The Nomad - By Simon Hawke Page 0,98

as he was at having finally attained his goal. As he watched Ryana, he saw her eyelids close and her head loll forward onto her chest. The cup she was holding fell from her fingers and shattered on the floor.

He could barely keep his own eyes open. He felt a profound lassitude spreading through him, and his vision began to blur. He glanced down at the empty cup that he was holding, and suddenly realized why he was feeling so sleepy. He glanced up at Kara and saw her watching him. His vision swam. She faded in and out of focus.

“The tea…” he said.

The Sage turned around and gazed at him. Sorak looked up at him, uncomprehending.

“No…” he said, lurching to his feet and throwing the cup across the room. It shattered against the wall.

He staggered, then stumbled toward the Sage.

“Why?” he said. “I have… done all… that you… asked…”

The room started to spin, and Sorak fell. Tak-ko caught him before he hit the floor and carried him back to the chair.

“No…” Sorak said, weakly. “You promised…

You promised…”

His own voice sounded as if it were coming from very far away. He tried to rise again, but his limbs wouldn’t obey him. He saw the pterran gazing down at him impassively, and he glanced toward Kara, but he could no longer make out her features. And then consciousness slipped away as everything went dark and he experienced a dizzying, falling sensation…

Chapter Eleven

“Sorak…” The voice came from all around him Sorak, listen to me…”

He floated in darkness. He tried to open his eyes but found he could not. He felt somehow detached from his body.

“Sorak, do not try to resist. There is no need to be afraid, unless it is the truth you fear. The long journey that has brought you here was but the beginning. Now you are about to depart upon another journey, a journey deep within your own mind. The answers that you seek all lie there.”

It was the voice of the Sage speaking to him, Sorak realized, coming from a great distance, though he could make each word out clearly. He had no sense of time or place, no feelings of physical sensation. It was almost as if he had drifted up out of his body and was now floating somewhere in the ether, devoid of form and feeling.

“It will seem as if my voice is growing fainter as you travel farther into the deepest recesses of your mind,” the Sage said. “Let yourself go. Release all thoughts and considerations, all worries and anxieties, all apprehensions, all volition, and simply give yourself over to the experience about to unfold for you.”

Within his mind, Sorak heard Kivara’s voice cry out, “Sorak! I’m afraid! Make it stop!”

“Hush, Kivara,” said the Sage, and Sorak was surprised that he could hear her. Had he spoken Kivara’s words aloud in his physical body? Or had the Sage somehow melded with them to guide them on their journey? But then, his voice was growing fainter, just as he predicted.

“I shall not be going with you,” said the Sage, confirming what he thought, “but I shall remain here and watch over you. This is a journey you must undertake alone. A journey deep into your inner self, and beyond. As you travel farther into the depths of your mind, you are going back, back through the years, back to a time before you were born…”

Sorak felt himself falling slowly, the way a body sinks in water when the lungs are emptied out. The Sage’s voice was growing fainter and fainter…

“You are going back to a time when that part of you that was your father met that part of you that was your mother… back to discover who they were and how they met… back to when it all began…”

* * *

The elf tribe had been traveling all winter, and now the hot summer months were fast approaching. They had come east from the Hinterlands, to the western foothills of the Ringing Mountains, through the long and winding pass that had brought them to the eastern slopes. They had no map to follow, but instead, were guided by the visions of their chieftain, who had told them that the journey would be hard, but worth the effort for what they would discover at its end.

Mira and the others knew the visions of their chieftain were true, for he had told them of the mountain pass, and had brought them to it unerringly, just as he