Interstellar Ruse

by Gregoire, Cil;

  Melinda wiped tears from her eyes as she thought about how much she missed the gang: Rahlys, Maggie, Vince, Ilene, Elaine, Jack, Rock, Crystal, and especially Leaf. Even though they were her friends, she never revealed the key’s existence to any of the members of the Order of the Oracle. This was her fight. She would face what lay ahead on her own, with no risk to them.

  It was already afternoon before the bus finally pulled into Denver. Stepping out of the restraining confinement was a welcomed relief. Donning her pack, she quickly left the station. She wanted nothing more than to walk. But where to go from here? The unmistakable tug of the key pulled stronger than ever. Cloud cover obscured the sun making it necessary to pull out her compass to determine the direction of the compelling pull from the mysterious artifact. Taking a reading, her concern of overreaching her unknown destination proved unfounded. The key still wrenched her toward the southeast. How much further she had to go, she did not know. Trying to judge by comparing the distance she has already traveled to the relative increase in the strength to the tug of the key didn’t help.

  Hours later, nothing had changed; she had barely made it out of the city. As far as she could tell, she wasn’t any closer to her destination. By the time she reached a state park where she could camp, darkness threatened. Then it began to rain. Melinda quickly strung up a tarp for shelter and crawled under it. After munching on snacks, she took out the map she had purchased along the way and studied it carefully. Her new map covered several states from Colorado south to the Mexican border and east to the Mississippi River. Drawing an imaginary vector from Denver southeastward, took her through several states: Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana. How far would she have to go? Time would tell. When it became too dark to read the map any longer, she lay in her bedroll deep in thought …and then deep in dream.

  Melinda.

  No.

  Melinda stood in a raging thunderstorm, drenched in darkness and rain. Sizzling lightning lit the sky, momentarily revealing heavy gray moss and twisting vines in a tangle of unfamiliar trees surrounding a small clearing. Ear-splitting thunder followed the lightning, temporarily drowning out the thrashing of the treetops in the wind. Another blinding flash of lightning, and she saw her new map spread out before her, floating on the wind and pounded by rain.

  I am waiting for you.

  Terror gripped Melinda’s heart. Droclum was near. The putrid essence of his evil sickened her.

  Where? Where are you waiting for me? She wanted to scream, but couldn’t. Nauseous bile rose in her throat causing her to puke. Another flash of lightning, this time so close she felt the heat and electrical charge. Melinda dropped to the ground screaming silently.

  When she opened her eyes, the roar of the storm turned into the patter of gentle rain on the tarp and early morning light seeped into the shelter. Melinda sat up trembling, drenched in sweat. The storm had been a dream, but Melinda knew that Droclum’s essence was real. After recovering her calm and dignity, Melinda pulled her carefully folded map from its pouch in her pack. It was dry. Putting the nightmare behind her, she decided to plan her day. But what she saw when she opened the map, brought back the terror of the night trifold.

  Burned into the map was a quarter inch hole …deep in South Louisiana.

  Leaf sat up suddenly, awakened from a deep sleep.

  “Melinda is in trouble,” he whispered in the dark. Rock slept soundly in a tangle of blankets across the room. Keiluk slept undisturbed on the rug by his bed. Outside his window, dusk was turning into dawn over the Susitna Valley. Night was fleeting in the subarctic summer.

  Leaf had felt Melinda’s terror. But where was she? Leaf couldn’t tell. She seemed so far away. To his relief, Melinda’s panic quickly subsided, but she wasn’t at peace. Something evil was still lurking …something without form or substance. Would it threaten again? He felt certain it would.

  As Melinda’s stress eased, Leaf’s eyes became heavy with sleepiness. Slowly his head dropped to his pillow and he drifted off to dreamland once more.

  Leaf woke hours later to a gloriously warm late-summer day that normally would have gladdened his little heart, but gloom doomed his mood as he worried about Melinda. Even awake he could sense an evil presence following her. Or was she following it? It was hard to tell. The evil essence felt familiar; he had sensed it before faintly coming from the strange flat metallic object Melinda kept hidden in the lining of her jewelry box. If the thing was evil, he should get rid of it.

  After breakfast, Leaf snuck into the girls’ room. Melinda’s pretty blue jewelry box still stood on the dresser by her bed where she left it. He opened the lid of the box and felt under the torn lining at the bottom for the secret object. It wasn’t there. Melinda must have taken it with her.

  “Mom, where is Melinda?” he asked when he rejoined the others.

  “Well sweetie, she’s living in Ketchikan.”

  “Where is Ketchikan?”

  “It’s in Southeast Alaska. Just a minute, I’ll show you.”

  Maggie brought out an Alaska map, spread it on the table, and then caught a glass of water the twins knocked over, clambering up the same chair to see. She whisked the map away before the flood reached it. Vince jumped up for a towel to mop it up with after moving his own work to safety. Once the table was dried, Maggie laid out the map again. She showed Leaf, Rock, and Crystal where they lived on the map, and then moved her finger across the map to Ketchikan. “And Melinda lives here,” she said after her finger crossed a large area of blue. Leaf was still confused. The map didn’t look anything like the woods outside.

  “Is it far away?”

  “It’s pretty far away,” Vince said. He took note of Leaf’s obvious disappointment. “Maybe one day we can take the ferry and go visit her,” he added as consolation.

  One day would not be soon enough; Leaf was ready to take action. Melinda was in trouble and he was going to save her. It never occurred to Leaf that others would consider this an impossible mission for a little boy.

  Using the controlled chaos that prevails in a household with two-year-old twins as cover, Leaf snuck off to the garden with Keiluk in search of Raven. To find Melinda, he would need help. “I’m going to call Raven,” he warned Keiluk and gave her an affectionate scratch behind her ears. “Remember, Raven is our friend.” Keiluk tended to get worked up when Raven made an appearance.

  Then standing under the tree by the garden where Raven liked to perch, Leaf closed his eyes and raised his little arms in concentration. Drawing energy from the elemental forces that abounded in the very air around him, he transmitted a mental call to Raven.

  Raven heard the call. It roused him from a perfect nap in his favorite tree by the bears’ popular fishing spot along the creek. The murmur of the stream and the warmth of the summer sun had unexpectedly lulled him into slumber. Shaking himself awake, he realized there was something strange about the message. It hadn’t come from Rahlys, but from the little guy, Leaf. Should he answer the summons? What kind of mischief could Leaf be into? From what little he knew, the possibilities were limitless. Well, there was only one way to find out. Raven sprang into the air spreading his shiny black wings and headed upstream.

  Soon Raven circled over the Bradley’s garden and landed in the tree with Leaf and his dog below. “Aaaarrrk!” he complained loudly although he really didn’t have anything else to do.

  “Raven, you came!” Leaf cried excitedly. “Here, I brought you something.”

  That’s more like it, Raven thought, catching the dry crusty remains of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich Leaf tossed up to him in his beak. While he munched down his treat, Leaf explained the situation.

  “Something evil is after Melinda.” He did his best to share with Raven what the evil haunting Melinda felt like. We have to find her, Raven, before anything bad happens to her,” Leaf pleaded with his bird friend.

  “Aaaarrrk!” Raven agreed.

  “We’ll need some food for the trip,” Leaf said wisely and rus
hed to the garden. Helping himself to its bounty, he filled one pocket of his jeans with peas and the other with little carrots. “I guess we’re ready to go,” he announced.

  Taking Raven and Keiluk by surprise, Leaf teleported the three of them down to the railroad tracks at the foot of the trail. Leaf didn’t know if the railroad tracks went all the way to Ketchikan, but he knew they went a long ways.

  Deposited in mid-air, Raven frantically swooped up into flight just before hitting the ground. He landed in a nearby tree and shook out his feathers to regain composure. Keiluk barked in confusion, then sniffed and paced to compensate for the lack of security inherent in a sudden change in scenery.

  “It will be Keiluk’s job to look for danger on the ground and your job to watch for danger from the air,” he told Raven.

  The little guy can be a real nuisance sometimes, Raven thought, but he decided to do the best he could to help keep him out of trouble. Raven flew a short distance down the tracks and landed in another tree to wait.

  Having surveyed the area and finding nothing alarming, Keiluk returned to Leaf’s side and patiently waited for further orders. “It won’t be long before Mom and Dad and Aunt Rahlys will be looking for us. If they find us, they will try to stop us from going,” he told Keiluk. “And Aunt Rahlys has the crystal.”

  To prevent that from happening, Leaf drew energy to create an invisible shield that he hoped would prevent detection from Rahlys and the Oracle of Light. He knew how to do it. He had learned the basics from Warrior Quaylyn. Quaylyn had concealed a whole traw playing field from detection from the air.

  When all was set, Leaf and Keiluk started walking toward Ketchikan.

  “Where’s Leaf?” Maggie asked after getting the twins settled with a box of toys.

  “I saw him go out the door with Keiluk a few minutes ago,” Vince said, engrossed in his writing. He didn’t look up from his work.

  Maggie took a quick glance toward the twins …still playing quietly… and stepped out onto the porch, looking for Leaf. When she didn’t spot him immediately, she headed out toward the garden, certain to find him there, but Leaf and Keiluk weren’t in sight.

  “Leaf!”

  Maggie called and waited repeatedly, listening for a clue to their location. All she heard was the soft rustle of birch leaves in the breeze and the birdsong of robins and sparrows in the grasses and trees.

  “Leaf!” she called even louder, transmitting her voice on the breeze.

  “Leaf! Keiluk!” she shouted with greater concern. When there was still no answer, she searched down the trail calling, and by the creek (even though that was a forbidden place without an adult.) No Leaf and no dog. Getting frantic now, Maggie rushed back to the house and stormed in.

  “I can’t find Leaf and Keiluk!”

  “Huh? What do you mean you can’t find them?” Vince asked pulling his concentration away from the novel he was writing.

  “I’ve looked everywhere ….the garden, down the trail, along the creek.”

  “They can’t be far. I’ll find them,” Vince spoke with certainty. He rose from his work, stretched, and headed out in the yard. “Leaf! Where are you?”

  Sensing drama, Crystal and Rock abandoned their toys, seeking to become part of the attention. It was another unusually beautiful summer day so Maggie herded the kids outside.

  “Leaf!” Vince continued to call. Receiving no answer, he extended his search, fanning out further from the house.

  “Is Leaf missing, Mommy?” Crystal asked.

  “Yes, do you know where he went?”

  “No,” Crystal said with a pout, unhappy about Leaf taking off on an adventure without including her. Then Maggie glanced at Rock for help, but Rock just shook his head. It was obvious he knew nothing.

  “Leaf!” Rock and Crystal called out, imitating the adults as they wandered around the yard.

  “Contact Rahlys,” Vince called out to Maggie, heading down the hill. “I’m going to check along the creek.” The creek was the most dangerous place they could be.

  By “contact Rahlys,” Vince was referring to Maggie’s ability to reach Rahlys telepathically, especially if she was under stress. Their closeness as friends when Rahlys took possession of the crystal probably had a lot to do with it. The talent extended only to connecting with Rahlys and no one else, despite all Quaylyn’s efforts to improve on this achievement.

  “Stay right here in the yard with me,” Maggie instructed the twins anxiously, and then focused on reaching out to Rahlys.

  Rahlys… Maggie called out mentally with mounting fear for Leaf’s safety.

  Rahlys was enjoying the warm summer day with sketchbook in hand. Her interest in the Bradley vegetable garden provided her with all the vegetables she needed, so she concentrated her gardening effort at home on flowers she and Maggie had started from seeds. Hanging baskets graced all the buildings including the woodshed and outhouse. Pots of plants in full bloom lined the edge of her southern facing porch. But her real pride and joy blossomed from the crescent shaped flower garden she planted outlined with stone around the birdbath. It was this she was sketching when she heard the faint whisper of her name tickling her mind.

  Please, Rahlys, please hear me.

  Maggie, what’s wrong?

  We can’t find Leaf. Is he with you?

  It was not a bizarre question. A much younger Leaf had teleported over to visit Rahlys without telling anyone before they could get across to him that he couldn’t be allowed to do that because they worried about him.

  No, he’s not here. I’ll come and help you look for him.

  Rahlys immediately set down her sketching and joined Maggie and the twins in the Bradley yard. Vince came into sight once again along the creek, obviously empty handed.

  “Anything…?” Maggie called down to him anyway.

  “No,” Vince said coming up the hill.

  “Is Keiluk with him?” Rahlys asked. Maggie nodded her head. That at least was reassuring.

  Rahlys drew energy from the elements around her and reached out mentally seeking Leaf’s familiar signature. To her surprise he wasn’t anywhere close by. She gradually expanded her search, but still couldn’t locate him or the dog. Something was wrong.

  “Where is he?” Maggie asked in near panic when Rahlys said nothing.

  Without answering, Rahlys summoned forth the Oracle of Light. The crystal appeared hovering in the air, spinning slowly, and reflecting multi-colored light in the sunshine. She focused on the crystal and gave her command.

  Seek and find Leaf and Keiluk.

  The Oracle took Rahlys on a ‘journey.’ The search for Leaf and Keiluk began close, but quickly extended outward until eventually it spanned the globe.

  “Well…?” Vince asked when Rahlys opened her eyes.

  Rahlys feared to give her answer.

  “I couldn’t find them.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Aaia

  The journey from the Cremyn Valley to the Crescent Mountains had been arduously slow, even with the help of the star stones, but fortunately uneventful, which was just the way Rojaire liked it. Although it may have been wise to leave some of the settlers behind, at least for a while, the colonists were adamant about sticking together. Rojaire warned them of the difficulty of the passage through the mountains before setting out, but no one wanted to stay, even with adequate shelter and plenty of food.

  There was far more in food and supplies at the shelter than they could carry in one load or even in two considering what lay ahead. Rojaire, Kaylya, Wessid, Traevus, Ilene, Kiril, Thayla, and even Zaloka carried packs a third their own weigh filled with tools, utensils, rope, rechargeable power crystals, kitchen ware, seeds, food, water, and useful supplies ranging from soap to paper. Drak and Sulyan insisted on carrying lighter packs that were also stuffed full. Captain Setas’ small frame was deemed too frail to bare more weight than what she could eat and drink. Once they were settled in the hidden valley, a pack team could eventually return for the luxur
y items left behind.

  They started out following the Cremyn River north for several leagues to its confluence with an unnamed creek flowing out of the east. This remarkable beginning took them through the largest swath of newly planted forest on the continent. With great care they threaded through the hand span high forest of young trees, not wishing to trample a single one. Captain Setas was so taken by the results of the tree planting venture, Rojaire expected her to change her mind about leaving the Cremyn Valley, but he did not take into consideration her desire to reach Theon.

  A long period without rain had shrunk the little stream flowing into the Cremyn River leaving a wide gravel trail of dried riverbed for the colonists to walk on. They followed the smaller stream east all the way to the Crescent Mountains. Only in a few places along the way was the stream squeezed tight between its banks forcing the colonists to take to the hills. Regardless, frequent rest stops had to be called. Still, the mountains continued to loom ever closer and shortly before the next period of darkness, they reached the beginning of the underground passage. Rojaire called for a rest stop.

  “I’m not looking forward to going underground,” Captain Setas moaned easing her weary body down on soft grass.

  “There is no other way,” Rojaire said. “It will be hard, but after seeing you make it this far, I am sure you can do it.” Rojaire’s encouraging words perked up morale throughout the group.

  “Will we be crawling on our hands and knees?” Inventor Sulyan asked pulling out the hollow reed he carved on, Ilene’s flute, when there was down time.

  “For the most part, no. There are a couple of tight spots of short duration. The worse spot is one area that slopes steeply down where we have to make a precarious connection from the lava tube to a cavern through a hole in the wall.” Kiril knew the place Rojaire alluded to and shuddered. “We have a plan Traevus and I will share with you when we reach that point.”