Chapter 5

“Are we there yet?” Tabatha asked, dropping down at the edge of an inviting field of tall, sweet-smelling grass.

“You should know,” Alana replied, following her dear friend’s example and dropping down next to her. “You’re the one who goes where she’s needed.”

“I know,” Tabatha sighed, grinning and grimacing at the same time while she stretched muscles that were aching from so much walking. “My mind wandered, and I was back in Boston, watching a stupid TV commercial for some theme park.”

“I don’t think about the past,” Alana replied, much of the pleasantness gone from her voice. “The past is gone. The future is what counts.”

“You’ve said that before,” Tabatha pointed out, “but you still threw away everything you had for second chance with Sy, Béla.”

“Béla is gone,” Alana told her, her voice cold with anger and regret, “and she isn’t coming back!”

“Jake still loves you,” Tabatha said, raising her voice to impinge into Alana’s thoughts as the queen rose and walked away.

“Fuck Jake,” she thought she heard Alana say. She was sure when Alana added, “and the whore he rode in on!”

‘Yeah, the past isn’t important, ‘ Tabatha thought to herself, not bothering to shield her mind. ‘Sure, it isn’t!’

Twin beams of pure energy whipped around from in front of Alana, one going left and the other right to cross behind her right where Tabatha was standing. Tabatha jumped back a quarter of a second in time. As the beams crossed together, they passed harmlessly through her, or rather, right where she’d be in a quarter of a second.

“You missed,” Tabatha taunted her. “Try again, My Queen?”

Alana turned around, the white gauzy material of her wrap whirling. “Don’t call me that!” she snarled, then stood and glared at Tabatha.

“You won’t hurt me,” Tabatha softly told her. “I love you. And you love me. There’s no reason to be angry at anybody. Not me, not Jake. Nobody.”

‘Not even Sy... ‘

The thought lay between them, and Alana suddenly realized that she blamed Sibilius as much as Jake for ruining her life. Sy had waited for her, though he didn’t realize it, for thousands of years after he’d sent her to Earth. Then, only a few years ago, she discovered that she could choose between keeping Jake and sharing him with Annalisa, or attempt to regain the happiness she’d had with Sibilius thousands of years before any of them ever came to this forsaken star system. And Alana had gone against one of the basic truths that guided her way through life; she chose the past over the present.

‘And you’ve been miserable ever since, Alana.’

‘What can I do?’ Alana thought to her close friend. ‘I’ve made my choices. My promises are all I have left. I promised Sy... ‘

‘You also promised Jake, ‘ Tabatha reminded her gently.

‘But Sibilius... ‘

‘Would understand, ‘ Tabatha interrupted the thought. ‘In fact, he already knows.’

‘I owe him!’ Alana cried out with her mind. ‘He deserves to be happy.’

‘As do you, ‘ Tabatha replied. ‘And he isn’t happy. Because you’re not happy. He would release you of your promises in an instant just to see you smile again.’

‘And you know this because... ‘

‘He told me, ‘ Tabatha confessed. ‘He came to me for advice, and I told him the oldest answer in the book... ‘

‘If you love someone... ‘ Alana thought, suddenly feeling a lightness as though a heavy weight had lifted from her shoulders.

“Set them free,” Tabatha whispered out loud.

“But he doesn’t deserve to lose me again,” Alana wept, sinking down onto her knees in relief at finally arriving at some decision.

“He’s already lost you,” Tabatha replied, kneeling down next to her queen. “He knows that setting you free is the only way to regain your love.”

Alana laughed gently, sadly, and wiped tears from her cheeks. “Yes, I would love him for that...”

“Sibilius doesn’t want to own you,” Tabatha explained. “He only wants to be in your life, in whatever way you see fit.”

“You seem to know him better than I do,” Alana replied, no hostility evident in her voice.

Tabatha shrugged and smiled her answer. She was an Empath. Empathy was different than telepathy, and while Alana liked to think she understood how others felt, she often fell short of actual empathy. Tabatha was easily comfortable with both abilities. Plus, she could travel, instantly, to almost any period in time.

‘Maybe you should be the queen, ‘ Alana joked. ‘I certainly don’t want the job.’

“Well, maybe you don’t,” Tabatha agreed, “but the inhabitants of New Eden believe you deserve a crown for saving them and their families.”

“No good deed goes unpunished, huh?” Alana quipped with a sad laugh.

“So it seems,” Tabatha smiled as she rose and helped Alana up.

“So, where’d that friggin’ fairy go?” Alana asked, looking around, ready to continue their journey.

A distant cry pierced the darkness. “That sounded human,” Tabatha whispered, not wanting to startle anyone from their intense audio search.

“Yeah,” Holly whispered in reply.

“It came from over there, by those rocks,” Alana told them. “Let’s go!”

“Should we teleport?” Tabatha asked, not wanting to go racing around in the dark where any number of toothy beasts might be lurking.

“Teleport? In the dark?” Alana asked, surprised at Tabatha even asking such a question. “We’ve never been here before. What if one of us materializes inside a tree or something?”

“In that case,” Haley smirked, “the locals might witness a new energy source, ‘cause Tabatha would likely trap the blast in one of her time bubbles.” She smiled, bowed and held up her hand as though holding an imaginary globe. “Hello, everyone, I’d like to introduce you to my sister – well, she used to be, anyway. Now, she’s a tiny little ball of very bright sunlight. Holly, glimmer ‘hello’ at everyone, will you, dearling? Ooo, not so bright there, sweetie,” Haley laughed, pretending to shield her eyes from the imaginary ball of light in her other hand. “Now go up there and light our way for us, will you, dearie? That’s a good little ball of ... whatever...”

“Stop being stupid!” Holly growled, holding her emotions in check with fists clenched in close to her sides. “I’m not going to teleport into the middle of a friggin’ tree!”

“Alright, children,” Alana chided them both, “nobody’s teleporting anywhere. We’re going to walk. You ready?” And with that, she turned and began traveling toward the cry they had heard earlier.

Not too far away, Cela yelped as the stars suddenly disappeared. The disappearance of the stars didn’t worry her; she’d seen clouds race across the night sky to cover moon and stars before. What terrified her was the sound of giant wings that accompanied the vanquishing of the stars.

‘The Wind God comes!’ she realized. Her long wait was over, and soon she would be either transformed, or dead. Not everyone chosen as a sacrifice to the Wind God survived their transformation. The ground was littered with the bones of failed sacrifices.

And now, the great dragon crouched before her, staring down to look her over, eyes glowing a soft blue – brilliant against the darkness of the dragon’s face. Cela cringed as wings as large as the sky itself spread out to surround her.

“Enchi...” an excited voice whispered from nearby. “By all the gods – you really are the Dark Dragon!”

“Nyha!” Cela screamed, frightened and angry at the intrusion of this unknown newcomer. “Ne hey allo sakkein!” No! You are forbidden to see! She stared up at the dragon’s face after her outburst, hoping she hadn’t angered the great beast.

The Wind God slowly turned its head to see who had spoken to it. Alana stared up at it, shocked beyond reason at coming face to face with one-half of the most ancient deities she had ever worshipped.

“You’re real!” she gasped with awe, collapsing almost five thousand years of accumulated knowledge into that single sentence. This was not the same dragon she’d spoken with earlier. This creature took up half the landscape!

Alana felt the creature studying her, searching through her mind with apparent ease even though she had instinctively blocked herself at the creature’s first tenuous mental touch. She blocked, and felt the intrusion soften, then absorb the wall she’d mentally constructed. She blocked again, and again her defenses were simply absorbed into the great dragon’s awareness.

Then she felt puzzlement as the dragon encountered her memories of their first encounter. Though the memories were thousands of years old, the dragon was certain she had never met this strange, pale being. She would have remembered someone so remarkable in appearance and intelligence. Yet, the memories of their encounter were certainly there in that tiny, pale being’s mind.

‘You ... are ... descended from an ... enlightened one?’ Alana felt the question form as the dragon searched her vocabulary to word its question. ‘Your images are ... perhaps ... memories provided by ... another.’

“Not likely,” Alana replied, quickly recovering from the shock of meeting her most favored deity. “We won’t meet for another thirty thousand years. I’m from the future.”

‘Ah. Then you are the ... result of ... what I do here, ‘ the dragon thought back at her. ‘Your memories could be ... engramic ... in nature; not ... personally experienced, but ... cellular in nature.’

“Oh, no, Enchi,” Alana assured the dark god. “We’ve met. Well, we will meet – in a place called Sumer – not far from where we are right now, actually. But, it will not be soon, and many people will worship you.”