The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' (12 page)

‘He learns fast
too!’ Sonal said, telling of Gideon boring delicate holes in
gemstones and not suspecting he was doing it himself, ‘I just
guided his concentration,’ he added.

‘Does the boy
get sick like this often?’ Varan asked quietly.

‘His father
says he has never been ill and certainly for as long as I’ve known
him he’s not had so much as a cold, until three days ago that is.’
Sonal answered, wondering where the conversation was heading. ‘He
felt heady and ill when we left Green Home and I tried to do a
healing but something felt wrong with the roots,’ he said and
stared at his brother to ensure his understanding. Sonal continued,
adding he had also tried a sleep spell that did seem to have some
effect as they neared the cottage, Varan simply nodded, ‘but then
he recovered immediately once we got to his grandparents’ home.’
Sonal started, as he remembered his conclusions about Gideon’s
strange illness whilst still on the journey to Branton.

‘Varan,’ he
said an excited look in his eye, ‘I felt something as we arrived
here, here in Branton, it was the… I wonder…’ he whispered, as his
jumbled thoughts suddenly found cohesion. ‘Hear me out for a
moment,’ Sonal begged, ‘like I told you, after I ran away, I
travelled, I was quite famous,’ he smiled sadly remembering where
his ambition had left his twin. ‘Anyway, I received a summons to
perform for the king and was on my way to Devilly but it was
raining so I stopped at an old burnt out cottage for the night. I
felt …at peace, at home…, as if something wanted me to stay…it
spoke to me in my dreams… I think… I think it’s the forest,’ he
added speculatively. Varan looked at his brother in surprise.

‘That can’t be
it, it wouldn’t answer why he is not ill at his grandparents’ home,
the forest is three days away you say,’ replied Varan shaking his
head, his brow drawn tight in confusion.

‘Yes, yes it
would,’ Sonal argued as he stood up and began to pace as he talked,
using his fingers to emphasise the points he was making.

‘Gideon, Jed’s
father built the cottage here himself, he was the woodsman for
Green Home nearly all his life, he was born there and he loves the
forest. The wooden parts of his cottage here are almost entirely
made from Green Home wood, and what isn’t wood, is stone, again
brought from around Green Home,’ Sonal looked at his twin to again
to gauge his understanding before continuing. ‘Even the furniture
is all made from Green Home wood too, don’t you see Varan? It has
to be the forest that has protected Gideon. The forest that has set
bounds on his magic, the forest...’ he said again and turning again
to face his brother, he grinned wildly. Varan stared at Sonal
wanting to see truth behind his brother’s reasoning and slowly his
face lit with Joy.

‘Let’s go back
Sonal, I would like to speak with young Gideon myself,’ he said,
standing before his brother as simultaneously they again clasped
forearms.

Night was
drawing on fast as the two finally released and turned; walking
back on the track Sonal had taken with Mayan early that
morning.

Dotty and Mrs
Green ventured downstairs once more and entered the parlour where
they found Rhoàld, snoring quite loudly and tucked up on the large
sofa Gideon had used the night before, Mrs Green pulled at the door
leaving it ajar.

‘Best thing for
him I think.’ Dotty agreed and followed her new friend back into
the kitchen to break up the argument that seemed to be about to
wake the sleeping patients.

‘No sir,’
Jayson was saying, ‘it needs stitches sir,’ Jed’s mother looked at
the two men arguing across the room. Her son, the man she had known
and loved all his life, the man she would die to protect and the
younger, now ex-soldier, Jayson. She knew he would stay with them
when her son and his party moved on after the visit and the thought
warmed her. Somehow, he had instantly become part of their family’s
future and he was a welcome addition to it, warm, kind and caring.
We always did want another child,
she thought smiling,
though we should ‘ave liked ‘im when we were younger an’ e’ were
smaller.
She stared at the two men amused to see they were
arguing just like brothers.

‘What needs
stitches Jayson dear?’ Mrs Green asked innocently, placing her hand
on his arm. She looked at her son standing quietly beside the door
blood pooling at his feet. Jed’s face was a picture; he was
suspicious of the young soldier even though he had helped his
parents when they had needed it most.
Why’s me ma touchin’ ‘im
like that?
Jed thought jealously and as his mother looked at
him, the colour ran up his neck and suffused his face.

‘Mam,’ answered
Jayson, ‘your son Jed, he has a wound…,’ he began and was quickly
interrupted.

‘Jayson…’ began
Jed in a threatening tone.

‘Jed has a
wound that requires someone other than me to look at it. I think it
needs several stitches, mam.’ Jayson said again returning Jed’s
scowl.

‘It’s nowt ma.’
Jed began, as he attempted to cross the room to the doorway, his
scowl deepening.

‘Show me the
wound dear,’ said his mother as she moved to the sink to wash her
hands.

‘Ma, really its
nowt…’ Jed began again as his father walked into the room.

‘Jedadiah Green
yer will allow yer mother ter inspect the wound afore the ‘ole
‘ouse ‘old is awake,’ his father said sternly with a twinkle in his
eye.

‘An’ I’ll be
the judge o’ nowt!’ Added his mother as Jed, cussing silently under
his breath began to undo his trousers, he looked pointedly at Dotty
wishing either he or she, were somewhere else. His mother noticing
the look smiled.

‘I’m a little
tired Dotty, would yer assist me please,’ she asked, as Dotty,
remembering the bouncing bottom and the feel of Jed’s thigh pressed
up against hers, smiled warmly in turn.

Jed glowered in
horror.

‘Ma, it be on
me arr… me rear!’ He said, correcting his language in front of his
parents’ and desperately trying to avoid Dotty’s eyes.

‘Well, I’m sure
Dotty ‘as seen a bottom afore this,’ Jed’s mother smiled, noticing
his colour and her new friend’s reaction to it.

‘Not mine she
ain’t.’ Jed grumbled to himself as he bent over the kitchen table
his trousers now about his knees. He continued to grumble under his
breath as Jed’s mother winked at her new young friend.

‘I think it’s a
very nice specimen, as bottoms go that is,’ Dotty said, as she held
her hand over the wound. Jed’s face suffused with colour once more,
he cringed as he felt the heat and the itching from the magic and
he fervently wished the ground would open up and swallow him.

‘Perhaps we
should have used needle and thread.’ Dotty added as she tried to
stop herself from laughing aloud at her patient’s obvious
discomfort.

‘Why’s that
dear?’ Jed’s mother asked slightly confused, after all the magic
she had witnessed a cut bottom she thought should have been
easy.

‘It would have
hurt more...,’ replied Dotty, smiling as she finished the
healing.

Just then, the
back door opened and the twins Varan and Sonal entered the house.
Jed pulled himself hurriedly from the kitchen table and covering
his now healed bottom stood staring at his best friend with thunder
in his eyes.

‘Don’t even
ask…’ he growled as the twins burst into friendly laughter at the
scene before them. ‘It’s no the least bit funny.’ Jed added
huffily, throwing a furious glance at Dotty as he stalked out of
the room avoiding eye contact with anyone else and a chorus of
laughter followed him.

That evening,
Gideon re-emerged from his enforced sleep fit and well with no sign
of the illness that had laid him so low. He crept into Mayan’s room
and kissed her brow thinking how small and vulnerable she looked
lying so still in the large bed and leaving her quietly he went
downstairs to the parlour; he had a few questions to ask both his
father and Sonal. Hushed voices immediately stopped as he walked
into the room.

The previous
night Gideon had used this room for sleeping in, then, it had
seemed huge but full of bodies as it was now it seemed to have
shrunk, the whole household bar Mayan were gathered, either sitting
or standing around and although greeted with smiles and welcoming
looks, Gideon could feel the tension in the air.

‘Ah, there you
are me boy...’ his father smiled warmly and offered him a cup of
tea patting a vacant stool beside himself. Again, Gideon looked
around the room at the faces of people he knew.
Two Sonal’s!
He thought, clearly not remembering seeing them both the previous
day,
‘n’ oo by the journey is that.
His eyes widened seeing
a strange young man standing protectively beside his grandmother
and in some of his own clothes. The young man caught the stare and
smiled tentatively. His grandmother seeing the smile, introduced
Jayson and explained his presence and the need for the borrowed
clothing, she squeezed the young man’s arm in affection and spoke
warmly, so Gideon smiled awkwardly in return.

‘Gideon, this
is Varan, my brother...’ Sonal began quietly, adding ‘my twin
brother, remember?’ Gideon nodded slowly, vaguely remembering
Sonal’s tale of the Bleak and trying to recall if he had actually
seen the man before he had passed out the day before. He closed his
eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose between his finger and
thumb.
It’s ser quiet!
He thought, suddenly realising the
tension he could feel was because of him. He cleared his throat and
raised his head, he had thought long and hard, as he lay awake on
the bed his father had used in the room above this one. Voices and
mumblings had risen up between the floorboards just the same way
his father’s soft voice had done the previous night, drawing him
upstairs to learn about his real mother and his unconventional
birth. Lying awake, he realised the conversation was about him
again, this time though about what had happened out in the woods
and he wondered if Sonal would have any answers for him. He was
worried, he had seen and felt the magic leave his body, a pearly
iridescent wave of death, he had seen the birds fall from the trees
and the soldiers drop dead. The tension that had made him so sick
had eased at the exact moment of the magic’s release, only to begin
building once more immediately after. It had something to do with
the fact that he had been almost constantly ill since leaving home
of that, he was sure.

‘Folk’s, I…
I... err… well, I would like ter know what’s ‘appenin’ ter me?’ He
asked in a small voice, no one moved or attempted to speak so he
looked pointedly at his father and his friend and asked again.
‘What is it Da, Sonal, what’s goin’ on?’

Varan looked at
the boy’s puzzled face, he was almost sure the message he had
passed on to Rhoàld in a vision was for him but he was confused. He
had carried the message in his heart for so long in the hope of
finding the one, the warrior that would save them all.
Where is
the powerful warrior we had hoped for, the all-powerful sage,
surely this cannot be him,
he thought.
How can I pass this
boy, this boy not long out of childhood the message, would he
understand it, would he even be able to interpret its meaning?
He mused silently and in his confusion, he said nothing as the tiny
silver haired girl flashed her fingers at her sister and Gideon,
noticing the strange movements stared openly.

‘Lemba would
like me to translate what she says,’ began Dotty speaking mainly to
Gideon. Gideon nodded and sat down, slowly sipping the tea his
father had given him and he looked at the girl whilst her sister
spoke, all the while staring at her fingers in fascination as they
moved, faster here and slower there, like a dancer practicing a
particularly difficult routine.

Once more,
Lemba’s fingers told the story of Toby and the magic she had
witnessed, she told of his mission from the king to find Gideon
himself and her own subsequent need to find Jed. Her fingers slowed
as she reached Rhoàld’s part of the tale and she glanced at him,
her fingers faltering.

‘Go on my
dear,’ Rhoàld said, nodding his head sadly, so her fingers flashed
again, faster and faster as she spoke of Gideon’s true parentage
and then his brother’s illness. Finally, she spoke of Jed’s
decision to leave the army to help Gideon and save his family and
his abandonment of their group only that morning.

‘Well…,’ Gideon
almost giggled when her fingers stilled. He watched them as they
wrung with worry and wondered if they were saying anything else. He
looked at Dotty feeling as if he were drunk, his head felt light
and his emotions were overwhelmed, when she said nothing he put the
cup and the remainder of the cold tea down on the table.

‘‘Ang on, let
me get this right,’ he said, taking a moment to gather his
thoughts. ‘Not only have I got some bad disease that seems ter kill
folk iffen I get a headache but I’m the King’s son
an’
his
grandson… and me ma, who, ...let’s not forget, was dead when me Da
birthed me, says he be out ter get me,’ he added, remembering the
story that had played out in the smoke. ‘Oh, an’ would yer believe
it I don’t even ‘ave a coin ter check fer this likeness mesel’,’ he
added as he stood and patted himself down pulling the insides out
of his trouser pockets. ‘All that and then, then… there’s what
‘appened ter me poor Mayan...’ Gideon slumped heavily back onto the
stool beside his father.

Jed, having
learned the tale before Gideon was out of bed had prepared for the
boy’s reaction and placed his arm around his son. ‘Gid lad,’ he
said, ‘first Dotty and yer gran ‘think May will be ok, that’s right
ain’t it Dot?’ Jed said looking toward the woman for confirmation.
Dotty smiled her agreement, feeling warmed by the diminutive use of
her name.