Chapter Sixteen
Forest Chapel
Loric approached where Ellanara stood at the main control panel and asked, “Where are we going?”
“The ruins of Tilanthia. It’s the next world the Sallaconese had and it’s where most of Salanicus’s people are still held up. There’s something there that he said that he has to seek guidance from.”
“You trust him?” Loric asked in all seriousness.
Ellanara looked up at him and then seemed to gaze out past him not seeming to see anything, “He’s trusting me and he isn’t the sort to lie or double cross someone. Yes, I trust him.”
Loric laid his hand on hers, “I’m sorry for the sacrifice that you’ve had to make for all of us to be his queen in order to initialize the map keys.”
Loric barely heard what she said in reply, but it sounded close to, “It might not be that much of a sacrifice.”
The bar-Trinity set down and I made for the exit portal that was already opening. “I’ll be back in a few hours once I’ve collected the information that I seek. My people are not far from here and when I return I’ll take a few of you to them.” I stepped out of the ship and made my way down the ramp and then quickly moved off into the forest.
Loric walked to the opening and stared after Salanicus, “I wish I knew what he was up to.”
“Exactly what I’m going to find out.”
Loric turned and watched in surprise, as Ellanara slipped into a forest green traveling cloak.
“I thought you said you trusted him!” He exclaimed.
“I do, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not curious. I’ll be careful I promise.” Ellanara replied confidently.
Loric watched helplessly, as she disappeared into the forest and hoped she knew what she was getting herself into. The big warrior wasn’t somebody to tick off lightly by following him, when he’d requested to be left alone.
I made my way through the forest in the direction of the forest Chapel. I hadn’t visited it for almost as long, as I had avoided visiting my father’s tomb. I stepped into the small serene clearing around the Chapel and approached the pillared pavilion carefully tucked away within the serenity of the forest.
To my knowledge the Orlandians had never found the place or else they would have destroyed it, as it was a place dedicated to the worship of the great Creator, who they hated with a great passion. Beyond just being a Chapel dedicated to the worship of the great Creator this place had another special meaning to me.
I passed through the pillars kicking through the leafy debris of the forest that had blown into the Chapel over the years. I stepped into the central space and she appeared almost instantly. Her beautiful wise face crinkled a little into a sad smile of welcome, “It’s been a long time my son.”
I nodded glancing down feeling a little ashamed of myself for not visiting more often. I kept forgetting how much she still seemed able to feel, even after she was no longer human, but rather a system network like the one called Abby back on the ship that helped Ellanara. The real reason I hadn’t come here much was because it was just too painful. It was like being with someone who was my mother, but not really.
“Is she pretty?”
I glanced up into her wise knowing eyes and heartfeltly I asked, “Why wasn’t I told?”
“I’m sorry son. I wanted to tell you about your father’s arrangement, but he thought it was best not to. He said that you were still to raw over the destruction of our people caused by the betrayal of the Vallians to ever willingly consider such an arrangement. He said that you needed more time and it turns out he was right.”
“Why was such an agreement settled to in the first place, unless if……?” My gaze turned hard, as I gazed at her in renewed intensity, “What else have I not been told? There would’ve been no reason for a reconciliation of our two peoples unless father……”
“Knew of the betrayal of our people by the Vallians ahead of time.” The image of my mother finished for me.
“You remember how devoted Tadias was to your father? He was a friend closer than a brother and he was like a second father to you.”
I looked away back out into the forest remembering the man I had loved and respected almost as much as I had my own father.
“Because of his friendship with us he was ill regarded by many of the Vallians and they kept him out of many high-level conversations because of it. They completely disregarded everything he had done and sacrificed for them as a people. Even so he still had friends in high places and they kept him informed. He found out about the betrayal and he came to your father to warn him, but your father already knew what was to happen from a vision he had seen the night before. Tadias begged him not to commit our fleet to cover the escape of the Vallians, but your father refused and made him swear to secrecy not to tell anyone of the intended betrayal by Tadias’s own people. Your father from his vision clearly knew that if the Vallians did not escape than there was no future hope of survival for our people or that of the Vallians. Even together our forces would not have stopped the Orlandian’s from destroying us the way that they did. Your father gave Tadias the map keys and made him swear on their friendship to depart with the Vallians saying nothing of what he knew. Your father was always thinking of his people. In the same vision he was told that his son would succeed him as king and would only know death after the future of our people had been secured in peace in a safe place far from here. Your father wanted that future to include his good friend’s blood line so he prayed to the Creator of all mankind that the gift of the map keys and the relic of Perth gifted to our people by the Creator would be initialized with one not of our blood line, but rather a descendent of Tadias in a tribute to his friend’s loyalty. Do not be angry with him Salanicus. He did what he thought was right and what I’m convinced was right to do given how it has all played out just as he was told it would.”
I nodded somberly in acceptance of all I had just heard. This changed everything. But so many lies and deceit’s! Had they all been really that necessary? Had it really been that necessary that I be kept in the dark, as I had been all these long years? I just wanted to be alone for a while to sort it all out.
“The heritage?” I asked softly not meeting her eyes.
A floor tile slid out of the way and a pedestal rose up out of the floor with a small box on it. The image that reminded me so achingly of my mother spoke, “The box contains an archive of all of our history, genealogy, and the tidbits of our daily lives in the ancient past. Hopefully your descendents will benefit from knowing the history of our people’s past successes and failures in order to live a better future.”
Without a word I stepped forward and took the box off the pedestal and then I quickly left the forest Chapel not looking back.
Narra looked out after the powerful warrior that as a human she had once given birth to. She felt all the anxiety and pride of a mother for her son. “Goodbye my son.”
She watched him go, until he was out of sight and she was once again left to her sad lonely and now pointless existence through the ages, as a silent witness over this little Chapel in the forest. Her head turned slightly and her brow creased slightly moments before her face split into a radiantly welcoming smile, “Hello there! Who do we have here except the new enchanting Queen herself! Please come out I promise I don’t bite.”
Hesitantly, Ellanara stepped out from behind a column from where she had been watching and approached the network.
Narra looked over her approvingly before saying, “My son must’ve been distracted by his emotions in order not to have sensed you, for you have a very powerful presence one not easily masked. I applaud you for your ability. Can I call you Ella, because as the name implies you are very beautiful? My son is very blessed to have you Ella!”
Ellanara nodded shyly, as a blush suffused her cheeks at the woman’s praise of her. In return she said, “You are very beautiful too!”
Narra’s smile deepened, “Well thank you! It’s been longer than I care to mention since the last time that I received a complement.” A moment of pain crossed over Narra’s features, as she remembered that the last time she’d had a complement it had been her husband who’d been the one to say it as she lay dying.
Narra banished the old memory away with a smile and asked, “So tell me Ella, what do you think of my son?”
Ellanara visibly searched for something to say, “He’s big.”
Ellanara abruptly smacked her forehead with her hand as Narra laughed, “He certainly is that my darling!”
Regaining her composure as a serious light came into her eyes Narra said, “His size must be rather intimidating for you. I’m sorry.”
Ellanara in a rush to fix what must seem like an insulting description to a mother in reference to her son said, “I didn’t mean to say it like that! The truth is I don’t know, but….But I’m starting to see things that I do like. That I like a lot.” She finished lamely.
Narra spoke soothingly, “I know dear, he has buried a lot of his finer points. Keep digging and be persistent. I know the softhearted young man I raised is still in their behind all that hardness somewhere.”
The two women stared at each other for a moment and Narra broke the silence by saying, “You have such gorgeous blue eyes my dear!”
Self-consciously Ellanara reached up to touch her face. “You’re the second person to say that. Most people look at me, as if I’m some kind of a freak.”
Narra spoke smoothly, “Let me guess it was Salanicus wasn’t it? Ahhh I see my answer in your eyes. Let me tell you a story about him when he was just a little boy. One day when he saw Tadias’s wife Evala for the first time he was completely smitten with her eyes. Now she had curly black hair instead of your red colored curls, but both you and she have the same brilliant blue eyes in all their glowing intensity. Salanicus said to me, ‘Mother why don’t I have eyes like that?’ I explained to him that the Creator just made her that way and him another way, but that it was good that he could appreciate the beauty of the eyes that the Creator gave to someone else. He didn’t give up on his quest so easily though. His next question was, ‘How do I get a pair of eyes like that?’ I struggled to find a way of telling him that he was stuck with what he had been born with when his own creative little mind found a way. He said, ‘I know! I’ll marry someone with eyes like that!’” Narra opened her arms and gestured to Ellanara, as to the living statement those words had become in actuality.
Ellanara smiled briefly and looked out at the forest surrounding the Chapel. “It’s hard to ever think of him as a little boy.”
“Oh but he was! Such a sweet little boy. He picked up a temper and a forceful way along life’s journey, but having met you I believe you to be the perfect individual to unlock that caring nature again. Now you really should be on your way my dear. I thank you for your charming visit, as I don’t get visitors very often and it has been a pleasure to meet you!”
Ellanara inclined her head forward in a bow, “It has been very nice to meet you to your Majesty.” She turned to go, but then she turned back to Narra and asked, “What will become of you now?”
Narra looked down, “I suppose I will persist in this place, until it is destroyed or time runs out. Why do you ask?”
“Would you like to come with us?” Ellanara asked softly.
In shock Narra breathed out, “Yes, but how? I need a very specific range of parameters in order to exist and function. I……”
Ellanara waved the questions away and held up a small device that she had taken from her waist. “I can download your whole program onto this device and once back at the ship I can upload you to the ship’s network. There’s more than enough room for you and I know my friend Abby, who is just like you won’t mind sharing her space with you at all. So how about it, would you like to come?”
Technological tears coursed down Narra’s face, as she nodded her head vigorously to choked up for a moment to speak, “Yes! I would like that very much!”
“Good! Where’s your conserge point focus located?” Ellanara asked.
Narra pointed to a spot located deeper within the Chapel and watched, as Ellanara headed off towards it talking to herself about what she’d have to do in order to make the transfer a success. Narra watched her work, as she wiped imagined tears away from her face. She was going to get to see her son happy and her people become free once more! It was more than she could have ever hoped for.
Narra gazed lovingly upon the hunched over figure of the smaller statured woman, who was her savior from this still lonely place in the forest. Quietly, she marveled at how the plan given to her husband in a vision in the night by the Great Creator was all coming to pass so many years later. She caught the golden flash of the ring on Ellanara’s finger in the darkened interior gloom of the temple and subconsciously she felt at her finger, where once in life that same ring had once rested.
“Oh darling, I wish you were here to see your plans come to fruition!” She said, as she brought her hand up and kissed the place on her finger where the ring had once been that had yoked her to the love of her life.
Ellanara hurried back through the forest headed for the ship. It had taken longer than she had thought to download Narra, but she’d finally managed to accomplish it. Her lateness would be noted though. Salanicus would be no doubt furious, when he found out that she had followed him let alone what she’d done.
He was mad enough most of the time without deliberately goading him. She was a fool! A big fool! Well make that a small fool in the context of the Sallaconese people. She should never have come after him and yet she didn’t regret it, because Narra was worth saving and she’d learned valuable things about Salanicus.
Snap!
Ellanara gasped, even as she jumped in surprise from the loud sound in the forest off to the left side of her. There was more snapping of brush and in the reasoning part of her brain she quickly reasoned that it couldn’t be Salanicus. He would never have made so much noise. Even as mad, as he was going to be with her she would’ve preferred to have seen him right now more than anything else.
A deep nasty sounding gargle of a roar issued forth from the undergrowth of the forest and she screamed, “Salanicus!” Before she turned and ran as hard as she could for the ship in the distance that she still couldn’t see because of the forest.
She could hear branches snapping behind her. Whatever it was it was big and it was gaining on her. Her cloak was ripped off of her by an outreaching stub of a dead branch on a nearby tree.
“Where are you?” Came the distinct thought in her mind that she identified as belonging to Salanicus.
“I don’t know!” Ellanara thought back in reply, even as she panted hard and swerved around tree trunks hoping that the tight growth of the forest she ran through would slow down her pursuer, which it seemed to be doing so.
“I’m coming! Keep running in the direction that you are!” Came Salanicus’s reply across her consciousness. It was amazing how much comfort she derived from the thought of him coming to her rescue.
She broke out into a clearing and made a mad dash to get across it to the other side. Halfway across the meadow she felt herself tripped and then she was jerked upward into the air. The beast had gotten her! And then she came back down and then back up and then down. What was going on?
Ellanara looked upward from her upside down position and saw both of her feet caught in a rope tied to a nearby tree. She looked down and saw the grass of the clearing six feet below her head and then it dawned on her what had happened. She’d tripped a hunter’s deer snare. She had to get free of it, but it was too late, as the beast chasing her burst into the clearing with an awful snarl.
It drew up abruptly eyeing the rope holding her warily. It must’ve decided that she was worth the risk because it sprang for her. Ellanara shrieked in pure terror, as the strange beast came straight at her with taloned forepaws and bared canines.
A speeding black blur of movement crashed into the beast knocking it upward onto its back feet. It was Salanicus. Ellanara watched, as Salanicus forcefully marched the beast backward to slam into a tree at the edge of the clearing. She shrieked out in agony at the sight of the beast’s taloned forepaws sinking deeply into the back of Salanicus’s shoulders, even as Salanicus pulled the slobbering jaws of the beast wide with both hands.
Ellanara watched the muscular ripple of exertion course across Salanicus’s back, as the creature momentarily grunted out in pain, even as it tried to escape, but it was too late. The beast’s jaw broke, as Salanicus pulled it apart with a loud snap.
“Not today or any other day laztata! She’s mine!” I affirmed, as I let the beast fall to the ground. I turned from the beast to see if Ellanara was all right. She appeared to be, but she was crying. Any anger I had felt melted away instantly at the sight of the tears dripping off her face to the ground. I went to her and reaching up to her face I cradled the back of her head with my hands.
“Are you all right Ellanara?” I asked concerned.
“Your back!” She managed to get out through her sobs.
“My back? Oh! It’s alright! Really it’s okay!” I said hurriedly, as some deep part of me warmed to the fact that her tears were for me.
“But I saw it grab you!” She insisted reaching out to me with her hands.
I pulled the shreds of what was left of my shirt off and bawling it up I hurriedly wiped away the blood from off my shoulders and back and then I turned my back to her, “See it’s fine.” I said.
I felt her fingers trace the upraised pink lines of the scars that had already closed over and healed.
“How?” She stuttered out in shock at what she saw.
I turned back around and with a shrug I said, “It’s a blessing and a curse. I’ll tell you about it later. Now, mind telling me what you’re doing out here in the forest in the first place?”
She was quiet and I could see apprehension of what was to come in her eyes, as her lips started to quiver.
“You followed me to the Chapel?”
She nodded her eyes beginning to tear up again. Somewhat mesmerized by her eyes I asked, “What did you think of her?”
“I liked her. We talked for a bit and then I downloaded her.” Ellanara said on a hurried note just before she closed her eyes and scrunched up her face, as if she expected to be hit.
I blinked completely stunned. What had she just said? My voice husky sounding I asked, “Did you say that you downloaded my mother?”
“Yes!” She wailed out.
Before I could say anything she quickly blubbered out, “She was so nice and I hated to see her left alone there in that place. I know what that feels like. It’s terrible! I thought to myself that there’s plenty of room on the ship’s network mainframe for her and Abby both and I knew Abby wouldn’t mind. I know she’s not your real mother, but she’s just like her and I thought you might feel better if you could at least take the memory of her with you and not have to leave her behind when we leave like everything else of your past. I know you’re probably justifiably angry with me, but……”
She just kept going on and on. She thought I was angry with her? In a husky tone I said cutting into her diatribe, “That was very sweet of you!”
“I know! I know I’m terrible! I shouldn’t have intervened, but I….I…. What did you say?” She asked in surprise, as my words finally registered to her.
I cut off any further words, as I speared my fingers into her cascading hair and kissed her. After a moment of hesitation I felt both of her hands come up to hold my head to hers. Reluctantly I drew back from her after a long moment. I was breathing hard and my heart felt like it was about to come out of my chest, but this wasn’t the time or the place to carry anything farther in the way that I wanted to with this woman.
Her eyes opened and I relished the look of passion for me that I saw within her twin blue glowing depths of beauty. She reached for me, but I caught her hands and kissed each of them, “I would love to go on with this, but we need to get back to the ship and we need to get you down from here before you turn part bat.”
She giggled and I had to smile at the sound of her infectious laughter. I cut her loose and turned her to set her down on her feet, but before she could reach the ground and while she was still eye level with me I couldn’t resist the urge to taste her passion for me again. I kissed her again and she kissed me back willingly, as my hands molded around her waist loving what they felt, even as the feel of her pressed up against me was intoxicating. Groaning I set her down on the ground away from me. The woman was a temptation not to be denied, but I had to resist before I went too far.
She didn’t say anything, but the look she gave me was different. I wasn’t quite sure in what way it was different, only in that it seemed better, far better than she’d ever looked at me before. Timidly she reached out her hand and grasped mine, “Shall we go?”
I nodded feeling entranced by her in a way that no other woman in my life had ever come close to. She smiled radiantly and with a little groan I acknowledged that she’d been reading my thoughts again.
“Come along my Forest Queen.”
After we got back to the ship and through the barrage of questions that Loric leveled at us along with the knowing looks of the others that had Ellanara beat red in the face we got under way and coasted over the surface of the planet for several miles, until I directed Ellanara to set the ship down in a clearing. I left the ship and soon returned with several of my warrior brethren.
They didn’t know what to think at first. I showed them the ship and I introduced them to the crew. I explained my marriage and I told them what was going to happen and as their uncontested leader for centuries they put their doubts and hatreds aside and did as I asked. They left in the night to travel out to the other scattered villages on this world where they would gather the people together and start them on their way here.
It would take them a few days to all arrive. When they were all here we’d leave the planet and take them to the moon called Pelatia, where my workshop was among the ruins of Berniam. The moon had once been inhabited by the people of Berniam, but they had been wiped out in the past, because of their friendship with the Vallians.
I would gather all of my people together on Pelatia, as I did not think that the Orlandian’s would suspect a massing of Sallaconese people on a moon that we had never claimed as one of our own. It would be then up to Ellanara to stand up to her part of the bargain in terms of how my people would be transported to the Haven Worlds. I trusted her, but I wished she would just tell me what she had in mind so I could get rid of the cloud of doubt that lay in the back of my head that whispered betrayal.
It was early in the morning when I got back to the ship after a night spent choreographing the exodus of my people from this world. Both my mother and Abby immediately appeared smiling. “All is well my son?”
I nodded, “It appears to be. I see that Ellanara got you uploaded as I believe she put it.”
“Yes, she did and Abby here has been so gracious in letting me share her space.”
Abby waved a hand, “Not a problem whatsoever! I’m just glad for the extra company.”
I smiled at her obvious enjoyment of the situation, “Well I’m glad for you and I’m glad that you’re coming along Narra.” I said meaning it.
I looked around in search of Ellanara, but she wasn’t within the control room.
“Searching for someone?” Narra asked smoothly.
I glanced back to them to see them both pointing down the hall that led to the living quarters.
“About two hours ago.” Abby piped in with a grin.
I nodded and moved past the two networks not looking at either of them in the face.
I stepped inside the room and suffered a disappointment. Ellanara was fast asleep curled up on the bed. I walked over to her and noted that she looked cold. I got a blanket from off the foot of the bed and covered her up and then I turned to leave the room.
I stopped at the door and leaned my head against it. Was there something better I had to do right now? I couldn’t think of anything so I went back to the bed and carefully lay down on the opposite side trying not to disturb her. It hadn’t been much after my head had hit the pillow that she turned over was cuddled up against me with her head resting on my shoulder.
Carefully I pulled her more into me with a hand on her back and watched her sleep enjoying the exercise somehow of doing so. After a while my own eyes closed surprisingly in sleep. It was good to not be alone anymore.