All this water and there's nobody here and no sign as to where so much water is coming from. The surrounding area is downright arid!"
I just smiled as I walked along the dusty ground that bordered one of the pools. He exclaimed again, "I don't even see where animals have come to drink! Is the water poisonous?"
"No." I said, as I stopped.
I squatted down and dipped my hand in the water and brought it to my mouth and drank of the crystal clear water. It was just as I had remembered it.
"Okay I'm convinced it's not poison, but why are you the only one drinking it?"
I scooped both my hands into the water and cupped them together. I rose to my feet and approached Flint with the water held in my cupped hands.
"No one drinks of the water because only queens and their kings may drink of it." I held the water out to him and he looked a little stunned at the ceremonialism of my gesture.
His head started to lower to my hands when he stopped, "Just so you know I'm not at all for this custom of kings committing hari karri because their ladies deemed it so."
I grinned, "Some customs are better left in the past I think."
His head lowered and he drank the water, all of it. He looked up at me in surprise, "That's the best tasting water I've ever had! Somebody should bottle that."
I couldn't agree more. I turned back and continued on towards the central pool.
"So do you realize that everything about you has changed since you've neared these pools?"
I looked back curiously, "In what way?"
"Your walk, the way you carry your head high and the deeper confidence with which you speak your words."
I nodded.
The old Candace had taught me all that. I had soaked up her instruction like I had the love that she had showered me with.
"She must have been very special for you to care so much." I heard Flint say softly, which caused me to realize that there were tears on my face again. I was crying again!
"Do you feel like your betraying her by helping me destroy the treasure?" He asked softly.
"I thought I was, but now I'm not so sure. In her last words to me she told me that when she had been young she had made a mistake that she didn't want me to make. She told me to follow my heart, and that is just what I'm doing. I think she knew this day was coming."