Chapter Eight
Sanctuary
Kreelin looked out the window of the recovery room as an early morning storm broke across the city. Lightning flashed at regular intervals illuminating the hospital grounds under the driving hard gray rain that battered the thick windows. His eye was a carefully controlled color of calm slate gray but, like the storm, his anger was ready to thunder across the city and make those that had hurt the ones he loved pay for their deeds. However, that was not his job now. He was an explorer. Someone else would have to find the bombers if they were out there. It had been twelve units now, they could be anywhere, beyond the next corner, beyond the storm, beyond…beyond his reach and he could do nothing but wait. He hated waiting.
What was he going to do? Kreelin turned from the window and looked for the hundredth time toward the critical care bed that filled their small corner of the hospital room and Neela’s broken body. Grodge was out of his bed and, though his arms were bandaged and despite the obvious pain he was in, sat next to her and held her limp hand.
Kreelin looked across the room and saw that Jimmy, Raina, and Toli were huddled next to each other talking softly as they all awaited the return of the doctor. The rest of the crew had called earlier with worry lacing their voices and expressions. Heevii had wanted vehemently to come to help keep everyone calm. “We will be okay, Heevii. Keep the rest of the gang in line until we know more,” He had said those words seven units ago. He growled in a low tone of frustration.
“There have been a number of gang killings in the colony zones in recent days as well,” Raina said in hushed tones as Jimmy nodded absently. “I think they were from the Frellon arm of the Shadow Daggers or they could have been from the Dorrn’s,” Raina flashed a quick look at Kreelin, who turned then and looked away but did not comment as she continued. “But whoever they are, the News Net has reported a dramatic 25 percent jump in the last month of gang killings on Frellon alone.”
“Must be all that fog,” Toli said flatly. He shot a quick, concerned glance at Kreelin before looking back at Jimmy. “One can only stand the color of gray for so long before one becomes a little deranged.”
“So that’s what happened to you,” Jimmy said sarcastically.
“I’ll never tell,” Toli pulled the databoard a little closer and swore under his breath. “Why is this not working??”
Jimmy got up from his seat and looked over the databoard in Toli’s hand as they both quickly became embroiled in another technical debate. Kreelin sighed again and looked back out the window. ‘At least they had something to distract them from their worry,’ Kreelin knew that they were doing their best to put on masks of calm, including Toli. They knew the situation was grave and still they continued to be the professionals he had come to admire. ‘I couldn’t ask for a better crew or better friends.’
The relative quiet of the room was briefly disturbed by the opening of the far door, which admitted a middle-aged human doctor who was still frowning at the databoard he held as he walked with resolute steps toward Neela’s bed.
“Doctor?” Kreelin said simply when he finally reached her bed and Grodge had not looked up to greet him.
The doctor looked at the machines that were regulating Neela’s condition and absently adjusted two knobs that seemed to help her breathing rate. “Neela has massive internal injuries. I won’t go over the specifics now, they are too numerous to mention. She will have to remain here for the foreseeable future.”
“She will recover then?” Kreelin asked softly.
The doctor turned and looked at him, his heavily lined face illuminated starkly by the lights of the life support monitors. “Her body will yes, but having been her doctor for the last ten years, I can tell you with a fair degree of certainty that her mental state will take considerably more time.”
“But…”
Grodge finally looked up from Neela’s hand, his great lips a trembling line of fear. The doctor closed his eyes and rubbed them with a tired and worn hand. He, at last, turned his gaze to Grodge and with a small voice that stilled the room like a thunderclap said, “I’m so very sorry Grodge. She lost the baby.”
The soft footsteps from the ancient stone entryway interrupted Kreelin’s replay of the hospital's tortured memory. The gentle brushing sound seemed completely natural to his ears as he stood at the center of the Sanctuary’s most secluded meditation garden. The footsteps quickly fell silent at the threshold of the lush, small garden and waited on Kreelin for acknowledgment. However, he was not in the mood for visitors-far from it. He had to think, had to understand and master the knot of anger that was consuming him and he needed to be alone to do that. Not everyone, however, agreed with that thought. “You have been here for seven days now my son. What have you found in this small garden that keeps you here?”
Kreelin did not turn from the statuesque stance that he had held for most of the day. He did not want to give into the interruption but Kreelin knew that he would not be left in peace until he had answered the question. The monk was right of course, he had been here seven days. Seven days since Neela had been hurt, seven days since he had found out that he was to have been an uncle, seven days since an unknown villain had taken another piece of his family. What had kept him here, away from their sides? What had he found? “I have found…peace.”
“Ah-peace. That is good. Very, very good,” The monk leaned against his walking stick and considered Kreelin’s back and it’s twitching muscles and the hardness with which he stood against the cool, gentle breeze. “But I fear that you have only found a superficial transcendence.”
“What do you mean?” Kreelin asked as the breeze momentarily kicked up and tugged at his worn kilt before racing on to fade among the tall trees.
The monk flicked his wrist slightly and his delicate robes parted effortlessly as he took two slow, measured steps toward Kreelin.
“You have not been to the Arenath in over a year Kreelin; seven years since your last need to seek the solace of Sanctuary. But in just little over a week you have returned here with a friend, making a spectacle of yourself on the workout floor and a day later you return and bury yourself in the deepest, most remote and unused sanctuary that the Arenath owns. In addition, in just a week’s time, you have sought out and found peace. Incredible. It took me years of meditation and reflection before I found my inner peace.”
“Tarrinan, you of all people should know that I’m a fast study,” Kreelin muttered with a half-felt sense of bemusement.
“If that were only true,” The sarcastic tone of the monk’s voice made Kreelin’s muscles tense just a bit more. Tarrinan took a deep breath and gripped his walking staff tightly. “With the depth of your obvious pain, I would hazard a guess that like most beings you have confused momentary calm for true inner peace.”
‘This was Vinmil’s fault,’ He thought bitterly. She’s the one that had told him to confront Toli, who in turn had opened his old wound… it was she he had learned who had put Grodge up to bringing him here last week. But deep in the dark corners of his mind, he knew that he was just looking to spread the pain. Was Toli right? Had he given up? If he had not left his career, could he have prevented this tragedy? The nameless cowards, they were to blame. They would pay. One thing was sure; this was not Vinmil’s fault that more of his family was dead.
‘I should have been there to protect them,’ Kreelin thought with a heavy sighed. “I suppose there is some truth to your words.”
Tarrinan smiled, though his eye nerves remained neutral gray as the play of tension across Kreelin’s back became more noticeable. “Some…yes,” The monk calmly flicked his wrist and again his robes parted as he carefully walked a few measured steps closer to Kreelin. “You have a long journey to undertake before peace is truly possible for you I think.”
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