Best Laid Plans by D.P. Prior Read Free Book Online

a shimmering tunnel in the air.
    ‘Hold me,’ he moaned, feeling his body give way.
    Mamba’s arms closed around him and lowered him to the floor beneath the mouth of the tunnel of light. Sammy let his eyes close and heard a sharp click as he drifted into the air. With a last look at his body lying on the floor of the cave, he allowed himself to be drawn into the tunnel.
     
     

THE WAY BACK
     
    S hader sat beneath a gnarled oak in the forest of his youth. Soft sunlight edged the overhanging canopy of leaves with gold and filled him, body and soul, with warmth. He was clothed once more in a white tunic bearing the red Monas of the Elect; he wore sandals rather than boots, and he sported no weapons.
    Luminary Tajen sat opposite him in the shade of a gigantic yew, his expression a mixture of dour brooding, frustration, and excitement. ‘See how Araboth reflects our innermost needs and desires,’ Tajen said, indicating the trees.
    ‘It’s a pleasant change from Sahul,’ Shader said. ‘I’d forgotten how comforting the sun could be. In Sahul we avoid it at all costs. I once saw a man brought to the abbey after being found in the bush without shade or water. Skin was a mass of weeping blisters that burst at the slightest touch. Flesh practically dripped off the bone. The Grey Abbot did what he could, but the fellow was dead within hours, all dried up and shrivelled like a mummy.’
    ‘The same sun,’ Tajen said, ‘only from a different perspective. Here in Araboth you see the one you love the most. I often found myself on hills like those of my homeland, or beside a great and tranquil river such as I had known in Aeterna.’
    ‘Ah, the Tiber,’ Shader said. ‘I imagine the view has changed a good deal since your time.’ The banks of the great river were flanked by vast buildings with intricate domes, sprawling colonnades and high arches, inspired by the draw ings of the pre-Ancient civilisation that had flourished by its banks. Tajen would have known only the ruins of the Ancients’ own city, functional and uniform, towering structures that kissed the sky and declared the triumph of humankind.
    ‘It is my doom,’ Tajen’s voice was low, tinged with sorrow, ‘that I cannot bask in the reflections of my soul like the others can. This is the Araboth Milo expected, but it is nothing like I ever imagined. It’s pleasant enough, I admit, but it has the quality of a dream.’
    ‘How can we know which version is real?’ Shader asked, suppressing the feeling that the earth was about to open up and swallow him.
    ‘I am not a man who trusts the fulfilment of his own desires. Nous is my life and my master. I am content to follow where he leads.’
    ‘But how can you tell this isn’t what he wants?’
    For the first time since he’d settled in Oakendale—since he’d been with Rhiannon—Shader was almost at peace. So what if Araboth wasn’t the promised land; it was good enough for him and he was tired of trying to guess what Nous did and didn’t want.
    ‘Because I have never felt so removed from life,’ Tajen said, ‘so disconnected from the world and its people. I feel safe here, but with that safety comes complacency. In one such as myself that is the recipe for despair. I’m not saying that Milo and the others are entirely wrong about this place. It may well be a taste of Araboth, but it is too closely allied to our expectations. Our journey is not yet complete and I have a suspicion we have tarried here too long. It seems the more time passes, the deeper we grow enmeshed in delusion.’
    ‘You think something has gone wrong? Ain’s salvation is thwarted?’
    ‘Perhaps.’ Tajen studied Shader’s eyes. ‘Although it makes no theological sense. How can an omnipotent god be thwarted? It may be that I am mistaken, that we are still on the path to salvation and my own failings are limiting my experience of Ain.’
    ‘You don’t sound convinced.’ Shader felt the heaviness of tension returning,