Valiant shook his head. “We searched the garden, but with snow and darkness covering the field, any further attempts by humans seemed impossible. The dragons, however, will begin melting the snow and searching the grass with their laser eyes. If the companion is out there, they should be able to find it.”
“Companion or no companion,” Elam said, “we can’t take any chances. Given Hunter’s charade and Ashley’s report about Semiramis’s murderous intent, I say we send them away.”
“Banishment to the northern lands?” Valiant asked. “During the season of death?”
Elam rolled his fingers into a fist. “If we’re going to stay strong, we have to make sure all corrupting agents are gone.”
“I’m not sure of that,” Billy said. “If she’s really an enemy, I’d rather have her close where I can keep an eye on her.”
Valiant smiled. “A keen observation. Yet, if your enemy desires to be close to you, then you can be sure that her intent is to watch and wait for the moment when your back is turned.”
Elam gazed at the door to the triage hut. He seemed pensive, worried. “We will discuss it in the morning. By then we’ll know if Listener and Ashley are going to recover.”
“And if Hunter is a true resident of Second Eden,” Valiant added. “If he is, he will be dead by dawn.”
The door opened behind Billy, and Walter shuffled out with a blanket draped over his shoulders. “Brrr! It’s colder than Morgan’s heart out here.”
“How’s Listener?” Billy asked.
“That’s why I came out. The bleeding stayed under control, and her pressure went up. Just a little, but it’s positive. Not only that, her companion’s buzzing around again, happy as a lark.”
Valiant spun toward the street and clapped his hands. The villagers, some milling around and others dispersing toward their homes, stopped in their tracks. “Praise the Father of Lights!” he shouted. “Our little flower is recovering!”
Some of the villagers jumped in place, repeating, “Praise the Father of Lights!” while others joined hands and danced, sliding on the snow-covered street and laughing gaily while their companions flashed and zoomed in tight orbits around their heads.
Billy laughed with them. Seeing such an outburst of happiness after so much tension felt fantastic.
Walter nudged Billy’s side. “And Doc says Ashley’s okay, too. Her vitals are stable, and she’s sleeping like a baby.”
Billy clasped Walter’s shoulder. “That’s cool, Walter. That’s really cool.”
“Not to put a damper on the celebration …” He flicked his head toward the triage hut. “What’re we going to do with spooky Semiramis and her suddenly companionless son?”
“You heard about that?”
“Yeah. You guys are loud.”
Billy pushed a hand into his pocket. “First I’m going to have to apologize to her.”
“And then banish her?” Walter smirked. “Not exactly a believable apology.”
“That part’s not my decision.” Billy reached for the door. “Come on. I might as well get it over with.”
Once inside, Billy scanned the room. Walter walked straight to Ashley’s cot, while Mantika sidled up to Billy and took his hand. “Listener lives,” she said, smiling at him.
Billy patted her hand. As he looked at her dark, gleeful face, tears welled in his eyes. “I heard, Mantika. It’s a miracle.”
“Miracle. Yes. It is miracle.” Mantika compressed Billy’s hand. “Praise the Father of Lights.” She pulled away, joined Candle and Windor near Listener’s side, and kissed both boys on the cheek.
Billy took a few steps closer to the surgery cot and peeked at Listener. Still unconscious and pale, she seemed barely alive, but with her chest now sewn back together with thick dark sutures and her skin free of blood, at least she didn’t look like the victim of a bomb attack.
Dr. Conner sat on a nearby cot, his elbows resting on his knees as he looked up at Billy. “Pressure’s eighty over forty. Her heart’s strong. Her lung inflated. If infection doesn’t set in, I think she’ll make it.”
“Way to go, Doc.” Billy tightened his trembling fingers into a fist. “You were amazing.”
Dr. Conner nodded toward the opposite corner. “If not for our prisoner, we would be telling a different story.”
Billy looked at Semiramis as she sat with her back to the corner. Once again she had taken on the aspect of a mythical siren, her eyes wide, her gaze entrancing, her lips quivering in a mournful pose. With her bound wrists resting on her knees and her hands clasped, she looked more like a supplicant begging for mercy than an imprisoned witch.
With a shrug of resignation, he walked toward her, trying to avert his gaze, but something about her deep pleading eyes kept him entranced. He pushed his hands into his pockets again and stopped in front of her, shifting back and forth. “I … uh … I guess I owe you an apology.”
“You owe me nothing, son of nobility. If you wish, however, to offer a gift of gracious words, then I am ready to receive it.”
Billy cleared his throat. “I’m sorry for what I said. Your potion made all the difference in the world.”
“My potion, as you call it, is nothing more than a mixture of natural elements.” She lifted her eyebrows. “Do you understand my meaning?”
“I think so. You’re trying to tell me that you’re not a witch or a sorceress. You didn’t conjure the stuff up through some magical power.”
“Yes, Billy. It is your trust I crave, not your willingness to praise a jar of green liquid. I am merely a mother who lost her way. I trusted a vile dragon and obeyed his command to guard a dangerous bridge. I had no idea that he wished to use the chasm to bring these people to destruction. Now that I have rebelled against him, I am a woman without a country, without a home, for I have deduced that the people of this village will send my son and me away.”
“Probably. Hunter lost his companion, and since he doesn’t seem to be suffering, they think you lied about him being a Second Edener, especially since he started putting on an act. Elam and Valiant said they would decide your case in the morning.”
“Ah, how I pity these villagers! Their lack of knowledge begets such na”veté. Hunter comes from a village in the northern lands, a place these people have never visited because of their tradition that these two villages hold God’s only chosen people. They assume that all true Second Edeners are like themselves. If there is the slightest difference, prejudice is born, and they assume the peculiar man or woman is one of the altered tribes. And now Hunter is trying to be something he is not. He is frightened and wishes to preserve his life and mine. You see, his companion will return to him. Have no fear of that. While he waits for it, imprisoned by a people who mistrust him, Hunter is doing what he can to survive.”
“So what do you want me to do? Try to convince them?”
“No, Billy. It has become clear that we cannot live in harmony here, at least not until the people learn to tolerate those who are different.” She lifted her wrists. “Cut my bonds. Allow us to go in peace. If we wait until morning, the pass through the mountains might well be blocked with snow.”
He shook his head. “I don’t have the authority to do that. I’m just a soldier. Elam and Valiant make all the decisions.”
“Then make an appeal for my release now. If your apology is sincere, if your words of trust are more than mere sounds from your lips, then do whatever you must to let us leave this place with our lives and a scrap of dignity intact.”
“I guess I can do that.” He dragged his toe across the floor. The tension felt thick, heavy. The struggle between loyalty to Elam and trying to get justice for this woman was too intense for words.
Curling a finger, she whispered, “Come closer. There is something else that must remain a secret between us, at least for now.”
Billy closed the gap and stooped. “I’m not promising to keep anything secret.”
“Very well. But choose wisely whom you will trust and when yo
u reveal it.” She scooted so close, her breath warmed his ear. “The finger in the box haunts you, does it not?”
He nodded. “Yeah. It shook me up.”
“Although I am not a sorceress, I am familiar with the arts of the evil dragon who devised that cruel plan. He knew you would need an energizing device, so he provided it, also knowing that your use of it would create an advantage for him.”
“What advantage?”
“The garden will now generate a plant that will look unlike the others. It will be ugly in comparison, and some might be tempted to uproot it as a weed. But they must not. The life of that plant will be tied to the life of the girl who wore the ring. If it dies, she will die.”
Billy tried to draw back an inch, but the woman’s tractive draw seemed stronger than ever. “How will the plant help Arramos?”
“By causing the people to do someone harm. As you have heard, when the people of Second Eden do any sort of evil, it allows greater evil to enter the world, as happened with Angel’s lie and the coming of the Nephilim. With the new dragons you have in your army, Arramos knows that he has to fortify his own army. He cannot do this without help from someone willing to do evil.”
“But if they don’t know it’s wrong to uproot the plant, it won’t be evil to do it. I mean, not a real evil. Just an innocent mistake.”
Her whisper lowered even further. “You are correct, and that is why our enemy’s plan is so diabolical. Since I know the secret tie between the plant and Bonnie, I am bound by goodness to warn you, and since your love for her obligates you to protect her, you are bound by goodness to warn the others, and since they are bound by goodness to heed your warning to protect Bonnie and prevent a new assault of evil, they will allow the plant to grow unhindered.”
“Will the plant spawn anything? I mean, will it carry a life inside like the others?”
“That I do not know. I can only guess that it will spawn a life, something that will be in league with Arramos, perhaps even worse than the evil that would come as a result of uprooting the plant.”
“Then we’ll watch it night and day,” Billy said, touching the hilt of his sword, “and if it delivers, we’ll destroy the fruit, whatever it is.”
“Destroy it?” Semiramis grasped his hand. “Billy, you cannot kill something that has not proven itself evil. As I told you, I do not know anything about what might be spawned. That is part of the dragon’s plan that extends beyond my knowledge. As the bridge’s guardian, I had the opportunity to learn about some of his ways, because he would often pass to and fro in that land. But it is clear to me now that he always kept his darkest counsel to himself. All I know with certainty is that the plant’s life will be tied to Bonnie’s.”
“You keep saying Bonnie. How do you know the finger didn’t belong to … to someone else?” Billy was tempted to mention Shiloh, but giving Semiramis more information than she needed probably wasn’t a good idea.
“There is no need to hide your thoughts. I heard your theory about Shiloh. It holds merit, but neither of us has any way of knowing. Since Bonnie is missing, I think it is wise to assume that our enemies have her in their grasp.”
“What about Arramos’s threat? Will he send more body parts?”
“I am not sure.” Semiramis gazed at one of her long, narrow fingers. “Perhaps he will send more fingers and maybe some toes until the plant is well established. Once he is sure that it will be protected, he would be a fool to slice her further. At that point, we would hold the plant hostage in the same way he is holding her hostage. We each will be demanding a ransom of protection.”
As he tried to untangle the web of possibilities, the message Semiramis delivered repeated in his mind. “If the dragons and their offspring continued to ally themselves with the residents of Second Eden, this gift would be accompanied by more of the precious puzzle at a later time.”
“He’s got us in a bind. If we don’t want any more body parts delivered here, the dragons have to vow not to fight with us, and he’s free to keep slicing her up until the plant sprouts.”
Looking away, Semiramis nodded. “Yes, it is ingenious, I must admit. Yet there is a way to stop him.”
“What’s that?”
“To rescue Bonnie … or Shiloh, whoever he is holding hostage.”
“How? Do you know where he might be keeping her?”
“I do. That is one of my purposes for leaving. I must try to get to his lair and attempt a rescue.”
Billy grasped Excalibur. “Let me come with you. I think Arramos is the dragon I faced in the abyss below the seventh circle.”
“Then who will protect the plant? Is there anyone here besides you who will believe my words? Will Elam believe me?”
As he stared at Semiramis’s gleaming eyes, Elam’s words rushed back into Billy’s mind. “I won’t believe it’s not for her own benefit until proven otherwise.”
“You know that he wouldn’t,” Semiramis continued. “And Valiant would heed his counsel. It would be up to you to protect the plant, and if you are not there …”
Billy pointed at himself. “But how do I know you’re telling the truth about the tie between Bonnie and the plant? Maybe I would be an idiot to believe something like that without proof.”
“If Arramos is using the binding tie that I believe he would use, then a simple test would prove the connection.” She looked toward the hut’s door. “You preserved the finger, did you not?”
“Elam put it on ice. The ring’s gone, but, yeah, we still have the finger.”
“When you see the first tender leaves of a new plant sprout, which should be very soon, check for orange and black tips. Those are the colors of Arramos, which will be the sign that you have the correct plant. Retrieve the finger and let a drop of blood touch a leaf. If the leaf withers, it is because of the connection between it and the prisoner of Arramos. The spillage of blood is reflected in the plant, just as harm to the plant would be reflected in Bonnie. Then quickly pinch off the withering portion so that death does not spread to the rest of the plant.”
Billy imagined a voodoo doll with Bonnie’s face on it. If not for Semiramis’s serious expression and tone, he would have dismissed her story as ridiculous superstition. It just didn’t make sense.
“I sense disbelief in you,” she continued, “so you would be wise to wait for this proof before you commit to anything. Still, while you await the first leaves, you run the risk of receiving another body part from Arramos. The only other options would be either to get the dragons to vow to refrain from battle or else to rescue Bonnie quickly. My hope, however, is that the plant will show itself immediately; then the risk will be low.”
Billy imagined once again the severed finger lying in blood-stained cotton. His thoughts then wandered to a dark room where Bonnie sat crying in a corner, her hand covered with a bandage, red where her finger used to be. The thought churned his stomach. And even if the hostage was Shiloh instead of Bonnie, the image stayed the same. It was tragic.
Billy shook his head. “You’re right. No one else would be willing to do all that. I’ll stay here.”
“Then appeal for my release. When I find Bonnie, and you have had time to prove to the others that the connection is real, I will send for you. Then together we will rescue her before she loses another finger … or worse.”
Chapter 18
Return to Perdition
Marilyn let her head droop until it tapped against the desk. A pencil fell from its perch atop her ear and rolled. Looking at it from the corner of her eye, she watched it fall to the computer room carpet. No matter. She was too tired to use it anyway.
With only a lamp and Larry’s panel monitor illuminating her work area, the surrounding dimness eased her eyelids downward. Tomorrow. She would do more research tomorrow. Gabriel was already following up on the best leads—the helicopter registration, the pilot’s license, and a flight log. Apparently the soldiers didn’t cover their tracks very well, likely not thinking their chopper would be
commandeered by their prey. Still, that didn’t mean they were sloppy enough to leave a link between the pilot and whoever held Shiloh, so making that connection might be impossible, but it was worth a try.
A feminine voice reached her ear. “Mrs. Bannister?”
She lifted her head. Carly stood at the doorway to the hall, wearing the flannel pajamas she had borrowed from Shelly. “Yes, Carly?”
“Still no word from Bonnie?”
“No, dear.” She touched the telephone on the desk. “Yereq called an hour ago. The water finally stopped rising, but the museum chamber and all the tunnels are flooded, so no one could be there.”
“And the other divers?”
“Neither one found anything. I think Bonnie and Sapphira must have escaped through a portal. That’s Sapphira’s way.”
“I hope so.” With her hands behind her back, and her head low, she walked in, half sliding in a pair of oversized slippers. “I’m sorry we didn’t get Apollo working.”
Marilyn waved her hand. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault. It took Ashley longer than you and Adam have had to work on it.”
“Ashley worked from scratch. We had all the schematics and software.”
“Don’t beat yourself up. Ashley’s a super genius.” She tapped a finger on Larry’s main keyboard. “He’s a genius, too, but he doesn’t have hands and eyes to help you with.”
“Marilyn,” Larry said. “May I be so bold as to offer my insight without being asked?”
“Certainly.”
“Some of our failures are due to lack of supply of the newest generation parts. The panic that has arisen because of strange creatures lurking in the streets and long-dead people surprising the populace has put quite a pinch on commerce.”
“Especially the appearance of long-dead dictators, mass murderers, and gangsters.”
“Precisely. I suggest using these phenomena to our advantage.”
“How would we do that?”
“You need a human genius. My guess is that there are a few geniuses residing in Hades who are unable to fit back into society, perhaps due to fear or a desire to be alone. Find one of them and request his or her help. I think he or she will be happy to be of use in a concrete way.”