hell kind of place was this
sanctuary and how big was it really? This second hall is much
smaller than the first though and we pass under an archway into a
room containing a long wooden table. The table was huge! Must of
had at least ten chairs on either side of it. Lily sits at the end
and she rises as we enter and gestures for us to join her. I still
got the same barrel of questions from the night before bouncing
around in my head, but the sight of the food on the table takes
priority right now.

“
Please,” she says. “Sit.
Eat.”

She ain’t gotta tell us twice! We
promptly fill the chairs on either side of her and I make a grab
for the fresh bread I could smell as soon as we entered the room.
It’s still warm! And is that...? Oh gods, it is! Butter! I ain’t
seen butter since our goat had died about four years back. Weren’t
all bad, the goat meat had kept us fed real good for quite a while
but I sure did miss that butter. Grabbing the closest knife I can
find I cut off a chunk of the white stuff and start smothering my
bread with it. My mouth is watering something fierce as I watch it
melt on my bread and ooze down over my fingers. I take a huge bite
and close my eyes in pleasure.

The only noise for a bit is our lip
smacking and our sighs of satisfaction. After about my fifth or
sixth slice of butter soaked bread (I had lost count) I look up to
find Lily watching me, a sad little smile on her face. She must see
my questioning look ‘cause she just shakes her head at
me.

“
I’m sorry, it’s just you
look so much like her....Rease, your mother,” she says and at the
mention of my ma my appetite dies, just like that. The bread that I
had been enjoying so much earlier now tastes like dust in my mouth
and I lay it down, wipe my greasy lips on my sleeve. Her name was
Rease. I never knew that. I mull this over for a bit, trying it out
in my head.

“
You knew her well?” I say
finally.

“
Very much so. She was a
great friend...and a powerful new blood.”

At hearing that my heart skips a beat.
My ma was a new blood too? Did Lily know about me? I raise my eyes
to her and as if she knows what I’m thinking, she nods at
me.

“
Yes I am very aware that
you follow in her footsteps Tara. I was hoping you would, praying
really. That was the reason I took you away to the other side of
the mountains so he wouldn’t get his hands on you. So you wouldn’t
end up with the same fate as your mother.”

Lily’s words, it’s what I want to know,
what I need to know but now that I am finally about to get some
answers I don’t know if I’m truly ready to hear them.

“
You were the one who left
me in the sand lands?” So my ma didn’t abandon me? That thought
causes me to involuntarily grip the edge of the table. Hearing what
Lily is telling me, it’s like some huge weight is lifted from my
chest…like I can breathe again.

“
What happened to...my ma
then?” I’m pretty sure I already know, but when the answer passes
from Lily’s lips I’m a little surprised at the sharp pain that
accompanies it.

“
She died at his
hands...just like every other new blood that has ever had the
misfortune to cross paths with him,” she says and I drop my eyes to
hide the tears that suddenly well up. I ain’t sure why I’m tearing
up...it’s not like I didn’t know she was already dead. I reckon
maybe there was this tiny little part of me that had been hoping I
was wrong. I take a couple of breaths, get myself back under
control and when I speak again my voice don’t waver.

“
How did you know that I
would be like her. That I would carry the same curse?” I
say.

“
Curse?” Lily is looking at
me like she cain’t believe what she had just heard. “Is that what
you think child? That you are cursed? You are blessed! You have
been touched...chosen by the gods to do their bidding here on this
earth.”

The anger comes over me unexpectedly,
like some rogue wave.

“
What the hell is that
supposed to mean? Why cain’t people talk plain enough when
describing what a new blood is? Is it because I am a mutie...a
freak and you don’t want to come right out and say it? Touched by
the gods....fullfiller of prophecy...what a bunch of shite! I just
want to know what I am and where I came from...is that too much to
ask?”

This is met by silence. Finn is
regarding me with wide eyed surprise, the slab of hog he had been
devouring sitting precariously on his fork halfway to his mouth.
Jax is quiet as well but his blue eyes convey silent understanding.
Lily.... she is surprisingly smiling at my outburst.

“
So much like your mother.”
She motions to Zoe who has been standing wordlessly at the end of
the table. At Lily’s request she picks up a cloth covered tray and
joins us at our end.

“
I cannot tell you how new
bloods came to be because I do not know. There may have once been a
few souls who knew this answer, but I am afraid those people have
long since passed. There are some who believe that new bloods
descended from the gods, brought about to heal our destroyed world.
Others believe that they were...created by man. The same men who
brought about the Shift and now needed a stronger breed to be able
to rebuild and repopulate the dead lands. I do not know which
version is true. What I do know to be true is that new bloods gifts
are very rare and vary in strength. I for one can heal others from
life threatening wounds if I get to care for them quick enough. But
that is the extent of my ability I’m afraid.”

Was Lily admitting to being a new blood
as well? But her hair...she ain’t got no white stripes. She notices
what I am looking at and nods.

“
I am not of the light. That
sort of chi only occurs in the most powerful of our kind. I hear
you have experienced it...a few times.”

She heard? From who? Who had she been
talking to? I look to Jax and Finn but they are both shaking their
heads at my unspoken question.

“
I have
experienced...something...and I have done things I cain’t explain
but I got no control over any of it,” I say.

“
You will. It takes time to
know your Chi and learn to control it. It took your mother years to
know hers. Let me show you something”

She pulls the cloth off of the tray and
sitting there was what looked like a little bowl of silvery water
and a wilted weed sitting in a pot full of dirt. Okay....was this
supposed to mean something to me?

“
Give me your
hand.”

I do as she asks and before I realize
what she is about to do she pricks the tip of my finger with her
knife causing the blood to flow.

“
Ow!” I cry and try to pull
away from her but she holds on tight. What the hell was she
doing?

“
Trust me,” she says in her
calm voice. Trust her? The crazy bird just cut open my finger! But
against my better judgment I don’t pull away. She holds my bleeding
finger over the water and a few drops fall into the bowl. Then
gently she wraps my finger in a piece of cloth. She picks up the
bowl and swirls it around so that the red blood looks pinkish mixed
with the odd colored water. Then she pours the water into the pot.
I wait expectantly...for what I ain’t sure. Nuthin
happens.

“
Shizen!” I think to myself.
“She is just as bat shite crazy as the others we had met!” I don’t
say it out loud though ‘cause I don’t want her pricking me with the
knife again.

“
How did you know gra’da?” I
say to her thinking I should take her mind off of new blood talk
for a bit. “And why did you take me to him? Why didn’t you just
keep me here with you?”

“
Is that what you called
him? Gra’da?” She smiles to herself. “He must have been pleased
with that name. Your ‘gra’da’ was my friend, my ally. He was once
one of the Army himself until they found him out of course. He was
lucky enough to escape into the sand lands before he could
be...dealt with. And I took you to him because he was the only one
at the time that I could trust with keeping you safe. After your
mother died...the Prezedant looked high and low for you. He
questioned everyone, tortured many...executed some. He wanted to
find you badly. I needed to get you as far away from him as
possible.”