Dirt (The Dirt Trilogy) (10 page)

The soothing breeze brings me to consciousness. His blue eyes
bounce off the curtain of cobalt sky. “There you are,” Rowen
whispers.

I sit up screaming,
“Oh my God!” And I grab hold of him as
tight as I can. We’re flying. The trees below us look like bushes as I
glance over the horse’s shoulder.

“
Calm down, Ashe.”
“I can’t look down,” I respond.
“This is Ruamna. Say‘Hi’ girl.” The horse neighs a couple of

times. Her wings span out like a bridge across the sky. As I sit in
his lap, I remain latched to Rowen and begin to trust the strength of
his arms. After I catch my breath, peacefulness surrounds me, but I
then realize how disgusting I am.

“
I look horrible.”
“You look beautiful, but you don’t smell so good,” he says as
he laughs a little. I haven’t had a bath in, well; I wasn’t sure how
many days. I look like I live on the streets.
“Shut up,” I say as I begin to calm down. “Where are we
going?”
“To your Great Aunt’s house. Ivy.”
The wind rushes over us like air through a wind tunnel. Coll
and Ruis fly in front of us while Alder rides alongside on his
beautiful palomino. His eyes cut in our direction with a grimace of
concern.
For some reason, I get the sense we’re doing something
wrong.
“Did you get Straif?” I ask.
“No. He ran off. We’re not done with him yet.”
“How’s my Dad?”
“Still safe.” He hesitates.“I’m sorry I let you down. I don’t
know how you can ever forgive me.”
“What do you mean you let me down? I’m here aren’t I? Safe,
with you.”
“But, I promised you I wouldn’t let harm come to you. Now,
look at you.”
“Okay, you don’t have to remind me. I know I look bad…and
smell bad.”
His eyes melt. No tears, but the shimmering of liquid filled
eyes stare down on me.“I’m sorry.” His voice draws me closer to
his face kissing me softly on the mouth, warming my entire body.
“Rowen!” Alder shouts. Rowen looks over at him and draws
me closer to his chest. “We’ll talk my brother, later.”
“What’s he so upset about?” I ask. Rowen’s face is tight, his
jaw clenches. He’s hiding something. “What is it Rowen? Have I
done something wrong?”
“No, but I’ve done something no sentry has ever done. We will
talk about it later. I know I have said this before. Trust me. I don’t
know if you can, but I need for you to trust me.”
“I do trust you with everything,” I murmur. I don’t understand
what’s going on, but there’s so much about Durt I don’t understand.
At least for now, I’m happy to be alive.
We soar through the air; the view below is breathtaking. The
trees are full and the sky is a quilted blanket stitched perfectly with
mesmerizing
colors
covering
the
land. Birds fly
below us
unaffected by the enormity of their fellow aviators.
As we descend, I grab hold of Rowen with my scabbed hands.
We drop so fast it takes my breath away. My stomach sinks to the
bottom of my feet as we land in a clearing. Once when Taylie and I
were younger, we rode the rollercoaster when the fair came to town.
I barely kept my stomach contained. This experience is very similar
to that rollercoaster.
We gallop through the woods for a while then arrive at a small
stone cottage hidden in a thicket of trees. The thatched roof is tall
and built into a huge oak tree, looking like a luxury tree house.
Waiting outside the front door, is a very lanky, slender, blonde
woman. She’s older, but unbelievably beautiful. The small hints of
light sneaking beyond the canopy of the trees bounce off her and
she glows. She illuminates the surrounding space with beams of
gold.
“Who is she?” I ask.
“Ivy, your grandmother’s sister.”
A relative. A blood relative
.
Before now, I only knew of one,
Dad. I’m embarrassed to meet her. I not at all presentable.
What
will she think of me?
The horses are unable to stand completely still. Rowen jumps
down from Ruamna’s back without effort. He stands below me with
his arms open wide. It’s a long way down.
“I’ve got you,” he says.
I slide off the giant sorrel’s back and drop into Rowen’s arms.
We are eye-to-eye, pausing to absorb a glance that without restraint
will lead to a secret kiss.
Alder, Ruis, and Coll have already gone up to the house.
Rowen sets me down. I’m nervous, but his arms feel safe. I don’t
want to go in and face rejection. I can already tell Alder and Coll
have a problem with me. Rowen senses my apprehension.
“Come on. She’ll love you.”
My balance is tested by gravity. My feet won’t move and I fall
to the ground. Rowen reaches down to catch me. He helps me up,
but I’m unable to stand. Rowen looks down, his expression filled
with shock, like a deer in the line of fire. Below my right knee
there’s nothing, but a hazy shadow of what was once my extremity.
My leg has disappeared again.
“What’s going on, Ashe?” Rowen asks as if I have the answer.
“I don’t know. So, you don’t see it either? I thought I was
going
crazy.”
He
sweeps me up and runs
toward Ivy
never
becoming winded, never showing the least bit of strain.
“Get her inside,” my Aunt Ivy insists. She looks worried, but
not surprised. If I didn’t know better I would have thought Nuin’s
picture on the mantle had come to life. She makes my mother real.
Her beautiful wavy amber blonde hair winds its way down her
shoulders stopping at her waist as her radiant blue eyes distract me.
I can’t stop staring at her.
“It’s going to be all right, dear.” Her voice is soft and musical.
I wonder if my mother’s voice had been the same.
Rowen lays me on the couch and Ivy rushes out of the room.
“What’s wrong?” Alder asks.
Rowen points to my missing leg. “What’s going on Rowen?
What’s wrong with her?”
“Come with me.” Ivy looks at Alder with a shovel in her hand.
They rush out of the front door.
“What’s going on, Rowen?” Ruis asks. His innocence shows
through his childish expression.
“He’s probably screwed up again,” Coll says, releasing his
bottled-up sarcasm. Rowen gets in Coll’s face. They are exactly the
same height and nose-to-nose.
“That’s enough. There’s something wrong with her. This is not
the time,” he growls at Coll.
“When will be the time, Rowen?” Coll asks after a short staring
match and he backs away.“There will come a time, Rowen, and
this matter will be dealt with.”
“Come on, Ruis.” The youngest of the group starts to follow
Coll outside when Rowen redirects him.
“Ruis, get the medication for her hands.” The youth is unsure
of his place and hesitates before he does as Rowen instructs.
Rowen kneels down beside me, putting his hand in mine. My
leg still has not reappeared and I am feeling weaker by the minute.
Alder walks in through the front door.“Ashe, how long has
this been going on?” he asks.
Ruis brings in a bowl. Alder removes my soiled bandages and
places my hands in a solution of teal blue water sparkling with
glittering light. The pain goes away immediately and the sores
begin to heal instantly.
“I don’t know. Two or three days, I think. Time seems so
different here.” Alder removes my hands from the bowl and Rowen
dries them off. They look as if they were never injured.
“That feels so much better,” I say amazed by the miraculous
healing.
Ivy rushes in holding a jar covered in dirt. She sprints passed
us into the kitchen. “What is it, Ivy?” Rowen asks.
The stunning regal woman darts back into the room with the jar
cleaned off, drying it with a rag. She approaches me with her
perfectly-pressed robe flowing behind her in waves of white. She
kneels down beside me. “Drink this.”
“It’s the yellow muck?” I sit up confused. “Where did you get
this? Where’s Dad?” She has my medicine, so he has to be here.
“Your father is fine. Now, drink.”
I’m hesitant. I glance at her and see the blue that reminds me of
the mother I never knew. Can I trust her? I look at Rowen standing
behind her.
“It’s all right. Do as she says, Ashe.”
“Is this the same…?” I’m unable to finish the sentence before
she interrupts me.
“Yes, dear. We have a small supply here. Your father has
supplied us with the serum, but we have only been able to smuggle
in small amounts. Straif monitors our every action and we can’t let
him find out about the serum or its whereabouts. Now, drink up.”
As I swallow, I remember Dad and how he mulled over his lab
making this most wonderfully bitter formula. What was once a
burden is now a much appreciated gift. I hand the empty glass to
Rowen. They snicker as if I have geek stamped across my face.
Rowen points to my upper lip. Apparently, I have a yellow muck
mustache, to adorn my already disgusting appearance. I wipe it off
with the cloth I used to dry my hands. With my olive complexion,
it’s hard for me to blush, but somehow I manage. I look down in
embarrassment and I notice a more vivid image of my right leg
starting to appear.
“It’s working.” Ivy’s encouraging. She scoots outside again
snatching the dirt covered shovel on her way out. I’ve never seen a
person her age move so fast. Well, I don’t know how old she is, but
I know she’s a lot older than my father.
I feel stronger. “What’s going on?What’s happening to me?” I
ask Rowen.
He turns to Alder for an answer. “Faeries cannot live in the
human world. So, in an effort to save your mother, your father
developed this serum to keep her alive. The human world is so
toxic. Our kind will began to age rapidly and die within months if
we’re without the serum. Unfortunately, your father was unable to
perfect it in time to save your mother. He finished it soon after her
death.”
“I’m part human though.”
“You are a bithling, Ashe. Therefore, your father wasn’t sure if
your body would be able to tolerate the human world either. He’s
been giving you the formula since your infancy. However, bithlings
do run the risk of dissolution.”
“What?”
“As a bithling grows, their bodies begin to change. Some turn
to sand. Some simply disappear. Others aren’t at all affected by
their condition.”
“So, being a bithling is a condition?” I say with sarcasm.
“I was told there has been only one before, Ashe,” Rowen says.
“There have been other bithlings, other than Luis. You and
Luis are the only ones to reach the eighteenth year. Your father has
kept you alive with the serum. It’s by decree from the Elders this
information has been forbidden knowledge to protect our world, to
protect your world, to protect you. If The Dark Thorn knew of the
serum we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Alder explains.
All of a sudden, it hits me. “That’s what he’s been burying in
the backyard all these years. He’s been hiding it in the ground!”
“It’s not hidden there. It’s the dirt that gives the serum its
power. Your father discovered this soon after Nuin died,” Ivy says
and then she leaves through the front door with shovel in hand.
Ivy returns with another dirt covered jar. Her pristine white
robe has splotches of brown at the hem. After rushing in and out of
the kitchen, and drying the jar off with a clean towel, she hands it to
me. “Drink up.”
As I gulp my leg materializes, becoming more solid and
functional with each passing second until I’m back to normal. The
second dose revitalizes me.
“Good, it’s working,” my aunt remarks.
I’m still wearing the same pair of jeans and green t-shirt that’s
tie-dyed with black grime.
“Is there any place I can freshen up?”
“Sure, dear, the bathroom is right this way.” I lift myself off
the couch and have a dizzy spell. My legs are working, but I’m still
a little wobbly. Rowen jumps up to steady me and walks me to the
bathroom.
“I’m not leaving you,” he insists hovering over me as if I’m
made of glass.
“I’ll be okay.”
“You’re not leaving my sight,” he says looking down at me.
We walk down the hallway of the cottage. The walls are made
of stone. The ceilings are about twelve feet high. Light seeps
through the green stained glass windows providing a soothing
emerald hue. Everything meshes with the natural world.
“In here, dear.” Ivy points to a bathroom and then goes to
another room. As I enter, Rowen follows behind me.
“You’re not coming in here?” I say pushing him out of the
doorway.
“I told you. You aren’t leaving my sight. We’ve been through
this before. Remember in Skewantee?”
“That was different.”
I waiver as we share a glance. Part of me wants him to join me,
but I really not ready for‘that’ yet, whatever‘that’ might be.
“Really, I’ll be fine.” I’m walking better now and make my way
into the bathroom.
He steps back. “I’ll be right outside.”
The bathroom is different from what I’m used to. There’re no
pipes for water flow. The toilet looks the same. It has a seat, but it
doesn’t have a tank. The sink has knobs for water, but no faucet.
There’s a quiet knock on the door. “I’m okay.”
“It’s me, dear.” I open the door. Ivy awkwardly scoots passed
Rowen who isn’t giving up his post. “Here, try these, Ashe. They
were your mother’s.”
She hands me a clean pair of jeans and an old Beatles t-shirt.
“My mother’s?”
“I kept a lot of her things. You’re about her size.”
“Thanks.”
“Let me know if you need anything else.” Her voice is kind
and angelic. She leaves me in privacy, while Rowen remains
outside.
I am speechless as I hold something that belonged to my
mother. She was real.
I take off my nasty garb and step into the shower pulling the
curtain closed. The shower walls are stone and there again no pipes,
no knobs. It looks like something from another world. Yeah, right,
I’m in another world.
I fumble around unable to figure out how to turn on the water. I
push on the rocks in the wall, but nothing happens.
The bathroom door opens slightly. “You all right in here?”
“Rowen? I’m naked!” I pull the curtain around me and peak
out from behind it and see Rowen standing there with his eyes
closed.
“I heard a lot of noise in here.”
“I can’t get this shower to work.”
He opens his eyes and reaches beyond me, his face brushing
against mine. Resisting the moment, he presses a single stone into
the wall and a water fall begins spraying out of the rocks.
“Thanks,” I say with modesty, wrapped in a shower curtain
made from something other than plastic.
“Call me if you need anything. I’ll be outside.”
My body is refreshed, but my mind is drained. I’m overloaded
with information about myself, about who I am, about what I am. I
remain underneath the water until my palms begin to wrinkle.
“Ashe?”
Rowen calls
out. I guess I’ve
stayed under this
magnificent waterfall longer than I thought.