Sanctuary by E. Edgar Price
*****
Sarah was scared. She didn’t have time to be scared before now, she just reacted. As soon as she broke away from Tyler and Grandpa, she sped along the ledge of the mountain. She hardly registered Galen’s presence beside her, his red wolf’s body keeping pace as she followed a dirt path up to a long wooden shack half-hidden by tall, reedy grass. A sudden scream tore across the grassy ledge. Benji’s scream.
The cabin door was shut, but Sarah didn’t hesitate. She reached out and pushed the door open with a crash, jagged splinters digging into her fingers and palms. The room was bright, but she looked through the painful light and saw Benji lying on the floor, partially covered by the thin form of a black haired woman.
Sarah wasn’t fully able to process what she saw. The woman was pulling something from Benji’s chest: a bright, white string. Benji wasn’t moving and Sarah barely stopped her stride before pummeling her body into the woman and knocking her backwards. The woman she assumed was Thana grinned madly, laughing high and loud. Her eyes were a wide, crazed violet and she had an iron grip on a needle somehow connected back to Benji’s still form. Sarah struggled to get the needle. She hardly registered Galen’s attack, but suddenly Thana pushed up against Sarah with unexpected strength, putting Sarah off balance and then pinning her to the ground.
Sarah concentrated on the needle, even while Thana’s other hand gripped her hair and began slamming her skull into the dirt the floor. She scarcely felt the pain, but was dizzy when Tyler finally came to her aid. While he and Galen pinned the dark woman to the floor, Sarah unsteadily grabbed for the needle, prying long, gray fingers off of it. The woman was screaming and laughing still, a sound like cutting flesh. Sarah ignored her.
The strange white light attached to the needle radiated warmth. Sarah went with her instincts and took the needle back to Benji. She was momentarily relieved when the glowing string retracted the closer she moved towards her brother. Sarah carried the needle to Benji’s chest and held it against the spot where the light originated. Blood welled from a small wound and was slowly soaking Benji’s shirtfront. When the needle touched the spreading stain, the light disappeared and the needle felt suddenly heavy and cold in Sarah’s hand. She threw the sharp implement away in disgust.
Sarah glanced backwards. Tyler knelt above a silent Thana. The Necromancer still had a grin plastered onto her gray face, but she wasn’t moving. Galen was beyond the two figures on the floor, trying to help Grandpa get up. Her grandfather must have been hurt in the scuffle, something that escaped Sarah’s notice. She asked Tyler to take Benji and then hurried to help Galen with Grandpa.
Groggily, the old man told them to get off the mountain and Sarah understood immediately. When Thana woke up, and she would (probably much sooner than anyone wanted her to), she could do whatever she wanted to them if they remained on the mountain. It was her territory. The five of them hurried out of there as fast as they could manage.
It was quiet now. Darkness had fallen and they were in a clearing below Thana’s mountain. Bugs chirped and buzzed in the warm night. Leaves rustled in a breeze. It was humid and hot in the aftermath of the day’s rain, but the sky was clear. A partial moon and millions of stars illuminated the group.
Sarah was slumped with Grandpa against a large boulder. She was still breathing hard and the ground kept moving though she remained still. Grandpa was leaning heavily on her and she guessed he was having a similar problem. Tyler and Benji were in front of her, her older brother kneeling next to her younger brother, gently laying the smaller boy on the ground. Galen had darted into the forest when night fell, but his human form was separating itself from the shadows and coming towards her now.
The ground stopped its spinning and Sarah used the rock behind her to push herself up. She clutched her head as black and white spots burst before her eyes. She thought she might fall over, but a steady arm braced itself against her waist and she remained upright. Sarah kept her eyes closed until her private fireworks display ended and she felt stable again. When she opened them, she found herself being dissected by the hunter’s concerned green gaze.
“You’re hurt,” he said gruffly. And quite unnecessarily from Sarah’s point of view.
She nodded and fought another bout of starbursts and dizziness. “Benji?” she asked through her haze.
Instead of answering, Galen led her to Tyler. She sank gratefully to the ground next to her older brother, but Galen kept a steadying hand on her shoulder. In her current state, she couldn’t muster any objections, so she ignored the rough palm gently pressuring her shoulder.
“Is he alive?” she asked Tyler softly. The older boy shook his head and tried to wake Benji, gently jiggling his shoulder and calling his name softly. There was no response. Sarah leaned forward to examine him, and Galen’s hand slid off her shoulder. She felt an odd slipping sensation when she touched Benji’s wrist, like something fading just out of reach. She felt for his pulse. It was faint and fluttering and his chest rose and fell in miniscule increments.
She heard Grandpa approach and the old man sat heavily on the ground with his grandchildren. He leaned over Benji and picked up his hand. He checked Benji over, looking for wounds and checking his pulse, listening to his heartbeat.
“He’s alive, at least,” Grandpa said on a sigh.
“But what’s wrong with him?” Tyler demanded. “What happened? What was that thing doing to him?” Grandpa only shook his head and Tyler’s vehemence subsided.
They were all exhausted after the mad dash up the mountain. Neither Tyler nor Galen seemed the worse for wear, but Grandpa was shaking and blinking a lot as if trying to clear his vision. Even sitting, he was clearly unsteady. Sarah wasn’t doing much better. She felt like sinking into the earth and sleeping for a millennium. Her muscles ached and the back of her head was screaming with pain. Her arms hugged tight around her waist and Sarah was dimly aware she was crying. Benji still didn’t move.
Her little brother looked crumpled and fragile lying so still in the rising moonlight. His face was pale and looked unnaturally slender in the shadowed darkness. His hair hung in dirty, oily strings. And, worst of all, he didn’t move, didn’t twitch, didn’t stir. His breathing was so faint, Sarah found herself checking the slight motion of his chest every few seconds to assure herself he hadn’t stopped altogether. He was still alive, but the feeling of dissipation grew, as if she was looking at the end of a movie, dimming in slow motion.
Questions bombarded her tired mind like firecrackers. What had that woman done to him? Why was a string of light coming from his chest? What was the light? She closed her eyes tightly against them, but they did not recede. Instead, Sarah saw a grinning gray face with mad purple eyes. She rubbed her face, as if to wash away the image and was startled when a hand touched her shoulder.
It was Galen again. His expression was stony, but his eyes were full of concern. She put her hand on top of his and looked back to her little brother. Unmoving, unchanged, he lay in the moonlight. “What did she do to him?” Sarah whispered. Galen’s hand dropped from her shoulder. She turned and found his face guarded.
She noticed the flickering light behind him and looked around curiously, distracted for a moment. The hunter had set up camp. The two tents stood sentinel behind a small campfire ringed with stones. The packs lined the nearby boulder in a neat row and a tin kettle rested in the coals of the popping blaze.
“Thank you,” Sarah said in weary gratitude.
“You should eat,” was Galen’s only reply. He held out his unbound right hand. Sarah took it and allowed him to support her as she stood and got her footing. She wasn’t as dizzy as before, but the ground rolled a little under her gaze. Galen walked close beside her towards the fire and handed her a bag of jerky and some granola bars when she sat. Tyler was helping Grandpa retrieve something form his pack and they joined her shortly. The group munched in silence, letting the night sounds take over.
Galen fiddled with the kettle and eventually
“What is it?” Sarah asked, sniffing the brew. Galen replied tersely that it was coffee. It didn’t smell much like coffee, but Sarah tried a sip. She nearly choked on the black stuff. Coughing and sputtering, she said, “The only way this is coffee is if you boiled it in a leather boot.” She swirled bottled water in her mouth to get rid of the taste and could have sworn she saw Galen smiling, but the shadows crept over his face before she could be sure. She was about to turn the sludge out of her cup when Grandpa stopped her.
“You’d best drink it,” he cautioned her. She was relieved that his voice was steadier and close to its normal booming tones. “You and I both took quite a knock from what I understand,” he continued. “That makes sleeping a bad option under the circumstances.” He took a grimacing swig from his own mug.
Sarah nodded thoughtfully. “You mean we might have a concussion,” she said.
“I’m pretty certain you both do,” Tyler put in. He didn’t drink any of the so-called coffee, though. Instead, he produced a white box and asked Sarah if she minded him looking at her head. She said no, and he scooted close to her. She bent her head in compliance and heard the click of a flashlight. Tyler let out a long whistle after a few minutes of painfully prodding his sister’s skull.
“Is it bad?” Sarah asked.
“Bad enough,” Tyler told her. “We need to get you to a doctor sooner rather than later and probably Grandpa too.” The three of them looked over at Benji, silently adding him to the patient list.
Tyler wiped stinging disinfectant on the sore spot at the back of Sarah’s head and bandaged it clumsily. She didn’t complain, though, and helped him when he examined Grandpa next. Grandpa had a gash along his crown that left a trail of blood flowing over his left ear. Once clean, it looked shallow, but none of them were exactly medical experts. In fact, Tyler was the only one with any real first aid training, as far as she knew, thanks to a stint one summer as a lifeguard.
When Tyler was satisfied that Grandpa’s cut was as clean as it was going to get, he bandaged it as best he could and turned his attention to the silent form at the edge of the campfire. Sarah gathered the scraps of medical paraphernalia and Tyler grabbed the first aid kit before they both sat next to their little brother.
“He’s pretty banged up,” Tyler observed quietly. He made no move toward Benji, staying still and uncertain.
Grandpa came over and sat on the other side of Benji. “He could have run into trouble before getting to Thana’s,” he suggested.
“Some of the scratches and bruises look older,” agreed Tyler.
Silence descended. Sarah was startled to feel wet tears dripping from her cheeks. He just looked so young and helpless, so still! Her little brother. She wiped the dampness off her face sharply. She wasn’t just going to sit here and cry. If something could be done, she would do it.
“Let me,” she said, easing the white box from Tyler’s grip. She rummaged around until she found a pair of scissors and gently cut Benji’s t-shirt open leaving his slight chest bare. The wound there was purple and yellow, like a bad spider bite. There was dried blood on Benji’s shirt and around the puncture, but no more oozed out. That was good, she hoped; not bleeding was good.
Gently she cleaned the purple blotch. Her hands were unsteady, but she took deep breaths and forced herself to be calm. Just deal with one thing at a time. She could freak out later, but not right now.
She asked Tyler to turn the flashlight on. “It doesn’t look so bad,” she said aloud. “It might be deeper than I can see, but it’s pretty small.”
“So why isn’t he waking up?” Tyler asked.
“I don’t know, but the puncture didn’t cause it. It looks like Thana jabbed that needle into him, but neither that nor the other scratches and bruises would account for . . .” Sarah fumbled, gesturing at Benji’s motionless body.
“His unconsciousness,” Tyler finished. “I’ll check for a head injury.” Her older brother examined Benji’s head delicately and professionally. His returned confidence made Sarah feel more in control herself. “Nothing,” Tyler declared. “Although, it looks like something singed off some of his hair.”
“What happened up there?” Sarah wondered aloud. She looked up to find her grandfather staring pensively into the darkness. “Do you know?” she addressed him. He started at her query, but shook his head. “You must have some idea?” Sarah persisted.
“I’m not completely sure,” Grandpa answered finally.
“Will he be okay?” Tyler questioned.
“I don’t know,” Grandpa said. “We’ll have to wait and see, but he’s alive and he’s strong. He’ll pull through.” He said the last unconvincingly and Tyler shared a worried frown with Sarah.
Her older brother was tense and held himself rigid. “What if he doesn’t?” he demanded softly. Grandpa didn’t answer.
“Do you have any theories, Grandpa?” Sarah asked pleadingly as she carefully bandaged Benji’s chest.
“What was that light?” Tyler added. “Do you think that’s why he’s not waking up?” Grandpa’s expression became guarded. “If you know something,” Tyler continued, “you have to tell us. We need to help him. He’s our brother.”
“If it could help Benji,” she agreed, “we need to know.” Grandpa gazed at them both forlornly.
“I don’t think it will help Benji,” he said finally. “Knowing, doesn’t mean we can do anything about it,” he finished, gesturing helplessly with his hands.
“That’s not true,” a growling voice answered from behind them. The trio turned in unison to regard the hunter. Galen came closer, standing at Benji’s feet, looking down at them. He glared meaningfully at Grandpa.
“You stay out of this,” Grandpa demanded, getting roughly to his feet.
“There is a way to help your grandson and you know it,” Galen countered in a hard tone.
“Shut Up!” Grandpa yelled. His loud, deep voice silenced the night and quiet descended as the two traded scowls.
“What’s he talking about?” Tyler asked. He stood and reached down to help Sarah to her feet.
“Nothing!” Grandpa declared. He threw a glare at both Tyler and Sarah before striding off to pace on the opposite side of the campfire.
“What’s going on?” Sarah asked Galen softly. He shook his head curtly, but seemed to reconsider.
“Your grandfather keeps secrets,” he said.
“Tell us something new,” Tyler sarcastically responded. “Or something helpful, otherwise stay out of this.” He angled himself in front of Sarah, facing the hunter.
“I can’t help you,” he said softly. Tyler snorted and waved a hand in dismissal. “But she can.” Galen pointed to Sarah. Sarah couldn’t help but shrink back from the attention. She looked away, not meeting the hunter’s burning green gaze.
“What are you talking about, Wolfman?” Tyler demanded.
“Nothing,” Grandpa’s voice was harsh. He’d come up behind Galen was shoving him away towards the fire. “I know what you want, beast,” Grandpa continued, his words dripping with derision, “and I won’t let you or anyone else use it.”
“Even your own kin?” Galen’s question was quiet and steady. He stood his ground facing Grandpa.
Sarah watched the exchange out of the corner of her eye. Galen’s allegation frightened her, but she didn’t know why. What could she do? She looked at Benji lying deathlike on the ground between them. Did it matter? If it could help her brother, shouldn’t she at least try? Without tearing her gaze away from her little brother she asked, “What can I do to help Benji?”
“Absolutely noth—!” Sarah didn’t let her grandfather finish.
“What can I do?” she repeated, catching her grandfather in a steady gaze. He shook his head mutely.
“Tell us,” Tyler interceded, though he once again placed himself in front of her protectively. He glanced back at her with concern, but repeated his stat
Grandpa didn’t answer right away. He gestured for them to sit and they convened near the fire. Galen sat opposite, his visage flickered and shimmered with the flames.
“His soul,” Grandpa said quietly. “The light you saw was his soul.”
“What do you mean ‘his soul’?” Tyler prompted.
Grandpa heaved a sigh that fanned the flames. Sarah watched Galen in her peripheral vision. His face was a mask of stone. She wished her empathic ability connected her to more than centaurs. It would be helpful to know what he was feeling at the moment.
“Exactly that,” Grandpa answered Tyler, “his soul. The essence of being, whatever you want to call it. That white light was a piece of it and that witch was tearing it out of him.”
“Is that why he’s still hurt?” Sarah asked.
Grandpa nodded. “Most probably, since he has no apparent external injuries.”
“So he’s injured internally?” Tyler questioned.
“In a way no medical doctor can fix, yes, I believe so.”
“What does that have to do with Sarah?”
“She’s not a medical doctor,” Grandpa said, “but she is something.”
“Something?” Tyler’s apparent frustration was seeping into his voice. “What kind of something?” Sarah put a restraining hand on her brother’s shoulder. They needed answers, not arguments.
“Tell us plainly, Grandpa,” she requested calmly.
The old man looked at her balefully, like a fading hound. “There are things mysterious even to the magical, even to the Immortals,” he began. He sounded old and his voice creaked and cracked like rotting leather. “One of those things is the soul.” He ran a weary hand through his white cotton hair and rubbed his chin with the other. “It has power, but its exact nature is a puzzle to the most learned. Whatever Benji hoped to receive from Thana, in return he must have agreed to give up some of his soul.” Sarah and Tyler both went tense and he took her hand in a grip that both gave and asked for comfort. “She didn’t get it,” Grandpa assured them. “She was stopped in time. But that kind of thing damages a person, it strains the soul like a pulled muscle or a bad sprain.”
“This is more than just a sprain,” Tyler pointed out.
Grandpa nodded. “I know.” He waved towards Benji. “When the soul gets hurt, even in the smallest of ways, it wounds the spirit and the body. The part of Benji that is Benji is . . .” he searched for words, “. . . concussed, unconscious. I don’t know how to revive someone from that state,” he finished inadequately.
“Then why does Galen say you do?” Sarah countered.
“I don’t know how,” Grandpa answered, “but I know something that does.”
“What?” demanded Tyler. He squeezed Sarah’s hand gently and she squeezed back.
“A being with a pure soul,” Grandpa said. “They are rare, rarer than you can possibly imagine, but they do exist. Most don’t survive for long, though.” He was gruff and began speaking rapidly as if his words were ripping a Band-Aid off quickly to avoid pain. “They’re abilities are largely unknown because the power they wield is so coveted. The only ones I have read about died horrible deaths or became corrupted and vile and had to be . . . expunged from the earth. I’ve only ever known one to live a normal life.” His gaze held tears when addressed the two siblings again. “Your mother.”
“What!?” Tyler exclaimed. He didn’t let go of Sarah’s hand and she kept her grip firm. “What are you talking about?”
Grandpa seemed to age before their eyes in the flickering firelight. Sweat from the heat and humidity creased his face into sagging folds and his hair was becoming slick and slimy with it. “Annalissa Peregrine came to this sanctuary looking for protection. She had no idea what she was. She knew she had a gift, she was good with healing and calming and compassionate to a fault, but none of that seemed very magical to her. But something was after her; she felt it, saw it, had a close encounter with it once and was rapidly indoctrinated into a world where magic exists.”
“Wait a minute,” Tyler interrupted holding up a hand. “Does that mean Grandpa James and Grandma Shirley know? Are they something supernatural?”
Grandpa shook his head. “As far as I’m aware, Annie never told them anything and they’ve got no special abilities. They’re simply humans.” Grandpa picked up the thread of his tale. “When Annie came here,” he said, “she found solace and, unexpectedly, love. She married your father and she took his name along with a bit of magic and effectively went into hiding.”
“How is that possible?” Tyler cried. “Mom never hid from anyone! She lived in the same place for most of her life! She never gave anything up.”
“She didn’t have to,” Grandpa told him. “When she left here, she was already pregnant with you, Tyler. Somehow, that diminished her obvious presence. Even the most adept and inherently magical being in this sanctuary could no longer sense her.”
“So, when I was born, Mom stopped being . . . magic?”
Grandpa shook his head. “You don’t remember this, you were barely crawling then, but right after you were born, Annie and Todd came back here. They needed sanctuary once again because as soon as you arrived, Annie started to . . . others sensed her again. We searched and questioned and researched, but eventually the problem solved itself.”
“How?” Tyler demanded.
“I was born,” Sarah said softly. Tyler was shaking his head, but Grandpa nodded solemnly and continued his story.
“Annie became pregnant again and the same thing happened. She was worried and sick with fear, though. She stayed her term in Mobile and when she went into labor, we were all there with our breath held. But when Sarah was born, Annie remained dormant, so to speak. It was only later, much later, that any of us realized what happened, that Sarah had been given her gift.”
“If that’s true,” Tyler asked, visibly wrestling with Grandpa’s words, “then why hasn’t anything ever come after us, after Sarah?”
“For some reason, like many other beings, the purity didn’t show up until Sarah became a teenager. Annie went most of her life not knowing, so has Sarah.”
“When?” Sarah asked. “When did I . . . show signs?”
“Not until last year,” Grandpa said. “Annie called us in a panic because she sensed it and felt ‘shadows,’ as she called them, following you. We tried to protect you, using what we knew, and your mother found that she could shield you somewhat, but it was only a matter of time.”
“Then she died,” Sarah said abruptly.
“Yes. Annie died. I don’t think the car accident had anything to with this, I don’t believe it was supernatural, but it was horrible timing in more ways than one. When your dad began sensing the trouble a few months ago, he decided to bring you three here. He didn’t know how to deal with this as well as loosing Annie.”
“You can say that again,” Tyler muttered. “You still haven’t gotten to the part where Sarah can help Benji.”
“Mom could heal, that must be why she went into nursing,” Sarah said thoughtfully. “Do you think I can to?”
“I know you can,” Grandpa said. “It is one of the only strongly documented abilities of a Pure One. But you don’t know how and it’s more dangerous than you realize. You could end up hurting your own soul rather than healing Benji’s.”
“But I should try,” Sarah said with quiet conviction. “I can’t just let him lie there. I can feel something terrible is wrong.”
“I don’t know . . .,” Tyler turned to her. “This isn’t something I understand, but I’m more than sure it’s dangerous. Maybe we should get Benji home and then try to find someone . . . qualified.” He looked questioningly at Grandpa.
“Is there someone qualified?” Sarah asked. Grandpa opened his mouth as if to speak, but just shook his head. The message was clear enough: there was no one else.
“Do you know what I can do to help Benji?” Sarah addressed Galen through the embers of the cam
“Don’t trust anything he says,” Grandpa interrupted hotly. “He’s a power monger and likely among your enemies, not your friends.”
Sarah ignored him for the moment, waiting for Galen’s answer. The hunter regarded her gravely. “It is said that a Pure One can heal the body, the mind, the soul and free the spirit,” he said.
“How?” Sarah asked.
“Trust your instincts,” he replied, standing and coming around the fire.
Sarah took his extended hand and let him help her stand, releasing Tyler from her grip. She moved toward Benji, still lying motionless on the ground, but Grandpa stopped her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and looked fiercely into her eyes.
“You can’t,” he protested. “You’re not well, yourself,” he said gesturing to the back of her head. “We don’t know what will happen to you or Benji if you try this.” Tyler stepped in and pulled Sarah out of Grandpa’s grasp.
“Can you do this?” he asked her soberly.
“I don’t know,” she answered truthfully, “but I have to try. I don’t think there’s time to wait. I feel like he needs my help.” Tyler nodded and went with Sarah to Benji’s side. She knelt over her little brother and reached out to him.
“You could die or worse!” Grandpa insisted from behind her.
She glanced backwards and saw Grandpa trying to reach for her, but Galen blocked him and holding tightly to his shoulder. She met the hunter’s gaze. His eyes were noticeably green even in the dark. He nodded at her. She gave them both a reassuring smile and smothered her own fear. Sarah placed her hands over the wound on Benji’s chest and closed her eyes.
*****
Chapter 31: Healing