• May Angels Lead You Home

    Ice. All around me. In pure cold I woke. I was floating down a deep river, black as midnight. It took me minutes to realize this as I floated steadily. I lay in complete stillness for a time. Holding my fear, I saw the eyes. I hardly noticed as the pale twilight began to envelope the horizon. There was an oar by my hands.
    I sat up slowly. As for as I could see there was nothing but the water. I let the stream carry me for hours, when a pale figure stood in the distance. He was dipping a long pole in the water and moving strange boxes through the water. It was then that I looked around. Coffins. Hundreds of coffins littering the water. Why was I the only one awake?
    Something pricked my finger and I looked down at the oar I held. It was a deep green, and the paddle a deep crimson. It was my roses.
    It was then that I remembered. The day in the village, with the bandits, Jedicai their leader, he had held a knife to me. I reached down afraid of what I would find. Black lace was wrapped tightly around my stomach. I couldn’t help myself, I began to cry. I was dead.
    “How much are you willing to give up?”
    The voice shook me from my mourning. The figure was very close now, on a little island among the wide river.
    “I can’t touch your coffin. I cannot touch the undead. But you can come to me. How much do you want to live?”
    The river began to speed up just as he finished his words. It jarred me and tears flowed from my eyes as my stomach was filled with unbearable pain.
    Then I saw the eyes. They bore into me from the twilight.
    I dipped my oar deep into the water pushing hard for the island.
    “I will not die yet! Not yet! This is my time!”
    He nodded “Prove it.”
    I paddled with all my strength to the shore where he stood, but still the river insisted on carrying me away. I cried in fury and anguish. Unbelievable strength filled me as a tore savagely at the shore. “Not yet!” I cried.
    He looked at me for a long time. Watching my constant struggle, my losing battle. But still I fought, no matter how long it took I would fight, I would win. He looked me in my eyes from deep within his hood of darkness.
    In a flash of movement he held his pole out with his arms stretching towards the river. “Azgorth! She has proven herself! Let her go!”
    The river, in reply began to rush all the more rapid, I feel even farther away.
    “No!” He shouted in a voice like thunder. “Azgorth, river of the abyss, I command you, release her from your bonds!”
    The river screeched with the voice of a hundred tortured souls. The sound made me hold my head in agony.
    “This one is worthy!” He slashed his pole deep into the water and stretched forth a hand. An invisible force gripped hold of my coffin and held it fast. He pulled in visible effort bringing my craft ever closer to the island with his mysterious power. I tried my best to paddle on with the river echoing it’s inhuman call. At last he pulled my boat ashore and tied is securely to a sapling. I lay over the side of my coffin in exhaustion.
    The river roared in its awful voice, “Simon! You cheated! You may not assist them!”
    “Silence Fiend!” There was a crack like millions of thunderheads as he struck the river with his staff. “You broke the ebb. I am simply restoring the flow.”
    My whole body ached in fatigue; blackness began to cloud all my senses.
    “Stand fast, beloved. You must not sleep yet.”
    Twilight, shone through the mist of sleep.
    “If you fall asleep I must release you back unto him. From there, there is no return.”
    I pulled myself out of the boat shakily, and collapsed on the shore.
    “You must stand, grab your roses.”
    In a daze I stumbled back to my coffin to retrieve my oar.
    “You are strong. So very strong, that is why you have awakened in this place. But now I have one more question for you, Sarah, daughter of Aaron. How much are you willing to give up, so that you might again live?”
    I saw the eyes, and knew how they stared deep into me.
    “Everything I replied, I will be a mere shadow of myself if I can live again.”
    “Hold out your left arm. You will be stripped of all flesh and organs in this, but you shall retain life over it. As your other arm waxes, so shall it. As it wanes, so shall, this arm. This process is very painful, and you will not black out or have any relief from it. You must endure.”
    I swallowed hard. “It is a small price to pay.”
    “The flesh from your arm will repair the wound in your stomach, indeed, your stomach shall have the health of a lively babe, however death haunted you once, and you will have to face death again. If it succeeds there will be no second chance. However that does not mean you will face death alone.”
    “How long will I have before death finds me?”
    “Exactly, one moon cycle. You shall arrive in life at the full moon. At the next, it will come for you. I can offer you only one defense, let me see your roses.”
    I held the oar out to him and he began to weave symbols into it with his finger.
    “The rose is a magical flower, it is planted with you at your end and therefore holds some resistance over death. Unfortunately, I have met none in the realm of the living who know the art of refining it’s magic’s.”
    He finished drawing the last rune, and a pale light enveloped the oar. It softly warped and bended until it became a long and slender scythe.
    “Interesting,” he commented. “A very unusual weapon.”
    I smiled as I saw it. And I saw the eyes.
    “Sarah, are you ready?”
    I held out my left arm holding the scythe in my right.
    I screamed, as the first layer of skin was ripped from my arm.


    * * *


    I awoke inside of my coffin, with my arm in a sense of agony. I had to get out quickly. I began to cut with the scythe finding it sunk through deathly confinements like crème. The dirt fell upon me but still I cut. I cut the roof of mine confinement to shred as I took a deep breath and pushed my way to the surface.
    The moon was the first thing I remember. Shining through the layers of dirt I saw it push its way through. As I took my first breaths of freedom it poured over me. Truly there is beauty in the night. If one can find beauty in the day, surely there is beauty in the night.
    I pulled my mud stained robe close to me. I had one month. One month to find, one month to live. I couldn’t waste another second here.
    I began to walk in my newfound life. I felt like one who has been born again, for truly I had. I felt no sickness upon me, I felt no hunger or thirst, and indeed even my ordeal from my grave had hardly fatigued me.
    I saw the eyes again, and this time there was a face to meet it. I had to reach it. It had kept me from death; it had made me born again, but where to start?
    My first task was to cover my abnormality. Would my old house be open? If so, I could not let myself be seen, not by anyone. To be back alive… they would try to send me back to the grave believing I an unholy demon. I crept back to my fathers cabin; it would be the best place to find equipment.
    But there was a light in the window, and a sound I had not heard since my mother died. My father Aaron was crying. Truly my heart cracked with this sound, no matter my previous mission I must see him. I looked into the window; a letter lay in his hand becoming slow streaked with tears. It was when I saw the bottom of the letter that my heart skipped a beat. It was signed Charlie.
    I crawled in slowly through window as not to make any noise. And there I stood for several minutes behind his slowly crying form trying to compose myself.
    “Father.”
    He didn’t turn but rather wept all the more.
    “Why can’t I be left at peace?” he cried. “I’ve lost Alyssa, I’ve lost this poor man to my cruelty, I’ve even lost you, but your voice won’t leave me alone, it haunts me so.”
    “No father. Please, turn around.”
    “What is this witchcraft? Will your very image now haunt me?”
    I shook my head softly. “No father, I have crossed the very river Azgorth, I have given up the very flesh of mine arm that I might live again.”
    He gapped. “Your arm? So now you’re just like him? That is why you have risked it all isn’t it.”
    I turned my eyes away from him. “I’m sorry father.”
    “No,” he too turned away. “You must go to him, mustn’t you?” He reached his hand out slowly to touch my face. “You are real then aren’t you?”
    “Yes father, I am here.”
    He stroked my face like only a father can. “You’ve lied in that grave for two years.”
    I gasped in spite of myself. “It’s been that long? I thought I’d lied in the grave at most a few months.” Then I cringed in pain. “What if he’s forgotten me?”
    My father laughed painfully. “Not at all, he has better recollection of you now then when you were together.”
    I grabbed my father’s hands. “Where has he gone? I must see him!”
    He looked down at my bone hand grasping his arm tightly. “Your just like him now. Now you perfectly match.”
    “I’m sorry father.” I said turning away.
    “No,” he said, “Taking my boned hand. “I finally get to make amends. I never approved of him; I wanted to keep you near. He’s in Kento. Go to him.”
    I had been hiding something. “Father, there is a possibility I may not survive to see you again. Death will come to claim me in a month’s time, if I can’t defeat him, I will be his forever.
    “That staff you hold… it is a weapon isn’t it?”
    “It is supposed to hold death off.”
    He looked down in contemplation. “It is the same as he used. I wonder if you’re supposed to be the one to wield it.” There was pain in his eyes as he looked at my face. “You must be on your way then, Kento is far, do you have time to stay for just one night?”
    “It wouldn’t be worth living if I couldn’t.”


    * * *


    I left in the morning, with a long cloak and a full pack, straight to the west. The forests were empty and allowed me time to think. My father, tried not to speak of his emotions but I could feel how much it hurt him for me to leave again. His dream had come true, and then it had been torn away. I think indeed he spent half of the night trying to grasp everything that had just happened.
    I breathed in slowly, enjoying the feel of breath filling my lungs. It takes a journey through death to realize how glorious life is. You begin to appreciate every flit of the wind, every moment of warmth by the sun.
    I cannot quite describe the sense of apprehension you receive from knowing your goal must come soon and yet unable to accomplish it.
    I tracked through the woods all of that day and yet all that time I was unable to keep myself from thinking of him. I cannot shut my eyes without seeing his smile from shining out from the bottom of his hood. His pearl hair would always be hanging out in thin strands. I passed much of the day with thoughts like this. In fact before I realized it the moon had completely waned and began it’s waxing again. But at the end of the twenty-eighth day I rested in the shadows of the Kento foothills.
    I slept later than I should have but the relief of being only a half a days march away with eight days to spare was more than I could have dreamed for. So I felt fully rested as I shouldered my now nearly depleted pack and began to climb softly up the slope.
    The birds chirped as I began to make my way to the nearest slope, and it was a clear morning. Once more my thoughts drifted back to him.
    I hadn’t been paying attention; if I had I would have noticed the birds had stopped singing.
    “Who are you?”
    I stumbled out of my thoughts looking around furiously.
    “Who’s there?” I said pulling out the scythe, though I barely know how to hold it.
    “Now, now I just asked you that question,” I began to look around in all directions. “Oh calm down I’m not going to hurt you.”
    I tried to slow my breathing but my hand still rest upon the shaft of the scythe ready to swing at a moments notice.
    “I must inquire about your arm, your left. It still moves like living tissue, but I can see clearly it’s all bone. Most unusual.”
    I tightened my grip; “I have no need to explain myself to someone who lacks the spine to show themselves.”
    A clear laugh began to bounce off of the tree’s confusing me. “Oh you are a feisty one,” He said stepping from behind a tree. He pushed his sunglasses close to his face. “Well then only one question remains for you. Are you Sarah daughter of Aaron?”

    * * *

    “My name is Alex, a friend of Charlie. We’ve been scouring the woods for you for the last ten days.” He told me over his shoulder.
    We were walking up into the mountains. I slipped, but as I fell he caught my hand. As he pulled me up his spoke, “You must be careful, there has been a good rain and it’s slick.”
    I tried to steady myself. “You must think me a frail girl, tripping up running haphazardly to find Charlie.”
    “Oh on the contrary, I think you’re extraordinarily strong. How else would you come back from death?”
    I looked at him quizzically, “How do you know that? And how did you know to look for me.”
    “Zora saw you coming,” he said simply.
    “Well where is Charlie, is he also out looking for me?”
    He stopped suddenly, “We… haven’t told him.”
    “Why?” I almost screamed.
    Alex turned to face me holding up his hands. “You have to understand, Zora had a vision, she has a gift. But she’s not perfect; even she can’t really control it. It could have been weeks, months, even years before you arrived. Charlie would have worked himself into a frenzy searching for you. His devotion to you even after all this time is extraordinary.” He looked at the ground. “I’m glad you’re here Sarah. When he came to us, he was a pitiful person, half starved, little more than a thief waiting to die, he’s come a long way, he’s really an asset to the village, but he’s still so miserable.”
    There was a small pause after he stopped speaking, then we both began to walk into the hills with the hurried apprehension of those who have all the time in the world.

    * * *

    I stood in front of the doorway alone and like a child. Alex had left to tell the others that I had arrived. I assume he also knew I wanted to see Charlie on our reunion alone. And yet I was scared. I had come so far to see him yet now I couldn’t bring myself to go to him. But almost without thinking one foot leaped in front of the other one, and I found myself moving forward. I placed my hand on the door pushing it open. I had to ride my momentum into his house. If I didn’t, I would stand on the threshold forever. So I stood on inside waiting for him to come.
    Beside me his scythe lay propped against the door. It was minutes before I saw him, walking from a side room, a teapot in hand. As he turned to me however there was the sound of breaking ceramics and the sweet, strong smell of green tea as the amber liquid swept along the floor. He stood completely covered from head to foot in a single long black cloak, the hood pulled over his face and a glove on his hand. He stood looking at me, so stiff and so quiet I couldn’t even see him breathing.
    “Sarah?” he gasped reaching out to me. “This can’t be real.” He gripped my arm lightly. “I watched you die, I watched them bury you.”
    I pulled his barren hand and laid it on my face under my own decrepit hand. His bone was cold and smooth on my face as I peered under his hood into his eyes. Then in spite of myself I began to cry. As I found my way inside his warm embrace I buried my head into his shoulder. I felt so safe in his arms I couldn’t guess why I was crying. I was so embarrassed I was about to look up and excuse myself when his chin came down to rest upon my head.
    “Charlie, it’s alright. I’m finally here.”
    He gave no response but to hug me tighter as his warm tears ran down my hair and neck.
    “No Sarah your finally home.”

    * * *

    What must have been hours later there was a small knock on the door. Alex let himself in, followed by a man and women I did not recognize. Charlie still held me from behind and looked up at them with a smile.
    “Sorry to interrupt,” the women said softly.
    I shook my head. “Not at all, we were just talking.”
    “So that’s what they call it now.” Alex said none to secretively.
    Charlie and I laughed as the man smacked Alex on the back of his head with an open palm.
    “Sarah, this is Alex whom you know.” Charlie said leading me by the hand. “Johnathan or affectionately known as John.” John bowed slightly and muttered something that sounded vaguely like “a pleasure.” “And finally a close friend to us all and John’s wife, Zora.”
    She had her head down and her face mostly expressionless as I came to her. However she grabbed my hands and smiled at me.
    “Please excuse her, she’s a little, sensitive, she’s glad you’re here.”
    “I’m fine John,” she said shaking her head. “I’m just glad to see Charlie so happy, and you as well Sarah.”
    She chocked softly and took several deep breaths keeping her eyes closed. “I apologies,” she said softly, “We must prepare, you have but seven days left.”
    “What’s this?” Charlie interjected.
    “Charlie it’s ok, but… how do you know that? How do you know I must pass a test in seven days.”
    “I have… seen it.” She said hesitantly, “At any rate, a circle of protection would be best.”
    Charlie stepped forward. “Zora, what exactly is coming?”
    She sighed “A servant of death. Coming back to claim her. She must be protected. I found a suitable location, and I think it best we start right away.”

    The place was a little island on the outskirts of the village, amid a small river. Charlie and the other’s cleared the land in a matter of seconds, with elemental forces. It was a dizzying spectacle. The next several days after that were both the most happy and stressful times of my life. All day long we would work on the complex runes needed to complete the circle. At night we would all retire to our house and we’d listen to the rain upon the roof. We would talk until we could scarcely move and then Charlie would carry me to my own bed.
    We had agreed not to sleep together until our wedding. My father would have wanted it that way.
    It was on our last peaceful night that I awoke before dawn. A small light flickered to my right and I wondered who could be awake at this unsightly hour. I pulled my robes around me and walked up the hill. By the time I neared John and Zora were bent over the circle their tools of art fine-tuning the lines.
    “This line needs straightened,” John muttered.
    “I want this done by dawn,” Zora whispered to him. “Sarah,” she called without looking up, “could you wait a few minutes, we are almost done.”
    I sat down on the edge of the circle as they continued to move down the circle tracing lines with their fingers.
    John stood, nodded at the work and spoke “I’ll go put the scrolls away now.” Zora continued to watch John until he disappeared down the hill and out of view. “He is a good man.,” she said.
    She turned to me and looked softly, “I’m glad you cam to visit me. It is nice to have another women to talk to,”
    I bowed “I owe much to you, you have worked tirelessly upon this.”
    “I don’t mind. You are a person in need.”
    I looked at my feet looking for words. “I wonder if you are doing all this only because I am Charlie’s love.”
    “Not true, we are doing it because you need help.”
    I grimaced embarrassed at my question. “Then you are wonderful people.”
    She smiled and shook her head. “Not so much we simply know the pain of being alone.”
    Charlie’s voice came up slowly over the hill.
    “Sarah? Are you alright?”
    She looked at me again. “Get some rest, it will be a long day tomorrow.”

    The next day was a period of great anxiety to me. I feared midnight and yet I could not make it come quick enough. Alex spent most of the day on the foothills sparing with John. I was amazing at their footwork as Alex’s kamas repeatedly swung only to be blocked by John’s katana. It would seem Alex would win pinning down his sword and swinging around again when John would pull out a thin blade and block in a flash and put it away again, pulling his sword out.
    Charlie sat cross-legged in meditation under a willow true, hardly moving, hardly breathing.
    I spent a long time in the kitchens with Zora preparing a meal that couldn’t help but feel, felt like our last.
    We all sat around the table, slowly eating without much appetite all lost in our own solemn thoughts.
    That is when Alex threw down his bowl leaped up and started singing horribly.

    I ran after a bird
    As fast as I could flap
    When I fell upon my face
    And broke my sandal strap!
    Oh! Awaheyhey, awahoho
    What a funny fool I am.
    Awaheyhey, awahoho it’s candy to the eye.

    It was such a ridiculous ordeal we all laughed openly at him. Yet all of us were surprised when Charlie jumped up.

    I went to the market
    To go and get some eggs
    But when I tried to leave
    The hens all pecked my legs
    Oh! Awaheyhey awahoho
    What a funny fool am I am
    Awaheyhey, awahoho
    It’s candy to the eye.

    Charlie danced around like a chicken while Alex and I held our sides in laughter. Even John and Zora jumped up for a duet.

    Oh, I had made some coffee,
    And I had made some tea,
    When we ran into each other
    “and you got it on me!”
    Oh! Awaheyhey awahoho
    What funny fools are we,
    Awaheyhey awahoho
    It’s candy to the eye.

    After they sat down the laughter died down to a smile, and Charlie raised his glass and we all toasted to luck.
    * * *

    We all stood in the circle and watched as the mood above us shined in full bloom.
    “Can we just get on with this, my hands are getting itchy.” Alex mumbled.
    Not two seconds later, the sky went black.
    “Nice going Alex,” John growled.
    “Opps.”
    “Shut up both of you,” Zora cried. “it’s coming!”
    The noise grew and was all around us rising higher and higher until I believed my head would burst with the pressure of its cry. Then in a second is stopped. There was an enormous noise as the fiend slammed its head towards us as the invisible wall of the circle flared into a blue light.
    Its head was that of a wolf, curved and twisted, with the horns of an elder ram, and the wings of a bat. It struck repeatedly at the blue dome with horrid strength.
    “All our work… it’s almost through. Draw your weapons!” Zora shouted, pulling a steel dagger and fan from her belt.
    The dome burst into a flash of light which left everyone momentarily blind. The runes twisted like water below our feet and drifted into the river.
    In a moment long tentacles of water struck the beast over and over as Zora closed her eyes, and begin striking the air with her fan over and over. John blew white blast of wind into the beast’s eyes, and Alex flipped his kama’s blasting fire through the air.
    But Charlie stood, in front of me, holding his scythe like a shield, an honor guard to his maid.
    But death is, and was, a fickle foe, and it cared not what was sent, it walked on towards Sarah without pause. With one single bat it knocked him from in front of me, Charlie shooting from his feet. I held my sword up limply, without any real idea how to use it.
    But they stood by me. Alex climbed the beast using his Kama’s as handholds, John repeatedly slashed its shins and Zora still stood, eyes closed, slashing it with water. But it ripped Alex from its head, fling him at John, and kicking Zora away.
    As it reached out to me, with it’s hand like night, rocks struck it in the face making it stagger.
    There he stood, like a god among us all, hood down, hair blowing in the wind. He stood like a sentinel, scythe by his shoulder, rocks floating around him in power.
    And he charged, running like the wind, and swinging his scythe in a flash. Then all was still, and he stood, panting for breath. The beast turned slowly at me and roared, and a thin line of blood appeared on its neck. Without warning the head slowly rolled, and the beast collapsed to the ground.
    Zora later told me the beast melted into the raising sun, and that I stood like a statue, tears streaming down my face. She said Charlie walked towards me in a trance, and we stood weeping together.
    As for me I only remember the feel of his arms around me, the warmth of his skin as we walked together, free to love, free to live, into the dawn. Hand on hand, bone, on bone.