The Day Before Tomorrow by Nicola Rhodes Read Free Book Online

indicated that this was, in fact, what the mirror was usually used for, as Tamar would have seen, had she been able to see her from this angle. 
    She continued to gaze into the mirror with an expression of acute concentration on her face.  From Tamar’s point of view, she did not actually appear to be doing anything.  Then the mirror went cloudy. 
    The scrying had a peculiar effect on Tamar.  For one thing, the actual business was bringing on the déjà vu in the worst way.  And then there was the fact that she only half believed it.  And when Hecaté actually appeared in the mirror Tamar was overcome with a mass of conflicting feelings.  She did not believe it, and yet she had to.  She was overawed and, at the same time, frankly sceptical.  And worst of all, the appearance of Hecaté brought on the worst déjà vu of all.  She had seen her before; she knew she had.  And yet, she also knew that she could not have.  She was sure she would remember something like that.  But memory had become a treacherous thing. 
    Hecaté’s opening line was encouraging. She looked Cindy squarely in the eye, and said: ‘You took your time did you not?’ She glanced at Tamar and added.  ‘Both of you.’
    She answered their gaping looks with a tinkling laugh.  ‘What did you expect?’ she said.  ‘I am a goddess, you know.’
    ‘So, you know then?’ asked Tamar. 
    ‘Oh yes, pretty much everything.  That is, I can see what has happened, but not how it has happened.  But it does not matter I suppose …’
    ‘What has happened?’ interrupted Tamar.  Cindy trembled, but Hecaté just smiled – austerely – remotely.  ‘Ah, but you already know, do you not?  Look inside yourself.  These are answers that you have to find for yourself.  If I tell you, you will never be sure whether they are your true memories, or those that I have given back to you.’
    ‘Can it really matter?’ asked Tamar. 
    ‘It matters very much,’ Hecaté told her.  ‘Why should you believe anything I say?  You would never be sure.  And you will need to be sure.’
    Tamar shook her head.  ‘I don’t understand.’
    ‘Think of it like this,’ said Hecaté.  ‘Suppose you had had a terrible accident and lost your memory.  You cannot remember anything, not even your own name.  Somebody – a person you were close to, but whom you cannot remember, tells you your name.  So, you now know your name, but you have not remembered it for yourself.  You only have this person’s word for it.  Understand?’
    Tamar nodded. 
    ‘And you do not even know this person. As far as you are concerned, he could be anybody.  Until you regain your memory, you have no idea if this person is telling the truth or not.  And anything he tells you about yourself has to be taken on faith, because you have no memory of it.  It is not real to you.  But it becomes real.  You assimilate it into your mind until it almost feels as if it is a memory.  But it is not.  Then your memory begins to return, how then do you differentiate between the real memories, the ones from your own consciousness and those that you have been given?’
    ‘I can’t,’ Tamar supplied the answer. 
    ‘Exactly.  And thus you will never be certain how much of your memory is actual memory and how much is information that you have been supplied with.’
    ‘ Have I had an accident?’
    ‘In a way, although I would characterise it as more of an attack really.  It was certainly done deliberately.
    ‘Can’t you tell me anything ?’ 
    ‘Oh, yes, you would not have summoned me if I could not help you at all.’ 
    ‘Okay, what can you tell me?’
    ‘That you are not who you think you are, but you know that, do you not?  The world has been changed.  Once you find the truth within yourself, you will know how to put the world back as it was.’
    ‘How do you know all this?’
    ‘I am not mortal. I have been unaffected by the change in the world. I still have my