Enchantress Awakening: Part One of the Book of Water (The Elemental Cycle 1) by J.W. Whitmarsh Page A
Authors: J.W. Whitmarsh
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at this point; there is a little spot in the shade that I always tend to. Where will you go?”
“The left way seems more familiar.”
“Then I will wait for you here when I am finished.” With that Dana walked on through a gap in a broken wall and out of sight. Caleigh turned left over the weed strewn white tiles searching for sight of the precipice that lay behind the shrine. After a few minutes she found the room she was looking for with its familiar two-thirds wall by the entrance broken pillars at the back and most of all the open side looking down over a sheer drop into darkness and a greenery-draped rising cliff face beyond. It was just as she pictured it in her dreams, right up to the diagonal crack that ran halfway along the centre of the floor. The same place she had seen Caerddyn and Albion standing together beholding a light and she had stood herself seeing the white robed lady of peerless beauty.
Dana had not lied when she said it was peaceful in the shrine, even the sighing of the wind in the leaves and the incessant birdsong that had accompanied them on the climb faded into inaudibility. The scuffing of Caleigh’s travel boots and the thump of her heartbeat were the only sounds louder than her tentative breathing.
Yet in all this tranquillity it was all the more noticeable that she was alone. Her footsteps had taken her to the very edge of the precipice and there she had stood for long moments and still she was alone. Two days ago, had she experienced this moment she might have felt despair. As it was, both Brother Adam’s words and the advice of Dana served to temper the fall of her heart. It did not mean her gift was not real, perhaps what she had seen was not a vision from these times at all but a flash of the past like she had seen after hearing of Albion from Cynric.
Her thoughts turned to the future and what to do once she returned to Connlad. It was clear that no matter what had happened here if she wanted to explore her talents further she would need the advice of those who knew more of magic than she or, for that matter, Dana either. Dana had told her outright and Cynric had hinted further that Tovrik had known that she was gifted. It was he, after all, who had left her what she needed to become literate. The natural thing must then be to contact Tovrik, who was ultimately the only living wizard she had ever heard tale of, and find out what it all meant. It was that or let her talent lie undeveloped and return to her unremarkable life in Connlad.
For a moment she contemplated doing this, resuming the simple life that until so recently had seemed good enough. Resting her foot over the crack in the floor she stopped her pacing and just focussed on that thought alone. The question was simple in the end, was she able, now this door had been opened to close it and accept that it was not to be or, moreover, did she want to? A smile broke across her face, at last she realised what it meant to be chosen. Destiny cared naught for comfort or the plans of men and women; it visited whether it was welcome or no.
Ready to leave, Caleigh turned to the cliff face one last time in an act of goodbye and standing there where she had stood herself mere moments before was a woman, tall and slender robed from head to ankle in shimmering white. “You’re here!” Caleigh gasped. Slowly, tantalisingly so, the woman in white turned, the flesh of her upper arm visible in the slit of her sleeve twisting round to show the curve where her robe rode up on her full and very firm left breast then sliding round further so that hairs of dark blonde and light brown fell in front of the opening of her hood. Again, as she had been the first time she had seen it in her dreams, Caleigh was stunned by the beauty of the face that turned to look at her. Regal and startling; like a goddess of ancient times, whose perfectly chiselled cheekbones sat below eyes of the most sparkling, pale blue. Unusually for one whose beauty was so
“The left way seems more familiar.”
“Then I will wait for you here when I am finished.” With that Dana walked on through a gap in a broken wall and out of sight. Caleigh turned left over the weed strewn white tiles searching for sight of the precipice that lay behind the shrine. After a few minutes she found the room she was looking for with its familiar two-thirds wall by the entrance broken pillars at the back and most of all the open side looking down over a sheer drop into darkness and a greenery-draped rising cliff face beyond. It was just as she pictured it in her dreams, right up to the diagonal crack that ran halfway along the centre of the floor. The same place she had seen Caerddyn and Albion standing together beholding a light and she had stood herself seeing the white robed lady of peerless beauty.
Dana had not lied when she said it was peaceful in the shrine, even the sighing of the wind in the leaves and the incessant birdsong that had accompanied them on the climb faded into inaudibility. The scuffing of Caleigh’s travel boots and the thump of her heartbeat were the only sounds louder than her tentative breathing.
Yet in all this tranquillity it was all the more noticeable that she was alone. Her footsteps had taken her to the very edge of the precipice and there she had stood for long moments and still she was alone. Two days ago, had she experienced this moment she might have felt despair. As it was, both Brother Adam’s words and the advice of Dana served to temper the fall of her heart. It did not mean her gift was not real, perhaps what she had seen was not a vision from these times at all but a flash of the past like she had seen after hearing of Albion from Cynric.
Her thoughts turned to the future and what to do once she returned to Connlad. It was clear that no matter what had happened here if she wanted to explore her talents further she would need the advice of those who knew more of magic than she or, for that matter, Dana either. Dana had told her outright and Cynric had hinted further that Tovrik had known that she was gifted. It was he, after all, who had left her what she needed to become literate. The natural thing must then be to contact Tovrik, who was ultimately the only living wizard she had ever heard tale of, and find out what it all meant. It was that or let her talent lie undeveloped and return to her unremarkable life in Connlad.
For a moment she contemplated doing this, resuming the simple life that until so recently had seemed good enough. Resting her foot over the crack in the floor she stopped her pacing and just focussed on that thought alone. The question was simple in the end, was she able, now this door had been opened to close it and accept that it was not to be or, moreover, did she want to? A smile broke across her face, at last she realised what it meant to be chosen. Destiny cared naught for comfort or the plans of men and women; it visited whether it was welcome or no.
Ready to leave, Caleigh turned to the cliff face one last time in an act of goodbye and standing there where she had stood herself mere moments before was a woman, tall and slender robed from head to ankle in shimmering white. “You’re here!” Caleigh gasped. Slowly, tantalisingly so, the woman in white turned, the flesh of her upper arm visible in the slit of her sleeve twisting round to show the curve where her robe rode up on her full and very firm left breast then sliding round further so that hairs of dark blonde and light brown fell in front of the opening of her hood. Again, as she had been the first time she had seen it in her dreams, Caleigh was stunned by the beauty of the face that turned to look at her. Regal and startling; like a goddess of ancient times, whose perfectly chiselled cheekbones sat below eyes of the most sparkling, pale blue. Unusually for one whose beauty was so
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