Lauren wept. What could she do but cry and pray for these tortured little lambs? They were so far away … beyond her reach.
I cry, I weep, I can’t pretend
This darkest night will ever end.
The morn is but a twisted dream;
O wake me now before I scream.
In sweat I rise to break the curse;
I chant my oaths in rhyme and verse,
Then step outside expecting blight,
That nightmare’s threats had come to light.
The dawn breaks red, a scarlet mask;
It drinks horizon’s bloody flask
And spills the red upon the field,
Exposing devils once concealed.
Lauren’s cloud drifted over a suburban neighborhood. The sun dawned red in the eastern sky and painted scarlet streaks across brick-and-siding houses bordering a crooked street. Several adults stood on the pavement, one woman holding a little boy. A huge black vulture swooped and grabbed the boy. Moments later, it dropped him, and a winged woman caught him.
Leaning over the edge of the cloud, Lauren tried to get a better look. The winged woman had to be her mother, though from this distance her face was indistinct.
After a flurry of events, a man in a yellow uniform shot the boy and the woman holding him, and the two crumpled in a bloody pool.
Lauren clenched a fist. The murderer! How could he be so cold? So cruel?
She clasped her hands, barely able to catch her breath. Dear God! Oh, dear God! Someone has to stop this madness!
Then Satan’s armies line the skies,
Remove the mask, and shed disguise;
Deception ends when swords unsheathe,
When sheep reveal their wolven teeth.
A flash of light from yonder hill
Portends an army brighter still;
A steed of white upon the crest
Transports the lightning east to west.
Then thunder booms a gallop beat,
A call to battle, no retreat;
A thousand horses, men, and swords
Stampede the darkness, pierce the horde.
The winged woman wielded a sword. A laser beam shot from the tip, and she swung it at the murderer. When the beam sliced through his head, he disintegrated, and his uniform dropped empty to the street.
More vultures gathered and chased the remaining adults to a jet on a highway. After a battle that again included the sword’s beam and gunfire, the people escaped in the jet and flew away from the rising crimson sun.
Lauren followed the jet’s course. They had Excalibur. But where were they going in the jet?
With a kick, Lauren urged the cloud forward. She had to follow and ask for Excalibur. As her scales tingled, Merlin’s voice strengthened and coursed through her mind. Her own thoughts mixed into the melody and built up inside like a pressure cooker ready to burst. Words begged to spring forth. She opened her mouth and sang them with all her heart.
O God of wonder, God of love,
I need a guide from gates above;
Empower me to find my twin
To gain the sword, our vict’ry win.
O plant my feet on solid ground,
Where help for rescue can be found;
Assign an angel to my side
To walk with me, to be my guide.
The children need a saving hand
To guard their lives from Satan’s land.
We’ll shatter ice and make pain cease;
We’ll raise the souls and grant them peace.
The words died away. Darkness swept across the sky. The cloud descended, tipped at an angle, and rolled Lauren off to her knees on a cold surface. A cloak fell over her back and slid to the ground at her side.
Bracing against the frigid ground with her hands, she grabbed the cloak and pushed to a standing position. She looked at the cloak’s white material. This wasn’t Merlin’s. It looked like the one Tamiel stole.
She put the cloak on and wrapped it close. Flames ignited to her right and illuminated the area. A red dragon blew fire on a stack of wood. With each blow, he gasped and panted before shooting another stream of fire. A purple dragon sat on its haunches on the other side of the fire. Its wings and ears drooped. It seemed that both had just arrived from an exhausting journey.
Lauren eyed them closely—probably Karrick and Grackle. Dirty ice coated the ground and the surrounding walls, though, as the view in the ovulum had indicated, no ceiling capped this odd chamber. As the fire melted the ice, dripping soot crawled along a painting on one wall—a red compass.
Soon, the fire caught hold and grew into an inferno. The red dragon collapsed, its neck over a pile of wood. Grackle skittered around the fire and used his snout to nudge Karrick’s head. Karrick snorted but stayed unconscious.
The fire burned on. More ice melted. The floor sank, and the logs and dragons sank with it. After several minutes, a second fire flashed and vanished. People appeared out of nowhere as if birthed from the new flames. A winged woman fell to the ground, a sword in her grasp. Two other women supported an elderly man between them. Yet another woman dropped to hands and knees as if injured. Finally, a fifth woman, white-haired and petite, stood upright where the flames had erupted.
Lauren called out, “Sapphira!” As she looked around, she identified as many of the others as she could. “Mom, Grandma Bannister, Ashley, Mariel, and Thomas.” Lauren leaned close to the injured woman. She was unfamiliar. Her tight grimace indicated that she was in a lot of pain.
“Mom, are you all right?” Lauren reached, but her hand passed through Mom’s shoulder. Lauren stepped back. They weren’t in the dream realm, so she could only watch and listen. Yet, Mom did have a sword. Might it be Excalibur? If so, that solved one puzzle. Now to figure out how to get her to bring it to the life reservoir.
As if moving at hyper speed, the arrivals zipped around, talking to the dragons and each other. Mom pointed a sword at the ground. Light shot into Ashley, who now embraced the injured woman. Everything moved so quickly, it was hard to tell what was going on.
After another flurry of activity, the dragons and most of the arrivals departed, leaving Mom and the injured woman alone. Mom wrapped a wing around her. They talked for quite a while, their speech muted and garbled. Finally, Mom picked her up and flew with her over a wall.
Lauren took a step to follow, but her feet slipped on the ice. She pushed forward, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get any traction.
Nearby, the fire burned on, though not as vibrantly as before. This looked like the place where Matt lay, so maybe the realm of dreams had been showing scenes from the past, much faster than real time. Soon her dream would bring about the present hour. Matt would come with Listener, and he would sleep.
Lauren pulled the cloak close once more and sat on the ground. The lullaby’s melody returned to mind. As she hummed along, she let out a satisfied sigh. Whether or not Matt would be able to communicate in his dreams lay in God’s hands, and in that truth, she could rest. The God who gave her the power of an oracle would see this journey through to the end.
* * *
Matt lay with his eyes closed. In his mind, an image formed—a young woman standing nearby. As the fire cast her shadow over him, she appeared to be ghostlike, without color or facial features.
He tried to open his eyes and urge himself awake. When they opened, he looked at her, but had he opened his real eyes? It seemed impossible to be sure.
White hair brushed her shoulders, covered by an equally white cloak. Unearthly sapphire irises sparkled around her pupils. Might she be Sapphira? This person was taller, but who else had white hair and eyes so brilliant?
He whispered, “Sapphira?”
“No, Matt.” She drifted close and crouched. “Do you recognize me now?”
The voice, soft and lovely, gave her away. “Lauren?”
“Yes!” She rose as if able to float to
a standing position. “Sir Barlow said my appearance has changed, but I wasn’t sure how I would look in a dream.”
“A dream? What do you mean?”
She spread her arms. “I am a dream oracle, and I prayed that I would find someone in my dreams who could help me. I found the life reservoir, but I need Excalibur to melt the ice over the reservoir so we can release its energy. I think Mom has it, and I saw her here earlier, but I don’t know where she went. We have to let her know how to find me.”
“Okay.” Matt looked past her. The fire and Listener were still there, so he hadn’t moved to a new location. “How can we find you?”
“Go to Jade’s sanctum. Once you get there, look for the only remaining white beam besides the one to the tree portal. You’ll need protection to get through.” She pinched her cloak’s sleeve. “I’m not sure why I’m wearing this in my dream. This is the fireproof cloak you carried me in, but it turned white, then Tamiel stole it from me. And that brings up my next message. Tamiel is alive, and he’s loose on Second Eden. I think he might want to get to the life reservoir.”
“Tamiel?” Matt pictured the winged demon flying over Second Eden, a dark suit over his scarecrow-like frame. “That explains a lot. We’ve been thinking that someone with wings has been stalking us. I sensed the danger all the way from the birthing garden to the portal here. Valiant found a cloak that was left behind by the stalker, so it looks like we recovered the stolen one.”
“Then you can use it to get into Jade’s sanctum.” She scanned the portal area. “I saw Valiant through an ovulum. Where is he now?”
“He’s on the other side of the wall watching for Karrick.” Matt looked at Listener again as she continued pretending to be asleep. “I wonder why Listener’s not paying attention. She hears everything.”
“She can’t hear us.” Lauren set her hands in a circular frame. “Stay focused, Matt. You’re sleeping, and this is a dream. We can speak to each other because we are both dream oracles. You need to know that Sapphira brought several people through the portal, including Mom and Grandmother Bannister, but Sapphira returned to Earth, probably to bring more people here.”
“So the portal’s functional. That’s good news.”
“Yes. Now be sure to remember my requests. We need Excalibur. We need to escape from the life reservoir realm. You need the cloak to get here. And beware of Tamiel. He is the craftiest demon ever to walk on any world. He can take the form of anyone he has killed. If my friend Micaela shows up, she is really Tamiel. He killed her with a car bomb.”
Matt pressed his lips together. “And Tamiel killed Valiant. I saw it. I was there.”
Lauren’s sapphire eyes flashed. “Then Valiant might be Tamiel in disguise.”
Matt replayed Valiant’s presentation of the cloak in the duffle bag. No one saw where he got it or the sword. “It adds up, except for the why question. Why didn’t he kill Listener and me on the way to the portal? Why did he follow us for so long?”
“Followed you?”
Matt nodded. “He stayed behind, I assumed to protect us from a rear assault by whoever we thought was stalking us. Then he let Listener enter the portal area before …” Another image of Valiant came to mind, waving a hand toward the portal wall as he invited Listener to enter first. As Listener said, doing so was against his principles. There could be only one reason for his action.
Matt whispered, “Valiant didn’t know where the portal was.”
“Should he have known?”
“He was a leader here. He had to know.”
“Which means he let you two live because he wanted to find it. Once he kills you, he can take your place. Then he can deceive anyone without people questioning his resurrection.”
“But why? What does he plan to do?”
“Like I said, he might be trying to get to the life reservoir, but first he probably wants to make sure the portal opens for Arramos. He might also be planning to destroy a plant that Grandmother Bannister is carrying. She hopes to put it in the birthing garden to grow a dragon.”
“Grow a dragon?” Matt laughed under his breath. “Okay, now I believe this is really a dream. It just took a crazy turn.”
“It is a dream, but I’m telling you the truth. You need to wake up before Tamiel kills you two in your sleep.”
“Listener’s not really asleep.” Matt gestured toward her. “She has a gun, and she knows how to use it.”
“But you have to let Listener know so you can destroy that demon now. If he’s standing outside this area, you can sneak up on him while he’s not expecting it.”
“Okay. Okay. I’ll try to wake up.” Matt closed his eyes, then opened them again. Lauren still stood there, her body framed by firelight. “I must really be tired. I can’t seem to—”
“Matt!” Lauren lifted her hands and screamed. “Matt! He’s coming! Wake up!”
“I’m trying!” He closed his eyes once more and snapped them open again. Lauren still stood there, her arms raised and her cloak’s sleeves falling past her elbows, though now her hair was no longer white.
A gunshot rang out. A hole tore through Lauren’s chest and left a bloody gap. She wobbled, and her eyes rolled upward. Another gunshot echoed the first. A second hole appeared. Dark blood oozed from the wound, and a sword clanked on the floor.
Matt stared at his rifle on the ground, his limbs petrified. They wouldn’t budge. Was this still a dream?
A black youth ran in from the wall’s closer entry with a Glock aimed at Lauren’s back. He fired three more times. The bullets ripped through her body and cracked against a wall, leaving more gaping exit wounds in her chest. She remained standing, her face frozen in shock.
Matt screamed. “No!” He jumped up and staggered for his rifle, but before he could grab it, the youth snatched the sword and sliced the blade through Lauren’s neck. Her head toppled off and thudded on the ground. Her body crumpled in a heap next to her head.
Matt grabbed the rifle. The youth lunged at him and latched onto the barrel with both hands. “Matt!” he grunted. “Stop fighting!” He shoved Matt back and spread out his arms. “Look at me! I am Eagle! We met at the waterfall.”
Gasping for breath, Matt pointed the rifle at him and screamed, “You killed Lauren! You killed my sister!”
Eagle raised his hands. “No! That wasn’t Lauren. It was a shape-shifter. I saw it transform from Valiant into Lauren.”
“Transform?”
He nodded. “In an instant.”
Matt closed in, set the barrel against Eagle’s forehead, and growled, “How do I know that you’re not lying to me? How do I know you’re not Tamiel disguised as Eagle?”
As Eagle met Matt’s stare, his expression stayed rock solid. “I do not know how to prove my words. I only recently resurrected, and I cannot guess how long I have been dead.”
Lauren’s words returned to Matt’s mind. He can take the form of anyone he has killed. His throat clamped shut as he squeezed out, “She told me … you jumped into …”
“Mount Elijah.” Eagle nodded. “My hope was to save her life.”
Matt breathed a whispered, “Tamiel didn’t kill you, but he did kill Lauren.”
Eagle turned toward Listener. His mouth dropped open. “Listener! She’s bleeding!”
“What?” Matt spun toward her. She lay on the ground in a pool of blood. “Listener!” He dropped the rifle, ran to her side, and turned her to her back. Blood saturated her shirt from the hem up to her ribs. He pinched the shirt and slid it up. A three-inch-long vertical gash dug into her skin just below her ribcage. She coughed hard and breathed in gurgling spasms. “Hang on, Listener. Hang on.” He laid a hand over the gash. “Come on, healing touch. Don’t fail me now.”
Eagle knelt next to him and spoke quickly. “I resurrected from the garden and followed you. When I saw Valiant, I noticed that he trailed you and Listener, which is not like him at all. I knew he was dead and that I was the last statue,
but I suppose you have no idea what I mean.”
“No. I understand. Go on.”
“I was suspicious, so I followed.”
“But I never saw you.” Matt pushed a finger into Listener’s wound and probed for depth. Blood warmed his skin. “How could you track us without being seen?”
“I am called Eagle for a reason. I can see details from far away, even in darkness.”
“Keep going.”
“When you entered the forest, I rushed to the weapons cache and took a rifle and a handgun. I stayed out of sight and watched the three of you enter the portal chamber. At that point, you two were armed, so I thought you would be fine. Then, I noticed a trail of blood and followed it to a cave where I found Ashley and Karrick and an elderly couple, Thomas and Mariel. As soon as I told Ashley what was going on, she asked me to help her get close so she could read Valiant’s mind. I carried her to the cave entrance—”
“Carried her?”
Eagle nodded again. “She is very weak from two healings.”
Matt pushed a second finger into the gash. How deep could this wound be? “I know how that weakness feels.”
“From where we stood, we could see Valiant in the twilight. She said she couldn’t read his thoughts, but she could sense murder in his heart. That was all I needed to know. I didn’t want Karrick to investigate with me, because he would be too loud. So I gave Mariel the rifle, kept the handgun, and crept as close to Valiant as I dared, hoping he couldn’t hear my footsteps on the ice. Then, he pulled a cloak from a bag, put it on, and transformed into Lauren. I suppose Listener didn’t defend herself because she thought Lauren had come, not realizing that she would attack.”
“The cloak!” Matt scanned the ground. “Where is it?”