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Chapter One
One thousand years ago…
The
very bones in Nebi’s body sang their protest to him. The melody vibrated
through blood and weary muscles, the message one of impending doom. Only the
one destined for the joining could safely traverse both worlds. As well it
should be. He paused to take in his surroundings before finishing his work.
Although death would overtake him quickly here, he had a few minutes to spare.
It
looks the same, he marveled, doubting for a moment he’d
actually entered the otherworld. It wasn’t true, of course. The same grassland
and trees of his home spread out before him, but it wasn’t the place of his
birth. Nebi knew he’d left his own world the moment he’d stepped through the
hidden portal, a place no one was aware of but himself.
Don’t
tarry like an old she-cat, he reminded himself. You have work to do.
He took the
silver box from beneath the folds of his robe, admiring the elaborate etching
on it one last time. Small enough to rest in the palm of his gnarled hand, it
held the power to reshape his world. The inscription it bore would lead the way
for the one destined to find it, no matter if he understood the writing or not.
And as for his
family… He smiled at the thought of them. Nebi had proclaimed his son the new Guardian
of Telesma just this morning and stepped down, ostensibly to go on a
pilgrimage. His son knew better but didn’t protest, accepting the Sword and
swearing an oath to keep the legend alive. Yes, Nebi thought, they would hold
fast to the reign of power and watch for the Outsider.
After burying
the box deep in the rocky soil, Nebi shifted to his panther form and lay down
to await death.
***
Present day…
Draven
ran through the grassland surrounding his ancestral home, exhilarated by the
rush of wind as he sped up. He often chose to hunt on four paws instead of two
legs for the freedom it brought to his senses. As the current Guardian, his
duties required him to maintain a two-leg form most of the time. He savored
these rare moments when nothing required his immediate attention.
It didn’t last
long. His sister, Fiona, ran toward him. Her black hair flew behind her, the
long silver streak moving independently as the wind caught it. She shifted into
fur, the silver now running along the length of her back.
“Come quickly,”
she said as she caught up to Draven. “There’s news of the otherworld. Someone
has unleashed the magic from the box.”
“Nebi’s box? The
one the legend speaks of?”
Fiona nodded.
“That’s what the wizard says.”
Draven
considered the portent. The legend was over one thousand years old, passed
along from father to son in the oral tradition for many generations before
finally being written down. Who knew if all of it had survived the repeated
telling? It had long since faded into the realm of cherished fable, told during
celebrations to reaffirm his family’s right to rule as Guardian of Telesma.
The legend told
of Nebi’s sacrifice by entering the otherworld and placing a magical box within
it to warn Telesma if an Outsider ever tried to cross over. Each Guardian swore
an oath to kill the intruder, if he should ever appear, seeking the Sword which
gave Draven’s family the power to rule. Now it seemed as if the legend might
actually be true. If so, it was Draven’s duty to carry out his pledge.
Chapter Two
Kate
Ryan pushed a strand of hair out of her face, marking her forehead with dirt
from her hand. She sat back on her heels, squinting at the late afternoon sun.
The mosquitoes would be out soon, seeking their dinner. She didn’t intend to
oblige them tonight.
Packing up her
tools from the dig site, Kate tried to get the blood circulating again. After
hours of stooping and crawling, it felt good to walk upright once more. The
rest of the team had started back to camp an hour ago, intent on cleaning up
and heading into town. It was Friday night and the siren call of the local
nightlife was too strong for them to ignore… everyone except Kate anyway.
“Hey, hurry up!”
Danny yelled at her as she climbed out of the institute’s jeep. Someone had
remembered to leave one at the site for her this time. Last Friday she’d walked
half of the three miles back before they noticed she was missing. Kate snorted
at the memory.
It wasn’t that
she was antisocial. She loved her work more. Kate had wanted to be an
archeologist since she was eight years old. That was the summer she’d immersed
herself in everything Egyptian after learning how the pyramids had been excavated.
Her career path hadn’t wavered since. Still, it was always best to stay on good
terms with the other members of her team.
“I’ll be ready
in a few,” she called out and headed toward the outdoor shower they’d rigged
up, affectionately named the drooler.
It barely trickled water but also had a tendency to lose the knots on the side
flaps, giving others in the vicinity tantalizing glimpses whenever a breeze
kicked up.
The team could
have stayed in town. It was only ten miles down the road, but there was a
greater intimacy with the site when staying in a tent. Kate relished the
feeling of being one with the natural habitat.
As the lukewarm
water struggled to remove the soap from her skin, Kate decided a camping
trailer might be a nice luxury to have. Maybe this dig would find something
valuable enough to justify the splurge on their next assignment.
More or less mud
free now, she quickly dressed and joined the others for their night out.
“You missed a
spot.” Danny playfully stroked her long blonde hair away from her cheek, a look
of admiration on his face. “You have the most intense blue eyes.”
She let her
stare bore into him and he snatched his hand back as though injured. His smile
deepened when she remained silent.
“Come on, you
know you want me. Admit it. I know you have a bit of the wild inside, lying in
wait, ready to pounce on me.”
Kate smiled
demurely and batted her eyelashes. “I wouldn’t want to deprive all your other
women. Their depression would be more than I could bear.” Hoots and hollers
rang out from the others. Danny ducked his head and gave up temporarily.
Truthfully, Kate
could be interested in Danny if he wasn’t so casual with his affections. That,
and the fact they worked together, were two major obstacles as far as she was
concerned. She’d learned long ago to keep men at arm’s length for fear of
becoming embroiled in a love affair which would interfere with her work.
Now, at
twenty-two, it was force of habit. Being unencumbered by romantic entanglements
suited her nomadic lifestyle. Kate never knew where she’d be from one month to
the next. Her co-workers were the closest thing she had to a family. To damage
one of those relationships with an ill-advised love affair could prove
disastrous to their functionality as a team.
The evening
passed pleasantly, with shop talk over a couple of beers. Danny prowled amongst
the local girls, doing his best to be charming. Either they were smarter than
average, or they’d been warned off, because he came back empty-handed.
“Your reputation
obviously precedes you.” Lisa, one of the other team members, heckled him as he
came back to their table.
“It’s just
because they saw how jealous you looked,” Danny retorted with a grin at the
short brunette.
Kate snickered
at him. “You don’t think it had anything to do with the cat fight you started
in here last Friday night?”
It had been
their first day in this back-of-nowhere place just below the Georgia/Florida
border. Danny tried his moves on three different women that night and all three
decided to take him up on it. As soon as the hair-pulling started, the five
members of their team quietly slunk out the door. Kate shook her head in remembrance.
“I’m heading
back. Anybody want a ride?” Lisa looked around for takers. They always brought
two vehicles, since some would undoubtedly want to leave earlier than others
did.
“I’ll go back
with you.” Kate grabbed the chance to call it a night. She wanted to be back
out at the site at first light. Something about this dig resonated with her.
They were
looking for remains of an ancient Indian tribe, the Apalachee, which once
inhabited this area of Florida. The heavily wooded site meant they had to proceed
slowly, but the possibilities for discovery were endless.
Recent satellite
shots showed an anomaly in this area, one not discernable from the ground. A
glow in the earth had been detected in the imagery, a circle one-quarter mile
in diameter. The subsequent ground survey didn’t show any form of radiation, or
any other possible cause for the phenomenon.
The institute
she worked for jumped at the chance to send its fledgling team to investigate.
They were eager to unearth something new and wondrous. Kate had the feeling
this site could put their tiny institute in the limelight, not to mention the
accolades each member would receive from their peers.
“You were kind
of quiet in there tonight,” Lisa mentioned as she started up the jeep.
“Anything you want to talk about?”
Kate pondered
the question. What could she say without sounding deranged? Lisa was probably
the one person who would listen with an open mind. Even though they’d worked
together for less than six months, they’d bonded like good friends.
“No, nothing’s
wrong at all. I’ve been consumed by this site, to the extent of all else. I
can’t explain the feeling but when I’m down in the pit it feels like something
is watching, maybe waiting for that perfect moment to reveal itself to me.”
Lisa shivered. “I’m
glad I don’t get that impression. I’d be looking over my shoulder trying to
spot the ghost!”
“You?” Kate
laughed. “You’ve got one of the coolest heads around. Like last month, when
Danny screamed like a little girl because he found the king snake in his tent?
You went in there and rescued the poor snake before he accidentally trampled it
in his panic.”
“It was a good
thing it wasn’t a rattler. It would have bit him out of sheer annoyance, with
all the racket he made. What about you? Aren’t you spooked by anything?”
Kate shifted in
her seat and tugged at the seat belt. “It’s kind of silly.”
“Spill. Come on,
you know you want to.”
“Okay. Clowns
and fortune tellers.”
Lisa began to
laugh. “I get the clowns. Creepy dudes. But fortune tellers?”
Kate sighed and
rested her hand against her throat, the old fear threatening to collapse her
windpipe. She’d never told anyone about this before, not even her mom. “When I
was a kid, I used to have these dreams. They weren’t bad or anything. In fact,
I liked them. There isn’t much to tell.”
The dreams had
been a source of comfort to her as a child, giving Kate a sense of continuity.
A place to belong. Her waking hours had been more chaotic. They moved
frequently and she often found herself playing the role of new kid in school, on the outside looking in. The boy in her dreams
became the one true friend she could count on, no matter what.
“Then why are
you sitting there, all hunched up?”
Kate looked down
and saw she’d crossed her arms into a self-inflicted bear hug. She willed
herself to relax. “I had an imaginary playmate—a boy with black hair. We’d run
through fields and climb trees together. It was fun.”
Lisa shook her
head and glanced over at her. “Sounds pretty tame. Where does the fortune teller
fit in?”
“I’m getting to
that. I started having these dreams after learning about archaeology, when I
was eight. One day, when I was twelve, my mother and I went to the county fair.
I spotted the fortune teller tent and begged my mom for the money to have my
fortune told. She thought I was nuts but let me go in.”
“And…?” Lisa
said after Kate fell silent.
“I expected her
to read my palm or gaze into a crystal ball or something. Instead, she starts
talking before I even sit down at her table. She says, You’ll meet the black-haired boy. Your destiny is entwined with his.
You don’t belong here. It freaked me out and I ran.”
“I don’t blame
you. What did your mom say?”
“I didn’t tell
her. I made up something and pretended the fortune teller was a fake.”
Lisa looked over
at her with a grin on her face. “Did you ever meet the boy of your dreams?”
Kate chuckled,
trying to banish the eerie sensation crawling up and down her spine. “No.
That’s the weirdest part. After that, I never had the dreams again. Maybe
subconsciously I was afraid to.”
“By the way,
how’s your mother doing?” Kate asked, switching subjects. Between her own
mother’s death three years ago and her father walking out on them ten years
before that, she felt the need to stay in touch with family life on a vicarious
level. She didn’t want to spin off into an emotional abyss and forget that
happy families did sometimes exist.
“She’s much
better,” Lisa said, enthusiasm bubbling out of her as she spoke. “I was able to
get a signal in town and talk to her. They let her leave the hospital and go
back home yesterday.”
“I’m glad. Next
time you talk to her, give her my best wishes, okay?” Kate fell silent,
wondering what it might feel like to be part of a large, caring family. The
kind where everyone looks out for each other and love is abundant. No sense
wishing for what you don’t have, she thought. Maybe someday…
“Watch out!” Kate
screamed as a large animal darted in front of their jeep.
