Chapter 9

The next morning, Jessie busied herself with painting and weeding, just waiting for the moment when her parents would have to go into town. She felt a sick delight knowing she'd been restricted to the very place she actually wanted to be; because once they were gone, she took the keys off the hook and made her way quickly up to the third floor, where, sure enough, there stood the numberless door.

Behind that door was a world she knew nothing about, except that someone needed her.

Sliding the big skeleton key in the door, she felt a same surge of adrenaline. She was excited and trembling with anticipation. Now, if only she could remember where she was going and what she was seeing, she could understand and appreciate whatever she was supposed to be doing.

Opening the door, Jessie was not surprised to see the forest before her. She stepped into the room which immediately transformed from an old, dusty bedroom to the oak grove she had seen before. Glancing down at her clothes, she was no longer surprised to be wearing the white hooded robe. Looking about her, she recognized this as the Sacred Place, but she couldn't remember...

Remember.

Cate gathered her robe around her and quickly made her way through the forest. She'd been gone longer than she realized. The dawn was breaking through the trees and there was no bonfire to guide her. Still, she knew these woods better than she knew the paths of Fennel because she had grown up in them. It was here, with her brother, Liam, where she'd learned how to wield the long sword and to protect herself with a shield. Liam had been such a wonderful brother and she ached for him daily. He, more than anyone she knew, would understand why she was doing what had to be done.

No, he hadn't understood her decision to become a Druid priestess, but that was because he'd half convinced her that she would be a warrior by his side. That women fought battles next to their brothers, sons, and husbands, was one of the anomalies that puzzled the Romans occupying much of Britannia, for Roman women had no rights like those of the Silurians, the Ordovices, and the Iceni, not to mention all of the women in Alba.

Cate did not wish to think about the oppressive customs of the people who were now governing most of the country. The Romans did not understand them, and they never would. The Romans were a people who conquered and turned whole societies into Roman culture. It had been their way for hundreds of years, and only Britannia had managed to resist.

But times were changing, and the Roman governor Suetonius Paulinus wanted to make a name for himself by conquering the people who had managed, thus far, to preserve their own traditions and customs even in the midst of Roman occupation. He was a danger to them all, in particular to the Druids, whom he saw as a threat to his power. Liam had paid the ultimate price in protecting Fennel from Roman occupation, as did many other young men who saw themselves as the protectorate of the Silurians. He had died for his beliefs, and oh, how she had grieved his death. Not a day went by that she didn't think about him.

As she came to the clearing, she saw Maeve and Lachlan sitting and leaning against two large boulders which had stood there for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Both were sound asleep, and Cate suddenly felt the exhaustion that had come over her the first time she had slipped through.

Lying next to Maeve, Cate closed her eyes and instantly fell asleep. The dream that came to her was far more than fantasy. In it, a young red-haired girl struggled beneath the weight of a truth that someone older and wiser than she would be able to grasp. In it, she saw herself, as a young woman, trying desperately to recall memories from the temple of her soul. But this was such a different world than Cate's world. Dishonesty, distrust, corruption, and a complete lack of morals and ethics pervaded this culture. Had it learned nothing from the past? People no longer lived in clans, but were separated from each other with walls and fences, religion and race, money and poverty. It was sad, really, how advanced a people could be and yet, still manage to maintain their barbaric ways. So much had changed and so little had changed, at least from what she could tell from the meager memories of a seventeen-year old. While the physical environment had certainly changed, people still condemned that which they did not understand, races could not cohabitate peacefully together, and the wealthy still made their own rules. How odd that so much time would go by and there be so little change in the soul of mankind.

With one huge exception.

The many Gods and Goddesses who guided her and her fellow Druids had been replaced by the God of the Jews and the man some called Jesus. He had been just another victim of Roman persecution, but in the future, he was the only God Cate could see. What had happened to Brigit, Danu, and Morgan? What had happened to the Norse Gods, to the Romans' own Venus and Apollo? What catastrophe had occurred that people relinquished their deities to one god?

In her sleep, Cate shivered.

It was no wonder then, that the body housing her soul so far into the future should feel so hollow, so disengaged, and so very, very alone. The young girl wasn't even remotely connected to the land. No one was. The land had been used up, annihilated, as it were. It was no wonder the people were so miserable; they had lost their Gods and Goddesses and had no reverence for the life-giving, life-sustaining land.

Cate could feel Jessie's spirit reaching out to the land, whether it was a conscious act or not. She was beginning to notice the smell of pine, the scent of the salty sea air, and the feel of sand beneath her feet. Somewhere in the back of Jessie's mind, she was beginning to remember who she was. Some of Cate's passions were coming through to Jessie now, whether Jessie knew it or not. The thought delighted Cate. Jessie was beginning to remember. She would be fine. They would connect in the Dreamworld, and Maeve would be saved.

Maeve.

Would Jessie remember? Would she feel within her the eternal love and lasting friendship that had endured all these years? Would Jessie be able to comprehend a time when caring for others was more important than meeting her own needs?

Cate could only hope so.

Sitting up slowly, Cate brushed off the last vestiges of her dream, along with several dry sticks and twigs, only to find Maeve and Lachlan staring at her in anticipation.

"You're back," Maeve said softly. Reaching out, she pulled a dried leaf from Cate's hair.

Cate nodded. "I had to rest. It is very tiring to go through the portal."

"You were talking in your sleep," Maeve explained, cutting a hard look to the impatient Lachlan. No one but Maeve could still the head Druid with but a look. "Do you remember your dream?"

Cate sat up a bit more, her robe askew. "It was no dream, Maeve. It was a memory in the form of a dream."

"Are you certain?"

Cate nodded. "I am."

"Was it a dream of Jessie's?"

Cate's eyes grew wide. "Yes!"

"You spoke her name. She is a she?"

"Yes."

Lachlan bit his lip so hard it nearly bled, but he managed to still his tongue.

Maeve glanced over at Lachlan and shook her head. "We will not pressure her, Lachlan. That was our compromise long ago. If she needs to eat-"

"No, Maeve. I can tell you along the way." Rising, Cate readjusted her robe, but left her hood off. "The future is a hardened place with little joy. The Goddesses are all gone, there are no ties to the earth, and people appear to be caught up in this whirlwind of trade and ownership. They seem almost enslaved by things. It is odd to feel Jessie's thoughts of things. She is-she does not quite belong."

Maeve and Lachlan exchanged glances. "So, you are remembering?" Lachlan said, hope in his voice.

Sending forth a successful quester had been his sole purpose these past ten years. He had been searching for a Druid who could go into the future to save them from the destruction that his mother had foreseen. She had known it, had known it for a very long time, but Lachlan had never hoped, never imagined he would find their answer in the likes of Cate. He had always thought it would be Maeve; she was the most powerful of them all, but even she did not have the power that Cate had shown. He had found the one who could do what even his mother had failed to do.

"She is very young, our girl. I do not know that she is-that I am... Oh, but this is all so very confusing."

Lachlan reached out and gingerly took Cate's hand. It was the gentlest gesture he had ever made toward her. "Think of them as memories shared from a friend. The house for your soul is different in every time, during every age, but your memories remain with your eternal soul. This Jessie is you, but there are so many memories your spirit has gathered from the you that exists now to the you that existed then."

Maeve nodded. "Think of her as a sister. Once she remembers you and her destiny, this will not feel so strange or awkward."

Cate studied the sunlight as it streamed through the leaves of the great oaks and landed on the grove floor. She wondered if Jessie appreciated the beauty of the sun, the peacefulness of the forest, the strength of the eagle's call. She hoped so. She hoped that, somewhere in the far reaches of Jessie's spirit, she could recall a time when the earth was sacred and powerful.

"You do not understand, Lachlan. I am there, inside her, but I am invisible. The people of her time are so completely dispirited, so devoid of any connection to nature and to themselves, that they cannot hear their past memories. Jessie cannot connect, at least not on her own." Cate frowned, thinking about her dream. "But there is a sage working with her."

Lachlan and Maeve said in unison, "A sage?"

Cate nodded and shielded her eyes from the sun. Something with ephemeral wings hovered just outside sun beam. "I believe that is her role. She is helping Jessie understand. I believe she is a seer."

"This woman-does she know what is happening?"

Shrugging, Cate tried to ignore the growling in her stomach. "I am unsure what she knows, but she is very wise and very patient. Her presence is a strong one."

Lachlan nodded. "The future has lost our Goddesses, yet retained seers? Do the villages hold her in high regard?"

"Oh no, not at all. They believe her to be addled, but then, there is little belief in anything of any import. They are a very sad people, to be sure."

Maeve draped her arm across Cate's shoulders. "You remember much this day."

Cate nodded. "It was the dream. I believe my spirit opens up to hear and see those things I experience when I go to Jessie's world, a world that values possessions over all else. It is a cold, black void, that future."

They walked through the forest toward the center of town, each wrapped in a cloak of their own thoughts until Maeve quietly asked, "Catie, when you return to the Sacred Place and carry within you your soul's memory those parts of Jessie's life, do you feel her within you?"

"You mean, do I bring her back with me?"

Both looked to Lachlan for an explanation of both the question and the answer. He lowered his hood and stared at one and then the other. "Cate's soul exists in this time with her body. It remembers the future because we sent her soul to retrieve information that could save us. Upon return, though, her soul is still housed in this body at this time, with memories from both the present and the future. Just as this Jessie should be able to recall bits and pieces of her past, so, too, do you recall bits and pieces of Jessie's future."

"Then she is not with me."

Lachlan shook his head. "No. Though it may feel that way at times, there is only one soul in one time. She and your soul exist outside of our time."

Maeve turned to Lachlan and asked the question she had wanted to ask many times before, but only now had found the courage to hear the answer. "What happens to Cate's body while her soul slips through the portal?"

Lachlan averted his eyes from Maeve's. "It is stagnate. It remains alive but without a conscience guiding it."

Maeve rose on her toes like a mother bear rises in defending her young. "You told me there would be no danger to her! Damn, you, Lachlan, you promised me!"

"And there is not."

Cate touched Maeve's shoulder. "He is right, Maeve. I am not in any danger."

Maeve silenced them both with her glare. "Catie is alone in the forest, unable to protect herself, and you are telling me she is not in any danger? Do I look like a fool, Lachlan?"

Lachlan laid his hand on Maeve's other shoulder. "Cate was well aware of the risks she made when she volunteered."

Maeve turned on Cate. "You knew?"

Cate looked away and nodded.

"Then why? How could you?"

Cate stole a look to Lachlan, who looked away.

"To save the people I love, the land we need, and the deities we speak with," Cate declared. "It is my gift to see, Maeve, and with that gift comes duties. You of all people know as much. It was you who taught me!"

Maeve waved her off. "I did not mean for your duty to be a sacrificial one, Catie. I...need you here with me. I did not come all the way from Gaul to find you, only to lose you in what could very well be a pitiful attempt at preserving lives destined to be lost."

"No!" Lachlan's voice was harsh and cutting. "I will not stand here and listen to you talk her out of what may be the most important act of her life."

"To die? Is that what you'd call an important act, Lachlan? Have you so easily forgotten that it is our jobs to preserve and revere life?"

"I have not."

"Then how could you send her to-"

"Maeve." Cate's voice was barely above a whisper, but its stillness got Maeve's attention. "It is my choice. It is something I want to do. It is my destiny." Cate looked up into Maeve's gray eyes. How could she tell her that it was to save her from the ugliness both Lachlan and Cate had foreseen? Maeve was brave to a fault, and would demand they stop this at once, but that was something neither Cate nor Lachlan intended to do.

Maeve stepped far enough away from them both that their hands fell off her shoulders. "If anything happens to her, Lachlan, you and I will enter a dark place the likes of which you have never experienced." Maeve's voice was cold and exact.

"We shall not lose her, Maeve."

"Do I have your word on that?"

Lachlan glanced over at Cate before shaking his head. "The Goddesses shall do what they see fit. I believe Cate is in good hands."

"I would prefer it if she were in mine, but since it is apparent the two of you have planned this from the start, I have no other choice but to let her continue. Just mark my words, Lachlan, if Catie ever goes in there and does not return, both you and I will go after her. Am I understood?"

Nodding, Lachlan sighed loudly. "Understood."

"Good." Then to Cate, "I have always known when you are keeping something from me, little one. It is not in your best interest to hide yourself from me." Maeve reached out and softly stroked Cate's cheek. "I have found you in many of our lives, Catie, but in this life, I would prefer not losing you once more."

Cate's stomach growled loudly. "Do you think it even possible that I could hide anything from you?"

Maeve stared into Cate's eyes and nodded. "It is not impossible. You have grown into a very fine priestess. There is much you can do now. Keeping secrets from me, however, is not one of them."

Cate's stomach growled again. "I do understand, and you must rest assured that I would never risk being away from you. Not in this life or any other."

Pulling Cate to her, Maeve kissed the top of her head and inhaled her essence. "First, food, then sleep, but after that, Catie, you and I are going to have an understanding."

Nodding, Cate felt Lachlan tighten up next to her, and she knew why. There appeared to be only one thing to understand: the Roman governor was coming, and few of the Silurians would live to tell about it.