Destiny: Child Of Sky (109 page)

Meridion opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was the familiar, smoothly polished stone and thick glass windows of the high tower around him. He felt the coldness of the marble chair on which he sat, chilling the muscles of his body, a body that had pleasurable heft and weight to it. He was glad to note the reunion of his conscious mind with his physical form; he remembered that the first few times he had meditated, traveling back or forth in Time, he had been petrified there would be nowhere for him to return, but had eventually reconciled himself to the risk.

It was reassuring to step out of Time and back into himself, into his memories, the history he knew both from the old tales, and from seeing it himself.

Whatever he had been seeking on this journey had eluded him. He had always had a sense that there was something different about Time than the way it appeared, but could never find the link, the evidence, that any other reality had ever existed than the one he knew, and could see in his mind's eye. It seemed to him for some reason that his memories, and the history he was able to view, were somehow new, fresher than one might think they should be.

Sometimes in his dreams there were flashes, fragments that seemed to belong to some other time, some other reality, filled with images of strange lights and darkness and spools of something that looked like thread, suspended as if hanging among the stars. Always in these dreams there was a sense of dread, an urgency that he could not escape, from which he would wake, panting, fearful, to the bright sun of morning that did little to warm the chill from his soul. He had tried to explain the strange misgivings he felt to his mother, who herself had been prescient, but she had never really been able to grasp what he was trying to convey.

The door in the tower room opened, and she came in; Meridion watched her out of the corner of his eye as she set the tray she was carrying down on the table next to him. He smiled at her, then turned in his seat and regarded her thoughtfully. Many years had passed since the day of her wedding, and she still looked exactly the same, although her face held a look of wisdom that had not been there in her youth.

His father still had the appearance of youth about him also, though time had etched a few more lines around his eyes, visible when he smiled.

'All finished?“ Rhapsody asked, handing Meridion a mug of dot mwl. He took the cup of steaming liquid gratefully and nodded, sipping the rosy amber drink they both liked. His father drank it on occasion, but had never really developed a taste for it. Meridion swallowed. "Yes,“ he said. "Thank you."

She came behind him and slid her arms around his shoulders. “Where did you go today—forward or back?"

Meridion thought back to the only image he remembered, the hazy picture of his parents running through a starry night. “Back," he said, taking another sip. “I think I attended your wedding, but I don't remember much. Your gown was beautiful."

'Miresylle would have been glad to hear that you thought so,“ his mother said, picking up her own mug. "She worked for two months straight on it.“ Her emerald eyes gleamed. "Did you see Oelendra, my mentor, at the wedding?"

He thought for a moment, searching his memory. “Yes, but not this time. This is only one of many times I've gone to watch the wedding, because the fireworks were spectacular. I don't remember seeing her this time. Or the fireworks, for that matter." He lifted the mug to his lips, unwilling to reveal that he remembered nothing but the one image from the journey. Everything else was blank.

Rhapsody blinked quickly and nodded. “I wish you could have known her, Meridion; she was very special."

Meridion smiled. “I did know her, in a way," he said. “You didn't notice on the day you first came to Tyrian, but I was one of the children in her swordplay class."

Rhapsody laughed and tousled his hair, leaving her hand resting on the wiry golden curls a moment afterward. “You really have been all over in Time, haven't you? I remember you from the fountain in Easton; you used to ask me to play the same song over and over."

Meridion nodded and took a sip of the dot mwl. “I came to witness the Cymrian Council, too, but I was an adult then."

'It's a great treasure you've been given, you know, this gift of Time, and the ability to step in and out of it at will."

'It is.“ Meridion set the mug back on the tray and picked up a pastry from the plate on it. "But it's a little frustrating, being able to see events in the Past and the Future, but having no ability to affect them. I have the strange feeling that I should be able to make some sort of an impact, but alas, when I step into the Past I am only an observer, and on rare occasions a commentator—I had to work very hard just to make you hear me when I asked you to play that song.“ He chuckled. "It's most likely for the best that I'm just an image and not really there. If I could affect Time I'd probably make a botch of it."

Rhapsody took a sip from the steaming mug, then looked at her son seriously. “I think anyone would. It seems to me that being able to see into the Past or the Future, which is a family trait in your case, causes nothing but trouble. The visions I have had gave me horrific nightmares, and as for your great-grandmother and her sisters—their lore certainly cost them their sanity, especially Manwyn; the power of seeing the Future must be the most dangerous." Her eyes narrowed slightly as she saw something come over her son's face. “Meridion, what are you thinking?"

He shrugged and lifted the mug to his lips again.

'Do you have any idea where Manwyn gets her information about the Future?"

Meridion laughed. “Well, she gets some of it from me. I stop by for tea and a good gossip with her every now and then. She is my great-great-aunt, after all, and no one else visits her without seeking something from her. I'm more than an image to her; I actually have some physical presence when I'm with Manwyn. Sometimes she lets me use Merithyn's sextant to look into the Future. She's a lot of fun, once you get to know her, in a crazy sort of way."

'Really?“ His mother untangled a nest of curls in his hair. "That's odd. You're a Namer, Meridion. If she gets her prophecies from you, then why is she so mysterious about them? And so seldom right when she relates them to the world?"

His smile faded, and he looked away to see a lark gliding past one of the tower windows, the sun on its wings. “Well, she is somewhat deaf, after all."

'Is that the extent of it?"

Meridion exhaled slowly, still watching the bird until it banked away to even greater heights. “Who said she was wrong?"

'Isn't she, on occasion?"

He shook his head, not looking at her. “No. She's mad, and crafty, and hard of hearing, but never wrong." Finally he turned and met her gaze. “Do you remember what Jo told you in the place of the Rowans about not being able to understand about the Afterlife until you are in it?"

Rhapsody put down her mug. “Yes."

'It's true of knowledge of the Future as well. Manwyn may see it, but that doesn't mean she understands it." Any more than you do, he thought with a touch of melancholy.

'But you do?"

He leaned toward the window, hoping to see the bird again. “Most of the time."

-

'Hmmm." Rhapsody followed his gaze out the window, the autumn sunlight spilling into the tower room. When she looked back again she was smiling.

'Have you ever determined where this ability of yours came from? I understand why the three Seers have their gifts; their father was born in the birthplace of Time's beginning, their mother at its end, both of them of ancient races. Why you, then, Meridion?"

He took a bite of the pastry. “Good cookies," he said. Her question hung heavy in the air, unanswered.

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Meridion began to fidget. Finally he sighed. “Like the Seers, it certainly helps for me to have parents from opposite sides of the Prime Meridian, but who both spent time in each world." And to have had one's soul conceived in one, and carried throughout Time, ungestated, to be born in the other, he thought.

He averted his eyes, avoiding her clear green gaze. He had never really found a good way to explain to her that it was the presence of his unborn soul inside her, the bridge across Time, the bond between his mother and father conceived that night in the green meadow, that had given her visions into the Future throughout her life, visions that had ceased upon his birth, mostly because he was not entirely certain himself of how it had all come about. He had often looked in his journeys for the answer to his greatest question, how his father had been plucked for an instant from Time and sent back to the moment where his parents had joined their souls, making the beginnings of him in the process, but he had never found it.

Rhapsody looked fondly at him in return. “The Prime Meridian isn't where your name comes from, just in case you're wondering. You were named for your father and Merithyn."

'I know; I heard the speeches at my naming ceremony when I was a newborn. You named me, after all. You do have a habit of inadvertently bestowing powers with the names you give.“ Meridion slid off the marble chair. "Can I go and play now?"

'Of course.“ Rhapsody regarded her son indulgently. "My, you're getting so big.

You'll be as tall as me soon."

In three years, three months, and seventeen days,“ answered Meridion, stuffing the remains of the cookie in his mouth. "Bye, Mama." He kissed her cheek as she bent to embrace him, the strange vertical slits of his blue eyes sparkling warmly. Then he ran out the door, down the stairs, and into the clear autumn air.