From the Mouth of Elijah

  He caught the wallet and rifled through at least thirty bills inside. The driver’s license had his photo but a different name, issued by the state of Nebraska, definitely authentic looking. The credit card bore the same name—Michael Foster. Apparently since this mission covered multiple states, it would require checking into motels under an assumed identity. “So why do you think I’ll go along with this screwball charade?”

  “Two reasons. First, we hold your father. Second, your mother’s compassion will drive you more surely than will your hands on the steering wheel.” Tamiel lifted his brow. “Which reminds me. Are you an experienced driver?”

  Matt resisted a smirk. After driving military Jeeps through muddy swamps and mountain trails during training, he could drive anything. “I’m experienced.”

  “Good. We expect you to arrive in each locale by a time that I will provide through text messages. You will check into a motel by that time using the credit card, and you will visit the address the next morning. When you arrive at the address, Bonnie will know what to do. After you finish, you will drive to the next town.”

  “So you’ll know we’re on schedule when we use the credit card.”

  “That is one method. We have other ways of tracking you.”

  Matt slid the wallet into his back pocket. The Mustang was probably equipped with a GPS locator. There was no escaping their watchful eye as long as he drove it. “What happens if we’re late?”

  “Your father will suffer the consequences. The severity of the punishment will depend on the circumstances.” Tamiel patted Matt’s shoulder. “Yet I think you will—”

  Matt jerked away. “Don’t patronize me! I’ve seen enough deceivers to know when one’s trying to play me for a fool!”

  “Ah! Yes, you are less gullible than most. Darcy has, indeed, opened your eyes to betrayal.”

  Matt pressed his lips together. The statement was bait. Tamiel wanted to show off his knowledge of Darcy and maybe expose other raw wounds, but that bait would just have to dangle. He jabbed a finger at Tamiel and growled, “Just don’t.”

  “Very well.” Tamiel swept an arm toward the Mustang. “Be on your way.”

  After glancing at the soldier again, Matt walked toward the driver’s side, his head still throbbing. When he reached for the door, Mom’s face came into view. Her eyes shut, she sat motionless, her face pale.

  He opened the door, reached in, and touched her cheek. Her skin felt normal—the right temperature, smooth and not too dry. “Mom?” he said softly. “Can you hear me? It’s me, Matt.”

  The phone chimed in his pocket. He looked back at Tamiel. The demonic scarecrow smirked.

  Matt snatched the phone and read the message. “She will wake up only when you follow my instructions in the audio message.”

  With quick thumbs, Matt typed, “Listen, jerk.” Then, sighing, he cleared the message. The phone beeped again.

  He switched to the incoming message and read it. “I almost forgot. I have something to show you.” He looked back at Tamiel. The soldier opened the building’s door and coaxed a girl out at gunpoint. Wearing a low-cut, spaghetti-strap top with one strap broken; a short, tight skirt; and high heels, she kept her head low and turned away, shielding her face.

  “Las Vegas,” Tamiel said as he laid a hand on her bare shoulder. “It took a while to hunt her down, but we finally found her at a seedy street corner at midnight.”

  Matt scrunched his brow. Why would Tamiel bring a street-walker here? It didn’t make sense. Whatever the reason, she had to be freezing. He slid off his cloak and walked toward her. “Here. I don’t need this as much as you do.”

  As he draped it over her shoulders, she turned her head toward him, revealing her face, heavily rouged and painted with dark lipstick, mascara, and eye shadow. Yet, no amount of makeup could hide her identity.

  “Darcy?” Matt staggered back, leaving the cloak with her.

  She nodded. “Yes, Matt. I’m glad you still recognize me.”

  “Let’s make it easier.” Tamiel nodded at the soldier. “Clean her up.”

  While Tamiel watched with his gun drawn, the soldier dipped a handkerchief in icy water and wiped Darcy’s face, smearing her makeup. After a few swipes, he dropped the rag into her hand. “I’ll let you finish.”

  Her body shaking, Darcy dabbed at her face with the rag.

  Tamiel shoved her toward Matt. As one of her high heels broke and fell off, she stumbled out of control. Matt lunged and caught her under her arms, keeping her from falling. He quickly set her upright and let her go. “What’s this all about?”

  “Darcy fulfills a role that you will understand soon. Yet, you are free to take her with you or leave her here. If you leave her here, however, I will kill her, because I have no other use for her. Since your mother is asleep, she will never know that you made that choice.”

  Matt looked at Darcy. Those familiar evil eyes stared back at him, and her attire and vocation proved that nothing had changed. There wasn’t a shred of decency in her. Yet, leaving her here to die at the hands of a demon would make him even worse than she was. “She’ll come with us.”

  “I expected as much, but be aware that we are tracking her as well. If you decide to leave her in what you consider to be a safe place, we will find her and kill her. She must stay with you or die.”

  Matt glanced again at Darcy. Had they implanted some kind of GPS chip in her?

  “Start driving.” Tamiel waved his gun toward the car. “As I said, I will text the arrival time while you are on your way. Do not waste even a minute.”

  After helping Darcy into the front passenger’s side, Matt settled in the driver’s seat, pulled the floor stick to the drive position, and rolled out of the alley. When he stopped at the vacant street, he started the phone’s GPS program and accessed the first address, a place in western Kansas, drive time six hours.

  He glanced at the car’s console clock. 3:00 p.m. Since it was the middle of the night at the Montana crater, he must have been out cold most of the next day. But where was he now? He studied the map. A little town in western Nebraska. Why Nebraska?

  As he drove onto the street, Darcy turned his way. “You won’t regret this, Matt. Your trust, in spite of all I have done to you, means everything to me.”

  Matt’s throat tightened. Hadn’t she said that before? Yes! In a dream. It had faded away but now came roaring back—the cloak, her bare legs, the smeared makeup. It was all the same, even the words she spoke, a near duplicate of Semiramis repeating the phrases word for word. Might Darcy be Semiramis in disguise? Maybe, but how could he test that theory?

  Darcy slid her hand into his. In the dream, the touch felt electric, much like a touch from Semiramis, but now her skin felt cold and clammy, a sign of fear. Maybe she wasn’t Semiramis after all. “Will you take me home?” she asked.

  His dream answer came to mind, I’ll do my best. It was a good answer. It made sense. But letting the dream control their destiny didn’t. “I’ll … I’ll do everything I can to get us all home safely.”

  “Thank you.” Darcy drew his hand to her lips and kissed his fingers. “I’m sorry for all those pranks I pulled on you. They were mean.” She let go and clutched the cloak closer to her body, shivering. “You could have let them kill me, but you gave me your own cloak and took me away with you. I have no idea what’s going on, but … thank you.”

  Polite phrases ran through Matt’s mind—you’re welcome; no problem; we were just kids back then, so forget about it. But he couldn’t force any of them through his lips.

  “I guess you’re cold.” He found the convertible control, closed the top, and turned on the heat and the radio. After setting it to 87.7 on the FM dial, he pulled up the recorded message, chose the broadcast option, and began following the GPS directions.

  “Good evening, Mr. Bannister.”

  Matt cringed. Tamiel’s voice had become a rusty hinge, and now his earlier reference to an impo
ssible mission made sense. He was imitating the opening of every Mission Impossible episode ever made. How could that demon know about his favorite classic TV show?

  He glanced at Darcy and nodded. That’s how. They really are in this “experiment” together.

  “As I told you earlier,” Tamiel continued, “I want to explain the situation to you and your mother at the same time. So if you will examine her neck, you will find a small button-like tab adhering to her skin. Remove it, and she will soon awaken.”

  Matt pressed the pause button and stopped the car. Reaching back, he slid his fingers around Mom’s neck and found the tab. He pulled it out, pivoted to his seat, and studied the white, dime-sized button. A tiny needle protruded from one side.

  “We’ll see if that helps.” He laid the tab on the floorboard and touched the play control, reviving Tamiel’s voice. “We noticed that Bonnie’s energy level had dropped too low for her to continue this mission, so we removed the candlestone bullet and provided her with a boost. She should be quite energetic when she awakens. From what I have observed, the initial phase of the experiment produced such dramatic results in what I hope to achieve, I decided that the energy-drain was no longer needed. What she will experience in the next few days will be sufficient to continue strangling her song.”

  “Matt?”

  “Mom?” He paused the audio again, reached back, and patted her arm. “Yeah, it’s me. You’re all right. We’re both all right.”

  “Your hair’s wet.” Her tone seemed confused, and her eyes wandered, as if she were still in a dream.

  He touched his hair. “I got a rude wake-up call. I’m fine. I don’t get cold easily.”

  “Where is Billy?” Her eyes sharpened. “The last I remember—”

  “We were in that crater in Montana,” Matt said. “Some military thugs beat us up and shipped us here to Nebraska. Dad’s a prisoner somewhere, and they let us go so we could conduct some kind of experiment. Supposedly, Dad’s safe unless we don’t do what we’re told.” He lifted the phone and showed it to her. “I’ll play the explanation when your head’s clear.”

  “It’s clearing up. I feel a lot better.” Mom smiled at Darcy. “May I ask who you are?”

  Darcy glanced at Matt before answering. “Um … I think I’ll wait for Matt to explain. I have no idea what’s going on, so …” She faced the front and folded her hands in her lap. “Yeah.”

  Matt looked at Mom through the rearview mirror. She caught his gaze and gave him a questioning tilt of her head. “I guess we should start unraveling this mystery.” She nodded at the phone. “Let’s hear it.”

  Chapter 25

  RECOVERY

  Lauren awoke to the sound of a vibrating rumble. Her head pounded, and her left arm throbbed. She opened her eyes. Dim lights illuminated a small airplane cabin. An IV tube led from her sore arm to a bottle hanging from a stand in the aisle next to her seat. Ashley sat in the adjoining seat to the right, her head leaning against a shuttered window. In the cockpit, Walter sat in the pilot’s chair, and a section of a dragon’s wing indicated that Gabriel sat in the copilot’s.

  Lauren touched a stinging spot on her forehead. The ends of threads meant someone had stitched up a deep wound. She sat up straighter and looked out the front windshield. Only blue sky and clouds came into view.

  After clearing her throat, she whispered, “Walter?”

  Walter turned and nudged Gabriel. “She’s awake, Try to keep us from crashing.”

  “No barrel rolls?”

  “Wait till I’m buckled in.” Walter rose, walked the two steps to Lauren’s seat, and stooped next to the IV stand. “How are you feeling?” His voice was low and soothing.

  “Okay. Kind of weak.”

  “Well, you’ve been out for a while. Dr. Conner wanted to keep you in the hospital, but I thought you’d want to help us find Matt and your parents, so I”—he drew quotation marks in the air—“persuaded him to let you come.”

  She smiled, but even that effort hurt. “Thank you. I do want to help.”

  “Great. We’ll need your listening ears. Our other Listener stayed in Second Eden. With her surrogate mother dead, a baby sister to take care of, and most of the other women gone, she couldn’t come. Besides, her companion doesn’t do too well here.”

  Lauren glanced at her shoulder, now covered with a sweatshirt. The companionless void hurt … a lot. It ached worse than her head and arm combined. As tears welled, she cried out in her mind. Mon amie! Are you watching me from above?

  “We’re tracking your father’s GPS chip,” Walter continued. “It’s embedded under his skin, so we’re hoping they don’t notice it. We’re assuming your mother and Matt are with him, but we’re not sure. It looks like he’s in western Nebraska traveling east, so we’re heading that way. I saved some weapons and ammo from the prison base, so we’ll have some firepower, especially when Roxil joins us. Right now we have no idea why Tamiel took Billy to Nebraska, but nothing’s going to stop us from finding out and rescuing him.”

  “That’s my Walter.” Stretching her arms, Ashley yawned.

  “Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”

  “No problem. Shall I finish the rundown while you fly this bird?”

  “Be my guest. You’re good at a quick summary.”

  Ashley smirked. “Spoken by the king of telephone fast-talkers.”

  “Who, me?” Grinning, Walter laid his hand behind Lauren’s head and kissed her cheek. As he drew back, his blue eyes sparkled with tears. He whispered, “You are absolutely amazing. Your idea saved a lot of lives.” He bit a trembling lip, turned as he rose, and walked back to the cockpit.

  “Thank you.” Lauren’s cheeks grew warm. Walter’s emotions seemed to penetrate her own.

  “I’ll just give you a quick rundown.” Ashley set a nutrition shake on Lauren’s seat tray and opened it. “After you drink this, you need to sleep more.”

  Lauren tipped the shake up to her lips and took a long drink. It was so refreshing—cool, sweet, and smooth.

  “Good girl.” Ashley raised a finger for each news item as she continued. “After the men of Second Eden bury Valiant and give him and Eagle a funeral, they’ll work to restore their villages. With Karrick and Grackle helping, the work should go pretty fast. We decided not to call the women and children back until their homes are ready. We’re also in communication with Elam, Yereq, and some of the dragons while they try to rescue Sapphira, but the details on that can wait. Like Walter said, Roxil will be joining us as soon as we figure out where we’re landing, so we’ll have dragon firepower to go along with the weapons.”

  Taking a breath, she looked at Lauren. “We were wondering about Tamara. She looked pretty bad in her photo, so we assume she needs to be treated. Doc saved some of the new parasites, so it won’t be difficult.”

  “Tamara’s fine. She looks thin and washed out on purpose, but let me tell you more later. It hurts to talk.”

  “No problem. She must have an immunity for some reason.” Ashley folded in her fingers and restarted her news-item count. “We don’t know where Joran and Selah are, but we think they were transported into some kind of ethereal existence where they can sing and help us out. We have no clue where Semiramis and Mardon are, but we’re sure they’ll cause as much trouble as possible. We can’t communicate with Billy or Matt, probably because their tooth transmitters were taken out, and I don’t think Bonnie ever had one. Jared and the other anthrozils are recovering slowly, and Jared and Marilyn are on their way to Castlewood to get a file from Larry. They can’t risk getting it remotely, because Larry is a communications decoy and is being monitored by the government. We’re doing the real work with Lois. She’s the one who ran the models on the stuff you sent in the beaker, and that gave us our breakthrough in beating that parasite.”

  Lauren tried to sort out all the events, but her brain felt fried. “Well, I’m glad I did some good.”

  “Some g
ood? Sweetheart, if not for you, a lot more people would be dead, including my own brother.” Ashley leaned over and pushed a lock of Lauren’s hair away from her eye. “Like Walter said, you are an amazing girl.”

  Lauren pressed her lips together, trying not to cry. If not for her bungling, Eagle and Albatross would still be alive. How could anyone be happy trading lives for other lives?

  “Oh, Lauren!” Ashley set a cool hand on Lauren’s cheek. “I know what you’re thinking. You have to put those thoughts away. You did everything in your power to save as many lives as possible. We found Albatross’s remains, and we figured out what Eagle did, because …” She dug into her pocket and withdrew a medallion on a chain. “We found this in your pocket. I studied the phone video and saw that he was still wearing it when he climbed the ladder, so I assume he gave it to you after that.”

  Lauren pushed her fingers under the chain and lifted the medallion. As it twirled slowly, the engraving came into view. My gift to you. My life. It is all I have to give. Eagle’s words flowed like a lovely echo. “I hope to give it to my bride when we wed, to a young lady I would give my life for.”

  “I hope it’s all right that I read your mind a bit. I figured out that he took your place in the volcano.”

  Her throat tightening, Lauren squeaked, “It’s all right.” She hugged the medallion to her chest and wept. Oh, Eagle! You’ll never have a bride! Why did you give your life for mine? I could have done it! I could have died to stop the disease! Why did it have to happen this way?

  “Why?” Ashley brushed Lauren’s cheek with the back of her hand. “I can’t say for certain, but maybe because we need a Listener to save your family. Only you can do that. Eagle did his part. Trust me. I know him better than you realize. Doing his part is all he ever wanted to do. And now you have to grieve while you can and then fight past it. There are too many more lives to save.”