The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' (40 page)

‘How has it
deteriorated so fast?’ He asked still staring at the wall, ‘where
are the Guardians... why have they let it get into this state, what
happened here?’ He asked again, the questions falling off his
tongue like water from the sky in a rainfall. The wolf, unable to
answer, led the man further into the valley and nearer to the
failing wall. Sonal could see that in places, the curtain of
magical fabric was actually torn and to his horror, he could see
that where the rents had occurred, already life outside of the
barrier had already begun to wither and die. Walking toward the
nearest of the small rents, Sonal rubbed the scar on his chin
gently, as if trying to remind himself how he got it. He shook his
head and deliberately stepped carefully and quietly through,
that hiss is louder here,
he thought. Blue opened his mouth
and emitted a low-key breathy whuff, clearly upset at Sonal having
moved inside the dome. His ears flattened against his head and he
lowered himself to the ground inching forward almost on his belly
as he trailed after the man. Sonal kept moving through the gloom,
the moonlight refused to penetrate the wall leaving the whole area
dull and unreal,
like walking through fog
, Sonal thought,
suddenly feeling like each step was a labour, his arms and legs
felt heavy too and it was difficult to breath. He walked on
regardless, passing places he knew he had known as a child but now
was barely recognisable; dust covered everything and nothing seemed
to be alive. The fog like atmosphere thickened, broken only by the
occasional beam of muted light as it filtered through a tear in the
dome high above his head, as he walked he removed his scarf from
his neck to tie it across his face in order to stop the dust and
fog from penetrating his lungs too deeply.
I condemned Varan to
live like this…,
he thought, the tears drying in his lids
before they became viable. On he walked, mile after mile of nothing
but dirt, fog and death, with Blue as silent as the grave loyally
following.

Finally, Sonal
saw in the periphery of his eyesight what he had subconsciously
come to find. A long low wall stood before him, the petrified
remains of a small grove of trees and a stone well, miraculously
still intact; then the remains of a barn with its doors open and
swinging awkwardly off the hinges, its cavernous interior making
the shadows look deeper and more threatening as they passed by.
Still Sonal walked on, slower now and with dread holding every
step, making every footfall scuff up the sand and dirt beneath his
feet, the only obvious movement among the miles of desolation. On
he crept through the dead village, past outlying tumble down shacks
and lost faded buildings that had once held his friends. His chest
became tight as he struggled to breathe the thin air and again he
slowed down, almost not wanting to see. Then, out of the gloom
appeared what had once been another building, it was just as
ramshackle and dead as the rest of the village but this one the
breath still in his chest. A still sturdy chimneystack grew from a
ruin that had once been his childhood home, here and there, the
roof remained intact allowing him to glimpse inside the once lively
house, rotten wooden floors, doors hanging from hinges and torn
rags flapping at broken windows threw him instantly into the throes
of memory. He walked slowly around the building seeing the rooms
for what they once were, tears for himself and his family refusing
to fall from his eyes, drying even before they were born. He saw
ghosts from his past, his mother sat with her twin sons and
daughter before the roaring fire telling the three children stories
before bedtime. His father, teaching him how to use his magic to
repair small hurts in trees or animals and how to maintain the
balance the magic required, all in preparation for his duties as a
guardian. He saw Analeen crying on the last day he had seen her
alive, her small face contorted with tears and sobbing because she
didn’t want to go visit an old aunt of her mother’s, she had wanted
to stay at home.

‘With the boys
and grandpa,’ she had said, he remembered how happy both he and
Varan had been when their mother had refused to allow her
request
. Lena had always been able to tell us apart,
he
thought
, she would have spoiled our game of swaps
, his
thoughts continued guiltily. Maybe she would still have been alive
if she had stayed; he shook his head to remove the depression that
had settled over him. He thought of his grandfather, the
grandfather who had put so much trust in him, the grand old man of
the family, so loved by all of the children.

‘It’s a secret
from me to you…,’ the words entered his head with such force they
startled him.

‘The book, of
course, grandfather’s book,’ he said whirling around to face the
wolf sitting alert but unhappily beside what had once been the life
force of the house, the now dead hearth.

‘I came to give
you this.’ Sonal said, suddenly angry at the overwhelming emotion
engulfing him within the confines of his old home, guilt laying
heavily on his mind. ‘Did I make this happen Blue?’ He whispered as
he placed the book before the wolf on the dirt floor. ‘Did I cause
them all to die, Lena to die?’ Unable to shed viable tears he sat
breathing heavily and with difficulty as he leant against the outer
wall of his old home his head held low in his hands. ‘Some secret,
grandfather,’ he sobbed aloud, his voice raw and filled with
pain.

Blue looked
quizzically at the book before him before lowering his head and
sniffling and snuffling all around it, his attention suddenly
transfixed, he began pushing the old book gently with his nose.
Sonal looked up as he heard the scraping of the book across the
ground as it inched its way with the help of Blue’s paw toward a
single patch of pure moonlight and following the moonbeam’s upward
path as far as he could toward the ceiling of the large domed
barrier, Sonal sighed.

‘Somewhere up
there Blue, is yet another hole in the barrier!’ He said softly,
acknowledging the single candle of pure light in the desolation
surrounding them, he felt ill knowing that as the moonbeam
penetrated the broken barrier, so was the void sucking the life in
from outside the dome, eventually it would suck everything through
and leave the whole planet as desolate and dead as this place
was.

Finally, the
book reached the silver patch of moonlight and Sonal stared as the
wolf leaned even closer and began to breathe over it, soft
snuffling and sharp short barks, the soft whuff of each breath
accompanied a gentle howl, each conveying something to the
inanimate object. The book suddenly began to change colour, from
its bland undistinguishing dirty leather to a brilliant green and
gold, the intricacy of the pattern on the cover now a recognisable
gateway and with a huge number of the brilliant hexagons almost at
the point of tessellation, almost ready to open. Immediately the
wolf began to wag his tail high, his tongue lolled from the side of
his mouth and he drooled.

‘What is it
boy?’ A bemused Sonal asked, the colours of the book reminding him
again of the vision he had witnessed back in his home beside the
Green Home Forest. He knew without looking that if he picked up the
book now and opened it would at last be full of writing, he still
would not be able to read it, but the writing would be there. With
the glorious book still green, gold and shining brightly in the
centre of the pale silvery moon beam, the wolf began to frolic like
a puppy and gambol playfully, madly. Finally, it slowed and bowed
low placing the front of its body down to the ground, while holding
its rear high, its tail still wagging furiously whilst its
brilliant blue eyes shone with pleasure.
He’s smiling!
The
thought crossed Sonal’s mind as suddenly Blue stopped, his ears
alert and erect, his fur suddenly bristling, Sonal watched, his own
fear mounting as the wolf he had known for years curled his lips
back and snarled, a long low sound that sent shivers down his
spine. The wolf before him seemed to double in size, as the hairs
on the animals back seemed to puff out and expand, his tail pointed
straight out behind him giving him length, its muscles taut and
quivering, it was ready to fight.

‘Come on Blue,
we have outstayed our welcome I fear.’ Sonal said quietly as picked
up the book, absently noting the beauteous colours vanishing before
his eyes, he replaced it deep inside his jerkin pocket and began to
move away, back the way they had come. He moved awkwardly now, the
lack of air making him slow. Through the thick fog he moved,
exertion making his heart rate quicken and his breathing labour
even more as he staggered back toward the opening in the wall. It
seemed so far away, the wall has expanded so far, Sonal thought
remembering how as a young man, he and the other guardians had had
to walk almost half a day past their house to reach it.
It has
expanded a day’s walk since I was young, how is this possible?
His thoughts continued as he strove to keep ahead of the wolf. Now
and then, his heavy body protested and he had to stop for breath
but the wolf pushed him on relentlessly, Sonal had the feeling
something was following them but did not want to stop to find out
what.

The eerie
silence surrounded them, broken only by the inescapable hiss that
seemed to be everywhere; a soft gentle sound that caressed the
eardrums belying the danger it represented. If the earth was a
balloon in the hands of the void, then the air was escaping at an
alarming rate and all too soon, the balloon would be flat, earth,
like the balloon, would die.

At last, the
wall was in sight and both Sonal and Blue quickened their pace with
Blue, as ever taking the rear. Standing just inside the rent in the
fabric of the wall Sonal suddenly felt the full force of the void’s
pull. With his body pushing against the current of air he struggled
to step through the tear until a tremendous push at his back had
him over and on the dead earth outside the hole once more with Blue
standing over him. Tired but free from the pull of the valley he
immediately stood and stared back the way he had come.

‘If I can do
nothing else I can do this…,’ he said to the wolf as he prepared
himself to perform a spell he had not spoken in what seemed a
lifetime. The wolf paced back and forth giving off soft breathy
whuff’s and sharp clicks as his teeth ground together, it was
impatient to be off and letting Sonal know it. Sonal attempted to
concentrate until irritated by the constant movement in his
peripheral vision he turned to the wolf and hissed.

‘Will you stay
still, it’s hard enough without you fidgeting…’ turning back to the
wall, he smiled to himself hearing his father in his words, as he
attempted to teach an unwilling boy the correct intonations.

‘Father, I’m
ready now,’ he whispered softly to himself before looking at the
wolf and adding, ‘you know I was born for this Blue.’ Then placing
his fingertips together to aid his concentration he began to sing,
a low melodious hum began building slowly, each note pure and clear
as his fingers began to weave patterns in the air. Blue could see
the fabric being created before his eyes as Sonal sang, each note
adding strength to the weft and the weave of the threads as if they
were on an invisible loom. As a wolf, he could see in colour but
not well, so the silver and gold threads before him that glowed
softly as Sonal wove the delicate lace like fabrics, he knew, would
be dazzling to behold in his human form.

The music
swirled around them and swept into the hole, it grew in volume and
power as it entered the valley, resonating from within, echoing the
new notes that Sonal sang, each chord adding its own power and
beauty. The wall itself responded as each sound melded and formed
new lines, shimmering iridescent strands adding power to the old
broken threads weaving strength, healing and repair. The power
seemed to double and treble as the song stimulated the tired and
faded threads of the original spell structure. Then, finally, the
gossamer fabric, like fine silk cobwebs overlay the tear in the
fabric of the dome, Blue could see the strain on Sonal’s face as he
struggled to make the bindings stay, the intense pull from the void
making the melding of the repair almost impossible.

Still Sonal
sang and gently lowering himself to the floor pushed his fingers
into the dusty dead ground. He felt something changing, pulling on
him, draining him slightly,
the balance…
he thought as he
sank further onto his knees in the struggle. Suddenly he felt
lifted as another voice joined his and the task before him began to
fall into place as each thread joined and combined, fusing together
blending the old with the new. The light from the moon caught the
pearlescent fabric and the whole section of wall glowed with a
lustre unseen for many years. Blue continued to whuff and bark
softly in time with Sonal’s music of strength and love, finally and
with a tremendous bang, the hole sealed closed, just as if a door
had slammed shut before them. Still on his knees, Sonal looked at
the wolf and a slow smile spread over his face.

‘My father
would have been proud to know you Thaddrick,’ he said, as the wolf
moved toward him and lay on the ground, sphinx like with
exhaustion, his tongue lolling long and wet out of the side of his
mouth. Sonal rubbed the wolf between the ears and made no attempt
to rise, he just stared at the shining wonder before him glowing
pale and shimmering like silver.

‘Looks solid,
as if nothing could ever pass through it, eh boy?’ He said softly,
knowing the lie of the words, knowing from experience the wall and
the hard-earned repair would not last long.
Time is running out
for us and for the world, maybe for both worlds. What happened here
father? Where did the Guardians go, did they give up and run away?
Just as I once ran away…’
A single tear ran down his face
reflecting the light from the iridescent wall before him and he
pondered guiltily about his family and other ‘guardian’ families he
had grown up alongside; they had all vanished, broken up and
dispersed just as the wall they had once given their lives to
protect was doing. Finally, as Blue licked his hand and he looked
into the animal’s deep blue eyes he understood. ‘It’s ‘Journeys
Will’ Blue, that’s it isn’t it, the Guardians were not meant to
continually struggle to mend a failing wall, I was meant to leave,
meant to find ‘the one,’ meant to find Gideon to help
guard
him
as he grew so he can fulfil the prophecy, he can close the
gateways forever.’