Season of Passage, The (66 page)

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 stil 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 bil ions 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 pitiful y.

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 fel to the floor and went out. The fire went out.

Stil 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 fel 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 mil ions of miles away in space, 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 wel . A

second chance to have brought the fire earlier. To have gone instead of Janier to meet the attack. To have kil ed because it was necessary to kil .

Al 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 pul 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 pul ed 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 wil come,' it swore.

And then the shadow passed.

Lauren toppled forward. She curled into a bal of pain, trying to remove the stake that would kil 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. Careful y, 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 passed.'

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 fulfil ed her

promise, and completed the cycle. The ring's shine 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, ful 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 stil 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, cal ing her name.

Jennifer rose slowly and moved to Terry's side, where she knelt once more. She cradled his head in her hands. His skul was cracked. He had a

brain hemorrhage. She bathed his forehead with the waters Jim had col ected. 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.'

'Al 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 bloody 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 real y Chaneen?'

'Yes.'

'Are you God?'

'I am a Goddess. I am your Goddess.'

He opened his frightened eyes. 'Wil 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 smel 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 pul ed from her body. How peaceful her face looked, Jennifer thought. How noble 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 glass 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 wal s, wrapping the entire cabin in a sheet of fire, al consuming, al cleansing. 'Another wil

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 ship 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, stil 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 wil 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.

Table of Contents

Start

• PROLOGUE
  
• 1. The Garden
  
• ONE
  
• TWO
  
• THREE
  
• FOUR
  
• FIVE
  
• SIX
  
• SEVEN
  
• EIGHT
  
• NINE
  
• TEN
  
• 2. Chaneen
  
• ELEVEN
  
• TWELVE
  
• THIRTEEN
  
• FOURTEEN
  
• FIFTEEN
  
• 3. The Fire
  
• SIXTEEN
  
• SEVENTEEN
  
• EIGHTEEN
  
• NINETEEN
  
• TWENTY
  
• TWENTY-ONE
  
• TWENTY-TWO
  
• TWENTY-THREE
  
• TWENTY-FOUR
  
• 4. The Curse
  
• TWENTY-FIVE
  
• TWENTY-SIX
  
• TWENTY-SEVEN
  
• TWENTY-EIGHT
  
• TWENTY-NINE
  
• THIRTY
  
• THIRTY-ONE
  
• THIRTY-TWO
  
• THIRTY-THREE
  
• 5. The Harlot
  
• THIRTY-FOUR
  
• THIRTY-FIVE
  
• THIRTY-SIX
  
• THIRTY-SEVEN
  
• THIRTY-EIGHT
  
• THIRTY-NINE
  
• FORTY
  
• FORTY-ONE
  
• FORTY-TWO
  
• EPILOGUE: The Princess