The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' (16 page)

‘Basically,
we’ve sent Gideon out for a walk, Jayson is with him,’ Varan added
quickly. ‘Jayson will make sure Gideon gets home again safely if
the mag…, err if he becomes ill or if the walk is too much for him
I mean.’

‘I always knew
there was summat wrong wife that Forest…’ mumbled Gideon’s
grandmother almost under her breath. ‘I could always feel it
waitin’, jus’ waitin’,’ she added as Gideon senior smiled
indulgently at her. ‘You an’ yer Forest,’ she said sadly, a tear
rolling slowly down her face.

‘Tis why I
moved ‘ere, ter be with you love,’ he said, kissing her damp cheek.
‘Yer never took ter the trees so I brought me forest ‘ere with me,’
she smiled at him as he enclosed her in his arms, remembering how
his wife had never been able to reconcile herself to the forests
energy and its ambient feeling of possessiveness.

‘So,’ began
Mayan as she continued to look out of the window and munch
delicately on her toast, ‘Gideon is walkin’ about in the cold ‘coz
yer think, iffen ‘e’s away from the ‘ouse ‘e’s gonna be ill,’ she
held up her hand to forestall Sonal who had opened his mouth to
speak. She turned back to face the room before she continued. ‘I’m
sorry Sonal but I find it ‘ard ter believe a bunch o’ trees or some
dead wood protects ‘im. Gideon don’t do magic, ‘e’s never done any
magic, e’d ‘ave told me iffen ‘e could.’ She finished angrily.

‘Think about it
love,’ whispered Mrs Green, ‘when I was a girl, no one ever went
inter the forest. Yer gramps’ll tell yer, no one even went near, we
thought it was evil, I ‘ad a friend once… ‘is name was Byron… ‘E
never came back.’ Mayan watched her grandmother’s face crumple and
leaving her tea, rushed to her side. ‘Listen to em love,’ her
grandmother said as she pulled from Mayan’s embrace hurried through
the kitchen and up the stairs. Mayan stared after her.

‘She be mighty
worried about Gideon,’ explained her grandfather, ‘an’ what she
said is true, the forest took ‘er Byron. It’s not safe, fer most
folk anyway,’ he added as he followed his wife out of the room.

‘But we’ve
played in the forest all our lives, nowt ‘as ever ‘appened ter us
there,’ Mayan interjected angrily, adding, ‘even before yer came
Sonal, we were always safe there.’

‘You were
always with Gideon, you, your brother Jed and Gideon, can you name
any others who played in the forest with you… and who else have you
ever heard of with an ever-young wolf for a friend. The forest is
magic… It drew me to it… there is a reason… we just have to find
it,’ replied Sonal quietly.

‘The reason…,
the reason we are all here… we believe it’s because of Gideon.’
Varan said softly as the girl turned her face to the window once
more.

‘Jed…!’ She
whispered suddenly as the blood drained from her face and her hands
fisted tightly on the windowsill next to Gideon’s father.

Without warning
she suddenly felt her brother and remembered her dream, Jed’s
hatred was almost palpable, she started for the door at a run,
knocking cups flying and bashing into the table causing her
grandmother’s teapot to crash to the floor.

‘Jed no...
Sonal, it’s Jed, Jed’s out there waiting for Gideon, he wants ter
kill ‘im, I dreamt it, it’s what woke me up. E’s gonna kill Gid. I
can feel it,’ she flung open the door and ran out into the cold,
her chestnut hair flying behind her. Within moments as the kitchen
emptied, the sound of running feet crunching on the crisp grasses
filled the air as everyone raced into the trees shouting.

‘Jed,
stop…Jed.’

They were too
late; ten minutes later, they came upon the unconscious body of
Jayson, lying awkwardly on the cold ground.

‘I’ll stay with
him,’ said Rhoàld as the others rushed through the cold wood after
Mayan.

Gideon had
never been any match for his blood brother; Jed held him securely,
his knife pressed hard at Gideon’s throat, just biting at the skin.
Gideon wanted to be sick again and he had a pounding headache.

The illness had
returned as they were walking so Jayson suggested they sit for a
while to see if the pain and sickness would pass. As Gideon leaned
forward to vent his stomach, Jed had hit Jayson hard and dragged
away his unconscious body, dumping it beside a large tree.

With the
soldier disposed of, Jed rested his back against the bole of a
tree, he was exhausted and sick to his stomach with his head
reeling but he would sleep as soon as Gideon was dead, so he waited
whilst his brother again emptied his stomach.

He had found
and followed the two men easily and laughed to himself as the pair
sat down on the log,
careless,
he thought as no attempt to
check the area for adversaries had been made,
but then ‘e
wouldn’t think o’ me as an enemy.
The thought was banished as
quickly as it came, Gideon
was
his enemy, he had raped and
killed his only sister and only he would die for it, he toyed with
the idea of plunging the knife directly into Gideon’s back but
dismissed it, as it would have meant he would have to kill the
guard. He might not be a soldier any longer but he did not want to
kill one either, especially as this one looked rather a poor weak
soul,
not the kind of specimen Gath would usually chose as a
bodyguard
, Jed thought.

‘This way,’
called Mayan as she felt her brother close by, ‘this way, I can
feel ‘im.’ The others followed as quickly as they could. Varan and
Sonal, being twins themselves, knew and understood exactly how,
what the twins’ mother, called the twin thing worked and they
trusted Mayan implicitly.

Feeling weak
from his illness Gideon had not the strength to fight back and now
sat uncomfortably on the frozen ground with a cold knife pressed at
his throat, absently he noted Mayan’s blue stone dangling across
Jed’s forearm.

Gideon pushed
himself against the knife involuntarily as his stomach heaved once
more; bright red blood covered the knife and flowed over Jed’s hand
as it bit deeper into his throat. Knowing his prisoner was
helpless, Jed released the pressure on the knife slightly.

‘Why Gid, why
d’yer ‘ave ter kill ‘er when she was already yorn... yer know that,
she would ‘ave died fer yer…’ Jed sobbed, as Gideon again lurched
against the blade and vomited, failing to respond. Infuriated by
Gideon’s refusal to answer, Jed swung the butt of the knife hard
against his blood brothers head and Gideon collapsed. As he lay
unconscious, Jed sobbed again and cradled his brother’s comatose
body into his arms, inadvertently forcing the blade to bite into
his throat once again. ‘I loved yer Gid, I still love yer, why
d‘yer do it?’ He cried and his heart broke, he realised he would
never be able to hurt this man, the man he thought of as a brother.
He looked up through pain-filled eyes full of tears and he saw
Mayan standing in the trees, a little way away from him silent and
still.

‘I’m sorry
May,’ he said to her ghost, ‘I can’t kill ‘im, even though yer
dead, I can’t do it.’ Insane with grief he rocked the unconscious
body in his arms back and forth repeatedly, the knife held tightly
in his hand. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said again and the phrase became a
cadence for his rocking. ‘I’m sorry.’ ‘I’m sorry.’

Mayan slowly
crossed to her brother, tears in her own eyes; somehow, she knew
Toby was behind this.
‘I’ll do fer yer precious boys,’
he
had said the day he had left Green Home. For the first time in her
life, she knew what it was to hate and she did not much like the
feeling. She sat beside her brother motioning for the others who
had come up behind her to stay back and be quiet.

‘I’m no dead
bro,’ she whispered, her voice calm and serene belying the terror
she felt in her heart, ‘feel me,’ she added, as she placed her hand
against his bloody one and let her warmth spread through his frozen
skin. All the time her eyes on the knife still held so close to
Gideon’s open wound, already copious amounts of blood were oozing
down Gideon’s chest from the deep gash at his neck.

Sonal, alarmed
at the sight of so much blood grabbed his brother’s arm and began
to mumble in his old singular singsong voice. Supported as he was
by his brother, he pushed his mind outside his body and along the
invisible path toward Gideon, the path created as the party had
travelled toward Branton and when Gideon first become ill. As he
entered Gideon’s body his entire being shuddered, his own heart,
previously beating steadily, missed a beat and faltered slightly
before slowly regaining its natural steady rhythm, Varan felt the
change at the root of the magic and concentrated on supporting his
brother, sending healing power along the lifeline Sonal had opened.
He sat Sonal down on the damp ground still holding him tightly to
maintain a strong connection.

Sonal wandered
through waves of power like a man suddenly blind and alone in a new
place. He slowly focused on Gideon’s heartbeat until he recognised
the threads of the boy’s magic, and he stayed there, close to
Gideon’s heart until he was comfortable and linked, knowing and
acknowledging the essence of magic lying through the centre of
Gideon’s power, then he moved deeper. The strength of the raw
power, for the moment dormant in Gideon shocked him to the very
core. At its edge, the power seemed to pulsate, to throb in tune
with his heartbeat;
this is what I felt
, thought Sonal,
recognising an abundance of energy that without a drain or an
essence of control was slowly killing Gideon. Ignoring the
intoxicating pull of power, he tentatively searched for the wound.
Absently he noted living connections in the ether between Gideon
and Jed beside him, shared blood, he thought, remembering the
incident with the cut palms the night before Jed joined up so long
ago. The fine wires between the two boys seemed to glow and throb
through the roots, an invisible link, shiny and pure almost a
beacon for anything looking for them from this side of the magic.
Vulnerable and unprotected the threads throbbed with life,
they
don’t realise what they have done, I, I didn’t realise…,
thought Sonal, as he watched the link begin to dull, drawing life
force from Jed, it would kill Jed as surely as Gideon’s blood loss
would kill him too, if the bleeding wasn’t stopped. A second thread
he noticed connected Jed to Varan, this one was strong and
protected, this thread glowed in tune with the line connecting
Varan to himself and pulsing as Varan sent his strength to Sonal.
Sonal made a mental note to ask his brother about it.

Finally, he
found the wound, a deep cut in the side of Gideon’s neck; blood
flowed slowly through it like a partially blocked drain as Gideon’s
life leaked away. Sonal began to concentrate on the healing flow
from his own body, afraid to tap into Gideon’s own vast pool of
living energy, lest it disturb the dormant power and explode out
killing them all. He had used this method of healing many times
before as he fought whilst still a member, albeit a young one, of
the Guardians but never before had he been afraid to use the
injured parties own resources. Once known as an adept for this
skill in healing he had been fearless but here inside Gideon, he
felt a novice, frightened to awaken or touch the force at the heart
of Gideon’s power anymore than was necessary.

Sweat began to
pour from his brow and his heartbeat began to race as he took more
and more from his own body. From the inside out, the wound in
Gideon’s neck began to heal as the blood flow slowed and finally
stopped. The deeply cut tissues began to draw together, knitting
seamlessly, lastly as the skin closed and turned to a normal
healthy colour under the smears of blood, Sonal’s heart beat slowed
too and his breathing returned to normal as Varan continued to
watch his twin closely.

In the ether,
Gideon absolutely glowed with power, in his unconscious state the
power ebbed and flowed along with his heartbeat, like a mighty
ocean to the pull of the moon. The connection to the root of the
magic was the strongest Sonal had ever felt and he could feel the
power held at bay by what seemed to be vast wooden doors. The doors
ever thinning and straining as the power built up behind them and
as Sonal watched, he understood the cause of the sickness and
headaches.

He had been
right, Gideon had grown up under the influence of the Green Home
Forest and for some reason, probably the same reason he himself had
felt drawn to the forest, it had protected and nurtured the boy.
Gideon had no control over his own power and this lack of control
was what was killing him, he suddenly realised how dangerous Gideon
had become.

Checking the
site of the wound once more to ensure it was totally healed Sonal
carefully allowed himself to begin to drift back along the lifeline
but as he attempted to leave Gideon’s body he felt the hidden power
grab him and he struggled against the remorseless energy trying to
consume him, just as it was consuming Gideon himself. It was as if
the magic was alive and hungry, panic set in as he began to feel
his soul slipping away. Suddenly Varan was beside him, guiding and
pulling him from the hold of the magic, the lifeline between their
souls and their bodies thinned and threatened to break as the twins
fought their silent battle. They knew if the line broke, both men
would become trapped by the roots and forever forbidden to begin
their journey into the afterlife, their human bodies left to die as
empty shells. Varan too, slumped to the ground as they fought for
their lives, for their very souls. Varan’s connection to Jed and
through Jed to Gideon was holding them in a great circle without
the power to get free.

Unaware of the
battle raging around her, Dotty watched in awe as the wound healed,
as a healer herself, she marvelled at the prowess of Sonal’s work,
the wound itself, closing so perfectly and Gideon’s face returning
to a normal healthy colour so quickly. Her heart was breaking for
young Jed, so desperate in his grief and pain, then there was
little Lemba, who so wanted to go to him. A disturbance in the
ether caused her to reach for the roots of her own magic and she
gasped, nearly losing her footing as she finally felt the fierce
battle. Gideon’s father, standing beside her grabbed her arm to
stop her from falling.