Tomorrows Child (18 page)

“We’ll knock
this up in an hour, I reckon… what do you think, Seth?” Seth still
looked pale but obviously no longer sick enough to be
bed-ridden.

“Maybe less if
we can get the logs dragged out for us. You up for that,
Psyche?”

I looked at the
two men. “This job should take at least a week or longer.”

Lachlan laughed
the same big belly laugh I recognised from the party. “We might be
back to basics, but we ain’t livin’ in the dark ages yet, love.”
Lachlan swung a huge chainsaw up in front of him like he was a cast
member in the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. “We keep technology for
the big jobs, and this would qualify as a big job, I reckon.”

Seth had a
crooked smile and found Lachlan’s humour amusing. “Go round up that
boyfriend of yours and see if he can help us drag out the
logs.”

I was going to
tell them that he wasn’t my boyfriend, but Phoenix could deal with
that misunderstanding.

In much less
than an hour, the path was clear. I was amazed at what two men and
their chainsaws could accomplish. Phoenix and I dragged out most of
the smaller logs and branches and created soaring piles that would
provide us all with firewood for many months, once the timber
dried. The remainder of the timber was rainforest hardwood and
would be reserved for future building projects.

There was a
little daylight left when we finished clearing the path. A simple
meal had been prepared and laid out for hungry workers to come and
eat as they pleased. I wanted to avoid seeing Libby, but knew I was
being stupid. I still didn’t know what to say or what to do. Libby
had been there for me, but I had no idea what to say to her.

“Quite mild for
a cyclone.”

“Too much
damage for a storm.”

“Far too
intense either way.”

“Snowing? How
crazy is that!”

The discussion
went round in circles, but the greatest mystery seemed to be why no
one saw it coming. Old Basil could smell a storm three days out and
Libby never even missed a shower of rain, yet this one took
everyone by surprise.

I began to
think that the storm was connected to the veil or the magick in
some way, but I didn’t even know if that were possible. I was
beginning to identify a pattern - when confusion and mystery
surrounded us, the answers always entailed magick. New magick or
ancient magick it didn’t seem to matter. It wasn’t appropriate to
ask Libby now, but perhaps it was a mystery I could explore by
myself.

It had grown
quite dark, with no moon. The stars shone brightly, sparkly and
twinkling in the sky like any other night. I was growing tired and
wanted to head home, but I knew Phoenix wouldn’t let me go alone.
He was talking to Lachlan, Seth and Ruben and close enough to
notice my departure. I hoped he set them straight about the
boyfriend thing. The conversation was loud and boisterous and Ruben
was laughing at the two other men. He slapped Seth on the back and
walked away, toward the house. I thought the mood would be solemn
this evening. They had lost so much today, perhaps even more than
they realised.

Libby appeared
at the top of the stairs with Tahinah and Abigail, who were ready
to leave. It would seem to an onlooker that I was part of the
group, discussing the weather and chatting with friends, but
although I sat with them, I wasn’t participating or even listening.
When I stood up, Phoenix arrived at my side, ready to escort us
home, as I knew he would.

“Stay, Phoenix.
We can find our own way home tonight.” Libby looked much better
than I expected and her voice was soft and calm.

“It will be
safer if I walk with you. It’s a moonless night and we don’t know
how safe it is to walk alone.” Phoenix wouldn’t take no for an
answer. Tahinah handed him a lantern. It didn’t provide much light,
but was better than stumbling in the dark.

“Phoenix, you
be sure and light the fire and make Libby a pot of tea. She’s had
nothing for hours. Psyche, please get her to eat something.”
Tahinah spoke in the same manner she always had and I could see she
truly cared for Libby.

“Phoenix, I
want you to stay tonight. I don’t want the girls there alone. I’ll
send Navarre over at midnight. I don’t care how you organise it,
but I want one of you awake and on alert at all times.” Ruben
finally had the support he needed to organise a full-scale defence
system.

The night was
pitch-black and the terrain no longer familiar. Large logs still
lay in some places and tiny branches and leaves covered the path.
Snow made it slippery and a horrible sludge coated everything.

By the time
Phoenix lit the fire and made tea, Libby was in bed. So the simple
snack I’d put together was offered to a very hungry dragon that
consumed it with gusto. Pepper seemed pleased to have us home. I
tried not to get too fond of him, in case he wanted to join his
fellow dragons one day, but it seemed that Pepper was behaving more
like a pet than a wild dragon.

Phoenix and I
barely spoke on the way home, but he sat with me now and offered me
a cup of peppermint tea.

“Shouldn’t we
be drinking chamomile at this time of night? I thought peppermint
was a ‘pick me up’.” I was slowly learning about the herbs and
their uses and benefits.

“It is better
in the morning, but I think we should talk. We don’t get a lot of
time alone and I don’t want you falling asleep just yet.”

“Ooh, that
sounds a bit mysterious.” I intended to make a joke of what he
said, but he was so serious, I kept my comments to myself and
waited.

“I just need to
talk to you alone and we always have either Libby or Navarre with
us. We will bury Basil tomorrow, and with the storm clean-up, we
might not get another chance for a while.”

“I thought it
might have been about the ‘boyfriend comment’ that Seth made this
afternoon. I hope you set him straight.”

“Well, not
actually, but a lot of that was because Navarre and I arrived home
in our underwear.” He nodded toward the clothes hanging beside the
fire.

“Oh, I didn’t
even notice.”

“That’s what I
told them, but they wouldn’t leave it alone.” I thought Phoenix was
about to blush, but he turned away “We’ll be hearing about this for
a long time. Navarre doesn’t help. His version is that you couldn’t
decide between him and me and wanted to see us naked. Sorry,
Psyche, I did try.”

“That’s okay,
but wait until I see Navarre. So that’s it? That’s what you wanted
to talk about?”

“No,” Phoenix
said as he took a deep breath. “Today was supposed to be about
telling you everything. No secrets. Remember? But we couldn’t
continue with Navarre here and the storm completely interrupted our
plans.”

“Oh, I thought
you’d pretty much covered all the basics… just the details were
missing.”

“It’s the
details that hold the secrets and I don’t want you to be upset
every time something new is revealed. I figured if I lay it all out
today, you could get upset once and then, perhaps, we can move
on.”

“So you’re
going to upset me?”

“That depends
on how you look at it. It isn’t my intention to hurt you. I never
want to see you unhappy, Psyche. You have to know that.”

I did know
that. I just didn’t understand why.

“What I told
you today is only half of the truth. I do remember things from
before I came here, but it is far more complicated than that.” He
poured more tea. Either this was a long story or I would be awake
until dawn.

“When you
decided to begin this journey and take on a new life, I’d already
decided to stay. Neither of us needed to return to earth, but you
were bound by duty. It was the first time I would not return to
earth with you; this time you would be alone. It was a hard
decision for both of us.” Phoenix looked sad as he spoke, but he
wasn’t looking at me. He looked far off in the distance,
remembering a sadness I didn’t understand.

“When you left,
you kissed me and said you would never forget. But you’re meant to
forget. That’s the way it works when we cross the veil into birth.
You forget. But I didn’t forget. I missed you. Every incarnation on
earth had been with you. This time we were both alone.”

“But you’re
older than me; you were born first.”

“No, I wasn’t,
there was an opportunity for me to come later… I didn’t expect to
find you, but I thought the distraction would be good.”

“Phoenix, it
doesn’t make sense, you’re older than me.”

“I know, but
there is a way.” Phoenix hesitated. His violet eyes had grown dark
again and were almost black. “Sometimes souls finish their work
early and want to come home. For others, the life they planned is
too hard and they request an early exit. And some, have strayed so
far from their purpose or are so lost, that they are removed.” He
looked into my eyes, but I said nothing.

“There are so
many reasons, but these souls can go home without death and the
human body remains a viable vessel, allowing another soul to live
in the body that remains… without being born. That’s what I was
asked to do, but I had to take over the responsibilities of the
first soul. I couldn’t go off looking for you, but I hoped that you
would be somewhere near.”

“Didn’t you
know where I was?”

“I wasn’t part
of your life plan or even involved in the planning; so there was no
way for me to connect you with the girl I was sent to protect.
There was no obvious connection between you and the first soul.
There was no way I could have recognised that it was you.”

“How do you
know now? How can you be sure that I am the one you lost?”

“I can tell.
There is a connection between all souls that can never be broken.
Even humans with no memory can recognise a soul they’ve known
before. It’s only our conscious mind that has no memory, our
subconscious remembers everything and can recognise people we are
connected to on a higher level. This usually happens through eye
contact. The connection of souls is automatic and links you to your
soul memory.”

He looked at me
now, not searching like he had in those first few days, but waiting
for my response. “It’s too much for you, isn’t it? Libby said I
should wait.”

“How’d Libby
know?”

“She knows who
I am, everyone knows, but I told her what I thought about you after
that first day in the forest. You’d never looked at me before that
day. You were so sad for so long. Even when my spirit recognised
you and my heart confirmed it, I didn’t know if I could believe it
was really you. I couldn’t see how I was going to do my job if it
were you.”

“I heard you
talking to Libby that night, it was a strange conversation, but I
couldn’t come back into the room and tell you I had overheard your
private conversation and then ask what you were talking about.”

“I wish you
had, it might have saved you a lot of distress.”

“Hardly, I
wasn’t ready for any of this then; I’m not sure I am now, but I
trust you and I’m open to the idea that anything’s possible. I
wasn’t then. So you really think I am this ‘soul’ that you have
been missing?”

“I know you
are. Don’t you have some feeling of recognition, some sense of
familiarity?”

How could I
tell him what I thought? I felt a connection, but it wasn’t as if
I’d been having pure thoughts, after all. It was hardly a heavenly
connection. I could never tell him I had spent the afternoon
lusting after him or that I imagined his lips kissing mine.

“I thought it
was from the dreaming. I am comfortable with you, yet we’re
practically strangers. I did think it was weird. You get away with
things that I would never allow anyone else to get away with.” He
looked confused; he really didn’t know, “All that bossy stuff, like
telling me what to do and watching me all the time. With anyone
else, I would just tell them off and do whatever I wanted.”

“I thought
that’s exactly what you had been doing!” He smiled. “So you’re okay
with this,? You believe what I’m telling you? No questions?”

“Yes, I’m okay
with it, but I have plenty of questions. We probably need more tea,
maybe even coffee.”

This time I
boiled the water and made coffee. I needed a distraction to think
about all he said.

Did I believe
everything? Maybe not, but I trusted Phoenix and knew that he
believed it. “I feel like I’ve been whisked away to an alternate
reality, a place of magick and magickal creatures, a place where
anything is possible.”

“In a way you
have. Ten years ago, most of this wouldn’t have been achievable,
but changes to the energy and the veil made it all a reality.”

“How closely
are we connected? Like brother and sister? Or something else?” I
hoped the answer would not be brother and sister or parental,
because it would make my thoughts very wrong.

“Something
else, you and I were together in our first incarnation… We are
partners, part of the same energy, twin souls, but not brother and
sister. That is a human experience, not a spiritual one. It’s like
together we are complete, apart we are left searching… always
unsatisfied… always alone.”

“Oh Phoenix, I
feel so bad, it sounds dreadful,” I couldn’t find the words needed,
nor did I fully understand, because I didn’t remember, “So let’s
say I believe you… no question, no doubt, what then? What happens
next?”

“I have no
idea. There are no rules. There’s no script written for us to
follow. I guess it’s up to us. What do you want? What are you
feeling?”

I couldn’t give
him an answer now; it was too much, too many decisions to make, too
much at stake. “I need time, I don’t know what I’m feeling, I’m a
teenage girl, Phoenix, we never know. I want the rest of the story,
all the details.”

Tiny tears
glistened in the corner of Phoenix’s eyes. I didn’t understand why…
Did he think this meant I didn’t want anything from him? Or that I
had nothing to give? That wasn’t true, but I didn’t know what I had
to give or how much I wanted to give him. I reached over the table
and raised my hand. He reached across and pressed our palms
together. The tingling I felt when Phoenix touched me was present,
as always. I twisted my fingers until they interlocked with his and
held his hand tightly.