The Dark Rider

CHAPTER Six



Alex sat at her desk staring at the trees outside of the window. Hot sunshine made them shimmer in a heat haze, while inside the office was cold and gloomy. Pinching herself again she tried to concentrate on the flickering computer screen in front of her, but she could not think straight. She was dog tired, and for some reason her thoughts were constantly returning to her brother. A twinge of guilt was niggling at her. Maybe she had been a bit harsh on him. But then she always had to be the responsible one, something for which she never received any recognition or thanks, and this just irritated her.

The phone rang making her jump.

She answered. It was one of the company lawyers, and Alex gave him a quick update on the documentation for the project they were working on. Replacing the receiver, she found herself staring back at the trees outside. She felt sleepy, tiredness pushing her eyelids down. She squeezed her eyes shut and then blinked hard trying to shake it off. As her eyes came back into focus she gasped in shock for she was not in her office anymore but standing in woodland, the air pervaded with a soft music that she could barely hear, and wondered if she was imagining, and all around her the trees swayed and creaked in the wind. She looked around in disbelief. She was in some kind of clearing, the short grass littered with leaves from the fall, and all around her the soft autumn sun colored everything with gold.

Alex pinched herself, but it made no difference for everything remained the same. She tried to rationalize what she was seeing. Was she hallucinating? Had she gone mad, a switch just flicking off in her mind? Before she could think any more, movement on the far side of the clearing caught her eye.

Suddenly, a group of people appeared as if from within the trees, walking towards her. At the head was a tall woman dressed in flowing white and behind her marched several men and women. Some were carrying banners and some swords. Then sword-armed archers on horseback appeared riding behind them and fanning out slowly to encompass the clearing with an exciting energy of barely controlled power and violence. All were dressed in clothes of light browns, faded yellows and deep gold which merged with the autumn color behind them to give an almost perfect camouflage.

Alex stared incredulously around her and then fixed her gaze on the woman as she approached, and it was only when the woman was in front of her that she realized it was Aunt Gwen, but it was Aunt Gwen as she must have been when she was twenty, for the woman was young, her face fresh and her eyes radiating a powerful beauty.

As Gwen reached Alex, she stopped and studied her with an intense look in her eyes, and then she met Alex’s gaze and smiled in greeting.

“Welcome to our wood, Alex.”

Alex found a sense of reality pervading through her consciousness, as if everything that was happening was perfectly normal and that there was nothing to worry about. Her disbelief melted away and she calmly gathered her wits and spoke.

“Thank you, Gwen,” she said and then asked. “You are Gwen aren’t you?”

Gwen smiled again, an act that sent a sense of well-being and goodness flowing through Alex.

“You must have many questions,” said Gwen. “For which I do not have the answers.”

Gwen moved forward, putting her hands on Alex’s shoulders. The touch was electric.

“Gwen is one of my names.”

“So this is the wood Paul always spoke about,” said Alex looking all around.

“Yes,” replied Gwen simply. “I wish there had been a reason to show you before.”

Alex bit down on her tongue, suppressing the sudden flash of anger.

“So where exactly am I?” she asked.

Gwen gripped Alex’s shoulders firmly, sending more comfort and normality through her consciousness.

“Let me speak, Alex. Time is short here and we are not the only ones who can sense you.” Gwen took Alex’s hand. “Come, walk with me.”

Alex followed trancelike, letting herself be led by the woman into the wood. The armed men and women followed them but as they moved deeper into the trees they melted away until Alex was sure she was alone with Gwen.

“Our wood is a mirror of your world Alex. What happens there happens here also.”

Alex remained silent as she tried to take it all in and to accept that perhaps Paul had been right.

“I can no longer see your brother,” said Gwen. “I fear something is happening that I cannot control.”

The two stopped walking and Gwen turned to face Alex.

“It is very important that I see him soon.” Gwen looked deep into Alex’s eyes. “Since I have left your world, I can no longer pass back into it. I therefore ask that you find your brother and bring him here to me. You will know how when the time comes.”

“I saw him two days ago. He was scared,” said Alex. “Something was bothering him.”

Gwen stared at her intently for a few moments before speaking.

“That is why you must find him.”

Gwen knelt down and picked a fallen leaf from the woodland floor. She turned it over in her hands seeming to absorb its natural beauty. She then took Alex’s hand and pressed the leaf into her palm.

“Take this leaf. So that you will remember.”

Gwen closed her hands around Alex’s. She then reached forward, touching Alex’s forehead, and suddenly Alex felt dizzy, and then all was darkness.





Alex opened her eyes. She blinked hard, trying to shake the tiredness away, the feeling that she was waking from an unusually deep sleep.

Everything was as before. Her computer still hummed away in front of her. The muted sounds and atmosphere of the office still surrounded her. The trees still shimmered in the heat haze outside.

Trees.

Woodland.

Gwen.

Paul.

Alex looked down at her clenched hand, her fingers opening slowly. She stared in disbelief at the golden brown leaf lying in her palm. She looked around her, heart pounding. Suddenly the room felt stifling hot, the air breathless, devoid of oxygen. The walls began to tilt alarmingly towards her, closing in on her. All around her people sat at their computers staring into the white grey screens, fingers tapping on keys, while behind two people were holding a muted conversation. She heard someone let out a low laugh. Had they seen the leaf? Did they know? Alex turned, but they were not looking at her. In fact no one was paying her the slightest bit of attention.

Alex stood up and made for the door to the corridor. Her feet were unsteady, her hand shut tight and crushing the leaf between her fingers. She pushed herself through, and was immediately alone in the cool, shadowed corridor. Breathing heavily she leaned back against the wall, fists against her head. She tried to calm her panicking body, but too many thoughts were racing through her mind. It had to be real. How could she deny it while the proof pushed against her skin? Without that it was a vivid daydream, a hallucination, but Gwen had removed any possible doubt from her mind. Now years of thoughts and feelings were unravelling around her. Guilt was wrapping itself around the memories of her actions and a sick feeling was knotting her stomach.

Alex sucked in a deep breath, letting her arms drop back down to her sides. She watched in fascination as the leaf fell from her hand rotating slowly as it neared the floor. A sudden gust of wind lifted it upwards and it began to disintegrate before her eyes, flecks of gold turning to dust, and in seconds it was gone. This seemed to change something in Alex’s mind. The leaf was gone. It had not been real. She had imagined the whole thing.

She turned and walked as quickly as she dared along the corridor to the toilets. Pushing through the door she leaned against the rim of a sink and turned on the tap. Splashing water on her face she looked up, relieved to see herself looking relatively normal. That was it. There was nothing wrong with her. She had just had a particularly strange and vivid daydream.

Her Blackberry vibrated in her pocket. Alex pulled it out and saw an email from her manager asking for an update on one of the more pressing problems she was dealing with.

“It just never ends,” she muttered to herself. Checking again that she was looking calm and collected, Alex went back out into the corridor already drafting in her head what she had to say.





Paul stood on the cliff top embracing the moon that now lit the dancing surface of the sea in ebony light. A restless, dream-filled sleep had driven him outside into the cool of the night where he found comfort in the darkness where no human moved, where his thoughts could flow and his mind could forget the body that caged it. He felt a growing sense of freedom and darkness rising in his soul, and his thoughts called out to the moon and to the starlit sky above, to the black shadow of the land that surrounded him, and he felt he was answered as a surge of electrical emotion swept through his body.

As he called up to the sky, dark clouds boiled up from the horizon filling the sky with thunder and lightning as the storm raced in from the sea. Wind tugged at his clothes and whipped the sea into a frenzy of foaming white spray as it crashed against the rocks below.

The loud whinnying of a horse snapped into Paul’s mind, and he looked down and around himself, realizing his power and potential, enjoying the feel of the cool armor on his skin and the powerful warhorse he was mounted on.

So this was how it was to be.

He was in his dream, but this time the dream was real.

There was something else.

On the horizon he felt her, felt her pulling him towards herself. With an imperceptible command he urged the warhorse on, and they galloped through the storm moving swiftly along the cliff tops towards her. Only when he was near did he rein in his horse to a stop and jump down. There he stood waiting. Waiting for the time when she would come to him, and they would be joined once more.