Chapter 4
?
C yan had made it through the first of possibly many gates. She closed her eyes, sent out probes to search the area around her, looking for what still bothered her. Plus, looking to see if the man would follow her. So far she saw no sign of him.
She knew that Terk had set up these gates, and she was impressed. That first gate had been easy, yet she couldn’t imagine that they would be any easier going forward. She stared back at the initial gate, wondering what she had missed, what did it have to do with that man?
Swearing, she walked back to this lovely invisible gateway that Terk had designed. Had he thought that through? An awful lot of energy-working people like them were out there. That much was true, but that didn’t mean they were like them in a good way, that they had hearts seeking peace and healing.
And now she couldn’t get the man off her mind.
She stared at that gate, frowning, chewing on her bottom lip.
She finally reached for a hair tie in her pocket, quickly braiding her long auburn hair and tying it off, putting it out of the way by tucking it under her T-shirt.
Then she slid back to where the gate was.
If the stranger couldn’t open the gate, that revealed a lot about his abilities.
But part of the reason why she had pushed forward was because another energy was out there, more than just him .
So had the gate held firm because the third person had been too close, or had this second man been stopped from opening it?
Too many questions and too few answers.
She wanted to call out to Terk to let him know that he’d been a bit of an ass putting up this gate—and even more of an ass for the locks he put on it too.
Still, she knew that, depending on how thick he’d made his own invisible barrier walls, Terk may or may not already know she was here, may or may not already know that somebody else was outside the gate as well.
She watched the air around her, considering whether she should just leave the guy left behind to whatever was going on out there—or was this a test to see if he could join her on his own or would need help?
She had seen people who could almost become one with a wall and others who had the ability to see 360 degrees around without moving their head, seemingly without any effort at all.
It was fascinating and yet incredible to think of the human resilience, the human ability to grow and to change as needed, depending on the circumstances, and she was a prime example of all that.
After sharing a few of her own changes she had experienced with Terk, he had been very interested in her and her abilities, had invited her to come here, to see and to be a part of his network.
She made it clear that she wasn’t into testing .
He’d laughed and had stated that it was hard to avoid.
Yet, when people came here, it was more about sharing their abilities with others.
The existing and the new people alike would do and see things that most of them had never even heard of before.
Still, Terk understood Cyan’s reservations, and nobody would push her past where her comfort level was. She didn’t even know what that was.
He’d also told her that his group could do an awful lot more than she had seen, and she might very well want to be a part of that too. It was an amazing thought. She’d met some incredible energy workers, and she’d met some who were freaking scary.
She could do without the scary ones. She could do without, in some ways, the incredible ones too, because they weren’t always stable, to say the least.
The man on the other side of the gate was nothing to her, she knew that, but still she hesitated. She’d learned that not every stranger was one she should help. Predators were out there. Yet she couldn’t move past the thought that she should help this man.
Groaning, she closed her eyes, and, working swiftly, she opened the gate just enough to slide through, then closed it immediately behind her.
She stood in the silence, in the weird echo of nothingness. It looked the same, but it didn’t feel the same.
And feelings were everything in her world.
Closing her eyes, opening her senses, she shifted, moving rapidly through the space around her, looking for the signature of the man she had sensed earlier.
She frowned, finding no sign of him, no sign of his energy, and nothing of his thoughts, no trace of him at all.
He’d been here and not enough time had passed for him to leave, much less to have his signature dissipate.
That meant something else was going on here, but what?
She moved away from the gate, still in protective mode.
Just because she had sensed him before didn’t mean others couldn’t as well.
So, keeping clear her own escape path, yet keeping it hidden from somebody who might be coming to do harm, was paramount.
She moved swiftly across the woods, trying to keep her steps soundless.
She only sensed four-legged life—until she came around the corner and froze.
Two-legged, she noted, still blind in this world of darkness.
Yet now it started to lighten around her, even as she sensed the light growing to the side as the sun rose higher in the sky.
She noted the man and heard a breath—soft, quiet, and calm, yet too calm, too quiet.
Just as she went to check on him, she sensed something off to the side, something that she hadn’t caught earlier.
Yet here it was, ready and waiting for her.
No, not for me,… for him.
She slid to the ground and waited patiently. There was no change for a long moment. Then the man on the ground in front of her shifted. A soft, ever-so-gentle groan escaped.
With all her senses on high alert, she waited.
Would somebody approach, or was this, indeed, somebody so good and so silent in the woods that he kept everything bad at bay?
Was a predator nearby?
Was it another energy worker? Was this a physical threat? Or an energetic one?
The fact that somebody could have taken down another energy worker like her revealed an awful lot about the attacker’s abilities. Unfortunately it also confirmed a lot of what she had heard and had seen in her own life.
When the man in front of her groaned again, she gently sent an energy probe to wrap around his ankle and gave a gentle squeeze. She felt a pulse, a responding pulse that gave her feedback to say he was indeed alive but unconscious.
Yet underneath the surface were myriad emotions, myriad energy, as he surfaced and tried to figure out what had happened.
And yet his own sense of security, his own defense system tried to dampen everything, so nobody could hurt him again.
She slid a probe straight to his heart, sending loving energy into it.
She didn’t know who he was, just that he was another soul on this planet, another person who walked the full-on craziness of this world of energy as she did.
When he opened his mouth to say something, she sent him a hard message. Silence .
Thankfully he listened.
*
Terk and Calum and Wade had searched the perimeter of the forest nearest the castle on foot. Then had sent in energy probes to find any visible disturbance within the wooded area itself. Finding none, they regrouped within the castle walls.
Terk walked into his office and closed the door. He headed to the large window, the late-morning light shining in, casting bright shadows across the wooden floors. He dropped into a seated meditation and closed his eyes. “Beacon, talk to me.”
Silence . Yet a hum filled the air.
Terk’s tone sharpened. “Beacon.”
The hum intensified, then the Beacon’s almost digital-sounding voice responded, “Good morning, Terk.”
Terk relaxed at the somewhat normal greeting. “What is the current state of the property?”
“All is normal and secure.”
That was also a normal response, but Terk knew a disturbance was out there. He’d been tweaking the energy running the Beacon to get the results he’d been looking for, but without the outcome he’d hoped for. So he reworded his question. “Beacon, are guests in the forest right now?”
“Yes.”
Good. A definite answer. “If someone approaches, let them.”
Silence was again followed by a louder hum.
“Beacon, this is nonnegotiable.”
“Understood.”
Terk narrowed his gaze as he considered that response. “People are in the woods, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Do they need help?”
“No.”
However, that response was based on the Beacon’s understanding of assistance, the concept of help as it pertained to people, to humans, but then with a different view tweaked by its knowledge of people with abilities.
“They are working it out.”
The Beacon’s added statement raised Terk’s eyebrows. What the hell did that mean? “Has anyone been hurt?”
Silence came.
“Beacon, answer the question.”
“Not badly enough to step in and assist.”
And, with that, the hum rose loud enough to block Terk’s ability to communicate.
He could have stepped in and removed the hum—the equivalent of the Beacon walking away, hanging up.
Instead Terk reached for the journal he kept close by and wrote down the Beacon’s energy shifts he had noticed.
This latest transmission revealed a lot about the Beacon.
What Terk would do about it concerned him.
“Did you investigate the earlier disturbance?”
“Yes, but couldn’t locate another energy involved. It was, therefore, a glitch.”
A glitch ? That had him raising his eyebrows.
Could that be possible? Energy did move in erratic patterns, true.
So what did the glitch signify, if anything?
Since they’d been fine-tuning the Beacon’s programming, there’d definitely been a few erratic patterns, until the energy had been regulated. Was that the same thing here?
Yes, the Beacon responded in his head. All is well.
Not sure of the truth of the matter, Terk was prepared to let it go. Just confirm all communication with anyone in the woods remains open and available. Agreed?
Agreed.