Nephilim Quest Book 1: Shadowhunter

18. Diana 2/2

"You said 'your time'... When was that exactly?"

"The middle of the nineteenth century," Diana had a look in her eyes that was hard to fathom. "I was the daughter of a slave and a plantation master, sold to my family when I was a child. I worked in the house, because of that. And because I was pretty and had lovely, coffee-colored skin."

I sat down heavily on the bed.

"So how old are you, exactly?"

"Well, I was sixteen the day I escaped. The date was May seventeenth, 1849. I and the daughter of the house, whose maid I was, were shopping in St Louis. I suspect madam - we had to call our owners 'master' and 'mistress' - sent us there, because the master of the house had begun to pay attention to my looks and visit my room."

I looked at her, shocked.

"You mean... are you saying he..." I could not finish the sentence.

"Yes. It was considered his right at the time. But the mistress of the house would not put up with it and decided to send me away. I think she intended to sell me, but as it was, the daughter of the house was very fond of me, and I was allowed to stay," Diana shrugged and I did not know what to say.

"And that is why we were at the family's town house when the fire alarm was sounded. Bells started to ring out madly and I was sent to see what it was about. I saw that the steamboat White Cloud was on fire on the river. It floated down the Mississippi, setting twenty-two other boats on fire. The flames leaped onto the buildings on the shore and soon there was an enormous fire. Massive! It all happened so quickly.

"I was too curious and suddenly the flames were close by, and I there was no way I could turn to escape. That's when Lilith appeared, out of nowhere. She grabbed me by the arm and pulled me away. I fell asleep – now I know I could not stay conscious in the buffer zone – and when I woke up, I was in another part of the country. In Boston, in a house with an elderly lady. She would look after me while I practiced."

Diana started scooping her stuff off the other bed.

"You mean practiced lucid dreaming?"

"Yes, what else? She taught me, and I would have done even stranger things to please her. If she wanted me to learn to awake in my dreams, then I would do my best to learn. Not a big price to pay for freedom."

She took the bundle of her clothes and books she had gathered from the bed given to me, dropped them on the floor next to her bed and continued talking.

"Took me three months to finally get there. Lilith was waiting for me. It was enough that I managed to wake up in my dream. She did not put me through any tests or set me searching after any clues – the times were not safe for any young girl to go alone anywhere, slave or free. Lilith simply appeared in our friend's living room one evening after meeting me in my dream. Stepped through the slit, and took me with her, and brought me here."

"Slit? What slit?"

"Hmm... it'll be better if I let Lilith explain some things to you. Your head is probably spinning as it is."

She was right about that.

"OK. Let's go and get you some clothes, if you are to stay."

Diana opened the door and motioned me to go to the corridor.

"How can you live in another time?" I had to ask this young woman who was 160 years old, strictly speaking.

"No problem there. I leave one time-space reality and disappear from there. And I enter another one, where time keeps on ticking just as it would have done in my old life. It really isn't all that complicated. So I am exactly my physical age, despite the fact I skipped a few decades. Or centuries."

I snorted.

"Sorry. At the moment all of this feels quite complicated..."

"It won't, after a while. You'll get used to the idea. But the rest of it quite boggles the mind, I can assure you."

She was right.

*****

I shall publish the first 25 chapters of the book on Wattpad- if you wish to read the whole book for free, go to http://www.leenamaria.com and sign up for the email list (open until 31st December 2015). I shall send you the download link in January 2016 a few weeks before the book is published. I only ask you to leave a review on Amazon on the date of publication

You can also go to my Smashwords page and read the first 25 chapters there:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/601662