Believe it or not, I’ve started writing the sequel to my monster, The Silver path and the Golden Bell. Couldn’t help myself.
It’s tentatively called Infinity Road and takes place ten years later.
Very excited to try and stitch together a story with the same gravitas without repeating myself.
Time will tell.
Extract below:
2029 – KADENA, OKINAWA
Cif was early. She wanted some time to herself to contemplate the grave; just a painted pole in the ground, really. The others would be here soon.
Aki had died.
Not unexpected, the woman was nearly ninety, but …
Tears came suddenly, angrily. Cif hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye. Aki passed in her sleep two days ago and Cif was in Tokyo at the time, locked down by an errant typhoon. Once the weather cleared, it took half a day to get back to Kadena, but still … it was too late, regardless.
Sudden, poignant memory intruded;
“Cif?”
“Go away!”
“No.”
“Oh … alright, come up.”
Aki climbed gingerly up the rock face. Rearranging her skirt, she sat a metre away from the fourteen-year-old girl from the abbey.
“I’m Aki.”
“I know. Grandmother talks about you, sometimes.”
“Yes. They are all very worried. You’ve been gone two days, now.”
The girl shrugged. “I don’t care. They don’t.”
“You’re wrong. Freya and Mim are beside themselves.”
Cif sniffed a laugh. “Mim, ha! My grandmother is why I ran away. It’s all about pride with her.”
Aki considered. “Can I tell you something that you can never repeat?”
Cif glanced at her. She was a plain woman but … there was something which radiated from her; an authority. She was miko, a Shinto hand maiden or something. Maybe that was it.
“What?”
“Do I have your word, on your honour?”
“Oh, alright … yes.”
Aki nodded. “A year ago, on one of my visits to the abbey, I heard your grandmother say this to the abbot while they watched you train with Freya. It went like this;
Mim said, “She is everything I had ever hoped for in myself. Am I placing too high a burden on her?”
“No. She is more than up to that task,” responded the abbot. “But you are each cut from the same cloth. It will be exceedingly easy for you to offend each other.”
Mim smiled, “Even more than I usually do.”
“Even that. Then there are her sexual preferences.”
“Oh. You’ve noticed?”
“Mim, everyone has.”
Mim frowned. “It makes no difference who she loves so long as she does, love, that is. But not to have her children to care for is a travail I’m dreading. Longevity is important to me; we had none of it when I was a child. The abbey, you … everyone! I so want her to have all this and more.”
Aki stopped. “There’s more but I think you get the idea.”
“They knew a year ago that I liked girls, not boys?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did Mim snap at me two days ago and say those awful things?”
“You caught her on a bad day. Her father is close to death and she’s having trouble dealing with that despite all the help she’s received. To see him bedridden has upset her in ways no one expected. If you had been paying attention …”
“And she doesn’t care that I’m lesbian? Not really?”
“No.”
“She envies me?”
“Yes.”
Cif frowned again. “I’m an idiot.”
“Yes, but you’re also fourteen, so there are extenuating circumstances.”
Aki said this with a straight face, but Cif laughed. “I haven’t been paying attention, have I?”
“Apparently not.”
The girl sat up straight and looked directly at Aki. By the goddess, she’s gorgeous, mused Aki, and she doesn’t even know it.
“Why are you at the abbey so often. I only just realised you’re up there a lot.
Aki smiled. “When I was six, a friend of the abbot saved my life, but he broke some of your rules to do it. The abbot likes to check up on me from time to time to consider ‘consequences’.”
“That’s Springer, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Major John Springer. I became an architect because of him. He is one, by the way.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard them talk. He’s Yusandi’s guilty secret; sort of.”
Aki shifted her weight. “I’m going back to my family, now. You are always welcome in my home.”
She eased herself off the ledge and climbed down and away.
Cif watched her go. With a large sigh, she followed a few minutes later.
Now-reality snapped back. That had been 1970 or something!
She felt a movement in the vibrations of this reality and turned. Mackenzie Browne, dressed formally, stepped out of nothing a few metres away. There was no force involved; it was like the fabric of space-time parted for him but what stood in front of her was still an illusion.
“Where are you?” she asked quietly, as he stopped by her side and placed a hand on her shoulder. It felt so real!
“Copenhagen. London day after tomorrow. Stupid to ask, but how are you?”
She poked her tongue out, “Yeah, stupid. I’m angry, sad, pissed, angry … all of them. I wanted to say goodbye.”
“She asked me not to let you know when she went. She felt it would be a burden.”
“You knew … when she died!”
“Of course. I broke the time stream to save her life. We were always linked. I offered and she accepted, for me to attend when she passed.”
Cif looked angry, sad, confused.
In a soft voice which echoed with power, Mac said, “Death is a very personal thing, Cif. Aki understood this and didn’t want others to taint her joy of passing with grief. Her insights were extraordinary for a non-Walker. She lives on in the memory of the Void. Be proud. She was.”
Cif stepped away slightly. This was a Sentry of the Interstitial Layer speaking. A literal god by any definition.
She bowed to him. “By all that we revere, I put aside my selfish grief and honour my friend’s purity of spirit.”
Mac nodded. “She said you’d say something like that.”
Cif grinned, at peace at last.
Others started to arrive; family and friends. By the time the formal Shinto funeral started, there were just over a hundred people present.
The thing was a blur to Cif and she and Mac stood to the rear, away from the primary family and closest associates. At the end though, the priest and Aki’s husband and children approached them. They were all so old! And this was not traditional.
The husband said, formally, “Zhao Lin Cif, Abbottess of Grey Mist Mountain, lifelong friend, please accept this gift as a token of your devotion to my wife.”
He handed her a small vile of Aki’s ashes wrapped in a blue ribbon, her favourite colour. Cif bowed and accepted the offering as the whole family bowed back.
Cif swallowed hard, looked at Mac and said, “Do something spectacular … please.”
He nodded and cast his gaze across the family and the priest. They saw something they couldn’t understand but knew was power beyond measuring. Raising a hand, he said in the echoing voice, “Her kami walks a trail trod by few but which is an endless path, a road to infinity. Know that she is well and satisfied.”
Reality blurred for a moment and a young Aki stood amongst them, regarding each for a long moment, before fading away. The family were stunned and several started to weep.
The priest looked shocked, and said, “Izanami …”
Mac tilted his head slightly, “No, revered one. But we walk the same Path and my power honours my friend.” He nodded and bowed.
Looking from Cif to Mac, the husband said, “Thank you.”
Cif stepped up, took his arm and steered the family away. There was a reception to attend and she needed the distraction. When she turned back, Mac was gone.
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