Chapter 35: Recognition

Three days had passed since Cevr had come to see me with the food. Three excruciatingly long, boring, restless days ans sleepless nights. Days spent sitting on the floor dazing into space, or worrying about Caroline and Trent and my dad, or contemplating all the evil things I'd be doing and people I'd be hurting once this bgean. But somehow, when I woke up this morning, I knew today was it. The nutrients which had strengthened me the past few days must have also heightened the intuition telepathy had given me.

I stood facing the door, waiting. Though I felt strong physically, I was anxious and scared to death, and couldn't stop shaking. Fear choked me in a way I can't describe. I couldn't breathe right; my breaths were just dry, shuddering sobs. My mind was dazed and it ached. It ached so much…

Suddenly the door opened. Cevr walked in, apparently not surprised to see me already facing the door. He held out a shake-looking thing in a glass.

"Drink this."

Without hesitation, and never breaking eye contact, I took the concoction from him and drank it while he watched. When I was through, he took it back and left. This happened twice more that day. Finally, the door opened a fourth time, and Cevr stepped in holding a brown package tied up with string. He ripped it open, and held out a garment to me. It was worn, thread bare, and stained with age.

"This is what Kailai wore the night she died." In childbirth? I shuddered. "You're to wear it now. Go change." I took it from him and went into the bathroom. I heard the door to my room shut as Cevr left. The robes were silk, but too old to look nice. They were brown with disintigration. I slipped the pleated shift over my head. A second part wrapped around my hips, tying and hanging down in the back. It was too long. I looked ridiculous. But I no longer looked haggard. My eyes weren't sunken-in, and my face had filled out again.

Two minutes later there was a hard knock at the door. Mordis and about twelve guards came into the room. I fixed them with a cold, hard stare, but Mordis just smiled.

"Come with me."

The hall was dark. Mordis held a torch which cast shadows on the walls. My stomach was doing somersaults; even the firelight danced with anticipation. The guards surrounded me, and I couldn't see where we were heading, but I could feel we were going steadily up. We entered a large room, hung with rich-colored drapings muted with a soft, golden light coming from a small chandelier above my head.

Three dark-skinned, dark-haired women came out from the shadows of the dramatic hangings toward me. They held vials of liquid. At that point I was really nervous; ancient ritualistic stuff unnerved me. But it wasn't so bad. Simultaneously, they opened the vials. One of the women dabbed her substance- which I think was perfume- along the length of my arms, on each side of my neck, and across from shoulder to shoulder. Another woman put hers on my eyelids; they instantly cooled and my vision was sharper, which is saying. The third held her small vial up for me to drink. I didn't want to, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. It was sweet, and went down smoothly, like hot chocolate, but it was clear. My nerves vanished as the liquid hit my stomach, and I was very calm.

A beautiful sound seemed to emerge out of the golden threads of light streaming down from the chandleier, barely noticable, like the ring of a bell just before it dies. The note stregnthened in beautiful harmony with two other voices; the women were singing. They gazed at me, their eyes tearing, and they looked blissful. I felt sorry for their brainwashed minds, but the thought only stayed a second, because their voices were mysterious, and uplifting at the same time, and I could not hear nor think of anything else.

I was taken from the room, followed by the women and their beautiful song. A light from a doorway at the end of the hall broke the darkness that had settled upon us. We stepped through it and were outside in the forest. A thick fog settled around my bare feet as we walked slowly toward the shore.

Emerging from the leaves and branches we'd been walking through, we stepped onto the cool sand, and I looked around. My procession had backed away from me toward the rocks behind us. Cevr was among them. I knew what I had to do, . Step by step, I walked parallel with the shore. The waves crashed upon them and almost reached me feet, but never did. It seemed I repelled the water. The wind grew stronger, whipping my hair as my dress curled around me like water. I breathed it in, the smell of perfume and salt. Looking up, the sky was clear, and stars glittered down from every bit of it. In the midst of it was a large, shining moon. I'd never seen the moon so big.

My step fell into cadence with the women's voices still echoing into the night. But then there was a new sound. A voice was speaking, not singing. Why was someone speaking? Didn't he know how important this was? But I recognized urgency in the voice, and turned slowly around. The voice was a boy's. He was kneeling beside a motionless body, a girl, with blonde curls. She opened her eyes.

I remembered them. Trent. And Caroline. His voice rose with urgency, and our eyes met. His eyes were pleading. Pleading.

"You don't belong to them," he cried in earnest. "You can love."

I felt sorry for him. He was obviously in desperate need. I tried to ignore him, but I couldn't break away from his gaze; it was so intense.

Something began to happen. The air grew cold.

The full moon cast a silky gleam on the sand, ocean, leaves and branches as a still calm settled over the island. I looked for the dark figure of the woman from my dreams. She was nowhere to be found. Instead, I felt the moon's glow focus brightly on me. I remembered the woman from the dreams radiating white light, as she turned and opened her lamp-like eyes, as I had just done. The billowing gusts of wind swept over the beach and knocked the guards to the sand.

I could feel the cool rush of light coursing through my body, through my veins and nerves and out through the ends of my hair. Opening my eyes, the light shining through them allowed me to see the figure of Trent standing weakly among the collapsed bodies of the guards that littered the sand around their feet. Caroline's gaze was dead and broken, while Trent's burned within me like a fire rekindled as the light blinded my sight completely.

The wind and sand swirled around me and my vision suddenly cleared. I was standing on the edge of a headland, the smell of spices in the air vaguely familiar as they wafted by. The sky was almost black, and the air was heavy with anticipation of a coming storm.

"I feel priveleged to finally make your aqaintance," said a calm voice from behind me. Turning, I felt a shock of recognition. Dantos as I remembered him from my dreams and sudden hallucinations was walking towards me. His green eyes shone brightly with joy because his prophesy had proven true.