Chapter 16 - The Loss Of A Child

It was the pain that woke Gabriel. A searing, burning, deep pain across his back. Then he noticed the smell. It was a nasty acid smell he first encountered when testing the body armor he was wearing. He had been burned.

‘Elena’

He had jumped in front of her at the last second, spreading his wings to shield her from the strike. But as he opened his eyes he saw what he hoped he wouldn’t: Elena was lying in his arms looking back at him with glazed eyes and a blank expression.

“Oh god, no,” he said, rolling onto his knees over the child. The pain in his back was like a sledgehammer, nearly blacking him out. But the sight of the child before him drove him even harder. He placed to fingers on the girl’s neck and searched for a pulse. Her skin was cold to the touch and he couldn't find a heartbeat. Her arms were still folded across her chest as he pushed her eyes closed.

‘She’s not real... she’s not real... she’s not real...’ he desperately repeated to himself. ‘The pain is real, I am real, but god... please don’t let this be real!’

He openly cursed the telepath who was doing this to him. The pain he would inflict on that bastard would be immeasurable. He would beg him for mercy... beg him for death... but Gabriel was going to devote the entire remainder of his life to that telepaths living hell.

Nightfall was setting in and the valley was getting dark. He got to his feet and stumbled back towards the wall. At the base of the wall he found two amulets. The first one was his original translator medallion, still in mint condition. The second was the remains of the other Lorden had tried to pass to him. It was almost completely melted. The chain was welded into a single piece and an outer layer of sand was fused to the back. Gabriel grabbed a handful of rocks and literally pelted the nearest centaur with them. A short time later Lorden and Jek reappeared; accompanied by a smaller centauress.

‘Elena!’

Gabriel looked back to see if what he saw was a mirage. Elena’s lifeless body was still lying about fifteen feet away, and yet she was also standing directly on the other side of the wall looking completely whole.

Gabriel hurriedly positioned the translator amulet on the wall, and he and Lorden made contact.

“When Elena appeared we feared the worst.” he said.

{Does she know what happened?}

“She told me there was a flash of lightning and you tried to shield her from it. Then she woke up here. When you didn’t arrive we didn’t know what had happened.”

{I’m injured but I don’t know how badly. Lorden, explain to me why she’s standing next to you when her body is lying here dead next to me.}

“Gabriel, I... don’t think that’s something I can tell you right now,” said the centaur, tossing a slight glance at Elena. “I think you’re intelligent enough to draw your own conclusions.”

{I... I just needed to hear it for myself.} he said, knowing Lorden had just confirmed his suspicions.

All the centaurs in the temple were dead.

{Let me speak to Elena.}

Lorden turned to the young centauress and spoke silently to her. Her expression brightened and she hurried over and pressed her fingertips to the edge of the amulet.

“Gabriel?”

{Hi sweetheart, how are you feeling?} He tried to say it without the pain in his voice.

“Okay, I guess. I’m on the other side of the wall. Can you see me?”

{Yes, and Lorden and Jek and all the others.}

“All I see is a stone wall that covers everything. Only the tip of the amulet is sticking out of the wall.”

{I’m going to fly to Lendoren as fast as I can to help you get out of there. Will you take care of Lorden and Jek for me until I get back?}

“Okay,” she said, her lower lip beginning to quiver, “Gabriel?”

{Yes Elena?}

“Will we ever get to fly again?”

{Sure we will. I promise.}

“Okay,” she said, looking uncertain. Then she added, “Lorden wants to talk to you again.”

Elena pulled away, and Lorden touched the rim of the amulet. “Will you be able to return to Mariah safely?”

Gabriel had to switch hands before replying. {Yes, but it’s getting dark and I won’t be able to make it to Lendoren until tomorrow.}

Lorden looked surprised, “Tomorrow? It’s over a half season’s journey to the capital.”

{Elena can explain to you how I move so quickly. I should be able to make it to Lendoren by early tomorrow.}

‘If I can still fly,’ he added to himself.

{I need to leave. It’s getting dark and I can’t fly here at night.}

Lorden, not knowing what the word ‘fly’ meant, assumed it to be the word Gabriel used for ‘travel’. “May the Goddess speed your journey,” he said, and pulled away from the wall.

Gabriel collected Lorden’s amulet, his own medallion, and the purse Elena had brought with her. Elena had put the scroll in her purse while Gabriel had tried to pull Lorden’s amulet across the barrier. Noticing that it was getting darker by the minute, he took one last look at the body lying next to him, then at the girl in the temple.

Almost blinded by the pain in his back, he flew back to Mariah.

Once he had cleared the lip of the valley he could see a single speck of light on the ground far below. It looked like the bonfire he had set the night before. Gabriel was thankful Mariah had made a fire; he had misjudged the amount of daylight he had left and the mountains had shadowed the dim light coming through the clouds. The flatlands at the base of the mountains were already dark.

Gabriel landed the same way he had when he was carrying Elena, since moving his wings even a little caused searing pain across his back.

“Gabriel!” exclaimed Mariah as she watched him almost fall out of the sky onto the area behind her house. The elder centauress could see that the two-legged man was seriously injured. “When I saw the lightning strike-”

“Where’s Elena?” Jason blurted.

Gabriel looked at the elder woman, then at the young boy. {She’s... trapped in the temple with the others. The lightning strike knocked her onto the other side of the wall and she can’t get out.}

“Jason, go get some fresh water from the stream and I need you to find me some ginsberries.”

The young boy hurriedly galloped off. When he was out of earshot, Mariah knelt down in front of Gabriel. The moment they made eye contact, she knew Elena was gone.

{Mariah, I don’t know anything about your people, or what the temple up there means to you, but there are the spirits of over a hundred centaurs trapped up there in the temple and they can’t get out. I...}

Gabriel choked as he saw the tears starting to run down the old woman’s face.

{When Lorden tried to give me the amulet, he couldn’t get it past the barrier on his side. But my translation amulet would pass through, so he put it on top of mine and I tried to pull it back across. That’s when the lightning hit.}

The old woman buried her face in her hands and cried.

He wanted to comfort the woman. He felt a need to do something, anything to lessen the grief she was going through. He tried to tell himself that this was all a lie, that he was still unconscious somewhere and that the telepath was still screwing with his head. But try as he might, the woman before him was just too distraught for him to simply shrug it off.

“Did...” Mariah began, wiping the tears off her face, “did she...suffer?”

{She doesn’t even understand what happened,} he replied, {she was watching me one moment, then she was waking up beside Lorden the next.}

The old woman looked up at the archangel. “You mean you saw her?”

Gabriel nodded, {And spoke with her. I promised I would fly to Lendoren tomorrow and get help.}

Mariah’s eyes widened in bewilderment, “You mean that the Lorden you spoke to...” her words trailed off.

Gabriel held up the purse he was still holding in his hand. Mariah gently took it and opened the flap that sealed it. She slowly pulled out the amulet, and angled it so that the fire could better illuminate its face. She slowly ran her thumb across its surface to remove a few loose grains of sand.

“We were the first to decree our love in that temple,” she whispered, “We helped build it, and we were there when the Blessed Goddess consecrated it. All of us would gather there every season and celebrate. Sometimes the Goddess herself would come and we would stay there for days.”

This news shocked Gabriel. Mariah had actually met their goddess?

{She also wrote notes on a scroll,} he said, {Lorden and the others gave her messages to write.}

“Come inside,” she said, motioning towards the house, “This firelight is too hard for me to read by.”

As they entered the house, Gabriel instantly noticed that Jason was absent. {Where’s Jason?} he asked.

“I sent him to gather ginsberries,” she said, setting the purse down on the center table. She pulled three flasks from a nearby cabinet and put them on the table.

{Is it safe for him to be out in the dark?}

“He grew up near this area,” she replied, putting two small cups on the table, “He can find his way around.”

Gabriel couldn’t help but feel a need to go out there and find the boy, even if he technically was older than him. But the pain in his back was making it hard to walk, let alone fly. And now it was the same inky blackness outside as it had been last night.

The light from the fireplace barely lit the room at all and Gabriel thought the original fire outside would have provided more light. But Mariah opened two flasks and poured the liquid from one into the other. As she shook the mixture, it glowed with a strong blue-white light.

‘Chemo-luminescence.’ he thought to himself.

She poured the contents of the third flask into the two cups and handed one to Gabriel. “Here. This will help ease the pain.”

Mariah downed her cup in a single gulp.

It looked like water and smelled like cinnamon. And right now Gabriel was in so much pain that if this stuff were poison, he would still drink it. He shot-gunned the drink in two gulps.

{Whoa ,} he blurted as the liquid burned its way down his already constricting throat. It had to have been better than 190 proof.

Mariah poured another drink, then downed her second as fast as the first. She offered more Gabriel, but he refused.

{We have that back home,} he wheezed, {Too much will make me ill.}

Mariah somberly pulled the scroll from the purse and began to read it silently. The pain in his back made Gabriel change his mind and pour himself another drink.

Both of them stood silently while she read the message from Lorden first, then the other messages that were written all around it. Jason finally returned with a basket holding several bunches of red grapes. Giving Gabriel a harsh glance, he put the basket on the table, grabbed the flask, then turned around and left. Gabriel was about to object but saw that Mariah made no comments so he let the matter drop.

“Gabriel,” Mariah said in a tone that was low and businesslike, “How soon can you get to Lendoren?”

{It’s too dark and too close to the mountains to fly at night,} he said, {I’ll have to wait until morning. And even then I don’t know how far it is. But if I follow the face of the mountains I should be there in half a day; presuming I can fly at all.}

“Let me see your back,” she said, picking up the glowing flask and walking behind him.

“The material of your clothes looks like it has melted.” the old centauress observed, “It is stuck to your skin.”

{You’re going to have to help me pull it off,} said Gabriel, untucking his shirttails. {If this stays melted to my skin too much longer it will cause an infection.} Actually, Franklin had explained that if the temperature ever did get hot enough to melt Dura-Armor, the resulting fumes and liquid were toxic.

“What do you want me to do?” she asked.

{Hand me the bottom of my shirt.} he said, holding his hand over his shoulder.

Mariah complied, pulling up the long strip of cloth that ran between Gabriel’s wings. Gabriel grabbed the end and pulled it over his shoulder until a sharp pang registered between his shoulder blades. A bead of sweat ran down his forehead and across the bridge of his nose.

This was going to hurt... bad.

Reaching up with his left hand, Gabriel pulled the translation amulet out from under his shirt, then took it from around his neck and placed it on the table. No use letting Mariah (and half the countryside) hear the expletives he was planning to use.

‘One... Two...’

Gabriel yanked the back of his shirt over his head.

Nearly half a mile away, in the pitch-blackness of night, Jason heard the most gut-wrenching scream he had ever known.