Chapter 5
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S teele froze. He sensed the woman beside him.
She’d come back for me? Indeed, she had.
Her energy was all over him. Was she the one who had hit him?
He immediately refused to believe that. Which meant someone else was out there.
Could still be out there. That pissed him off.
It had been a long time since anybody had caught him unaware, and he never wanted that to happen again.
He turned his head slightly to the woman beside him. He didn’t know who she was, but she’d come back. Whether accidental or not, he appreciated it.
He wanted to sit up, to move. Yet every time he tried, he got a blast, a short hot telepathic blast telling him to stay in place.
He relaxed back down, sending healing energy throughout his system, trying hard to regain his own equilibrium and his own strength, so he could get back on his feet again.
Then suddenly a soft sigh came, followed by a voice he could audibly hear.
“Okay, it’s safe to move again.”
He shifted, rolled over, and looked up to see a woman with a long braid of hair—a dark, dark red, like a rich auburn. In the morning light, she was small, tiny even, but her eyes were lively and bright.
She smirked. “You need to work on your defense system.” He winced. She nodded and added, “I get it. You probably haven’t been caught unaware in a long time. That kind of sucks.”
“Yeah,” he muttered, his tone grittier as he shifted. “I wasn’t expecting that here either.”
“Of course not,” she noted, “but I don’t know how much you understand about what’s going on.”
He shot her a look.
She smiled and continued. “You want to say that you know all about it, but I’m not sure that you do.”
“I know a lot,” he snapped, trying not to sound curt but did anyway. “I know the Beacon’s been sending out a signal.”
“Yes, exactly,” she agreed. “However, the Beacon hasn’t been very clear as to who is welcome and who is not.”
He didn’t respond, just studied her for a long moment. “Yet you seem welcome. So you appear to know how it works.”
“No, I don’t. Not the full extent of it.” Her gaze still searched around. “I sensed you earlier, as I passed through the gate.”
“I heard your message, but I was too far away,” he lied. She turned, one eyebrow raised, and he caught the amusement in her expression. He shrugged and added, “I also don’t know you or whether I can trust you.”
“At least that is the truth,” she noted, her lips curled up. “Unfortunately it’s the world we live in, isn’t it?”
“It is,” he conceded, as he studied her. “Do you know the Beacon?… The owner of the Beacon?”
“He’s a friend, but I’m not sure anyone ever knows Terk.”
“Is he expecting you?”
“He was a while ago, but I got sidetracked,” she replied, with a shrug. “So it’s been a while. However, it’s rare for Terk to be unaware of incoming visitors, so I presume he does know I am now here.”
Steele stared at her for a long moment. “Do you want to explain?”
“No, I don’t, but, if you want to come with me,” she offered, “I’ll head back to the other side of this barrier.”
“This barrier?”
“Yes,” she replied. “I went through the gate to other side, but either the Beacon has self-created layers within or somebody is directing its mechanism. It’s learning and adapting.” He stared at her, and she nodded. “I know you may not believe what I’m saying.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you,” he began, but she interrupted him.
“Yet that look on your face confirms it,” she declared. “Everything is energy, so I’m not saying that is what’s happening. I’m just telling you that something unexpected is happening.”
He got to his feet, then swore, reaching out a hand to grab onto the tree trunk. He waited a moment for the world to stop spinning.
She asked, “Do you need medical care?”
He turned to her. She barely came up to his ribs. He slowly and carefully shook his head. “No, it’s fine. It might take a little while, but it will heal.”
She nodded. “Sometimes it’s easier to let things heal on their own rather than trigger more energy, especially energy that others might see or feel.”
“I wasn’t expecting an attack here,” he admitted, staring around.
“You do now,” she declared. “And it wasn’t me.”
He nodded. He’d seen her go through the gate, but she seemed very comfortable here. Maybe she’d come back around through another gate to attack him. But, no, she was too small. He doubted it could have been her…
She caught his wandering gaze and nodded. “Of course you must consider that, but it wasn’t me. I came back because you didn’t follow me and because I felt something was wrong. I’m Cyan, by the way.”
His grin came unexpectedly. “My name is Steele.”
She smiled, the sun cresting on the hillside as they stared at each other. “That wound—”
He checked his head, then inspected his hand, sticky with blood. “It’s fine. I think I hit the tree on the way down. This isn’t from a blow.”
“Maybe,” she muttered, “but you’ll leave a trail.”
Surprised, he stared at her and then nodded reluctantly. “I could.”
She smiled. “I’m pretty sure Terk has areas of traps or tricks to stop those who are either unworthy or incapable of wielding the energy.”
“That would be a pretty shitty thing if he’s testing us,” Steele grumbled, turning to her.
She frowned, thinking it would be even shittier if they couldn’t go back the way they came, effectively caught in a maze. Then she shrugged. “I don’t know if it’s testing as much as he’s making sure that whoever comes through is safe.”
He stared at her intently.
She pointed behind them. “I don’t know how much or what you have sensed, but some very young energy is up ahead,” she shared. His gaze narrowed. She nodded.
“There are children in the castle?” he asked.
“Yes,” she confirmed, “and I think the whole purpose of the Beacon is because of this new generation.” At her wording, his eyebrows shot up, and she nodded again.
“I get that what I’m saying may sound contrary to what you were thinking, but this space feels very protective.
Something alive is moving around, keeping them safe.
I’m not sure they even know that the Beacon has become this…
whatever this is.” She shrugged. “For the moment I would highly suggest we go get your head looked at.”
He snorted. “Is there really anybody qualified to look at the heads of people like us?” he quipped, followed by a dry, suppressed laugh. “If the Beacon is doing what it’s doing, it’s probably also fully capable of healing others too.”
“Yes,” she noted. “I’m sure it is, but I don’t think it’s particularly bothered about healing you, versus healing somebody else. I think you must first prove to the Beacon that you are allowed to enter.”
“You’re really making it sound as if it’s alive.”
She hesitated for a long moment. “When I passed through the gate to the other side,” she began, “it felt… logical, aware.”
“No,” he corrected her, “ conscious .”
She frowned up at him and added, “Yes, that’s exactly what it is. And, because of whatever has happened here with you, I don’t want to risk bringing something through the gate that might put the people in Terk’s castle in jeopardy.”
Steele sighed, nodding in agreement.
She continued. “I just don’t know whether the Beacon has a self-destruct feature or something else is here that I am sensing but don’t quite understand.
Whatever it is,” she stated, “Terk is still a friend of mine, and I wouldn’t want to bring something difficult into his space, not without warning him. ”
Steele agreed, with another nod.
“Are you always this quiet?” she asked, frowning.
Without waiting for his response, she continued on.
“In case you hadn’t noticed, your energy has also taken a hit.
So you may want to test whatever you would normally use for your own healing, as your own abilities may be compromised.
I know that you were out here keeping an eye on me in the woods, but your energy has been drained.
I don’t know how or why, but it’s as if somebody in the process of attacking you also put something inside that’s damaged your own energetic system.
Whatever this is,… I don’t trust it. I don’t want to leave you here, wondering whether you are okay. ”
He stared at her, feeling something weird in his system, now wondering why he had been so passive throughout this process.
That wasn’t like him. Normally he had a lot to say and bounced back quickly.
He blinked and she grimaced. Something wasn’t right.
He had this weird fog in his brain, and his energy wasn’t firing properly.
She shook her head. “Something isn’t quite right.
Even the fact that you’re as calm and quiet as you are tells me that more is wrong than I would have expected,” she shared, as she grabbed his arm and tugged him back to where they came from.
“It’s almost noon. We’ll head to the closest town and do what we can to get your energy system straightened up, before we go any farther into this forest.”
She took charge. That also wasn’t something Steele was used to. In his world, he was the one taking charge. He blinked at her several times, hating this blankness in his head.
She sighed. “I get it. Something is happening to you, and I don’t really understand how or what, but we need to get going.” She moved him forward.
He stumbled, even as he tried hard to simply walk, his feet like two by fours, incapable of smooth movement. She reached for his hand, dragging him forward, not giving him a chance to do anything other than take a step in her direction.
“Did you drive here?” she asked.
He stared at her and blinked.
She winced. “Damn, whatever it is, it’s happening faster than I expected,” she snapped. “Come with me.”
He heard the words, still not able to really respond, but aware that her energy dragged him along.
As they reached a road, she glanced around and then pointed to a nearby vehicle parked halfway in the shrubs. “We’re going there,” she stated.
She still dragged him willy-nilly, completely confounded that he allowed her to do that, when he suddenly found himself in the passenger seat.
She turned on the vehicle, then warned him, “It could get a little bumpy, so hang on.”
He grabbed hold as she went cross-country, turning around on a dirt road, then quickly backed up and raced into town, leaving that restrictive fog behind. As he leaned back, he closed his eyes.
A murmur appeared in the back of his mind, almost foglike, trying to quiet all sounds, but then an energy filtered through, clearing the cobwebs.
He vaguely remembered the deep thick fog he’d seen on the road earlier.
This almost felt the same. Had the fog remained in his brain, even as she drove off, leaving it behind? He frowned, confused.
She snapped at him, “You need to keep talking to me.”
He wasn’t sure what he was even supposed to say because his brain didn’t seem to be functioning. The rare sense of clarity only lasted a few seconds.
“Steele, wake up.”
“I’m awake,” he mumbled.
“No, you’re not. You’re fading quickly. I don’t know what happened, and I don’t know who did this,” she stated, frustration in her tone, “but you are not yourself.”
“What?”
“You are not being the normal you.”
“How would you know?” he asked. She couldn’t possibly give him an answer. “You don’t really know me.”
She snorted. “Oh, I know you all right. I know you.”
Something hit him hard, and his head jerked to her.
She had been familiar from the very start, but he’d chalked it up to her aura.
“It’s been a while,… but now I recognize your energy.
” He rolled his head to her again. “I didn’t earlier, and I’ll be honest. I don’t remember the context of when we met. ”
She shook her head. “Yeah, I do know you, even if you don’t know me, which—I guess I get it,” she muttered.
“And who,” he asked, his voice fading, even as his brain kept trying to argue with him, “who are you?”
She glanced back at him, a thread of energy between them.
“We were involved in a multi-car pileup… a very long time ago. You and I joined up to help save as many of the people as we could,” she shared.
“You didn’t know who I was. And I didn’t know who you were.
We worked together, and then we parted ways without saying anything. ”
He shifted as something rolled in his brain, trying to place the voice. Then he realized it wasn’t the voice in his memory. It was her. She was in his psyche but faint, as if from a very long time ago. “I didn’t recognize you before,” he mumbled in apology.
“I know,” she replied. “I’ve held my energy close and tight—you know, under wraps. And so should you.”
“Why?”
She sighed. “You won’t remember any of this when you wake up,” she began, “so that will just be a pain in the butt to retell it.”
“Why?” he asked, his voice gaining strength.
“Because you’re being followed, and that person is not your friend.”