The Messenger: Mortal Beloved Time Travel Romance, #1 (9 page)

I
raced
through the garrison toward Angeni’s hut. This was completely different than the first time I bounced around this place during my botched escape attempt. It was nighttime, and the fiery torches stuck in the earth tilted all over the place, and barely lit the surroundings. The shadows in this camp jumped out like monsters in a horror movie, and I tried not to cry out.

After sundown, most of the residents were already inside their homes. Hanging out after dark wasn’t encouraged. I sped past the church and spotted one guy on sentry duty snoozing, as he slumped against the tall, wooden fence that encircled the garrison. Great. We were so protected.

I passed more houses and huts. Angeni’s hut lay in the corner, right next to the fence. I stopped myself from plowing through the thick skins that made her front door, and lifted my hand to knock. I heard chanting and singing in a foreign language coming from inside.

I pulled back the skins a half inch, peeked and caught an eyeful: Angeni was twirling in circles, just like mama used to do in her small office lined with books. Her arms and face were lifted toward the heavens as she chanted words I had never heard before; her long, silver, unbraided hair flew through the air along with her skirt that spun around her ankles.

“Sa. Ta. Na. Ma,” she chanted. “Sa. Ta. Na. Ma.” She looked magical. For a second I forgot she was blind because I swear her eyes that gazed toward the heavens were a clear, brilliant blue.

I hated to interrupt her, but Elizabeth was bleeding and emergencies always beat out good manners. I slapped the thick skins that made up her door with my hand. “It’s me, Madeline,” I hissed.

Angeni pushed open the flaps and gazed toward me with clouded eyes. “What is wrong?”

“Elizabeth is bleeding. She needs you.”

“Grab my big bag on the right, a bit away from the fire. Hurry.”

I did and we left in seconds.

I
tried guiding
Angeni back to Elizabeth’s house through the darkness. But honestly, she led me. We arrived at the house in about half the time it took me to reach her.

Angeni kneeled next to her on the floor, her hands palpating Elizabeth’s stomach. “Do you feel the child?”

“I do not know. I had the pains, and I saw the blood.” Elizabeth hyperventilated, while sweat dripped off her forehead.

Angeni leaned in and whispered into Elizabeth’s ear. She then said to me, “We need to be alone right now. Wait outside, Madeline. Take your cloak. There is a chill in the air.”

“Are you sure? Maybe I can help?”

“Help by doing what I ask,” she said. “I will send you a message when it is time for you to return.”

F
ifteen minutes went by
. I had no watch but a half hour must have passed. I was freaking about what was wrong with Elizabeth. My throat grew tighter by the minute. I couldn’t afford to have a panic attack here. There was no Xanax in 1675.

I rubbed my hands together, and decided this had to be a case of bad nerves. I just needed to burn some energy. My mind flashed on the swimming pool at Preston Academy, and I remembered what it felt like to slice through the waters, doing lap after lap. But the garrison didn’t have a swimming pool.

I tromped back and forth in front of her house. That helped a little. I lifted my skirt above my ankles, and jogged in circles around Elizabeth’s house. That burnt some anxiety. I wish I could go to the barn and do yoga, but it was too late and too dark. And you weren’t supposed to be out after dark if you were a colonial girl during King Philip’s war.

I wondered if anyone here would know what to do with a person having a full-blown panic attack, except maybe for Angeni. She was inside the house helping Elizabeth with life and death issues. During my thirteenth trip around the house I almost plowed into someone.

Tobias stood directly in front of me as I rounded the corner. I stopped in my tracks before I tackled him.

“You look panicked,” he said. “What is wrong?”

I put my hands on my knees, tried to get my breath back, and looked up at Samuel’s best friend.

Tobias was handsome in a rough-around-the-edges way, and seemed like a nice enough guy. We’d never spent time together but he always smiled at me. I had never gotten an emotional read on him—for good or bad. Frankly that was fine by me, ’cause there was enough going on. But I wasn’t going to share anything about Elizabeth. That felt private.

“Don’t know, Tobias.” I bounced up and down on my heels. “Have you lived in this garrison for a long time?”

He nodded. “My father was schooled by Reverend Wilkins and is counsel to General Jebediah. We’ve lived many places. Met many people. But we always return here. This garrison is home to me during this wartime. It is a good place to call home.”

Tobias could travel to other places. He was comfortable here, but I wasn’t. His father was important and he belonged to the community of people that lived in the garrison. I was just another misfit. I shook my head, stood up, and turned away from him ’cause if I teared up—I didn’t want him to see.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t think I belong here.”

“Maybe you belong here, maybe you do not. I think that you forgot who you are. Give this place more of a chance,” he said.

I heard the faint howls of wild animals in the distance, and shivered.

“Just wolves. They won’t hurt you. They want nothing to do with you,” he said.

“How do you know?” I asked.

“My father is a powerful hunter. He trained me since I was a child.” He stepped closer to me. “Hunters learn patience, details. They pay attention to the sounds around them. Notice footprints in the earth. The wolves are predators. But they won’t bother you, unless you behave like prey, or they are very hungry.”

I looked up at Tobias, and my breath caught in my throat again. More of my stupid anxiety. Strange how I had never even registered this guy before now. He was incredibly dark and dangerous, and I wondered about the jagged scar on his cheek. But I didn’t want to ask him about that. He might get offended.

So I tried to think of something that wouldn’t piss him off. “You and Samuel seem like best friends,” I said and blew on my hands.

Tobias smiled. “In some ways we are more like brothers. You need to warm up.”

My eyes widened. “No really, I’m fine.”

“Let us walk.”

“I don’t think I’m supposed to leave here,” I said. “Besides, a walk’s not going to make me feel better.”

“Yes it will. Angeni will let you know when you can go back inside. In the meantime we can walk around the inside of the fence.” Tobias leaned in and whispered, “Because a colonial girl cannot run without everyone believing she is crazy.”

I looked at him and decided. Yes, I wanted to feel better. Yes, I would walk with Samuel’s best friend.

“One lap and that’s it,” I said.

A
fter four laps
, Tobias and I alternated between fast walking and jogging around the inside of the garrison’s tall, wooden-spiked walls. Lucky for me, most of the garrison’s residents weren’t out at night, as I knew they wouldn’t appreciate seeing a colonial chick huff and puff around their fort’s perimeters as she jogged next to a Native teen, even one dressed in colonial men’s clothes.

I didn’t hold up my skirts; I just plowed forward and breathed. Tobias didn’t keep up with me. He was actually a yard or so ahead of me, and jogged backwards. This guy was freaky athletic.

“Why do the wooden fences that surround this village lean inward?” I asked.

“It is more difficult for attackers to crawl up them during an assault,” Tobias said.

“Why do the Praying Indians have villages close to these walls?”

“Because even though they have been converted, the colonists still distrust them,” Tobias said. “Should there be an attack on this garrison, the Praying Indians will be killed first.”

Oh great, I thought, and my stomach turned. “Why do you get to live inside the garrison with the colonists?” I asked, and hated those words as soon as they fell out of my mouth.

My dad and Sophie raised Jane and me to be adamant about equal rights for women, minorities, religions, as well as people who were rich and poor, and all of us who fell in-between. I felt like I’d just asked a completely bigoted question. I felt like a jerk.

“Because we are lucky enough to have ties to important people in the garrison,” Tobias said. “We have skills they do not have. So they want to keep us close. Let us sit for a moment.” He pointed to the hanging platform elevated about four feet off the ground that loomed in the town’s commons.

I shook my head. “No way, I’m sitting where people get killed.”

“No one has ever been hanged there,” he replied.

“Fine.” I said. We trudged over and sat down. “Why are you being nice to me?”

“Because I want to get to know you better. Besides, Samuel is intrigued with you. The new Abigail, I mean.”

“Oh.” I felt my cheeks flush. Hopefully Tobias wouldn’t see that at night.

“He likes you,” Tobias said. “He told me.”

His words made my heart pound, and I got the shivers. I heard the wolves howl and I gazed up at the moon. The clouds looked like they were competing with each other to race across it.

“You like him, don’t you, Abigail?” Tobias asked. “Or whatever your real name is.” He smiled at me.

No way I was going to tell him my real name. “I don’t know what I like,” I said, and in the distance heard Angeni call my name. I sprang to my feet. “I’ve got to go.”

“And I will escort you.”

We left the town commons striding briskly past the church and the stocks.

“I thought you were not going to return until Angeni sent you a message,” he said.

“She did.”

“Oh.” He blinked, but kept a straight face.

I realized I hadn’t heard Angeni’s message out loud.
I heard it in my head.

A
t Elizabeth’s house
, I feared the worst, but hoped for the best. Before I could knock on the door, Samuel opened it.

I stood there for a heartbeat, and stared up into his strong face, which frankly, right now, appeared irritated. “Is Elizabeth—”

“Where were you?” Samuel asked.

“I was just—”

“I was protecting her, ” Tobias said.

“She does not need your protection.” Samuel frowned.

“Boys, be quiet. Come inside, Abigail.” Angeni motioned to me from across the room.

I couldn’t see Elizabeth, but I squeezed past Samuel. I practically felt the chill come off him. Tobias was right behind me.

“We do not need the cold night air in this house,” Angeni said. “Samuel, go home. Tobias, I do not want you two leaving the garrison tonight.”

“Yes.” Tobias nodded at her.

“I mean this,” Angeni said. “No matter what your reasons.”

Tobias left with Samuel following him. They shared a glance that didn’t appear all that friendly. But I guess friends who were more like brothers weren’t always on the best of terms.

“Elizabeth?” I asked.

Angeni leaned over the fireplace. “She sleeps in the back room.”

“They’re okay?”

“For now. Elizabeth needs rest and quiet, if she is to keep her child. You must be starving.” She turned from the fire, placed a plate on the floor, and pushed it toward me. “Eat.”

I swallowed hard. “Can I see her first?”

Angeni paused, then nodded, and pointed to the back of the house. I headed that way when suddenly she was next to me and whispered in my ear, “Walk quietly, Madeline.”

I tiptoed into the tiny back room where they kept barrels of food supplies and sundries. Angeni had made it comfortable with cushions and warm throws. Elizabeth slept on the same mat I laid on weeks earlier, covered in the same blankets.

Her face looked peaceful. She didn’t seem to be in pain. I listened to her breath. It was regular, not raspy. I turned to leave, but something grazed my leg. It was her hand.

“You were brave tonight,” Elizabeth said. “Thank you.”

I took her palm and squeezed it. “You’re the brave one, Lizzie.”

I felt Angeni staring at me. Her face was a map that I was learning to read. She didn’t frown. She didn’t smile. Her face just appeared enormously practical. I understood that it was time for me to leave Elizabeth alone.

“Dream sweet dreams for you and your baby,” I said. “Tomorrow’s another day for the both of you.” I put my fingers to my lips, leaned forward and placed that kiss gently onto her forehead. “I love you.” But she was already asleep.

A
ngeni
and I sat on the floor across from each other in front of the fireplace and ate from metal plates. “I saw you…” I wasn’t sure how to explain what I saw. “At your home. I saw you twirling in circles. You chanted words I’ve never heard before. ‘Sa-Ta-Na-Ma.’ Are those Native words?”

Angeni shook her head. “Not Wampanoag words.” She checked out my plate, which was empty. “Eat some more.” She took my dish and ladled more meat and stew onto it.

“That’s enough.” I waved my hand. “I can’t get fat.”

“Fat?” Angeni smiled. “You are learning, growing and if you are to be a Messenger—I need you to be stronger.” She added a pinch of herbs to the top of the stew, stirred it and handed it to me. “Fat. Hah!”

“Okay.” I worked on my second helping. It was delicious. Maybe it was the herbs. I wondered again what she meant about the Messenger comment, but realized I need to know something else first. “Tell me about Sa-Ta-Na-Ma?”

Angeni sighed and leaned back against the wall next to the fireplace. “Come here.” She patted the floor in front of her.

I scooted over and sat in front of her, my legs crossed. She reached forward and held my hands with hers. “Touch your thumb and tops of your second fingers together, and say the word, Sa.”

I did. “Sa,” I said. “What does it mean?”

“Sa means forever. Infinity. Some souls meet. They fall into hate, or crash into love and chase after each other, through different bodies and lifetimes. They are meant to be together, but must first learn lessons in order to figure out how to do that,” Angeni said. “Touch your thumbs to the tips of your third fingers and say, Ta.”

Wow, that was very cool info. I did as she asked. “Ta.”

“Ta stands for ‘life,’” Angeni said. “The life we have now, as well the lives we create through our thoughts and prayers, and actions. Past lives, future lives. Touch your thumbs to your fourth fingers, and say—”

“Na.” I touched my thumbs to my fourth fingers.

“Na means death. A physical death, or the end of a strong pattern, a way of life. Touch your thumbs to your fifth finger tips and chant—”

“Ma.” I touched the ends of my pinkie fingers to my thumbs. “What does Ma mean?”

“Re-birth,” Angeni said.

“Does this mean that our souls are reincarnated?” I asked. “Does this mean that our souls are forever?”

“Each soul’s destiny is not the same. Nothing is pre-determined. Not one soul’s legacy is written in blood, etched into stone. Some souls will change, and could become immortal. Others who do not learn the lessons, will not,” she said. “Time and lives collide and jump. Sometimes, we have not been properly schooled, or trained to know the best decisions to make. To take the strongest actions.”

A sinking feeling flooded my brain and it felt like Novocaine descended through my body. “I’m caught here in some kind of past-life, aren’t I?” I asked. “Technically, I’m not Abigail, but I’m also not completely Madeline, either?”

“You need to grow strong.” Angeni pointed to some blankets in the corner of the room. “I know it is not as comfortable as your other bed, but it will have to do for tonight. Sleep now. Build strength.”

Not before I got an answer to my question. “If I am Abigail as well as Madeline, it seems like I am both these people, but not either.”

“That is right,” she answered.

“But then,
who am I
?”

She squeezed my hands and said, “You are a Messenger.”