The Secret of Namana (The Arnaka Saga Book 2) Read online

  For the second time that morning, they headed toward Sina’s bedroom in search of Tahn. When the twins knocked on the door this time, Tahn himself opened it. A worn wooden chair faced the outside. Tahn had been staring out the only window in the room. Sina was unchanged. She still appeared to sleep beneath the gauze-like bandage that protected the open wound on her head.

  Tahn looked at the twins expectantly, but with concern in his eyes. He had been debating what to do about the parchment he hid on his person when the knock interrupted his thoughts. Was he right not to read it? Was this the way to keep everyone at the temple safest? Or was the final prophecy so important that it was a mistake not to read it? He could do nothing to aid in or impede the final prophecy’s fulfillment unless he knew its content.

  He stepped aside to allow Ashta and Anak to enter the room. Tahn was familiar with Dann’s well-known prophecy of the golden children, and he knew that Master Kaanra fervently believed the woman and man standing before him now were the twins of this prophecy. But Tahn did not know what this meant in relation to the final prophecy he now concealed as its protector.

  Tahn was distracted by his thoughts. Ashta and Anak glanced at each other. They could sense that something was going on, but what?

  “Master,” Ashta began, “are you feeling well?” He looked unusually inattentive.

  “What?” Tahn asked. He had been further away than he thought and did not hear Ashta’s question. It was a disturbance in the vibrations of sound that made him realize he had missed something.

  “Master Tahn,” Ashta said again, “are you well? Can we do something for you?”

  Tahn shook his head. “No, no. It is I who wonder if there is something that I should do for you.”

  As if he suddenly realized it was they who had come to him, he asked, “But why is it that you have come seeking me?”

  “We came to speak with you,” Anak said. “We believe it is already time for us to leave again. There is too much unsettled for us to remain here any longer. There are those that need our help.”

  “I see,” Tahn said. “And where will you go?”

  “We do not know yet. All we know is that we must leave,” Anak said.

  “Do you know where Master Kaanra has gone?” Ashta asked.

  Again, Tahn shook his head. He did not know. No one at the temple knew.

  And it was then that Tahn found the answer to his quandary. The twins should not discover the content of the final prophecy, and neither should he. There would be a time when they would all need to know, but that time had not yet come. As to the doman, however, well, that was different.

  “I do not know where Master Kaanra has gone, but I do know what he has left in search of. I can tell you of the doman.”

  As those words left Tahn’s lips, Sina stirred and groaned. Her movement and sound were faint, but they all heard them, and Tahn rushed to her side. She had not woken, but she was beginning to rouse from her deep sleep.

  Consumed with his patient, Tahn looked up at Ashta and Anak while he fussed over Sina on the bed.

  “Come to me tomorrow morning. We will talk then.”

  Ashta felt a sudden knowingness come over her. They should talk now, not tomorrow. But she did not question the master. Instead, the twins slipped quietly out of the room.

  -----

  Elena slipped back into the tent before Marco could have a chance to worry about her. She wanted him to rest and not abandon the warmth of his sleeping bag in search of her. Elena enjoyed those moments when Marco was waking, but not fully alert; there was an additional openness to him, a tenderness that was more apparent than in wakeful hours.

  She sidled up to him, she on top of her sleeping bag, he still zipped into his. She nestled her head on his shoulder and let herself be. A conflicting range of emotions had been simmering within her since the battle at Marian’s compound. She pushed to be even more honest with herself, and she realized that a similar range of emotions had been coursing through her since first arriving in Sedona. She felt both scared and strong at the same time. That shouldn’t be possible, she thought, but it was.

  She was more herself now than she had ever been before. She was stronger, wiser, and closer to becoming the person she knew she was meant to be. But that strength and wisdom also showed her how much she still had to grow and learn.

  The scope of it all and its unlimited potential was too much for her to fathom right now. The exhaustion she felt the day before had lessened with a night’s sleep, but it was still there. This was a deep exhaustion that had nothing to do with sleep; it was the weight of what hung in the balance that wore her down.

  Marco’s long hair tumbled and tangled across his sleeping bag. Elena buried her face in it. Here, she could find relief. She smelled her beloved and thought of nothing else. She nestled closer, and, without meaning to, she fell asleep again. The same coyote she had just encountered in the waking world walked her dreams.

  6 Return to the Source

  Ashta and Anak left Master Sina’s room to prepare for their upcoming journey into the unknown. They readied everything for an early morning departure before they went to sleep for the night. But when the twins woke, they were reluctant to leave the relative safety of their temple home and the comfort of the marital bed Kaanra had set for them before they had been forced to postpone their wedding.

  It was only a deep understanding that safety was an illusion in the world that now surrounded them that motivated them to move forward with their plans. The golden twins still held a great responsibility to all of humanity. This responsibility had not diminished with a night’s sleep.

  The temptation of delaying the inevitable gripped the twins as they made their way to the river, the haven to which they returned over and again no matter what transpired in their lives. Here, they took refuge in a small inlet. They dropped their robes to the ground and rested among soft, vibrant grasses that were an escape from the harsh landscape inland.

  Naked in the crisp air of the early morning sun, their skin pricked with awareness and goose bumps. The water flowed around the small inlet enticingly. It was only moments before Ashta responded to the water’s pull.

  Ashta dove in the way she loved to—without hesitation or pause. She thought of nothing other than what it felt like for the water to surround her on all sides, and she immersed herself in its power. She closed her eyes in response to the hypnotic pull the water held over her. She tilted her face up toward the burgeoning sun and felt an intense power coursing through her body. It was the connection to all of life that filled her then.

  She felt someone else dive into the water, and she did not need to open her eyes to know Anak would soon be joining her. Within moments, his skin touched hers. Even though the cool water coated his skin, it was not enough to disguise the rampant warmth that swelled in his body. He moved behind her and shifted her to where their feet could touch the bottom of the riverbed. Then, he pressed his body to hers. This contact of cool, wet skin against cool, wet skin was tantalizing, and Ashta could not resist it. She smiled, enchanted by the intensity of life.

  Eyes still closed, Ashta turned to her lover, to the twin of her soul, and parted her lips. She pressed his body against hers fiercely; her lips searched for his. She enjoyed the way her body responded to him, and she prepared to give herself over to him entirely. In this beginning of ecstatic haze, she opened her eyes halfway. Then, she screamed.

  The last few days had been ones of unaccustomed trauma for those that lived at the normally peaceful Temple of Laresu’u Kal. Arnaka was usually a land of tranquility. Seeing the body of Master Tahn floating in the river waters that were sacred to her was too much for Ashta.

  She knew it was Tahn’s body the moment she glimpsed the lifeless form in a white robe reserved for temple masters. He was the only master at the Temple of Laresu’u Kal with yellow hair like theirs, and it was these yellow strands tangled in the river grasses that signaled to Ashta that Master Tahn no longer walked the earth plane.<
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  Anak jerked his head around at the sound of Ashta’s cry, and, within moments, they both made it to Tahn’s side. Unconcerned with their nakedness, the twins worked to get the master’s body ashore. Ashta and Anak dragged the body onto the grasses that they had blissfully enjoyed just a short while before, ignorant of the corpse nearby.

  The young woman and man, defined in part by a great destiny, cried quietly, unable to restrain themselves. To have such violence violate the sanctity the masters and pupils worked to create in their way of life seemed wrong, and it disturbed the twins on a deep level.

  Ashta and Anak witnessed death when they responded to Archangel Michael’s call to duty, venturing far from their homeland. But even though the brutality they had seen then was shocking to them, this felt different; it felt more shocking, more brutal. It was one thing to see violence and cruelty away from home, and it was another to see it invade a familiar history of peaceful life.

  The sense of safety Ashta and Anak had always enjoyed while in Arnaka now felt tenuous. Neither Ashta nor Anak enjoyed this change; everyone should have a place to be safe no matter what was going on in the outside world.

  Dreading what they both knew one of them had to do, Anak moved to Tahn’s side. Gently, more softly than was needed for the dead man, Anak rolled the body over. They had pulled him out of the water as he was in it, with his face down. For the first time, the twins saw the master’s face. Ashta gasped and looked away. When she finally did look again, it was with tears steadily streaming down her face.

  The normally bright face of the master, with warm brown eyes and a ready smile, had lost its luster. Tahn’s face was pale and lifeless. His straw-colored hair was plastered across his forehead, a remnant of the motion of turning him, and it would stay there until someone else cleared it. Master Tahn could no longer choose to do anything with his body. His autonomy had been unjustly revoked.

  Hand trembling, Ashta reached over and pulled Tahn’s eyelids closed. The warm brown of his eyes was no longer the same, and Ashta did not want to see the change. His life force was absent, gone back to where it came from.

  At least that thought brought the twins some peace. Tahn’s soul had returned to its origins, where there was no suffering. Tahn’s soul was at perfect peace. It could now understand the why of everything and know that it all happened for a worthwhile reason, even if it did not seem that way during life on earth.

  There was only one indication of how Tahn died: bruises marked his neck. Dark red and purple welts adorned his throat, traces of his attacker’s hands as they squeezed out life. Tahn was a trained warrior, and it seemed peculiar to Ashta and Anak that he should seemingly die without a fight. Tahn had been a wise master. Why was he killed so easily?

  It was time to tell the others about Tahn’s death. Those at the Temple of Laresu’u Kal should know it was no longer safe there. But whom should the twins tell? The natural selections for leadership at the temple were dwindling. Had Master Kaanra been there, they would have automatically gone to him. But he had disappeared into the unknown. Sina was the next obvious choice, but she remained limp and unresponsive in her room. Tahn, the warm-hearted master, lay cold at their feet. Four masters remained at the temple. The twins ruefully decided to tell the first one they could find.

  They agreed that Ashta should go share the news while Anak stayed behind with the body. The feminine side of Ashta made her more squeamish than Anak was, and she preferred to move away from the gruesome sight of their beloved teacher. They did not dare leave the body unattended. Too many unusual circumstances had befallen the temple community. They wanted to honor Master Tahn at least in his death. Anak guarded his body while Ashta shot off hurriedly. She did not want Anak to be alone for long.

  7 A Gift From the Wild

  This time, Elena and Marco woke together. Although it was not quite yet summer, the days were beginning to heat up in the desert, and this particular day was already hot even though it was only mid-morning. The tent was becoming unbearably warm. If not for the discomfort of the heat, Elena and Marco might have slept for several more hours still. The intensity of the attack at Marian’s complex the day before had left them drained.

  Out of the stillness of hours of deep sleep, Marco seemed incongruous in a sudden flurry of movement. He kicked off his sleeping bag and pulled off his shirt, throwing it across the tent. He had been sweating in the sweltering heat within the sleeping bag. He lay on top of the bag now in his boxer shorts, waiting to cool.

  Seeing Marco almost naked was normally enough to turn Elena’s thoughts to making love, but not then. She felt overly fragile, delicate like the petals of a flower that were deeply beautiful, but yet could be easily crushed. She wanted to feel close to Marco, though; with him, she felt safe.

  But she did not want to make love. She was too raw. She had to be the one to fill the hollow that resounded at her core in this moment. She could not rely on someone else to complete her, even if he was her beloved.

  She took off most of her clothes too, and then she sidled up to Marco in her underwear. She laid her head on his bare chest; her hair sprawled across his shoulder. One bare breast pressed against his side, and one hand played with the hair on his chest.

  Marco was not confused. He was deeply connected to Elena in a way he had only dreamed was possible before meeting her. He knew how she felt, and he held her close. They breathed together in unison for a long time, until, even nude, the heat of the tent became unbearable, and they prepared to make their exit.

  The day was brilliant. The sun shone with a strength and magnificence that Elena believed she would marvel at as long as her body held breath. The sun lit up the mountains around them, playing a game of hide and seek with shade and shadows.

  Marco walked over to Elena. He draped his arm across her shoulders.

  “It is beautiful, is it not, amore?”

  Elena did not answer in words. She smiled instead. She could not explain how the beauty of the landscape around them was affecting her in that moment. She had never seen such an array of color in one region before. As they drove into Utah, mountains of slate gray curved up and down in rounded hills. Next, they passed through mountains peaked in greens. Now, they stood among orange and red mountains that jutted up into the sky at varying angles; some were sharp, some rounded.

  Her eyes continued to scan her surroundings. Then, Elena gasped, unable to conceal her surprise. Barely a faint silhouette atop the mountainous skyline, the same coyote Elena shared a connection with earlier that morning stood like a legend. Although he was too far away for Elena to make out his eyes, she was certain he was staring at her. She could feel his gaze, and her skin pricked in raised bumps.

  Elena looked back at him with a quiet mind. Her regrets from earlier that morning, wondering whether she should have tried to communicate with the coyote telepathically, were gone. She did not question herself or attempt to speak through her mind. There was no need. She held the coyote’s stare and allowed herself to feel what that was like. She recognized the magic in the experience, and she enjoyed this uncommon connection with the world of the wild.

  To hold this bond was easy and terribly difficult at the same time. The natural state of the human being was to be innately connected to All of Everything. The same Creator that breathed existence into everything else designed Elena. She was not removed in any way from the natural world around her, except for any artificial construct she erected in her mind.

  Elena had made great progress in redefining what she was taught as a child. She now questioned all preconceived notions embedded within her and discovered the belief that was uniquely hers. But still, there was more work to do. There would always be room for more growth until the simple way of life, synchronized to the rhythms of the earth and its living creatures, became her own once more.

  If humanity ever chose to awaken, belonging to the All of Everything awaited it. Life essence—the breath of life that stemmed from one source—streamed within everything. A d
rop of water carried consciousness of being just as the coyote that stared at Elena did, and this same force animated Elena.

  And with this last thought, something Elena had never imagined happened. Her consciousness traveled within the coyote. Elena’s body lay on the ground, but she was not there anymore, not truly. She shared the awareness of another of Creator’s beings.

  The coyote had always maintained the connection to its infinite knowing. His thoughts and movements were based on eventual harmony with everything else that roamed the earth. And this one thing—this enormous thing—was the most incredible gift Elena could receive on this brilliant morning.

  Sharing in the stillness of Coyote’s consciousness allowed Elena to feel what had been unattainable for her, something beyond even those profound realizations of infinite connectedness she sometimes reached. She was within the heart and mind of a being who comfortably accepted what Elena strove to incorporate. The magic that governed the universe was a given conclusion for the coyote; it was his way of existence. He took in what happened, both the good and the seemingly tragic, with a peace that most human beings never experienced.

  This peace Coyote felt was not impervious to sadness when tragedy struck. Rather, it came from knowing that a greater meaning governed the microcosm of its world. Animals possessed an innate trust in the Creator and the workings of the universe. Coyote did not question his place and purpose in the world.

  Today, a story pervaded within Coyote’s consciousness, one that unfolded several settings of the sun before this day, and Elena understood why Coyote’s howl sounded lonely. Coyotes mate for life, and Coyote had partnered with a strong, vibrant female. She birthed five pups into the world. Everything was well. The pups were healthy, and the mother was recovering from the birth. Coyote scavenged for food to nourish himself and the mother, and she, in turn, gave the pups her milk.