Chapter 7
Toronto
"Now... remove your foot from the brake and gently... I said gently... push on the gas to accelerate," said Phillip patiently. However, even this simple move seemed beyond Eleanor. She floored the gas and then slammed on the brake... killing the ignition once again.
From the back seat... Derrick laughed. "Aw gee... Ellie... I think even I could drive a car!"
Gears groaned as Eleanor attempted to shift back into park and try it again.
Phillip covered his ears and grimaced. "How is it you never learned to drive a car?"
"I never needed to... besides... a driver's license is just one more way someone could trace me... I don't like leaving anything more than bread crumbs behind."
"But you learned trauma surgery a few... years..." Phillip had almost slipped and said decades but caught himself and glanced at Derrick who was concentrating once again on his Game Boy. "... ago. And you can drive even without a license!"
"Says the man who lives on an island where there are no cars!" Eleanor turned on the ignition once more and shifted slowly into drive. She lifted off the brake and hit the gas... once more the engine revved and the car leapt forward. Once more she slammed on the brake and the engine died. She put the car in park once more. "Are you certain I need to know this?"
"What if we become... separated?" Phillip replied. "I'll feel better knowing you can handle the car."
Eleanor shrugged and mumbled, "Seems to me it might be better if we just caught a bus somewhere." But she tried again.
Phillip had decided that a few days in Toronto... might help. Derrick needed some levity and some fun in his life. Their mad dash across North America had likely added to the stress the boy was under. Phillip hoped... by slowing down and turning this more into a "vacation" that the boy's nightmares might ease up. Already today... he seemed more at ease and laughing and joking with the two immortals. Phillip winked at Eleanor who nodded... she had noticed Derrick's laughter as well and obviously agreed... even if she had no real interest in learning to drive.
"I fear driving is like cooking... something I will never master."
"Master? Ha! You mean even do passably!" Phillip smirked recalling Eleanor's many failures at cooking over the centuries.
She stared at him and crossed her eyes... sticking her tongue out at him briefly and then wrinkling her nose.
Phillip laughed. "Ahh... Little Sister... you are a treasure! Now let's try this again... slowly this time.
A few hours later... Eleanor had finally gotten the gist of it and was driving erratically through the empty parking lot at an amazing fifteen miles per hour! Phillip chuckled, "Perhaps you are right... this is one skill you may never master. Pull over up here and I'll drive us back to the motel."
But it was all for naught.
That night... Derrick's nightmares returned. He thrashed and screamed so loudly that whoever was in the next room beat on the wall and yelled about the noise. Something more had to be done. A trans-Atlantic flight would almost certainly involve an overnight... they could not risk it with Derrick while he still had them.
Phillip leaned back in the chair and stared at Eleanor's laptop. On the floor behind him, she was holding and murmuring to the boy... trying to ease him back into a sleep that would not be filled with visions of blood and death. Phillip had pulled up his email... and after seeing it was considering a course of action that was fraught with danger. Still... it might be the only way to get to the heart of the boy's fears and end the nightmares once and for all.
He glanced at Eleanor. Even she was showing signs of weariness and stress. He nodded to himself and typed in a message and hit send. Slowly he closed the laptop and crossed to his bed. It was done... now they had to wait for an answer. "Gods..." he thought, "I hope I've done the right thing."
***
New York
Cassandra ducked into the mausoleum to avoid the first sprinkling of the raindrops. She pulled up the collar of her raincoat and then stuffed her hands into the pockets as she awaited the arrival of the Greek swordsman she had once known as Captain Nicholas. Centuries ago she had been once been among a group of women captured by an invading Greek army. While she could have fought the victors off and escaped, or perhaps died and been left behind... the other women would have been helpless. So she had remained with them and tried to protect them.
Cassandra had been attempting to negotiate a release for the women by her use of the voice, when a brown-bearded, barrel-chested soldier had approached the group. She had glanced up in the realization that he was an immortal. As she no longer had even a knife to protect herself, she had made a leap at one of the other men and tried to wrest his sword from him.
Strong arms had pulled her back. She had been swiftly held and then roughly thrown over a shoulder and carried off by the immortal she had felt. He tossed her onto the ground some distance away and had stood looking at her with a sense of amusement.
Cassandra had shifted on the ground almost seductively and pitched her voice in the way Lilith had once taught her. "You are getting sleepy..."
He had laughed... "Oh bother girl... I'm not interested in you... I just wanted to get you out of that group to talk to you."
Cassandra had halted in her use of the voice. Perhaps she would save it for another time... "Who are you?"
"Call me Captain Nicholas for the present. And you?"
"Xandra."
The man had sat on a nearby rock and regarded her with interest. "I've heard legends of one of us named Xandra... one who has visions and can see the future."
Cassandra had returned to her feet and shifted her weight slightly... attempting a minor seduction by appearing alluring and available. "I am that Xandra."
The Greek Captain had smirked genially and shaken his head. "How do you see the future?"
Cassandra had sighed then, figuring that he truly was not interested in her at all. "Sometimes in the palm of a subject's hand... sometimes in the pattern of the bones cast before the fire."
"Ever see the future in the spray of the ocean?"
Cassandra had stopped and stared at him. "I once met another who could do that," she had said finally.
The brown-bearded immortal had straightened. "Where?"
"Long ago... and far away. Why?"
His shoulders had sagged at that point. "My teacher could do that... I have always wondered what happened to her."
It was at that point that they had struck up a minor friendship based on nothing more than that they had both apparently been students of the same immortal. The Captain had called his teacher Danae. Cassandra had known her as Lilith. It was Lilith who had finally saved Cassandra when she had fled from the horsemen's camp so long ago. It was Lilith who had taken her in and taught her... It was Lilith, the Ancient, who had once handed her a great crystal and whispered that with it... she could see her heart's desire. And it was Lilith, who had taught Cassandra the nature of turning men's minds by the use of her voice and Lilith who had reluctantly instructed her in her gift of prophecy.
"Prophecy is a dangerous gift Xandra. The more you dare to use it... the more caught in the various pathways of the visions you may become. Prophecy can drive you mad! Use it sparingly child... use it with care." Soon after, Lilith had gathered up her belongings and walked away into the fog of early morning. Cassandra had never seen nor heard of her since that long ago day.
It had been similar for Nicholas. As a boy, he had learned to fight under the tutelage of the oracle he knew as Danae. Once he had gone to war and died... and been reborn... he had returned to find the oracle long gone. The Greek had at that point pulled out a cameo of Danae to show Cassandra, who had nodded when she saw it. Lilith and Danae were one and the same. She did not bother to let the Captain know that Lilith had taught Cassandra almost five hundred years before the Greek had been born. That was a secret she thought she had best keep... at least for the time being.
Now, Cassandra felt the approach of an immortal and turned at the sound of the mausoleum door opening. She smiled at the sight of the Swordmaster she had so longed to see once more... the Greek swordsman who might just know where the great crystal of the ancient one was now hidden.
