Chapter 33: Agnosco veteris vestiga flammae

Stooping to drink from the second stream, the men felt the water flowing through them, enlivening their muscles and stirring their senses. As they straightened up again, Dranger noticed something odd. Slightly upstream, there was a single set of footprints, leading up to the water’s edge, then away, back toward the clearing. He tapped Cobb’s arm and pointed to the marks.
They left the stream, and walked back into the clearing. They saw the chariot gleaming in the sun, and approached it. Before, they had seen only the lady inside the charior, but now they came closer, and looked inside the chariot itself. It had a high front section, which got lower as it swooped to the rear, until it met the flat floor of the chariot at the back.
Looking inside, they gasped slightly, having unexpectedly found their anonymous guide.
On the floor of the chariot sat a man, hair as white as snow, and with skin as brown and rough as the bark on the trees. His body was thin and muscled, but wiry; not an ounce of fat was to be found there.
But the thing that they found to be most odd was his face. His eyes were open wide, staring up into the sky above the chariot. He smiled broadly, almost ferociously, and appeared to have died suddenly.
"He can’t be more than two days dead," whispered Dranger. "There’s no decay, no sign of animals having been around."
Cobb was kneeling by the chariot, leaning in to exmaine the face. Twisting himself around, he tried to look upward from the dead man’s point of view, but was blinded by the light of the noonday sun.
"I wonder what it was he saw, when he was dying?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She stepped into the chariot, and stood in the front of it. He could not tell whether she blended into the statue, or enlivened it, but somehow the two were now one.
He gazed at her, unable to see anything else. "So long..." he whispered. "I’ve waited so long to see you..."
She smiled and shook her head, her loose veil fluttering in the breeze. "Too long. You lost your sight and became blind. I am here now to show you what you really seek, beccause you have forgotten what it looks like. You have forgotten and so have thought that I was what you wanted."
Bending down, she placed her hand on his face. Her touch was as gentle as he remembered, but stronger than he had thought possible.
Irresistably, she turned his head so that he was no longer facing her, but stared directly into the sun.
"Don’t forget," she whispered, "to see!"
His eyes were filled with light, and his heart felt like it had wings, soaring above the ocean as he looked without blinking into the heart of the sun.


copyright 2004 Elizabeth J. Weaver