Raven Quest

by R A Oakes

  “That’s not going to happen anytime soon,” the ancient monk said firmly.

  “Don’t be so sure,” Galaxen cautioned her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Yanpur tells us that Xankar wants to force you to cross over into the next life,” Rothena said.

  “I won’t do it, not as long as there’s a chance he’ll be my replacement.”

  “But how could Yanpur know about such things, such treachery?” Galaxen asked.

  “Yanpur merged with Xankar before I sent her to you,” Vangalaya replied, and then, the ancient monk told the abbots about what had happened in the hallway.

  Looking at Starlight, who was an adult version of his six-year-old daughter, Galaxen asked, “Does Raven always cause such rapid and radical change wherever she goes?”

  “We’d all be dead if she didn’t,” Starlight said, looking at Dynarsis and Andylan. “Where we come from, danger is everywhere. Only by Raven’s gift for adaptation and improvisation did we stay alive for as long as we did. I’d have been dead many times over if it weren’t for her.”

  “Raven can be disruptive at times,” Andylan said. “But when you consider the alternative, I’ll stick with her.”

  “No one likes change, and no one likes change being forced upon them,” Dynarsis added. “But when things are going badly, the best place to be is around Raven. For more times than I can count, she’s made the impossible seem possible. If this monastery is in for some seriously hard times, and Master Vangalaya feels that it is, then the woman sitting over there looking at that rock is your best hope for survival.”

  “But taking Raven to the Sacred Cave, Master Vangalaya?” Galaxen lamented. “Won’t you be playing right into Xankar’s hands? That is, if what you and my wife suspect about him is true.”

  “Xankar must be put to the test. With meat-eating trolls restless and on the move, we need to know which monks can be trusted,” Vangalaya replied.

  “You might end up getting more than you bargained for.”

  “Then so be it,” Vangalaya said.

  “On the upper floor of the monastery, the windows on the north end have a view of the ridge closest to the tunnel entrance, Master. And someone might see you heading in that direction.”

  “I appreciate your concern, but the top of the ridge won’t be visible.”

  “But what about after you’ve been gone for a few hours? When it’s dark, the monks will wonder where you are, and they’ll start to worry about you.”

  “One step at a time.”

  “They’ll figure it out eventually, Master, and they’ll come after you.”

  “I suggest we allow the Sacred Cave to decide whether Raven can visit.”

  “If Raven’s not accepted by the Cave, Master, then she’s dead. You know that the monks will never accept such a desecration of their shrine.”

  “I suspect Raven would welcome death.”

  “The monks will vote you out. They’ll choose Xankar over you as their spiritual master.”

  “But if I don’t attempt this, I won’t deserve to be their spiritual leader.” Heaving a great sigh, Vangalaya added, “Keep Xankar and his allies off of us for as long as you can.”

  “They’ll come for you, Master. And I don’t mean just for Raven. They’ll come for you as well. Some will see you as a traitor, a traitor to the Xao-Lin way of life.”

  “If I’m not willing to sacrifice everything for what I believe, then who am I?”

  “Apparently, you’re one courageous leader,” Galaxen said, smiling ruefully, having finally accepted that nothing he said would dissuade Vangalaya from her mission.

  “Keep them off of us for as long as you can,” the ancient monk said once more.

  “Rothena, are you really going along with this?” Galaxen asked his wife.

  “If you’re asking if I agree with Master Vangalaya, the answer is yes, I do. And I’m going with her as well.”

  “Going with her?” Galaxen asked, shocked by this revelation.

  “Are you my husband?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Then back me up when I make a decision.”

  “You do realize that if this mission fails, if the Sacred Cave doesn’t accept Raven, then we’ll no longer be the abbots of this monastery?”

  “Yes.”

  “We could end up being shunned. The monks could turn their backs on us.”

  “Yes.”

  “We won’t have a home.”

  “What’s worth more to you, me or this monastery?”

  “You, always you, forever.”

  “Good, then you’ll still have a wife.”

  “That’s a relief, and I’ll still be the happiest troll alive.”

  “Keep them off of us for as long as you can, husband.”

  “I hear and I obey, my wife.”

  “Let’s go,” Rothena said, and she started walking along the ridge towards the huge wall of rock that served as the monastery’s northern windbreak. Galaxen smiled at his tenacious wife and was proud of her.

  However, no one could have anticipated the full extent of Xankar’s treachery, not Galaxen, Rothena or even Vangalaya. But it was coming, and soon.

  Chapter 18

  Hiking along the snow-covered ridge, Rothena, Vangalaya, Raven, Dynarsis, Starlight and Andylan were soon approaching the monastery’s northern windbreak, a giant wall of rock extending eastward for almost half-a- mile. Raven looked ahead in the twilight and saw the entrance to the crevasse, a natural tunnel, which would take them deep into the mountain, several miles deep. Glancing at Vangalaya, who was walking ahead of her, Raven asked, “So this staircase will lead us to the Sacred Cave?”

  “Yes, this staircase and a second crevasse which will lead us several more miles in a southerly direction,” the ancient ghost monk replied.

  “South in the direction of Gratuga?”

  “Yes, but we’ll be far below it.”

  “How far below?”

  “I’m not sure exactly, but the closer we get to the meat-eating trolls’ capital, the harder the rock walls of the natural tunnel will become until they’re virtually impenetrable. It’s almost as if the crevasse was fortifying itself, making absolutely certain that nothing could compromise the integrity of the walls.”

  “A tunnel making a conscious decision to protect itself from having its walls breached?” Raven asked. “Do you really think it’s possible for walls of solid rock to make sentient choices about its own defense?”

  “Well, maybe I’m taking a bit of a fanciful viewpoint,” Vangalaya replied.

  “And maybe you’re unwilling to tell me more until we’re so deep inside the mountain that it will be easier to just keep going than to turn around.”

  “All I’m saying is that when our ancestors were widening the crevasse in places, they stopped after getting within a mile of where Gratuga would probably be above them, hopefully far above them. Anyway, at that point, nothing could chip away at the rock, not even picks and sledgehammers.”

  “So the closer we get, the harder and denser the walls become?”

  “Yes.”

  “Because the Sacred Cave is protecting itself from anything that might be above it, like a meat-eating troll capital for instance?”

  “It’s only a theory, and it’s possible that the other monks and I are letting our imaginations get the better of us.”

  “But, for whatever reason, nothing’s going to get through the walls or ceiling?”

  “No.”

  Arriving at the entrance, Raven stared into the pitch darkness and asked, “Starlight, how do you feel about this tunnel and its stairway? Does it feel like megentum-enriched land to you?”

  “No, not at all.”

  “If the mountain were enriched with megentum, we wouldn’t have to worry about trolls trying to reach the monastery. They’d just stay away on their own,” Vangalaya said. “Even so, I still think you’re going to enjoy the three-mile walk down into the mountain. There’s n
othing but darkness and silence. It’s like the surface world up here doesn’t even exist.”

  “What makes you think you can get me back up these stairs once I’m down there? Dying in peace might be just what I’ve been hoping for.”

  “I’m very aware of that.”

  “We can’t fight our way into Gratuga. And we’ll never get the megentum. It’s hopeless,” Raven lamented.

  “Once we begin going down this stairway, it will be a whole new life for you. All that matters is now,” Vangalaya replied.

  “That’s fine with me,” Raven said, placing her right hand on the wall next to her. Then, after taking a deep breath, she took one step down and then another and another.

  Vangalaya, Rothena, Dynarsis, Starlight and Andylan allowed Raven to take a few more steps before following. And as the pilgrims headed downward, they knew that all it would take was the slightest stumble by any one of them, and it would be thousands of steps to the floor below. Fortunately, the seemingly endless repetition helped them gain a sense of increased confidence, and they reached the bottom without incident. And after so many hours of darkness, what mattered most to the ghost whisperer was the peace and serenity surrounding her. Raven had even forgotten that she had a physical body, and it came as quite a shock when Starlight bumped into her.

  “Sorry,” the vegetarian troll said quietly.

  Raven smiled and put a hand on her friend’s shoulder yet said nothing, as if words were an intrusion. Walking ahead for a few yards, she bumped into a stone wall directly in front of her, put her left hand on it, turned to the right and kept walking, this time on a level floor. But there was something else that was different.

  After the pilgrims proceeded in absolute darkness for almost 100 yards, a few golden particles of megentum began glowing in the ceiling. As Raven walked farther, particles of megentum started glowing in the walls as well. Then, a little while later, they began glowing on the floor.

  It was as if grains of sand had been thrown into the air and had dispersed over a wide area. It was like the tiniest of stars were all around Raven giving her a sense of the tunnel’s shape without actually being able to see anything. Just tiny grains that were glowing softly, yet so sparse as to be devoid of measurable light.

  As Raven walked on, the megentum particles kept glowing around her but stopped the moment she went by leaving her friends in total darkness. However, they could still see hints of golden light up ahead as Raven proceeded through the level, horizontal tunnel.

  Meanwhile, Rothena and Vangalaya were holding their breath. Never in all the pilgrimages they’d made to the Sacred Cave had they ever seen anything like it. And after a few minutes, the number of “grains of sand” around Raven began to increase, and the walls nearest the ghost whisperer were soon bathed in a soft golden twilight. It was still quite dark, but enough subdued lighting filled the tunnel that the size and shape of the crevasse became clear, at least to Raven. Once again, however, everything fell into darkness the moment she walked by. Yet, gradually, even that was changing.

  It began with the tunnel remaining lit for a few seconds after the ghost whisperer had passed by. Then, the twilight lingered longer and longer until all the pilgrims were walking through it. Glancing behind her, Andylan, who was last in line, realized the tunnel was staying lit regardless of how far ahead Raven was. The entire length of the crevasse, at least the part they’d gone through already, was now filled with golden twilight.

  Next, the brightness of the “grains of sand” began to increase until the pilgrims were awash with light, and somehow their worries and emotional burdens no longer felt as great. Life seemed more manageable, even though Rothena and Vangalaya realized Xankar and other monks were probably pursuing them by now. However, the abbot and the spiritual master didn’t know how far ahead of Xankar they actually were. And both were praying that their small group of pilgrims could reach the Sacred Cave before a horde of angry monks overtook them. Monks deeply influenced by Xankar. Monks filled with resentment that a human would dare to place herself above them, even though Raven had no intension of doing so. And monks who were experienced, who could quickly and safely negotiate the stairway in total darkness and who could travel faster than Rothena and Vangalaya and their neophyte pilgrims.

  However, Rothena and Vangalaya were encouraged by one thing. The tunnel was completely covered with golden light, and not subdued lighting, but warm and bright and spiritually refreshing. And the horizontal crevasse was at this level of golden brilliance all the way back to the bottom of the stairway.

  Deeply moved by all of this, Vangalaya asked herself, How could Xankar possibly remain upset when bathed with this golden beauty? How could anyone be anything but open and accepting under such glorious conditions?

  Then, Rothena, Vangalaya, Raven, Dynarsis, Starlight and Andylan collectively gasped as the crevasse seemed to open up all around them. It was turning into a cavern, a huge underground natural wonder that was filled to the overflowing with megentum light, the megentum energy having a healing effect on them all. And this was even before reaching the Sacred Cave, which they now could see off in the distance. It was a glimpse of the brightest light any of the pilgrims had ever seen.

  The Sacred Cave wasn’t glowing with subdued light, as it had always done whenever Rothena, Vangalaya or even Starlight had approached it before, but it was now ablaze as if burning with a cleansing fire.

  Vangalaya looked around with a sense of awe, marveling at the sheer size of the cavern and was surprised at how small the Sacred Cave seemed in comparison. The spiritual master realized the Cave was actually more like a tabernacle, a much smaller enclosure of special reverence.

  Looking all around her, Vangalaya realized that in soft lighting, which the Sacred Cave had always given off during her many previous visits, she’d had no idea that the massive cavern even existed. Whenever pilgrims, including herself, had gotten this close to the Sacred Cave, they’d always taken their hands off the tunnel’s walls and walked ahead guided by the Cave’s subtle light. None of the monks back at the monastery had any idea of the majesty of this cavern, a cavern which had always been shrouded in darkness. They all knew better than to carry a torch down the staircase or through the horizontal tunnel at the bottom, since any fire would consume precious oxygen, threatening the very lives of the pilgrims. A pilgrimage to the Sacred Cave had always been made in total darkness. That is, at least until now.

  Once Raven and the others were within a few yards of the Sacred Cave, what Vangalaya now viewed as the Sacred Tabernacle, everyone stopped. It was as if the pilgrims had hit a wall of energy, an invisible wall that kept them from going any farther. It was like getting close to a great prize, only to be denied access to a tabernacle filled with a blazing beauty unlike anything Vangalaya, or any of them, had ever seen before. And Vangalaya worried that if the other monks, Xankar in particular, refused to allow Raven to join the monastery, that this glorious encounter might well be a one-time event. Never to be experienced again.

  Yet basking in the fiery brilliance of the Sacred Cave, even this concern evaporated from Vangalaya’s heart, and she was at peace. Whatever happened would happen, and she would accept it no matter what the outcome. At least that’s how the spiritual master felt while in the presence of this fiery tabernacle.

  Suddenly, they all heard movement behind them and saw over 100 monks approaching in wide-eyed wonder. Some had even fallen to their knees, unable to walk any farther towards such a golden, glorious marvel.

  Once the newly-arrived pilgrims were within a dozen yards of the Cave, however, some of the monks became genuinely alarmed when they saw Raven standing before their shrine. They were frightened of what the Sacred Cave might do upon seeing a human, an uncivilized human, soiling the very ground she was standing upon. In their eyes, Raven was desecrating the Cave itself with her presence. And the monks, both males and females, both living monks and ghost monks, expected the Sacred Cave to be furious with them for allowing a human to co
me into its presence.

  Gazing upon the Sacred Cave, they waited for it to react, bracing for the worst. After a few moments, at least the way some of the monks felt, the worst did happen. The wall of megentum energy, a wall which had been keeping their abbot and their spiritual master from moving any closer, allowed one individual to step forward, and it was the human. The monks watched in shock and dismay as Raven took a few steps and knelt before the very entrance of the Sacred Cave, as if she, too, was so filled with wonder that she couldn’t proceed any farther.

  Seeing the human being welcomed by the Cave, the other monks assumed they would be welcomed as well, but they were wrong. When over 100 monks surged forward, they almost crushed Rothena, Vangalaya, Dynarsis, Starlight and Andylan against the wall of energy, the Cave refusing to allow anyone else to come into its direct presence, at least for now.

  Some of the monks, especially some of the senior monks, were offended that they were not allowed to join Raven, a worthless human, and that the Sacred Cave had somehow favored her over them. But as the blazing fire in the Cave bathed them all with its brilliant and reassuring golden light, their hearts became more at peace, and their anger subsided.

  Feeling an enormous sense of relief, Vangalaya looked around for Xankar but couldn’t see him in the crowd. And then, with a shock, Vangalaya realized that Xankar hadn’t come, and neither had his closest associates. Had he been here, Vangalaya suspected, Xankar would have been out in front demanding attention, creating drama and making his presence known. That is, at least until the Sacred Cave had an opportunity to calm his worries and open his mind to new possibilities.

  Without Xankar being here to benefit from the Sacred Cave’s own incredible reawakening, Vangalaya wondered what kind of trouble he might be getting into back at the monastery, especially with both Rothena and herself being away. But what Vangalaya saw next took her breath away, and she forgot all about Xankar.

  Raven stood up, closed her eyes and took one step inside the entrance to the Sacred Cave. And it was like walking into a raging inferno being whipped about with gale-force winds, and she quickly stumbled back a few steps, finding herself once again outside the Cave. At least Vangalaya thought it was Raven, for the ghost whisperer had been the only one to enter the Sacred Cave. Yet the woman now before her looked totally different. To begin with, Raven was engulfed in flames, golden flames, flames made of megentum energy. And the flames were burning Raven’s previous life away, purging her mind, body, heart and soul of the brutal effects which years of warfare had had on her.