The Sentinels of Eden, Books 1-4

Chapter 40

Chapter 35

Like the first shocking gasp of a cold shower on a sweaty day, my entire body felt washed clean and crisp as we crossed out of our world. I felt as though I had suddenly woken up, and whatever I had been dreaming of mere seconds beforehand had become completely obsolete. I caught my breath as the valley opened up below us, shining joyfully in the bright sun.

Instead of the expected sound of the wind roaring in my ears as the air rushed past, it was actually very quiet and serene. Gently Noah leant to the right and the glider started to turn. The view was overwhelmingly magnificent. It was a good thing there was not much Noah needed to do to keep us safe, because everything around us was really distracting. Everywhere I looked there was something amazing to see. A wedge-tailed eagle soared ahead of us, as if guiding the way. In fact, there were so many birds in the sky that I was grateful the eagle was there to keep them away. The last thing we needed was to land in Paradise covered in snarge.

As we circled back towards the cliff I could see how different Eden was from the world we knew. The bright snow-topped mountains to the north eased down to a wide grassy plain, but the cliff blocked the rest of the view. I stretched my neck to see where the River cut through the cliff to the south, wide and sparkling and sapphire blue. Easily the most brilliant and captivating treasure amongst a wealth of stunning images, it made the river back home look like a pathetic brown streamlet.

Noah craned his head back to me and laughed. ‘You can stop strangling my shoulder now, Lainie, the hard part’s done. So what do you think of flying?’

We were strapped in not quite side-by-side, and so I let go of his T-shirt and rested my chin on his shoulder instead. ‘Why haven’t I done this before? You should have told me,’ I accused. ‘This is brilliant! It’s nothing like I expected … it feels so natural.’ As he laughed I was hit with a sudden insight. ‘Do you think maybe Cherubim are supposed to fly? Maybe it’s like a primal instinct. Maybe when we die we’ll revert back to our natural form and do this all the time. I hope so. I could definitely get used to this.’ All my nervous anticipation had dissolved away like a snowflake in the sun and I was feeling utterly euphoric.

Noah let go of the bar and I glared at him in a panic. Had he lost his mind? Become so overwhelmed by the transition across the boundary that he had forgotten he had to steer?

‘Have a go. It’s easy.’

I grabbed the bar in a death grip.

‘Just lean the way you want to turn.’

I leant. We turned. I let out a not so quiet ‘woo-hoo’. It really was very simple and Noah’s laugh was contagious.

My eyes drank in all the sights, desperately trying to absorb all the details. I felt as if we could just fly over to the mountains and land on a snowy outcrop, or dive down and skim the surface of the lake to the west. I could see herds of grazing animals down below, completely unaware of our presence. Part of me couldn’t wait to get down there, but at the same time I wanted to keep flying forever.

After a few minutes Noah took back the controls and let the glider circle gradually down, making minor adjustments as he began to aim for the landing site.

‘Lainie, can I ask you something?’

Great. I had thought this might happen. ‘I guess so. Now is the time, I can hardly go storming off if you offend me, can I?’

He smiled an evil little smile. ‘Why are you so reluctant to admit you have feelings for Bane? Surely you can see he’s smitten with you, so it can’t be the good old fear of rejection stopping you. What’s the problem, exactly?’

Good gracious. Straight to the point. The razor sharp pointy point. He looked at me with his blazing green eyes and turned on his most dazzling dimpled smile. He knew perfectly well he could get away with trampling my most personal barriers when he did that, and I gave in and fell for it, as usual. Maybe it was because we were in Eden, and my inhibitions were as lost as a lamb in a gully, or maybe I had just had enough of trying to protect other people’s feelings, but all I knew was that I wanted desperately to tell my best friend everything. The whole truth, for better or worse. So I thought for a few moments.

‘I don’t trust it,’ I admitted. ‘I don’t trust his feelings. I mean, look at him, Noah. As if someone like him would ever fall for someone like me under normal circumstances. I should probably just count my lucky stars and make the most of it, but that would be horribly unfair to him. Imagine if I’d done that with you? Any girl in town would have given their right arm for an opportunity to get as close to you as I did. Imagine if I’d taken advantage of that?’ I had a vague far off feeling that I was saying way too much, but I couldn’t seem to remember why.

‘I don’t understand. Are you saying you would have gone out with me if I’d asked?’ His emerald eyes searched mine.

‘Hell, yeah! I’ve loved you ever since I can remember. But I would never do that to you. So no.’

He looked even more confused than I was. My brain was fuzzy. Was it the altitude or just Eden?

‘What if I asked now?’

I looked at him. ‘Do you mean hypothetically or are you asking me out?’

‘Maybe that depends on your answer,’ he replied, sounding unsure himself.

I thought for a few long seconds. ‘No. I wouldn’t. Everything’s different now. We had our chance, and neither of us took it. There has to be a reason for that.’

He nodded. And I nodded. At least now we knew.

Harry had chosen a nice clear landing site for us near a loop in the River. It was easy to locate, which was a relief given that he couldn’t even draw us a map. Finally I spotted him, waving his arms above his head. Noah eased the glider towards him and released our legs from the harness. I relaxed my legs like he had instructed me, even though I felt as though the ground was about to punish me for leaving it. Noah pushed the bar out slowly and the glider flared into an upright position. We slowed so gently to a stop that I hardly needed to take a single step. A bit of an anticlimax, really. Just the way I wanted it.

Noah started to unstrap my harness for me, but then Harry reached us and caught us both in a massive hug that was rougher than our landing. It was unlike him, and it felt wonderful, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

‘I’ve missed you, Harry!’ I cried, tangling everything to hug him back.

‘Sorry I left you,’ he apologised, looking almost teary. He helped to extricate us from all the straps. ‘You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this moment. How was your flight?’

‘Exhilarating! I want to go again!’

‘Beware flight addiction,’ Noah said sagely. Like he was one to talk. I punched him on the shoulder. ‘Ow! What was that for?’

‘For not taking me up sooner,’ I grumbled, shaking out my helmet hair and choosing to ignore the fact that I had been too stingy with my money to accept any of his previous invites. He just shook his head at me and continued to dismantle his rig. Now that we had landed it was easy to let go of the melancholy we had experienced earlier. There was far too much here to distract us.

Actually, I was impressed with his ability to focus on the task. I was impatient to have a proper look around, but I also knew it would be best to pack the glider away before too many of the locals saw it. Already I noticed a man coming towards us with a curious expression on his face. He had long dark curly hair and large brown eyes. Everything about him looked innocent, with none of the defensive or cynical body language that most people our age had developed. It made him look very young, despite his short beard.

He greeted Harry with a funny looking wave. ‘Like a … bird,’ he said, flapping his wrists to demonstrate. ‘Can I do it?’

‘Not today.’

The man didn’t argue, or follow, as the three of us lifted the gear and walked away from the clearing. I whispered in Harry’s ear. ‘Aren’t you afraid he might experiment and get hurt?’

He laughed. ‘You have a lot to learn about Eden. You can’t get hurt here. Unless you want to.’

‘And how does that work exactly?’ Noah beat me to the question.

‘See those trees? The giant ones with the yellow fruit?’

They were everywhere, and they were easily the most beautiful species of tree I had ever seen. We walked over to the nearest one to examine it more closely. It had a massive silver trunk and long willowy branches that started high over our heads but were weighed down with clusters of golden fruit, each about the size of a peach. The leaves looked grey-green and feathery, and they smelled spicy and minty and intoxicating.

‘The Tree of Life grows on each side of the River,’ Harry explained.

Wow. I had assumed there was only the one. I’d never expected the Tree of Life to refer to a whole species. What about the other tree? The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? Was the damage already done or would there be dire consequences if I accidentally ate the wrong thing?

‘The way I understand it,’ he continued, ‘is that the Fruit contains something fundamental to life itself. Eating it heals everything that’s physically wrong with you. It can even resurrect the dead.’ He reached out a trembling hand as if to stroke one of them, but stopped just a few centimetres from it. ‘I think it might even do more than that. I believe that eating it makes you forget all sadness, all worries, and all grief.’ He exhaled and drew his hand away. ‘It’s like the perfect drug. It gives instant pain relief, instant healing and makes you feel good. Apparently you can remember that you were hurt but you just can’t quite remember what hurting felt like. And there are no real side effects. It even stops you from ageing. It’s 100% good for you.’

I looked at him dubiously. ‘So why won’t you touch it?’

His fingers twitched slightly, but he drew them away. ‘Because I’m choosing to remember some things that aren’t good for me,’ he said drolly.

‘Did my mother eat the Fruit? Is that why she went crazy?’

His reply was too sharp for such a serene setting. ‘She’s not crazy. This place changes you, but she’s not crazy. And she only started eating from the Tree recently.’ He tucked his hands under his elbows. ‘All of Kolsom’s recent mucking around nearby awakened compulsions in her that she didn’t know how to handle, so she chose to forget instead.’ He turned to look at me directly. ‘She’s here, Lainie, and she knows you’re coming. I expect she’ll come and find us at some point …’

I could sense his hesitation. ‘But, you don’t think she’ll remember me?’ I guessed.

‘She remembers you as a baby. She might not believe it’s you. She still insists that you’re dead.’

Lost in thought, I stumbled along behind him as he wove his way through a herd of grazing antelope-like creatures. What was I supposed to say to her? I felt as if I should be nervous about meeting her, but it was difficult to feel nervous about anything here. Besides, our first priority was to get to the cave. We had to let Bane and Tessa know we were all right. And hide the glider. And then work out how to get home. At some point. Only problem was, Noah had just put down his end of the glider and had started to climb a tree.

‘Wow, Lainie, you should try this. Look how high I’m getting!’

Harry just shook his head. ‘Noah!’ he called enticingly. ‘Tessa would like to see you. Please come down so we can go to the cave.’

‘Right. Tessa. She wants to see us. I’ll come down.’

I watched him climb down, making the branches shake and drop spinning seedpods. It did look kind of fun. Harry glared at me sternly. Right. I had to keep my mind on the job. It was important that we got to the cave as quickly as possible—just as soon as I had a drink of water from the River.

It must have taken a good hour for Harry to coax us all the way to the cave. Luckily we didn’t see any other people. I wouldn’t have known what to say.

‘Harry, how is it that the people here speak English?’

‘They don’t. They communicate mostly in sign language but they learn fast. I’ve only spoken to that man twice before. He was interested in my language so I spent some time teaching him. He remembers everything.’

Mentally I berated myself for making the assumption that the young man must have been a bit slow-witted because he hardly spoke, when really the opposite was true. We shouldn’t have taken so long to get the glider out of sight. I hurried the rest of the way to the cave entrance, relaxing only when we entered the chilly tunnel.

This side of the cave system was much the same as the other, except that there was a lot more light, so the sparkling glitter of the stalactites was even more beautiful than on the Nalong side. Even the walls looked like they were made from thousands of miniscule Christmas lights. Everything was enhanced here. It even smelled better. Like chalk mixed with marble and ancient secrets. The walls felt so smooth and cool, and tiny bright-winged insects flitted about like they were dancing …

Harry gripped my hand and dragged me along. Poor Harry. It must have been like trying to herd sheep, keeping Noah and me on track. It was difficult enough to get the long glider through the winding tunnel even when we were paying attention.

Eventually we rounded a corner and I felt the hot blast from the sword. Able now to see it close up in its full glory, I stood and stared at the entrancing way the bronze and golden flames curled delicately around its white glittering edges. It was so beautiful.

Harry put down his end of the glider and eased his way past the giant weapon, shielding his face from the heat. He disappeared mid-step.

Bane would be close. Just on the other side of the boundary. A smile crept over my face and my blood started racing in anticipation of seeing him again. It had only been a couple of hours, but I missed him so much. Part of my brain told me I should stop thinking like that, but I couldn’t work out why. Why shouldn’t I admit to myself that I missed him? I wanted to see him. Immediately. Rushing past the sword, ignoring the sting of the heat on my cheek and brow, I felt my skin tingle as I crossed the Event Horizon. Suddenly I saw a gap in the wall beyond, which hadn’t been there a second ago because it only existed on one side of the boundary. Bane’s face was crammed into the hole in the rocks and I laughed openly at the expression on his face. I needed to kiss him and tell him not to look so worried. I took two quick steps but then stopped as if I had been slapped. What was I doing? No kissing! That wasn’t the plan. I wanted him to forget me for a while, didn’t I? Two hours was nowhere near enough time for him to really think things through.

‘I’m here. We made it, no problems. Everything’s fine. Sorry we took so long,’ I said, trying to disguise my internal confusion.

He threw me a relieved grin. ‘Actually, we only just made it here ourselves. Tessa has great reflexes but she’s never ridden a dirt bike before, and her wrist is still a bit tender, so we had to take it slow coming down from the ridge.’

He hid his frustration well. I could imagine him trying hard not to rush her.

‘And now you know we’re okay, will you leave?’ I asked, trying not to sound wistful.

He shook his head. ‘It’s not necessary. I know what I feel. I really would be much more comfortable staying here in case you need me.’

‘Trust me, I don’t need any help right now. This place is … Anyway, you promised. You have to get away from here. At least for a few days. Please, Bane.’

He took a deep breath. ‘Two days. And after that, when you come home, don’t make me leave again.’

‘Unless you want to.’

‘Unless I want to,’ he conceded.

I gave him my most reassuring smile and melted back across the boundary.

Noah passed me as he crossed over to talk to Tessa. I was a little nervous about what he would say to her, thinking of the conversation we’d had during our flight, but as soon as I re-entered Eden the thought was lost. It was time to explore.