Chapter 8

Lily hurried to the cabin as the skunk had instructed. He had warned her there were others in the forest with them that day, though he didn't believe they had been discovered. "That was a little closer than I care to imagine," she admitted.

"I agree, my lady. We need to exercise more care in the future."

"I am sorry. I had forgotten everything else when he arrived. He is so beautiful. I think I am in love with him. Is that strange?

"Nay, my young Lily. Tis not strange at all. You were meant to love that boy." He waddled into the living area and crawled up on the couch.

"How would you know who I am meant to love? Have you met him before? Are you some kind of seer or fortune teller? I think I would believe just about anything right about now."

"I cannot reveal all I know or how I know it. It's against the law we animals submit to. I can tell you that he is your destiny, though many trials lie in your path to him. I fear you will suffer much together but it may be necessary to right the great wrong that has been done."

"What wrong has been done? What can I do to fix anything? I don't know anyone other than Papa and Toame." Lily was confused at the skunk's words. She was young and sheltered from the world. She couldn't see how she could do anything for anyone.

"You know enough and more will be revealed in time. For now, keep your secrets and remember your dreams for they will teach more than any one else." Jacque curled up into a ball on the couch as if to nap. "Your father comes, child." He closed his eyes and spoke no more.

She put the day's events in the back of her mind and prepared a meal for her father.

***

Lily tossed in her sleep unable to find true rest. The skunk's words haunted her as did the flowerless roses of Toame's report. Her mind began to take her on a journey through the past. She fought it at first then relaxed when she remembered Jacque's advice about her dreams teaching her things she needed. She took a deep breath and muttered a foreign word she did not understand.

She opened her eyes to find what appeared to be her father walking along the road to the village. He was younger and happier. On his arm was a tall woman heavy with child with a toddler held in her arms. The woman looked just like her. 'Mother?' she thought. The woman glanced her way and gave her a nod. With her eyes she gestured for Lily to look around. Lily obeyed and panned the landscape. She thought she saw something move in the distance but couldn't be sure.

A light flashed through the sky and she shielded her eyes from its brightness. As it subsided she found herself in a familiar place though she had never been there before. It was the medicine man's shop. The small room was lined with shelves that housed various tonics and mixes used for the variety of human ailments the villagers could fall prey to. She could hear a voice speaking at a whisper in the back room. She crept through the small shop to the rear and peeked through the door. She saw a small woman of modest appearance crying over a small cauldron. She was shorter than her father but a little rounder in the middle. She had long blonde hair and green eyes. She was speaking the whispers to herself while creating a concoction in her cauldron. "He should have loved me. I've waited for him for years and this is how he repays my loyalty and patience? I'll show him though. I will prove to him that I am the one he should have married. His beautiful bride will not survive this day." An evil smile came across the woman's lips as she plotted the murder of a young bride. She picked up a bottle of red wine and some other tonics to add to the cauldron. As she stirred the brew she giggled at the thought of the young bride's demise. "Her beauty will not save her." She poured the brew into an ale keg and rolled it into the bar next to the shop. In the bar there were several men, local and traveler alike. She offered them free drink and so they drank of her concoction until not a drop was left.

'What young bride has caused this woman her insanity?' Lily wondered. In an instant she was back on the road with her parents. She watched in horror as the men from the bar attacked them. She tried to scream at them but they could not hear her. She tried to stop them but she could not reach them. Her mother uttered some words she did not understand and the baby she had been carrying had vanished in a flash of light. Her father was struck in the head by one of the men with the butt of a gun. Her mother was grabbed from behind by one man as another pierced her heart with a strange curved blade. Though Lily tried to wake up, help and scream but she could do nothing but stand by and watch in disbelief and horror. Tears were streaming down her face as she absently called for her mother. The man with the blade carried her body to where her husband lay and laid her nearby to make sure he could find her, careful to leave the blade in her body.

Lily buried her face in her hands and wept. She forced herself to look once again at the scene only to find herself back in the shop. Her father was there buying some tonics for his injuries. The same blonde woman she had seen make the potion for those men was behind the counter. "I am so sorry to hear what happened to your wife and child," she slithered through her lying tongue.

"Thank you, Amri. I appreciate your condolences. How much do I owe for the medicine?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. It the least I could do for you in this time of need." She smiled and batted her eyes at him.

"Thank you." He nodded at her and retreated to his horse.

"Now he has no excuse not to marry me." Amri chuckled aloud to herself. Lily could feel hatred begin to swell in her heart.

She awoke to find herself in her room in her own time. She closed her eyes and tried to see her mother again but couldn't see anything but the blackness of her eyelids.

"Forget it child." said Jacque. "You have allowed hatred to fill your heart, thus stopping the magic's power."

"But she killed my mother. Just so she could marry my father. How can that not make me angry?"

"Be angry, for anger can father action. But hatred is a poison and can offer no good."

"Does Papa know about her?"

"I am afraid he does not. It is a truth he must learn from those who wronged him. Only then will he be able to forgive his attackers and let his wife rest and find peace."

"So I cannot tell him what I have learned this night?"

"That is so, my lady."

"What manner of magic can you master? You have given me the past in way I thought not possible before."

"I know no magic, my lady. The magic is yours," he said.

"Mine? How is it true?"

"Your mother was a magic weaver. Her gifts are yours."

"I thought that was only for the elves. At least that is what is written in that book you knocked off the shelf."

"Tis true. All the magic weavers in the world have been elf-kind, but not all elves have been magic weavers. That is where the book is wrong."

"But I am not an elf."

"Yes, you are. That is why my mother sent me to live with you. I was to watch you for the right time to reveal your true identity."

"I am human, Jacque. My father is human."

"Your mother was an elf. It makes no difference what your father is. The magic weavers are gifted with deep, dark blue eyes and beauty that exceeds even the most exquisite beings. You carry both of those qualities. They are chosen by the Great Spirit of the forest because of their pure and loving heart. The magic cannot work through evil which is why it stopped when you let hatred into your heart. Hatred, greed, fear and jealousy are evil traits and cannot coexist with the magic."

"Then I shall rid myself of hatred. What must I do?"

"When you can think of Amri without wishing her harm, then you will have purged the hatred from your heart," said Jacque. He waddled to the foot of her bed and curled up to sleep. "Sleep now, child. You have much to learn tomorrow."

Lily laid her head down and wept into her pillow at the loss of her mother's life, the loss of her father's happiness and most all at the loss of Amri's soul.