Page 236 of A Winding Wave of Magic
Are we…
Jonathan shook the thought away. Clearly, he wasn’t ready to contemplate what had just crossed my mind.
The old woman beckoned again from where she and the girl stood at the edge of a hill that dipped down to a river running below, lined with trees and bracken. But where I had once seen the outlines of villages and remnants of medieval castles, there was just grass and forest. The only sign of settlement lay at the far side of the river—a collection of four or five round huts built in a circle, nestled among lush greenery and meandering streams. Smoke rose lazily from the centers of thatched roofs, carrying the scent of woodsmoke and cooking food up to where we stood.
The old woman gestured towards the village with a weathered hand, her eyes alight with ancient wisdom. “This is our home,” she said in a voice that resonated with the earth. “Ok’lura.”
Whether it was because of the spell she had cast in the cave or something else, a part of my mind was able to translate the name as roughly “The Earth’s Eye.”
It was Celtic…but not. Closer to some of the root words of proto-Celtic theorized by linguists. An older language. Older even than the Irish spoken to the Romans when they had first scouted the area.
I exchanged another glance with Jonathan, who looked just as bewildered as I felt.
The old woman turned her gaze towards me, her eyes seeming to pierce through my very soul. “You have come at a time of great need, Cassandra.” She spoke softly, yet her words carried an undeniable weight.
I started at the sound of my name.She knows my name.
Jonathan squeezed my hand.She knows lots of things, he reminded me.
The girl with bright blue eyes stood silently by, her gaze fixed on us with a mix of curiosity and something deeper.
“We are the keepers of ancient knowledge and guardians of forgotten truths,” the old woman continued. “Ok’lura has been waiting for the Oracle for many suns. We have work to do before the oresmith arrives.”
Oracle? Oresmith? What was going on?
“Be with your moment,” said the woman before she took the girl’s hand and started down the hill. “Come when you can. We will have hare and new bread to eat.”
They left us there as if she knew that like children, we would have no choice but to follow.
I turned to Jonathan.
His expression mirrored my confusion and apprehension. The weight of the situation hung heavy around us, mingling with the scents of earth and distant woodsmoke. Jonathan’s grip on my hand tightened, a silent reassurance.
“We’re dreaming, right?” I had to ask. “It has to be a dream. Because if it’s not a dream, then that means we’re?—”
“In another time,” Jonathan agreed.
The crisp breeze, the solid ground beneath my feet, the vivid details of Ok’lura unfolding before us—all of it felt too real to be a figment of imagination.
But now, the ground felt a bit unsteady.
Jonathan’s gaze swept over the village nestled in the wood beside the river. “I don’t think this is a dream, Cass. The air. It feels... ancient. Look at those trees. They don’t exist in our time. They’ve all been cut down and traded for farmland.”
His conclusion hit me like a wave breaking on the sand. “So, you honestly think we’ve...time-traveled?”
The words sounded absurd even as they left my lips, but there was a nagging sense of truth to them. The pieces were falling into place—our sudden appearance in an unfamiliar land, the strange language spoken by the women, and the unmistakable aura of somethingoldsurrounding us.
Jonathan hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly. “Every part of the scientist in me is looking for reasons to doubt it. But I can’t. The evidence is everywhere.”
Peels of laughter floated on the wind from Ok’lura, too real to be a dream.
“What did…what did wedo?” I couldn’t help but wonder. “Do you think it was the?—”
“Sex?” Mischief appeared on my mate’s handsome face, which comforted me more than any idea of food. “I’d like to think I’m good in bed, Cass, but I don’t think my skills can alter the space-time continuum.”
That, if anything, let me know this was real. Jonathan couldn’t hide the scientist in him if he tried.
I wanted to laugh with him, but couldn’t. Not quite. Something had happened in that cave when we gave ourselvesup to the bond in the darkness. We’d found a different kind of light.
