Chapter 26

Within the Standing Stones, in the "before" time

Their numbers were growing. Among the people were now many of the small ones. From where they came and why... were still things only the gods knew.

When the people gathered beneath each full moon within the standing stones... where once there had been few... there were now many.

Aja smiled across the circle at Havron. "Soon," she thought. "Soon it will be us!" As if he heard her thoughts... Havron smiled back. As they had grown... so too had grown their affection for one another. It was a thing to be... Long before they were old enough to understand... they had known.

In the center of the stones... D'jann raised his arms and began the chants. The people answered... We are one... now and for all time... we are one.

***

"You cannot do this," said Ga'el to the small ones. "You cannot begin to understand what the unity does to us... what it forces on us." The healer sorted through the herbs in her basket. She should have known that they would want this. Had she somehow turned a blind eye to the thought? "You are far too young... Now we will speak no more of this."

"But we love one another!"

Ga'el sighed and sadness filled her eyes. "Is it love? Or merely desire. There is a difference young ones. Make certain it is love... for once desire has gone... without love... there is only emptiness."

Holding hands Aja and Havron bowed their acquiescence and wandered slowly through the camp. They watched the children of the others and the younger small ones of their own people playing together among the carrocks. To one of the others... there was no difference between the small ones and the children. They grew at the same rate... although the small ones were often taller than children of the same age: taller... swifter... stronger... more agile... more adept.

Kritis... the eldest of the small ones... now full-grown... wished to become as the people were. Only slightly younger, Havron was in no hurry... except in knowing that to unite with Aja... they must also face the changing. As yet... they did not know what the changing was that the elders spoke of. Only that at some point... something was done... and they would then be unchanging.

Aja continued to see some deeper fear in Ga'el's brown eyes. Some secret she did not wish to share... some thought she buried so deeply that not even D'jann was aware of it. They had been united for many lives of the others. They knew one another so well... they did not question nor second-guess one another's actions. With Morannon as judge... they were the Triad of the people.

Near the shoreline, Havron began to skip stones across the water and watch the horizon... wishing to see what lay beyond. Aja sat in the sand and hugged her knees to her chest. She was at home in this place... and could not conceive of another place... or in ever leaving here.

"Perhaps Ga'el is correct. We should experience the change and then see what it is we wish to do." murmured Aja.

Havron hesitated, holding the last stone in his hand and regarded her sadly. "But if we are certain... why should we be forced to wait. Just because the elders chose mates only after many seasons does not mean we must. We are different from them who always were. We are who we are... perhaps our time will not be as long. Shouldn't we grasp desire now?"

Aja drew the patterns of unity in the sand... one atop another. As sand was tossed in her hair from behind... she brushed it free and laughed. "Kritis... stop it!"

Her brother stretched out in the sand near her. "What did she say?"

"That we should wait." Aja brushed off the last of the sand and straightened her necklace of shells.

"They are only elders... what do they understand. They who have lived so long that life holds no excitement for them... that discovery no longer interests them." Kritis had been trying to get the elders to let him build a forge. He saw in his mind what fire could do to earth and its secrets. What things might be made... what things might be built.

Havron joined them in the sand... Up the shoreline they could hear the younger ones laughing and playing games. These first three were leaving behind the immaturity of before. Already their minds were filled with the long unchanging life that would soon be theirs. Havron picked up a handful of sand and let it flow through his fingers. "Time is like the sands... there will always be time... but time is a hard thing to hold on to." He dropped the last of the sand and brushed the final grains from his hands.

Kritis laughed, "You are far too solemn my friend... We should enjoy life... seize it with both hands and make it ours!" The older boy rose and raced down the beach leaping and crying to the heavens.

Aja and Havron watched him go, then gazed deeply into one another's eyes. Their thoughts were filled only with one another. Ga'el had forbidden the unity... but not their being together. So... they would be together... none would stop them... and one day... when the time was right... they would be one.

***

"Come quick!" Kritis' deep voice reached even into the glade where Havron and Aja spent most of their time. Havron raised up on one elbow and Aja shifted beside him.

"What is happening?"

"It's D'jann... he speaks of wandering!" Kritis called over his shoulder as he raced toward the camp... passing the others on his way.

Havron's face sobered... and Aja could almost see a wisp of desire in her beloved's eyes. She knew he often wished to wander. Havron laughed lightly and rose... grabbing her by the hands and pulling her up. He kissed her lightly and then, still holding on to one hand, he led her from their bower and back to the camp of the people.

At the stones D'jann waited for all to arrive. Their numbers had doubled in the last few years. There were more of the small ones in the camp than of the people themselves. He looked over at the tall, muscular Kritis... eldest of the small ones... full-grown... ready for the change. Behind him came running the rest of the people and small ones. He raised his hands for attention. His words would change them all... and put into motion events that would shape the futures of all who followed after.

***************

Paris

Eleanor shifted slightly in Methos' embrace... still dreaming he was certain... still trying to put the images into a coherent whole. More and more... as they explored new combinations... the fleeting flashes of the past began to make sense.

In Seacouver... he'd instinctively started with the more basic patterns... the elements... air, water, earth and fire. Then he'd moved on to the less disturbing ones... chiefly desire... because that had been foremost in his mind. She'd countered with chaos... wishing to understand the forces that had shaped his past.

In his mind he had seemed to sense her there behind him as he rode with the horsemen. She hid beneath his cloak and watched with wondering green eyes the chaos he'd once unleashed on the world... and she did not judge. Death... because it was so much a part of them both had been next... countered by life.

One by one they'd placed half of the patterns on one another in various places. Aja had always said they could be read and placed in any combination. By exploring them... by rubbing one placed pattern with another... new vistas and memories had opened. It had nearly drained them both. They'd had to stop... their minds unable to process all they saw.

But even as they had moved apart... the bonding had continued to call... They'd both known they had to finish... darkness hovered in both their minds... ever on the edge of their thoughts. If they finished before the darkness overcame them... they would struggle through to the light... the answers... the understanding of their shared past. Now almost all forty-five were placed on each of them... all but the final two pairs.

Methos trailed his fingers over her bare back... feeling compassion. He saw her caring for the sick through the centuries... wandering quietly through sickrooms and hospitals... offering comfort to the dying with a sad but gentle smile. Eleanor shivered and rubbed one leg against his... touching despair.

Methos gasped... once more he was in the hospital in Geneva with the dying Alexa. He lay beside her on the hospital bed and held her frail body in his arms. Behind him he sensed the compassion of Eleanor... part of him and with him, as it had not been that day. For a moment he seemed to lie between them both... the dying mortal he had loved, and the immortal who now held his heart.

He shifted again and touched love... He sat next to Eleanor against a wall in a darkened room... no light but that of stars shining through a small window. He reached for her and brushed his hands over her tear-stained face and bent to kiss her... startled that these hands were not his hands... and that he had never known this room. Eleanor gazed at him with a look of love Methos had never known on her face. He blinked.

Once more they were in the hotel room... but when she shifted and looked at him... that look of love was still there. She came closer and kissed him... She was ready. Once the solitary and unpaired pattern that meant choice was placed on them both... there had been a lifting of the darkness... and even the sad-faced woman of the visions had moved aside.

Methos grasped the knife once more. "Are you certain?" They might be able to co-exist without the final steps... they could survive even separation and the darkness now he felt... but if they took the final steps... no power on earth would ever divide them... not even death.

Eleanor sat up next to him and guided the knife to her exposed throat. "I trust you... only you... I choose you!" she whispered. She raised her head, closed her eyes... and waited.

Slowly Methos let the tip of the knife trace back and forth across her throat. This last step was fraught with danger... even he knew that... one slip and all was lost. He sat as close to her in the wide bed as he could and took a deep breath... curving her fingers about his so that she too held the knife. These last ones must be swift... the neck was the one vulnerability immortals had... but it was here the final patterns must be placed.

Swiftly he etched beneath her left ear the first of the final two... time... then let her direct the knife to his own throat. On hers the blood ran more freely than it had from the placing of any of the others. It streamed down her naked body in an incarnadine flood. He felt the tip of the knife enter his own throat and the pattern for unity was traced. Even as the knife was dropped... he clasped her to him... their bleeding necks joined as blood and quickening merged and crackled about them... healing them once more. Even within the flash of old memories that belonged to neither of them... desire rose once more and she sank onto her back beneath him and then arched to meet him as he entered her once more, joining with her and becoming one.