“This is going to be fun.” Karen rubbed her hands together. “I have some cool ideas.”
“Excellent, and since Charles is also so interested, you may want to include him in your strategy.”
Naamah’s lips spread into a lovely smile. “We have already consulted him about the portal situation. We think—”
The latch clicked. As the door opened, the choir of prayers again filled the library. A head poked in, the face wrinkled, the hair wild and white. “Enoch, you sent for me?”
“Professor Hamilton!” Karen jumped up and hugged him around his robed waist. “You look like yourself again!”
He smoothed back his hair and sat down next to Enoch. “Yes, the youthfulness I gained when I entered the heavenly realm was splendid, but, in light of the coming events, I thought it best to revert to this appearance.”
Naamah smiled. “You are dashing in either form.”
Professor Hamilton bowed his head. “I thank you, fair lady. The beauty of Heaven’s grace rests upon you, as well.”
“So …” Karen set her finger on the table and began an invisible sketch. “I think we should—”
“Dear Karen,” Enoch said. “The technology here is not so lacking that we must imagine what you are scribbling there.”
“Oh, yes.” Professor Hamilton withdrew a pen from a pocket in his robe. “It seems that restoring my old body has also brought back my feeble brain, so I almost forgot about your request for this sky marker.”
“Perfect.” Karen took the pen and drew in the air. As the tip swept up and down and left and right, a full-color, three-dimensional image took shape, a battle scene with dragons, giants, humans, an airplane, and a white horse. “This is what I was imagining during the last prayer cycle.” She pointed at a dragon. “The battle is inevitable, and since Goliath knows how to protect the army from Excalibur’s beam, we will have to counteract that protection.”
“The beam has not yet been restored,” Enoch said. “What good will that do?”
Karen pointed at Charles. “That’s where Prof comes in.”
“Yes, I have already consulted with the angel who controls the portals. The tunnel portal in the Valley of Shadows has been redirected to the former mobility room, which, of course, is at the bottom of a pit in Montana. Now we must rely on the wisdom and intelligence of Marilyn and company as they learn how to use it.”
“I have a prayer song,” Naamah said, “for the reconstruction of Apollo and for guiding the rubellite from Earth to Second Eden. It will take a miracle to get it into Billy’s hands.”
Enoch nodded. “Indeed it will. I have not even imagined how it could happen.”
“Our plans depend on it.” Karen pointed at her drawing. “Anyway, since we control the weather, here’s what we have to do. When Goliath’s army brings out their secret weapon, you can bet that the weapon will be looking for the most dramatic way to make his appearance. My guess is that he will wait for the lesser minions to thin our ranks and then ride in on a horse at the rear of the attack forces. When that happens, we will begin our weather changes.”
“I see,” Charles said. “The ice cap over Mount Elijah will cause the pressure to build until it explodes in an enormous eruption. The chemical composition of the cloud mass should be perfect.”
“And the reason for the long season of death in the first place,” Karen added. “But the difficult part will be controlling the weather with enough precision to do the job while keeping it from hurting the plants in the birthing garden.”
“Quite right,” Charles said. “It would be toxic, indeed.”
Enoch patted Charles on the back. “Have you selected appropriate attire, my friend?”
“A cloak that matches the one you plan on wearing. The colors will be dazzling.”
“I wish our Father would let us go,” Karen said. “The clothes Naamah and I are making for the celebrants are going to be amazing, too.”
The professor set a hand on her shining red hair. “Keep asking, my dear. The glorious one has not yet denied your request. He has merely said to wait. We must see how events unfold. Nothing involving the will of mankind is set in stone.”
“Speaking of that,” Enoch said, “Bonnie and Sapphira come to mind. Have you decided how you will guide the new Oracle of Fire?”
Naamah borrowed Karen’s pen and drew a sketch of two flaming bodies. “I have also composed a song for Bonnie. She will have to be aware of the Spirit’s voice and listen carefully, but I think she has the wisdom to understand where her protection originates.”
Enoch rose from the table. “I think the three of you have this well under control. I must go back to my viewing room to see if God has granted me access to the Valley of Souls. Since my contact with Bonnie and Sapphira has been cut off, and since I am not allowed to journey to Second Eden, I have very little else to do.”
“Your screen still doesn’t work?” Karen asked.
Enoch shook his head. “It has happened before. When God decides to allow his warriors to battle on their own, I must be content to stay out of the action. If they really need my help, God will again open my communication window.”
He left the library and closed the door behind him. Again walking along the aisle, he searched for an empty prayer station and found one next to the teenaged male he had seen earlier. His hologram had switched to a primitive playground where one little girl pushed another riding on a tire swing.
As Enoch knelt on the soft pillow, the young man looked at him. “You’re still among the disadvantaged, aren’t you?”
Enoch smiled. Heaven’s euphemism for those who had never left the shackles of physical life would seem odd to the “disadvantaged” ones on Earth, the living souls who had no idea what real life was all about. “For whom are you praying?” Enoch asked.
The young man pointed at the girls. “My sisters, that they won’t fear death when the missionary tells them about the Messiah.”
Enoch watched the two dark-skinned girls playing on the swing while a middle-aged woman stooped and laughed with them. As he gazed over the sea of prayer holograms, his words came back to him. Since I am not allowed to journey to Second Eden, I have very little else to do.
Shaking his head, he waved his hand across his empty hologram area. “Young man, being in my disadvantaged state, I am unable to create a prayer image. Would you please bring up your parents? I would like to pray for them.”
A broad grin spread across his face. “Absolutely!”
As the image took shape in front of him, Enoch folded his hands on the altar. There was plenty to do, and for now he would be content to wait for God’s next assignment.
Chapter 20
Breaking the Barrier
Riding atop Clefspeare’s back, Billy pointed to his right. “Is that the lake?”
Acacia, hanging onto his waist from behind, shouted, “Probably. It looks like a flat icy area.”
“We shall see,” Clefspeare said as he banked that way. They had been flying north with a tailwind, which had made for speedy travel and tolerable breezes, but with the shift into a crosswind, bitter cold returned with a vengeance.
Billy felt Acacia’s shivering body, but she offered no complaints. When he had asked her to go, she jumped at the chance, and the sparkle in her brilliant blue eyes returned. Still, her silence through most of the journey and her shaking arms proved that her exhaustion lingered. He would have to keep a close eye on her.
Patrick had also wanted to come on the journey. After all, Shiloh was his beloved daughter. But Clefspeare told him that a third rider would make the burden too great, and bringing another dragon into unexplored territory was unwise. What Clefspeare did not say, but later confirmed to Billy, was his concern for Patrick’s age and the bitter cold they expected to encounter. Disappointed, but eager to help, Patrick opted to pack the supplies for the boundary guards and draw an excellent map based on directions Semiramis supplied the night before.
Of course, her escape had set
everyone on edge. Elam wondered about a possible ambush and questioned the wisdom of continuing with the search plan, but, in the end, it seemed best to go ahead. Clefspeare would see to their safety.
When they flew over the snow-covered expanse, Billy pulled a scrap of parchment from under his cloak and looked at Patrick’s map. The lake, the final landmark before Shiloh’s prison, was roughly elliptical with at least five wiggling streams that protruded to the north like gnarled fingers. These, too, were frozen. The season of death, the worst Valiant could remember, had taken its toll here as well.
Billy glanced back and forth between the map and the landscape below. The widest stream bent away on the northeast side. That would lead them to the valley, their final destination. Since they were now heading east, they would have to adjust.
“Head left about forty-five degrees,” Billy called. “Follow that river with the cluster of evergreens on each side.”
Clefspeare’s eyebeams flashed on. After making a slow turn, skimming the bottom of the low cloudbank, he followed the river upstream, but it soon disappeared under a deep blanket of snow. Keeping the same heading, they traveled over a ridge and then a valley on the other side. A few trees and large boulders managed to find daylight above the snow’s surface, marring the smooth blanket of white.
“What is that?” Acacia asked.
Billy looked back. She pointed toward something glimmering to the east. With barely any sunshine leaking through the clouds, whatever it was had to be huge to capture the light and reflect it. “It looks like a curtain of glass.”
“I sense a portal,” Acacia said. “If it’s behind that glass, it must be enormous for me to feel it from so far away.”
“It is less than a mile,” Clefspeare said as he turned toward it. “Get ready. We will be landing in a moment.”
With a great beating of his wings, Clefspeare settled to the ground between a high snowdrift and a dragon-sized boulder, about ten paces or so from the glass. Billy jumped down and helped Acacia dismount Clefspeare’s neck.
All three hurried to the glass, Billy arriving first. With the surface curving slowly away in each direction, it seemed to be a huge cylinder. It would probably take at least fifteen minutes to walk around it.
Snow had piled in drifts against the glass except at one three-foot-wide section where it seemed that someone had recently cleared it away, allowing Billy to walk right up to the partition and peer through. On the other side, the landscape looked more like a desert than a snow scene. A few scrubby trees dotted the area here and there, and some old buildings stood in the distance. The closest one seemed very familiar. This place definitely looked like the old town in the sixth circle of Hades.
Standing in knee-deep snow, he pressed a finger against the glass, but it left no mark. “This is really weird, Dad. What do you make of it?”
Clefspeare set his snout close to the window and blew twin flames, narrow and orange, and kept them there for several seconds. When he pulled away, Billy touched the spots. “Cold. Cold as ice.”
Acacia pushed her body against Billy’s side and shivered harder than ever. “I will try my fire, but first we should see if we can call Shiloh. If our voices won’t penetrate the glass, maybe she can hear us knocking.”
Billy rapped on the window with his knuckles and shouted, “Shiloh! It’s Billy! Can you hear me?”
He pressed his ear against the glass. “I don’t hear anything, but the wind’s in my ears, so that doesn’t mean much.”
Clefspeare swung his tail and whipped the partition. A loud thwap rocked Billy’s eardrums. Although the glass shimmered slightly, it showed no sign of cracking.
“It is clear,” Clefspeare said, “that Semiramis’s story has proven true to this point. Perhaps we should also assume that Shiloh is, indeed, trapped in there, which would give me reason to make a more strenuous attempt.”
“A full-speed body slam?” Billy asked.
He focused his eyebeams on the glass. “With white-hot blasts of fire aimed at the collision point immediately before I strike.”
Billy touched the scarlet target. “I can help with that. I’ll blast it with my fire while you’re on your way.”
“Look!” Acacia laid a palm on the window and pressed her nose next to it. “I see someone.”
A girl peeked around one of the buildings. She seemed hesitant, frightened, and too far away to be recognized.
“It’s Shiloh,” Acacia said. “My vision is so sharp, I can see her wounded hand.”
Billy rapped on the glass again and waved. “Shiloh! It’s me, Billy!”
Shiloh crept around the corner, easing one foot in front of the other. Suddenly, she burst into a sprint. With her blond-streaked hair flying behind her and a beautiful smile decorating her lovely face, she looked exactly like Bonnie.
Swallowing down a lump, Billy shouted again. “Can you hear me?”
Shiloh stopped a few feet away from the glass and mouthed something, but he couldn’t read her lips. She pointed at her ear as if to indicate that their voices weren’t coming through.
Acacia narrowed her eyes. “I think she said, ‘Do you know Mars code.’”
“Probably Morse code,” Billy said. “She wants us to tap out our words.”
“I learned it long ago.” Clefspeare touched the partition with a wing tip. “If a tap vibrates the glass enough to transmit sound, then why do our voices not penetrate?”
“It’s a barrier between dimensions,” Billy said, “probably not real glass at all. Maybe she’ll watch our taps and figure them out, or, then again, maybe it responds somehow to physical touch.”
“If that’s the case …” Acacia stripped off her rabbit-fur cloak and handed it to Billy. Then, spreading out her arms, she flattened her body against the partition. Her white hair streaming in the breeze along with her long woolen skirt, she called, “Ignite!”
Starting at her bare hands, two-inch-high firelets crawled along the sleeves of her leather tunic. Although the flames looked hot enough, they didn’t burn her clothes or even raise a puff of smoke. Soon, her body blazed.
Laying her cheek against the glass, she called out, “Shiloh! Can you hear me now?”
Shiloh stepped closer. A smile trembled on her lips. “Yes! Yes, I can!” Her voice seemed far away, like a call from a distant canyon.
Billy stood directly behind Acacia. The warmth from her body thawed his frozen cheeks. “Shiloh, do you know of any spots in this wall that look weak? Clefspeare and I want to try to break through.”
Shiloh shook her head. “I walked every foot of this thing and hit it with a big hammer until it wore me out. It’s tougher than steel.”
“Then we might as well try here,” Billy said. “Stand back.”
As Shiloh stepped away, Acacia did the same. At the spot where she had pressed her body, the glass seemed darker, as if smoke-stained.
Billy touched it. The surface felt warm, but not hot. “Let’s concentrate here, Dad. Acacia might have made the dimensional barrier thinner.”
“Then perhaps she should try a portal opening cyclone,” Clefspeare said. “We have enough firepower.”
Billy looked at Acacia. “Could you?”
Acacia spread out her arms. “It feels like the portal wraps around the entire town she’s in. To open it, I would probably have to make a vortex at least as big, but with your father’s help, perhaps we could do it.”
Billy read her sincere expression. She seemed so weak, yet she wanted to help. But should she? Did it make sense to drain her energy if they didn’t have to? Yet, allowing her to use her gifts might be the emotional boost she needed. “Dad,” Billy said, “let’s try brute force first. If it doesn’t work, we’ll give Acacia a shot at it.”
“Very well.” Clefspeare launched into the air and flew in a wide circle, gaining altitude with every second. When he turned back toward the window, Billy pushed Acacia behind him and, taking a deep breath, blew a narrow stream of fire at the target. The flames bounc
ed to each side and spilled to the ground, melting the surrounding snow.
He slid to the side to give Clefspeare room to attack. As he took another breath, a volley of flames rocketed out of the sky and blasted the same spot. Billy added his jet again. With steam rising and water streaming at their feet, he glanced at Shiloh. Bouncing on her toes, she folded her hands at her chest, the bloody bandage obvious over her stub of a finger.
Seconds later, Clefspeare stormed through the fire and, his wings now folded, slammed the side of his body into the partition. With a thunderous smack, he bounced to the side and slid through the snow. The wall trembled for a moment but quickly settled down.
Billy ran to where his father lay. With his tail turned one way, his neck turned the other, and his head lying motionless near a spine on his back, he looked dead. “Dad! Are you all right?”
A puff of smoke rose from each nostril. “I think so. I feel no broken bones, but I will likely have a very large bruise.”
Billy touched Clefspeare’s side. Some of the reddish scales had already turned purple. “Can you get up?”
“I will try. Perhaps you should speak to Shiloh while I gather myself together.”
Billy ran back to the wall. Acacia was already standing in front of the impact point, touching the glass with a fiery hand as she spoke. “Shiloh, I am going to try to envelop as much of this area as I can. If it looks like the wall is deteriorating, try to walk through it.”
Shiloh nodded and backed away again.
Her facial features sagging, Acacia lifted her hands high and called out, “Flames! Come to my fingers!”
Instantly, two enormous fireballs, twice the size of beach balls, erupted in her palms. Closing her eyes for a moment, she took a deep breath and began waving her arms in tight circles. The fireballs expanded and stretched out horizontally until they merged into a sphere the size of three elephants. Acacia appeared to be a diminutive Atlas carrying the world in her little hands.
With her face tense and her lips pursed, she continued to swirl her arms, letting out high-pitched grunts every few seconds.