Lord of the Strings-The String Bearer by Barbara Bretana - HTML preview

Chapter 45-Epilogue

I stepped forward out of the Tree‘s aura and regarded my remains lying at the base of the Tree. The face was peaceful for all that I had perished in pain and defeat, white with blue lips, eyes blank with that strange far off glaze that said no one was home. Reaching down, I touched the hole in the chest, color flowed from my hands to disappear under the skin, and the glow changed the deathly pallor to that of something resembling life. I raised the corpse up, staring into those blank eyes.

"Jadewyn?" Zyperia whispered coming close enough to almost enter my aura. I spared her a glance.

"Don‘t," I said flatly and she stopped.

"Can you-?" she asked.

"I‘m dead. What I was is left in this flesh and bone. What I am now is part of the Tree.

You can‘t touch me or hurt me, you can only command me through the Seillach and I have that, too." I closed my hand on it as she reached through the barrier to grasp mine. Astonished, I looked into her eyes and saw compassion, regret, longing and something that made my heart or whatever had taken its place, race. Her skin did not blister or peel, it felt comfortably warm and solid in my own.

"Jadewyn," she said lovingly. "Come back to us, come back to me. " She tugged and pulled me fiercely from the Tree‘s embrace to stand before them all. As I stepped through my mortal self, the skin tingled, pain burst into my head and warm hands caught me from every direction. Sweet air filled my lungs, softness was against my cheek and then there was the sensation of flying upwards as faint voices called me from far away.

*******

 He was there again, the god that looked like my dentist only now, he was sitting on the rear end of a dragon whose ass looked like a faceted diamond, and the tail wrapped around his throat like a winter stole.

"Been in a bit of trouble, have you?" he quirked an eyebrow at me. "Still, I see you‘ve fixed the Druz/human problem on your own without my help. You know you still have the Strings to protect? Even in death we can‘t relinquish those duties. No, you didn‘t cut your own strings, Jadewyn James. You were born outside the influence of the Strings so you cannot die. Or didn‘t you know that? I cannot let you dwell within the Tree, that gives too much power to one side and the balance would tip the other side in their favor. Nor would I let you sacrifice go for that lest the Darkness win and a worse menace than the Druz would have sprung up."

"Am I dead or what?" I managed, rubbing my head between the temples. It felt like a bomb had gone off behind my eyes.

"You managed to kill your mortal body but I‘ve fixed it enough to let your healers do their job. Try to take care of this one. They‘re expensive to replace and hard to come by. Even for gods."

"Yeah, right. What do I do now?"

He laughed. "You‘re sixteen years old, Jadewyn. You have an exotic girlfriend waiting for you to open your eyes and show you that life is on another plane. Go enjoy it. Let your Honor Guard protect you. Be a boy, play. Live. Love. You‘ll know when Duty calls again. When I have need of you again."

"Brightarm?"

"I fulfilled his original destiny. Put things back so they‘ll make sense to all of you."

"How far back?" My heart rose at the thought of family not gone.

He shook his finger at me. "Jadewyn, I told you. I cannot return the dead once their strings are broken, unlike you. Your President Obama is still in office; your friend Murphy is still alive. The battle for the Towers and Tree did happen but the knowledge of the Druz is forgotten and this world unchanged as is Celene. Fetherwyn rules, your Honor Guards wait for you. She waits for you. I‘ll give you a childhood before I call on you again, this is my promise." He stood and bounded forward, hitting me square between the eyes and as I blinked, cried out and opened them in tears as the force of his blow knocked me backwards on my ass.

*******

 Soft fingers wiped my cheeks; I smelled fresh fruit, passion berries and pineapple.

Opening my eyes was a task equal to the same effort as climbing the steps of the Liberty Statue.

"He‘s waking," I knew that softly accented voice and the deeper tones of the man.

"Jadewyn?" Deep green eyes looked into mine, blue ones to the left of hers in a face with a grizzled three-day beard. Lots of gray hairs and deep wrinkles. He had aged, this man Murphy.

There were eyes surrounding me, some at sitting height, others at standing level.

"Jade?" Murph‘s words echoed with the three Dursvan that were my bodyguards. On the other side of what was clearly a hospital bed, stood Revenal Juris, the King and senior people from the President‘s staff. I raised my hand with the IV to my chest and explored the bulky mass I felt there.

"Jade, leave it alone. You just had surgery to repair a bloody big sword through your chest along with some rather nasty broken bones," Murphy explained.

"My head hurts," I complained.

"That‘s an after effect of the Tree‘s influence," Juris told me. "We‘re glad to see you open your eyes, my dear Lord. You need to rest, and get well. Let the King and Council deal with the mop up."

Zip leaned over and kissed my forehead. "Sleep, Jadewyn. I will stay here; will be here when you wake."

"I‘m hungry," I complained and she laughed, smiling brilliantly.

"When are you not, my heart?" She fed me not with food but love.

The End.