The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' (39 page)

‘Were that me
then?’ Gideon asked, surprise evident on his face and his tight
control of his speech slipping in the shock. ‘Can I really do
magic?’ He asked bemused, ‘d’yer hear that Jed,’ he looked toward
his friend, ‘I can do magic!’ Jed in turn stood up and pointed his
finger threateningly at his friend.

‘If I ever find
out yer cheated an’ used magic ter best me at skimming stones
across the Beaut, I’ll…I’ll throw yer in,’ he laughed suddenly at
the look of consternation on his friends face. Joining in with the
laughter both Varan and Gideon’s father stood and moved away from
the table and Jed held his hands out to a small fire burning
merrily in the grate.

‘Me ole bones
are tired so I’ll be sayin’ goodnight ter yer all. I too am goin’
ter bed,’ he said nodding toward the almost empty hall, ‘an’ I’ll
see you all in the mornin’, Journey Willin’ o’ course,’ he added as
he walked out of the room.

The tension
eased as the boys laughed and joked remembering various tasks
Gideon had always bested Jed at and the ones he lost until Mayan
also yawned once more.

‘I got ter get
some sleep, comin’ Lems?’ She asked as she stood and moved away
from the table. Rhoàld quietly said goodnight and followed the two
girls from the room, arm in arm the young men began to follow
behind their companions.

‘Gideon,’
called Thaddrick, before he had gone too far, ‘please be so good as
to carry Jonus back to his room,’ he said, indicating a bundle of
rags curled up in one of the large chairs before the fire. He had
gone unnoticed, as the company had talked, listening as long as he
could until he had finally fallen asleep dreaming of skimming
stones, that hopped across the water forever.

Gideon picked
up the young boy and carried him off as Thaddrick smiled after
their disappearing backs.

‘You have a
question for me Sonal?’ Thaddrick said as he moved over to the fire
and sat in the chair so recently occupied by the small boy.
‘Please, join me, sit,’ he said indicating a second chair nearby.
Sonal move to the chair and perched himself on the edge, he felt
cold. The weak and dying flames of the fire giving off little or no
heat; he rubbed his arms around his body and clapped his shoulders
to bring a little warmth to the surface of his skin. ‘The void is
colder…’ Thaddrick said matter of factly, ‘that is what you wanted
to ask about is it not? I felt you trying to bridge the ether even
though it is almost impossible here,’ he said, his glance becoming
deadly serious.

‘I wanted to
ask about opening the gateway, if Gath does open the gateway how do
you know it will open into the void and not on your home planet?’
He said in a rush. Thaddrick pulled at his beard before he
answered.

‘Firstly, it is
our
home planet. Secondly, because I was able to construct
the spell to fully open the gateway onto Earth. I made notes and
kept them close by me always thinking I would find the spell for
closing as easily as I made the spell for opening, balance again
you see, but I never found the correct sequence or used the right
intonations. I’d not been able to construct the closing spell here
on Earth and then, if I had opened the gateway and led us all back
to Arotia, assuming it was still there of course, would I be
dooming the Earth to the mercies of the void, and what if something
went wrong and I destroyed both worlds. In the end, the point
became moot and I gave my notebook to Valeria for safe keeping,
when..., well, I gave the notebook to Valeria and it was lost… If I
could find my notebook…’ Thaddrick said almost to himself, ‘if I
could find the notebook and open the portal onto Arotia we could
close the gateway from there…’ Sonal sensed Thaddrick had almost
forgotten he was there and wondered if his original question had
even been answered.

‘What will you
do now then?’ He asked instead and stood indicating his questions
had finished.

‘Now…? Well,
for now, I will teach young Gideon, we don’t have much time but I
will endeavour to do my best. Goodnight Sonal.’ Thaddrick said in a
hurry as he too stood and walked quickly toward the door leaving
Sonal before the dying fire. ‘My best for
all
our sakes...’
Sonal heard as Thaddrick left the room.

Sonal stared at
the ashes of the fire, he thought of the revelations he had heard,
Gideon being his great nephew. The king, Gath, being a dark mage, a
man who steals souls and bodies, the same man being married to
Lena, his small and fragile sister, her death her after she had
given him a child and not to mention the ring, now sitting prettily
on Mayan’s finger as a love token from Gideon. Then of course
Thaddrick himself, another member of his family though distant, and
once he thought about it, he realised Thaddrick did have the look
of his grandfather about him and he should have known they were
related somehow.

‘
Grandfather...!’
He suddenly thought of the book he held so
precious, the book his grandfather had given him so many years
before and his vision, the man he had seen writing in it, staring
at him as the vision ended. ‘Is it really beyond the bounds of
possibility that my book is the book Thaddrick seeks?’ He
whispered, and making his mind up quickly, he quietly walked to the
room he shared with his brother. He could see by the light of the
candle that Varan had cried himself to sleep; his pillow was wet
with tears. As gently as he could he removed the pillow from
beneath Varan’s head and replaced it with his own dry one and Varan
smiled, gently smacking his lips together once or twice before
settling down again. Satisfied his brother was comfortable once
more; he moved back to his own bed and retrieved the book from its
habitual hiding place under the bed. Re-crossing the room, he blew
out the candle and silently closing the door behind him headed out
toward the hall, intent on finding Thaddrick.

Through the
dark corridors that looked so different in the light of day, Sonal
moved as quickly as he could but as he entered the hall, he heard
the main door open and close quietly. Turning quickly toward the
main entrance in a vain attempt to catch the old man, Sonal walked
straight into a chair knocking his shin painfully and sending the
chair flying with a loud clatter. Hurriedly he picked up the chair
and with a quick cuss and a brief rubbing of his shin, he quietly
limped to the front door, opened and passed through, again as
quietly as he could. He could see Thaddrick within hailing distance
but it was still not quite dawn and people were still asleep, so
Sonal limped as fast as his painful shin would allow after the old
man. Before long, the pain in Sonal’s leg eased and he was able to
move a little faster but he still could not seem to move as fast as
the old man did.

‘Thaddrick,’
called Sonal softly as the old man stopped beneath the huge tree on
the hill, it stood out in stark relief against the predawn sky as
Thaddrick stood beneath it and began to sing in a low but
harmonious voice, his arms moving in intricate patterns as he sang.
Sonal moved closer as a pinprick of light appeared, growing
brighter by the moment, the light held a dark centre and the centre
began to grow and split, making more dark spots appear, Sonal
realised he was watching the birth of a gateway, in wonder he
watched the beautiful lights shine and sparkle as Thaddrick sang.
The dark spots changed shape as the surface of fiery light
broadened and once more, he recognised the shapes as hexagons, soft
dark hexagons, they swam and spun in the brilliance of the light.
Sonal could see Thaddrick’s face, serene and peaceful as he sang
the gateway into being and just as before, the shining sphere
flattened and the hexagons stopped moving quite so fast, gently
they tessellated and became solid, a solid black velvet mass.

‘Thaddrick,’
called Sonal softly once more just as Thaddrick stepped through
into the darkness. Annoyed with himself for waiting so long before
calling again, Sonal rushed toward the gateway all evidence of his
painful shin gone. He was beginning to feel very sleepy all of a
sudden and taking a deep breath and praying his journey was not
about to start he fell rather than stepped through the inky black
surface.

As the dawn
chorus began and the first light of day began to creep over the
pretty, white stone buildings and their sleeping inhabitants’ time
seemed to freeze. Birds stopped in flight and song, the wind ceased
to blow and the sun seemed to stop in its tracks.

The pre-dawn
sky would stay a pre-dawn sky until Thaddrick’s return.

The wolf
crouched by the large rocks hiding the gateway’s entrance, it
thought it had heard a voice as it entered the portal but unable to
distinguish the owner or stop his momentum, having already begun
the journey along the short corridor through the void, it hid to
check that it was not followed.
The time-lapse spell should have
kept the inhabitants of the valley in suspended sleep until my
return,
the man inside the wolf thought
, but I am sure I
heard something…

Within seconds
of Blue’s hiding the tessellation occurred, the shimmering black
hexagons stilled and seemed to spread, joining fast together giving
the illusion of a solid base, the inky black surface rippled
slightly and an almost comatose man fell through, landing hard but
heavily asleep in the moon washed dirt and stone before the
entrance of the portal. As the sleeping man lay sprawled on the
ground the portal shimmered once more and the hexagons changed,
taking on a mirror like appearance, the rivers of fire usually so
bright and impressive becoming dull, the whole construction taking
on the reflection of the world of rocks around it. Blue looked at
the gateway in deep satisfaction, it had taken him a long time to
change the spell and alter the design, any observer now coming
across the portal would see only a reflection of the sky or the
mountainside upon which the gateway stood. A sudden noise from the
man on the ground reminded Blue he was no longer alone and
suspicion filled him and his hackles rose, his eyes narrowed
dangerously and his usually prominent ears lay back against his
skull. Gingerly he stepped toward the sleeping man allowing the
man’s scent to wash over him, as he recognized the smell he relaxed
slightly. With his wolf sight and in the moonlight, the man’s
clothes were a combination of different densities, ranging from
deep black where the shadows lay, to a light grey where the jerkin
faced the moon’s pale light. Blue knew this particular jerkin was
usually a mix of green and faded black, as a wolf, his eyesight was
extremely good and he could with difficulty see colour but even he
had to admit not very well and especially in this light.
Sonal,
thought Blue, realising whom it was
what on the
journey are you doing here.

Sonal moved as
his enforced sleep began to wear off, no longer under the influence
of the spell his body reacted fast bringing him around within
minutes after falling through the portal. Rather dazed, Sonal sat
himself up and looked around him.

‘Well, this
surely isn’t Green Home Forest,’ he said as he took in his
surroundings, all was quiet and still in the moonlight apart from a
soft hiss,
what’s that?
He thought absently,
it’s like,
like air escaping from one of my old balloons,
he ignored his
own question as he saw the wolf standing so close to him and stood
up. ‘Blue, I guess this is going to be a one way conversation
then,’ he chuckled as the now relaxed wolf pushed its head under
Sonal’s hand. Sonal responded and pulled at the wolf’s ears.

‘Where are we
boy?’ He asked as the wolf moved away motioning with his head for
Sonal to follow. Slowly, Sonal clambered the well-trodden animal
track, his larger feet finding it slightly more difficult to
traverse as easily as the wolf and his eyes stayed fixed firmly on
the ground to find his footing and prevent a fall. To Sonal, they
seemed to walk for moments only until the pair finally rounded a
corner and stopped. He was totally unprepared for the scene before
him, the mountain range suddenly seemed to open up and from his
position he could see a large dome like shape covering almost the
entire valley before him. The dome shimmered in iridescent beauty
as it reflected the moons pale light and he felt tears sting his
eyes as he realized he was home, he had returned to the Bleak. He
fell to his knees and softly began to cry.

‘Home,’ he
whispered. ‘Blue, I lived near here; my family has a small farm…
no
, by now it will be inside the wall…’ he cried as he
realized the wall had indeed expanded. He looked once more at the
pearly, shimmering barrier before him, in places, the wall looked
thin and dull, almost gone, strands of the original spell structure
still held but barely. They added their lustre to the shining
brilliance as if a cord were stringing together shining pearls, a
vision of his mother swam before his eyes, smiling and happy
holding a long sting of the pale white orbs.

Sonal’s mother
had always worn a string of white stones around her neck on special
occasions, they had been a gift, her brother, a second son himself
had been allowed to leave the Bleak when he was a young man and
much like Sonal in his turn had always yearned for a different
life. Many years later, he returned with jewels and trinkets from a
lifetime of sea faring and he had filled Sonal’s head with the
tales and wonders of the outside world. Sonal’s father, fearing the
influence on his susceptible older son had discouraged the visits
when he could but not before his brother in law had given a string
of pearls to his sister, Sonal’s mother. The pearls radiant beauty
and shape had done nothing but remind the young man of the barrier
he hated and in his mind he could still see them, only now, they
were dull and patchy; not with shining iridescence he knew they,
like the barrier before him had once held.