370Daughter of the Desert
By Alexia Goddess
2-22-03
Chapter Thirteen
Sudden GoodByes
For a time that seemed like eternity, yet at the same time no time at all, I stared at that slender metal arrow that had burst from the front of my right shoulder like a bloody flower. Fascinated… I was grotesquely fascinated by the sight as shock wracked by body and I was suddenly unable to feel any pain at all. I couldn't feel the heat of the sun, the sand under my legs…
Later I would remember the shouts of rage from beside me…Tank guiding me to sit by the pyramid, then dashing away. Later I would register the sight of, out of the corner of my eye, Tank mounting his horse and, in the distance, overcoming my attacker and slashing him through the heart to fall from his own horse. Tank rode back to me, then…
But as I said, I wouldn't remember that until later. For the moment, I was simply…simple. Everything was so simple. It was like I was no longer human, but something more. I stared up into the glaring sun, not blinking as starbursts danced across my vision…I heard a whispered voice…
Suddenly that voice was blaringly loud… Tank took my face in his hands and made me look away from the bright sun, forced me to look at him. He studied me for the briefest moment before whistling; that damnable horse came over. He didn't look smug anymore…
Not that it mattered, I mean, c'mon, it was just a horse…just a horse…
"Nice horsie," I murmured in English as I felt my strength give out Tank came back from getting a cloth and another water flask from the saddlebags just in time to catch me- funny, I hadn't even notice him leave…
Tank gripped the staff of the spear protruding from my back and snapped it easily. Then, without concern or a single thought of himself, he gripped bladed spearhead and with all his might yanked it from my body. He threw it aside, and used his clean hand to raise my face to look at him. He looked scared…why was he scared? He wasn't hurt, was he? Why was he worried? That pulling out of the owie thingy from my shoulder didn't hurt at all…
As Tank let me rest against him, cradled in the crook of his arm, he pressed the hand he had gripped the spear with, the hand now covered with slashes he gave no mind to, and reached with his other hand for the cloth-
I honestly don't know what happened then. I really don't. It was like I wasn't me anymore, like I'd lost my mind.
That whispering voice was back… What was it saying? No, it wasn't talking, it was humming…no, wait, singing! Or was it musical chanting? Without meaning to, I started to hum with it… The moment the sound left my throat, I was suddenly aware of every single drop of mingling blood in my veins that came from Tank, just as I was aware of every miniscule amount of my own life liquid that now coursed through his veins… I was also aware of the poison that was now within us both.
"You sho-ouldn't ha-ave done tha-at…!" I sang impishly in English, my eyes still closed. Tank gave me a look, not understanding a word, but fully understanding my tone. Dizziness passed over his features, and when it cleared, understanding donned as well.
"Tarah," he asked me, tapping my cheek lightly. "We are poisoned, do you understand that?"
"Mhm… Sierpe tiene os ambas…" I sang again. 'The snake has bitten us both' in French. Seems I was having a bit of a language problem..
Tank grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him. Both our brows were damp with feverish presperation. "Tarah, listen to me. I don't know where you come from, but I'll telling you know you need to go back. I know you can. We'll die if you don't."
"Die?" I echoed.
"Someone back at the palace wants you dead. That man was one of my highest ranking guards. Someone is plotting to murder you. Someone will be coming soon, most likely. Or I can ride back. But soon I will be too feverish, too ill to protect you. Anything might happen to you. Someone might slip poison into your draughts, a knife in the dark, thrown in jail and executed at the accusation of thievery. Whatever power you invoked to bring you here, you must use it now to bring you home. Tarah, are you listening to me? Tarah…"
His voice faded out…
In fact everything was fading out…
Everything except for the musical, ethereal voice that tugged at my very soul…
I closed my eyes…
And opened my heart.
And suddenly I was no longer me…
A light filled my veins, a light that guided my injured arm, my arm with tendrils of blood winding around it to gather at the tip of my foremost finger. My other fingers dropped, drooped; they were not needed for this task, I looked over my shoulder, my eyelids heavy and my senses dulled, dulled to everything but the sweetly breathtaking singing, the soft, misty glow that blurred everything but the section of stone on the side of the pyramid, the destination of my bloody fingertip.
The singing grew louder…
My fingertip touched the stone…
As if my hand were made of smoke and light guided by an unseen force, figures and loops and curls and lines and shapes and pictures began to spill from the blood on my finger as I traced ancient words into the stone. The figures and pictures made of strings of bloody light danced a moment before laying themselves onto the stone, sinking into the rock then fading until entire words could be seen, then a phrase, then a verse…
The singing rose higher and higher in my mind and heart. Without my consent, song spilled from my throat, joining that heavenly singing. It was a song I had sung before…and yet it was different…
"I have done my task,
I have forewarned a wrong,
So that I may keep a promise I myself sealed,
Guide me, friend of old,
Guide me, highest light,
Take me home, shield my sight,
Guide me, those I have told!"
My wish was granted.
Tank held onto Tarah for as long as he could. She was leaving! It had worked! God, no… He didn't want to loose her! Every atom of his soul and body screamed out against it- yet he didn't not stop himself. If she stayed she would die… He couldn't let that happen. But he didn't want her to forget him-
In a flash of simultaneous thought and action, he tore from his hand a ring, and slipped it on her hand, the hand that had written the words that were now taking her away from him.
Then she was gone.
He had not only understood the word she had spoken, but had understood who had whispered them to her. He had understood then that she was no Goddess- she was far more. And she didn't even know it.
But at last her body faded from his grip, her eyes closed, her face peaceful, her arm and shoulder soaked with both his blood and her own.
He would never forget what he saw then…
Before him, where she had been but a moment before, a swirling pool of air glimmered and shone until the very fabric of time and space warped before him, and suddenly he saw her face… Lightly tanned, not nearly as dark as it had become when he had last seen her, but more like it had been when he had first laid eyes on her, weeks before. Her hair was long again, soft and fine. Her shoulder was bandaged, but with materials not known to him. She was dressed oddly, too. A shirt of a solid blue color, thick, cotton, no sleeves. She wore no jewelry, no make up…but she was still so, so beautiful.
Her eyes fluttered open. She blinked, then slowly glanced around her. Her eyes fixed on something. He could see, past her eyes, her mind trying to connect what was going on…her eyes shifted again, landing on someone outside the bubble of vision. She blinked again, raised her hand to her temple with a furrowed frown- then saw the ring. She glanced at the man again, and then, suddenly, full and complete realization and memory alighted in her eyes.
The bubble moved so fast he didn't even know it had moved until suddenly it was all around his head, slipping into his mind…squeazing, pulling, tugging…until finally it was in-
Tank froze, breathing heavily as he felt a searing sensation tear through his body. At once he knew the poison was gone. But something new was present, as well. Memories. Memories not his own.
In a flash and with awe filling his being, Tank recalled Tarah's every memory…
Tank reeled.
The future…
His Tarah…
Was from the future…
In a daze, he glanced off into the horizon.
There was no transition, no goodbyes, no rushing or whooshing or cold chills or clappin of thunder.
I suddenly felt the absence of those strong arms around me, I suddenly felt the cool night air, I suddenly felt the thick bandage around my shoulder… and most of all I felt he ache of my heart.
I opened my eyes to see the underside of the cloth roof of a sturdy tent. A tent I recognized. I turned my head to the sight of a pile of packs in the corner, packs that were most definitely not linen and leather and metal. No, packs of plastic and nylon and sturdy polyester, most bearing name brands that I had all but forgotten.
It took me a moment, as my brain slowly tried to catch up with my body, my soul even farther behind my mind, to register the shadow standing in the doorway of the tent, the flap closed securely behind him.
When I did, I stared, blinking, at the dark, tanned, pitted face of…who was he? I knew this man, I knew him….
"Because he named you," a voice whispered inside my mind. I recognized it as my own. I frowned and raised hand to my temple…what the-? I blinked and recoiled from my own hand as the cool sensation of cold metal touched my face. I raised my hand to see a gorgeous gold and diamond ring adorning my hand. Two gold sphinxes supported a large square diamond between them. It looked so familiar…like something she'd seen in a dream… Who…? I glanced to the man in the door to ask- Then I recognized him, and it all clicked.
I looked away from Kilimah, burying my face in my long white gold hair, and I cried.
I didn't stop for a long, long time.
To Be Continued…
Bleck, can we say depressing? . So sorry bout this. And this is by NO means the end! This story as a ways to go yet. We're probably a lil over half done, peoples, at most. And Tank and Tarah will see each other again, I promise. Check back soon!
Smile More, Dream Always,
Alexia Goddess
Daughter of the Desert and all pertaining plot concepts, characters, items, etc. are © Alexia Goddess (Catherine Kyker) 2002-2003. All rights reserved.