The Reconciling [Part 1] Read online

  “I don’t think so,” Kesil says angrily. “I think there is more to this Chrissi, and I think we deserve to know. We have been traveling with you all this time and you could have been a threat to us!”

  “What?” Phil stands up, hovering over Kesil. “How dare you? Chrissi is no threat! She would never hurt us, any of us!”

  Kesil stands to meet Phil’s sudden kinetic challenge, “Prove it. Tell us the truth.”

  Phil’s hands ball up into fists as rage begins to surface. He isn’t sure what to say or do, but Kesil is way out of line trying to force Chrissi’s secret out. Then, a yellow-gloved hand tugs Phil back from Kesil gently. Chrissi turns to face them all and prepares to tell the truth of her secret for the second time in her life.

  “This is going to sound insane,” she begins, “but when I touch any living thing with my bare hands, at least at home, on our plane, they decay and rot. They die.”

  Silence.

  Chrissi looks around her at each of her new friends. Lesia’s mouth is agape. Phil is looking at his shoes. Kesil stares at her with the same intense expression as before.

  “And?” he prods.

  “And what?” Chrissi retorts, her anger now rising.

  “There has to be something else you’re leaving out.”

  “Why Kesil?” she begins yelling. “That’s all there is! I have to cover my hands to protect everyone and everything around me! My whole life I have been this way until today when I touched Phil! That’s all I can tell you.”

  Kesil steps back, almost fearful. Chrissi’s confession is strange, and even more weapon-worthy than he expected, “Does Roi tell you who to touch?”

  Gasps erupt from Lesia and Phil, surprised he would be ask such a thing about the King. But he isn’t angry anymore, he honestly just wants the truth and for the truth to be simple for once.

  “No! Of course not!” Chrissi says. She crosses her arms over her chest. “I’ve never spoken to Roi before!”

  “She’s never touched a person with her bare hands before today, usually just leaves and plant life,” Phil says to his friend’s defense.

  “You knew?” Lesia gasps, clasping her hand over her mouth.

  Phil shrugs, “Well, yeah. Only for a few days, but it definitely wasn’t my secret to tell.”

  Kesil nods, silently piecing it all together. Perhaps she is the weapon his uncle should fear from Roi. Perhaps Kesil, himself, should fear her too. But something in him tells him that she is not to be feared. He knows Chrissi now and she certainly doesn’t seem evil. But her gift, this weapon, could truly be a threat. If it remains a decaying one.

  “I’m sorry Chrissi,” Kesil says. “I should have let you come out with your secret in your own timing.” Kesil’s words are apologetic but his tone is tense and careful. Almost stoic.

  “I understand,” she says simply deciding to let him work it out internally, like he does most things anyway. Then she looks to Lesia, curious of the girl’s reaction.

  Lesia stares in wonder at Chrissi, “Wow. I mean, wow. That is…so…COOL!” Lesia leaps to her feet and hugs Chrissi. Letting her go, Lesia utters words no one in this clearing ever thought they would hear her say, “I guess we are real friends now, huh? I mean, we’ve shared so much with each other.” She pulls the guys into a group hug, “You guys too.”

  “Ok, ok!” Kesil breaks away. “We should keep going.”

  “AFTER you read the Book!” Lesia chides Kesil again.

  “Ok, as we walk!” he concedes picking up the Book and leading the way again.

  The other three follow in light-hearted banter and conversation. With Chrissi’s secret finally out, a weight seems to have been lifted, not just off her own shoulders, but off the entire group. A new openness flows among them. Unity has penetrated the most uncanny of relationships.

  After awhile, Kesil falls behind taking up the back, drinking in the Book sentence by sentence, word by word. Maybe the Book will reveal Chrissi’s secret or purpose, Roi’s ultimate weapon or humanity’s greatest gift. Lesia and Phil lead the way, changing topics to discuss Chrissi’s change from curse to gift.

  “Guys, I just don’t think it is that simple,” Chrissi chimes in from behind them. “It was a one-time thing—help from the Book.”

  “I just don’t think so Chrissi,” Phil says matter-of-factly. “I think maybe you can take the gloves off. Maybe you have found the reason for your journey here.”

  “I really don’t want to test that theory,” Chrissi says with finality.

  “Let’s test it!” Lesia says.

  “Yes! It is the only way. An experiment, Chrissi perhaps you can heal Kesil’s ankle,” Phil says. They look hesitantly at Kesil, who pretends he didn’t hear anything but his palms sweat and heart pounds.

  “No Phil! Do you have any idea what you are asking me to do?”

  “She’s right, this could have severe consequences, like us having to carry a rotting pile of Kesil around for the rest of the journey.” The two chuckle.

  “It isn’t funny! This isn’t a joke!” Chrissi reprimands in frustration. She pushes passed Lesia and Phil and jogs ahead until she feels a safe distance from the sudden instability her secret has seemed to cause in their otherwise newly tight and secure circle.

  Chrissi leads for the next few hours in silence. Lesia and Phil quickly choose another topic to discuss and Kesil keeps watch from behind, Book protectively in-hand.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  “Have you noticed how…gorgeous it is here?” Lesia asks the group, breaking a long-endured silence, as she looks all around. Above trees grow tall and form a canopy of perfect shade. Flowers bloom beside the path in all kinds and colors. Butterflies, moths and other bugs zip around from blossom to blossom, taking their fill. “EXCEPT THAT BEE!” Lesia suddenly screams.

  A small bumble bee glides around her head as she desperately swats and jumps around, bumping into Phil, who bumps into Chrissi. Kesil, still behind everyone, raises the Book over his head ready to swat the bee down.

  “Wait!” says Chrissi. “I don’t think it has a stinger. It’s harmless.”

  “How can you be sure?” Lesia asks, cowering behind Chrissi.

  “Look at it!” Chrissi opens her hand and the bee lands gently on her gloved index finger. “This place is perfect. I feel so peaceful. I think we are safe now.”

  Phil’s eyes roam the land surrounding them. “Look! Up ahead, those are fruit trees!” He runs a few yards to a small tree right off the path. He picks something off of it and holds it up. “An apple!”

  The rest run toward him excited for the juicy fruit, the bee already forgotten.

  “You’re right Chrissi, this place is…I don’t know, magical?” Lesia says as she begins to skip down the narrow path.

  Everyone’s step seems to hold a bit of a jaunt in this place, Phil notices. Even Kesil’s once severe and serious face has been replaced with a sense of peace, albeit still some hesitance.

  “We must be getting close!” says Lesia noting mentally that they have continued on this path in blissful tranquility with no obstacles or hindrances.

  “Why do you say that?” Kesil catches up to her from the back of the group, slightly nervous, though unsure if from excitement or fear.

  “It’s just so perfect! How can this not be where the king resides?” she says, a beaming smile plastered to her face, that is actually beginning to hurt from grinning so much.

  “It could be true,” Phil half-agrees.

  “Or it could be a trap,” Kesil says. “Something to get us off our guard.” He slips to the back of the group again, Book still at his side, eyes darting across the path, ahead and behind for any potential threats.

  Chrissi takes in all her friends’ hypotheses, but her own comes up blank. She is beginning to think this is a never-ending journey. Part of her wonders still if it isn’t all just a dream. She looks around at the paradise they have been privy to for the last hour and a half, how could this be real in any world?
/>   “Uh—we have a slight problem,” Phil says interrupting Chrissi’s thoughts and stops ahead of them all, causing everyone to crash into one another.

  “What prob—oh…” Lesia looks up with the others to see the path open up then end in a colossal mountain. “OK yeah that qualifies as a problem.”

  “How are we supposed to get over that?” Phil stands incredulous before the impediment.

  “I knew it!” Kesil almost jumps with pride. “I knew it was all too good to be true. See? We are at a dead end. We must have been going the wrong way this entire time. We were probably even given false feelings of peace to make us believe we were on the right path.”

  He stands grinning, arms crossed in front of him, the Book now on the ground at his feet. Chrissi studies the cliff, running her gloved hand over the grey and pink rock blocking their path. She hums as she considers its purpose. She still feels peaceful, regardless of the obvious and unexpected obstacle.

  “I think we are supposed to go over it,” she says out loud. “It’s a trial.”

  “What?” Kesil returns with a little more force than he intends.

  “It’s a trial,” she says again simply.

  “As if we haven’t been tested enough?” Kesil says, irritation now rising in him. They never listen to him, they never believe him. “You don’t know that.”

  “I…I think I do,” Chrissi says, turning to the crew. “I just know. And look! It is almost like a ladder, it should be pretty easy! It isn’t even straight up, it’s more like hiking than rock-climbing.”

  “Or cliff-diving.”

  Phil and Lesia ignore Kesil’s comment and examine the steps Chrissi is pointing out.

  “I think you’re right,” Phil says. “Let’s go!”

  “You’re just going to trust her ‘feeling’?” Kesil asks.

  “Yes,” says Lesia. “I know it sounds crazy but I believe her. I feel…peace about this. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not c-a-razy about climbing this thing, that is A LOT of stairs, but yeah, this is the right way. Don’t you feel it?”

  Phil and Chrissi nod in agreement and begin to take the first steps up the mountain. Kesil stands at the bottom, watching the crew climb upwards.

  Alone. The destitute feeling sets in again as his unlikely friends, the closest relationships he bears at the moment, continue on without him. Why is he always the odd man out? He takes the first step up the makeshift staircase. There is only one way to find out if he has been right all along, or wrong, and everything in him wants to know, more than the fear he has following Chrissi’s “feeling”, more than the fear he possesses of his uncle or even going back home.

  ***

  “Guys…I…have…to stop,” Chrissi sits down on the next step up. Phil, Lesia and Kesil stop and take seats on their respective steps below.

  “Yeah, this is like…the ultimate…work out,” Phil says between heavy breaths. “Yay.”

  “This is great!” says Lesia. “Just what we need, get the blood pumping!”

  “Who are you and where is the Lesia who complained about walking?” Kesil laughs sarcastically.

  “I’m a gymnast remember?” she defends herself jumping to her feet. “Walking is boring, THIS gets those endorphins really flowing! Woo!”

  “Lesia.”

  “Yeah Phil?”

  “Shhhh.”

  Lesia rolls her eyes and looks around, “I’m going to go ahead and see how much farther we have to go!”

  “No,” Chrissi says quickly. “I don’t think we should separate.”

  “First wise thing anyone has said since we started this narrow path,” says Kesil.

  “Ugh, Chrissi it’s fine,” Lesia steps around Phil and Chrissi and continues up the steps.

  Phil sighs, “Let’s go.”

  They all rise slowly, reluctantly, and follow after the newly energetic Lesia. Before they catch up to her they hear a shriek.

  “Lesia?” Chrissi hollers up. “Are you OK?”

  Lesia comes running down the steps in a tizzy, “GUYS! It’s just 10 steps away! Come on!” She turns and runs back up.

  “What is?” Chrissi yells back up, but not quick enough, Lesia is already out of sight again. She begins jogging up the steps, not sure whether to be fearful or excited like Lesia.

  “Look! Look! Look!” Lesia jumps up and down, pointing ahead of her.

  Chrissi takes the final step onto a plateau; Phil and Kesil are close behind. The plateau is enormous and seems to be the top of the mountain. In the center of it is a cave opening.

  “He must be in there!” Lesia keeps pointing. She grabs Chrissi’s arm, “Come on!”

  “We don’t know what is in there,” Chrissi pulls away.

  “Yeah, what if it is more of those demon things?” Phil shudders.

  “It could be anything,” Kesil agrees. “We should just go around it, go down the other side back to the path. Our instructions were to follow the path right? Not to go spelunking.”

  Instead of waiting for anyone’s reply, Kesil continues around the cave and walks to the other side, still trying to ignore the pain in his ankle. Chrissi and Phil hesitantly follow and Lesia sighs.

  “Guys, come on! Let’s just take a peek inside.”

  As they reach the other side, Kesil stands at the edge looking down with a mixture of fear, confusion, and frustration.

  “What is it?” Chrissi asks.

  “Nothing.”

  “What?” Phil walks over to Kesil. “Oh.”

  Chrissi and Lesia walk to the edge. Smooth rock glints in the sunlight at a near perpendicular angle to the ground far, far below. This side of the mountain is a straight shot down, no steps, no hand holds or foot holds of any kind.

  “A death slide,” Phil mutters. “Maybe Lesia is right. What would the point be of having us climb up here?”

  “I don’t know,” Chrissi hesitates, longing for the peace and surety she felt on the ground a couple of hours before.

  “Yes you do! Come on,” Lesia takes Chrissi’s hand and leads her back around to the cave opening. The boys follow, Kesil lagging behind in dismay.

  Standing before the cave again a gentle wind passes out of it, brushing slightly against Chrissi’s cheek.

  “Come,” the cave bellows in a strong, deep voice that Chrissi hopes everyone hears. “Come.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  “What…how…did the cave just talk?” Phil takes a step back.

  “Yep,” Lesia says, her initial excitement squashed by fright.

  “Yeah, I don’t think so,” Kesil backs up with Phil. “This is a bad, bad idea. You all know this right?”

  “Come,” the deep, bold voice calls once more.

  “NO!” Kesil yells and backs up even more. He throws the Book and it skids away from everyone, hanging off the edge of the plateau. Everyone stares at the Book, paralyzed by fear and confusion.

  “There’s nowhere else to go,” Chrissi says what everyone else is thinking, but too scared to admit. “We have to go in.”

  She turns to her friends and holds out her hands. “We can do this. If it is another threat from Tok or whatever we can beat it. Roi has brought us this far right?”

  “Right!” Lesia grabs Chrissi’s gloved hand and smiles, a hint of fear still lingering.

  “OK,” Phil agrees, taking Chrissi’s other hand.

  “Kesil?” Chrissi beckons.

  “This is a bad idea. I…I can’t go in there. I don’t want to.” He shakes his head furiously, defiantly.

  “OK,” Chrissi says sadly.

  The three turn and stare into the darkness of the cave.

  “Let’s do this,” Lesia says with renewed confidence.

  They step inside together.

  “Whoa,” Phil’s mouth drops open. They pause, arms linked together, not in a dark, frightening, damp cave but in a beautifully tiled, sunlit courtyard.

  Vines grow up the walls with yellow and orange blossoms that lend to a wafting, nostalgic scent of spr
ingtime. Two identical fountains sit on either side shaped like huge flowers, sparkling clear water spilling over the smooth stone petals. The water falls not into a pool but into air, never actually touching the cobblestone floor, then disappearing.

  Gorgeous, strong and frightening humanlike creatures with four wings each fly above them at the top of the cave in circles. They sing in a chorus a familiar song to which no one can quite recall the lyrics. Chrissi’s eye follows the direction in which the creatures are singing and settles on a great white throne holding a humble and firm king.

  Still linked in arms the three bow before they can even consider what they should do. They feel unworthy and for as long as they have traveled and as much as they have longed to see Roi face-to-face, they cannot bear to look him in the eye. Slowly they straighten up and look everywhere but the great throne before them, for there is more than enough to take in around them in the details and majesty of the cave.

  Kesil limps inside hesitantly and instantly sees Roi, who is now standing and walking over to them. Immediately Kesil too bows, though much less reverently. As peace and assurance rush through his friends’ hearts, his own still pumps rapidly in fear and trepidation. He lifts his head before anyone else. Still close to the entrance, he has one foot poised back, ready to bolt should the king turn out to be his enemy.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Roi’s laugh is boisterous and joyful, akin to Santa Claus, Lesia muses. As he walks toward them he almost floats, as if nothing is holding him down. Lesia fears he could disappear at any moment, but at the same time she knows he won’t.

  “Ahh, beloved ones,” Roi breaks the silence. “I am so so very glad you have come.”

  His smile beams and seems contagious as Phil too grins quite largely.

  “We are happy to finally be here,” his words stumble out.

  Chrissi shifts her weight, suddenly uncomfortable.

  “You have made a very great journey, I am so proud of each of you. I cannot wait for you—”

  “Why me?”

  “Chrissi!” Lesia chides her for interrupting the king.