The Holy Land

Chapter 1: The islands of the eastern Mediterranean slipped below the ship. Helena lay in her new favorite place, spread-eagle in the nets under the bowsprit, hidden by the prow of the ship. Even from this height, she marveled as the waves glowed, each disruption of the water’s surface caused a myriad of sea creatures to fluoresce. Helena rolled to her back and compared the light in her Dragon’s tear to the light on the water. They appeared surprisingly familiar. She whispered to herself, “That’s strange.” Jack’s familiar voice called down from above, “What’s strange?” Above her on the mast sat Doyle’s friend, now visible as a foot-tall human. If not for the slope of the safety netting, Helena might have risked the jump over the side and the thousand-foot or so drop to the water below. Her right hand clutched her chest. “Jack, please don’t sneak up on people like that. You nearly gave me a fright of death.” Helena rolled back over, her back to the diminutive Tommyknocker. “Fine, I will knock or something next time… but you didn’t answer my question.” Jack launched himself from the spar to the netting next to Helena. “I was contemplating the color of the waves below and the pendant around my neck.” With her right hand, Helena stretched her arm through the net and pointed at the water below. She held up the pendant with her left. Jack glanced below. “That below we fey call fairy fire. Sailors… they call the lights burning on the sea, but that makes little sense if you ask me.” His full attention turned to the glowing gem around Helena’s neck. “This looks like aether if you asked my opinion… which I know you didn’t.” Helena returned to her back to look Jack over. “You know about aether?” “Sure, the stuff that carries light.” Jack straddled one of the net’s bands, letting his legs dangle hazardously over the dark water far below. “Thing about that stuff, though, it is so much more.” Jack shrugged, letting his sentence end much too soon. “Yes… please go on,” Helena tried to drag more out of him. “Let me see… Got anything sweet?” The Tommyknocker held out his hand, rubbing his thumb over his two fingers. “Not at the moment, no. Jack, please tell me what you know about aether.” Helena rolled on her side and watched the little man that sat before her. Jack chuckled and relented, “It’s not that much, really. I’ve heard it’s the stuff life is made from. That each of us carries a little in our bodies. It’s that spark that makes us… us.” Helena felt a sickness wash over her, suddenly fearful she had trapped souls dangling around her neck. “Like a soul?” “The concept of the soul is a religious one I’m not all that familiar with. No, what I’m talking about is that little bit of energy that makes our bodies work. What gives us the energy to get up in the morning. Some might claim it’s coffee, but others believe it’s aether.” Jack chuckled at his little joke. “Personally, I think it’s sweets… Did I ask if you have any already?” “That doesn’t sound much better. It still seems a monster could harvest aether from… people.” Helena fought a cringe over her thoughts. “Is that any worse than keeping a creature caged so you can eat their young for breakfast every morning? Tell me how much you enjoy your steak?” Jack chuckled. “That’s different…” Helena didn’t have a good defense against the small man’s argument. Rather than fight, she rolled back onto her stomach. “Do you have anything else you care to share about aether? “Not at the moment.” Jack leaned back on the straps. Helena was certain it wouldn’t take much for him to fall from his perch. Satisfied he was old enough to look after himself, she went back to watching the dark waters below. She had been in the dark long enough that her eyes picked up the slightest light. Below, off to the port, there was a line of light. It seemed to be heading the same bearing as the Legend. “Can you see that line or am I seeing things?” Helena pointed below and glanced at Jack. “Sure, I can see it.” Jack swiveled under the net to get a better angle to see the glowing line. “That must be something in the water, a ship maybe, making the water glow like that.” “It must be ahead of us. We haven’t passed a ship.” “Not sure. I wasn’t watching the water.” Below, Helena spotted the end of the line, but there was no ship. Only the fairy fire trail and a head glowing under the water. From this distance, the glow looked similar to the lights Helena had spotted off the coast of Rhodes. The phenomenon was the strangest thing Helena had ever seen. She turned to ask Jack another question, but he’d disappeared. “Damn, he’s fast.” Helena never thought the fey would have fallen overboard. He was too clever for that. “Damn, who’s fast?” It was Doyle. He had snuck up behind her, now leaning on the rail next to the outstretched mast, watching her lie on the net. “Must you be so sneaky?” Helena rolled back onto her stomach. “I was talking to Jack, but he… disappeared.” “Yes… he tends to do that a lot. I find the habit annoying. He scrambled off when I walked up. Probably looking for something sweet.” “Is he always hungry?” Doyle started carefully picking his way down from the deck to the safety net Helena lounged on. “I think so. He always seems ready to eat, the richer the dessert, the better.” Helena could feel the netting move as Doyle crawled up next to her. Memories flashed in her mind. The last time they had been this close, she nearly lost all control. Upon reflection, she still wasn’t sure if she wanted to make love to him or kill him. She placed the odds at a fifty-fifty chance for either. He laid down the dolphin catcher as a means of separation. “I wanted to ask you a favor.” Helena was unsure what to expect, but her heart raced in anticipation. “Yes?” “I want you to take me to see Tsang Mei. I need to ensure she is all right. Please take me to the Land of the Immortals,” Doyle asked in a soft voice. Helena flinched at his words. It would take much contemplation to understand why she flinched. She could think of several reasons, but she had no time to pick at those frayed feelings. “I don’t think it’s wise. There are risks… I was told the more we travel… like that, the more… attracted we will… become… romantically attracted…” Helena never imagined herself trying to explain such a delicate subject to a man she still held uncertain feelings about. “Can you handle the pressure?” Helena didn’t realize that her words rang like a challenge, akin to a Double Dog Dare of epic proportions. Doyle would do the journey now, if only to prove his self-control. “I think I am more than capable of keeping myself under control if you are.” His voice was level. Helena wasn’t sure how to read his expression in the dark. The hair on the back of her neck rose. She was ready to fight. “I can handle myself just fine. Close your eyes and relax.” Against her better judgment, she closed her eyes, as well, and with too much force reached out and took hold of his hand. Squeezing it harder than she needed to, for the first time she willed herself with all her might to go to the Land of the Immortals right now. And they did. They arrived in the meadow she had grown so familiar with. Immediately, Helena knew she made a mistake on many levels. The sun shone brightly in the sky. This land seemed to perpetually be a wonderful spring day. She’d never arrived at night or on a cold rainy day. The weather here was always… perfect. There in the meadow sat Doyle’s fiancée with Stag and Crane. Helena was unsure how they spent their time, and right now she didn’t care to learn. Doyle was halfway to the schoolteacher when Helena grumbled, “I’m going for a run.” She needed to escape. At the edge of the forest, she stopped long enough to view the couple in what she would describe as an awkward embrace. The scene made it too hard not to smile, so she surrendered to her darker intentions and smiled. Her body craved the healing properties of the stream. That would be her first stop. After that… she had never tried to run all the way around the spire of black jade that Master Ao’s cave was carved out of. Today would be a good day to try. At the stream, she knelt for several handfuls of water. She sensed the energy return to her in great pulses. “I told you, you should be careful how much of that you drink—” Daji’s voice came from upstream. Helena stopped drinking and spun low, sweeping her leg, positioning herself ready for a fight. “—the power can become intoxicating, you know,” the white, nine-tailed fox finished her sentence. Helena found her basking in the sun, lounging on a stone in the center of the stream. “You survived?” Helena stood, relaxing little. “Of course. I told you I can’t die. You sound angry.” Daji never moved from her relaxed position. “I would like to kill you, if I thought I could.” Helena did not try to hide her rage, but after the last fight, she knew attacking would do little good. “Your anger is not logical. I was simply being what I am. Would you get revenge on the wolf that ate the lamb to survive?” Helena was ready to pounce. The little fox created so much pain, but she thought, I don’t have the time for this bull, and sprang from the stream to run deeper into the woods. Her heart swelled. She’d let one of her baser instincts run her life for too long. Something needed to change in her life. Seemed the only thing she had a chance of controlling was herself. This was a portion of the realm she had never visited before. The path she traveled was well used, but by what Helena couldn’t fathom. Before she knew it, the trail opened up to a thin strip of beach that ran along a crystal blue pond. In it, she found White and Green Snake in human form washing their long black hair. Helena skidded to a stop in the sand. “Hello again,” she called out to the pair. She thought it better to announce herself than stand there like some sort of pervert. Even if the snake-humans were fully dressed, watching didn’t seem proper. As far as Helena could tell, their top halves were fully human at the moment. “I see you’re exploring?” Green Snake asked. On numerous previous encounters with the woman, Helena had to battle. She never knew what to expect when they met. “This is such a wonderful place. I thought I should see more,” she said. White Snake was quick with her reply, “Liar.” Helena’s jaw dropped. Not that she’d been caught in a lie, but that the woman in white was so quick to call her out on it. White Snake continued before Helena could object, “Your aura changes when you lie. For someone that can read auras it is simple to see when someone tells a falsehood.” White Snake would not let her declaration lie at that. “I assume you are upset your male is with the other female.” Helena’s mouth flopped about in shock like a carp gasping for air. Realizing she couldn’t lie, she was trapped as to what to say. “So what if I am?” Not her most original answer. White Snake spoke while Green Snake grabbed handfuls of her hair and twisted the water out. “If your love is meant to be, it will happen no matter how many lives and eons it takes. The two of you will find a way.” “What if I don’t want to wait for an eon?” “Some things in life can’t be rushed. I’m sorry.” White Snake helped lift her hair on top of her head. Helena waved and took off running. She didn’t need a lecture right now. She needed the freedom to burn off her growing desires. “You two have a wonderful day. I need to be running along,” she cried over her shoulder. Back on the trail, she allowed her mind to wander. Time was troublesome in this Land of the Immortals. She had never been able to find a correlation between the two time streams, if there was one. While on her visits, what seemed like hours or days here was impossible to measure since the sun never seemed to move. Back in reality, anywhere between minutes or hours could pass. Without some way to measure the passage of time in this land, how could she formulate a comparison ratio? Even her body was not a good judge of time. She assumed it would take her nearly a day to run around the mountain of jade, but since she never tired, there was no way of knowing how long the trip took. She did eventually return to the meadow to find Doyle and Tsang Mei strolling hand in hand. She was about to launch her attack onto Tsang Mei’s back when Master Ao interceded with a raised hand to stop her rush. “I told you it was dangerous to come back here with the man. Please don’t make me do this again.” The scolding in Master Ao’s voice was unmistakable. Before she could comment, he hit her with the willow branch, sending her mind shooting back into her body on the airship. She woke up and found herself safe in the net, the morning glow on the horizon. Doyle lay next to her, still out to this world. No one was around. Helena jumped at her chance. She leaned up on her elbow, and as soon as Doyle woke up, she planted her lips square onto his. This was no pretty kiss. The attack was an embrace born of wild, untamed passion…