I was at Del"s this morning and he was making a new batch for his regular customers. He likes you." Sitting down, Ceara smiled softly.
"But then, you"re easy to like."
Jessie shrugged and looked away.
"It would be easier to accept the compliment if you liked yourself.
You came here to start fresh, yet you haven"t quite forgiven yourself, have you?"
"I royally screwed up, Ceara."
This made her chuckle. "Haven"t we all? The key is to learn from it, rub your sore spot for a minute and then let it go. I sense you haven"t completed step three."
Jessie sighed. Wasn"t that what teen angst was all about? How to get from A to B in the liking your true self game? "If I hadn"t messed up so *
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much, Daniel wouldn"t be hanging around t.u.r.ds like Chris, and-"
"Did it ever occur to you that s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up is what brought you to Cate? What if that was the only way to get you to Oregon?"
"I hadn"t thought of it like that."
"That"s what lessons are for: so we can move to the next square in the game, and maybe, just maybe, we can pull a Chance card or get out of jail free."
"I"m just about out of chances."
"Pshaw. Chance is what we make it. Don"t you see? You"ve been chosen for bigger and better things, Jessie Ferguson. Embrace your mistakes. They are what brought you here. Everything in your life is about to change. Don"t you find that exciting?" Ceara sipped her tea.
"I imagine I would if my parents could see that change as well."
"Don"t you worry. They will. Now then, why don"t you tell me about Maeve."
Jessie"s face instantly brightened. "Maeve. Cate loves her very much and it goes beyond them just being friends or Druids. She loves her enough to kill a man and feel not a drop of remorse."
"Are you saying they"re lovers?"
Jessie nodded. "I think so, but I can"t really tell for certain. I don"t know anything about the kind of love people had for each other back then. Maybe they just loved better and more deeply than we do today."
Ceara steepled her fingers and rested her elbows on the table. "What does your soul tell you they are?"
She didn"t have to think or ponder the question. She knew. She just didn"t yet trust all she thought she knew. "I"m pretty sure they"re lovers."
"Well then, that might explain a lot, don"t you think? For Cate to cast herself into the portal two thousand years into the future, there would have to be a d.a.m.n good reason."
"I think it"s to kill that Roman soldier."
"And what makes you think the man was a Roman?"
"I know deep within me, deep where Cate lives."
"Excellent. You"re learning." Rising, Ceara walked over to one of *
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the jam-packed bookcases and studied them. Running her index across the spines as she walked down the row, she pulled a large tome from the bottom shelf and balanced it on her hip while thumbing through it. "Here it is." Placing the large, dusty book in front of Jessie, Ceara accidentally sloshed some of Jessie"s tea. "Did he look like this?"
Jessie stared at the picture. "Yes. That is almost exactly what he was wearing."
Ceara left the book there and returned to her seat. "Cate is reaching you more and more. She must be very strong, indeed."
"Or desperate."
"Perhaps both."
Nodding, Jessie closed the book so she didn"t have to look upon the face of the Roman glaring back at her. Just looking at the picture sent a fear to the pit of her stomach she hadn"t felt since she was busted for the drugs. Reaching for her tea, Jessie steadied her hand. "Maeve is the key."
"Then it is to these feelings that you must be truly open to hearing.
At night, before you sleep, think of Maeve, of those gray eyes, of her demeanor. Focus on Cate"s love for and loyalty to her. Open pathways for Cate to continue pouring her memories into. Do this often, my dear, and soon, you will know everything they want. You"ll know what it is that brings Cate from her time into this one. Open your mind.
Practice doing it when you"re painting a room or taking a bath. Be vigilant, Jessie, and Cate will eventually reach you."
Jessie sighed and nodded. "I"m trying."
Ceara grinned. "Jessie, both you and Cate have access to the seam.
I think what happened was that she came through it looking for someone, anyone who might feel her. She gave you just enough of a push that you returned to the seam and went through on your own. By going through, you communicated to her you weren"t afraid and that you were receptive to her. Your soul was open enough for her to return to it, in this time. For whatever reason, you"re more open than your soul might have been in seventeen-twelve or eight hundred AD. She tossed herself into the abyss in a desperate search for that piece of her which might, just might be open to reception. The only question remaining *
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is: are you going to pull her from that abyss?"
"There"s no question about it, Ceara. I"m in this until the bitter end.
Maeve needs me, and I have no intention of letting her down. I will do whatever needs to be done."
Ceara studied her a second. "You have a doubt."
Jessie shrugged. "Not really a doubt-just a question. Why Maeve wasn"t the one to come through. If she needs me so badly, why didn"t she come?"
"You"re beginning to think like one."
"One what?"
"Druid. Your questions are not as naive as they were a few days ago."
Jessie reflected back to when Maeve had cautioned Cate about blurting words out. "I"m changing. I"m-different."
Ceara nodded. "Indeed. To answer your question, we have no way of knowing if Maeve has the power to use the portal. Only very powerful Druid priests and priestesses have that kind of power. You must remember that Cate and you share the same soul, not you and Maeve. It was up to Cate to reach you."
Jessie nodded and tried not to look at the book before her. "So, what now?"
Ceara sipped her tea and looked out over the top of the rim. "Well, don"t you think it"s time for her to know that you"re on her side? That you hear her?"
"And how do I do that?"
Ceara set her tea down and smiled softly. "You must go back through the seam with the singular intent of letting her know. You must be stronger and braver than you have ever been. I can help you be both, but once you go across time, you will have to stand on your own two feet. Do you think you"re ready for that?"
Jessie nodded. "More than you"ll ever know."
The Otherworld.
It was neither heaven nor h.e.l.l, nor Nirvana, nor Purgatory. It wasn"t *
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the Dreamworld, though it often felt like one. It was a special place where Druid priests and priestesses transported themselves in order to gain guidance and wisdom from the inhabitants of that world. To those who had the knowledge and the power, it was an accessible world easily reached, but difficult to truly comprehend. It was not a place for the faint of heart or disbelievers. The Otherworld was a place more real than the very ground they walked upon now, yet that reality was more fluid than the Thames, and just as transforming. It was a special place Lachlan and Maeve were sending Cate to now.
"Do not be frightened," Maeve said as Cate"s head bobbed slightly.
Leaning closer, Maeve whispered in Cate"s ear. "I am always with you.
I will always be by your side." With that, Maeve withdrew and stood next to Lachlan, who lifted a questioning eyebrow.
"I shall never truly understand what it is you see in her, Maeve, to be so frustratingly devoted to her."
Maeve did not take her eyes off the entranced Cate. "Lachlan, have you never met someone and known, with every fiber of your being that your place is with them, no matter where they go or what they do, and in whatever capacity? And that, no matter what happens through the ages, this is how it is supposed to be; how it will always be?"
"If I had, Maeve, I most surely would have married her."
Maeve shook her head. "Marriage is merely a legal ceremony, Lachlan, that has little to do with two souls who fit together. My bond with Cate is not a male and female connection that we desire in our society. Ours is a love that spans the centuries, which has no end. I cannot explain, nor would I if I could. But the very first moment I saw her watching me with those wild-girl eyes of hers, I knew she and I had had quite a lengthy sojourn in this world and others. I knew then, but could not act upon any of my feelings until she was old enough to understand who we are to each other; who we always have been and always will be."
"She often tried your patience where that was concerned."
Maeve smiled softly at the memories. "She wanted more than she could have at the time."
Lachlan sighed. "She is still so young."
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"We were young, once. I see more in her than you ever will because that is the nature of our relationship. If there is anyone who can save us, it is she."
"There is still so much for her to learn."
"You cannot learn love, Lachlan, and that is one reason your father failed at using the portal. He thought knowledge alone would finally answer the question that haunted him all these years. But love is stronger than knowledge. It is a lesson you must learn if you are ever to lead our people away from the despair that is chasing us. It is Cate"s love for me that has helped us succeed where others have failed. She will stop at nothing to ensure my safety; our safety. That love has the power to unlock the doors holding prisoner our answers."
Lachlan looked down at Maeve and shook his head. "You traveled all the way from Gaul because you knew she was here. Have you ever told her that?"
Maeve shook her head. "She believes what everyone else does: that I came here in search of you."
"Why have you not told her? All these years, and you never told her of your vision in Gaul?"
"Deep within, she knows, but I have never told her because I have never wanted her to feel obligated, as if I had given something up in order to come to her. I saw her here, and I came. That is all that matters." Maeve turned to look up at Lachlan. Though they had had this conversation a dozen times, she always got the impression that Lachlan was hoping her feelings for him might change; that somehow, he could overcome ages of love Maeve"s and Cate"s souls had shared.
Even for a Druid priest, Lachlan was still a man-and men, she knew, seldom accepted when a woman chose another woman over them. She wondered if it were still so in Jessie"s world.
"That seems a long time ago."
"It was. And now, all of her training and our hard work need come to fruition."
"Well, let us see what happens in the Otherworld. There, she will gather what guidance and wisdom we have not been able to afford her-if she is truly ready."
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Maeve knelt down and gently stroked Cate"s face. "She"s truly ready, aren"t you, love?" she whispered. "Seek our answers in the Otherworld, but come back. You belong here and nowhere else."
The Otherworld.
Before Cate knew what was happening to her, she was there. She wasn"t sure how, exactly, how she knew, but she did. All those days of training, of learning, of working to this day, and here it was. Maeve and Lachlan had sent her where she had always longed to go.
It was not, however, quite what Cate had expected.
While she was not surprised to be standing within a stone enclosure not unlike that of Stonehenge, she was greatly surprised by the midday sun looming overhead and the mists of a waterfall surrounding water cascading into a calm pool. A fire burned in a fire pit surrounded by level stones for sitting. What surprised Cate was how utterly normal it was. She had expected- "Mt. Olympus, perhaps?" When a robed figure appeared, Cate turned and bowed. She knew her name to be Blodwin, the Celtic Welsh Maid of Initiation. It was she Cate had prayed to before taking her tests, before learning all the wonders the craft had to offer. Blodwin had come to Cate on many occasions in her Dreamworld, but this was the first time Cate had sought her out.
"It is so-regular. I suppose I expected grandeur, yes."
Blodwin nodded and something close to a grin twitched on her lips.
"Grandeur has never been our way, Cate. This-" Blodwin stretched her arms wide, her long auburn tresses unmoving as she did so-"is all we ever need."
Cate looked around knowingly. "Indeed. I thank you for allowing me entrance."
"No one allows it. You came because you have the ability to do so.
Unfortunately, you come seeking answers I cannot give." Her presence was both peaceful and unsettling. She was, after all, a student of two of the most powerful Druids on the whole of the island. She was prepared for things of this nature, regardless of how unnerving the experience.
"I have not come seeking answers from you. I have come to learn if there is more I can do to help Jessie remember. Surely, you can help *
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me help her."
Blodwin motioned for Cate to sit beside the fire burning brightly at the edge of the forest, before taking her place on a stone next to her. Her energy was powerful, her strength and wisdom tangible. "You believe we can be of a.s.sistance."