* * *
Arramos flew through a gap in the cocoon covering the church, then through a hole in the roof. After slowing his speed by orbiting the dim sanctuary, he landed on the stage at the front. Everything stood where it had been before—the pulpit, the piano, the clothing still strewn down the center aisle, and the pews, though the padded seats were now empty of the congregants who recently pledged their loyalty to him.
Arramos let out a throaty chuckle. Such a fitting monument to the fools’ willingness to shed their trappings and reveal their dark hearts. By this time, every soul knew what reward their choices had earned, and they likely wept in darkness and gnashed their teeth without hope of rescue.
He extended his neck and searched the vaulted ceiling. “Vacule, are you here?”
“In the corner, Excellency.” The huge spider skittered along a beam and lowered himself by a silk thread. When he descended to a level even with Arramos’s snout, he blinked his humanoid eyes, his body the size of a grapefruit. “Has the time come to execute the plan?”
Arramos snorted a blast of hot breath, making the spider sway. “Is the trap in place?”
“Yes. It took a lot of doing, but our agents penetrated Jade’s first barrier and planted the device. They were unable to pass to the second or third realm, so we will have to count on our Trojan Horse, if you will.”
“That is an apt label. Tamiel was wise to make sure the man was removed from the house before the explosion.” Arramos tried to focus on Vacule, but one eye kept wandering to the side, making the spider’s humanlike face split into two. Arramos blinked to force the eye back to center. “I have taken care of penetrating the second realm, but the barrier to the third is impossible to breach. Yet, based on our enemy’s previous actions, I think the plan will work.”
Vacule squinted. “Are you in pain, Excellency? Is something wrong with your eye?”
“That wench, Darcy, shot me, and a pellet lodged in my eye. It has since come out, but the damage has not healed.”
“Then you are vulnerable. What of your plan to strengthen your body? Did it fail?”
“My scales have been fortified and coated with the protective agent, so I am practically invulnerable, but I lack the ability to protect my eyes. They have no scales to toughen.”
“Even with this handicap, I am confident that you will carry out your plan with stunning brilliance.”
“I hope so. The vermin I bribed into service are a stupid lot. Their anger will make them anxious to kill, which is helpful to a point since I need them to slaughter children without flinching, but if they violate my wishes and kill either Sapphira or Bonnie, then all will be lost.”
“Yes. Such curses are deadly.” Vacule drew in some line and rose a few inches to Arramos’s eye level. “Do you consider your portal-entry strategy as the primary plan, or is Tamiel’s plan the primary one? Or should I even refer to it as Tamiel’s since he is no longer with us?”
Arramos growled. “It is still Tamiel’s plan even in his absence. His strategy once again relies on fragile stealth and the actions of our enemies while mine relies on brute strength. Perhaps both plans will work. Since I cannot allow failure, we will pursue both with relentless force. Clefspeare must be destroyed at all costs.”
“One way or another, he will die.” Vacule rose a few more inches. “While you are mustering your forces, I will monitor the progress of my agents and see if I can personally occupy our Trojan Horse. Your idea worked well to send my agents to the first pool.”
“Yes, our attack against Heaven’s portal provided that benefit.”
“How so, Excellency? I was not in your service then, so I am unaware.”
“While the fools defended Heaven, thinking that we actually believed we could win such a battle, we learned more about the substance of the portal and how it can be penetrated. The passage beetle experiment worked wonders, though, of course, the spy who passed into Heaven died immediately since he was not considered holy. The realm of the first pool has no such barriers to our kind.”
“I have one beetle left, so it should be sufficient. I am ready to carry out the plan.”
Arramos shifted his body under Vacule. “Then let us fly. We have no more use for this den of fools.”
Vacule lowered himself to Arramos’s back. When he had tied a silky thread around a spine and held on, Arramos vaulted into the air and began another orbit around the sanctuary. He blew a stream of flames at the discarded clothing, then at the pews. Soon, a blazing fire erupted and spread throughout the spacious room.
Arramos lifted through the hole in the ceiling and flew in a circle high above the church. Flames shot into the air and began melting the cocoon. Within seconds, an inferno engulfed the entire structure. The front portico collapsed, the roof caved in, and the building shrank into a fiery heap of rubble.
After a final orbit, Arramos flew away, laughing under his breath. Another conquest complete, another oasis transformed into a mirage. Soon this world would become a spiritual wasteland and Elohim’s name a distant memory.
CHAPTER 2
ABADDON’S LAIR
Instructions for raising your sister from the dead. Matt leaned his elbows on one end of Abaddon’s long stone table and held the phone’s screen close to his eyes. The message title was so surreal, like a chapter heading from a miracle worker’s secret handbook. Yet, with Lauren’s corpse lying stretched out on the table’s surface, the words delivered a cruel slap of reality.
Matt checked a foot-tall hourglass that stood a hand’s breadth away from Lauren’s hip. Sand trickled slowly to the pile in the lower glass. According to Abaddon, the sand counted the seconds until this chamber and the entire realm would be annihilated. Perhaps twenty minutes remained to resurrect Lauren and escape through a portal in a nearby window, currently shuttered to keep a stiff breeze from blowing through. That pathway led to Hades, and from there they could access Second Eden, where Semiramis had planted a lethal device—a second ticking time bomb.
Listener stood to his right in front of a pedestal that held Abaddon’s resurrection book. Her eyes moved from side to side as she read something on a page near the beginning.
“What are you reading?” he asked.
“Oh.” She looked up, her cheeks flushed. “A story. It’s written in a language I understand, so I decided to read it.”
“What’s it about?”
“I shouldn’t take the time to tell you.” Firm lips matched a stern tone. Her egg-shaped companion hovered close to her ear, flashing red and painting a dim aura over her form-fitting beige tunic, roomy black trousers, and bare feet. “I apologize. I shouldn’t be so terse. I haven’t felt like myself lately.”
“Don’t worry about it. Probably just stress. With Valiant gone, too many people are relying on you.”
“How well I know.” She ran gentle fingers across the book’s page. “But that’s no excuse for impatient words. Please forgive me.”
“No problem.” Matt looked past a pair of humanlike statues that stood between him and an exit corridor. With vague features on both body and face, the statues lacked enough definition to be recognizable. Sir Barlow had positioned the more feminine statue closer than the other. He said that it had spoken to him, and the words indicated that Lauren’s soul resided within, but it had stayed quiet ever since. A few minutes ago he left through the corridor to search for other statues, hoping that maybe a new one containing Darcy’s soul might have materialized. “Do you think we should wait for Sir Barlow?”
Listener craned her neck. Matt joined her in listening. Complete silence reigned, save for the tiniest crackling from the candlewicks as they emitted a delicate, earthy aroma. “I don’t hear him,” she said. “We really have no idea when he’ll return, so we should proceed without him.”
“Maybe he’ll show up while we’re working.”
“Of course. Trust the Father of Lights.” With her signature pigtails beginning to unravel and her eyes
wide and focused, Listener looked like a teenager on a dangerous mission, though she was probably nearly thirty Earth years old. Such was the blessing of living in Second Eden’s slow-to-age environment. In contrast, the rips at the knees and elbows of her battle garments as well as a spyglass and sheathed dagger attached to her belt made her look like a fresh-from-combat warrior. “We can also trust Sir Barlow. He knows what he’s doing.”
“I believe that.” Matt touched Lauren’s pale face—cold and dry. Although she had been dead for a couple of hours, her limbs had stayed pliable. A pair of necklaces—a chain with a medallion and a string of beads—draped her motionless chest. Each bead glowed with a unique color, giving visibility to the seventh door’s transparent key and its attached ring, which lay loose on her shirt.
“We don’t want to lose this.” He attached the ring to the medallion’s chain. “Let’s get started.”
“First …” Listener closed the book. “Do we have everything we need?”
Matt looked around the chamber. Three short candles sitting on the floor flickered, creating shifting shadows. Tall columns lined the chamber’s walls and reached into darkness, leaving spaces between them for the shuttered window to his left, and straight ahead, a mirror on the wall that served as his entry from Jade’s sanctum to this lair. “We have escape routes, and—”
“Sir Barlow’s coming!” Listener’s brow lifted. “I hear footsteps and heavy breathing.”
Matt strained to hear. Nothing so far, but Listener’s radar always picked up sounds before he could.
Seconds later, Sir Barlow tromped into the room. The scabbard at his hip slapped his beefy leg, the pistol on the opposite side of his belt hung low, and sweat clung to his bushy mustache. “I am very sorry to report that I found no other statues, but I will be glad to go back and continue searching if you so desire. Obviously we cannot leave Darcy’s soul behind.”
Matt caressed a Cracker Jacks ring on his pinky finger. It seemed that Darcy’s soul had flown to Heaven. Better for her to be at peace there than dealing with the dangers here. “No, Sir Barlow. Thanks for trying.”
“Very well, lad.” He pulled up his belt and stationed himself next to the statues in an at-ease position. His forest-green medieval tunic and dark trousers made him look like a movie prop. “I stand ready to help at your call.”
As sand continued trickling in the hourglass, Matt’s danger warning sounded a shrill alarm. Doom approached. They had to hurry. He surveyed the room again for the needed items. On the floor near a table leg, Listener had set a vial of liquid and a glass egg along with its wooden mount. Soon maybe their purposes would become clear.
He refocused on the phone and read Mom’s note out loud. “At the back of Abaddon’s book, look for a page with two columns. The column on the right lists souls who were to be resurrected to Second Eden, and the column on the left lists souls who went to Abaddon’s Lair from Earth. The entries will be symbols, usually animals—birds and reptiles and the like. If Lauren is listed there, she will probably be the last entry in the column. Touch the symbol. It might take a second for it to recognize your dragon essence.”
Listener flipped to the back of the book and set her finger on a page. “This must be it. The last entry in the left-hand column is a sitting cat.”
“Since I have dragon essence, we should switch places.” Matt gave her the phone and shifted over to the book. Sweat made his long sleeves stick to his arms and his camo pants to his legs, but it couldn’t be helped. “Ready.”
Listener cradled the phone as if it might crumble. “I’ve never used one of these, but I should be able to figure it out.” She squinted at the screen and read quickly. “You should hear a voice speaking in a foreign language, but it will figure out your language and speak again. If it works like it did for me, the book will say the name of the person the symbol represents. With another touch, the book will turn itself to the correct page, so be sure to lift your finger.”
“That’s enough for now.” Matt touched the cat symbol. Whispers rose from the page, distinct words but unfamiliar. “Anyone have a clue what the book just said?”
Sir Barlow cleared his throat. “I haven’t heard that tongue in centuries. It is primitive Irish, a language my grandmother spoke. I’m not sure how to translate it precisely into modern words, but I believe this is a good approximation: ‘Dragon nature confirmed. Language identified. Translation in progress.’”
The whispers returned, this time in English. “Lauren Bannister, also known as Lauren Hunt, also known as Karen Bannister. Died in sacrifice while attempting to stop the demon Tamiel from completing his destructive plans. When they came into contact, their opposing powers clashed, and the resulting burst killed them both. Since Lauren’s power was bound up within her body, she was unable to use it against Tamiel without direct skin contact.”
Matt’s heart thumped. This crazy procedure was actually working. He touched the cat again and lifted his finger right away. The book’s spine rose slightly, and the pages flipped toward the front by themselves. When they stopped, he turned to Listener. “What’s next?”
She drew the phone closer and continued reading. “This is where Abaddon adds an entry in his handwriting about the person to be resurrected, but since Lauren died so recently, you might not find any words. Either way, touch one of the characters at the top of the page. If it’s the right one, the book should give you a visual story. If Abaddon’s entry is there, read it first. You might learn more from him.”
“Okay. Stop again.” Matt scanned the page. Animal characters filled the top half, and a handwritten note ran across the bottom. He read it silently while Listener looked on.
I have handled unusual cases in the past, but this one is the most puzzling. Lauren Bannister arrived fully aware of where she was, which is understandable since she has been here before when she acquired Joan of Arc as a companion, but she resisted encasement in stone more vigorously than do most souls. I suppose that Lauren’s lucidity contributed to her desire for freedom. I explained that souls must be contained or they might get lost in this vast world because they lack a physical anchor, so she finally acquiesced and surrendered to my hypnotizing rhetoric.
When I consulted Elohim concerning her resurrection instructions, I received an unusual answer—that I should prepare my horde and be ready to fly up from the abyss to exact punishment on those who lacked his seal. This reply left me in a quandary. Besides Lauren, I had one other soul to process, whom I had placed in a statue that was once an empty monument. Yet Elohim had earlier told me to delay processing it, because Lauren might be coming, and she should be processed before the earlier one.
Therefore, without needed instructions for Lauren, I must leave her and the other soul behind and proceed with my final calling. I trust that Elohim will do whatever is necessary to resurrect these two remaining souls. Perhaps he will employ Jade to do his bidding, since only she knows how to access the life reservoir.
My remaining concern is what will become of my lair. If it is destroyed, as planned, the source for new life on Second Eden will end with it. Someone will have to activate the life reservoir and feed the soil of the birthing garden. Otherwise the sacrifices of many faithful ones will be for naught.
While Listener provided Sir Barlow with a quick summary of Abaddon’s entry, Matt examined each colorful animal character on the page—a flying cardinal, a monkey with a long tail, several varieties of butterflies, a chameleon, and a glowing girl, each one about the size of a thumb.
He touched the girl. Misty light rose from the page and gathered into a hologram—representations of Lauren in Matt’s embrace and Tamiel standing nearby. The semitransparent image animated. Lauren broke away from Matt and ran toward Tamiel. Arramos snatched Tamiel and lifted him into the air out of Lauren’s reach. While they circled overhead, Lauren’s stare followed their orbit. Barely audible voices emanated.
“Maybe you aren’t gullible,” Lauren said, her call li
ke a whisper, “but a dragon who jumps to obey your every command certainly is. It looks like you’re the master, and he’s the slave.”
Listener drew closer. “Is this how Lauren died?”
As tears crept into Matt’s eyes, he nodded. “Any second now, but we don’t have time to watch it.”
“Then let the past stay in the past.” Listener swiped her hand through the mist. The hologram dispersed. “My guess is fifteen minutes left.”
Matt checked the hourglass. Sand continued to pour. “Right. Let’s keep going.”
She lifted the phone and read from the screen even more quickly. “When Abaddon prepared Timothy for resurrection, he breathed fire on the statue. The stone melted away like dark wax. Timothy was covered in flames and started to slump, but Abaddon caught him, so it’s clear that souls there are visible and physical while in the lair, which means that Lauren, if she’s there, should also be in physical form. Then Abaddon poured a drop from a vial onto Timothy’s head. Thick fog covered him, and after a minute or so, Abaddon blew the fog away, leaving a glass egg in his hand. He set the egg on a wooden mount at the center of the table and wrote something in the book.”
Listener took a breath and continued. “When it came time to raise Timothy, because he had given up his right to resurrect, someone had to die before he could live again.” She looked up, no longer reading. “I was a little girl at the time, and I wanted to be that sacrifice, but Acacia died instead.”
“Mom told me that story while we were in prison.” Matt nodded at the phone. “Is there more?”
“Quite a bit.” Listener squinted at the screen once again. “In a few cases, someone on Second Eden had to call the person by name to bring about a resurrection, and it had to take place during an eclipse when the garden was energized. But babies sprout from the birthing garden without those conditions all the time. When Billy and I were resurrected, I assume someone called for us. I remember I called for Billy, at least in my mind, but I can’t be sure if that was needed, because our bodies were available, and we resurrected to life on Earth instead of Second Eden. So the needed elements are not obvious. You might have to figure out this process as you go along.