Home Is...Series Vol.10 Home Is A Dream Of Well

10th Volume in Home Is Series.

Dovetails with Rainbow Stories, 2nd volume in Rainbow Series.

Zhea~ Year 7828

Ryonne~ And Adia’s son W~Via returns. An apology from the Council leads the travelers to Sghan Mas Consortium for retraining. Ryee falls into enemy hands. Can his son save him, and Ye~?

miscarriage, diplomatic science fiction, medical science fiction

ASIN: B002IYEO5I File Size: 383 KB (Kindle Edition - July 24, 2009)

Home Is A Dream Of Well: Home Is v.10 Kindle Edition

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Awareness came to me that my rotund middle lay flat atop me; no movement. No impressions from our son. Eja fe ne! I looked up. Ryee leaned over me, whitefaced, trembling. My emotional storm broke with lightning of pure rage. Our eyes met. The ice in my heart was colder than his stiff hand that touched my arm. I turned from my husband. At that moment I felt alone in my loss. I felt that he had failed me in my greatest need. The loss of our son! I felt myself no longer capable of tender emotion. I hated everyone. I wished to die. My body betrayed me by feeling strength; I rose quickly without seeing anyone, though family and friends protested. Ordered K~aenda to meet me with a skimmer outside Healers’ Chambers. Piloted to the crystal pool.

I sat by the water without tears. K~aenda stood nearby in the shade of the skimmer. After a far passage of time, my mind wandered absently to Ryee. I felt nothing. I watched his misery as a stranger. My mind stood empty, and his sensations filled it. Laura comforted him. Mother held him firmly.

“Ryee, listen. You gotta stop this!”

“How will I bear it, without her?”

“My son, she is ne to leave you.”

“She turned from me! Did you ne feel the intensity of her anger! She blames me for the loss of our bae! My second bae!”

“Ryee, it’s not your fault, Buddy. You couldn’t move! We gathered the Circle for you, and you almost didn’t make it because we had to take Adia away from you to get another ennead healing her. That’s not your fault. It wasn’t within your control. Adia lost the baby because he wasn’t getting enough oxygen and nitrogen. Period. It wasn’t your fault, it wasn’t Adia’s fault, it wasn’t the Circle’s fault, not anybody’s fault! If Adia had spent the pregnancy in bed it wouldn’t have helped.”

Not anybody’s fault. Her words rang in my mind, my empty mind. Sudden longing for Ryee drove me to bring a dimportal and go to my husband in his misery. Mind pain nearly pressed me to the floor!

“Adia! Look, Ryee!” Doug dragged me to the bed where Mother held my sobbing dear one.

Father sat next him, and looked on me with a deep sigh. “Ryee needs you, Adia.”

“That is why I came,” I whispered. The mind pain left me. Pas checked my points as Laura put me lying next Ryee. Father and Mother held to me.

“You need much rest!” Pas rubbed my head.

“Is she unwell?” Ryee’s arms about me trembled as he began a lengthy apology. I held up a trembling hand. Pas caught it.

“Reason left me in my grief, Love. I must apologize to you. I blamed you at the moment we needed each other’s comfort the most. Ryee! You are much unwell!” His pallor, the trembling that brought moisture to his forehead, the lowering temperature of his body despite the comfort program: Realization came that I might lose my husband also. I clung to him in panic! “I love you, Ryee!”

Laura rubbed my back as she ordered Ynfos to give him several herbs. Se~sha began a massage with a selfwarming ointment to bring his circulation, and warmth, full. It helped but little. J~oie’s servant had to stop with each shiver of my husband’s limbs, for the moisture that came then threatened him.

“Perhaps,” said Ahstam, “there are too many of us. The gentle touch of our minds overwhelms you, Brother. Let us leave you with Adia and I only. I will stay and offer comfort. You have in you all healing we can give for now.” The old, bald healer sighed deeply as Mother put Ryee beside me on his leiwege. His parents wept. Ryee did not notice their leaving. Clung to me weakly with his eyes closed. As another shiver worked him. His breathing lost its rhythm. Became shallow. Varied in its depth. Laura watched from the next bed and half-rose. Ahstam frowned on her lightly and shook his head.

A young man sat next Ryee, beside Ahstam. From where? His orange eyes matched my husband’s; so did his features, his dark curls, so like Ryee in his former health, in the days of my arrival on Ye~. I stared rudely. He was obviously Yeff, but how? I knew all of our people and this lad numbered not among. His eyes filled with tears as he studied Ryee. “Liege, may I touch you? I am a healer.” Even his deep voice sounded like!

Ryee’s eyes slowly opened after another tremor. “Ea,” he whispered.

The newcomer put his hands flat on the dark head so like his. He did not move from one set of points to the next, but I felt the strength of the energy he applied. A healer of great skill! Even Ahstam, Master Healer of Zheiea, watched in awe!

Pas came near also, to listen to the many complicated impressions that came to us from him.

Be~saech ported to us in alarm! This man appears as one of us, but he comes far. Perhaps an intruder! His genetics are Yeff and ne other stem of Zhea~. Be~saech fingered his weapon nervously as his yellow eyes studied the man arrived.

J~oie rose painfully to stand near. M’Naga came, and urged him silently towards the bed where Laura lay somewhat unwell now. I helped him put our brother next Laura. Rest, both of you. Our friends keep us safe. I put a grateful hand on the back of M’Naga’s head and tugged at the hair as red as mine. His mind smiled, but his gray eyes left the stranger not.

Suddenly, a light shone in its purple beauty, leaving a Councilor next us. “Wslarc!” J~oie reached for him.

His ever-changing face appeared briefly as Ryee’s. “I come with word from the Councilors. They send this one to you, to offer healing, and to bring you to us at an appointed time. Rest, and do not fear intrusion. This one comes to protect you. Will you accept our gift, for your fallen king?”

Father consulted briefly with me, and with J~oie, who then nodded in our mutual consent. Wslarc faded.

“Who is this skilled healer over me?” My husband’s voice yet lacked any strength. I went to them quickly, took his feeble hand to offer my comfort, sighed relief as he returned slight pressure of my fingers. His color gained orange.

“My Liege, I ask that you let me stay in your house, and protect you in your unwells. I dread to ask this. I know you wish to be free of watching, but the Councilors send me to offer my strength when yours fails. I will not interfere in the complexity of the realm, only offer healing as to your need, and ask in return that you teach me of my people, my culture! Indeed, I am Yeff, but grew to manhood on other worlds, and I long to know my people. I am unwell!” I felt his yearning for our culture. Surely any Yeff without benefit of a home life suffered greatly in mind! The youth stroked Ryee’s head with a tenderness beyond that applied by a healer. Carefully, he kissed Ryee’s forehead, then knelt on the floor next the bed with trembling fingers resting on my husband’s arm, waited in tears for his answer.

“You may stay, and I welcome you in the name of Ye~! Any Yeff bereft of ea yho must have it, or die. Tell me your name, my son, and do you know mine?”

At Ryee’s use of the word, ‘son’, I felt the intensity of the man’s reaction, and wondered! His affection for my husband seemed too strong for one not knowing him.

“I know your name to be that of Ryonne~, King of Ye~, bae of Eanne~, heir of W~Via and Via, brothers who married two families.” Emotion stopped him from reciting.

Ryee’s eyes opened wide. “You know much of our family. Are you related to us?”

He looked down. “I fear to tell you. If I reveal who I am, the shock may bring more unwell on you—“

J~oie shakily rose and walked around our bed. “Are you W’Vie, my bae taken from me by Vadia?” He stumbled badly; the young healer rose to catch him.

“I am not. Vadia’s work takes her from world to world in the Change. Your bae also takes worlds in the Change, and it was my work many years. I grew sad for my home. I begged the Council to send me here, to help protect the Realm so vital to its interests, the Source that feeds the One.” J~oie stood taller than this man, as he did when aside Ryee. The stranger put both his hands on our brother’s head to comfort him, for our brother’s reception problems kept most of the words from his understanding, and kissed his forehead. J~oie wept in his longing for his son. Twice the newcomer kissed Yeff not of his family; an odd custom of his childhood learning, perhaps? “You are unwell! May I offer healing?”

J~oie accepted. The young man lifted him, put him on the bed next Laura, then rested his fingers lightly on the lower sides of our brother’s neck. Again, such energy flowed from him that I marveled in his great strength! He seemed to need no Circle or voicing to bring the energy. I thought of Vadia, who practiced silent healing.

“Ea! I hear!” J~oie’s cry brought Ryee to sitting. Then he nearly fell atop me in his weakness!

“Hey, Jo, let me see—“

“You must rest, my an-, my Yea~,” the lad said awkwardly.

Ryee’s telepathy faltered, but even in this the stranger’s identity revealed. “W~Via,” he gasped, “m-my first son!” The seizure program executed; my husband fell against me, but his eyes stared blankly at the young man.

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