Flames on Water, page 21
part #1 of God of Dust Series
‘You need to go into the tree, I will protect your body out here,’ she said. It was hard to make out Kaiden’s face in the darkness. He hesitated a moment but then lay down and left his body. The body she had given him. His soul looked stronger than she remembered. She was glad it was healing already. With a quick anxious look at her Kaiden slipped into the tree.
Layla sat down beside his body, wondering if she had done the right thing. She didn’t think that anyone would come out here in the darkness, so she didn’t bother with a shield this time. It was very quiet and still. A faint wind swayed the branches of the tree above her head but, apart from its low whispering, she could hear nothing. A bar of light lay over Kaiden’s face. She looked down at it. It was strange to think that she had created it. Was it big-headed of her to admire it? No, she decided. She had allowed his soul to shape his body. This is what he would have looked like.
She sat for a while until she got too cold and had to walk about. Then, remembering the tasks that lay ahead, she began drawing a little magic from all the plants around her and slowly crystallised the power. It would take a lot of magic to create even one body. She knew now that when her soul had joined with Rin’s, it had created a great amount of power which had been instantly used up to save Kaiden. Layla sighed when she thought of Rin. She knew Rin was a part of her now but she still felt the loss. When her mother was always busy with work, or hosting fancy parties, Rin had always been there. It was true that Rin had had no real emotions but she’d shared Layla’s feelings and had always tried to comfort both of them, in her own detached logical way. Now, for the first time she felt truly alone.
Chapter Thirty-seven
Mother
A s Kaiden stepped into the tree he pretended he wasn’t nervous, even though his spirit heart was fluttering against his chest. Had Layla changed her mind about him? Was she going to take away everything she had given and leave him here alone? His fears instantly slipped away as soon as he saw Iza. She was sitting with her back to him, on a stumpy pillar in the centre of the space inside the tree. His first thought was; what exactly had happened when he freed Envri? He was sure Iza had been involved somehow. Then, as he came closer, he began to feel that he had known Iza before. His foot squelched on a patch of sodden ground and she spun around and gasped at the sight of him. She was on her feet in seconds, tears in her eyes and he knew that she was his mother. She had been his mother all along, but he had forgotten her. The thought stabbed him in the chest like a knife. How could he have forgotten her? His throat felt tight and his shoulders started shaking and before he realised what he was doing he was crying like a child.
Iza hesitated on the other side of the stump, her face filled with an almost hungry hope. He realised that she had looked at him like that before; willing him to remember her. She had been beside him all along, knowing that he was her son and that he had forgotten she even existed. His memories of his time as Murgore’s pawn had all but faded away, but he recognised that look in her eyes.
‘Why did you never tell me?’ he found himself asking.
‘Tell you what?’ she asked, the sad yearning in her face intensifying. Kaiden could hardly get the words out through his tears. His throat seemed to have closed up and he had to gulp for breaths between half suppressed sobs. He was not a child anymore; he shouldn’t cry like this. Kaiden struggled to gain control of himself. In the end only one word came out.
‘Mother.’
Iza ran to him and threw her arms around him. She was still taller than him, he realised. His arms held her tightly, as if she would slip away from him again, and they both cried in silence for a while.
‘I was so scared that you wouldn’t believe me, or that you wouldn’t care,’ Iza answered finally, her face buried in his hair. ‘It wouldn’t have made any difference, even if you had known. It would have just been painful for both of us.’
‘You had my memories all along, didn’t you,’ Kaiden realised. ‘You must have given Layla the crystal to give back to me. That is why I got them back. But why didn’t you give it to me earlier? Why only now?’
‘Because of Hannas,’ Iza sighed, letting go of him and taking a step backwards.
‘Hannas? He was the doctor in our valley. What does he have to do with it?’ She looked at him intently.
‘Did you forget what happened to him? He was your friend when you were a scribe.’
Kaiden shook his head. He could not remember that at all. Iza smiled and patted him on the head.
‘It doesn’t matter, don’t worry,’ she said gently. ‘Well, I gave him his memories back. I had several memory stones with me. I don’t know if you remember but several people threw their memory stones over the wall, hoping to collect them later. But they never remembered to. Anyway, it took me a few years before I had the chance to give anyone their memories back. I used my rank to issue some of them with their stones as necklaces but-’
‘But they didn’t draw their memories from them,’ Kaiden finished, thinking of Fal. Iza nodded.
‘I finally managed to speak to Hannas alone and I got him to absorb his memories from the stone.’ Kaiden had a horrible sinking feeling as she said this. He thought of how Fal had reacted when suddenly burdened with emotions, feelings and memories he hadn’t had for years.
‘Hannas couldn’t take it. He realised what he had lost and could not bear to keep on living,’ Iza said sadly. Kaiden understood. It all made sense now. He admired his mother greatly. She had also known what she had lost; what she had no hope of regaining, but still she had found the strength to go on living.
‘So, you gave Layla my memories to give to me now, because my situation has changed. You knew I wouldn’t kill myself because I gained a friend and discovered a new world,’ he said.
Iza hesitated, and then nodded. Kaiden hugged his mother again.
‘Did you know Fal, I mean Alder, is here too?’ he asked.
‘I guessed he might have been sent here with the army. I found a boy barely alive, left to bleed to death. That is something he would do,’ she replied sadly.
‘He is different now,’ Kaiden insisted. ‘I saw the memory stone around his neck and told him how to regain his memories. Even before that he rebelled against Murgore. He even found Ellen.’
‘There is nothing human left in that poor girl,’ Iza said. Kaiden frowned, he agreed with her but still wanted to hold on to that shred of hope, that Layla might have been able to restore Ellen’s feelings.
‘I would like to see Alder again, but I’m not sure...I mean when I look at him will I be able to see Alder at all?’ Iza said hesitantly, looking away. ‘He has changed so much, and I have known him as Falmear so long-’
‘He is still my brother. I just know it. You’ll see. Now that he’s remembered who he is he will change again. I will bring him to you if I can.’
‘What about you Kaiden?’ Iza asked. ‘How did you get here? How did you know where I was?’
Kaiden explained as quickly as he could how Layla had saved him and given him a body and a home.
‘I’m sure she will make you a body too,’ he concluded. Iza was silent for a while.
‘She is a very powerful girl and you are lucky that she favours you,’ she said after a while.
‘I know. Without her I would be dead,’ Kaiden said bluntly. ‘I owe her my life and I will do everything I can to repay that debt. My life is hers now.’ His mother smiled slightly at his determined expression.
‘I don’t know what I can do though,’ Kaiden admitted, ‘as you said, she is so strong.’
‘She will need you. She has no one to rely on, no one to comfort her. Be her friend Kaiden.’
He nodded.
‘She is waiting for me outside,’ he remembered suddenly.
‘Then you should go back to her.’
Kaiden nodded but hesitated. He wanted his mother to come with him, he could hardly bare to leave her again, but he would have to be patient. Layla would make a body for her when she was ready, he shouldn’t rush her.
Reluctantly Kaiden went back to Layla alone.
‘She was your mother wasn’t she,’ Layla said softly. Her hands were filled with crystals of magic which lit her face from beneath with a faint ruby light.
‘How did you know?’ Kaiden couldn’t help asking.
‘I didn’t really,’ she said with a smile, ‘but your memories were so similar, and Iza showed us her children. Her youngest did look like you.’
So Iza had shown Layla her memories. Kaiden was slightly surprised. He guessed Iza must have shown Layla her memories in return for her help and protection.
‘What happens now?’ he asked.
‘What do you mean?’ Layla replied and he noticed a slight nervousness in her eyes. Did she think he was going to abandon her? How could she think that after all she had done for him? He decided to answer his own question. The girl in front of him looked small and alone right now. He took her by the hand.
‘Let’s go back to yours. I will stay with you for as long as you want me. We will help the defenders and save the world,’ he grinned. With Layla anything was possible.
Jenni Trivedi, Flames on Water
