“Then it is settled.” Joan turned back to Abaddon. “What do we do now?”
He nodded toward the portal. “Lauren will open the shutters, take the birthing plants, and return to the museum room. The gas has dissipated, so there is no danger. She will then call upon you to resurrect from a plant. Because of the unusual circumstances, or rule-breaking, as I see it, she will not need anything but a call from her heart to bring you into the plant. There will be no need for special timing or a song. When you rise from the plant, you and she will go to Earth together. Only there will you be able to save Matt and many others from life-threatening peril.”
“To Earth through the museum room portal?” Lauren asked. “It has a hole, but it wasn’t big enough for anyone to go through when I was there.”
Abaddon drew his head closer and lowered his voice. “Let wisdom guide you. If you can discern how to pass through that portal, then do so, but the danger is great, because two enemy soldiers are still at the other side. There is another portal in a cave in Second Eden’s Valley of Shadows. That way is clear of enemies, but you will need a winged transport to get there, and fumes from the mouth of Elijah might still rest in the valley. Dragons are in Second Eden who might be willing to aid you—Karrick, Albatross, and Grackle. The two latter dragons are not as intelligent as others, but they are friendly and accommodating.”
Lauren repeated the names silently, committing them to memory. Riding a dragon shouldn’t be too bad. Still, getting to the Second Eden cave had another obstacle. “Zohar closed the portal to Second Eden. How do I get through it? And isn’t everything covered with lava?”
“You left your portal-opening device in the museum room. Although it had trouble calculating the necessary settings before, it is able to replicate what it has witnessed.”
Lauren nodded. The operating manual had said that Apollo registers and records all light anomalies. She could scroll through the database and find the spectral readings of Zohar’s portal-opening flames.
“Once the portal is open,” Abaddon continued, “you will have to use wisdom and intelligence to navigate the lava. Although it has cooled greatly, it will burn your skin.”
“Thank you. Is there anything else I need to know?”
“Only to be ready for events to unfold in unexpected ways. If not for your mind-reading abilities, you and Joan would be stopped before you take your first step.”
“Do you mean I should—”
“That is all I will say.” He waved a wing toward the shutters. “Be on your way. Time is of the essence.”
Lauren grasped the hourglass.
“Leave that here.”
Lauren jerked her hand away. “But how will I know when Matt will face—”
“You will not know. That is how faith begins. In fact, with this new arrangement, the time until your brother’s peril might not be the one being measured. It is possible that the grains of sand count down to your own peril, or perhaps no one’s at all. Such is the nature of the future.”
Joan kissed Lauren on both cheeks. “Au revoir, mon amie. I will see you soon. Be brave, and above all remember that from now on there is no turning, no looking back.”
“No turning. No looking back. I’ll remember.” Lauren stepped away, sliding her hand out of Joan’s. She strode to the shutters. Next to the wall, five birthing plants stood in their buckets, three large and bulging and two barely sprouted. “Which one do I take?”
“Take them all and leave them in the museum room,” Abaddon said. “The tree of life will provide light and warmth, so they will survive. You will call for Joan there, and when you do, you will learn which one to harvest.”
Nodding, Lauren turned toward the portal and opened the shutters. A faint odor wafted past, but it carried no bite. With the tree still burning silently, it seemed that the museum room had its own air-purifying system.
She hoisted the plants one at a time over the brick wall, then vaulted in to join them. She looked back through the portal. Staring intently at each other, Abaddon and Joan appeared to be in conversation. Lauren trained her ears, hoping to pick up some words. After all, her own life was at stake.
“J’ai attendu longtemps ma résurrection, et mon retour à la bataille,” Joan said. “Pourquoi maintenant?”
Lauren frowned. Why hadn’t she studied harder in French class? A long time, resurrection, and battle were easy to translate, but the rest was a mystery.
Abaddon’s blue eyebeams trained on Joan. “Parce que nous sommes en guerre. Ta résurrection et ta lutte ne seront pas ce que tu attends. Lauren a seulement besoin d’une camarade et non d’une guerrière.”
“Une camarade?” Joan glanced at Lauren. Even from this distance the flush in Joan’s cheeks was easy to see.
Lauren closed the shutters. Joan was clearly troubled, and the presence of an eavesdropper couldn’t help. Besides, the French words flew by too quickly to comprehend. Still, Abaddon had said Lauren, so she was involved somehow.
With firelight illuminating the room, she bent low and skirted the tree on the Heaven portal side. As she picked up Apollo, she cast a glance toward the Earth portal. Now two men stood inside the cave she and her father had entered, both carrying rifles and pacing nervously. At least they were distracted. They wouldn’t be paying attention to the shifting shadows through the peephole. There was no sign of the third man, the one who had retrieved the mustard gas. Maybe he had left to find another weapon to penetrate the museum room.
Lauren set Apollo by the Second Eden portal, then hurried back and forth to Abaddon’s shutters, carrying a birthing plant each time. When she had collected all five, she sat with Apollo in her lap and browsed the menu selections on its top. “Let’s see,” she whispered to herself, “History, Readings, Sort Options, Most Recent.” She began reading data and time stamps, pressing a button to scroll from one to the next. Most of the readings appeared to be similar. Since Apollo registered fluctuations, it probably picked up even flickering light from the tree of life. Finally, a much higher reading appeared for ultraviolet and X-ray range. This had to be Zohar’s fire.
She programmed Apollo’s flash with identical numbers and set it in front of the Second Eden portal. Now to call for Joan.
Kneeling, she gathered the buckets in a circle, setting the largest ones close to her knees. If Joan were to grow as quickly as Zohar did, it made sense that she would start as big as possible. All five had a base stem with two leaves pressed together like praying hands. The leaves bent outward at each side as if they held something within, though the smallest two couldn’t hold anything bigger than a hen’s egg.
She glanced again at the Earth portal. The men were gone now. At this point, it didn’t matter where. They could easily be guarding the tunnel while out in the crater, so going through that passageway to Earth wouldn’t be safe.
She searched her mind for a call, something that reflected her heart. Joan’s words were so scary, yet so encouraging at the same time. It seemed that Joan encompassed the dark fears of a hundred nightmares while at the same time acting as the awakening voice that shattered the terror and assured the sleeper that it was all just a dream.
After taking a deep breath, she called in a soft tone, “Joan of Arc, my friend, my companion in this journey, come to me and use your light to help me find my way through the darkness we will face on our dangerous path.”
As light from the tree flickered across the plants, she scanned each one for any sign of movement. After a few seconds, one of the smaller plants wiggled, and a slight glow bled through its tiny leaves.
Lauren pulled it closer. It had to be the one. Even if it didn’t grow quickly, maybe the delay would give the lava more time to cool.
With trembling hands, she peeled back the leaves and let the white sac roll into her palm. She tore the sac away, revealing a glass egg similar to the one that eventually hatched Zohar, though much smaller. Although transparent, there was no sign of anyone inside. With Zohar
, he was visible right away.
Two eyes appeared on the egg’s surface, blinking, then a blue light glowed within. The egg lifted from her palm and floated toward her until it hovered a few inches in front of her eyes.
Tingles ran along Lauren’s scales. A thin beam of light shot out from the egg and struck her forehead with something sharp that penetrated deep inside, as if the egg had launched a harpoon and pierced her skull deep enough to lodge in her brain. Yet, it brought no discomfort.
The eyes blinked again, and a voice entered Lauren’s mind, unspoken, a stream of thoughts. Bonjour, mon amie. As Abaddon promised, I am your compagne … your companion.
Chapter 18
DISCOVERED
Matt opened his eyes. He sat upright with his back against something soft. Above, stars twinkled in the night sky in a dazzling display. His cloak covered his arms, and a woman clasped her hands loosely over his torso, her arms wrapping around him from behind, barely illuminated by a wavering light. A fire burned several yards away, and a man paced in front of it, making his long shadow cross Matt from left to right, then back again. He appeared to be talking on a phone, his voice too low to detect. With his other hand clutching one of the assault rifles, he appeared to be ready for battle, maybe even expecting an immediate threat.
Sliding his fingers under the clasped hands, Matt lifted them gently out of the way and sat up. The wrapping arms belonged to Listener. She slept with her back against the crater’s boundary wall, her head cushioned by a duffel bag. Two AK-47 rifles lay on the ground to her right.
Only a few steps to her left, Valiant reclined against the wall cradling Mom, which meant that the man on the phone had to be …
“Dad?” Matt whispered.
Matt’s father spun toward him and lowered his phone. “How’re you feeling?”
His joints popping, Matt climbed to his feet. Everything hurt from toes to scalp, especially his pounding head. “Pretty terrible.”
Dad lifted the phone again and said, “I’ll see you in a few minutes,” then slid it into his pocket as he rushed to Matt. He pushed a shoulder under Matt’s arm and propped him up. “I heard how you tried to heal me. Thank you for that.”
“You’re welcome, but I guess Mom’s gun really did it, right?”
“Apparently. I’m sure you contributed.” Dad pulled away but kept a hold on Matt’s arm. “You okay now?”
“Yeah. I’m recovering. Thanks.” As Matt steadied himself, he nodded toward Mom. “How is she?”
“Exhausted. Spent. Any word that means totally wiped out. According to Valiant, she shot me full of energy, and the candlestone inside her body absorbed more of her energy and refilled the gun again. He said it was like watching someone getting stretched on a rack. If he hadn’t taken the gun away and turned it off, she would have delivered another dose. I’m not exactly a hundred percent, but one dose was enough to revive.”
“Where is the gun now?”
Dad patted one of his pockets. “She wasn’t in any condition to object. We’ll talk about it when she wakes up.”
Matt looked again at the dark sky. “How long was I out? Last I remember, it was daylight.”
“A few hours. It’s good, though. Everyone’s getting some rest.”
A boiling sensation stewed in Matt’s stomach. “I might be getting sick from the healing, but—”
“Danger?” Dad lifted the rifle to his hip. “I feel something, too. It’s kind of vague, though. No real direction or closeness.”
“Well, we were tracking Semiramis. She might be the cause.”
“And Eagle and a girl named Cheer,” Dad said, nodding. “I heard. But we never found them. The only way out of here is by chopper. Years ago, we had the world’s longest rope ladder that Yereq used to climb in and out, but it rotted. Even if it were still here, they couldn’t have climbed out.”
“Any other ideas?”
Dad scanned the sky. “I’m wondering if Semiramis was able to call for Arramos. He wouldn’t have any trouble carrying all three out.”
“Arramos. Yeah, I heard about him. Not a dragon I want to meet.” Matt gestured toward his father’s pocket. “I noticed you were on the phone.”
“Right. Talking to Walter. He’s on his way with Ashley and Gabriel and my parents. They’ll probably be here in about ten minutes. They flew in Merlin to the nearest airport and picked up the helicopter there. Good thing my mother knows how to fly one, but Walter said he’d learn how on the way. They said they had to get my father to Second Eden for a potential cure, something about a cannibalistic parasite, but Walter explained it too fast for me to pick it all up.”
Matt gestured toward his father’s facial wounds, now sealed and clean, though bruises remained across both cheeks as well as his chin and forehead. “What happened to you? It looks like you got put through a meat grinder.”
“It’s a long story, and I’ll tell it all when everyone is here, but to make it short …” Dad nodded toward the low cave. “Lauren, my mother, and I went in there to find a portal that we thought might lead to your mother. Once I opened it, we got ambushed by the military.”
“Military? Do you mean the U.S. Army?”
“Probably a combination of U.S. and U.N. forces. I saw some army stripes, but not on all the uniforms.”
“Good guess, then.” Matt nodded. “Go on.”
“Well, Lauren went through the portal while I stayed here to protect my mother. They beat me and my father to a pulp, but he and my mother got away. But now the soldiers got the worst of it. All three who were left behind are dead. Listener killed the first one, and we gave the other two a chance to surrender, but they came out blasting. Valiant and Listener made short work of them.”
“It’s good to have some firepower on our side.” Matt pressed a hand on his stomach. The feeling of danger wouldn’t go away. Still, it wasn’t increasing. No use for alarm. “Do the soldiers have reinforcements coming?”
“I assume so. Whoever sent them has to know by now that they were stranded, so we’re expecting company. But we can’t escape. Until Walter gets here, we’re proverbial fish in the barrel.”
“No escape?” Matt looked at the fire. “What happened to the portal?”
“It’s closed. I think the fire from a helicopter I blew up was keeping it open, but it dwindled at a bad time. Karrick went back to Second Eden to tell Albatross not to worry about picking up anyone in the valley, and when he returned, the portal had shrunk too much for him to get through. I tried restarting the wreckage with my fire breathing, but it wouldn’t relight. The combustibles are gone, and there isn’t much to burn around here. The fire I have now is burning the dead soldiers’ uniforms, but it’s not enough to open the portal. It’ll peter out soon.”
“Did Mom tell you about the devastation in Second Eden?”
Dad nodded. “It’s a wasteland.”
“That’s a mild term.” Matt kicked a stone toward the fire. “From what I heard, I think the whole thing was planned.”
“I thought that might be the case. You can tell me your theory when we all get together.”
“Sure, but I don’t get why Earth’s forces would want to destroy Second Eden instead of just taking it over.”
Dad shrugged. “Control. Power. Who knows? Anyway, now that communications are open between the hospital and Lois, we can keep in touch. We heard that Adam’s been forced to operate Larry under governmental guidance. They have a goon squad there monitoring every communication, but that works out for us, because we can feed them information that will put them on the wrong track. It’s not a good situation for Adam, but he’s a trooper. He can handle it.”
“Any update on whether or not the government has access to a Second Eden portal?”
“None so far, but Valiant sent word with Karrick for the men to get ready for battle. He says that Elam has prepared them well, and with the women and children gone, their minds will focus on combat.”
“Let’s hope we can keep the battle away from them,” Matt said. “They’re a brave bunch, and they have weapons, but they’re no match for an all-out assault.”
“Agreed. I hope they can concentrate on rebuilding their villages. Valiant said Second Eden is quick to recover from volcanic eruptions, something about the organic material in the lava allowing vegetation to flourish.”
Matt jerked his thumb toward the wall. “Did he tell you about the problem with the companions here?”
Dad nodded. “But they’re doing better now. As soon as it got dark, the little eggs perked up a bit, though not nearly to the point they should be.”
“Maybe the sunlight here does something.” Matt scanned the sky again. As before, the stars seemed brighter than usual and countless, though the crater walls blocked all but a narrow view. “Where are we, anyway? I mean, I know we’re on Earth, but what part?”
“Montana, near Flathead Lake.”
“Montana. I’ve never been here before, but I’ve read a lot about it, even a couple of novels that were set here.” Matt stepped closer to the center of the crater to improve his view of the stars. “Do the stars look strange to you? There’s not much of a view down here, but they look closer somehow.”
Dad looked up. “They call Montana big sky country, so it’s probably just …” He blinked. “Hmmm … They do look strange.”
While they continued staring, a feminine voice broke the silence. “You did not tell me that your stars sing.” Listener stood behind them looking at the sky. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. “Their song is lovely, too beautiful to describe. I don’t understand the language, but my companion seems to be invigorated by it.”
Her companion sat on her shoulder, a dim blue light blinking within. Listener turned her head and petted its top. “She’s still not quite back to normal, but at least she’s communicating with me.”