Key of Knowledge - SG - Chaps 12&13 - 18/7/10 - Page 6

naughty mayu................loved the updates..............simply amazing..............

Hey guys just to clear it
There are two more chaps left then the main focus will shift to SG Story
but MN will still be in the story along with AR.
😃

ok i thought ki mn gone but they are still there
thanks for clearing confusiona and update soon
dying to read next parts

Chapter Nineteen

He made her laugh as he nipped along her jawline, playfully wrestled her down when she tried to squirm away.

M -"You taste even better than the food."

N -"If that's the best you can do, then you're the one who'll be washing dishes."

M -"Your threats don't scare me." He rubbed her arms "There's a dishwasher somewhere in that kitchen."

N -"Yes, there is. And you had a bag of dog food stored in it."

M -"Is that where that went to?" He nibbled at her earlobe.

N -"It's now in the utility closet, where it belongs." She turned her head slightly to give him easier access to her neck. "You're obviously unaware that there are very practical, even attractive, containers manufactured to store items such as dog food."

M -"No kidding? Looks like I've got my work cut out for me, getting these domestic worries out of your mind. But I like a challenge after a good meal."

N -"This couch scares me you know. I cleaned under the cushions and learned just what this monster can swallow. We could be next."

M -"I'll protect you."

The enormous cushions gave under their weight, cradled them together as he nuzzled her. She wiggled and squirmed in mock resistance.

N -"What do you think of Brazilians?" Baffled, he lifted his head.

M - "What? The people, or the nuts?"

She stared at him, amazed that she'd spoken out loud, delighted with his response. Laughter shook her, rolled straight up from her belly as she grabbed him and rained kisses over his face.

N -"Nothing. Never mind." He deepened their kiss and sighed his name as she seemed to dissolve under his hands. He wanted, as he'd wanted in that stunning moment in his kitchen, to give her anything. Everything she wanted, all she needed, more than she could imagine. He'd never known what it was to be offered unconditional love, to know it waited for him. He'd never felt deprived of it because he'd never known it existed.

And now he held the woman who'd given it to him. She was his miracle, his magic. His key. He pressed his lips to her shoulder, her throat, rode on the punch of these huge new emotions when her arms came around him. Words tumbled through his mind, but none of them were enough.

Warm and loose and sleepy, she curled into him. She was more than willing to cocoon herself in this lovely haze, to drift in it to the sound of her own skin humming. Chores could wait, forever if need be. As long as she could snuggle here, feeling Mayank's heart pound against hers. She wondered why they didn't just drift off to sleep this way, warm, and tangled. She stretched luxuriously under his hand when he stroked her back.

N -"Mmmm. Let's just stay here all night, like a couple of bears in a cave."

M -"You're happy?" She tipped her face up to smile at him.

N -"Of course I am." She snuggled back in. "So happy I'm pretending there aren't dishes waiting to be washed or leftovers to put away."

M -"You haven't been happy the last few days."

N -"No, I guess I haven't." She settled her head more comfortably on his shoulder. "I felt like I'd lost my direction, and everything around me was shifting and changing so fast I couldn't keep up. Then it occurred to me that if I didn't change, at least open myself to changing, the direction didn't matter. Because I was going nowhere."

M -"There are some things I want to tell you, if you can handle some more changes."

Uneasy, as his tone was so serious, she braced herself.

N -"All right."

M -"About Dia." He felt her tense, an instant tightening of muscles, and could all but feel her will herself to relax again.

N -"This may not be the best moment to tell me about another woman. Especially one you loved and planned to marry."

M -"I think it is. We knew each other casually for several months, then intimately for the best part of a year. We clicked on a number of levels. Professionally, socially, Physically—" Her lovely cocoon was now in shreds, and she began to feel the cold.

N -"Mayank—"

M-"Hear me out. It was the longest adult relationship I'd had with a woman. Serious relationship with long-term planning. I thought we were in love with each other."

N-"She hurt you, I know. I'm sorry, but—"

M-"Quiet." He tapped a finger on the top of her head. "She didn't love me, or if she did, that love had specific requirements. So you couldn't call it a gift."

He was silent for a moment, selecting his words carefully. "It isn't easy looking in the mirror and accepting that you were missing some element, something that kept a person you wanted from loving you." She tried to keep steady.

N -"No, it's not."

M-"And even when you come to terms with it, when you realize it just wasn't right, that there was something missing from the other person, too, something missing from the whole, it still breaks your stride. It makes you a lot more hesitant about taking that kind of chance again."

N-"I understand that."

M-"And you end up going nowhere," he stated, echoing her earlier statement. "Sam said something to me the other day that had me thinking, and thinking back. I asked myself if I'd ever really imagined life with Dia. You know, pictured how we'd be together a few years down the road. I could see the immediate future, the moving-to-New-York thing. How we'd get jobs in our chosen fields, find a place to live, and then I realized that was pretty much it. That was all I'd been able to see. Not how we would live or what we'd do beyond that vague picture, not how we'd look together in a decade. It wasn't hard to picture my life without her in it, maybe harder to pick up my life at the point she dumped me. Lots of bruises on the pride and ego. Lots of anger and hurt. And the byproduct of feeling like I probably wasn't cut out for the whole love-and-marriage thing."

Her heart was twisting, for both of them.

N- "You don't have to explain."

M-"I'm not finished. I was bumping along pretty well. Had my life in order—not so you'd think so, but it suited me. Then Moe knocked you flat on the sidewalk, and things began to change. No secret I was attracted to you from the get-go, and hoped we'd end up on this sofa sooner or later. But, initially, that's as far as I could see things, regarding you and me." This time he tipped her face up. He wanted her to look at him now. Wanted to see her face. "I've known you less than a month. On a lot of basic points we come at it from opposite angles. But I can see my life with you, the way you can look through a window and see your own little world spread out. I can see how it could be a year from now, or twenty years from now, with you and me and what we make." He skimmed his fingers along her cheek, just to feel the shape of it. "What I can't see is how I'd pick up my life from this point and make it without you." He watched her eyes fill with tears, watched them spill over. "I love you." He brushed away a tear with his thumb. "I don't have a master plan for what happens next. I just know I love you." Emotions surged through her, so bright and rich she wondered that they didn't burst out of her in colored light. Terrified that she was about to fall apart, she struggled to smile.

N-"I have to ask you for something important."

M-"Anything."

N-"Promise me you'll never get rid of this couch." He laughed and pulled her closer.

M-"You're going to regret that."

With the two women who had become her friends and partners, Nupur sat on the front porch of the house that would be one-third hers. The sky had clouded up since she'd arrived, clouds stacking on clouds to make a multilayered sweep of grays. Storm brewing, she figured, and found herself pleased with the idea of being inside with rain pounding on the roof. But first she wanted to sit while the electricity gathered in the air and those first puffs of wind bent the trees. More than anything she'd needed to share her joy and her nerves with her friends.

N-"He loves me." She didn't think she would ever tire of saying it aloud. "Mayank loves me."

R -"It's so romantic." Ridz dug a tissue out of her purse and sniffled into it.

N-"It was. You know, there was a time I wouldn't have thought so. I'd have had a very detailed outline in my mind. Candlelight, music, with me and the perfect man in some elegant room. Or outdoors, in some spectacular setting. It would all have had to be arranged, just so." With a shake of her head, she laughed at herself. "That's why I know it's the real thing. Because it didn't have to be just so, and elegant and perfect. It just had to be. It had to be Mayank."

G -"Jeez. It's hard for me to equate the stars in your eyes with Mayank." Gunji rested her chin on her fist. "Nice and all, because I love him too. But it's Mayank, my favorite moron. I've never pictured him as a romantic figure." She turned toward Ridz. "What the hell's in that recipe? Maybe I should get the recipe."

R -"I'm going to take another look at it myself." She patted Nupur's knee. "I'm really happy for you. I liked the way you two looked together right from the start."

G -"Hey, you moving in with him?" perked up. "That would set Sam out on his butt that much sooner."

N -"Sorry, we didn't get to that stage yet. We're just basking in the we're-in-love moment for now. And that, friends and neighbors, is a real change for me. I'm not making schedules and lists. I'm just going with it. God, I feel like I could take on the world! Which brings me to the next part of this session. I'm sorry I haven't contributed to any of the plans for the house here or done anything about moving forward with ideas for fixing it up, putting it all together."

G -'I wondered if you were going to bail," admitted.

N -"I was thinking about it. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I guess I had to work out for myself what I was doing and why. Now I know. I'm starting my own business because the longer you put off dreams, the less chance you have of making them real. I'm going into a partnership with two women I like a lot. Not only am I not going to let them down, but I'm not going to let me down either." She got to her feet, and with her hands planted on her hips, turned to look at the house. "I don't know if I'm ready for this, but I'm ready to try. I don't know if I'm going to find the key in the time I have left, but I know I've tried there, too."

R -"I know what I think." rose to join her. "If it weren't for the key, you wouldn't be with Mayank now. We wouldn't be together, and we wouldn't have this place. Because of that I've got a chance to make something special, for myself, for Sahil. I wouldn't have had that without the two of you."

G -"Let me start off saying we can skip the group hug." Still, walked over to them. "But I feel the same way. I wouldn't have had the chance for this without both of you. My idiot brother has a classy lady in love with him. All that starts with the key. I say you're going to find it." She looked up as rain began to splatter. "Now let's get the hell in out of the rain." Inside, they stood in a loose semicircle.

N -"Together or separate?"

R -"Together,"

N -"Top or bottom?"

G -"Top." glanced over, got assenting nods. "You said Mayank was coming by?"

N -"Yeah, he's going to slip over for an hour."

G-"We can use him as a pack mule, then, for anything we want to haul out of the attic."

R -"Some of the stuff up there is great." face shone with enthusiasm as they started up. "I know it looks like junk at first glance, but I think once we get to it, we'll be able to use some. There's an old wicker chair that could be rewoven and painted. It'd look good on the porch. And there's a couple of those pole lamps. The shades are trash, but the poles could be cleaned up and antiqued." Her voice faded away as Nupur climbed the steps. The window at the top was wet with rain, dull with dust. And her heart began to thud like a fist against her ribs.

N -"This is the place," she whispered.

G -"Yeah, it is. This is it." set her hands on her hips as she looked around the second floor. "It'll be ours and the bank's in a few weeks."

N -"No, this is the place. From my dream. This is the house. How could I be so stupid not to realize, not to understand?" Excitement pitched into her voice, rushing the words out. "It wasn't what was Mayank's, but what was mine. I'm the key. Isn't that what Rowena said?" She whirled back to face them, her eyes brilliant and bright. "Beauty, knowledge, courage. That's the three of us, that's this place. And the dream, that was my fantasy, my idea of perfection. So it had to be my place." She pressed a hand to her heart as if to keep it from leaping free. "The key's here. In this house." In the next instant she was alone. The staircase behind her filled with a thin blue light. Like a mist, it rolled toward her, crawled along the floor at her feet until she stood ankle-deep in the damp chill of it. Rooted in shock, she called out, but her voice rang hollow in a mocking echo. With her heart drumming, she looked at the rooms on either side of her. The eerie blue fog snaked and twined its way up the walls, over the windows, blocking even the gloomy light of the storm. Run! It was a frantic whisper in her mind. Run. Get out now, before it's too late. This wasn't her fight. She was an ordinary woman leading an ordinary life. She gripped the banister, took the first step down. She could still see the door through that sheer blue curtain that so quickly ate the true light. Through the door was the real world. Her world. She had only to open that door and walk out for normalcy to click back into place. That was what she wanted, wasn't it? A normal life. Hadn't her dream shown her that? Marriage and family. French toast for breakfast and flowers on the dresser. A pretty life of simple pleasures built on love and affection. It was waiting for her, outside the door. She walked down the steps like a woman in a trance. She could see beyond the door, somehow through the door, where the day was perfect with autumn. Trees a wash of color gilded by sunlight, air brisk and tart. And though her heart continued to gallop inside her chest, her lips curved in a dreamy smile as she reached for the door.

"This is wrong." She heard her own voice, oddly flat and calm. "This is another trick." A part of her shuddered in shock as she turned away from the door, turned from the perfect life waiting outside. "What's out there isn't real, but this is. This is our place now." Stunned that she'd nearly deserted her friends, she called out for Gunji and Ridz again. Where had he put them? What illusion had separated them? Fear for them had her rushing back up the steps. Her flight tore the blue mists, only to have it gather back into nasty ribbons be-, hind her. To orient herself she went to the window at the top of the stairs and rubbed away those frigid mists. Her fingertips went numb, but she could see it was still storming. Rain whipped down out of a bruised sky. Her car was in the drive, just where she'd left it. Across the street a woman with a red umbrella and a bag of groceries dashed toward a house. That was real, Nupur told herself. That was life, messy and inconvenient. And she would get it back. She'd find her way back. But first she had a job to do. Chills crawled along her skin as she turned to the right. She wished for a jacket, for a flashlight. For her friends. For Mayank. She forced herself not to run, not to rush blindly. The room was a maze of impossible corridors. It didn't matter. Just another trick, one meant to confuse and frighten her. Somewhere in this house was the key, and her friends. She would find them. Panic tickled her throat as she walked. The air was silent now, even her lonely footsteps were smothered by the blue mist. What was more frightening to the human heart than being cold and lost and alone? He was using that against her, playing her with her own instinct. Because he couldn't touch her unless she allowed it.

N -"You're not going to make me run," she shouted. "I know who I am and where I am, and you're not going to make me. run."

She heard someone call her name, just the faintest ripple through the thick air. Using it as a guide, she turned again. The cold intensified, and the mists swirled with wet. Her clothes were damp, her skin chilled. The call could have been another trick, she thought. She could hear nothing now but the blood beating inside her own head. It hardly mattered which direction she chose. She could walk endlessly in circles or stand perfectly still.

It wasn't a matter of finding her way, or being misdirected now. It was, she realized, nothing more than a battle of wills. The key was here. She meant to find it; he meant to stop her.

Outside, Mayank navigated through the mean-tempered storm, edging forward in the driver's seat to peer through the curtain of rain that his wipers could barely displace.

In the backseat, Moe whimpered like a baby.

M -"Come on, you coward, it's just a little rain." Lightning pitchforked through the black sky, followed by a boom of thunder like a cannon blast. "And some lightning."

He cursed and muscled the wheel in position when the car bucked and shuddered. "And some wind," he added. With gusts approaching gale force. It hadn't seemed like more than a quick thunderstorm when he'd left the office. But it worsened with every inch of road. As Moe's whimpers turned to pitiful howls, Mayank began to worry that Nupur or, maybe all three of the girls, had gotten caught in the storm. They should have been at the house by now, he reminded himself. But he would have sworn that the rage of the storm was worse, considerably worse, on this end of town. Fog had rolled down from the hills, blanketed them in gray as thick and dense as wool. His visibility decreased, forcing him to slow down. Even at a crawl, the car fishtailed madly on a turn.

M -"We'll just pull over," he said to Moe. "Pull over and wait it out." Anxiety skated up his spine, but instead of easing when he nudged the car to the curb, it clamped on to the back of his neck like claws. The sound of the rain pounding like fists on the roof of the car seemed to hammer into his brain. "Something's wrong."

He pulled out into the street again, his hands vising on the wheel as the wind buffeted the car. Sweat, born of effort and worry, snaked down his back. For the next three blocks he felt like a man fighting a war. There was a trickle of relief when he spotted the cars in the driveway. They were okay, he told himself. They were inside. No problem. He was an idiot. "Told you there was nothing to worry about," he said to Moe. "Now you've got two choices. You can pull yourself together and come inside with me, or you can stay here, quaking and quivering. Up to you, pal."

Relief drained away when he parked at the curb and looked at the house. If the storm had a heart, it was there. Black clouds boiled over the house, pumped the full force of their fury. Even as he watched, lightning lanced down, speared like a fiery arrow into the front lawn. The grass went black in a jagged patch.

"Nupur!" He didn't know if he spoke it, shouted it, or his mind simply screamed it, but he shoved open the car door and leaped into the surreal violence of the storm. The wind slapped him back, a back-handed blow so intense that he tasted blood in his mouth. Lightning blasted like a mortar directly in front of him, and the air stank with burning. Blind from the driving rain, he bent over and lurched toward the house.

He stumbled on the steps and was calling her name, over and over like a chant, when he saw the hard blue light leaking around the front door. The knob burned with cold and refused to turn under his hand. Baring his teeth, Mayank reared back, then rammed the door with his shoulder. Once, twice, and on the third assault, he broke it in. He leaped inside, into that blue mist.

"Nupur!" He shoved his dripping hair out of his face. "Gunjan!"

He whirled when something brushed his leg, and lifted his fists, only to lower them on an oath when it turned out to be wet dog. "Goddamn it, Moe, I don't have time to—"

He broke off when Moe growled deep in his throat, let out a vicious bark, and charged up the stairs. Mayank sprinted after him. And stepped into his office. "If I'm going to do a decent job covering the foliage festival, then I need the front page of the

Weekender section and a sidebar on the related events." Rhoda folded her arms, her posture combative. "Tim's interview with Clown Guy should go on page two."

There was a vague ringing in his ears, and a cup of coffee in his hand. Mayank stared at Rhoda's irritated face. He could smell the coffee, and the White Shoulders fragrance that Rhoda habitually wore. Behind him, his scanner squawked and Moe snored like a steam engine. "This is bullshit."

"You've got no business using that kind of language with me," Rhoda snapped.

M -"No, this is bullshit. I'm not here. Neither are you."

"It's about time I got treated with a little respect around here. You're only running this paper because your mother wanted to keep you from making a fool of yourself in New York. Big-city reporter, my butt. You're a smalltime, small-town guy. Always have been, always will be."

"Kiss my ass," Mayank invited and threw the coffee, cup and all, in her face.

She let out one short scream, and he was back in the mist. Shaken, he rounded once again toward the sound of Moe's barking. Through that rolling mist, he saw Gunjan on her knees with her arms flung around Moe's neck.

G -"Oh, God, thank God. Mayank!" She sprang up, wrapped herself around him as she had the dog. "I can't find them. I can't find them. I was here, then I wasn't, now I am." Hysteria pitched and rocked in her voice. "We were together, right over there, then we weren't."

M -"Stop. Stop." He yanked her back, shook her. "Breathe."

G -"Sorry. I'm sorry." She shuddered, then scrubbed her hands over her face. "I was at work, but I wasn't. I couldn't have been. It was like being in a daze, going through the motions and not being able to pinpoint what was wrong. Then I heard Moe barking. I heard him barking, and I remembered. We were here. Then I was back, standing here in this—whatever the hell this is—and I couldn't find them." She fought for calm. "The key. Nupur said the key's here. I think she must be right."

M -"Go. Get outside. Wait for me in the car."

She breathed deep, shuddered again.

G -"I'm freaked, but I'm not leaving them here. Or you either. Jesus, Mayank, your mouth's bleeding."

He swiped the back of his hand over it.

M -"It's nothing. Okay, we stick together." He took her hand, linked fingers.

They heard it at the same time, the hammering of fists on wood. With Moe once again in the lead, they rushed through the room. Ridz stood at the attic door, beating on it.

R -"Over here!" She called out. "She's up there, I know she's up there, but I can't get through."

M -"Get back," ordered.

G -"You're all right?" Gunji gripped her arm. "Are you hurt?"

R -"No. I was home. Puttering around the kitchen with the radio on. Wondering what to fix for dinner. My God, how long? How long were we separated? How long has she been up there alone?"

Chapter Twenty

She was afraid. It helped to admit it, accept it. To know that she was more afraid than she'd ever been in her life, and to realize she was determined not to give in.

The warmth was already being eaten away as the light took on that harsh blue hue. Fingers of mist crawled along the exposed beams on the ceiling, down the unfinished walls, along the dusty floor. Through it, she could see the pale white vapor of her own breath. Real, she reminded herself. That was real, a sign of life. Proof of her own humanity. The attic was a long, wide room with two stingy windows at either end and the ceiling rising to a narrow pitch. But she recognized it. In her dream there had been skylights and generous windows. Her paintings had been stacked against walls done in soft cream. The floor had been clean of dust, and speckled with a cheerful rainbow of paint drops and splatters. The air had carried a summer warmth and the scent of turpentine. It was dank now, and cold. Rather than canvases, cardboard boxes were stacked against the walls. Old chairs and lamps and the debris of other lives were stored there. But she could see—oh, so clearly see—how it could have been. As she imagined it, it began to form. Warm, washed with light, alive with color. There, on her worktable with her brushes and palette knives, was the little white vase filled with the pink snapdragons she'd picked from her own garden that morning. She remembered going out after Mayank had left for work, remembered picking those sweet and tender flowers to keep her company while she worked. Worked in her studio, she thought dreamily, where the blank canvas waited. And she knew, oh, yes, she knew how to fill it. She walked to the canvas waiting on an easel, picked up her palette, and began to mix her paints. Sun streamed through her windows. Several were open for the practical purpose of cross-ventilation, and for the simple pleasure of feeling the breeze. Music pumped passionately out of the stereo. What she intended to paint today required passion. She could already see it in her mind, feel the power of it gathering in her like a storm. She raised her brush, swirled it in color for the first stroke. Her heart lifted. The magnitude of the joy was almost unbearable. She might burst from it if she didn't transfer it onto canvas. The image was burned in her mind, like a scene etched on glass. With stroke after stroke, color blended on color, she began to bring it to life.

N -"You know this was always my deepest dream." She spoke conversationally as she worked. "For as long as I can remember I wanted to paint. To have the talent, the vision, the skill to be an important artist."

K -"Now you have it." She switched brushes, glancing at Kane before she faced the canvas again.

N - "Yes, I do."

K -"You were wise, making the right choice in the end. A shopkeeper?" He laughed, dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand. "Where is the power in that? Where is the glory in selling what others have created when you can create yourself? You can be and have whatever you choose here."

N -"Yes, I understand. You've shown me the way." She slid him a coy look. "What else can I have?"

K -"You want the man?" Kane shrugged elegantly. "He's bound to you here, a slave to love."

N -"And if I'd chosen otherwise?"

K -"Men are capricious creatures. How could you ever be sure of him? Now, you paint your world as you do that canvas. As you wish."

N -"Fame? Fortune?" His lip curled.

K -"So it is with mortals always. Love, they say, is what matters more than even life. But it's wealth and it's glory that they really crave. Take it all, then."

N -"And you, what will you take?"

K -"I have already taken it." She nodded, switched brushes.

N -"You'll have to excuse me. I need to concentrate."

She painted in the warm bath of sunlight while the music soared.

Mayank hit the door with his shoulder, then gripped the knob and prepared to ram it again. The knob turned smoothly in his hand. Ridz gave him a jittery smile.

R -"I must've loosened it for you."

M -"Stay down here."

G -"Save your breath," advised and pushed up behind him.

The light seemed to pulse now, thicker and somehow animate. Moe's growling became wet snarls. Mayank saw Nupur, standing at the far end of the attic. Relief was like a hammer blow to his heart.

M -"Nupur! Sweetie! Thank God." He leaped forward, and hit the solid wall of mist.

"It's some sort of barrier." He spoke frantically now as he pushed and slammed against it. "She's trapped in there."

R -"I think we're trapped out here." pressed her hands against the mist. "She doesn't hear us."

G- "We have to make her hear us." looked around for something to batter against the wall. "She must be somewhere else, in her head, the way we were. We have to make her hear us so she'll snap out of it." Moe went wild, leaping up to tear and bite at the wall of mist. His barks echoed like gunshots, and still Nupur stood like a statue, her back to them.

R -"There has to be another way." dropped to her knees, pressed her fingers along the mist. "It's freezing. You can see her trembling from the cold. We have to get her out ."

M -"Nupur!" Helpless rage had Mayank pummeling the wall until his hands bled. "I'm not going to let this happen. You have to hear me. I love you. Damn it, Nupur, I love you. You listen to me."

G -"Wait!" gripped his shoulder. "She moved. I saw her move. Keep talking to her, Mayank keep talking to her." Struggling for calm, he pressed his forehead to the wall.

M -"I love you, Nupur. You've got to give us a chance to see where we can go with it. I need you with me, so either come out or let me in."

Nupur pursed her lips at the image taking shape on canvas.

N -"Did you hear something?" she asked absently.

K -"There's nothing." Kane smiled at the three mortals on the other side of the mist. "Nothing at all. What are you painting there?"

N -"Uh-uh-uh." She wagged a playful finger at him. "I'm temperamental. I don't like anyone looking at my work until it's done. My world," she reminded him and daubed on color. "My rules." He gave a single, elegant shrug.

K -"As you wish."

N -"Oh, don't pout. I'm nearly done." She worked quickly now, all but willing the image from her mind onto the canvas. It was, she thought, her masterpiece. Nothing she'd ever done would be so important.

N -"Art isn't just in the eye of the beholder," she said. "But in that, in the artist, in the subject, in the purpose, and in those who see." Her pulse skipped and stumbled, but her hand remained steady and sure. For a timeless moment, she shut everything out of her mind but the colors, the textures, the shapes. And when she stepped back, her eyes glittered with triumph. "It's the finest thing I've ever done," she declared. "Perhaps the finest thing I will ever do. I wonder what you'll think of it." She gestured in invitation. "Light and shadow," she said as he stepped toward the easel. "In looking within, and without. From within me to without and onto the canvas. What my heart speaks. I call it The Singing Goddess" It was her face she'd painted. Her face and the first Daughter of Glass. She stood in a forest, full of sparkling gold light, softened with green shadows, with the river sliding over rock like tears. Her sisters sat on the ground behind her, their hands clasped. Venora, for she knew it was Venora, carried her harp, and with her face lifted toward the sky you could almost hear the song she sang.

N -"Did you think I would settle for cold illusion when I have a chance for the real thing? Did you think I'd trade my life, and her soul, for a dream? You underestimate mortals, Kane."

As he spun toward her, fury leaping off him like flames, she prayed she hadn't overestimated herself, or Rowena.

N -"The first key is mine." As she spoke she reached toward the painting, reached into it. A stunning blast of heat shot up her arm as she closed her fingers around the key she'd painted at the feet of the goddess. The key that gleamed in a beam of light that cut the shadows like a gilded sword. She felt its shape, its substance, then with a cry of victory, she drew it free. "This is my choice. AND YOU CAN GO TO HELL."

The mists roiled as he cursed her. As he lifted his hand to strike, both Mayank and Moe burst through the wall. With a barrage of sharp, staccato barks, Moe leaped. Kane faded like a shadow in the dark, and was gone.

As Mayank plucked Nupur off her feet, sunlight shimmered in the tiny windows, and rain dripped musically from the eaves outside. The room was only an attic, filled with dust and clutter. The painting she'd created out of love, knowledge, and courage was gone.

M -"I've got you." Mayank buried his face in her hair as Moe leaped on them. "You're all right. I've got you." He was assuring himself more than her in the way that he held her.

Because she insisted, Mayank drove her directly to Warrior's Peak, with Gunji and Ridz following. He kept the heater on high, and had wrapped her in a blanket from his trunk that unfortunately smelted of Moe. And still she shivered.

M -"You need a hot bath or something. Tea. Soup." He dragged a hand that was still far from steady through his hair. "I don't know. Brandy."

N -"I'll take all of the above," she promised, "as soon as we get the key where it belongs. I won't be able to relax until it's out of my hand." She clutched it in a fist held tight to her breast. "I don't know how it can be in my hand."

M -"Neither do I. Maybe if you explain it to me, we'll both get it."

N -"He tried to confuse me, the way he separated us. To make me feel lost and alone and afraid. But he must have some limits. He couldn't keep all three of us, and you, in those illusions. Not all at once. We're connected, and we're stronger than he realized. At least that's what I think."

M -"I can go with that. To give him credit, he had Rhoda pretty much down pat."

N -"I made him mad, just mad enough, I guess. I knew the key was in the house." She pulled the blanket a little tighter, but couldn't find warmth. "I'm not telling this in good journalistic style."

M -"Don't worry about that. I'll edit it later. How did you know?"

N -"The attic's where I made the choice, when he showed me all the things I wanted so much. I realized that was the dream place once I went upstairs with the girls. And the studio, the artist's studio, had been on the top floor. The attic. It had to be where I had that moment of decision—like in the paintings. At first I thought we would have to hunt through whatever was up there, and we'd find something that jibed with the clue. But it was more than that, and less." She closed her eyes and sighed….that alarmed Mayank

M -"Are you sure you aren't hurt. You're tired. Just rest until we get there. We can talk later."

N -"No, I'm okay. It was so strange, Mayank. When I got up there and I realized it all. My place—in reality and in my dream. And how he brought the dream back, tried to slide me into it. I let him think he had. I thought about the clue and saw the painting in my head. I knew how to paint it, every stroke. The third painting of the set. The key wasn't in the world he created for me," she said as she turned to him. "But it was in what I created, if I had the courage to do it. If I could see the beauty of it, and make it real. He gave me the power to bring the key into the illusion."

To forge it, she thought, with love.

M -"I bet that burns his ass." She laughed.

N -"Yeah, that's a nice side benefit. I heard you."

M -"What?"

N -"I heard you calling to me. All of you, but especially you. I couldn't answer you. I'm sorry because I know you were afraid for me. But I couldn't let him know I heard." He reached over to cover her hand with his.

M-"I couldn't get to you. I didn't know what fear was until then, when I couldn't get to you."

N -"I was afraid at first that it was just another of his tricks. I was afraid that if I turned around and saw you, I'd break. Your poor hands." She lifted his hand, pressed her lips gently to the torn knuckles. "My hero. Heroes," she corrected, looking back at Moe.

He kept her hand in his, still assuring himself that she was here beside him safe, as they drove through the gates at Warrior's Peak. Rowena stepped out, her hands folded at the waist of a flame-red sweater. Nupur could see the gleam of tears in her eyes as she walked across the portico to meet them.

Ro -"You're safe, and well?" She touched Nupur's cheek, and the chill Nupur had been unable to shake slid into blessed warmth.

N -"Yes, I'm fine. I have—"

Ro-"Not yet. Your hands." She laid her palms under Mayank's, lifted them. "This will scar," she said. "There, beneath the third knuckle of your left hand. A symbol, Mayank. Herald and warrior." She opened the back door of the car herself so Moe could leap out and greet her with wags and licks. "Ah, there, the fierce and brave one." She hugged him, then leaned back on her heels, listening attentively as he barked and grumbled. "Yes, you had quite the adventure." She rose, resting a hand on Moe's head as she smiled at Gunji and Ridz. "All of you did. Please come in." Moe didn't need to be asked twice. He bounded across the stones and straight through the doorway where Pitte stood. Pitte raised an elegant eyebrow as the dog skidded over the foyer floor, then turned the look onto Rowena. She only laughed and hooked an arm through Mayank's. "I have a gift for the loyal and courageous Moe, if you'll allow it."

M -"Sure. Look, we appreciate the hospitality, but Nupur's pretty worn out, so—"

N -"I'm fine. Really."

P -"We won't keep you long." Pitte gestured them into what Nupur thought of as the portrait room. "We're in your debt, more than can be paid. What you've done, whatever tomorrow brings, will never be forgotten." He tipped Nupur's face up with one long finger and kissed her cheek. Gunji nudged Ridz.

G -"I think we're getting gypped in this one-for-all deal."

Pitte glanced over, and his sudden grin was alive with charm.

P-"My woman is a jealous creature."

Ro-"No such thing," Rowena objected, then lifted a brightly woven collar from a table. "These symbols speak of valor, and a true heart. The colors are also symbolic. Red for courage, blue for friendship, black for protection."

She crouched to remove Moe's frayed and faded collar and replace it.

He sat through the business of it, Mayank thought, with the stalwart dignity of a soldier being awarded a medal. "There. How handsome you are." Rowena kissed Moe's nose, then got to her feet. "Will you still bring him to see me, now and then?" she asked Mayank.

M -"Sure."

Ro -"Kane underestimated you. All of you—heart and spirit and spine."

P -"He's unlikely to do so again," Pitte pointed out, but Rowena shook her head.

Ro -"This is a time for joy. You are the first,"

N -"I know. I wanted to get this to you right away." She started to hold out the key, then stopped. "Wait. Do you mean I'm the first? The first to ever find a key?" Saying nothing, Rowena turned to Pitte. He walked to a carved chest beneath the window, lifted the lid. The blue light that spilled out made Nupur's stomach clutch. But this was different from the mist, she realized. This was deeper, brighter. Then he lifted from the chest a glass box alive with that light, and her throat filled with tears. "The Box of Souls."

P - "You are the first," Pitte repeated as he set the box on a marble pedestal. "The first mortal to turn the first key." He turned, stood beside the box. He was the soldier now, Nupur thought, the warrior at guard. Rowena stepped to the other side so they flanked the glass and the swirling blue lights inside it.

Ro -"It's for you to do, It was always for you to do."

Nupur clutched the key tighter in her fist. Her chest was so full it hurt and still seemed incapable of containing the galloping racing of her heart. She tried to draw a calming breath, but it came out short and sharp. As she stepped closer, those lights seemed to fill her vision, then the room. Then the world. Her fingers wanted to tremble, but she bore down. She would not do this thing with a shaking hand. She slid the key into the first of the three locks worked into the glass. She saw the light spread up the metal and onto her fingers, bright as hope. And she turned the key in the lock. There was a sound—she thought there was a sound. But it was no more than a quiet sigh. Even as it faded, the key dissolved in her fingers. The first lock vanished, and there were two.

N -"It's gone. Just gone."

Ro -"A symbol again, for us," Rowena said and laid a hand gently on the box. "For them. Two are left."

G -"Do we…" They were weeping inside that glass, thought. She could almost hear them, and it ripped at her heart. "Do we pick now, which one of us goes next?"

Ro -"Not today. You should rest your minds and hearts." Rowena turned to Pitte. "There should be champagne in the parlor. Would you see to our guests? I'd like a private word with Nupur before we join you." She lifted the glass box herself, carefully placed it back in the chest. When she was alone with Nupur she turned. "Pitte said we owe you a debt we can never pay. That's true."

N -"I agreed to look for the key, and I was paid," corrected. She looked at the chest, imagined the box within. "It seems wrong now to have taken the money."

Ro -"The money is nothing to us, I promise you. Others have taken it and done nothing. Others have tried and failed. And you've done something brave and interesting with the money." She crossed over, took Nupur's hands in hers. "That pleases me. But it isn't dollars and cents I speak of when I speak of debt. If not for me, there would be no Box of Souls, no keys, no locks. You wouldn't have had to face what you faced today."

N -"You love them." gestured toward the chest.

Ro -"As sisters. Young, sweet sisters. Well…" She walked over to look at the portrait. "I have hope to see them like this again. I can give you a gift, Nupur. It's my right to do so. You refused what Kane offered you."

N -"It wasn't real. It can be." She turned back.

Ro -"I can make it real. What you felt, what you knew, what you had inside you. I can give you the power you had in his illusion."

Dizzy, Nupur groped for the arm of a chair, then slowly lowered herself into it.

N -"You can give me painting."

Ro -"I understand the need—and the joys and pain of having that beauty inside you, feeling it leap out." She laughed. "Or fighting to get it out, which is every bit as brilliant. You can have it. My gift to you." For a moment, the idea of it swarmed through Nupur, intoxicating as wine, seductive as love. And she saw Rowena watching her, so calm, so steady, with a soft smile on her lips.

N -"You'd give me yours," Nupur realized. "That's what you mean. You would give me your talent, your skill, your vision."

Ro -"It would be yours."

N -"No, it would never be mine. And I would always know it. I… painted them because I could see them. Just as I could see them in that first dream. As if I were there, in the painting. And I painted the key. I forged the key, was able to because I loved enough to give it up. I chose the light instead of the shadow. Isn't that right?"

Ro -"Yes."

N -"Having made that choice, knowing it was the right one, I can't take what's yours. But thank you," she said as she rose. "It's nice to know I can be happy doing what I do. I'm going to make a beautiful shop, and a successful business. And a damn good life," she added.

Ro -"I have no doubt. Will you take this, then?" Rowena gestured, smiling when Nupur let out a shocked gasp.

N -"The Singing Goddess." She rushed to the framed canvas that rested on a table. "The painting I did when Kane…"

Ro -"You painted it." Rowena joined her, laid a hand on her shoulder. "Whatever his trick, this was your vision, and your heart that found the answer. But if having this, if seeing it is painful, I can put it away."

N-"No, it's not painful. It's a wonderful gift. Rowena, this was an illusion. You brought it into my reality. It's solid. It exists." Bracing herself, she stepped back, kept her eyes level with Rowena's. "Can you—have you done the same with emotions?"

Ro -"You question if your feelings for Mayank are real?"

N -"No. I know they are." She pressed a hand to her heart. "This is no illusion. But his for me—if that's some kind of reward… it's not fair to him, and I can't accept it."

Ro-"You would give him up."

N -"No." Her expression went combative. "Hell, no. I'd just deal with it, and him, until he fell in love with me. If I can find some mystical key, I can sure as hell make Mayank Sharma realize I'm the best thing that's ever happened to him. Which I am," she added. "Which I absolutely am."

Ro -"I like you, very much," Rowena said with a grin. "And I'll promise you this. When Mayank walks into this room again, whatever he feels or doesn't feel will be a true reflection of his heart. The rest is up to you. Wait here, I'll send him in."

N -"Rowena? When will we begin the second round?"

Ro -"Soon," Rowena called out as she left the room. "Very soon."

Which one of them would be next? Nupur wondered as she studied the portrait. And what would the second one risk? What would she win or lose in the search? She'd lost one love, she thought, lifting her painting. One love, so briefly tasted. And now, with Mayank, she had to risk another. The most vital love of her life.

M -"I brought you some of this very jazzy champagne," Mayank said, walking in with two brimming flutes. "You're missing the party. Pitte actually laughed. It was a moment."

N -"I just needed a couple of minutes first." She set the painting down and reached for a glass.

M -"What's this? One of Rowena's?" He slipped and arm around Nupur's waist, and she felt his body stiffen when he understood. "It's yours? This is what you did? The painting you did in the attic, with the key. It's here." He brushed his fingers over the gold key, only painted now, at the feet of the goddess. "It's amazing."

N -"Even more when you're the one who reached into a painting and pulled out a magic key."

M -"No. I mean, yeah, that's out there. But I meant the whole thing. It's beautiful, Nupur. Hell, it's stupendous. You gave this up." He spoke softly, then looked over at her. "You're the one who's amazing."

N-"I'll have this. Rowena clicked her heels together, twitched her nose, whatever she does, and brought it here for me. It means a lot to have it. Mayank…"

She had to take a drink, had to put some distance between them. Whatever she'd said to Rowena, she understood now that she was a about to do something much more wrenching than giving up a talent with paint and brush.

N -"This has been a strange month, for all of us."

M -"And then some," he agreed.

N -"Most of what's happened, it's beyond the scope of anything we could have imagined, anything we might have believed a few weeks ago. And what's happened, it's changed me. In a good way," she added, turning toward him. "I like to think it's a good way."

M -"If you're going to tell me you turned the key in that lock, and now you don't love me anymore, that's too damn bad for you. Because you're stuck."

N -"No, I'm… Stuck?" she repeated. "What do you mean stuck ?'

M -"With me, my ugly couch and my sloppy dog. You're not wiggling your way out of it, Sweetheart."

N -"Don't take that tone with me." She set the flute down. "And don't think for one minute you can stand there and tell me I'm stuck with you, because you're stuck with me ." He set his flute beside hers.

M -"Is that right?"

N -"That's exactly right. I've just outwitted an evil Celtic god. You're child's play for me."

M -"You want to fight?"

N -"Maybe." They both grabbed for each other. With his mouth on hers, she let out a strangled sigh. And held on for her life. She drew back, but kept her arms linked around his neck.

N -"I'm exactly right for you, Mayank."

M -"Then it's really handy that I'm in love with you. You're my key, Honey. The one key to all the locks."

N -"You know what I want right now? I want a hot bath, some soup, and a nap on an ugly couch."

Later, Rowena leaned her head against Pitte's shoulder as they watched the cars drive away.

Ro -"It's a good day," she told him. "I know it's not over, but today is a good day."

"We have a little time before we begin the next."

P -"A few days, then the four weeks. Kane will watch them more carefully now."

Ro -"So will we."

P -"Beauty prevailed. Now knowledge and courage will be tested. There's so little, really, that we can do to help. But these mortals are strong and clever. Odd creatures," commented.

Ro -"Yes." She smiled up at him. "Odd, and endlessly fascinating."

Amazing, lovely loved it continue soon

It was wonderful update dear
lovely
excellent
i loved it so much
keep updating

it was fab
i read it for MN parts....u write brilliantly.....i will read again if it has MN!

awesome updates:) love the mayur chemistry:)

great ending dear..loved it to the core........