Veiled (6 page)

Alex chuckled. “Don’t leave
my side,” he warned teasingly, and extended his hand.

I nodded and obediently
took his hand, ignoring once more the jolt of emotions that these
simple exchanges gave me lately.

Our assignment was to go to
the Shazer galaxy that had several inhabited planets, most of them
newly created. The spirits assigned to live on those planets
currently inhabited a spirit world, where they trained and waited
for their turn to live. Those spirits no longer roamed the universe
like we did, but remained in their respective spirit worlds
learning and preparing for their mortality.

Their spirit world
resembled their physical world, but was ten times the size of its
physical replica. The reason for that was space—every creature that
would ever inhabit that world needed adequate room, even if that
creature was currently a spirit. A spirit world could only be
inhabited by those who were assigned there, so Earthlings could not
visit those other spirit worlds…not without getting in trouble if
they got caught. However, we could observe the mortals from any
planet, as long as we did it from a distance and did not
interfere.

Inhabited worlds were a
great attraction to us spirits who had no spirit world of our own,
because we liked to learn by watching. So we would be sure to find
some Earth bound spirits there.

As we traveled, Alex seemed
to be deep in thought; I could sense that he was nervous about
something.

“
What are you thinking
about?” My question seemed to rouse him.

“
Oh, nothing.”

“
It looks as if you were
worried about something.”

“
No, not
worried.”

“
Then…what?” I tried to
sound casual.

He turned his gaze on mine,
and he had a pained look. For a moment it seemed as if he were
about to say something, then changed his mind. I could tell that he
was troubled, but why wouldn’t he confide in me?

“
Don’t worry about it,
Tess, it’s nothing,” he said dismissively.

I didn’t know what else to
say, so I settled for our uncomfortable silence.

After a while, he seemed to
not be able to contain his simmering thoughts and just burst out.
“You know…it’s funny how much of a Discerner you are when it comes
down to other spirits—yet you don’t seem to be able to discern me
at all!”

I thought about that for a
moment, then I looked away embarrassed. I could discern him if I
wanted to. Truth is, I am scared to discern him. I feel that there
is something there, something that will change our relationship for
ever, and change scares me. What if what I found caused me to lose
him?

“
I just look at Russell
and Nancy and I wish we could be like them too, that’s all,” he
continued when I didn’t respond.

“
But we are like them,” I
insisted.

“
No, we are not,” he said
with an acid tone and a faltering laugh.

“
I thought we were…” I
frowned. Russell and Nancy were always together. They fought
sometimes, but always made up and fixed things between them. They
were usually laughing about something and teased each other all the
time. Sure…we weren’t exactly like that, but we were us.

“
Then you don’t know what
Russell and Nancy have,” he declared, and resumed his march toward
the planet.

He was probably right. I
didn’t know much about the nature of Russell’s and Nancy’s
relationship, they never talked about it. But I loved Alex, more so
than pretty much the rest of the spirits in my clan, and I would
rather be with him than any other spirit—with the exception of
Celeste of course.

“
I may not know what
Russell and Nancy have, but I do know that I love you.”

He looked into my eyes,
with intensity, as if looking for something he had lost in them.
Then his lips formed a tight line and looked away pained, obviously
by what he saw in them—or didn’t see.

“
I know you love me, just
like you love Celeste, and Dorian, and Valerie, and Dane…” His
voice trailed off.

“
No, I love you and
Celeste the most.”

He seemed irritated now,
but didn’t lose his composure.

“
I’m not talking about
whom you love the most, but how you love them. There are different
kinds of love you know.”

“
There are?” I asked
incredulously.

Now Alex started laughing,
and wrapped his arm around my neck.

“
Come on, Tess, I think I
see some spirits hovering over the southern continent
there.”

His mind seemed more at
ease now, as we flew to meet those spirits, but now my mind was
not. Part of me wanted to examine these feelings further, but when
we got to Shazer I decided that I should focus on the task at hand
and leave the soul searching for another time.

We did our best for what
seemed like an eternity. This job was not as easy as we first
anticipated. It was dull and repetitious. So I was glad, for once,
to interrupt a conversation to answer a call from
Valerie.

“
Something is wrong,
Tess,” Valerie said in her usual doom and gloom way. “Celeste is in
trouble! We need to get to her now!”

I glared at Alex, wholly
blaming him for this. I told him not to put her with Richard. Alex
looked back at me with a helpless and sorry look on his
face.

“
Let’s go then,” Alex
said, hoping that speed would make up for it somehow, and turned
toward the planet that Celeste and Richard had been
assigned.

“
They are not at the place
where they were sent. We looked,” Dane said as if he could see what
Alex was about to do. Then we realized that he could. They were
approaching us at full speed while they talked to us through the
calling stones.

“
We heard from some
spirits in that area, that two females showed up and they all left
together,” Dane continued.

“
Where?” I asked once they
were next to us.

“
That was all they
knew…and she won’t answer our calls either,” Valerie
added.

“
That’s strange,” Alex
said more to himself than us. “I wonder who they were?”

Just then, Dorian halted to
a stop just a little ways away. He must have been flying fast; all
I saw was a flash and then, he was there. Luz had been holding his
hand, and looked temporarily unstable as they halted. Dorian looked
all around him, and when he spotted us he came over.

“
Celeste needs us!” Dorian
alerted, wasting no time on greetings. “I saw her, she…she’s being
tortured!”

“
Agatha…” I whispered. I
don’t know how but I was sure that she was behind this somehow. She
might be trying to get back at me for whatever I said back in that
canyon. Maybe I offended her by not bowing down to her and the
Second One like the others did. Or perhaps she thinks she can turn
me by torturing my friends.

Whatever her plan is, she
will fail. Celeste will not crack. I won’t let her.
Agatha has just met her match,
I thought with a new determination.

“
Where is she?” I asked
Dorian.

“
In my vision she was
surrounded by a bunch of spirits. The place is hard to describe…but
she wasn’t alone. I saw Max too. He was also being tortured by
other spirits.”

“
Where, Dorian, where?”
Alex insisted. He was feeling guilty for all this. I took his hand
to let him know that I was not blaming him for it after all. He
understood and responded with a grateful smile.

“
It looks like…” Dorian
concentrated for a moment. “A dead planet, highly developed…covered
with fog.”

“
Ishtar!” Alex
said.

“
Yeah!” Dorian agreed.
“That’s the one…at least I’m pretty sure it is.”

Ishtar had only recently
died. The death of a planet was inevitable, like the death of all
things mortal.

Planets, like all things
living, evolve. It takes thousands of mortal years for the natural
evolution of a planet to take place. Fires, followed by thick black
fog that smolders the embers, are but the beginnings of the
evolutionary process a planet must go through.

No mortal life could be
sustained while the planet is going through that process, so it
would make a great hiding place for spirits. The fog like
substance, being a perfect cloak for our forms, makes Ishtar a
grand setting for the rebellion and their “recruitment” of
spirits.

We headed there at once,
agreeing to stop just outside the atmosphere, to be safe. Then we
would make sure that Ishtar was indeed the planet where they held
Max and Celeste, and we would figure out an actual rescue plan
then.

Once there, all we could
see of Ishtar were the ruins of its many cities, sky scrapers,
bridges, and towers. These broken down structures were covered by
that impossible murky fog that settles after the burning stops. The
fog made the scene look menacing.

“
They are there,” I said
solemnly. “I can feel them.”

All eyes looked
questioningly on me.

“
Not Celeste and Max,” I
corrected. “I can feel the rebels.”

This must have seemed
impressive, because from where we hovered, nothing but ruins and
fog could be seen. Here and there I could see faint glowing dots. I
wondered if those were small fires that had not yet been
extinguished by the fog.

Valerie made a sudden jerk
and put her hands to her head. Dane reacted instantly in the same
nurturing way that he had reacted with me.

“
She’s not doing so well,
she is…considering joining them,” Valerie predicted.

NO!
I thought to myself.
Hang in there,
Cel! Don’t give in,
I told her
subliminally with the vain hope that she would hear me.

Dane, Alex, and Dorian
exchanged glances then nodded, but right as they were about to
plunge into the planet’s surface, Russell’s voice reverberated all
around Alex’s form.

“
Alex, where are
you?”

“
Right over Ishtar,” Alex
said, a little annoyed.

“
What? Never mind, we’ll
be right there. Don’t move!” Russell ordered.

Moments later, Russell and
Nancy appeared just above the planet. They looked in all directions
and once they saw us they came to our side.

“
What are you guys doing
here?” Russell demanded. “Don’t you know what this place is? This
is where they entrap and torture spirits!”

“
We know that,” I
responded with cynicism. “We are about to go get Celeste and Max,
who are currently being held and tortured.”

Russ looked surprised, as
did Nancy. They looked at the rest of the clan, trying to get a
second opinion; and they got one by way of nods.

“
What’s the plan?” Russ
wasted no time in asking. If a rescue plan was in place he would be
part of it, no questions asked.

“
We go in and get them,”
Alex said succinctly.

“
I like it, let’s go!”
Russell said and plunged down. The rest of us followed.

* * * * *

Chapter 5

We landed on one of the
main cities, and it wasn’t so much that it was dark as that it was
gray. We had to let our eyes adjust to the fog because we could
barely see anything in front of us; much less the spirits that we
knew were
there.

Once in a while a spirit
would just come out from the fog and run into us. But most of them
were not alone. We found them clustered in crevices and holes,
whispering silent murmurs.

Being surrounded by all
these spirits almost amounted to the same feelings I got while I
was in the company of the Second One himself. This fog was also the
perfect backdrop to their gloomy presence; a great place to work
secret, dirty deals and depressing enough to make a spirit feel
alone and forsaken. An ominous feeling hung in the air, and it
could rob even the happiest of spirits of their hope.

Our little group glided
hand in hand through the murky streets, trying to find Celeste or
Max, and I could tell that the deeper we got into the city the more
discouraged we felt, and the less hope we had of finding them. But
we pressed forward, one next to the other.

Alex and I were at one end
of the line, and Dorian and Luz at the opposite end. I had been
looking ahead of me, not really focusing on my own clan members. So
I was taken by surprise, when I turned to look at them and saw to
my complete amazement, that they were glowing, brightly glowing
through the fog.

I turned to look at Alex
and he too was glowing. Then letting go of his hand, I stretched a
hand forward to see if by some miracle I was glowing too, and I
was. Quickly I looked to either side of me again to make sure I was
not imagining things—and indeed we were glowing—our auras were
glowing. Alex saw my strange behavior and after securing my hand
again, asked me what the matter was.

“
Can you see that?” I
asked him, mesmerized by the sight.