Beneath the Hallowed Hill (35 page)

“Confusing our new apprentice?” Govannan’s voice brought Megan out of the swirl of Daphyll’s words.

“Just explaining a few basics. Don’t worry, I’ll leave the rest to you.” Daphyll winked.

Oh God
, Megan thought.
They all know.

Govannan waited until Daphyll was out of earshot. “Fortunately, you don’t have to do the math to make the jump.”

“What about to operate the star gate?” she asked.

“If you take it in increments, it becomes quite clear.” Seeing her furrowed brow, he said, “That’s why Daphyll doesn’t teach. She can never resist explaining the whole thing at once.”

Megan followed Govannan back to a waiting room. He closed the door behind them. “I need to clarify a few things before we go.” Megan smiled, but he was all business this morning. “Here’s what’s going to happen. Once the star gate engages, we connect with its complement on Sirius simply through our intention to travel there. Attune to your particular color within the crystal matrix.”

Megan’s eyes widened.

“Don’t worry.” He pushed a strand of her hair away from her face. “It will happen quite naturally. As the vibrations increase, the physical body will dissolve into its etheric component. Your natural affinity will show in the color of your energy.”

Govannan took her hand. “It’s a blissful experience, like a hard knot dissolving into an effervescent sea. You won’t lose your identity. In fact, your consciousness will expand. There are certain levels of awareness that we can’t embody in this form. Keep your destination in mind and find the color that matches your own. The very first time can be startling, but I’ll be right beside you.” His voice deepened, making her shiver. “You don’t think I’d let anything happen to you, do you?”

Megan tried to smile.

“Besides, the Ambassador is a renowned adept. He’ll be with us, too. Any questions?”

“You’re sure this is safe?” Megan asked.

Govannan threw back his head and laughed, setting his shells tinkling. He kissed the top of her head. “Wait here. I’ll come get you when we’re ready.”

Megan looked back to find her mother standing by the door. On his way out, Govannan greeted her rather formally. Once he left, Pleione held her arms out and Megan ran to her.

“You two must have talked,” her mother said.

Megan pulled back and looked at her.

“He kissed you, silly.”

“Oh, right. Last night.” Megan beamed.

“This morning, too,” Pleione said.

“That was just a peck.”

“I see.” Pleione chuckled. “How do you feel?” She looked her up and down. “As if I need to ask.”

“We’re going to leave our bodies here and go flying through the universe.”

“You won’t leave them. They sort of tuck into your higher energy,” Pleione said. “It’s a wonderful experience, better than sex.”

Megan looked at her mother sharply. “How would I know?”

Before Pleione could come up with a retort, Daphyll appeared at the door. “We’re ready for you.”

Megan turned to her mother, who said, “I’ll watch from here.”

Megan followed Daphyll into the Crystal Matrix Chamber, already alive with currents of voices and energy. Daphyll asked her to wait at the first ring of crystals. Before Megan could even look around, Govannan and the ambassador came in and took their place beside her. Her gaze darted over to Govannan’s ordinary spot in the circle. Another man stood there, and directly across from him was Rhea. She gave Megan a reassuring smile.

“Ready?” Daphyll asked.

Govannan and the ambassador slipped out of their robes and handed them over. Megan tried to keep her eyes off Govannan’s muscled form, but failed. Family life and group ritual accustomed her to nudity, but why did she have to share this moment?

Daphyll cleared her throat and Megan blushed. Govannan grinned, then reached out and unhooked the top catch of her garment. She shrugged it off and goose bumps spread up her arms. She told herself it was the cool breeze blowing in from the ocean.

With a nod from Rhea, the pod workers began the chant Megan heard that first time—three short repetitions of vowel sounds; it was a common beginning to ritual work, she now realized. They built complex harmonies, and the chamber shifted from an open room to an enclosed ball of energy that grew more palpable as the chant built. The same round woman Megan noticed before lifted her head and sang short dissonant notes; just as before, half the sentinels lit up. The woman’s male compliment woke the others with his deep bass voice, and the giant Fire Stone whooshed to life. Megan’s ears popped as the pressure in the sphere built.

Govannan took her elbow and guided her up to the towering crystal. He placed his hand against the firm sides of the stone and waited. The chant intensified again. His hand sank into the body of the crystal. After a minute, he pushed harder and walked inside. His muscled form took on a glow.

Megan gulped a breath and followed him. The closest sensation she ever experienced was walking through water, but the crystal felt more viscous. She wondered how she was still breathing, but forgot about that when her body began to glow. She held up a transparent arm, then stared, amazed, as her vision widened and the colors of the ambassador’s energy field swirled in front of her, purple and violet resolving into a diamond-clear white.

Remembering Govannan’s instructions, Megan looked down at herself and found she turned to silver-blue light deepening to sky blue. Above her, an arch of blue stretched up. With a whoosh, she flowed into the corridor. Once inside the column of light, her being expanded. She was free, free of those limitations she didn’t even realize she was feeling. She could know anything, go anywhere in a thick stream of stellar light, manifest wherever a portal stood. There were many of them; she saw them in her mind as points of light.

A stream of deeper blue flecked with gold flowed by her—Govannan. A series of lives flashed before her—Earth, the Pleiades, and Sirius. Govannan always returned to Sirius. Megan’s body in this life, the genetic code she now carried as a seed, resonated more with the Seven Sisters, but she bore strands of the other worlds in the past—Sirius, and Vega, Orion, Ursa Major. They left subtler impressions, swirls of possibilities.

“
Where are we going?”
She sent the thought to Govannan, and a picture of an even larger receiver crystal than the one in Atlantis came to her. It stood in the middle of a water temple. The image of the best form for this world floated to the surface of her consciousness—a long, sleek grey body highly sensitive to touch; the nose was long, the forehead receptive like a satellite dish. She felt her energy coalesce inside the giant stone. She pushed out of the crystal and landed in the cool blue water of Sirius. She swam around the circular pool in the temple, leaping into the air in her exhilaration. Around her stood tall crystalline beings, their silicone limbs transparent and stiff, their faces difficult to focus on. Megan sent out a sonar greeting and thrilled with sensation as another sleek body brushed against her. He sang a lower note. She turned to him, entwining with his muscled wet skin, then remembered they were guests.

The ambassador swam down a tunnel at the end of the pool, his elongated head now changed into its native form. A request for them to follow him appeared in Megan’s mind. She followed behind Govannan, and they emerged into an open expanse of pure aqua where a group of dolphins waited. They swam around the ambassador, stroking him with their bodies as they passed. The pod spiraled up to the surface where they conversed with clicks, whistles, and sonar.

A plethora of questions swam in the water. Megan could follow it all.

“
How is Earth?”

“Have you told them about the cycles?”

“Do they understand?”

“Last time we should have intervened.”

A female dolphin scolded the pod. “
May I greet him first?”

The ambassador swam with her some distance away, their bodies brushing together.
“You were gone too long
,
”
she said. The ambassador’s reply was too soft to hear.

After a minute, the two rejoined the others.
“Here are the two workers from their Crystal Tower.”
He introduced Megan and Govannan then turned back to the group.
“This time we will help them.”

The pod inspected them. One dolphin glided past, sending out a gentle sonar sweep of their bodies. Soon they were surrounded, and images crowded Megan’s mind—Eden as it looked long ago, the canals full of visitors from Sirius; breathtaking crystal spires in a city she didn’t recognize; swimming through space in a golden stream of energy.

The ambassador intervened.
“This was her first jump. She should eat, and I am old and need to rest.”

A sonar burst tickled Megan; she recognized it as laughter.

The ambassador nosed a smaller dolphin. “
Take our guests hunting and for a tour of the crystal city. When the tide has turned twice, we will meet again
.” He swam lazily away with his mate.

The smaller dolphin introduced himself as the couple’s descendant, a grandson six generations removed. His name was Anen. He asked Megan what fish she preferred.

“I’ve never been a dolphin before,”
she explained.

Delighted, Anen swam toward his favorite hunting ground. The water turned from turquoise to deep blue, with patches of almost purple. Odd creatures grew from rocks on the bottom, swaying in the current, fanning out delicate sails that filtered microscopic algae and crustaceans. Finally Megan saw them, a huge pod of red-gilled fish, and her body’s instincts took over. The three swam in spirals, herding the fish into a thicker cloud. They swam through, opening their mouths and gulping the fish down. After the meal, they drifted in spirals, first down to the dark, sandy bottom, then up again, dozing. They woke some time later—Megan no longer cared how much later, for her life in the ocean was not bound by the sun in the same way it was on land.

“You must see the city of the Crystal People.”
The nap refreshed their guide’s enthusiasm, and they raced through the water, leaping and twirling in the air then diving back. The deeper blue water lightened to cerulean, then turquoise, and finally back to the almost transparent aqua that told Megan’s dolphin brain they were close to land. Anen followed a channel that tasted of leaves and rich sediment. At last, it opened into a large circular bay with more channels turning off at regular intervals.

They swam up a wide river, then into a smaller channel that circled an island. Above the water, tall, elegant fingers of crystal touched the clouds. The main sun was setting, the second star a distant golden ball in the sky. The rays of the first sun reflected in the crystal buildings as streaks of magenta, orchid, and bruised plum, all glowing in the gold of the second. Megan kept spy hopping up, her eyes just clearing the water, trying to see as much as possible. Tall crystalline beings walked along the shore, their heads leaning together as they conversed. Trees with feather leaves blew in the breeze. Beneath them, flowers bloomed in hues whose spectrum could not be seen on Earth.

The taste of the water changed. The current began to run back toward the sea, so the three dolphins followed it. The water darkened to navy blue as the sun set, but their sonar guided them unerringly to the dolphin pod. When the tide reached its lowest ebb, families sorted themselves out, forming long spirals of bodies, floating down and gently swimming back up, resting one half of the brain, then the other.

Megan swam close to Govannan, who nosed her.
“Let’s rest together.”
They spent a most curious time together, spiraling up and then back down in the dark, deep waters of the planet Sirius, half awake, half asleep, but always the One Consciousness supported their minds, connecting them to each other and all that is, was, or would become.

When the tide was at full, the large pod woke and divided up to hunt for breakfast. Anen took them to another of his favorite spots; this time they feasted on small quicksilver fish that flashed in the water as one. When the tide began to turn again, they made their way back. The pod regrouped for a conference with those they called “the humans,” even though Megan could barely imagine having legs again.

The Sirian Council met in a round area of sand surrounded by hills. Some broke the surface, forming rocky islands. The rocks reflected the clicks of the dolphins back to the pod, keeping the meeting somewhat private but also allowing the leaders of the Crystal People to take part. They stood on the hills, their tall, thin bodies oddly similar to the architecture of their cities, refracting the rays of the sun and breaking the light into rainbows.

After the greetings and introductions were dispensed with, the ambassador addressed himself to Govannan.
“You have probably remembered why you are on Earth at this time.”

Govannan bobbed his head up and down.
“I remember now that I have shepherded Earth through these cycles twice before, but always I forget my mission and what I know.”

“This forgetting is a natural part of the cycle, like sleep,”
the ambassador said.
“The torture you discovered, though, is a sign the upcoming cycle may be more violent that others were.”