The Dragon Healer of Tone (World of Tone) (39 page)

“Why is the lake red?” she suddenly blurted out and regretted the question almost instantly.

“There was an accident, and the lake was turned red. It’s still good water and can be used; it’s just red in color,” Terra said as the great dragon softly landed in front of them. Terra’s wife appeared at the cave’s entrance and moved to her man. She folded into his arms as naturally as a mother holds her child. Then they kissed; his love for her was shown in every action he took and every movement he made. They then separated, and he leaped onto the dragon’s back in a single motion and leaned over holding his hand out to Faray. She walked over, and he picked her up and put her in the same position as before. Then they were again in the air flying out of the crevice.

Lowlack landed in the same place, and the two dismounted. As they approached the path that Terra had pushed through the bushes, Faray suggested they go another way so an obvious trail to the road was not created. Terra shrugged his shoulders and went to the far end of the clearing and began to push through. Faray stopped him and led him through the brush without destroying it. They finally reached the road.

Terra thought it was a waste of time, but he thought it would be better to allow her to direct their path. After all, she knew more than he about the humans. They walked to the cabin, but as they reached the rock and it came into view, it was obvious the door was open.

“The door should not be open; I closed it, and my mother would never leave it open,” she said as they heard a muffled scream. Faray began to run, but suddenly Terra moved by her so fast that she could hardly see his body. She almost was blown down with the force of the wind he generated, but there was no noise, no sound at all. The tall weeds he moved through seemed to make way for him. It was as if Tone itself was helping him. He flew up the stairs and stopped in front of the door. Then he moved into the cabin with the same noiseless speed. As she reached the steps, a body came exploding through the shutters of the window. The body flew across the clearing and hit the rock falling to the ground limp. As she reached the door, she saw Terra touching her mother’s throat, and his hand began to glow orange.

Reicka had reached home, but Faray her daughter was not there. She assumed she had gone into the village and decided to clean up a bit. Suti was tired and curled up in a ball near the fire Reicka had started. Suti never did recover fully from the attack, but she would not leave Reicka’s side. There was a knock on the door, and she went to answer it. As she started to open it, someone pushed the door in knocking her to the floor. Wistack forced the door open, and Suti rose painfully from her place in front of the fire. Wistack swinging a club hit the cat on its head. She sank to the floor unconscious. Then Wistack turned and grabbed Reicka forcing her against the floor and the wall by the neck.

His grip was strangling her.

“I waited long enough for you. Now I’m taking what I want,” he said with pure evil in his voice.

Reicka began to go unconscious when darkness filled the room. A large body seemed to pass in front of the door and block it. Then suddenly she saw the biggest man she had ever seen standing in the middle of the room, just behind Wistack. He was like some great tree planted in her world. Then a huge hand was around Wistack’s neck.

She heard a sickening crack, and then Wistack went limp. Then he was gone, and the hand began to move toward her. She pushed back away from it, but it touched her neck and began to glow orange. She felt once more the warmth and gentleness she had not felt for so many years.

Only one she knew of could heal like that, Terra.

The pain was gone and standing in front of her was a man the size of a mountain with a face reminiscent of her husband. His eyes seemed to glow in the darkness of the room. He was dressed in rags and on in his chest glowed seven colored jewels. Then he turned to the whimper of Suti lying crippled on the floor. He bent over and her entire body began to glow orange. Within moments, she was standing fully healed of all her injuries including those of the distant past. Her fangs were once again sharp, and her coat was shinny and new looking. Suti was once again a powerful slese cat. She stood next to the man as if that was her place for all time.

“Terra!” she gasped out. “It’s you,” she said recovering her voice.

“How do you know my name?” he asked with a curious look on his face.

“You’re my son. You were taken so long ago from us. So long ago,

“ she said with sadness so deep it tore at Terra’s heart. Faray was standing next to the huge man and both looked at her with surprise in their faces.

“This is my brother?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure mother?”

“No other can heal like that,” as she pointed to the healthy powerful cat between the two of them.

Faray looked up, and it seemed for the first time his face came into focus. It was that of her father, except younger and larger.

“By the Solans, he has father’s face,” Faray said almost not realizing she was talking out loud.

“Yes he has,” Reicka said in a voice overwhelmed with emotion.

“What is your name?” Terra said.

“Reicka, do you remember it?”

The name seemed to echo to a past he had long since forgotten.

“No, I don’t,” he finally said in a hesitant voice.

Terra stood not quite understanding what was happening. Could this be his mother? He couldn’t really remember anything from the time before he was with the dragons. How could he know for sure?

Suddenly, he heard a low moan of pain from outside the cabin, and he walked to the door. He could see the bloody crumbled body of the man that was attacking the woman. The cat growling tried to scoot out the door between his legs. He picked her up with one arm holding her around the middle of her body. She twisted her head up and licked his face. He carried her out the door as if she weighed nothing. He handled a cat as big as a man like a common farm cat. Faray helped her mother from the floor, and they went to the door and saw Terra walking toward Wistack’s broken body. Both ran to stop him.

“He’s a dangerous man,” Faray said as they reached Terra.

“Not to me.”

Terra dropped Suti and bent down picking up the knife that was being eyed by Wistack through a fog of pain.

“What is this?” he asked while spinning it in his hand.

“It’s a knife. It’s the kind used only to kill with. No good man would carry a long curved blade of that type. It’s a blade for killing other men,” she said with great hatred and contempt. Terra lifted the knife in the air. It appeared he was going to drive it into the limp body before him, but instead he drove it into the stone above Wistack’s head. The force of the blow caused sparks to fly from the point of impact. The blade was driven into the great rock until it struck the hilt, and then Terra snapped off the handle as if were a twig. Both women recoiled back at the sight of the sparks. Reicka could not even imagine the strength it would take to drive a blade into stone. Then Terra reached down and his hand began to glow.

“Stop. He should die for what he did,” Reicka said with a hatred she did not even know she could possess.

Terra looked up with a gentle expression on his face and said, “I do not like killing.”

Reicka could not oppose the will of such a man. Faray watched in amazement as Terra healed the man in only a few heartbeats with a power beyond anything she had ever seen. Wistack lay there without moving. Terra stood up and looked down at the little man.

“You will leave here and never return. If you ever say anything about what happened this
sun-rising, you will again become the pitiful heap of flesh that I just healed. Never come into the view of these women again, or you will be what you just were,” Terra said in a voice so powerful that the ground itself seemed to shake under the man’s body. He crawled to the road and rose to his feet and ran for his life.

Terra turned to the two women.

“My mate is with child, and Faray says you can tell us when the small one will come. Will you come with me and see her?” he said in a gentle loving voice.

“Yes, I will come my son,” she said to the son that was now a man.

“I need a little time. My clothes are torn.”

“I’ll wait.”

“Come Faray, help me,” Reicka said as she walked to the cabin.

The two women walked into the cabin, and Terra sat down near the rock. The great cat nudged him, and he began petting it. It purred like a kitten with his touch.

“Faray, it is your brother. He was taken so long ago,” Reicka said in oddly low tones as they entered the door.

“Are you sure mother?”

“Yes. I never told you much about your brother. It was partially because of the pain and also to protect you,” she said with a far off look.

“Protect me from what?”

“Your brother was different than others from the time he was born.

He tamed Suti just by touching her. He was the only male ever known by myself or your grandmother who had the magic power of healing.

He had infinitely more magic than I did, and he was only a crawling infant. I was afraid you would be the same, and the people around us would take you if they discovered it. So I told you little about your brother. I also tried to stop you from using magic because I didn’t want to lose you. That’s why I have been so slow to teach you healing. You have stronger power than I, but nothing akin to your brother. You saw what he could do.”

“Yes, but you said he was killed by animals,” Faray said looking confused.

“That is what your father and I thought. Your grandmother thought we should take Terra to see the old one in the Mur Mountains after he began showing his magic. None of us knew quite what to do, and we thought she might be able to help. So we went. The old woman was little help, and on our return, Averons attacked. Terra was carried off by one, and your father was injured. Suti was almost killed. I was never able to really heal her. The Solans only knows where he has been all this time and why he’s dressed like a beggar.”

“Mother, you must know something before you go. This man lives with dragons. He took me to his wife on the back of one. I went because every time he touched me my fear dissolved into nothing, and I seemed to trust him with my life. I can’t explain it more than that.”

“Even as a child he could make anything trust him with a touch. I can’t believe that he could even influence the great dragons, but somehow he must have. I don’t think he believes that I am his mother.

He was so small when he was taken. I doubt if he even remembers what happened.”

Chapter 73 - The Past Rises

(The Past Sometimes Invades the Present.)

357 set of seasons since the coming of the Averons

The two women walked from the cabin and could see Terra sitting by the rock petting Suti. The great cat seemed almost in a state of ecstasy over having the man near her. Reicka walked toward Terra and Faray followed. Terra stood up when he saw them approach.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked.

“Yes, we are ready.”

The three of them plus Suti walked to the place in the trees where Terra had created a path through pure strength. This time though he healed the plants as they moved through them and into the clearing, leaving no sign of their passage. There before Reicka was the most magnificent and frightening sight she had ever seen, a great bronze colored dragon. She seemed frozen with fear until Terra’s hand took hers. Suddenly, all the fear was lifted, and she knew nothing would harm her. Suti recoiled back against the wall of plants at the sight of the dragon. Terra simply reached down and petted the cat, and it immediately returned to his side as fearless as ever. They walked toward the giant beast as if it were nothing more then a pet. Terra stooped down and petted the cat’s head.

“You stay here we’ll be back soon.”

Suti seemed to understand him and moved off, lying down near the place they had entered. Faray had never seen a man control any beast with such ease.

They walked to the dragon, and Terra put his hand on its side and patted it.

“This is Lowlack, my oldest friend,” he said as the great head of the beast came around and gently nudged his body.

Terra then took hold of Reicka and lifted her to the back of the dragon and then he swung up behind her. He reached down, pulled Faray up, and set her behind him. He told Faray to hang onto him. She put her hands around his middle, and his body felt like a hard indestructible piece of metal except he was warm to the touch and smelled sweet as honey. As soon as her hands touched him, she seemed rooted in place like a great tree in the ground.

The great dragon vaulted into the air like some magnificent bird.

Both women could feel the massive muscles of the beast flex through their legs. Neither could have imagined such a thing only that morning.

Terra’s magic held the two in place, and they flew with astonishing speed back to the crevice. Reicka was as awe struck as Faray had been.

The flight was beyond her wildest dreams. She thought back and remembered what the old woman at the cave had said.

“If he is, he will leave you for a time. He will have to find his own way to the path that his destiny lies along.”