Authors: M C Moore
Trefoil (3 page)
Her father spoke, "Your mother wore this."
Then in an instant
,
Meckenzie flashed back to a memory.
A memory of h
er mother sitting in the garde
n, humming softly to herself, t
he necklace catching the sun light and creating rainbows. "I remember." Meckenzie said softly.
Taggart stood up and walked to the windows of the study that overlooked Central Park. "Do we have to wait till our birthday to go to the safety deposit box?"
"I believe we should talk to Isabel first," their father said.
"I think we should sleep on what we have learned tonight."
With that the three of them left the study. As Meckenzie and Taggart made their way up the stairs, Taggart took Meckenzie's hand. "I think we should go talk to Kellan. She seems to be taking this awfully hard."
"Let's go get her and take her to the garden. I feel like being in the garden."
Meckenzie knocked on Kellan's door. Kellan didn't respond so Meckenzie opened the door and called her name, "Kellan?"
Kellan sat at her desk staring at her laptop. She looked as if she had been crying.
"Kellan, let's go down to the garden. We can talk about it or not. Let's just get some fresh air."
"Why did she have to go? What could possibly have been so bad that she would leave us? I just want to scream at her."
Taggart strolled across the room and began rubbing Kellan's back. He looked like he was going to cry too. "I don't know what is real, or what to believe, but I do believe she thought she was protecting us. Let's get some fresh air."
The trips headed downstairs to the garden. It seemed like days since they had been down there with the party planners, though it had only been earlier that afternoon. The party seemed like such a foreign idea. They had all been so ready to celebrate their eighteenth birthday. Ready to come of age and to get started with the adult lives they were planning. Now there seemed like more questions than before and more uncertainties.
They sat quietly for a while just taking in the night air that was scented with night blooming jasmine, roses, and other flowers.
Meckenzie finally broke the silence. "I've been having these weird dreams. I've been getting headaches. I hear a buzzing in my head whenever that new guy Ty is around. Do you think these are all part of the gifts?" She said to no one in particular.
Kellan shifted uneasily in her seat, "I ran 100 meter
s
in 10.52 today. The world record is 10.49. My coach about wet herself. I benched 275 the other day. It's weird but I jump higher too. I don't know if this is real, but something is really weird about my speed and strength. I think the coach secretly wants to test me for steroids."
They all sat thoughtfully quiet for a moment. The idea that they might have fairy superpowers was outrageous. Meckenzie didn't know what to believe anymore. Her head began to ache again.
Taggart laughed. "Maybe we should just get some sleep. Are we still running in the morning?"
Meckenzie nodded
and reached out and touched Taggart's hand
.
The headache began to subside again reiterating the idea that Taggart was a healer.
"I need the running to clear my head." She said.
They all headed up to their rooms. Meckenzie hoped she would be able to get some sleep, two or three hours a night was not cutting it.
The girl running through the woods was in Meckenzie's dream again. She ran for her life, something glittering around her neck, something familiar. She dodged branches, leapt over broken trees and bushes. Her breathing heavy, her face contorted into fear, she ran. Then she grabbed some flowers off a plant as she ran past. The flowers, pinkish-purple in color, were immediately consumed by the woman. As she chewed, she continued to run. She came to an archway, no not an archway, a place where the tree branches had grown together in a way to make it look like an archway. As she ran through the archway she disappeared.
The dream didn't stop there as it normally did. The woman appeared again, but now she was under the Trefoil Arch in Central park. The woman stepped out into the park, looking over her shoulder. The light was fading out of the sky in the distance, it was twilight. The woman headed down the pathway towards the streets of New York. As she walked under a lamp in the park, her necklace sparkled. The hearts from the legend of Trefoil hung around the woman's neck in a perfect three leaf clover. And as if in recognition of Meckenzie’s discovery, the woman looked up.
Meckenzie gasped awake.
"Mom."
The woman in the dream had been Meckenzie's mother, Deidra. She had been running and she had the lockets.
What was she running from? Where was she going? And when had this happened? Or had it even happened at all, maybe it was just a dream and Meckenzie had substituted her mother into the dream. Meckenzie flipped on the light next her bed, suddenly aware that she was sweating and short of breath. It was like she had been running along that path with her mother. She crawled out of bed and headed to the bathroom. As Meckenzie splashed cold water on her face for yet another night, she knew she needed more than anything to talk to Isabel.
If Isabel was really her mother's cousin, then maybe she would know if the dream were true. Was this Meckenzie seeing the past, or was she seeing the future. Perhaps it was all some subconscious illusion that her mind was creating due to lack of sleep.
Meckenzie climbed back into bed hoping to get a few more hours sleep. As she lay in the darkness, memories of her mother came flooding back. Deidra had always seemed very young, never a wrinkle on her face, always a twinkle in her eye. There was something so beautiful about her mother. The way her hair, golden and flowing, had created a gossamer effect. Only more enchanting were her eyes, like the clearest blue of the purest water. She had seemed tall, but tall to child could sometimes not mean tall to a teenager or adult. Her thin frame was strong enough to carry two of her three children on her hips at a time. Even when they were older, Meckenzie could remember being lifted off the ground by her mother so that a kiss could be placed gently on her nose or cheek.
It had seemed like a lifetime ago since Meckenzie had heard her mother softly singing in the garden, or the family had gathered in the sitting room to play games, or she had experienced the love of her beautiful mother. It had been eight years since her mother had sat in this very room braiding Meckenzie's hair or listening to Meckenzie tell stories of her day.
Then one morning without warning, Deidra was gone. When the children had awoken to start their day, their mother was gone without a goodbye. Gone to protect them, but from what?
With this last question, Meckenzie drifted off to sleep. She was not awoken by the dream again this night. She woke instead to the sound of Kellan calling her name.
"Meckenzie, it's time to run."
Meckenzie rolled over to look at the clock in her room. Six a.m. She had slept through most of the night, and she felt alive and well rested. Meckenzie leapt out of bed and quickly changed into her running clothes. Grabbing her iPhone and headphones she headed downstairs.
Kellan and Taggart were waiting for her in the kitchen, already stretching out their muscles.
"Good morning sleepy head." Taggart said with a smile. "How did you sleep?"
Meckenzie smiled, "Amazingly well thank you.
Though I did have the dream again.
It played out a little more; we can talk about it later."
Taggart and Kellan both seemed surprised that Meckenzie didn't want to recap her dream right then and there. Meckenzie just smiled and stretched some more.
Kellan laughed, grabbed
her iPhone and headphones. "Any of you slackers think you can beat me today," she said as she bounded for the door.
Taggart laughed and headed after her, with Meckenzie right on his heals.
The trips headed into the park. The sun was rising over the horizon. Before long the city would be a bustling lit metropolis. But for now, the trips were alone with the other early morning joggers, pounding their way into another glorious day.
They started their run together, all jogging at a reasonable pace along the trail. Meckenzie could tell that both Kellan and Taggart were holding back to her own pace. Taggart tapped Kellan on the shoulder and motioned for her to go ahead if she wanted. With that, Kellan took off at a much faster pace clipping along through the park almost at a sprint.
Taggart smiled at Meckenzie, "She really is getting fast."
"Yeah, she has been leaving me behind for months now. I would definitely say something is up. Whether we have some kind of super fairy powers, or she has been hitting the juice, Kellan is faster."
Taggart laughed out loud, "Juice? Kellan is way too proud to juice." He paused, thinking to himself. "You want to talk about the dream?"
"When we are all together."
Meckenzie stopped. She knew that the revelation that their mom was the woman in the dream would make her seem slightly insane. She really hoped that Isabel would be at the house before school. It wasn't her normal routine to come before the trips went off to school, but somewhere in her mind, Meckenzie wished that Isabel would know that they need answers.
Before Meckenzie knew it, they had clipped out three miles of the run and were heading into the fourth mile. Meckenzie saw the Trefoil Arch up ahead. Taggart was lost in his own iPhone, so Meckenzie tapped him to get his attention. She pointed to the arch ahead. Taggart looked up and shrugged his shoulders.
"I saw someone under the arch yesterday. They were gone by the time I got to the arch though, but I felt like I was being watched."
They both looked at the arch again. Just as they did, something or someone moved in the shadows. Slowing down, they glanced at each other again. Taggart looked at her and back to the arch. He then sped up almost sprinting toward the opening. Meckenzie tried hard to keep up, but was losing ground fast.
While they were still sixty yards away, someone stepped out of the shadows. The stranger was wearing a long flowing cape making their face impossible to see. The person reached next to the arch then grabbed something from the bushes and fled back to the shadows of the arch.
As Taggart reached the entrance to the tunnel under the arch, he stopped. Meckenzie came up behind him gasping for air.
"There is no one here." Taggart managed to say between the gulping of air.
"Did you see them though? Did you see whoever it was come out of the arch and grab something out of these bushes?" Meckenzie leaned over the bushes next the opening of the arch. There to her amazement were the same flowers she had seen in her dream. "Oh
my gosh
!" She exclaimed.
"What?" Taggart jumped. "What is it?"
Meckenzie broke some the flowers off the bush, holding them in her hand, examining them.
"What? It's just Heather." Taggart responded.
"Let's go back to the house. I'll explain there. This plant was in my dream."
Taggart shook his head and started jogging through the tunnel under the arch. The two of them headed home. Meckenzie knew this was a weird coincidence. Hopefully Isabel would be at the house to help clarify a few things. There were so many things that Isabel needed to tell them, things she had known all these years and kept to herself. Meckenzie hoped she was ready to share her secrets and maybe help them discover the truth in all of this.
When they arrived back at the house, Isabel was not there yet. Meckenzie suggested they get showers and get ready for school. She only wanted to tell her story once, and she wanted both her siblings and Isabel to be there.
Meckenzie ran upstairs, the flowers of the Heather plant still in her hand. She sat them on her dresser and got her things ready for a shower. She knew there was only a small window of time to get ready for school and possibly speak to Isabel. Meckenzie wanted more than anything to blow off school, that way she could just go through all the events from last night and this morning with Isabel.
Climbing out of the shower she heard Kellan calling her name.
"In here."
Meckenzie grabbed her towel and headed for the bedroom. No one was in the room. She stuck her head out the door of her bedroom thinking that maybe Kellan was in the common room their two bedrooms shared. No one was in this room either. Meckenzie got dressed and put her hair into a pony tail. She grabbed her school books and bag. She decided to check Kellan's room before heading downstairs.
She knocked, but there was no response. She knocked again calling out her sister's name, "Kellan."
"Meckenzie!"
She heard it loud this time coming from behind her. She turned, but no one was there. Meckenzie opened the door to her sister's room, she searched for the light switch in the darkness, flipping it on and illuminating the empty room. Kellan's bathroom door was open and dark inside. Meckenzie quickly ran across the room and flipped on the bathroom lights as well, but no one was there.
She headed for the stairs thinking that maybe Kellan was already in the kitchen. Meckenzie couldn't understand why she had heard her sister's voice so clearly, as if she were in the same room or at least on the same floor.
As Meckenzie passed Taggart's room on the third floor, she knocked on his door and told him she would meet him in the kitchen. She passed her father's study on the second floor; he sat behind his desk talking seriously on the phone. Meckenzie waved and headed down to the kitchen. She reached the kitchen only to find that no one was in this room either. Where had Kellan gone? Meckenzie decided to check the two lower floors for Kellan.
The lights were all out on the garden level. Meckenzie took a quick peak into all the rooms anyway, but no there was no sign of Kellan. As she reached the sub terrain level, the lights were burning in the gym area.
"Kellan?"
Meckenzie shouted over the music playing on the speaker system. There was no response, but all the lights would be out if no one were down here. Surely Kellan had been down here at some point. Meckenzie stuck her head into the changing room that the family had added for all the swim parties the kids had thrown over their childhood.
"Kellan?"
There was still no response.
Meckenzie headed to the weight lifting area to see if Kellan had possibly been too busy to hear her sister's beckoning. As she rounded the leg press that Kellan had begged her dad for during their freshman year, Meckenzie saw Kellan lying unconscious on the floor. Her right forearm lay at an odd angle and seemed to be bleeding.
Meckenzie quickly opened her cell phone and dialed Taggart's number. She ran to Kellan, grabbing a towel off one of the pieces of equipment hoping to stop the bleeding. Quickly she checked Kellan's pulse.
"Kellan can you hear me?" Moaning Kellan stirred, but did not open her eyes. Her pulse seemed fast. Lying across Kellan's body was a free weight pole and several weights were scattered around the floor.
Just then Taggart answered the phone, "Why are you calling me and why aren't you in the kitchen?"
"Kellan is hurt in the gym. Get dad and come downstairs."
"What happened?"
"I don't know, it looks like a broken arm and she is bleeding."
Taggart yelled up to his father, "Dad, Kellan's hurt in the gym."
Meckenzie could not hear her father's response, but Taggart was yelling back at him the same things she had previously told him about Kellan's injuries. Then Taggart hung up the phone.
Meckenzie lifted the pole off her sister and sat it to the side. She couldn't decide if moving Kellan would hurt her more, she just knew she needed to get the bleeding stopped.
Taggart came bounding down the stairs, "Meckenzie?"
"Down here." Meckenzie was gently pressing the towel against the open wound created from the bone piercing the skin where it had broken. She tried not to move the arm afraid she would cause more bleeding. Taggart slid in beside Meckenzie and removed her hand from the towel.
"Has Kellan been unconscious since you found
her?
"
"Yes."
Taggart lifted Kellan's army gently and tried to evaluate the damage. Their father rushed down the stairs with Isabel behind him. As Taggart touched Kellan's arm trying to clean away any blood, a strange thing started to happen. The bone seemed to be sliding back into the skin.
Lawrence Desmond turned pale as he rounded the corner into the weight area. He blocked the path for Isabel who was trying to get around him.
"Lawrence, you have to move so I can get to Kellan." Isabel prodded him out of the way and came to kneel on the other side of Kellan.
"Taggart, what are you doing? The bone is moving back into her arm." Meckenzie said.
Isabel lifted Kellan's shoulder and rotated her arm to match the angle of the broken bone. "If we line the bones up, and Taggart places his hands on top of the bones, I believe her arm will heal."
Taggart said
nothing;
he simply moved the forearm into place and then placed his right hand on top of the exposed bone. As they sat there for what seemed like an eternity, Kellan began to moan.
In less than a minute, Isabel removed Taggart's hand from Kellan's forearm. Meckenzie couldn't believe her eyes. There was no visible sign of trauma except for the blood that had begun to dry on her arm and the floor.
Kellan's eyes fluttered open. She jerked up out of everyone's hands. Sitting amongst them, all silent, all confused, Kellan examined her arm with unbelieving eyes.
Before she could say anything, Isabel spoke. "I think we should all go up to the kitchen and have some breakfast. I'll explain what I can."
Taggart drained of all color, stumbled to get up.
"Taggart will be a little weak from the healing. Maybe he should take the elevator." Isabel suggested. And with that, their father took Taggart by the arm and helped him up. Their father helped Kellan off the floor, and then they headed for the elevator. Meckenzie stared at Isabel, unable to process what had happened here this morning.
Isabel offered Meckenzie her hand to help her off the floor. As Meckenzie reached out to take it, there was a flash of blinding light in her mind. It was like static electricity pulsed directly from Isabel's fingers into Meckenzie's brain. She jumped back. "What was that?"
"What dear?" Isabel asked.
Meckenzie, untrustingly, looked into Isabel's eyes. Her eyes were the same color of blue as Taggart's. Her hair was darker then the triplets, it was brown, but had streaks of blond in it. Without pause, Meckenzie asked, "Are you our mom's cousin?"
Isabel laughed, "Well, I can see that cat is out of the bag. Let’s say that we are kin. Cousin is a term we could use. I'm more like a great-great aunt though. I am Deidra’s great aunt. I was your father's grandmother's cousin. You'll find that our family tree is an interesting twist and turn of events. Let's head up stairs and I'll fix you guys some breakfast. Taggart is going to need some special herbs to regain his strength."
As they headed up the stairs, Meckenzie tried to grasp the full extent of what had happened in the last twenty-four hours. It seemed almost impossible that they had met with the party planners yesterday.
That the new kid Tynan had only started class yesterday morning.
That they had just read their mother's letter last night. How was it that so much had changed in such a short period of time? Meckenzie didn't know how much more she could take till she would need to check herself into a mental institution. She was obviously going crazy if she believed all this was true and happening.
Isabel set to making breakfast by pulling out eggs, fruit, and bagels. "Maybe you should ask any questions you have now while I prepare breakfast or would you prefer I tell you story of how I ended up here?"
“You said that you are our great-great aunt? How old are you?” Meckenzie asked, Isabel didn’t look much older than forty-five, so how was it possible for her to be their great-great aunt?
“I’m in my late forties. My father was married twice and I came from the second marriage. I was not really planned, so I was born only a few years after your mother. I was sent to live in the castle where your mother grew up. We were very close even with our ten year age difference.
Deidra
trusted me, so she sent for me when you were young, to help protect you. Then her brother was assassinated and she had to return to rule Aquanis. So I was then responsible for protecting you and helping to raise you.”
McKenzie spoke first, "I don't know what to make of all this but maybe we should tell you what we know. Also, I think maybe I should tell everybody about the dream I've been having. I don't know how much time we have before school, maybe with everything that's going on today we should call in sick. I think we really need to figure out what's going on before we put ourselves in the public eye."
At this Lawrence Desmond went to the phone. He dialed the number to the school and waited patiently pushing buttons that he must have been prompted to push by the schools automated phone system. He then explained that his children would be staying home today due to a family emergency. After he was done he placed the phone back in the cradle and went back to his barstool silently, he stared at his three children.
Kellan had yet to speak since this morning's incident. Taggart seem to be lost in his own thoughts still looking pale and drained from his morning’s experience. He sipped on tea that Isabel had
slipped in front of him.
Isabel spoke first, "I take it that the letters have been read."
"Yes, after dinner last night we sat down and read our letters." Kellan looked at her hands as she spoke. "I, for one, am hesitant to believe anything in them."
Taggart looked at her shocked, "Even after this morning?"
"I don't know what happened this morning. I was setting up the free weight bar, then I woke up and everyone was there."
"Kellan, your arm was broke. The bone was sticking out. You can see that you bled all over the place and Taggart healed you. I don't know how you cannot believe what was written in the letters now. Everything points to them being true and why would Mom lie to us?" Meckenzie said the last sentence with pain in her eyes. She was hurt by her mom's leaving, but she still didn't think that her mother would lie.
"Why would she leave us?" Kellan looked at her arm, "I just don't know."
Isabel interjected, "So let's say for the arguments sake that the letters are true. Let's also say that Taggart healed your arm this morning. And that each of you has a special gift that was bestowed upon you through your family lineage. You must understand above all else, that your mother loved you and if it was not for the war that is waging now in our land, she would be here.
Deidra
would never want to hurt you. She would never lie. Now, let's hear your dream Meckenzie. I think I can help explain a few things."
Meckenzie began to recount her dream. Explaining that it had been happening for weeks and that until last night it had ended when the woman had placed the Heather plant in her mouth and disappeared. Then she went on to tell them about last night’s dream.
The fact that it was their mother in the dream and the fact that she exited the Trefoil Arch.
Meckenzie also explained how she had seen the lockets around her mother's neck.
Isabel set plates of food in front of the family. She paused a moment after Meckenzie's story. Trying to find the words to explain what Meckenzie had seen.
"Your gift allows you to see the past, it would seem. You have seen your mother's journey to this world before you were born.
Deidra
came through the passage at the Trefoil Arch. She came here to find you," she said pointing at Lawrence. "Your grandmother had left Aquinas to start a family amongst the humans. She knew that the time of the war would be upon our people in less than a century. Her idea was to come here and start a family so that the blood line might live on, even if our people were destroyed. Several families did this."
"She brought a fairy tale book, we saw it last night." Taggart added.
"Yes, though to us, it is not fairy tales as you would think of, it is our history. The war that began the incubation of gifts was fought over power. The Clan Tine, also known as Fire Fairies, have long coveted the land of Aquinas. It was once the High Kingdom of all fairies. There King Treigold ruled all the clans. He was a fair and just king, but his son only wanted power. He set out to acquire an army, and from the Clan of Tine he drew much of his warriors. He wished to rule, though his father was still King. When he marched upon Aquinas, the king met his son on the hills with only a small contingency of soldiers. He banished him from Aquinas and threatened to bind his powers if he did not leave and never return. The fight never happened, and King Treigold separated the Clans into four distinct governments set to rule themselves. The Water clan, which you came from, held the land of Aquinas in the North and has lived there ever since. The Tine Clan, or fire clan, was relegated to the south. The Earth clan, or the Talamh clan, took the land to the west. The Air Clan, or Aeris, took the east."