The Lifesaving Power: Goldenfields and Stronghold (9 page)

Chapter 11 – The Great Awakening

Alec awoke from slumbering on the stony floor. The dark chamber was illuminated by a single torch that was set in a wall ring. No one was visible, and John Mark was gone. Only two features stood out: a stone altar, sitting approximately where Alec had sat with John Mark, and a doorway.

Alec walked over to the torch on the wall, and then took it and opened the doorway. There was a narrow stairway of tall steps, leading up into the darkness. Alec stepped through the doorway and began climbing the stairs. He heard a thud, and turned to see a blank wall below him where the doorway had closed and disappeared.

Alec turned and resumed climbing. Innumerable steps led up, and twisted in all directions as Alec seemed to climb for hours. The steps came to an end in a narrow room and Alec walked forward. The roof began to lower as he progressed, and soon Alec was on his knees, crawling awkwardly as he held the torch. The small tunnel felt like a naturally made cave. Alec felt cobwebs on his face, and brushed his hand rapidly across his skull to hurriedly wipe away the nasty strands. His hand stopped and lingered on top of his skull; his recently-shorn hair was growing back, much longer now, perhaps back to the length he had once regularly kept it. A great deal of time had indeed passed by.

The passage came to an abrupt end in a small tight box, with only a blank stone wall in front of him. Alec paused to look at the stone in front of him, and then placed a hand against it. It felt rough and cold, and it seemed to move slightly as he exerted pressure against it. Alec placed the torch carefully on the floor behind him, then pushed with both hands against the wall. The stone resisted for a moment, then fell forward, flat on the ground before him, revealing another dark cramped chamber.

With his guttering torch in hand, Alec advanced into the chamber, and restored the stone he had pushed over. The new space was slightly higher, but most of the space was taken up by a block in the center. Alec squeezed along one side of the block. It was ornate, and wobbled slightly from the pressure of his passage.

Another blank wall, clearly a door with dim light visible around the edges, was at the other end, almost within reach.

Alec looked at the bier that took up most of the room. Intricate engravings were etched on its top, which was highly burnished metal. As Alec paused to study the writing, he drew a sharp intake of breath. This was Noranda’s tomb! His intuition told him that he was next to the undead body of the woman he had come to save.

Alec placed the torch down again, and pushed with all his might on the lid of the coffin. He felt it give in spots, but realized it was nailed around the edge. With difficulty, Alec pulled his sword from its scabbard and maneuvered it to pry around the clasps, forcing the lid open, so that it slid to the floor on the far side of the coffin, making a loud clatter. Alec held his breath and waited, but no sound came to indicate that he had roused anyone yet.

Inside was a shrouded figure. Alec pulled and cut the material until he saw Noranda’s hands folded on her chest, then he removed more of the cotton to reveal the full girl.

Noranda looked peaceful, her muscles relaxed to the point of almost appearing flaccid. She did not have the glow of the blue time suspension Alec had imposed on her in his emotional burst of unexpected power so long ago back in Oyster Bay.

Alec looked at her in the dark shadows of the tomb, and used his healing powers to examine her. She still remained severely injured, but not subject to any frozen time constraints, yet still not quite dead. Somehow, the time spell he had cast must be expiring, but not yet completely expired. Alec had planned how he would heal the severe injuries she suffered, but he had none of the remedy items with him under these unexpected circumstances.

He would have to attempt to heal her only with his own energies, a desperate ploy that would challenge him. He considered the different elements of healing she needed as he placed his hands on her and bent even lower over her, beginning to exert all his powers into the cold body beneath him.

He felt Noranda’s body beginning to change as he poured every fiber of his being into the forces that flowed through his hands. A slight glow began to emanate from her, and Alec felt her heart pulse once, then again, then pause, before a slow, regular beat began to throb. Her breathing started with a low, ragged intake of air, while her body grew warm as Alec continued to reach deeper within himself to find more power to give to her. It was a combination of healing powers and spiritual powers that he was using, and it reminded him of his experience on the beach with Cassie.

Now came the part that was most difficult. With Noranda’s body no longer petrified, he was going to have to put forth more than energy to heal her; he would have to make a personal sacrifice to save the girl from the poison and wounds and loss of blood that she suffered. Alec removed the belt from his pants, then drew his sword and carefully sliced an ‘X’ into Noranda’s arm, opening a vein that pulsed with the weak flow of blood the girl was left with.

Taking a deep breath, Alec sliced his own forearm as well, feeling the searing pain of the blade cutting into his flesh. He immediately slapped his arm against Noranda’s and used his right hand and his teeth to bind his belt around the two arms to hold them tight. He focused his energy on making the two veins graft to one another, so that their two bodies became one, and he began using his own body to pump clean blood into her tainted flesh.

He felt his energies traveling with his blood through her body. Her blood pressure was rising with the strength he pushed into her, while his was dropping. He searched her organs for the damage that the poison had caused, and prayed for it to heal, allowing his blood to carry the power of the prayers throughout Noranda’s body.

His free hand ranged over her torso, touching and healing the stab wounds she had suffered in the attack by her assassin. Alec felt her body strength improving, as his energy continually worked to match his blood to hers. He also began to feel himself growing weak as his own body’s supply of blood diminished, and his own body began to receive some of the poisonous taint he was washing from Noranda into himself. He waited several more minutes until he sensed that the crisis for Noranda was over, then he undid the belt binding and carefully used the sword blade to sever the connection between their arms. He placed his free hand on each arm and prayed for healing, causing the wounds to draw closed, but leaving a long, thin scar that looked like a cross.

Noranda took a audible inhalation of breath. Alec ran his hand up and down her body, infusing her with the last push of healing power he could muster. Her face’s pale color was replaced with a healthy flush, and Alec sensed that she was healed and restored, and also sensed that he had no more energy or blood to give.

He removed his hands from her and placed them over his own face, taking a deep breath of relief and saying a quiet prayer of thanksgiving. “Thank you Jesus, for preserving this girl, for loving her, and for giving me your gift to do your will,” he softly said.

A quiet moan came from Noranda, and Alec removed his hands from his face to look at her. Her muscles were strong again, although relaxed, and her head turned slightly for a moment. Her eyelids fluttered, then opened. Alec watched as her irises adjusted to the dim light, and then consciousness arose in them.

“
Brandeis?” she said softly. “Alec?” she said loudly. “What are you doing here? Where are we? Oh, oh, oh,” her voice modulated to a moan.

“
I, I thought I was being attacked by Elgin,” she said with a shudder. Her hands went to her torso, feeling for the wounds she had felt. “It was a dream. But what am I wearing? Why are you here?” she repeated.

“
Dreams. I dreamed so many things. I dreamed, something about you. You were in a dark place, a pool in a cave, and there was a man with you. And another time, I was with you…in a bed…” her voice grew silent.

“
You are fine. Those were dreams, but they happened! And they are over, and you are safe here now,” Alec told her with a choked voice. She reached her arms up and hugged him tightly, seeking comfort in her confusion and fear, and Alec felt his heart almost break.

“
Let me try to get us out of here,” he told her. He moved over to the end of the chamber where the light entered around the door way, and began to push. Exhausted as he felt from donating his blood to her and using his healing powers so deeply, Alec was unable to open the vault entrance.

He sat back for a moment to rest. “Can I help you?” Noranda asked.

“
Yes, in a moment. Let me rest a little bit. Come sit here next to me; there’s a lot you need to know before we open this anyway,” he said. Noranda climbed out and sat next to Alec, who pulled her shroud out of the coffin and draped it over them both, as the girl sat against his side.

He proceeded to tell her much of the story that had occurred in the many months since her last moments of consciousness. “It’s been just under a year since you were attacked.” he told her.

“
Those dreams you had, they were dreams, and yet they were real too,” he explained as he described his experience in the Pool of John Mark at Bondell, where she had been amone spirits that had paid a visitation to him.

She listened mostly in silence, gasping softly a time or two, and shuddered when Alec told her he had killed Elgin himself, and when she realized they were sitting within her tomb.

“
So when I decided to come back here, I ran into a group of young people in the forest. They turned out to be your extended family. I met Durer, and Johanna, and Brandeis,” he mentioned the last name after a pause, as realization began to sink in that he was working to reunite Noranda and Brandeis.

“
I was here in the Locksfort compound for just a day or so as a guest, when I happened to find a way that led me far below the tombs, down to a sacred place, where the spirit of John Mark visited me again,” he told.

“
You’ve spoken to the Teacher twice?” she exclaimed. “Once right here! No one has ever mentioned that a holy place is here. What new powers did you gain?”

“
Noranda, John Mark took one of my powers away. He told me that I could not keep all my powers, because I had too many that were too strong,” he simplified. “I chose to keep my healing powers.”

“
Of course you would, Alec,” She said with a kind tone. “Ever since you gained those abilities out in the mountains, I’ve thought of you as a healer. It seems right for you.”

“
Especially if you are like a king!” she added with an exclamation. “Maybe you’re the hidden heir to the throne! That’s beyond anything in a story. Children will ask their nurses to repeat the story of the hidden king over and over again!”

“
Someone would have told me that,” Alec said, thinking of Enguerrand. “It is someone else, which is fine. But what I worry about now is that almost the last thing John Mark told me is that while I’ve been in his holy place and now here, your family has discovered who I am, and I believe they will want to kill me,” Alec said bringing the seriousness of their situation back to their conversation.

“
They won’t, after I explain everything to them,” Noranda said confidently.

“
Will they believe that you have risen from the grave, other than as a ghost or ghoul I control, at best?” Alec asked her. “They may kill you as soon as they see you, or if you mention me.”

She looked at him soberly. “You’ve been at war with them in a way, haven’t you? But don’t worry Alec, they’re, I should say ‘we’re,’ not all bad people.

“
This all sounds like the kind of scheme Aunt Mooreen, Uncle Lapine’s wife, Johanna’s mother, would promote,” Noranda said. “She has always wanted more of everything, especially the things that other people had, but power most of all. She has manipulated and controlled the family for years, and she always tries to gain something more from every encounter.”

“
But I feel that Johanna is the best hope we have,” Alec said. “When I sensed her feelings, she was good and true. She would do the righ thing for her friends.”

“
She has always been the best person in our family,” Noranda agreed. “She’s not at all like her mother. They’re completely different. That’s why I’ve always wanted her and Durer to be a couple.”

“
When we open the tomb, you must go to Johanna’s room. You’ll need to hide your face and sneak up there, so no one thinks you’re a ghost. Johanna was with me when I did some healing for the children at a hospital on top of the cliff, and she knows I have healing powers,” Alec explained, trying to think his way through a process to solve their problem.

“
I think Johanna will accept that I have healed you. She can go and get the other two people who I think will believe, and who I hope will help us: Durer and Brandeis,” Alec said.

“
In those dreams I had, I visited Brandeis a time or two,” Noranda said softly, mostly to herself. “I remember now.”

Alec understood why the man had continued to visit the tomb so often, haunted as he must have felt by Noranda. “He has visited your tomb almost daily,” Alec told her in an emotionless voice. “He still loves you very much.” Alec paused for a moment. “Noranda, I love you too, but John Mark told me I will not marry you. You are meant for someone else. I think that Brandeis is to be your mate.”

“
Oh Alec,” Noranda sobbed slightly. “I love you both. I have loved Brandeis always, but I thought after I ran away that I would never see him again, and I fell in love with you. And then we were separated, and I thought you were dead, and I didn’t care who I was married off to. And then you were back, but then,” her voice trailed off. “It was all so complicated. It still is. I suppose it’s not easy for you either, is it?”