Woman King

CHAPTER 10

My first sensation was of something cold and hard pressing into my lower back. Then the smell of damp, rotting plants filled my nostrils. I remained motionless, trying to recall what had happened. Where was I? Then I remembered my adventure in the park and the tea Elsa had given me that caused me to hallucinate.

I lay still, testing my body. From one limb to the next I wiggled, waiting for injuries and pain. I moved my head from side to side and slowly opened my eyes. As soon as I focused I recoiled, for there, not an inch from my face, was an egret. The small, white bird was studying me. I smiled at him. “Either you are in the wrong place, or I am sleeping in your bed,” I said quietly to the bird.

The egret opened up his wings and flew away as I sat up to survey my surroundings. I was sleeping on a small patch of dirt inside a lily pond near the side entrance of the de Young Museum. Why here, of all places, I wondered, and then I recalled hearing a man’s voice at the end of the evening. The voice was insistent, urging me to leave my old life behind to join him. I had followed the voice, getting as far as the museum, but could not find its source.

At some point I must have lost Lily and come back here to fall asleep, choosing to slumber beside a statute of Pan with his lute. Now, as the light of day pressed against my sensitive eyes, the nature of my situation dawned on me. I was a half-dressed woman trespassing on city property, and I needed to get up and leave before someone saw me. The good news is that given the kinds of characters that inhabit San Francisco, I wasn’t too worried about looking odd as I strolled back to my house. I was certain my unkempt nature wouldn’t raise so much as an eyebrow.

I wondered what had happened to Elsa. I concentrated for a moment and then, one by one, the images of the night returned. I recalled with clarity that Elsa had disappeared into the fountain. I remembered the bright light and her attempt to shield me from it.

My running shoes were sitting next to me and I reached over to slide them on to my filthy, bare feet. As soon as I climbed out of the pond and hopped onto the sidewalk, I spotted Elsa sitting on a bench nearby. Her eyes shut, and she appeared to be dozing lightly. I walked toward her, intending to gently tap her on the shoulder, but as I approached she opened her eyes with a start.

“Olivia,” she said, smiling, “you’ve returned to this world. How do you feel?”

“I feel great,” I said. “My back is a little sore from sleeping on a rock, but other than that, I feel fine.” As I stood looking at Elsa, I began to see some of the same colors I had from the night before. Elsa was gently giving off waves of yellow and orange as she stood before me.

“You’re giving off colors again,” I said.

As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt a rush of warmth invade my body. It was the feeling of pleasure, but the feeling was not my own. It belonged to Elsa. “I can feel your pleasure, too,” I said, shaking my head. “Is that what you hoped would happen?” Again, a rush of warmth ran through me. “You’re pleased. I can tell.”

“I am pleased,” she responded, rising from the bench to stretch. “How much more you can do with your gift remains to be seen. We’re going to work on it a bit, and then I am going to introduce you to a group of people who are very interested in meeting you. They’d like you to come and work for them.”

We walked back to the house in silence, my mind too preoccupied with the show unfurling before me. As I walked past people on the street I could clearly see the outline of their auras and feel their emotions. Unfiltered, it was disorienting, and by the time we got to the front door, my stomach was churning with all of the morning angst I’d picked up as my neighbors headed off to work. I placed my hand against the door jam and closed my eyes for a moment, remembering Elsa’s advice from the night before. After a few moments of deep breathing, I regained control of my senses. I nearly had been overwhelmed by other people’s emotions, but with some measure of confidence, I realized that I could calm my mind when necessary.

I was about to reach for my hide-a-key, when the front door flew open. Lily was standing in the doorway half awake, wearing one of my bathrobes. Evidently, she’d had the good sense to come home and sleep in a bed.

I watched velvety green light coming off of my best friend and felt her happiness at my safe return deep inside my heart. It was lovely to feel that kind of friendship from another being.

“Thank you,” I said. “I am very glad to see you too. What an adventure we had last night. Did you know that your light is as green as that island we swam to?”

Lily giggled. “It worked. You can see my aura. I am green and sometimes a little blue comes through. Most fairies are. If you ever see a red color coming off a fairy, you should run and get away as fast as you can. It means something horrible is about to happen.”

I nodded, distracted by my stomach, which began to grumble.

“I’m starving. Let’s have some food and we can talk some more.”

“I can’t stay,” Lily said. “I have to go to work. You know the library is open seven days a week.”

“Suit yourself,” I said. “I am making pancakes.”

After I had eaten and taken a shower, I came downstairs to find Elsa sitting on the floor in the living room, meditating. Legs folded, eyes closed, she was chanting softly. I could see very strong orange and yellow pulses coming from her body as she took in breaths of air. I wondered what colors my body gave off, but when I tried to look after my shower, nothing appeared in the mirror.

“Yellow, orange and a twinge of red,” Elsa said. “I can hear your thoughts now, Olivia. Your mind is very powerful. We need to be careful so that you don’t telegraph what you are thinking to those who would use the information against you.”

I flopped down in a chair and sighed. “You can hear my thoughts. I can feel your emotions. How is this supposed to be better for me? I feel more vulnerable than ever.”

“You are more vulnerable… for the moment,” Elsa said. “It will pass and you will come to learn how powerful a woman is when she uses her sixth sense.”

I sat for a moment contemplating my future. It certainly couldn’t get any worse, I reasoned. I now had the power to read people and know their emotions. If I could figure our how to protect myself, maybe I could get back to work and retrieve my clients from Stoner Halbert.

“What about the demon?” I asked. “Will it go away now?”

“Soon you will be able to keep him out of your head and then he will have to move on to someone more vulnerable.”

Thinking about being vulnerable reminded me of the horrible light and pain from the night before. “What was that light last night? Why did it hurt my head?”

Elsa paused a long while and then said, “It was someone trying to read your thoughts.” That didn’t sound good at all. “Read my thoughts. Why? Who was it?”

Elsa frowned. “He’s the head of an organization that’s very interested in humans who have extra skills like yours.”

“Really, how odd,” I said. “He sounds like a freak. How does he know about me?”

Again, Elsa didn’t answer immediately.

“I am a member of the Council, it was my responsibility to tell them that I was leaving my post temporarily to help a human,” she explained. “When I told the director about your gifts, he became very interested.”

“The Council,” I said aloud. “It sounds like a John Grisham novel.”

“I don’t know who John Grisham is,” Elsa said, her stern voice returning. “But I assure you, the Council is very real. Gabriel Laurent is the current director. He’s the one who tried to contact you last night.”

“Does he always try to blind people to say hello?”

“I told him it was too early to try such a thing,” she acknowledged. “I asked him to wait a few days and promised that I would bring you to meet him.”

“Is that where you went, when you left? To see him?” I asked. “You touched the fountain and disappeared.”

Elsa nodded. “I used the portal to jump to the top of the museum, where the Council keeps its headquarters.”

“How did you do that? I mean how do you make sure you get where you want to go?”

“I use my mind. It will guide me to where I want to go.”

“And what does Monsieur Laurent want with me?”

“It’s nothing, really; he wants to speak to you about a job.”

I knew right away that Elsa was lying.