Realm of Light - Deborah Chester [116]
He looked around wildly, but saw no one.
More of the trees were moving now. They seemed to close in on him, yet they did not uproot themselves from the earth. He felt ripples and currents of energy in the air. The air shimmered as though with a rainbow.
“Your father’s spirit is only memory, Caelan,” the voice said. “Beva is no longer flesh. He cannot hurt you. He cannot possess you. Only his memories remain. Only his intentions. Only his knowledge. That is all. His spirit believes it has redeemed you into itself and is content. Beva will no longer haunt your dreams. Peace can be restored.”
Caelan looked around again, unable to tell where the voice was coming from. “I don’t understand,” he said.
“In time, more wisdom will come to you. For now, we thank you for having made peace with your father. There can be harmony once more within the spirit world.”
“Am I in the spirit world now?”
“No. You are between.”
Caelan frowned, struggling to understand. “Have I much more to learn?”
“Much.”
“How will I learn? What am I to do?”
“Live,” the voice said. “Follow your path of life. Stay in the truth.”
Caelan stared at the trees and felt like a child talking to some- one very old and very wise. Was he in the presence of the gods of light?
“No, Caelan. Calm your thoughts. It is time for you to return.”
“How?” he asked eagerly. “Don’t I end severance?”
“You are beyond your own reach,” the voice replied. “You cannot return from this grove by yourself. Even your gifts are not that powerful. Beva drew you here. Now we must send you back.”
Caelan lifted his chin, trying to be accepting, although his mind was chaotic with thoughts and questions. “What must I do?”
“Enter the water,” the voice said. “Do not fear it. It is warm and the current is gentle. Drink the water, then let yourself slip beneath the surface.”
Caelan waited a moment, then frowned. “Is that all?”
“Be at peace,” the voice replied. “You have done well. Trust in your return.”
He looked at the stream flowing past him. The water was clear and clean. He could not see the bottom. It made no sense, but he did as he was told.
Sliding into the water, he found it warm and pleasant as the voice had said it would be. The current was strong, however, and he clung instinctively to the bank, resisting it.
But after a moment, he realized what he was doing was futile. There had been no explanation, but did he need one here where obviously nothing was as it seemed? Why did he care where the current took him, as long as it was back to where he belonged?
He lowered his face to the water and sipped it. The taste was pure. Realizing he was thirsty, he drank long and deeply, then released the bank and allowed the current to carry him along. He thought of trust. He thought of faith. Words he had sworn by all his life without ever having to really put them to the test. But no matter how strong he was, no matter how brave, he was still only a man. He could not do everything himself.
“Another lesson,” he murmured wryly to himself.
After a moment, he drew in a deep breath and slid below the surface.
Elandra waited for two hours, while night closed around the palace and servants came on silent feet to light the lamps. The guards changed, and still she heard no sound from within her father’s room. She paced slowly around the antechamber while the minutes dragged by. What could Caelan be doing? What was taking so long?
Again and again she was filled with the urge to rush inside, but she restrained herself. She had given her promise to Caelan. She would keep it.
Her father’s jinja was as restless as she. It scratched incessantly at the doors, no matter how many times she shooed it away.
“You must be still,” she told it. “Hush. No noise.”
The jinja tilted its small green face up to hers and sighed. “I guard sleep. I watch.”
“Yes, but you must do so out here.”
The jinja shook its head fretfully. “Too far away. No good.”
She knew better than to touch it. “You must be patient. Soon you can go back inside, but not now.”
The jinja sighed heavily and sank down on its haunches