The Path to Destiny: Tia's Folly (10 page)

           
Three moon cycles later, Tia was still on Lesbos unable
to leave. The Centaurs were convinced her physical pain was caused by the pain
in her heart and were unsure how to treat her. In all fairness, the midwives
responsible for her condition had left her in the hands of their apprentices.

           
“Come on,” the young apprentice – named Ashley - urged.
“The Great Battle is to take place in a couple of days. I thought you wanted to
be there.”

           
“I hurt too much for that long of a ride.” Tia turned her
head away from the sweet girl.

           
“Please, see this healer. She is a Demi-Goddess capable
of healing with the touch of her hands.” She tried again. “
Please
Tia! I snuck her in here, just for you.”

           
Turning back to the kind girl, she just didn’t have it in
her heart to keep refusing the child. Nodding her head in agreement, Tia closed
her eyes and wished for an end to her suffering.

           
“Hello there,” a small voice tinkled next to her ear. “I
hear you are one
important
Druid.”

           
Opening her eyes, Tia saw a lovely lady with blonde hair
braided and wrapped strategically around her head. The woman’s skin seemed to
sparkle with the beauty of diamonds without letting off even a little glow.
Looking into her eyes, Tia saw the kindness and trustworthiness of the
Demi-Goddess looking right back at her.

           
Lithe hands pulled the covers down to the end of the bed
and gently began undoing the ties to her sleeping clothes. A feeling of warmth
passed through her for the first time in months as the woman slowly ran her
hands up and down Tia’s body. Cold limbs tingled with awareness and life and
Tia
felt
her body begin to heal as
the woman stopped low on her abdomen and began to firmly massage the area.

           
“Your insides didn’t heal as expected.” The ethereal
woman smiled even though Tia could see the strain the effort was causing her.

           
Fingers pressed painfully into her stomach, and Tia watched
in disbelief as the Demi-Goddess hands disappeared into her body. Writhing in
pain, Tia gasped as the healer suddenly ripped her hands out, pulling one black
and one white orb out of her stomach. All the pain, stiffness, and cold
disappeared, and for the first time since the forced abortion, Tia felt as
though she had a chance at living.

 
The healer handed the orbs off to Ashley
before sedately retying the bed clothes and pulling up the blankets. Smiling
exuberantly, the woman reclaimed an orb as she turned back to Tia.

           
“Your insides will heal now... please roll onto your
side.” The healer watched as Tia complied and then reached for her hands. “Hold
your hands out here, and hold the soul of your child.”

           
Tia gasped as the dark orb settled into her hands and
vibrated contently.

           
“Do not bring the orb any closer than this,” the healer
insisted gently as she explained. “Your child is mourning the loss of her
chosen mother, but if you reassure her that you will meet her in the
Afterworld, she can move on.”

           
“Why is my child’s soul black?” Tia asked with a quiver
in her voice as her eyes filled with tears.

           
“Because she is afraid and her fear is holding her here.”

Tia
nodded in understanding.

           
“Hold her,” the woman continued. “Reassure her, until she
passes unafraid into the Afterworld. Be sure to hold her away from your body
though; she will continue to sap your strength and your body’s ability to heal
if she re-enters you.”

           
“What about the other one?” Tia wondered why she wasn’t
being handed the white orb as well.

           
“Someday you will know the answer to that, but today
isn’t that day.”

           
Accepting the answer, she concentrated on the orb in her
hands. Tia was so intent on promising her daughter that she didn’t deliberately
chose this path that she didn’t notice when the other women slipped from the
room. The orb hummed with emotion and she closed her eyes to better communicate
with her little girl. Confusion, fear, and loneliness were the main emotions
that she felt coming from the orb. But with her eyes closed, she could imagine
she was comforting the child from her vision.

           
“We will meet again!” Tia whispered as tears squeezed out
of her eyes. “The Gods have great plans for you and they will take
very
good care of you for me!”

           
Hours melted away as Tia said goodbye to her child.
Apprentices looked in on her but refused to disturb the peaceful looking scene.
They were eternally grateful to the healer for their patient was at peace for
the first time in months.

           
Tia smiled as she watched her little girl fade little by
little and take the plunge into the Afterworld.

Chapter Four

           
One more moon cycle passed before the apprentices
declared Tia well enough to leave.
 
Ironically, they even seemed sad to see the horse leaving. Tia, in all
honesty,
couldn’t wait
to leave
Centaur territory and get back to Druid lands. As she passed though the ring,
she felt the familiar swoosh of frothy water, and felt her heart skip a beat at
the thought of seeing Roland again.

           
Guiding her horse out of the ring on the other side, she
jumped as she heard a loud grinding sound. She whipped around in her saddle and
watched as the ring crumbled into dust. Disbelieving of what she had just
witnessed, she stared as the remains of the ring blew softly around the small
clearing.

Tia’s
heart sunk as she realized the Centaurs on the other side were trapped. This
was obviously meant to punish the Centaurs, but in her mind, the wrong ones
were trapped on Lesbos now.

           
Knowing there was nothing she could do; Tia turned away
and slowly began working her way back home.
 
Following a small, well-used trail for hours upon hours, she finally
passed through the woods and into the field where she had originally met up
with the Centaurs.

Tia
was shocked to see that all of the grass and flowers were dead and the large
holes had been filled. Dismounting from her horse and letting the reins fall
from her hands, she leaned over and picked up a small object sparkling in the
dead meadow.

           
Horror numbed her until she lost all feeling in her legs
and collapsed to her knees. Tia nearly retched as she identified the object
lying in her palm. Shaking the item out of her hand, she watched in revulsion
as a Pixies wing fluttered back to the ground.

 
Her heart cried out as she realized she was
kneeling on the site of the Great Battle. Standing up with a hand clutched to
her breast, she slowly backed up until she bumped into her horse. Swinging up
onto the beast, Tia offered up a prayer for the souls certainly trapped in -
what was now - a waste land.

           
Deliberately reining her horse to a slow walk, she made
her way down the stretch of barren meadow. Tia knew without a doubt that the
loss of life here had been horrific.

With
a pretentious snort, the horse side-stepped a scavenging rat, shaking its mane
in disgust. While she agreed and wanted out of this meadow just as deeply, Tia
knew this had been an epic fight. She had missed the Great Battle but she
wanted to etch this memory into her mind forever so that she would
never
forget the lingering terror of the
trapped souls.

She
tried to imagine being trapped – unable to move on – after she died. Tia just
couldn’t fathom being forced to relive the day of her death over and over until
the injustice of it was corrected.

The
Warlord truly had gone too far. As a Druid, Tia could feel the sorrow of the
Gods. She could feel their anger, and worst of all; she could feel the souls
begging for release. If she knew how to free all of the fallen souls, she would
do it without hesitation.

           
“Tia!” A voice called out from the side of the meadow.
“Is that you?”

           
Straining her eyes, she was shocked to see her mentor -
her Elder - Uren.

           
“Uren!”
She cried out as she
urged her horse towards him. Flinging herself off of her horse into his waiting
arms, she snuggled into his warmth, grateful for his reassuring presence.

           
“What are you doing here?” She asked, keeping her arms
around him as she moved back enough to see his face.

           
“You are needed at a peace council again,” her Elder
admitted. “And of course, there is the matter of your bonded
who’s
waiting anxiously for your return.”

           
“Peace council?” She questioned, pulling completely out
of his arms. “What’s going on?”

           
“The Phoenix King died from wounds he received during the
battle,” Uren smiled triumphantly. “The nobles have arrested Bylan and are holding
him on charges of treason and war crimes. They have promised they will never
have a king again and the nobles will rule together.”

           
“This-”Tia indicated the field behind her and called his
bluff. “Is the site of a horrific battle, why are you presenting it in such a
positive light?”

           
Pursing his lips, Uren regarded Tia intently, trying to
disconcert how strong she was after her ordeal with the Centaurs. Seeing his
same ole stubborn Tia staring back at him, he wondered where to begin, how to
explain, what to admit…

           
Uren had known that
Roland had bound himself to the Great Battle and he hid himself in the woods,
carefully maintaining a safe distance from the war-zone. Since Tia’s refusal,
the Gods had spoken to him in secret, giving him hints and guiding him to where
he needed to be. Whispers from the Gods told him where to stop, where the best
vantage point was. He was grateful that they had not forsaken him, but for
Tia’s sake, he wished they would make her path a little easier to interpret and
understand.

           
When
the battle had begun, it was immediately clear that the Phoenix still had the
upper hand. For every Phoenix dying, there were three or four dead soldiers on
the other side. Fear froze him in place as he watched a Phoenix warrior draw a
sword made completely out of fire.

           
Uren’s
heart felt as though it had stopped in that moment. He watched in absolute
terror as the fiery blade swung through the air towards a Drow soldier who
valiantly tried to block the attack with his own sword. Only moments later, the
Drow crumpled. He was dead before he hit the ground.

           
Trying
to figure out who was actually responsible for the dead Phoenix on the field,
he scanned the field urgently, needing to know if he had cause to flee now. The
Falkeries looked to be holding their own, but as Uren watched it was apparent
that something was driving the awesome power he was seeing from the Phoenix.

           
His
eyes widened in shock as he watched a Falkerie soldier’s sword lengthen and
take on a silvery sheen. Looking for the source of the power boost, Uren nearly
shouted in glee as through the flames, smoke, and chaos, he spotted Roland
kneeling before an altar with an angry looking storm cloud swirling around him.

That’s when he noticed the other altars
set up near the far edge of the clearing. All of the beings had someone
performing rituals or casting spells from the sidelines. Intermittently, an orb
of light would form over the heads of these people and shoot into the battle.

Following a speeding orb with his eyes,
he was startled to see it quickly yet gently enter a soldier preparing to face
off with a Phoenix warrior. The soldier began shimmering and as the other
warrior attacked, he counter attacked. Uren nearly applauded as the Phoenix
warrior looked down at the obviously mortal wound and collapsed on the field.

Scanning the battle field for the
Warlord, Uren finally spotted him with the Nobles and the Phoenix King.
Impatiently, he watched as Bylan was attacked repeatedly by Pixies. He was
shocked to his core to see Bylan laugh off the attacks as if they were joke;
Pixies were one of the most powerful – and mischievous – creatures in all of
the lands. Maybe Bylan had – No! Uren cut off that line of thinking and refused
to follow it. He wouldn’t give credence to the thought! It was just short of
impossible, a myth!

Expectantly, Uren waited for an orb of
light to penetrate the area around the Warlord and give the Pixies the extra
boost they needed to beat him! But, the longer he waited, the less Pixies he
could see. Straining his eyes and looking harder he struggled to understand
what he was seeing. His head made sense of the chaos until all at once, the
images snapped into place.