Chapter 73
Within the Whirlwind
The boy Methos, sat in the shade of the overhanging rock and blinked in the whiteness of the blinding desert sun. Even the sand seemed to reflect white light. He sat cross-legged and picked up the small stick. Carefully, as Aja had been teaching him he began to draw the patterns in the sand... one upon the other until they all seemed to run together. He glanced up hearing only the wind, and yet, there was a keening on the wind so that it was like the cry of a thousand souls suffering in torment.
Out of the blinding radiance of the desert came Aja as he had first known her. Her black hair braided, the great jeweled and golden collar about her neck above the simple white linen sheath. She crouched before him and took his chin in her hand. Smiling she greeted him in the language of his youth, "Ah my scholar... have you come at last!"
Methos stared into her green eyes and understood the madness he had so often seen there. She had slaughtered those she had sworn to protect. She had lost all those she had loved. She had killed and kept on killing and had enjoyed it. She had finally faced her crimes and through teaching him the keys of the past... she had at last faced it herself and tried to atone for what she had done. They were more alike than he had ever considered.
Every step of his life... she had been a part of it. She had watched him yet she had let him choose his own direction... and had kept offering him another way. But he was here at last. His path had taken far longer than she had hoped.
"You always were determined to choose your own destiny. Now once more... a choice lies before you... Your survival... or that of the faerie child."
Methos the adult stood before Aja and glanced to his right. There he saw the child Aella crouched in a patch of sunlight and drawing the patterns with a crooked stick. She glanced up and held out her small arms toward...
The child Aella was intent on her drawings. They meant nothing... but they were hers... and they were magic the voice of the Faerie Queen had once told her. She glanced up and out of the swirling bright mist came her Faerie Queen... dressed in the garments of the night, which waved and flowed about her. Her silver hair blew in a wind that seemed to come from all directions. Her Lady held out her hands and Aella ran to be lifted high into the air. The lady laughed and then held her in a tight embrace, her green eyes... so like Aella's own... sparkling with tears of joy.
"Oh my dearest child... my only joy... at last we meet."
Aella's eyes filled with tears as the Lady set her down once more upon the earth. She'd heard her voice most of her life in brief whispers that tickled at the edge of her consciousness. The Lady had told her to speak to the knight Sir Edward... to trust him, marry him, and then had been silent when she'd entered immortality. Only in later years, as Aella had wandered the known lands had the whispers begun again. When she'd met Edward in the Black Forest and wished to be with him... the voice of the Lady had said, "Not yet!" and guided her to Paris and to Darius. Over the centuries there, the Lady's voice would tell her when to leave and when to return. It had guided her hand in choosing gifts for the priest. It had helped her restrain her hand after the quickening so that she did not kill Darius. Over the centuries, again and again, the voice of the Lady had bid her go and come and had poised her between the two men Eleanor had come to love.
"Once more you must choose," the Lady said softly.
The woman Eleanor gazed levelly into the Lady's face. "I have made my choice!"
"Have you... if it could still be made... what would you do?"
Eleanor glanced at Methos on her left and then to the boy Derrick huddled in the darkness on her right. The boy stared ahead of him and shook his head at something only he could see. He was waiting...
This was his first memory... his first real memory... as if all the nightmares and the life that had been before this moment were nothing. Derrick huddled in the darkness terrified. He looked up at the tall wandering woman dressed in the colors of the earth who stood before him sadly. She held out her hand as if to beckon him to join her. He shook his head. He did not know her. Beside her came an aged crone... her wisps of white hair blew in the wind. Her green eyes seemed almost devoid of color. She too beckoned. Derrick shook his head. He waited. Finally a light crossed his eyes and he saw Ellie crouched before him. But not just Ellie... she was also Eleanor... who stood in a patch of sunlight breaking out of a cloudy sky. She was the masked woman at the bonfire... dancing in the darkness and asking him to dance with her. He waited. Ellie reached out a hand and Derrick took it... but even as he did so... he knew it wasn't Ellie... it was the other woman... wearing Ellie's face for the moment.
"Oh my little warrior. You still do not know me. You have forgotten the past. I told you that you might when we took the chance the day they came for you, those mortal hunters. I told you the future was still possible if you but believed. Not even death could stop it. Now you must choose... Would you know the past or would you face the future?"
Derrick stared into the face that was no longer Ellie's face and made his choice. "It is the future that matters."
The woman nodded with a smile. "Thus the choice is made."
Eleanor knew nothing of the boy's vision. She reached for Methos with a smile. Derrick was Derrick... he would never be Darius... not even if he had all his memories. And she had chosen Methos... long ago... and she would stand by her choice. "I love them both... but I have chosen him."
The Lady smiled, "Thus the choice is made."
Methos considered his fate. To die and insure Eleanor's survival or to insure his own and face a future without her. She must survive! Derrick would need her. Derrick must survive as must the girl Alisaunne. Eleanor could help the girl as he could not. Methos faced Aja and nodded.
Aja leaned forward to kiss him lightly, "Thus the choice is made."
And the whirlwind faded.
***
Methos blinked his eyes and stirred. His arms were still about Eleanor and Derrick. In their hands the crystal lay dormant and quiet. He glanced up at Ian and Alisaunne, "How long?"
"Seconds, if even that," Ian said.
He ran one hand through Derrick's sandy hair and laughed as the boy looked up at him with an open smile. Eleanor leaned into his chest and he could sense her spirit within him again. He kissed her hair and felt at peace.
"What do we do now?" Ian wanted to know. "Do we stay here or do we need to keep moving?"
Thoughts of Nestor's possible arrival and what he might need to do to insure the others' safety filled Methos with a momentary dread. He could not face Nestor alone! He needed help. And... he needed Alisaunne to help him lure Nestor into a trap. If Alisaunne remained... Ian would remain. Even as young as he was... the Welsh immortal sensed something about the girl and was already drawn to her... as Nestor would be.
Methos murmured into Eleanor's ear, "Have you seen my cell phone charger? The battery's dead and I need to check messages. I need to make contact with Phillip and MacLeod."
"I know where it is!" Derrick leaped up to head out of the ballroom and bound up the stairs. He tossed the crystal to Alisaunne as he passed her. The girl caught it and turned it over in her hands with a shrug. "What is this thing?" The crystal did not glow for her.
"Methos..." Eleanor whispered, "Cassandra may return... I don't know where she went. You're not safe here."
Ian's eyes narrowed. He'd caught the name. He stared at the pair of immortals on the floor. Suddenly a lot of things were beginning to make sense to him. When the doctor met his gaze with a nod. Ian returned the gesture. He would ask no questions nor repeat what he now knew. He understood the peril his life was now in if he ever spoke of what he had learned. But it didn't matter. As long as he could protect the girl... he would do whatever the others asked of him.
