The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' (9 page)

‘Mam,’ he said
to the old woman, ‘yer shouldn’t be lying on the floor like that,
you’ll catch yer death. Here, let me help yer get up,’ he said,
smiling kindly.

‘There’s
anovver of ‘em in the ‘ouse,’ whispered Gideon senior fearfully as
he watched Jayson helping his wife, suspicion evident in his eyes.
Jayson took the old woman into the house and returned to help the
old man and as Jayson placed his arms around him, Gideon suddenly
relaxed and knew with a deep certainty that this man was a
friend.

‘I’ll deal with
the intruder’s body sir,’ Jayson said quietly, ‘Duggan must have
fallen down the stairs, his neck is broken,’ he added.

Gideon’s head
felt fit to burst and as he walked it seemed to be getting worse,
the pain was unlike anything he had ever experienced. Pressure
seemed to be building behind his eyes making it difficult for him
to see, he was cold and hot at the same time and once again his
skin felt too small for his body. His skin itched unbearably with
the fabric of his clothes just exacerbating the problem.

‘Come on Gid
lad, we’ll soon be ‘ome ter yer gran’s ‘ouse,’ his father said, as
he hurried his son back over the slight rise and approached the
gully that separated his father’s land from the wood. He was
worried sick, Gideon had never had a day’s illness in his life and
since leaving home; he had suffered sickness, headaches, nausea and
now this. He wanted to consult Sonal who usually knew what to do in
unusual situations.

‘Da, I’m
gonna…,’ Gideon turned away from his father, bent double and threw
up, coughing and spluttering as the contents of his stomach vented
upon the leafy ground, Jed turned and leaned over his son his hand
gently resting on his back.

‘It’s not far
now boy, yer’ll be al…’ Jed fell, his unconscious form falling
heavily and hitting the ground as Gideon threw up again, the vomit
missing his father by inches. Exhausted, Gideon dropped to his
knees beside him.

‘Da…, Da,’ he
cried as he blindly shook the unconscious man through his bouts of
vomiting. With his eyes watering and the pain in his head building
once more, Gideon had not heard the approach of the soldiers any
more than his father had.

‘Well met
Gideon,’ called Toby, as Gideon tried hard to open his wounded eyes
and see, pressing the heels of his hands deeply into his eye
sockets he scrubbed hard.

‘Tie ‘im
tight,’ ordered Toby. Within minutes, Gideon found himself trussed
like a turkey awaiting the oven for the oncoming winter
festival.

‘I ain’t tying
‘is ‘ands til ‘e’s finished pukin’,’ laughed one of the guards as
Gideon, now helpless as a kitten allowed himself to be held as he
vomited.

He thought he
was dying, his blood was pounding in his veins and the pressure in
his head was building to a point of bursting, his whole body felt
wrong, pain was everywhere and all he wanted to do was die.

Toby kicked
Gideon’s unconscious father aside as Gideon threw himself forward
once more onto his hands, his stomach clenching hard. He could
hardly breathe, his throat burned from the acidic bile, his head
was buzzing and his eyes burned with the light of the sun. Tears of
pain poured down his face and dripped off his nose to mingle with
the cooling vomit and dark yellow bile beneath him. Toby’s stomach
churned at the intense smell.

‘That’s
disgustin’ man,’ Toby said, turning away and wrinkling his nose. He
spoke again to his men, ‘as soon as ‘e’s finished throwin’, tie ‘is
‘ands too…’ he grinned and walked a distance away from the smell.
‘Watch ‘im careful like lads,’ he added as he ducked into a bush,
‘I’m goin’ fer a piss.’

A few minutes
away Sonal was hurrying Mayan as fast as he could back along the
path they had taken earlier.

‘Mus’ we go ser
fast Sonal, can’t yer at least tell me why we suddenly be hurryin’
back the way we came?’ She asked. Her feet were sore and she didn’t
understand what was happening, one moment they had been ambling
along enjoying the sunshine in the leafy wood and the next Sonal
had stopped and seemed to ‘smell’ the air.

“By the
Journey!’ Come on, move...’ he had shouted as he hurried away.
Mayan complied but after Sonal had offered no explanation, she
stopped defiantly.

‘Sonal what’s
wrong, I’ll not be moving anovver foot til yer tell me.’ She said,
her fists curled and planted rebelliously on her hips.

‘Journey
preserve us,’ Sonal replied, stopping and looking toward the girl,
how could he explain to her that it was a feeling he had received
through his bond with the magic. Something was happening, even he
was not sure what it was but he knew without a doubt it concerned
Gideon and it could be fatal if someone did not do something.
‘Mayan, it’s Gideon, he needs us... now,’ he said as gently as he
could in his agitated state. ‘We must go dear, now...’ he said
again when Mayan did not move. She thought of Gideon, of all she
had heard last night and the horror she had felt at hearing of
Gideon’s birth, she had not known how to face her fiancé this
morning and had been very willing to walk with Sonal in the woods,
delaying the moment she would see him again. She felt immediately
guilty.

‘It’s my
fault,’ she whispered to Sonal, ‘I wasn’t there when he woke.
First, the dreams last night, an’ now this. ‘E’ll think I didn’t
love ‘im enough, what should I do Sonal?’ The tears immediately
fell from her eyes and she sobbed into her hands. Aware of time and
slightly harsher than he otherwise would have been, Sonal strode to
the girl and shook her.

‘It’s not
always about you, you silly, silly girl, Gideon may die, die here
and now whilst you wallow in your self-pity. Stay here if you must
but I really have to go,’ he turned his back on a shocked Mayan and
fled down the path. Remorse at his rough treatment of her flitted
through his mind but he shook it loose as he turned a corner and
stopped abruptly.

Across the
small clearing three men were huddled over what seemed to be a man
kneeling on the floor. Sonal recognised the top of Gideon’s blonde
head as he leant forward being violently sick and fearing the worst
he rushed over.

‘Let me
through, I’m a healer,’ he said just as Toby returned to the
clearing adjusting his belt, without wasting a moment Toby walked
up quickly behind Sonal and cracked him hard on the head with the
handle of his knife, down Sonal fell, straight over Gideon’s back
and lower legs. His body rolled down the slight gully and rested in
the piles of leaves gathered at the bottom.

‘Just missed
the puke!’ exclaimed one of the three men, laughing hard as he
tried unsuccessfully to hold Gideon in a position to tie him
without the lad being sick all over him.

‘Journey’s
End,’ how much puke can a man hold?’ Another exclaimed as Gideon
threw up yet again this time over the soldier’s shoes.

Gideon was
dangerously weak and faint, his eyes were on fire, his brain felt
like it was swelling, his head felt ready to burst and he thought
he was truly dying.

Mayan, shocked
at Sonal’s appraisal of her character followed him quickly down the
path. As she ran, brambles snagged her legs and her skin tore in
numerous places as twigs and branches reached out to hinder her.
Suddenly she thought again of the dreams she had had last night.
Gideon’s mother, the girl even younger than she was herself and
running alone in the dark with both the rain and the wind lashing
at her. ‘
Ow frightened she must ‘ave been,
Mayan thought
feeling deeply ashamed. As she turned the corner, she saw only the
pale blonde head leaning forward, liquid dribbling down from his
nose and chin and a soldier wiping his shoe on Gideon’s legs.

‘Oh Gid,’ she
called in sorrow as she rushed toward him; the faces around him
looked up.

“Ello there…
‘
my
only
love!’’ Toby said quietly, echoing a
previous conversation he had overheard between Gideon and Mayan; he
bowed politely from the waist and although exhausted from his
sickness, Gideon looked up.

‘Go May, run,
run…’ he croaked wearily, as one of the soldiers knocked him aside
with his knee. May’s blood ran cold as she turned on her heel to
run as Gideon had instructed, Toby watched her with both lust and
loathing in his eyes, he stepped to one side and reached into the
pack held securely at his belt and removed his swag net. Slowly he
spun it above his head, smooth circular movements gradually
becoming faster and faster, the net swirled through the air with a
faint hum emanating from its taught wires, finally he released it
spinning toward Mayan. The weights on the edge of the net held the
spread wide and it flew like a gossamer spider’s web across the
open space. It dropped fast, directly down onto the fleeing girl,
its momentum wrapping the spinning weights tight about her ankles
and she fell. With no free arms to block her fall, she fell hard,
knocking her head. As she started to slip into unconsciousness she
thought,
I’ve been ‘ere before…
silently she screamed as the
darkness took her.

‘Oh my, this be
easy, too, too easy..., tie ‘im tight,’ Toby said grinning at his
men ‘but make sure ‘e watches this…’ he laughed as he walked toward
the stunned girl, adding, ‘funny, ain’t it me love,’ yer own
brother Jed was the one oo taught me ‘ow to swing a swag net in the
firs’ place!’

In her mind
Mayan fled, deeper and deeper she retreated, erecting barrier after
barrier. Finally, she found her safe place, a happy place beside a
tree with a silver brook and she imagined Gideon was with her, in
her dreams he wrapped his arms around her while she cried
softly.

‘I’m sorry;’
she sobbed, her salty tears staining his beautiful white
shirt.’

‘Hush, love,’
Gideon was saying, ‘It’ll be all right...’

‘After me lads,
yer know yer first...’ Toby laughed again as he knelt at Mayan’s
feet freeing her slowly from the net and taking the knife from his
belt, he began to cut away her clothing. He glanced over at Gideon
expecting to see his pain but when he did not he screamed at his
men.

‘I said make
sure ‘e can see.’

Gideon felt his
hair grabbed and his head lifted but as he looked up the light hit
his eyes piercing them with red hot needles, he screwed them
tightly shut trying to lessen the pain.

‘Don’t yer
wanna see your girly get a good portion then lad?’ The soldier
holding his head up by the hair asked with a sneer evident in his
voice. Gideon forced his eyes open, he saw between the tears
falling from his eyes his Mayan, nearly naked and lying still
before Toby, her creamy white skin exposed to all. Her nipples
hardened in the cool breeze as Gideon watched and Toby unbuttoned
his trousers releasing his engorged manhood to the cheers and
catcalls of his men.

‘Toby…, please
no,’ Gideon whispered through his pain. The vision before him
wavered then grew still again, he felt as if his head were
pulsating, each contraction becoming stronger and stronger; his
body was bursting out of his skin. Vomit once again rushed up his
gullet and he pulled his head down for release.

‘No lad,’ said
the soldier once again yanking his head up with his hair, ‘Sergeant
Hollins says you have to watch, you never know, maybe if you are a
good prisoner the serge will let you have a share after all of us!’
He laughed at his own joke as Gideon saw Toby cut away the last of
Mayan’s underclothing, her natural red hair curling delicately.
Gideon’s neck stretched too far for breath and his vision distorted
once more.

‘Go on Serge,
give ‘er one fer me,’ he heard.

‘No,’ Gideon
tried to shout, his voice came out as barely a whisper, his eyes
began to throb, for an instant his vision cleared once more and he
watched as Toby, his knees pushed between Mayan’s spread legs
finally leant forward and ploughed his manhood into her.

‘No,’ Gideon
shouted, tears of fury running down his face.

‘Got there
before yer, Gid…’ Toby purred as he realised Mayan had been a
virgin, his voice was hoarse and filled with pleasure and his scar
puckered the side of his face turning his grin into a sneer.

‘NOOOO…!’
Exploded Gideon; a wave of pure power erupted from his body, white
and shining in its intensity. The soldiers beside and in front of
him dropped dead, their hearts stilled instantly. Small animals and
birds overhead fell from the trees as the power surged on above and
in front of him, diminishing in intensity as it travelled. Toby
collapsed on top of Mayan suddenly knocked out cold, his manhood,
still buried deep inside her shrivelled and died, slipping out of
her like a cold wet worm.

Everything in
front and to either side of Gideon was either dead or unconscious.
The creatures of the earth stopped moving and the trees about him
instantly lost their colour, turning brittle as life leeched away,
the very air stilled, there was nothing living, death stalked the
area greedily lapping up even the tiniest of insects and stopping
their minutely beating hearts. A heavy branch cracked as it died
and broke off a large tree, Gideon watched through a filmy haze of
pain, as it seemed to fall in slow motion, landing almost on top of
the two bodies lying one atop the other. Finally, Gideon himself
collapsed on the dead ground his unknown power spent for the
moment.

On the Branton
Road not too far away, Varan and his small party were travelling
toward Green Home. They were tired and dirty, the weather had
turned cooler as they crossed the river and the chill had leeched
at their courage and determination, draining their strength like an
open tap empties a barrel. Young Jed wanted to nothing more than to
get home, he had begun to feel ill again and could not stop
thinking his mother was in trouble. Lemba smiled at him feeling his
worry and feeling useless as she was unable to put things right.
She patted his hand as it held hers tightly.