Rhea smiled wickedly. In the distance she could see the blazing light and in her mind could see the girl's hair being burnt like dry straw, could smell her searing flesh and hear her screams. Finally that prissy little tart had gotten what she deserved. It was the fate of all those who dared to oppose the crimson order. She closed her eyes and through her head back listening to the wind which carried the sounds of the bon fire. There was no trace of Susan, perhaps she was already dead. The smile on the witch's face blossomed into a wicked grin and she laughed. First a modest giggle but it soon roared with laughter.
Suddenly the sound died away as she heard something else on the breeze. The sound made her bones ach and her nerves twitch. She felt like squirming all over, then she heard the sound.
It was a sound of pure beauty, a sound of a angel's lullaby. Although the young Roland would not hear it for years to come he could understand what it was. It would bring him memories of laying with Susan, on the thick grass of the drop.
It was the same sound made by a lone red rose in a vacant lot of another world.
The witch's eyes shot open and she looked to the fire upon which the girl was being burned. "No" she muttered, then again "No, no" then she turned and as shewent through the door she was screaming. "NO!"
At the fire, the girl at the window, the horsemen's daughter Susan Delgado had just died. The townsfolk stood in mixed reaction staring at the burning husk.
Suddenly a wind started, small at first, a gentle refreshing breeze but it grew.
Soon it blow so hard the fire was blown far away from the girl. The flame spewed out away from the tree. The towns people turned to shield their eyes from the light and the heat.
One lone soul, willing to risk his vision to see what was happening managed to stair into the flames that were now white hot. Somehow standing against the wind the ivory fire seem to rise up around the girl.
Suddenly quicker then it had came the wind disappeared and when the people looked the girl was gone. Not
burnt up, in the fire there was no charred skeleton or burnt cloth, she was simply gone.
Rhea was moving as fast as her feat could carry her. She was quick for a women of such years but still by the time she arrived at the sight she was short of breath and ready to collapse.
She stood just outside the circle of fire light around the char-you-tree. Just as she had suspected, Susan was gone with no trace or sign that she had ever been there.
"Blast it! Blast that ivory whore!" she cursed between puffs.
It took her some time to recover her breath but she managed it. She turned and looked off toward the horizon in every direction. She held out her hand trying to feel where she went when an all too familiar voice spoke behind her from the shadows.
"You won't find her that way. She planned this down to the smallest detail. She was here and gone!" The wielder of Black Thirteen said.
Rhea spun on her heel to face him. "Master Maerlyn!" she gasped. "I-i-i didn't know. I swear I had no idea that-" the witch pleaded but the wizard cut her short with a wave of a hand.
"Don't worry about it" he said. "We can't track her down, she's too good for that. She knows how to hide and she knows every last door in this or any other world. To find her we would have to go through every where and when one by one"
"So what do we do?" Rhea asked.
Maerlyn grinned revealing his sharp predator like teeth, the sight of witch was enough to make the back-neck hair of even Rhea of the Coos stand on end.
Susan could feel the flames beneath her grow hotter. She could feel the fires working their way up her skirt onto her skin. She felt corn shucks being thrown at her, catching aflame before they even reach her. She screamed for her love, for the boy Roland. After a moment of hot agonizing pain she felt cold all over. Despite the fire, despite the flames she felt like she was naked in a pool of ice.
Before her like a tear in the fabric of reality came a great torrential light. She felt her bonds fall away, the cold of her skin disappeared, she became one with the rising smoke. She took a step toward the light then another. She was in a daze, nothing mattered, nothing registered. All she wanted to do was walk into this light and see what was on the other side when suddenly she heard someone call to her.
Roland, no it was feminine. Aunt cordelia? no not her. Her mother? she had never heard her mother so she couldn't know for sure. From the feeling deep inside some part of her was sure it was the one who bore her.
"Susan! no please!" the voice cried.
Susan could hear the sobbing in the women's words. This women cared for her, perhaps even loved her.
"Susan hold on! hold on a moment longer i beg of you!" the women cried to her.
Susan turned and behind her was the burning tree. It screamed at her of all the pain and suffering she had went through. Loosing her father, then freedom, then her love and finally her life.
"Why?" she asked quietly. "Why hold on to such pain, why can't i just let go of it all" With that she took a step backwards, towards the light.
Suddenly the women screamed. No, not her, not this women calling to her it was her own voice, her own words.
"Roland! Roland the boy!" her own voice echoed through the girl's mind.
"You shall have him! I swear you shall be together again" the women cried to her. "I swear by all that i am you shall have his heart or my head! Do the most unholy and agonizing pain upon me if i fail you!"
With that thought, that sound, that memory echoing through her mind Susan Delgado stepped back to that tree and felt the icy cold return to her body. The cold rose up her body to her neck then turned inward. She felt a hand of ice reach into her chest and slowly wrap it's fingers around her heart.
She through her head back and opened her mouth to utter one final agonized scream, but she could no longer draw breath. She stood there quietly screaming into the night air. There was a flash of white hot flame and the world went black.
The ivory lady came down upon the grove. The moon was high in the sky and the stars twinkled bright at her and the girl. She closed her eyes listening, feeling, smelling even tasting. They were gone, she had successfully left them behind in Mejis, they could not follow. Still it was not wise to take risks when they could be avoided.
She looked down at the charred remains of the girl's body in her arms then began to walk. They passed through a line of trees and came to a shallow, but wide river with an ancient stone bridge crossed the middle. The ivory lady carried the girl into the river, when they were half way crossed she turned and walked underneath the bridge's arch.
If one were to stand on the bridge watching her disappear beneath it then go to the far side and wait for her to emerge they would wait in vain for neither the ivory lady nor the burnt husk would ever emerge from under that bridge, at least not in this world.
Once the ivory lady was on the far side, she climbed out onto the opposite side of the river and into the forest on the far side. She came to a clearing, the grass was thick, green and deep. She gently sat the girl's body down then slipped off her cloak and folded it several times then placed it below the girl's head. With that done she knelt down, placed a gentle hand on the charred forehead of the girl and began to sing a gentle lullaby.
Susan awoke on a soft bed of cool grass. She opened her eyes and saw a women who looked like a midwife.
Her hair was a short midnight black, her face round and wide. Her eyes were closed. She wore what looked like a white cassocks, it seemed to be glowing with a gentle light and seemed like something a high priestess would wear, although it had no ornament. No decorations, no colors, nothing but simple white cloth. She also wore a white cape over her back. It was much like the robe, but with one difference, it had a decor of sorts. It was somehow made to look like feathery wings.
Everything about this women seemed to be the reverse of what she had just seen at the char you tree. Every bit of her features from the most obvious to the most minute expressed, motherly love, gentleness, kindness, tenderness and any other virtue of a good mother. She opened her eyes, they were a light hazel and were also comforting, and removed her hand from the girl's forehead.
"Hello Susan" she cooed in a voice that fit perfectly with the rest of her features.
Susan was hesitant to reply, not because she was afraid, not because her voice was still stolen by the fires but because she couldn't help but sit there gawking at this women.
"H-hello" she said at last. There was an urge inside her, an urge that was slowly melting her heart. She fought it simply because it didn't seem right. Also it seemed like it would be rude, perhaps even blasphemous. This women seemed like a lady, no a queen, no a goddess!
Susan thought maybe she should throw herself flat on her stomach and thank this women for simply allowing Susan to be in her presence. Still she had the urge an urge that grow geometrically with every heart beat.
"It's okay my dear little one. It's okay, you aren't the first and will not be the last" she said.
With that Susan launched herself at the women. She pressed their bodies together, wrapped her arms around the women's neck and lay her head on her shoulder.
The women placed a hand on the back of Susan's head, then wrapped her other arm around her waste and held her.
The girl cried, her tears like a waterfall of sadness. After a time she began to moan, she spoke of her father, her aunt, her home, the witch and most of all about him, Roland. She asked why? Why did they have to be torn apart? Why wouldn't she be his wife and bare his children? Why did the world have to move on in such a way? Why did she have to be betrayed by her own home, that seemed the worst of it all.
After a time, the ivory lady reached down and picked up the grey cloak up off the ground and wrapped it around the girl as if she was bundling up a new born child. With that done she turned and walked away still holding the crying girl.
Finally Susan cried herself to sleep in the lady's arms and she carried her onward.
When The ivory lady stopped to rest dawn was on the horizon. Susan was still asleep so the lady sat her down on the thick grass. The lady knelt by her and watched over her like a mother guarding her child.
When Susan awoke she wasn't sure what exactly had happened. Was it a dream, a nightmare? Or maybe...she really was dead. Then she remembered the light, maybe she was living this all in her mind in her last moments, but if so where was Roland? Wouldn't he be here if this was just all in her head? Then looking around she saw the lady and knew it wasn't a dream.
"Who are you?" Susan asked, it seemed the proper question.
"I am the Ivory Lady" she answered.
Then Susan asked the question that was truly proper. "What are you?"
The ivory lady smiled warmly then answered; "I am she who helps the world. For every fevered forehead that long for a cool, healing hand. For every soul that just wanted to be held by a pair of loveing arms. For every tear that wanted to fall on an understanding shoulder, for everyone left out in the lonely cold, i am here" then bowed as if she were but a humble maid in Susan's service.
Susan just couldn't think of anything to say. Finally she gave in and asked the only other question she could bring herself to ask. "Where are we bound?"
The Ivory lady just shrugged. "I'm not sure, but i think it best we keep moving" she said.
Susan nodded and got to her feet.
"Here" the lady said and handed the girl the grey cloak.
Susan slipped it on, it was soft and warm.
The lady stood up and took Susan's hand and started walking.
Susan followed like a child holding her mother's hand. Somehow she just didn't want to let go.
They walked steadily for hours, slowly the open grass gave way to forest. As the sun began to set the ivory lady stopped suddenly and looked about nervously.
"What? What is it?" Susan asked growing worried. "What is wrong?"
At first the ivory lady didn't answer and this caused Susan to worry more as when a child may worry when her mother doesn't answer.
"What is wrong" she repeated.
"Something is going to happen" the ivory lady said at last. "Something sad, a mother is going to be shot dead by her son"
"Why?" Susan asked surprised, perhaps even horrified at the idea now that she had met this lady who was motherhood personified.
"He will be tricked, he will go to save her but he shall destroy her instead" the lady said and began to cry.
"Then stop him!" Susan cried. "Save this women, don't let such a thing happen"
The ivory lady turned to Susan. "It's a trap, they want you, if i go to save her then I will be placing you in jeopardy. I won't let you die" she said.
Susan looked down at herself. She had died once, she had faced her death with strength her hopes and dreams torn from her like the wings from a fly. But now, now this time someone was actually giving her a choice in the matter and it was the choice, the offer that made all the difference. She stepped close to the lady, leaned against her and wrapped her arms around her neck.
"Please, I am willing to die to save her. Please, save her" Susan begged.
The ivory lady looked down, tears in her eyes. Finally she nodded. "Yes, come this way" she said then pressed Susan against her. "Hold tight" she said.
Susan did as she was told and saw the lady's cloak rise up into the air in two directions. Then it struck her, it wasn't a cloak made to look like wings they were wings. Beautiful, graceful wings, perhaps the most beautiful things Susan had ever seen. Then Susan realized what she was looking at and laid her head against the women's shoulder and cried.
With one strong flap of her wings the lady sent herself and the girl up into the air.
Susan looked down and about her not believing what she saw. She was flying, she was like a bird no longer bound by gravity, able to go any direction she wished, up and down as well as side to side or back and forth. She smiled forgetting everything that happened. She forgot about the evil witch Rhea, about her aunt Cordelia, about her death on the tree and about the pain in her heart.
It seemed to go on forever and although she knew she was on a mission to save someone's life a small part of her felt sad as the lady descended onto the grounds of an old rampart. "Is this the place?" Susan asked as she let go of the lady's neck.
"No, but we will have to go through here to get there" the lady said.
With that the two started off into the rampart.
It was old, how old Susan wasn't sure. As she walked through the old halls she could hear what sounds might have been heard long ago here.
The lady lead the girl down into cellar. In the back was a door that seemed to lead to no where, there was no signs of there being a room on the other side. None the less the lady walked to it and opened.
Rather then opening to reveal packed earth, Susan saw it opened to reveal an open field. The sky was cloudy but there was still enough sun for it to be seen clearly.
"How in the world..." Susan started in disbelief but just couldn't continue.
"No, not this world" the lady said and gestured for Susan to come.
Susan nodded and followed her.
Once they were through they started off crossed the field. It soon became clear that the lady was becoming nervous and worried as they went further.
"What's wrong?" Susan asked.
"We are walking right into their hands" the lady said. "There is no escaping that"
Suddenly there was a crash of thunder. Susan and the lady turned and looked. The skies were still half-way clear and there were no dark storm clouds anywhere but yet there was still an echo thunder.
"What was that?" Susan asked confused.
Suddenly the lady turned and grabbed Susan and launched herself into the sky.
Susan looked up at the women and saw fear in her eyes. Suddenly she realized that this lady was forsaking the victim they came to save. She was fleeing, not like a coward running from battle but like a mother trying desperately to save her child.
Just as Susan realized this there was another crash of thunder and rain began to fly from a sky that was still generally clear. Ahead, however, a cluster of clouds were gathering and darkening. Just as she was about to ask why didn't they try to avoid them the ivory lady turned to go evasive and the clouds correct.
Susan felt the lady's arms tighten around her.
"Hold on" the lady pleaded like she was begging someone not to take her baby from her.
As the clouds grew closer the rain grew thicker and colder, winds began to blow harder and they started to blow in different directions.
The lady did what she could to stay in the air trying to correct her course to compensate for the wind. But the changes in wind became too drastic and too rapid.
"Susan" she pleaded one last time before a cyclone sent her into a tumble.
The centrifugal force grew with every spin.
Susan held on for dear life but it was too much. Soon she was pulled away and her hands slipped over the ivory lady's robe and she fell away.
"Susan!" the lady screamed as the girl fell. The lady tried desperately to redirected her path but she her attempts brought her down to the ground. She landed sideways and rolled over several times before coming to a stop. When she pulled herself up she saw Susan just beginning to get to her feet then she saw something else, dark figures drawing towards the girl.
"No" she said and tried to fly but the wind was still blowing, (even if she could get into the air the wind would either nock her back to the ground or blow her around like an autumn leaf) so she ran. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her but the dark ones were closing around Susan faster then she could. The lady thought, how can i save her, I will not let it happen again and for the first time in eons the ivory lady was panicking. She searched desperately for a way to save her and found one, how ever painful it might be it would be necessary.
Four dark figures were drawing around Susan. She didn't know what to do, she couldn't get away and she knew she couldn't fight and the ivory lady's wings would be able to save her in this storm that had somehow blown up on a sunny day.
Suddenly she recognized one. "Rhea!" she said exasperated.
"Yes my dear little Susan and this time no Ivory whore with feathers is going to save you now!" she said and snapped her fingers.
The other three lunged for the girl and grabbed her.
Rhea placed a hand beneath Susan's chin and smiled. "Now this time you are going to die and stay dead!" she hissed at the girl and wrapped her fingers around the girl's neck. She began to squeeze slowly, allowing herself to savor the moment. As Susan's mouth came open to take in a breath a burning sensation leapt through the witch's body. It flew through her hand, along her arm, into her shoulder then all over her. It didn't grow from a mild itch to an all-consuming heat, it just was an all-consuming heat.
"AHHH!" the witch screamed as she released the girl's throat and clutched her hand. She looked up and saw her three henchmen fall back from the girl in a similar condition.
"What is this?" she said enraged. "How can this be? Only one can be under the protection of the white, if you have it then..." her words cut off and she grinned wickedly.
Suddenly the four of them broke off and bolted for the lady.
Susan realized what was happening. "No!" she screamed. But it was too late, as the word left Susan's lips they fell upon her.
The lady met eyes with the girl and there was a mutual understanding between them. On the lady's face was the sad love of a mother giving her life so that her child may live.
Susan curled up in the rain that was now coming down in sheets, looked away and cried as the ivory lady was ravaged by the witch and her men.
The witch and her men did all they could to deflower the lady. They violated every orifice and tore her cloths from her body but worst of all was the wings. Those beautiful elegant wings were destroyed, they had plucked the feathers from her wings then once they were bare they broke them.
Finally when they were done Rhea ran her tongue along the lady's neck then left her to die. She flashed a look at Susan and debated weather she should just leave her here, but then again as long as she was under the protection what could she do. Besides, she had finally achieved a goal she had been dreaming of for years, she had raped the ivory lady, the last of the angels.
Once they were gone Susan ran to her but fell to her knees and crawled the last few feet.
"Oh my gods" she said crying.
"What have they done?" she sobbed. What she had just seen was an evil that surpassed all that she seen before, she felt she would rather go through that last reap-night at least a thousand times then see anything that even approached what she had just seen.
"It's okay Susan, i knew this would happen one day" the lady said.
Susan started to say something but she was too choked with tears to say it, in the end she just crawled to her, embraced her and wept.
"There is a way, Susan" the lady said, her voice weak and frail but still had the tenderness of a loving mother.
Susan's head shot up. "A way to restore you?" she asked.
The lady seemed to both nod and shake her head at the same time. "A way my power may live on, so that others will know of the grace you have experienced" she said.
"How?"
The lady pointed to a small pouch hanging by a cord to her belt.
Susan opened it and removed a white glass. It was the same as the pink glass she had seen in the witch's house, same, size material, only different in all other ways. She cupped the glass in her hands and held it to her breast like a baby, she felt an sudden over powering urge to protect this thing like it were her own child. In every way the pink glass was dark and vile this was beautiful and pure. Susan suddenly looked up to the lady who was smiling despite the fact she was slowly bleeding to death.
"What do i do?" Susan asked.
"I am lost, my light is fading into the darkness between the worlds. Like a candle's flame. Only with care and love can it survive and continue to shine it's light" the ivory lady said.
"How?" Susan pleaded.
"Take my place, take my mantel and my power and go forth into the world. Carry on the crusader to defend the tower and stop the red king from destroying all that is, that was and is to be!"
"What would i do?"
"Become like me, the hand that comforts a fevered forehead. The shoulder for lonely tears, the arms to hold a wounded heart. Will you take my place and spread my grace?"
Susan didn't hesitate, how could she? "Yes!" she cried then repeated. "Yes, yes, yes! please"
"Close your eyes" the lady said as she put a hand to Susan's forehead.
Susan felt a beam of sunlight strike her from above and her heart seemed to rise in her chest as the cold rain evaporated and she felt a change come over her. It was a feeling that could not be describe. It was not subtle or violent nor was it a medium of the two.
Perhaps the only thing about it that could be said for sure was that went it had passed the girl who had been born to a horsemen, who had fell in love with a gunslinger and was burned at the stack by her own home was gone forever. It was not a death, nor a painful revelation. It was not like letting go of a joyful memory, it was the awakening from a nightmare to find oneself in their own room, safe and happy.
Susan Delgado who would now be known to the whole of creation(save for a small ka-tet) as the Ivory Lady.
When she opened her eyes she found that the lady was gone, her soiled dress was replaced with a fine white robe. On her back was the great white feathery wings, in her hand she held the white glass that seemed to hum and sing to her like a purring kitten, and a buzzing in her ears. The sound annoyed her at first but it began to drive her towards insanity.
She started to ask what the sound was but then she listened to it. After a time she not only heard but she also saw and felt it. She saw a young boy being beaten by his father for not being the best in his academics. She saw a young women loose her infant child to a fever. She saw strange men on horses tearing a child from her father's arms. She saw a gunslinger with blue eyes gun town a entire town of people. She saw a baby girl being abandoned in the desert. Finally she saw a great and wonderful tower wobble and shake as it's foundation crumbled.
The ivory lady who was once Susan Delgado didn't have to ask, didn't have to know anything she did not already know. With a pain in her heart she lifted herself into the sky and flew away into the world. She knew her course, she knew the path she would travel. She was following her love, Roland the Gunslinger and she would deal in grace where he dealt in bullets, and together they would save the tower.