Beneath the Hallowed Hill (23 page)

She nodded.

“Come report to me in the healer’s temple as soon as you can.”

“Of course.” She turned to the pod. “Daphyll, go get a transport. Herasto, help him outside. Accompany him to the temple and report back when you know anything.”

Govannan frowned. The group was usually one mind for sometime after a transport, but now it seemed scattered like scraps of paper in the wind. His next step wrenched his mind back to his injury. Leaning heavily on Herasto, he waited by the door for the transport. Once aboard, the vehicle lifted quickly and they flew toward the temple.

Situated near a long, quiet strip of beach, the healing temple sat on two acres dotted with gardens, streams, and a lake populated by migrating ducks and geese and the temple’s own resident flock of swans. The stone and selenite building rested in the middle. From above, its blue dome suggested another lake.

Daphyll brought the vehicle down close to the main entrance. She got out and swung around. “I’ll go get someone.” Two people already spotted their approach and were running from the building with a floating stretcher between them. “It’s not life threatening,” Daphyll called, and the group slowed. She explained the accident as they walked back to the transport.

Govannan pasted an apologetic smile on his face. The healers each had two stars attached to the blue robes of their guild, indicating their rank as apprentices. “I’m sorry to trouble you,” he said.

“Is it your leg?” one asked.

“Yes, the left one.” Govannan shifted as the healer reached out and began to probe his thigh with a practiced touch. He tried not to grunt when she reached the injured spot.

“Uh-hum,” she would say with each poke. “Uh-hum. How did this happen?”

Govannan told the story again. The looks on the healers’ faces grew more incredulous as he spoke. “Excuse me, sir, but we weren’t trained for such an accident.”

“Neither was I, but the ambassador assures me the event is not unprecedented.”

The group lifted Govannan onto the stretcher, ignoring his protests that he was capable of walking, and whisked him off to one of the treatment areas. Once they arrived, one apprentice went for a more advanced healer and the other covered him with a blanket. “Go back to the meeting,” Govannan said to his two pod members. After a few objections, they left, and he lay back and examined the room. It had been some time since he was a patient. He rested in a private alcove awash with soft light. In one corner, water trickled down a sheet of limestone and dropped into an alabaster basin lit from within, producing a sound that soothed him.

The swish of a robe made him turn his head. Megan’s mother stood there looking at him. “Pleione.” He started to sit up. “Surely you’re too busy to waste your time on a simple muscle strain.”

“How could I miss the opportunity to visit with you?” she said lightly, but Govannan did not miss the flash of concern on her face before she put on her professional mask.

“Heck of an accident,” he commented.

“You say the Pleiadian ambassador has experienced such an intrusion before?”

“That’s what she said, and you don’t question that royal family.”

They both laughed.

“Just relax now.” Her hands spread warmth with their touch, and he closed his eyes. Even when she probed his injury, deeper than her apprentices did, there was no pain, only comfort. She brought a few stones from a cabinet he didn’t notice before and arranged them on his body. She set a large crystal bowl between his legs next to the injury and began to run the wooden mallet around the rim. The bowl sat silent for a moment, then hummed, giving off a deep, aching tone. The sound intensified, and it set off the throb in his leg again. Pleione added her voice, and just as the pain became too much to bear, his leg seemed to lose its solidity for a moment and dissolve into nothing but vibration. He gripped the table. Strands of energy separated and lifted off. Pleione allowed the bowl to quiet, then passed her hands over him as if she were dozing. “Better?”

Coolness and relief replaced the throbbing pain. “Much.” He started to get up, but she pushed him back with one gentle hand.

“Not yet. There’s still some residue. I want you to rest here, and we’ll put you in with the dolphins in a bit.”

“Surely that isn’t necessary. I feel almost normal.”

“I don’t question your professional opinions, do I, Govannan?”

“The pod is meeting. I need—”

“You need to be treated by the dolphins.” It sounded like she was chiding a fractious child.

He heaved a sigh. “If you insist.”

Her laugh sounded like silver bells. “I do. I’ll just go check the schedule. Close your eyes and sleep.”

Once she left the room, Govannan hoisted himself up on his elbow and looked around the room. He considered sending for a messenger to find out what the pod members reported about their mishap, but he couldn’t bring himself to get up. Lethargy stole through his body, and soon he drifted off.

The next thing he heard was Pleione’s quiet voice. “Good nap?”

He rubbed his eyes and stretched. “Time for my swim?”

“Come along now. I think you can walk to the beach. We’ll go slowly.”

His eyes widened. “As much as I appreciate it, I don’t feel I can claim the sole attention of the mistress of the Healers Guild for so long.”

“Arguing again?” Her smile belied her stern tone of voice.

Obediently, Govannan slid off the table and tested his leg. It felt wobbly, but it supported his weight adequately despite the distinct limp. After a step or two, he got used to the sensation. “The beach?”

“Yes. Our resident group of dolphins is busy all afternoon. We’ll go to the shore and see who volunteers.”

“I get to see you call the dolphins?” He realized that he must sound like a child anticipating a carnival, but he didn’t care.

“I’ll even teach you how.” Her smile was indulgent. Once outside, they walked through a series of colorful gardens, Pleione matching the pace he set. After a while, she asked, “How is Megan?”

Govannan took to this subject with relish, relieved to take the focus away from himself. “Excellent. She has the sensitivity to energy of her mother, but she needs to learn to hold her own frequency in a group.”

Pleione nodded. “I remember having that trouble myself.”

“We sent her to Avalon for Beltane. She’ll participate in seasonal ceremonies at various temples until it becomes second nature.”

“How long will that take?”

Govannan shrugged. “It’s hard to say. Perhaps a few months, or it could be up to a year or two.”

The yearning must have come through in his voice, because Pleione looked at him closely. He blushed then shook his head, annoyed with himself. The injury and treatment shook his usual reserve. She stopped and put a hand on his shoulder, turning him toward her. “What is this I see?”

He ducked his head. “She’s a promising apprentice.”

The silver tinkle of her laugh flew up like a small bird. “Govannan, you’ve fallen in love with my daughter.”

He looked up and found a copy of Megan’s blue eyes regarding him from this woman’s face, but these eyes had dark smudges beneath them and fine lines at the corners. “You’re exhausted,” he blurted.

She turned away from him and walked down a path between jutting sea grasses toward the beach. He followed close behind. “I’m just tired. We’ve been busy,” she said.

“You’re more than tired.” Now it was his turn to be firm.

Pleione looked at him in surprise. “Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve slept in a few days.” They reached the shore and she stopped, kicking her sandals off and digging her toes into the fine white sand. “It’s these new illnesses. I’m not sure how to treat them all. The viruses are fairly simple; we just need to stimulate the immune system and use certain sounds and perhaps herbs if the organism is resistant. The other ailments, however…” She shook her head and gazed out to sea. “It’s like people are getting forgetful…” She struggled for words. “…like parts of their awareness are shutting down. We stimulate them with the usual treatments, but some don’t regain full consciousness. Others have to keep coming back.”

Govannan nodded, excited by this validation. “I know what you mean.”

“How could you?”

“When the New Knowledge Guild called us all to the conference—”

“What did you think of their proposal?”

He frowned. “Not promising. When all the chaos broke out after Surid made his presentation, I tried to rebalance the group with my crystal.” He paused, wondering for the first time if that was a breach of courtesy. After all, one never treated another without their permission. That was his job though, he told himself, to help maintain balance.

“And?” Pleione’s voice brought him back.

“Surid seemed disconnected from his deepest self.”

She nodded slowly.

“I tried to reconnect him—” He stopped at her expression. “I know, but I just reacted. I couldn’t do it. He was oblivious.”

“Something is happening to Eden,” she said.

“To all of Atlantis,” he replied. “I’ve heard stories from other cities.”

Pleione walked to the edge of the water and he followed. A wave ran up the beach and licked their feet, sending a chill up his calves. Pleione turned to him, all brisk competence again. “Well, let’s get you fixed up at least. Perhaps the dolphins will have some insight.”

He braced himself against the cold, and they walked deeper into the sea, jumping through the low waves. They reached the line of breakers and dove through, emerging in the relative calm of deeper water.

“Ready?” Pleione treaded water. Her blond hair, now dark with the wet, clung to her head.

“Sure.” He wondered what would happen now.

Pleione flipped onto her back, closed her eyes, and floated like a piece of driftwood. A few minutes passed. Govannan dog-paddled around her, scanning the surface for fins…and then they came, two spinners, leaping above the water, corkscrewing through the air as if the world were made simply for play. His heart leapt with them.

Pleione opened her eyes and swam toward them, gesturing for him to follow. A sleek grey head surfaced next to her. The dolphin nudged her with its snout. She put her hands on either side of its head and bent her forehead down to it. After their communion, both dolphins swam over to Govannan. Slick, rubbery skin slid past his leg. The strange clicking sonar of their call filled the water, and his leg buzzed with the vibration. Another nudge against his thigh made him stick his face into the water to see what they were doing. Both dolphins had their snouts pointed at his leg. They gave their call again. This time even his lips buzzed. He laughed and seawater ran up his nose, the salt burning his sinuses. He surfaced, sputtering.

Pleione slapped him on the back. “You can’t breathe the water, Govannan.”

He nodded, his eyes still streaming, but before he could say anything, one of the dolphins scooted halfway between his legs then shot off along the surface, taking him along for a ride. He clung to the fin at first, but then relaxed his grip, worried he would hurt the animal; the smooth muscles flexed beneath him. The turquoise blue water parted in white foam. The dolphin stopped suddenly, sending Govannan head first into the water, then it dove. Govannan came up coughing again and looked around for his mount. He heard or saw nothing, and he was beginning to think the dolphin swam away, when it barreled out of the water nose first and spun once, twice, three times before diving down again.

Pleione arrived at his side. “I think she likes you.”

“It’s a she?”

“So she says.”

“You can talk to them?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t be much of a healer if I couldn’t.”

The pair of dolphins surfaced again, their heads bobbing in unison. Pleione swam to them and put a hand on each head. After a few minutes, both nudged her with their snouts and then swam away, leaping and cavorting.

Govannan was disappointed to see them leave. “What did they say?”

“They say to relax, that it’s all part of the natural turn of the tides.” She shook her head. “I don’t know exactly what they meant, but when I asked again, they said, ‘you need to play more,’ and then they left.”

On impulse, Govannan said, “Let’s play hooky.”

“What?”

“Let’s stay on the beach for a while.”

“I have a temple full of patients…overflowing, in fact.” A wave slapped her in the face and she spit water. “You just had an accident in your temple, and you want to play on the beach?”

“Dolphins’ orders.”

She opened her mouth to protest then closed it again.

“I’m too old for Megan,” he said.

“What?”

“Are you upset?”

She reached out and pushed him under the water. He resurfaced and tried to push her under, but she was too quick for him. She swam for the breakers and rode one in, as supple as a seal.

Govannan followed and they walked from the sea, water sluicing off their bodies. Pleione plopped down in the sand and squinted up at him. “You’re still limping.”

He shrugged. “I guess so.”

“Is there any pain?”