Strange Path
By Michelle Garren Flye
Published by Michelle Garren Flye
Copyright January 2017 Michelle Garren Flye
All rights reserved.
This novel is a work of fiction. Characters and events in this novel come directly from my imagination. Actual places are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any actual events or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Author photo by Jenn Reno Photography
Cover by Farah Evers Designs
Introduction: Beginning at the Beginning
I began writing the Synchronicity Series with Book One, of course. It was only after Out of Time was published that I realized, however, that I hadn't started at the beginning. This story, the story of a true love that spans race and world, is the beginning. The true beginning.
The moment Jack tells Josephine about the carving he sees on the Drhumor Building in Asheville, I began thinking of him, dreaming up his story, and the story of his true love, Josephine.
There truly is a carving of a bearded man on the Drhumor Building in Asheville. Legend has it, the bearded face was that of a local florist and self-proclaimed "sidewalk supervisor" while construction of the building was going on. His face and the little bit I was able to find out about him inspired the story of Drake and Josephine.
Strange Path
Josephine stood in the meadow, evening sunlight warm on her bare arms, fragrant spring grass brushing her calves. Six months ago, her mother, perhaps sensing the end of her time approaching, had brought her to this spot and told her about the ancient obligation their people carried. The obligation Josephine would have to take on now that her mother was dead.
Can you feel it? Her mother asked.
Yes. I feel it.
She had always known about the portal. It was called Galohisdi, the Cherokee word for doorway, but Josephine felt it like a river. Even dormant, it was a living, moving thing. She couldn't see it exactly, but she sensed it in that space. Anyone else could walk right through the area occupied by Galohisdi, but Josephine had always gone around. Even when she was too young to be told about Galohisdi, she walked around it.
What is on the other side?
Her mother was silent for a moment, and when she replied it was with the heaviness of great thought. Our people can choose two paths. The path of the owl, who guards, or the path of the hawk, who explores. I chose the path of the owl. You will one day decide if you are a guardian who stays on this side of Galohisdi?or an explorer who opens it and finds out what is on the other side.
But it has always been closed before. Why would I open it now?
Her mother had not answered, and Josephine knew it was because she did not feel the portal in the same way Josephine did. She could ignore its call, but Josephine knew that was not something she could do. And now she realized her mother had given her a greater gift than just the legacy of Galohisdi. She'd given Josephine permission to choose her own path.
Josephine raised her hand, drawn by an instinct as undeniable as the sap running through a tree. She felt the invisible, immaterial, running power of Galohisdi and waited to find out what was on the other side?but in the instant that it woke beneath her touch she was thrown backward into blackness by the force of something exploding against her.
****
Hunter Drake couldn't pause to figure out where the woman had come from. He'd felt something-an indefinable, crackling something-and then she'd been there. In the middle of his flight path, and he'd crashed into her, pretty damn hard, too. He caught her as she fell, unable to take the moment needed to make certain she was all right as he whirled to face the castle guardsman chasing him, sword drawn, intent on bringing him back to the king they'd both served until that very evening?
But Garth was gone. Vanished as neatly as the woman had appeared. Drake looked at her unconscious body in his arms and back to the spot where the seven-foot, muscly Elf had been, confused. If the gods had decided to reward his virtue, that might explain this, but he'd never really believed the gods interfered in the lives of men?or Elves.
What the hell, I'll take her over him, anyway. Drake looked around, hoisting the woman in his arms. Her dusky complexion and long braid of dark hair were very unusual, almost exotic, even in his vast experience, but she was slight in stature. Barely a hundred pounds, if that. If she's an enemy, I should be able to defend myself. His mouth quirked in amusement. Inconvenient as it was to find himself saddled with an unconscious woman while in the act of fleeing a tyrant king, Drake had no intention of leaving her behind. Besides, maybe she was a gift from the gods.
If she isn't, where did she come from? Drake shoved his way through the bushes. There were Yundi Tsundi-Little People-in these woods, but he didn't want to waste too much time. If they took offense, they might attack, but he doubted it. He'd had enough contact with the Little People in the past to know they respected power, and he had power. Human women normally didn't, though. He frowned as he pushed his way through the underbrush. The woman was a puzzle. She didn't belong there. Humans didn't mess with Little People, and there wasn't a human village for twenty miles. She'd literally appeared out of nowhere.
He pressed on for a few more minutes, pausing at one point to get his bearings. He frowned. He knew these mountains better than any other Elf. The woods seemed?odd. Off, somehow. The same in most ways. But different, too. He looked at the unconscious woman. Maybe she wasn't the only mystery of that evening. What happened to me back there?
Making a decision, he found a little glade, big enough to make a small fire, but with enough cover to provide camouflage from Garth, should he make another appearance. The woman should regain consciousness soon. She could answer his questions then. And in the meantime, it felt safer to sit tight than to roam suddenly unfamiliar woods without a clue as to what possible magic had affected him.
He laid her gently on a mossy patch of grass, leaving to find fuel for the fire. When he returned, she was conscious, rubbing her temple in a confused way. She looked at him, and her gaze was cautious, but she didn't appear immediately afraid. "Who are you?"
"My name is Drake." He squatted and dropped the load of wood into a neat pile. He didn't waste time with flint rocks and dried grass to light it. What was the use of being a sorcerer if you couldn't use magic from time to time? He did so now, flicking a quick spell from his fingertips. He heard her gasp behind him and glanced over his shoulder to see her flinch away from him. Of course, like most humans she feared sorcery. With good reason, he thought drily. Magic in the wrong hands was very dangerous to humans.
Her dark eyes sparkled in the light of the fire, her body tight in a defensive posture. He held up his hands, palms out to display he meant her no harm. "What is your name?"
"I am Josephine." Her voice was low and musical. "Where am I?" Her gaze flickered over him. "Are you from town? I don't recognize you."
"Town?" He raised his eyebrows. "I come from the palace."
"Palace?" She shook her head, confused. "There is no palace."
"Selwyn's palace. The Elf king?" He paused, thinking of how she had appeared in his path so suddenly. And how Garth had disappeared.
"Did I cross over, then?" She sat up straighter, her eyes widening. "I thought I'd know. I can't remember, though."
He didn't answer immediately, thinking of the moment she'd appeared and Garth had vanished. The subtle differences in the woods around him. And the strange, soft tingling he'd felt just before she appeared. "I think?maybe I am the one who crossed over."
"Oh." She stared at him, her expression frozen for a moment. Then she shook her head. "Oh no."
He chuckled. "You seem
quite horrified at that particular prospect."
"Horrified?" She surged to her feet. "Yes! I wasn't supposed to-" She wavered, her hand going to her head, and he stood quickly, catching her before she could crumple.
He lowered her carefully to the ground and pulled a blanket from his pack to wrap around her shoulders. "You need to take it easy. I ran right into you and I'd have to guess I'm roughly twice your size and weight. You took a pretty hard knock."
"That doesn't matter." She shook her head, her voice low. "You have to go back. Now."
"Back?" He snorted. "There are several reasons why that isn't going to happen."
"But you must!" She jerked her head up, fixing him with a fiery gaze. "If you don't, the implications? Do you have any idea?"
"I do, actually." He smiled. "I know the lore better than any other Elf. The portal I went through brought me to Eladi-the home of humans, am I right?"
"And you came from the home of?Elves?" She sounded uncertain.
"Not exactly. The home of the Elves is Gadusi, the third world, which legend says is poisoned and destroyed. I come from Ayeli, the middle world. Adopted home of Elves and humans, and the mixed race Meti." He poked at the fire with a long stick, glaring moodily. "And I cannot return. Ever."
"Why?"
He pulled the stick from the fire, studying its glowing end before cracking it in half. "Because if I do, the humans of Ayeli will be destroyed."