Matt and Listener stood side by side with the cloak draped over their shoulders. Matt still looked pale. Blood loss had taken quite a toll.
Marilyn rose and backed away. “Lauren, the others told me what’s going on. Is the reservoir full?”
“I don’t know, but we don’t have time to check. We have to create the combined portal here right away.”
“She’s right,” Sapphira said, her voice gravelly. “Arramos is killing children. We can’t wait.”
Marilyn gasped. “Sapphira! Your … your skin is … wrinkled. Elam’s too.”
“Probably temporary.” Sapphira slid down from Elam’s arms and stood on one foot. “We’ll join the portals now.”
Lauren, Sapphira, and Elam walked forward until the sanctum’s heart hovered near Clefspeare’s plant. Lauren turned toward Sapphira, making the portal she carried turn with her. Elam helped Sapphira pivot to face Lauren, then moved out of the way as she stood on one foot, steadied by Lauren’s hand.
The triangle of beams flattened into a line that ran toward the sanctum’s heart and split into two just before their respective holes. Now the portals faced each other with Lauren and Sapphira separating them as they stood nearly nose to nose.
Lauren wrapped her arms around Sapphira and pulled her closer. The great Oracle of Fire felt thin and frail. Her body trembled. As they pressed together, their fires and the two portals combined. A painful jolt ripped through Lauren. She gasped and held on. In an enormous splash of sparks, the surrounding flames flared out and died away, leaving a pulsing white aura around their bodies.
When Lauren released Sapphira and drew back, the beams from the sanctum’s heart disappeared, though the holes where they originated still glowed. The joined portal shimmered and flashed. The moment the light dimmed, Sapphira disappeared from Lauren’s view.
A door-like rectangle, at least thirty feet high and ten feet wide, radiated white light from its extremities and stood with a vertical edge facing the sanctum’s heart. Through the portal, only darkness appeared. This side led to the realm of the life reservoir.
Lauren walked to the door’s edge and peered around it. Sapphira looked through the portal from her side. “This one is functioning,” she said. “I see Arramos. He has a little girl in his claws. Billy is close by. He’s hurt. His shirt is torn to shreds. I also see a helicopter, probably the one Arramos wants to send through here.”
A deep voice reverberated from somewhere beyond the portal. “Sapphira, I do not know what has happened to you, but if you do not report on the size of the portal immediately, I will kill all the children.”
Steadied by Elam, Sapphira leaned close to the door and shouted, “The portal is of sufficient size. Allow me a few moments to expand the opening to the boundaries. When I am finished, you will be able to see it for yourself.”
Arramos growled. “Perhaps the cries of this child will motivate you to hurry.”
“I will work as quickly as I can.” Sapphira backed away from the portal, again helped by Elam. “Arramos is not bluffing. We have to hurry.”
Lauren nodded. “First we have to open the portal from each side.” She reached toward the sanctum’s heart. “Sir Barlow? As we agreed?”
“Of course, Miss.” Sir Barlow walked toward the sanctum’s column, a finger raised. “Someone please send my love to Tamara.”
“Wait!” Elam called. “Pay heed to us. Our time is short.”
Everyone stared, seemingly frozen by his command. As he guided Sapphira to the sanctum’s heart, their wrinkles deepened, and their bodies withered. When they stopped next to the sanctum’s glowing holes, Sapphira looked at Sir Barlow and spoke with a rasping voice. “Kind and courageous knight, thank you for your sacrificial heart.” She turned to Lauren. “Gracious saint of God, it is with great pleasure and perfect confidence that I pass my mantle to you. Second Eden will always need an Oracle of Fire.”
Elam and Sapphira stood face-to-face, wiggled their fingers, and intertwined them to form a clasp. Gazing at each other with tender smiles, they each extended a finger and inserted it into one of the holes.
They both stiffened. Pain flashed across their faces. They took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Their bodies shrank and crumbled with the respiration, contented smiles on their lips as they dissolved. Seconds later, only two piles of clothing remained. Silence descended. Everyone stood with mouths agape.
Lauren dropped to her knees and picked up Sapphira’s battle tunic—warm and moist. She pressed the material against her face and wept into it. Elam and Sapphira, king and queen of Second Eden, were dead.
CHAPTER 25
LIFE ENERGY
Now at the edge of the reservoir, the spiders pushed their heated legs into the ice. Hissing vapor rose from the contact points. Bonnie lunged and swung Excalibur at the closest spider. The blade sliced through its body and cleaved it in two. Merlin hacked with his staff and crushed the head of another.
Bonnie slid along the line of spiders and swept the blade though them. Severed heads and legs flew. Merlin walked down the line in the other direction and smacked more spiders one by one.
The arachnid captain leaped on Bonnie’s back and began throwing thick strands of stinging silk around her face. Crying out in pain, she twisted, grabbed one of his legs, and slung him off. He crashed to the ice and slid closer to Merlin.
The strands burned into Bonnie’s forehead and cheeks. Her vision blurred, and the ground seemed to sway. While she tore the strands, the captain righted himself and called out, “Hurry and melt the ice while the warrior is disabled!”
Merlin helped Bonnie strip the remaining strands away. “Are you all right?”
The stinging persisted, and the icy floor still seemed unsteady. “Not yet.” She strode on trembling legs to the captain, swung the sword, and sliced through his neck. His head dropped and rolled to her feet with his humanlike face up, his eyes open and vacant. “That should help.”
“Good.” Merlin pointed at the attacking spiders. A new swarm of at least thirty approached from the shadows. “We have a long way to go.”
* * *
Lauren scooped up a handful of the remains of Elam and Sapphira—sparkling dust particles that dwindled and disappeared in a matter of seconds. She covered her face with her hands and cried out, “Oh, Sapphira! Elam! What have you done?”
Matt knelt at her side and pulled her close. “They gave their lives hoping to save others.”
“But did they save anyone?” She gazed into his eyes—weary and bloodshot. “Was their sacrifice enough?”
Everyone looked at Clefspeare’s plant, now almost three feet tall with a thick stalk and twin leaflets that resembled dragon wings. His toothy mouth opened and closed, as if chewing. Two eyelets blinked, and his ears twitched, but no perceptible growth ensued.
Marilyn ran a hand along the stalk. “We should call Zohar. His fire warming the soil is the only difference between Mendallah’s rapid growth and Jared’s slowness. We were thinking that trying to grow a dragon might be different, so I put Makaidos’s bone under his roots, but it hasn’t helped.”
“I can warm the soil.” Lauren raised a fireball in a palm. “But we’d better make sure there aren’t any other missing elements. Who was here when Makaidos resurrected?”
Sir Barlow raised a hand. “I think I am the only one, though I did not personally view the resurrection itself because I was engaged in battle at the time. I heard an account, and the details are fuzzy now, but I am quite sure that Makaidos’s bones were on the surface, not under the soil.”
“That’s good to know.” Lauren raised her other hand and summoned a second fireball. “Let’s unearth the bone and lay it on the surface. And please hurry.”
Marilyn pushed her fingers into the ground and probed. After a few seconds, she withdrew the bone and laid it near the stalk. “Done.”
When Lauren set her fireballs on the soil, strange noises emanated from the joined portal?
??hissing and cries of pain. The reservoir! The cries sounded like her mother’s.
“Get Zohar! I have to go!” Lauren created a halo of fire around her body and ran through the side of the combined portal leading to the reservoir. As always, the portal sizzled, but at least it was open. The sacrifices of Sapphira and Elam had worked.
Surrounded by darkness, she lifted a hand. Now that she had completed the conjunction, could she create fire here?
She whispered, “Give me light.”
A ball of flames erupted on her palm and spread its flickering glow all around. She exhaled. Finally! The puzzle was finished!
Careful not to slip, she hurried toward the reservoir. The hissing sounds increased. Ahead, light from the glowbats appeared. Mom and Merlin stood on the surface of the pool. Mom swung Excalibur at approaching spiders while Merlin battled them with his staff. Rising vapor veiled their movements, though it seemed clear that they were growing tired. With so many spiders attacking, the reservoir’s defenders couldn’t last much longer.
Lauren waded into the swarm. She spread her arms and shouted, “Ignite!” A wave of fire rolled across the spiders and set them ablaze. As they burned, she ran on top of their flaming bodies, her heat-resistant soles protecting her.
When she joined Mom and Merlin, Mom lowered Excalibur and gave her a one-armed hug. “Thank you!”
“Excellent timing,” Merlin said as he kicked a smoldering spider from the ice. “What news do you bring?”
Lauren looked toward Second Eden, though darkness veiled the exit window. “Sapphira and Elam died to open two joined portals.”
Mom gasped but said nothing.
“How long ago?” Merlin asked.
“Just a couple of minutes.”
Merlin exhaled, sending out a stream of vapor that joined a fog hovering over the ice. “We shall see if their act provided the desired result. Their energy should arrive within moments.”
Lauren called for a new fireball in her palm. When it appeared, she showed it to Merlin. “I have my Oracle powers. Should I get ready to open the reservoir with my fire?”
“Without a doubt.” Merlin used a finger to lift the beaded necklace at Lauren’s neck. “Good. You still have it.”
“What do I do?”
“Stand at the center of the pool.” Merlin transferred Excalibur from Bonnie’s hand to Lauren’s. “I suspect that you will also be able to use this now.”
When Lauren wrapped her fingers around the hilt, the blade began to glow.
“Excellent. You will create a regeneracy dome. Your necklace should produce colorful sparks that will enhance the process. If we can somehow collect them at the end of the procedure, they might be useful for future resurrection purposes.”
“Got it … I think.” As Lauren slid her bare feet over the surface, she gripped the sword’s hilt with both hands. Tiny jagged lines in the ice marked her trail and raised a tinkling crackle. She stopped at the center. Below, mists with vaporous faces swirled as if stirred by a frenzied spoon. The expressions seemed agitated, anxious, as if they felt that something big, something monumental, was about to happen.
“Turn on the beam,” Merlin called. “We need to make sure you’re ready when the infusion comes.”
Lauren stared at the glowing blade. “How?”
“Wait.” Mom slid out and joined her. With one hand over Lauren’s, she whispered, “Concentrate on your connection with the sword, and you’ll feel a source of your own energy inside. Mentally guide the energy to the connection point, and the beam should appear. To create a dome, just wave the sword in a circle over your head like Sapphira does when she creates a portal.”
Lauren nodded. “I’ll try.”
“I’m sure you can do it.” Mom hurried back to the edge of the reservoir.
A tremor raced along the ice. The top layer cracked around Lauren’s feet. New jagged lines raced across the reservoir in a weblike network. The surface swelled, and the energy vapors below boiled as if blown and twisted by a tornado.
“Merlin!” Lauren called as she spread her feet to maintain balance. “The ice is breaking up!”
“Hold on!” Standing at the edge, Merlin plunged the end of his staff into the ice. Radiance shot up the wood and flashed through the candlestone. White light filled the chamber with brilliance. “The infusion is massive! Create the dome!”
“Here goes!” Lauren tightened her grip and concentrated on the hilt. As Mom had said, energy flowed within. When she sent it into the sword, a beam shot upward and drilled into the rocky ceiling. As she began the stirring motion, the beads on her necklace glimmered. The beam spread out above, and radiance spilled all around as if following the outline of a bowl.
A tiny white ray shot from the dome and struck the necklace’s blue bead. It reflected as a blue stream and bounced off another spot on the surrounding shield, then ricocheted from place to place at lightning speeds. More white rays emerged and collided with other beads to make new bouncing streams. Soon, dozens of colors zipped back and forth at hundreds of angles to create a matrix of shimmering hues.
As the colors bounced off the reservoir’s surface, they made glowing pinpricks in the ice, though when they glanced off Lauren’s skin, the pain was no more than a minor sting. Soon the ice began taking on a multicolored radiance of its own, and the pinpricks joined to create divots that deepened into depressions and thinned the surface.
Merlin shouted, “Now douse the beam and use your fire to melt the ice!”
She lowered the sword. When Excalibur’s light blinked off, the radiance rained to the ice and lingered there in dancing sparks. She created a fireball and threw it down. The colorful particles joined with the fire. The blended radiance crawled along the ice and ate away at the frozen plane. “It’s getting thinner!”
Merlin pulled the candlestone from the staff and tossed it to her. “Absorb the color remnants and get ready to escape!”
She caught the gem with her free hand and slid Excalibur across the ice to her mother. The gem burned in her grasp. Had this vulnerability returned along with her gifts? Groaning at the pain, she crouched and ran the stone along the cracked surface. It swept up the radiant particles like a vacuum cleaner. As the stone swallowed each spark, the chamber dimmed. Only the light from the glowbats remained.
“Throw the candlestone to me!” Mom called. “I’m immune!”
Lauren tossed the gem. Mom caught it, pushed it into a pocket, and slid Excalibur behind her belt.
The pool swelled further. More cracks raced along the surface. Radiant vapors spewed from vent holes and melted the surrounding ice, as if the mists had absorbed superheated light. More tremors shook the entire room.
Lauren straightened and spread her arms to keep from falling. “It’s about to blow!”
Merlin scooped up the ovulum and set it in his cloak pocket. “Get off the ice!”
Mom spread her wings and grabbed Merlin from behind with both arms. “Hurry!”
“I’m coming!” Just as Lauren set a foot to run, the surface exploded. The force threw her forward with a tsunami of ice, hot mist, and water surging close behind. She landed on her feet and ran, her bare feet providing good traction.
Mom flew with Merlin at Lauren’s side. “The energy is heading toward the portal!” Merlin called as he dangled from Mom’s arms. “The only escape is to fly right through it!”
The roar and crackling of the surge closed in. Mom beat her wings harder. “Lauren has fire, but I can’t protect us from the jolt!”
“Let the wave overtake us as we go through and pray we don’t get electrocuted!”
“Get ready for a swim!” Ahead, the portal window came into view, illuminated by the radiant vapors in the pursuing wave. Just as they were about to zoom through, Mom folded her wings around Merlin and shouted, “Duck!”
Lauren created a new fire shield and leaped. Water and sizzling mist rolled over them and sent her barreling through the po
rtal. She tumbled in a somersault through the wave until she found her footing and battled to stand upright.
Her head and torso broke through the surface. Now in Second Eden, she stood waist deep in the flow of water and mist. Mom and Merlin joined her, both dripping wet.
The rush flooded the garden. Marilyn scooped up the bone, grasped the plant’s stalk, and held it upright against the surge. As she knelt, water rose to her chest, and vapor slithered around her face. She gritted her teeth and clenched her eyes shut as she gasped, “What’s … what’s happening?”
Matt and Listener sloshed to Lauren and company. “Are you all right?” Matt asked as he steadied Merlin.
“Fine. Fine.” Merlin squeezed water from his cloak’s saturated sleeve. “But I am far too old for body surfing.”
Her hair dripping and wet clothes clinging to her lean frame, Mom shook her wings and cast off droplets. “Did it work?” She turned toward Marilyn and the plant. “Is Clefspeare growing?”
The flow now spreading over the entire garden, Marilyn released the stalk. “Maybe. I felt him vibrating.” She rose to her feet and wobbled as she clutched something in her hand. “I feel … different.”
Sir Barlow rushed to her in a series of hefty splashes and grasped her arm. “I have you. Just lean on me.”
As she shifted her weight toward him, she opened her hand, revealing Makaidos’s bone. A white aura pulsed around it. “It’s so strange. I’m tingling all over.”
“Look!” Listener pointed at Clefspeare’s plant. The stalk vibrated, and the winglike leaflets stretched.
“While we are waiting for the omega dragon, I must address an important issue.” Merlin strode to the pulsing column, using his staff for support. “This is the center of all portal accesses. It should not be here in Second Eden.”