“Then do what you must.” Joran set his fingers on the lyre’s strings. “I will play the mercy song.”
Selah sat behind him and spread out the rods. “I am with you all the way.”
“I can’t change your mind?” Walter asked.
“I wanted to do something to help, remember? I know what that is now. Let us do it.” Joran began playing the tune. It flowed from mind to fingers without hesitation. “Go. Save Ashley and yourself.”
Walter firmed his jaw. “There’s one chance left.” He grabbed Ashley’s hand. “Come on!”
Ducking their heads, they jumped into the Jeep. With a new round of mud slinging, Walter drove into the flames, followed by a storm of bullets. One of the helicopters gave chase while the other continued pouring new fuel into the wall and fanning the flames.
The lava crept closer. It would swallow them in seconds.
Selah trembled. “Joran, I’ve killed Zohar and Mendallah!”
“Not you! The helicopters did it!” Joran squirmed to get into a better singing position. “Now we have to settle our minds, or we won’t be able to sing the mercy song.”
“You’re right.” She kissed the top of his head. “I am ready. I will sing with all my heart.”
Chapter 9
ASCENSION
Walter sped the Jeep over the downed fence between the two prison areas and zoomed straight toward the main building. “Walter!” Ashley shouted from the passenger seat. “You’ll crash into the wall.”
“I know!” Bullets riddled the snowy road at both sides. Walter stepped on the gas. “Get ready to jump!”
“Which way?”
“Backwards! Now!”
They both leaped up and, holding hands, ran over the rear of the Jeep. They landed in a tumble and rolled through snow. The Jeep slammed into the building, smashing a hole in the wall. Now wedged halfway in, its rear wheels spun, slinging muddy water. The helicopter pulled up in a near vertical rise and careened back toward them.
“Let’s go!” Walter and Ashley sprinted to the wall, climbed over the Jeep, and vaulted into a dim room.
Gasping for breath, Ashley looked around. “Where … where are we?”
“Weapons cache.” Walter grabbed a shoulder-mounted missile launcher from a bracket. “This place was ready for war. They had more firepower available than they used. Boone had to know this.”
Ashley touched an assault rifle leaning against a wall. “They let us win?”
“Hard to say. Maybe Boone held back for us.” Walter loaded a missile, climbed onto the Jeep, and aimed it at the helicopter flying over the portal area. “Good-bye, chopper.”
He pulled the trigger. With a loud whoosh, the missile shot out, creating a plume of smoke that jetted back and filled the weapons room. The missile slammed into the helicopter and blew it to pieces. Smoking fragments of metal and glass arced toward the ground amidst piercing whistles and crackling flames.
Walter leaped off the Jeep, threw the gun down on the weapons room floor, and grabbed the rifle. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
“No way!” Coughing as she fanned the smoke, Ashley picked up a handgun. “I know how to use this.”
They charged out of the room, leaping across the Jeep. Walter aimed at the second helicopter and fired a thunderous volley. Using both hands, Ashley braced her gun and shot again and again. A line of bullets cracked the helicopter’s glass and riddled the metal skin from nose to tail.
The chopper dipped at a sharp angle, smoke pouring from within, and retreated ahead of their nonstop gunfire.
When it flew out of range, Walter waved an arm. “Let’s go.” They sprinted to the ring of flames, now dwindling. Along the way, Walter snatched up a ragged sheet of metal and shouted, “I’m going in!”
Just before he reached the wall, light flashed from within. A fountain of sparks flew upward and shot high into the air. The sparks spread across the sky, twinkling like stars, unhindered by the daylight.
Still running, Walter threw the scrap of metal into his path. He leaped onto it and slid toward the wall of flames, ready to jump to the side to avoid the lava, but when the metal pushed across the fire, the circle of lava had receded to the center, now the size of a child’s wading pool.
He stepped off and slid the metal sheet back to Ashley, then ran to the spot where they had left Joran and Selah. They were gone.
While Ashley crossed the wall of fire, Walter crouched next to a depression in the mud. This was definitely where he had left them. Had they fallen into the lava? Were they transported somewhere else?
Ashley ran to his side, breathless. “No sign of them?”
“Not unless you mean the sparks.” He looked up. The daylight stars had faded away. “I think they transported.”
“To where?”
Walter straightened. “All I know is that they’re not here, and we’d better transport ourselves before someone calls for reinforcements.”
“Do you think Captain Boone called for the helicopters?”
“He asked us if we were staying here, he left, and then the choppers showed up, so, yeah.”
“I don’t get it,” Ashley said. “When he was helping us during the battle, I read kindness in his mind. It wasn’t fake.”
“I won’t argue with that, but that was then, and this is now, and now we’d better get away from ground zero and do some more snooping.” Taking Ashley’s hand, Walter jumped through a gap in the flames and jogged toward the weapons cache. After crawling over the Jeep, he entered the room, now clear of smoke. Automatic rifles lined the walls in sturdy wooden brackets, ammunition belts and magazines hung on hooks nearby, and many varieties of weapons and ammo-filled cabinets and footlockers from one end of the room to the other.
He grabbed a duffel bag and began loading it with grenades, belts, and magazines. “Captain Boone could have annihilated us with this stuff, but he didn’t, and now it looks like he’s betrayed us or at least flown the coop to save his own skin, so we can’t trust him. Even Larry could be compromised by now, so we’re on our own. When Lois gets back online, we’ll see if the security protocol checks out and—”
“Walter, look!”
He spun toward the opposite wall. Ashley stood next to a long, rectangular box made of dark wood. A hinged lid stood open above it. “What’s in there?”
“Nothing. That’s the point.” She ran a finger along the red velvet lining within. “A sword was in here.”
Walter touched the box. “How can you tell? A lot of things could have been in there.”
She licked her fingertip and used it to scoop red fibers from the lining. “Something sharp scraped the bottom on this end. The hilt end is clean.”
Walter squinted at the fibers. “Are you thinking Excalibur was here?”
“If it wasn’t Excalibur, why wouldn’t it still be here?”
“Right. You wouldn’t take a sword to a gun battle.” Walter closed the lid. “Can you remember if the sword was in the box when we first came in here?”
Ashley clenched her eyes shut. “I’m playing it back in my memory, but everything happened so fast. If the box was open, I think the red lining would have stood out, and I don’t remember seeing it.”
“Mardon said he knew where Excalibur was and that getting it back would be difficult. This room was locked tighter than a drum until I made a new door. I’ll bet he heard the crash and went to see what caused it.”
Ashley used her gun to point at the hole in the wall. “And then he decided to take Excalibur out for a walk.”
“Well, he can’t be far.” Walter stuffed two more handguns and a high-capacity magazine into the duffel and zipped it up. “Let’s go.”
He unfastened three deadbolts, opened the door, and stepped into an empty hallway. Captain Boone’s office lay to the left, where Mardon was supposed to be waiting. He cast a thought Ashley’s way. Quietly now.
Carrying the automatic rifle, Walter tipt
oed toward the office, Ashley following. When he reached the open door, he peeked through the gap. Mardon sat in a straight-back chair, his torso erect and his wide eyes darting. Wearing the same ragged jacket and patched jeans he had worn earlier, he squeezed a handkerchief, as if trying to wring it out, and his burn-ravaged face wrinkled with every nervous twitch.
Walter looked at Ashley. He’s here. No sword. Supposedly he and Semiramis are like ghosts unless there’s an open portal to Second Eden. If he’s a ghost now, he couldn’t have taken Excalibur.
“There was still lava in that circle,” Ashley whispered. “The portal is open. At least it was a little while ago. He should be solid until it closes.”
Then I have to make this fast. Walter marched into the room and pressed his rifle’s barrel against Mardon’s chest. “Where is Excalibur?”
Mardon swallowed. “Exca … Excalibur?” He dabbed his scarred forehead, though it appeared to be dry. “I don’t have Excalibur.”
“He’s guarding his thoughts,” Ashley said. “He’s hiding something.”
“You said you know where it is.” Walter pushed with the rifle, forcing Mardon to scoot back in his chair. “Where?”
Mardon tugged on his collar. “There is a weapons room here, and it is securely locked. There were always guards, both in the room and the hall, so I assumed you wouldn’t be able to—”
“We had dragons! We had a compliant chief officer!” Walter shifted the barrel to Mardon’s eyes. “Don’t try to con me. I’ve dealt with enough liars to know when one is blowing smoke.”
Mardon let out a nervous laugh. “Dragons. Blowing smoke. Your metaphors are witty, but they do not alter the truth. I don’t know where Excalibur is. In fact, I have been shifting back and forth from a solid state. I could not have carried a sword.”
Walter pressed the barrel against Mardon’s forehead. “Shall we conduct a test to see how solid you are?”
Mardon’s entire body quaked. “If you shoot me, I will not be able to help you find a cure to the disease that afflicts the original anthrozils.”
“You’re the one who created the disease!”
Mardon gulped but said nothing.
“We found the beakers in the museum room,” Walter continued. “I don’t know how you timed either eruption, but we know you used the volcano to spread the bug, or whatever you want to call it, and we figured out that the recent eruption made it worse.”
Mardon’s expression took on a prideful air. “I did create and spread the parasite.”
“Parasite?”
“Of course. Your lack of knowledge proves that you need me to counter it. And I didn’t time the first eruption; I triggered it. But I had nothing to do with the second one. If it exacerbated the parasite, it was not my doing. In any case, as I hope you remember, the combination of rain and chemicals from the volcano’s debris after the first eruption caused the attacking army’s rust coat to dissolve, which made them vulnerable to Excalibur’s beam. My experiment actually helped you win the battle.”
“You’re trying to justify what you did by talking about an accidental benefit? You and your witch of a mother have plotted against us for years, all the while pretending to cooperate. Those days are over.” Walter’s trigger finger twitched. “I ought to—”
“No!” Mardon raised his hands. “Don’t shoot me! I’ll help you! I promise! There is a genetic switch that …” His hands quivering, he shook his head. “I will not tell you right now. If I do, I will have no leverage.”
“Leverage.” Walter huffed. “As if we couldn’t figure it out on our own.”
Ashley laid a hand on Walter’s arm. “Good acting job. The stress opened his mind. He didn’t take Excalibur.”
“I wasn’t acting.” Walter drew the gun away from Mardon. “Captain Boone, maybe?”
“I suppose, but he wouldn’t know anything about its power or how to use it.”
“Tamiel would know. Boone could be his delivery boy.” Walter waved toward the door with his gun. “Let’s go, Mardon. We’ll get started on finding a cure.”
A smile spread across Mardon’s face, bold and confident. “Since you refuse to help me find my mother, I am finished cooperating with you.”
Walter aimed the gun at Mardon’s head again. “This says you’re coming with us.”
“Feel free to shoot. I am no longer afraid of you.”
Walter rolled his eyes. “I hate it when people do that.”
“The portal is probably closed.” Ashley pushed her hand through Mardon’s body. “He’s a ghost again.”
Mardon stood and gave them a polite nod. “I must be going now.” He turned and walked toward the door. “I will do whatever I can to destroy all of you.”
“Stop!” Walter fired, but the bullet zipped through Mardon’s body and smacked into the wall in the hallway. Mardon walked on, slowly fading until he vanished.
Walter let his shoulders slump. “Now what?”
“Find Gabriel.” Ashley hooked her arm through his. “And Elam and Sapphira and all the others. I think the war is just beginning.”
Chapter 10
VALIANT
Matt slid off Albatross’s back and surveyed the area—a land of boulders, fallen trees, and smashed huts. Dark rocks, some steaming and glowing red, peppered flattened grass. Mount Elijah had scattered thousands of superheated stones, as if throwing a temper tantrum. And now that the sun neared the horizon, streaks of red and orange over the volcano made it look angrier than ever.
He helped his mother climb down the dragon’s tail. With her wings and shoulders drooping, she appeared to be tired, but a spark of determination danced in her eyes. “This was Founder’s Village,” she said. “It’s been completely destroyed.”
“Even without lava.” Matt kicked up a door made of wood and straw, but only rocks lay underneath. “Where would the survivors have gone?”
Mom nodded toward the north. “Maybe the birthing garden. It’s considered a holy place, so those who couldn’t get into the flying hospital might have congregated there.”
Albatross whistled sharply and pushed his nose under the wall of a flattened hut. Matt ran to the spot. A little glass egg lay on the ground, similar to those that hovered around Listener and the children, but this one was dark and lifeless. He grabbed the egg and heaved the wall to one side, revealing a black cloak spread out over a large lump.
With a quick reach, Matt pulled away the cloak, revealing a dark-skinned woman lying facedown, her body curled as if shielding something underneath.
Matt handed the cloak to his mother and nudged the woman’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”
The woman stayed motionless.
“Ma’am?” He set his finger against her throat, feeling for a pulse. Nothing. “I think she’s dead.”
“How awful!” Mom pressed the cloak’s hood over her lips. “The poor woman didn’t—” Her brow dipped. She sniffed the material, then looked at the haze-covered sun through the hood. “It’s treated with some kind of chemical.”
Matt rubbed the material between his thumb and finger. “I wonder why.”
“Ashley formulated a flame-retardant solution that she applied to cloaks. We used it to penetrate a wall of fire years ago. Maybe this woman thought it would protect her somehow. She used it like a blanket.”
“Makes sense.” Crouching, Matt turned the woman to her back, exposing an infant dressed only in a pink Earth-style onesie. He gulped and cried out, “A baby!”
“Alive?”
“Not sure yet.” He set a finger in front of her mouth. She was breathing but appeared to be unconscious, and her companion lay nestled in the crook of her arm, blinking dimly. Swallowing to keep from squeaking, he nodded. “She’s alive.”
Mom knelt at his side. “Any broken bones?”
“I haven’t checked.” Matt pressed lightly on the baby’s legs and arms. She grimaced but didn’t cry out. He shifted his fingers to her skull. M
uch of it hadn’t grown in because of her age, but one side appeared to be cracked. “This isn’t good.”
“Skull fracture?”
He nodded. “I’ve healed open wounds, but this is different. It’s sealed over with skin.”
“We need fire. Ashley and Thigocia healed injuries like this, and they always needed to be coated with flames, but we don’t have a fire-breathing dragon or an oracle.”
Matt glanced around. “I got the impression that some fire-breathing dragons stayed in Second Eden.”
“I don’t know who came to Earth or who stayed, but I don’t see any now.” Mom touched the woman’s dark forehead. “Second Eden had people of all races, but I personally knew only one black woman—Mantika.”
“Does she look like Mantika?”
With the cloak still in her grasp, Mom slid her hands under the baby and lifted her into its folds, tears brimming. “She’s aged quite a bit since I saw her more than fifteen years ago, but I think she’s Mantika. She was Candle and Listener’s surrogate mother.”
“Whoever she was, it looks like she did everything she could to protect the baby.”
“That matches Mantika’s loving ways.” Mom walked a few steps farther out into the field. “I wonder if there are any more companions around here.”
Matt scanned the ground. Looking for companions would be a good way to search for buried people. A floating egg could dodge flying debris better than a person could, but no other companions glinted in the failing sunlight. “We’d better get that baby to—”
A sharp cry sounded from above. A purple dragon carrying a human passenger dove from the smoke-filled sky. As he came in for a landing, Listener jumped off before the dragon’s feet struck the ground. With her spyglass in its belt strap, she rushed to the victim’s side. “Mother!” she wailed as she pushed her hand through Mantika’s hair. “Oh, my dear mother!” She turned and looked at Lily, still in Mom’s arms. “You were protecting Lily. You sacrificed your life to save my sister.”