The Scent of Lilac: An Arrow's Flight Novella (18 page)

           
I blink, and
like a flash of lightning, he reappears at the back of the clearing. With one
arm, he scoops the stunned Daija onto his shoulder and trudges back to the
stage to deposit her and her broken bow at Kate’s feet.

           
“Daija!”
Leah moves forward, her voice stern with reprimand. “What are you thinking?”

           
Daija
doesn’t hear. Her frightened eyes refuse to leave Jesse’s face. She scuttles
away from him on the heels of her hands until her back hits the solid base of
the platform. And she cowers there, shaking like the ripples of the river.

           
“What did
I say?” Jesse growls up at Kate.
 
“This
was a bad idea.”

           
With a
sigh, Kate shakes her head and turns to
Tara
. “This is
why I need you. And so, if the women choose to accept me as leader, you will
not be dismissed from the Council.” She licks her lips and forges on
tentatively. “I know my heart; it wished for Mona’s death, even if I didn’t
mean to kill her. And you don’t have to forgive me for what I’ve done,
Tara
.
I won’t ask for it. But if we can come to terms in some way—if you will help me—perhaps
we can move forward. And the Village can be a good place to live again. Better
even.”

           
Tara
doesn’t move a muscle. She stares at Kate, disbelief outlining her features.
“Why would you do this for me?”

           
Kate
shrugs. “Because it’s time for things to change. It’s time for us to ask
questions.”

           
“Questions?”

           
“Yes. Why
should we follow a senseless tradition that does not in any way benefit the
people? Removing you from the Council would be foolish. And I do not want to
begin my duty behaving like a fool. You belong here, and here you will stay.”

           
Something
happens then. Something I never thought to see in such a hard woman.
Tara
inhales, and her eyes glisten with fresh tears. Seeing it, Kate smiles on a
sigh. My heart leaps involuntarily.
Tara
casts a
sidelong glance at Daija trembling against the platform before she hurriedly wipes
at her eyes and rests her gaze on Kate, her hardened composure intact.

           
“You seem
to have gained some wisdom during your absence.” She fights a sniffle with a
scowl.

           
“I think
so, yes.”

           
“And you truly
believe you are ready to lead?”

           
“I am.”

           
Tara
frowns. “I don’t like it. But your name was in the box.” Her jaw clenches once.
“And so begrudgingly, I will respect this. Perhaps you can redeem yourself for
your actions in some way.” A pause, and Kate nods. “As for the women...”
Tara
tosses her eyes over the crowd, addressing them. “Kate gives you a choice. What
will it be?”

           
Not a
single woman moves at first. They stare at
Tara
, waiting
for a signal. And then, a beautiful thing happens. They get one.

A tiny woman near the front moves
away from the throng.
 
She raises her
head, connects with
Tara
, and then sinks to her knees. She
pins her eyes on Kate briefly and bows her head to the ground.
 

This one act sparks a fire, and I
watch, a keen excitement rattling my spine, as one by one the other women do
the same. Kate’s mouth parts slightly, her eyes growing moist. She smiles, and
I watch the women. I watch them make their choice, and with joy pummeling around
inside me, I see my own life in this. I see
Chad
,
my baby…. my future. I read it in the air. Kate is home, and things are going
to be different now. With tears in my eyes, I drop to the floor of the stage at
her feet.

Tara
’s
expression is unreadable as she scans the crowd. After a moment, she faces
Kate. “It appears the Archer has spoken.”

Kate smiles. “It has never been the
Archer.”

I raise a brow, confused, and despite
her words, a roar rises up as one voice, and fist after fist shoots into the
air. “The Archer has spoken!”

Tara
purses her lips, an uncertainty clouding her eyes as they connect with Kate’s.
The Council stands in the background, warily waiting for
Tara
’s
cue. Leah’s fingers tighten in my hand.
 
And in a single moment of humility,
Tara
exhales a slow calculated breath, dips her head in a traditional nod, and drops
to one knee before our leader.

n all the excitement, I lose sight of Blaer and Fallon. I
search through the crowd of women mulling around the stage until I spot them.
When our eyes meet, Blaer’s smile is brighter than the sun, and before I have
another thought, I fling my arms around her neck.

           
“You
found her,” I say close to her ear.

           
“Actually,
we didn’t.”

           
I lean
back in surprise, looking from Blaer to Fallon and back again. “But—I don’t
understand.”

           
“She
found us,” Fallon explains. “She was already on her way back to the Village.”

She nods toward Jesse who stands
near the platform, ready to come to Kate’s aid the moment she might need him. It’s
still so odd to see him here—free and in our midst.

“Where’s Gina?” I suddenly ask.

           
“At the
river. She waits for word from us.” Blaer casts her eyes toward the Council
assembled on the platform. “Leah thought it best if it were not known that Gina
was involved. She believed Kate could better gain the Council’s loyalty if they
saw this as only a breeders’ rebellion and not widespread.”

           
I nod.
“And
Chad
?”

           
My heart
skips a beat or two when I say his name.

           
Blaer
smiles. “With Gina. And John.”

           
I crease
my brows. “John?”

           
“Yes. He
was Kate’s mate after Ian,” Fallon offers. She exchanges a knowing glance with
Blaer. “We heard every single bit of the story from Kate herself on the way
here. And much more.”

           
“Fallon
exaggerates,” Blaer laughs. “But between Kate and Jesse, we learned enough to
wrap our minds around what she has endured since she left here.” She tosses her
eyes toward the platform. “She is truly amazing.”

           
That she
is. I follow her eyes, see my best friend consulting quietly with the Council.
All around us, the women wear faces of giddiness and relief in varying degrees
as they mull around, speaking in low voices, smiling, throwing glances at the
platform. I feel it, too—the relief that our leader has returned to take her
rightful place.

           
Jesse lifts
his blue hat, habitually rubs at his curls. The first time I saw him, he terrified
me—giant and fierce. His earlier scowl is replaced with caution as he keeps a
steady watch on the women. Several of them flash quick glances his way, curious
and obviously frightened and unsure of a male loose in the Village.

           
“I’ll be
back,” I say.

Tentatively, I approach Jesse.

           
“Hello.”

           
His eyes
swivel down to meet mine, and flash back toward Kate, still protective.

           
“Hi,” he
answers. He adjusts his cap.

           
“We met
once before.”

           
He looks
at me again. “Mia. Right?”

           
I lift my
brows, impressed that he remembers. “Yes. That’s right.”

           
He’s
silent, arms crossed guardedly over his white short-sleeved shirt. His eyes
flash toward my belly, and I shuffle uncomfortably, not quite sure what to say
next.

           
“So tell
me…” Jesse pins me with steely, green eyes. “Is Kate going to be okay here? I’m
not going to have to worry about that bunch turning on her?” He nods toward the
Council, and my eyes follow. They surround Kate, some smiling, some not so
much.
Tara
stands apart, rigid, and I wonder...

           
“I
believe—” I hesitate only briefly. “She will be fine now.”

           
He
narrows his eyes, unsure. “All right. Because Ian would kill me if I left her
here without being sure.”

           
“Ian?”
Stunned, I study him. “But—he died.”

           
“False
alarm,” Jesse says. A corner of his mouth lifts into a half smile.

           
“That’s—not
possible. He fell—just as Mona did. How could he have survived?”

           
“Turns
out it’s hard to kill that boy. Even harder than it is to kill the rest of us.”

           
I’m not
certain what to think of his words, so I say nothing in response.

“Well, Mia. It’s nice to
officially meet you.”

I study his offered hand. It’s
three sizes bigger than my own, but when I meet his eyes, they tell all. He
cares for Kate. He brought her safely home. I can trust him.

I reach out. His touch is surprisingly
gentle. He nods, this male. And my world grows one size bigger.

*

           
I rush to
the river and straight into
Chad
’s
arms. We sink to the ground, his kisses a medicine for my heart, promising me
that we will never have to be apart again. Our joint tears tell everything,
even eliciting a small smile from Gina. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her
genuinely smile. And so, Kate’s tale has changed us all.

“This must be John,” I say,
rising to meet him squarely.

Of course, he says nothing. Kate
mentioned him only once all those months ago, and here he stands. John—straight
from the stock—just like
Chad
.
I take a step, lay my hand on his forearm. After a hesitant moment, he smiles
and casts his gaze to the ground.

           
As the
warmth of his flesh imprints on my palm, I’m fully aware of the magnitude of
Kate’s return. For John. For
Chad
.
For me. For all of us—life will never be the same.

*

           
With
Chad
tucked safely in my hogan—our hogan now—I go to Kate. I find her sitting on the
edge of her mat, staring at nothing. She asked the Council to give her one
night to acclimate—to adjust to life here again before she took on her new
duties. She still isn’t positive whether she will move into the cabin, although
the Council strongly encourages it for authority’s sake.

Our embrace this time is full of
warm friendship and intimate closeness, and we cry for a long time. We spend
all night curled on her mat, our foreheads together, and we talk until the sun
shows its face on the morning clouds. She tells me every detail from the moment
she left to now. And after what she describes, I am truly amazed she’s here at
all.

           
Kate
waited to make the journey back to the Village until after Diana had given
birth to a baby boy she named Caleb. He was born too early, and Diana had a
difficult time of it. But Penelope worked her skill to save the tiny boy. Kate
says it was a miracle, but with a smile she adds, “That’s what Penelope
specializes in. Miracles.”
 

           
Talking
about Ian is harder for her, and leaving him was more difficult than “chewing
off your arm,” she surmised.

           
“But look
at you, Mia.” Changing the subject, her whisper is wet with tears as she lays a
hand on my abdomen. “Soon to be a mother yourself.”

           
I’m
overcome by the term, and all I can do is nod, slightly bumping my forehead
into hers. She laughs softly.

           
“It’s so
hard to imagine life outside the Village,” I say. “It seems like a dream.”

           
“There is
more life than you could imagine in your wildest dreams.” She smiles, her eyes
floating off a bit. “I have so much to share with you. Things I never would
have believed until I saw them with my own eyes.”

           
I confess
her stories are unbelievable, but her account is sincere, and I can’t help but
believe every word.

           
“How is
Diana?” I ask. “Truly.”

           
“She’s
coping.” Her voice grows sad. “She has a boy named Henry to raise… along with
her own son. This has kept her preoccupied and has somewhat filled the void
Tabitha left behind. And... Caleb was born with the strawberry mark visible on
his left wrist. He will live, and this is a comfort to her.”

           
“And my
baby?” I ask, hesitant to hear the answer. Once she told me of the virus, my
fears mounted and rode off with my joy. “Will he live?”

           
Kate
raises up, crosses her legs beneath her. “I don’t know,” she answers plainly.
“But I will pray for it.”

           
She will
pray. Not to the Moirai, but to Yeshua. This is what she calls him. I’m unsure
of her trust in this new god, but I will not stop her from praying to him or to
anyone for my baby’s life.

           
She tells
me many more incredible things. Ian is not only alive, he is a “supernatural”
as she calls it, just like Jesse. And God has chosen him to train other
supernaturals to control their abilities, beginning with five babies who are
more powerful than any baby born to date. When she left Ian, he and Justin had
already made some progress.

           
“Ian will
come to me when he can,” she says at one point in our conversation. “We don’t
know when that will be, but when he can, he will come.” She smiles then and
reaches up to fumble with an arrow tip threaded through a thin leather strap
that hangs from her neck. “He always comes to me,” she whispers.

           
I
understand then how deep and strong their love is, perhaps even more so than my
love for
Chad
. Their
separation is a sacrifice, and the more she relates their time together, the
more it seems to span eternity, and I can’t see how anyone could compete. Even
distance and time cannot thwart it. She will wait for him until her last breath
if it takes a hundred years for him to get here, and that kind of love is
undeniable. To our village, it is a foreign concept, but I’ve no doubt Kate
will teach us.

           
“Is this
your token from Ian?” I ask, reaching up to caress the shiny edge of the
arrowhead. She smiles.

           
“I
suppose it is.”

           
“I have
one.” I hold up my hand to reveal the worn leather strap still securely tied
around my thumb. “
Chad
and I, we—we exchanged them one night. On the riverbank.”

           
Surprised,
Kate takes my hand, squeezes it slightly. “You Mia? You exchanged tokens—with a
dog?” Her words are teasing, and when I nod, she smiles knowingly and adds,
“And you pledged yourselves to one another?”

           
“Yes,” I
answer hesitantly, not quite certain yet if she approves, although I can’t
understand why she wouldn’t. But my anxiety dissipates the moment she tugs me
forward into a tight hug.

           
“Oh, Mia.
You’re married.”

           
I lean
back with a sheepish smile. “I am.”

           
She nods
enthusiastically and takes up my hand until both of us can clearly see the
leather token.

           
“I cannot
be with my love for now, but you can.” She squeezes my fingers. “Go to your
husband. Make a life with him.”

           
I nod,
tears welling.
Make a life with him.
Never
have there been more beautiful words spoken.