Winds to Light up the World

Chapter 39

Days of sorrow were followed by nights of grief filled dreams. Tanora didn't know when one day ended and the next started. The only things that penetrated the veil of tears were Cove and Shayla.

They never let her alone. One of them would sit by her side day and night. Sometimes they'd talked to fill the void in her and their mind, sometimes they'd lie next to her, but most of the time they comforted her in moments when despair came crashing in.

Tanora hardly said anything. Only variations of why and what am I going to do. She also didn't feel like eating anything, often she couldn't keep the food in. But Cove was there for her, making her eat so that she didn't wither away to dust. Even though she wanted to be dust. Dust didn't feel anything, dust was free of pain and sorrow, dust was easy.

Even sleep did not offer reprieve. In fact, it was the opposite. In Tanora's dreams Rane's death, Nick and her mother's death all swirled together. Sometimes when she was awake, passively listening to Shayla or Cove talking about nonsense Tanora didn't know when she was. Was she at the Crescent Palace or was she back at Riva twelve years ago?

One day, five days after finding Rane, Tanora woke up to find Gwen Shight sitting in the chair next to her bed. As soon as she saw that Tanora awake her beautiful eyes filled with pity and motherly love. And Tanora's heart ached, it ached so very much. She wanted a mother again. These last few days had brought up all the feeling she had bottled up for twelve years and she missed her mother and brother so much again. She wanted someone that looked at her with that love day after day, someone who looked after her without wanting anything in return, someone who loved her beyond heaven and hell. In the embrace so similar to her mother's Tanora lost it. She felt it building up inside her, like the summer air thick with static before a storm.

Tanora started shrieking, pushing Cove's mother away from her. "I don't want you! You're not my mother!" Sobs rose uncontrollably from her throat. "Go away! I don't want you! I want my mom, I want her. I want my brother, I want Rane!" Her back hit the wall and Tanora noticed she had backed up. Now she slid down the wall, curling herself into a ball, as if to preserve herself. And in that ball, all fight left her. Grieving was so exhausting. "I just want you, Mom, please come back," she whispered.

Strong arms picked Tanora up from the floor and gently placed her back into the bed and weariness took over once again.

Her dream started out pleasant enough. Tanora was walking again through Riva, enjoying the feel of the summer sun on her skin, with Rane, Nick and her mother, her family, walking beside her, grinning. Rane was rumbling on about something, Nick had an arm around her shoulder and her mother was smiling serenely. Before any of Rane's word could reach her ears, the oncoming wind whisked them away. With the winds came dark clouds came and she was transported through space to another place which looked oddly familiar. Her family wasn't beside her anymore and somehow that felt like losing them all over again. Why couldn't even her dreams give her some peace? Tanora could feel the sorrow tugging at her heart again, dragging it down to a place she knew it wouldn't come out again.

Suddenly it came to her where she was. It was Cove's favorite place in the place gardens. And there a bit ahead by the fountain two people were standing facing each other. In front of one of them two people knelt with bowed heads. Tanora couldn't make out any features besides that one was a man, the other a woman. The man seemed to be talking animatedly with his partner and a dark halo surrounded him. With each second, he seemed to grow taller, looming over the cowering woman, and more powerful, more dangerous.

Then a voice filled her mind. A voice that reminded her of a gentle spring breeze, of leaves dancing in a storm, of ... home. "Wake up!" it said insistently, "Wake up now before it's too late!"

And outside of her dream, which now occurred to her was more of a vision, Tanora heard Cove yelling at her, asking her what she was doing.

With a jolt she woke, expecting to be lying in bed, where she had fallen asleep after clinging to, needing, Cove's comfort. But she was standing at the window, gazing out into the dark night with a soft glow emanating from her closed fist.

"Tanora, what the heck are you doing?!" came the pressing voice from Cove.

She turned around and saw Cove approach her as if she were a wounded animal. "We need to go, someone needs our help!" Tanora didn't even note the urgency until she said it out loud.

Cove stared at her blanky, "Who needs out help? What's going on?"

But she barely heard him. She was already grabbing her shoes from the side of the bed and tossing Cove's to him. Storming out of her room Tanora went to knock on where she assumed Shayla was sleeping. Without waiting for answer she barged in to find her friend sitting straight up in bed expecting the worst.

"What's going on? Did something happen? Are you ok? Do you need something?"

Tanora just wanted to stop the flood of questions and make her understand. "Someone needs us. We need to go!"

"Go where? Tan, you need to explain."

Strong hands gripped her from behind, effectively stilling her. It was Cove who had come in behind her. He sat her down on the bed making sure she wouldn't go anywhere. "Calm down for a sec, ok? We need to know what's going on."

Tanora huffed. "Ok, so look. I had this dream. It was here, at the palace, in the garden at Cove's favorite place. And there was this guy who was getting bigger and bigger, and I know he's getting more powerful too, bad powerful. And then there was this woman and the seemed really scared. And then this voice told me to wake up before it was too late. So now we have to go save that poor woman!" she rambled, trying to convince her friends as fast as possible. By the way Cove and Shayla looked at each other she knew they thought she had gone insane. She probably had; after almost a week of crying, sleep, lethargy and yesterday her outburst she started raving about people in danger. Let them think I'm crazy, she thought defiantly, I know I'm right. "Just please trust me on this," she pleaded.

Cove sighed and looked at her with something like pity in his eyes. They agreed reluctantly and soon they were sneaking through the dark halls of the Crescent Palace. The air was charge with something, something menacing. By the looks of apprehension on her friends' faces she knew they felt it too. Without a word to each other they made their way to the round patio. With every step they took it got darker. Soon the only thing enabling them to see was the Stone of Lum still clutched in Tanora's fist. Almost impossibly it penetrated the darkness that seemed so thick you could cut it.

When they got there, and the light illuminated the two people's faces Cove stumbled and Tanora caught him before he could eat dirt. 

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Oh oh... What do you think they see?

Have a nice day!