Water (31 page)

Holding up the marked candlestick for effect, I said, "I’ve got nothing but time."

Any subject was better than his 'one less' way of thinking.

He took the candlestick from me and eased back onto the bed, twirling it in his fingertips.  The lines on his face looked deeper than I remembered.

"Obviously you know you’re a Gaia, which essentially means Mother Earth.  What you don’t know, is that there can be several Gaias at any point in time.  And there is always one that contains considerably more potential.  That is the one chosen to be a part of the Seven.  But there can never be two Gaias that practice our ways at once.  The eco-system couldn't handle it.  For that, and many other reasons, Gaias are normally identified young, and are watched carefully.  If they begin to demonstrate an understanding of their powers and learn how to wield them without being properly trained, or if they become too unstable, the Gaia is taken care of."

"You mean, killed?"  I swallowed hard.

"Yes," Shawn answered without hesitation.  "Because each Gaia that is with the Seven is trained quite extensively, they also need to be taken care of once their replacement arrives.  The replacement is determined by Cato.  A Gaia could be with us for a year, ten years, or more.  We just wait around until a stronger Gaia is found and old enough to take over."

It suddenly dawned on me.  "This is about another woman – one that I replaced." 

"Sarah," Shawn said.

I looked at him sharply.  "You loved her."

He didn’t reply.

"Which is why you hate me," I concluded.

Shawn jumped off the bed.  Balancing on his good leg, he spun around and pointed the candlestick down at me, "You didn’t give us enough time!"

Although my immediate impulse was to yell back that none of this was my choice, I forced my voice to become soothing.  "Shawn, when two people are in love, the ending always comes too soon, no matter how much time you are given."

"It doesn’t matter now."  Shawn's shoulders sank.  "She is gone, and nothing can help that."

Shawn brushed aside any sentiment that might have surfaced by the time I had digested the information, and was staring at me with those cold, glazed-over eyes. 

"What?"

"I just thought of something I’d like to share with you."  Shawn looked at me a little longer.  "But you wouldn’t believe me unless you see it for yourself.  Let’s do a little experiment."

"Ugh.  Haven’t we learned our lesson about experiments?"

Undeterred, Shawn hopped back to the bed and sat.  He turned toward me and crossed his legs Indian-style.  He was still struggling to get his ankle brace to cooperate when he motioned for me to do the same.  I did slowly, still feeling battered and bruised from our field trip. 

He took my hands.  His palms felt cold and clammy.  "Do you remember the night Cato performed your saining?"

"Yes."  It took me a moment to remember my initiation into the Seven by the lake.  It seemed so long ago.  In some distant world.

"After I left you with Cato, I walked a ways into the woods and joined Micah.  I want you to see what he was doing there.  I am going to share my memory of that night with you.  Just keep your mind open and as empty as possible."

"That shouldn’t be a problem."  I was getting good at that as of late.

"Okay, here we go.  Close your eyes."

Several minutes must have passed, and nothing happened.  Shawn repeated his last phrase many times. 
Here we go.  Close your eyes
.  His voice was rhythmic and soothing, and I felt myself becoming a little hazy; the kind of foggy mindset that occurs right before you fall asleep.  Slowly, I started to see images through the fog, but the more I tried to focus on the images, the more indistinguishable they became.

"Don’t focus.  Just allow my memories to come to you." 

I followed his instructions and the images were suddenly identifiable.  I saw flashes of a forest and a lake.  I saw myself and Cato.  I relaxed a little more, and pieces of the puzzle slowly started to meld together.  I saw myself once again and an uncontrollable feeling of hatred washed through me.  It was so strong I shivered.  Shawn grasped my hands tighter.  I realized I hadn’t just assumed his sight, I was also channeling his emotions.  My throat constricted and my heart started to beat faster. 

The memory progressed.  Shawn was backing away from me and into the forest.  When he had disappeared into the tree line—

Shawn interrupted sharply, "Don’t drag your own memories into this; it won’t give you a clear enough picture."

I cleared my throat and my mind once again.  We were walking through the forest now, just outside the clearing, following the lake around to the side opposite Cato and me.  

"What are you doing here?"  The voice both echoed and sounded muddled, like it was underwater, but it was unmistakably Micah.

Shawn shifted his view from across the lake upwards and into the trees.  Micah was perched on a branch about 15 feet off the ground.  The unanswered question hung in the air while there was a brief scramble of hands, feet, and tree branches.  Shawn settled himself directly next to Micah in the tree.  The branch sagged under their combined weight.

"Just making sure you’re prepared."  Shawn looked at Micah’s hands which cradled a small rifle.  A night scope was attached to it.

"Nothing will need to be done," Micah snapped.  "She’ll do the right thing."

Locking eyes with Micah, we stared each other down.  My heart didn’t skip a beat as it usually did when looking at Micah.  Instead I felt frustrated, a sense of unfulfilled expectations between us; they were Shawn’s feelings toward Micah.  

Shawn took the rifle from Micah.  "The scope isn’t even on." 

He flipped it on, and aimed it directly at my face across the lake.  I could see my lips moving to the words
blue pill, red pill
.  I felt the chill of the trigger and willed my forefinger to relax, lessening the squeeze Shawn had on it.  Shawn cleared his throat in the real world, reminding me not to interrupt.  In the memory Shawn lowered the rifle, flicked off the safety, and handed it back to Micah.

"Just in case…"  Shawn reached down and removed a large pistol from a holster on the back of his belt. 

Micah tensed, gearing up for an argument but Shawn was quick to distract him.

"Here it is, moment of truth."  Shawn gestured to Cato and me across the lake.  I was selecting a hand.  From a distance, it was difficult to tell exactly what was happening, but the exaggerated motion of me throwing the key and then the box into the lake alerted Shawn and Micah to my choice.  Now I understood.  It wasn’t symbolic of my choice, but a signal to my would-be assassins.

Micah released a sigh, and Shawn went through the steps of decompressing after an intense moment.  He felt disappointed.  Suddenly, Shawn let go of my hands and the room on the island rushed forward to meet me. 

Shawn watched me with a blank expression, only speaking when I didn’t.  "His job was to execute you if you chose to walk away.  My job was to make sure he did his job."

"He wouldn’t have…"  I shook my head.

"Are you sure about that?"  Shawn smirked.  "I think you realize what he is capable of."

"But I’m different to him."  I still shook my head, but was losing conviction.

"Micah has been doing this a long time, and he does his job well.  Don’t take for granted the power and purpose of the Seven."

"I thought you weren’t supposed to be without a Gaia; that wouldn’t have happened until another came along."

"Even then, Cato thought you were too dangerous.  He didn’t mind breaking the cycle for the safety of the Chakra."

It was a struggle not to believe Shawn, and images of myself through the scope of a high powered rifle were not helping.  "So, why did you bring me here
?"

Shawn took a deep breath and turned to look at me.  "Micah is my brother."

"Funny, I fail to see the family resemblance," I retorted.

Shawn smiled.  "I know, there is no resemblance.  Susan, Micah, and I were all adopted by Cato.  Micah and Susan are natural brother and sister." 

I let this new revelation sink in.

Shawn went on, "Our mothers were Gaias that had to be eliminated by the Seven.  When that happened, Cato took us in.  We grew up together."

"The Seven killed your mother?"  I almost felt sorry for him.  Almost.

He shrugged, "So I've been told.  Happened when I was still a baby.  I don't remember her."

I watched him fiddle with the blanket.  "So is everybody involved somehow related?"

"Not everybody, but the ability to do what we do runs in our blood.  It is possible we could all be traced back to the same lineage."

"So we could be related.  I could have been screwed by my cousin!"  I inched away.  "How do you know you weren’t related to Sarah?"

He slapped me across the face, hard.  "You don’t have the right to talk about Sarah!"

I nursed my cheek. 

He took a deep breath.  His mood swings would be the death of me.  Perhaps literally.  "Besides, we have all spread out so far that we wouldn’t even be labeled on the same family tree anymore."

"Whatever."  I shook my head.  "When I get out of here I don’t want anything to do with this inbred fiasco.  You can find yourself another Gaia."

"Won't need another one."

My hand stilled on my cheek.  "What do you mean?"

"I brought you here to figure out how to harness your powers.  If I can do that, there'll be no need for a Gaia.  All Yang, no Yin, no drama."

"Cato would never agree to this."

Shawn shot me a sideways glance.  "He doesn’t.  Cato is an old, stubborn fool.  He is set in his ways.  He doesn’t understand that the Seven needs to evolve just as the world does.  I have been training my own people, ever since Sarah passed, so we can take over the Seven and run it the right way.  Cato doesn’t fit into the picture and neither do you, my dear."

"And Micah?"

"Micah will come around.  We make a good team."

I swung my legs around to the edge of the bed.

"What are you doing?"  Shawn lay down on the bed, wholly unconcerned.

"I’m out of here.  You’re crazy if you think I’m going to wait around for you to kill me."

Propping a pillow up under his head, Shawn said, "The closest village is about 70 miles away.  Need a map?"

"No, I don’t
need a map
.  I’m perfectly capable of getting out of here on my own."  I walked over to the dirt piles and began digging through them.

"Oh, you mean the leaves you’ve been eating?  That may help a little but won’t get you very far."

I stopped for a split second in surprise.

"Don’t look so shocked.  I found it quite amusing that you were digging bits of leaves out of the candles.  At least your little craft project kept you busy."

I began digging again and found what I was looking for.  "The candles didn’t keep me nearly as busy as these babies."  I pulled my hands out of the pile, showing him two very battered-looking shoes.  I set them down on the ground and stepped into them.

Shawn still had a smile on his face, but his eyebrows furrowed.  "What—?"

"But the thing that consumed most of my time, since satisfying your sexual urges never took very long, was this."  I held up a knee length jacket, shaking off the dirt that concealed it for so long.  Shawn shot up and I shrugged the jacket on.  The shoes and jacket were both lined, inside and out with leaves I had picked out of the candles and glued on by a concoction of wax and dirt.  I stepped backward over the dirt piles, facing Shawn.  "The shoes and jacket were left lying around the camp.  I had to make some necessary adjustments, but I might be on to a new trend here, don’t you think?"

I made it to the bowls of water, catching my image in one of the glass doors.  "Although I might be missing something."  I bent down, picked two bowls up, and dumped the water over my head.  Shawn looked alarmed now.  I took my first steps outside of the circle.

As I was exiting the room, I looked back.  Shawn was attempting to get off the bed, but his ankle brace was tangled up in the blankets.  I took a few more steps outside, catching the attention of the natives.  They quickly backed away giving me my space.  The island didn’t seem to react to my movements.

"It’s working!"  My face lit up at my accomplishment, but my smile soon faded when I realized I didn’t know what to do next.

"That is enough.  Take off that jacket and get back in here."  Shawn finally released his foot from the clutches of the blankets, and shouted orders in Spanish to the men.  None of them moved.

I looked around, taking in the scenery.  I glanced back at my prison of a room.  Shawn started hopping toward me.  I needed to get moving.  But which way?  Something small flitted past my nose and started making circles around my head.  I swatted at it.  Seeing me distracted, a couple of men started toward me.  I raised my hands in front of me.  "Stop!" 

The island reacted this time, and I smiled.  "Hammer time."

Deep rumbling overtook the island.  The ground shook and knocked the two men on their butts.  That was enough to unnerve the rest of the group.  They took off running in any direction that was away from me.  Shawn still hopped toward me, now shouting Spanish obscenities.