The Season Of Passage Part 53

Lauren took another step forward.

Jennifer put pressure on the trigger. Lauren stopped once more. In Jennifer's eyes, Lauren was clearly visible as a thin border of bluish-green light, s.h.i.+ning forth from a colorless pit of agony. Memories stirred within Jennifer: Rankar's severed finger; the dying warriors; Janier sent on a mission beyond her strength; Lauren traveling to Mars ignorant of the curse. She was being called upon to make the same decision all over again!

But also in Jennifer's vision was a black heart that opened like a hole into an abyss. She knew the entire world , could slip through that hole, and vanish.

Lauren wept. 'Please don't kill me. Help me! Help me get away from them.'

Jennifer heard the echo of the pain of mankind's childhood. She began to shake. Lauren moved slowly closer.

'No,' Jennifer whispered. 'You're not my sister. You're not my sister!'

That was not true. She was Lauren, in a way. The most cunning spell of all was the one that used the truth.

'You're the only one who can understand, Jenny,' it said. 'I didn't want this. I didn't ask for it.' Lauren's tears sparkled in the candlelight. 'I know if you could just hold me, I would be healed.'

She moved closer.

'No,' Jennifer said, speaking to herself. The enemy's hands were reaching. The razor nails would scissor open her throat. Its steel-like fingers would crack her neck. Its hungry lips would suck her blood.

Or would they? There was still room for doubt. There always was.

'Lauren, they're lying,' Jennifer said. 'I can't heal you.' She began to weep, too. 'You're already dead.'

Lauren was almost within arm's reach. Her eyes and soul pleaded for another chance, a thing seldom if ever granted when life and death were the issue. But Jennifer realized in that moment that she had to give Lauren that chance. She realized that, knowing she was risking billions of lives. If there was a possibility that she could save Lauren by the power of her touch...

'Don't you know me?' Lauren asked pitifully.

Jennifer lowered her crossbow.

Instantly the tearful eyes vanished. The claws tore out. They ripped the air as they intended to open rip her throat, and let flow her blood, and the blood of her children. Jennifer did nothing. She had made her choice. Lauren was to be given another chance to decide, the chance Janier had been denied when Kratine had lied to her. And then it was too late for Jennifer to change her mind. The cold hands fastened on her neck. She was shaken off the ground. The candle was knocked from her hand. It fell to the floor and went out. The fire went out.

Still Jennifer beheld the enemy's empty eyes and felt not a trace of fear. She felt only sadness. Tears gathered in her eyes. One slipped down her cheek and fell on the enemy's deformed right wrist.

Then suddenly the pit was closed over. The grip loosened.

Lauren's eyes had softened.

Lauren was staring at her own hand. Jennifer's tear had trickled into her palm. The instant seemed frozen in eternity - the dark night glimpsed in a flash of lightning. Lauren was millions of miles away in s.p.a.ce, pleading with her friend Gary to remember. Remember me. I loved you. And Lauren was in the forest beside her sister. Time had halted. Lauren turned and looked at Jennifer.

' My name is...'

'Don't worry, I know your name.'

A warm smile touched Lauren's lips. 'Jenny,' she whispered.

Jennifer went to hug her sister.

'No!' Lauren screamed. She sprang to her feet in panic. 'Shoot Shoot! It can't be stopped! Jenny!'

A second chance, Jennifer thought, for herself as well. A second chance to have brought the fire earlier. To have gone instead of Janier to meet the attack. To have killed because it was necessary to kill. All these things Lauren already understood. Only Lauren's strength was exhausted.

Before Jennifer could whip up the crossbow, the enemy returned in its own terror. The claws reached out. Jennifer had no time to aim properly. She had only begun to bring up the tip of the stake when she was forced to pull the trigger. Springing forward, the enemy caught the arrow in its lower abdomen. Its face contorted in agony. A hand that had been reaching for warm blood now grasped its own lifeless blood. It pulled uselessly at the stake as red gushed from the puncture onto the carpet. The enemy sagged to the floor. It kneeled before her, the wooden shaft stuck half a foot out its back. Jennifer stood silent, waiting.

'You!' it cursed, spitting foul breath.

Jennifer pointed at the floor. 'Leave us. You are not welcome here.'

'Another will come,' it swore.

And then the shadow pa.s.sed.

Lauren toppled forward. She curled into a ball of pain, trying to remove the stake that would kill her for the second time. Jennifer knelt by her side, in the blood.

'Jenny?' Lauren moaned, trembling.

Jennifer touched her sister's hands, and then touched where the stake had entered Lauren. Carefully, she began to draw away the pain. 'It's me,' she said. 'I've been waiting for you. You promised to come home and you did. You're home now.'

'It was so cold,' Lauren whispered. 'I couldn't breathe.' Beads of sweat formed on her forehead. Yet she was beginning to relax.

'It's gone,' Jennifer said gently. 'Its season has pa.s.sed.'

Lauren's eyes cleared. She smiled faintly. 'It is you, Jenny. The papers said you were dead. They said...' A fit of coughing racked her body. 'They said the fire took you.'

Jennifer smiled, too. 'I'm alive. I'm fine.'

Lauren struggled to remove the ring from her hand. 'I brought this back for you.' She slipped the ring on Jennifer's finger. She, had fulfilled her promise, and completed the cycle. The ring's s.h.i.+ne had not faded. It had grown brighter. Lauren coughed again. 'It's our secret.'

Jennifer nodded. 'That's true.'

With failing strength, Lauren reached up and touched Jennifer's curly hair, as she had done so often in the past. 'My Jenny,' she said, full of joy. 'My Princess.'

Jennifer chuckled. 'My Warrior.' She loosened the canteen on her shoulder, momentarily removing her hands from Lauren. She would wash the injury with the holy waters. 'You're going to be healed,' she promised. 'I have water from the ancient Garden. I can heal you.'

But then Jennifer froze.

Lauren had closed her eyes.

Lauren was sleeping. Yes.

Jennifer grabbed her sister's hands. 'Lauren? Lauren!'

No.

Lauren was dead.

Forgetting that she was Queen of the Earth, Jennifer dropped her canteen and hugged the still body. Warm blood soaked her blue dress. But no matter how hard she hugged her sister, it made no difference. No miracle occurred. Her sister was gone.

Jennifer remembered Lauren awakening from a bad dream on a warm sunny day, calling her name.

Jennifer rose slowly and moved to Terry's side, where she knelt once more. She cradled his head in her hands. His skull was cracked. He had a brain hemorrhage. She bathed his forehead with the waters Jim had collected. She hummed soft words of healing and put her hand over his heart. Presently he opened his eyes.

'Jenny?' he said.

She nodded. 'I told you I wouldn't forget you.'

He smiled weakly. 'Where have you been?'

'I've been here. I've been there.' Her face darkened. 'I have to heal you.'

'All right.'

'You have to want to live.'

He understood. He closed his eyes. 'Lauren's dead.'

'Yes.'

He tried to brush her hand off his heart. 'Let me go.'

'I love you, Terry.'

'Let me go.'

She leaned over. She let the tears of her cheek touch his b.l.o.o.d.y cheek. 'I can't,' she whispered in his ear. 'I can never let go. That's what makes me who I am.'

He drew in a breath. 'Are you really Chaneen?'

'Yes.'

'Are you G.o.d?'

'I am a G.o.ddess. I am your G.o.ddess.'

He opened his frightened eyes. 'Will you stay with me then?'

She sat up. 'Yes.' She put her hand over his eyes. 'Now close your eyes. Rest. Forget what has happened here. It was only a dream. It was nothing.' She glanced toward Lauren. And the blood. A smoky wind was blowing out of the east. The night was on fire. Her children were dying. She listened to Terry's heartbeat as it began to fade. She closed her own eyes and let her own heart do the same. She let the air go out of her body. But then she felt a change in the direction of the wind. The season was changing, it was true. She could feel it. The wind was coming out of the west now and she could smell the ancient ocean. She drew in a deep breath. Her heart gave a single powerful beat, and as it did so Terry's life began to warm beneath her touch. She opened her eyes and looked down at him. He would not reawaken for a few minutes, but she wanted him to know the truth. He would hear her where it counted. 'It was only a nightmare,' she said.

Lauren had been placed on the couch. The stake had been pulled from her body. How peaceful her face looked, Jennifer thought. How n.o.ble her life had been. Jennifer leaned over and kissed her sister goodbye. They would meet again. They always did.

Jennifer relit the candle and placed it on the coffee table amidst the shattered gla.s.s and the spilt wine. She stepped from the cabin and into the clearing beneath the moon and the stars, where Terry stood waiting for her. He started to speak, but she bade him be silent. From the clearing she commanded the flame of the candle in the cabin to magnify. They both watched as the flame grew, turning from orange to violet. Quickly the wax melted and the fire spread to the floor, and then to the walls, wrapping the entire cabin in a sheet of fire, all consuming, all cleansing. 'Another will come.'

There would be no others. During the brief moments Lauren had lived and held her hand, Jennifer had seen that Gary had made no decision to live forever. Therefore, he was not bound by the curse. He was incapable of making any more of the enemy. She would find him, and mend his soul and body. And if by chance another s.h.i.+p returned from Asure, she would be there. The enemy would be stopped. She was alive. She was powerful. If necessary, she would bring the fire.

Jennifer threw the crossbow into the flames. 'You're amazing,' Terry said. But then he turned away from the fire, still grieving over Lauren. 'I can't watch this.'

Jennifer picked up the white rose again. She was reminded of the last time she had said goodbye to her children. It was far from dawn, but the flower had begun to bloom. It was beautiful. Perhaps not today, she thought, or tomorrow. But one day soon, in the next season, the entire world would blossom into a garden, and be beautiful, too.

She gave the flower to Terry.

'I will watch over you,' she said, taking his hand. 'Come, there is much to be done.'

They walked toward his car. They did not look back.

END.