The Rivening

Where You Lead, I Will Follow

That afternoon, Connie took Peter to the passage, and he watched while she went into her signaling trance. She walked to the spot that was pulling at her. When she got to the rockface, she let her arms disappear into the side before withdrawing them and quickly stepped back.

"Oh my god. I've never let myself get so close before. It was like - there was no barrier but a strange tingling sensation in my arms." She hugged her arms to her chest and stared at the now seamless rock.

Peter rubbed a hand across his forehead, "Not that I doubted you about the passage and all, but that was – unbelievable."

"To be honest, I still had some doubts." She looked at her hands. "But, okay, that was pretty clear. I have no more excuses. I wish I had listened more carefully when Pria described going through a passage and what to do."

"What did she say?"

"Peter, stop, no, you can't come with me. You'd be risking everything, including your life. Even if we get through all right, there's no guarantee we'll ever come back."

"You're risking everything too. I've made up my mind. Listen, you gave me the nerve to join the world again and now I can give you a little nerve when you need it most. Anyway," he said with a small smile, "you've told me too much about Dahria to leave me behind."

"But your home. Your life in Toronto."

"It would be a relief to walk away from my self-imposed prison and all of the sad memories it holds. I've been thinking about getting rid of the place for a while. And after this time in Ireland, I was all set to do that when we got back. Going with you to Dahria is even better, something this big and difficult and unknown. It's what I want."

It took until after supper, but finally Connie accepted Peter's decision to go with her.

"I'm worried that I was only pretending to sound all noble when I objected to you coming with me."

Peter teased her, "I know. But that's all right. Sometimes situations call for false nobility."

Connie felt they should wait until the Dahrian signaler returned to Earthside to avoid running into her coming back through the passage. They bought binoculars and found a spot across the river from the bluff where they could view the woods around the passage. For several mornings, they watched James arrive and leave alone after about an hour. On the fourth morning, he came out with a woman walking slowly, her hand on James' shoulder.

"That's her. Arden was moving like that when he first came through."

"We'll go through the passage after lunch this afternoon. Let's go pack."

Later, after Peter knocked and Connie opened the door to her room, he guffawed.

She frowned, "Why are you laughing at me?"

He pointed to the two tight pigtails she'd braided on either side of her head. "You look like you're twelve years old."

"It's not fair, you making fun of me at time like this. I'm worried what my hair might do in the passage."

"Oh, so sorry to offend, Pippi Longstocking. Are you ready to go?"

Connie shook her head, "You really have read everything, haven't you?"

"I used to have a lot of time to fill." Peter opened his backpack. "Here's what I packed. A few clothes. Took all my ID, credit cards, cellphone. Though we'll hardly need them where we're going. Swiss army knife – who knows, maybe we'll need a corkscrew!"

"Now there's wishful thinking. And you've told everyone that cockamamie story you came up with about us being off grid for a while?"

"Oh yeah. I fell in love with a Go player who invited us to his cottage on a remote island while we explore our relationship and you're going to start working on that book you've always wanted to write."