Saira - TI5

Saira

Book V
The Illusionist Series
 

By

Fran Heckrotte

Copyright © 2008 by
Fran Heckrotte
All rights reserved.
 

ISBN: 978-1-934889-25-1
 

First Edition
Mobipocket e-Book Format
November 2008
 

This electronic book is ePublished by
L-Book ePublisher, LLC
La Quinta, Ca. USA
Email: [email protected] L-Book.com
Web Site:
http://L-Book.com
 

Editor: Alexa Hoffman
 

Cover Design by Sheri Halal

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This work is copyrighted and is licensed only for use by the original purchaser and can be copied to the original purchaser's electronic device and its memory card for their personal use. Modifying or making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, without limit email, CD, DVD, memory cards, file transfer, paper print out or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions.
 

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Acknowledgments
 

I want to thank my beta readers who have helped me with the stories of Saira and Warrior Demoness. They have traveled with me on my journey in creating the Illusionist series and were instrumental in getting me to my destination. Thank you Alex D’Brassis, Lee McLean, and Kimberly, my betas…and Mary K. Bosshart, my alpha reader. 

To Pam, your help is invaluable in both beta reading and proofing my stories. Thanks so much for all your hard work.

Sheri Dragon, my cover artist.
 
Everyone who sees your creations is amazed at your ability to capture the essence of each story. The covers are phenomenal

Roxanne Jones…As always, I'm amazed at your computer wizardry. You continue to offer the world the opportunity to enjoy products they normally couldn't access through conventional methods. Keep up the great work.

To A.L…thanks for encouraging me to write.

And yes, to Howie, who is still wondering why I mention him.

S
HE WAS SAIRA, a nomad trapped in a world where space was restricted only by the limits of her imagination, and time was nothing more than a highway between the then and the now. She lived in the present only because it suited her, with no idea of her true age. Time was too irrelevant, and she was too old for it to have meaning. She had always existed, long before the light, long before the creation of the planets, long before the birth of the universe.

In the beginning, there was only consciousness with no spectral body. At least, that's how she remembered it, although without light it was hard to know for sure. Eventually she grew aware of other beings and sought them out, only to become frustrated by her failure to discover their pasts or their locations. It was as if they, too, had always existed;
they
being the First Born, a name Saira had given them. She soon realized the futility of looking for pasts too difficult to untangle, and so she set aside her desire to discover more about them and concentrated on more attainable goals. Worlds were evolving, and with them, life.

In time, populations grew enormous, making it impossible to track every inhabitant. Each eon grew more interesting and more complex. Eventually, she lost the desire to choose which life to trace, simply following the nearly irresistible tugs
,
especially those that were the strongest. When a tug came, she would journey into the past, searching for answers to the questions that plagued her.

Saira was infinitely curious. Perhaps that was why she always made her home in the now. It provided her with opportunities to search for what had once been and the now, seeking answers that might give some hint of the future.

To her, the past was a story already written, and thus it only needed to be reread. The future was an empty slate waiting for its authors to scribble their messages. It rarely revealed its secrets, making her existence both an adventure and a challenge. New people brought new experiences. Those who were special provided the greatest opportunities to journey backward or forward across time to discover why some events had escalated beyond reason and others had stagnated beyond logic. Ancestors were as intriguing as their descendants, since they also had stories to tell. Each provided an unlimited source of mysteries for Saira.

Today someone new was pulling at her, a human more unique than any mortal she had ever met. The encounter would teach Saira a valuable lesson. Curiosity could be more than just an interesting pastime. Recklessly pursued, it could destroy worlds.

T
HE ILLUSION WAS almost complete. Yemaya and her crew had managed to perform the ghost stunt flawlessly on the three previous nights. No one anticipated any problems this evening, since it was their last show, but the participants were still vigilant for any glitches.

The stage was a reproduction of an old cemetery with headstones and graves placed around the area. A large sarcophagus with elaborate symbols carved on each side lay in the center. At each corner of the funerary box stood a torch, its flames flickering eerily in the subdued light. Several graves were equipped with hinged doors at the top and bottom, allowing the occupants to rise from the "earth" (or disappear into it) as the act required. The sarcophagus was open on top, but its walls were solid concrete.

The Illusionist's method of escape was a mystery even to her crew. They had been working with her for several years, and most of them had given up trying to discover her secrets. Yemaya would give them the specifics of what she wanted and how to lay out the setups. The participants practiced until they performed the choreography perfectly. Once satisfied they could do it without any mistakes, the Illusionist executed her role in the scenario, completing the final effects. No matter how long they had worked for her, each escape left them momentarily stunned and with more questions than answers.

Compared to past performances, this particular stunt was fairly simple. Yemaya portrayed a frightened young woman walking nervously through a cemetery on All Hallow's Eve. Artificial fog swirled about the stage and around the headstones, its gray tentacles touching each object like fingers gently caressing a lover's face.

Several corpses milled aimlessly while others stalked the late-night intruder. Disturbed by the presence of a live human, they closed in for the capture when she walked hesitantly around a headstone. Paralyzed by fear, their victim was unable to scream or resist. Afterward, they carried her prone body above their heads around the stage, displaying their prize to other corpses emerging from the graves. Haunting music and a strange seductive dance followed as the victim's hands and feet were tied with nylon ropes.

Before the corpses placed her in the sarcophagus, several members of the audience were summoned onto the stage to examine the flooring and concrete coffin. Once they confirmed the absence of secret panels, they returned to their seats and the ritual began. Yemaya was placed in the coffin, and the lid was lowered from the ceiling by a small crane. The scale attached to the crane between the lid and hook indicated the piece of concrete weighed almost three hundred pounds. Once sealed, a large clock ticked off the seconds a person could survive inside the tomb before suffocating. If the occupant didn't panic, five minutes was the maximum limit.

After three minutes, the audience grew restless. Several people fidgeted, looking nervously from the timer to the coffin and then back to the timer. Some called for the crane operator to lift the lid and free the Illusionist. Others whispered to their neighbors, sure something had gone horribly wrong. Had the Illusionist's luck finally run out? Perhaps she had misjudged her abilities. Surely the frantic behavior of the people on stage was indicative of a problem.

At five minutes, most of the audience began yelling at the crew to get Yemaya out of the coffin. Finally, a ghostly apparition with long white hair, pale skin, and red eyes appeared from offstage and whispered to two of the cast members. One motioned for the crane's hook to be lowered. Quickly attaching it to the chains buried in the slab, they slowly raised the lid, swung it to the side of the sarcophagus, and lowered it to the floor.

The apparition reached into the coffin and ran her hands along the inside as if searching for the occupant. Looking up, she gave a confused shrug. She pulled out a black gown and showed it to the audience. The two spectators who had previously inspected the coffin were brought back on stage to re-examine it. It was empty. The Illusionist was gone. They mumbled to each other and then raised their hands, palms up, indicating to the audience that they didn't know what to think.

Several observers gasped and looked around, as though wondering whether their companions were as stumped as they. When someone yelled out, wanting answers, the ghostly apparition stepped to the edge of the stage and raised her arms, motioning for the crowd to quiet down. Eventually the noise subsided into an uneasy silence.