After slowly exhaling, Balach continued on, finally arriving just outside a circular clearing in the woods. Firefly was gone, and Merrick was on his hands and knees sobbing. All thoughts of jealousy left him as he looked upon his friend, someone he was beginning to see almost as a brother.
He fought the urge to go to Merrick and to console him. Balach could only imagine the reason for his tears, but something told him that this was something Merrick had to deal with on his own.
Balach retreated back into the woods and remained hidden. He carefully moved several paces off to the side of the trail and decided to wait there until Merrick stopped crying.
After half an hour, he saw Merrick walking slowly in his direction.
Balach waited for Merrick to pass, then he followed him, careful to still remain hidden. Merrick made his way back to a road that Balach was sure he knew.
He was surprised, however, when Merrick started walking in the opposite direction of home.
When Merrick was far enough away, Balach stepped out into the middle of the road and stood there with his hands on his hips, trying to figure out what to do.
He decided to leave Merrick to his thoughts as he started for home. He didn’t want to lie to his father, but he couldn’t tell him that he knew where Merrick was without Merrick later discovering that he had been followed.
Balach would do everything he could to keep his father from getting angry with Merrick, but at some point, Merrick was going to have to deal with his father on his own for missing his training.
CHAPTER 24
MONA SAT ON THE warm jungle floor, amazed at the sudden beauty that surrounded her. She also wondered whether or not she was going to throw up. Her entire body still tingled with electricity left over from her journey with Eudroch, even as her mind struggled to understand what had just happened.
She remembered slipping through clouds with fierce speed, the ground below her reduced to a blurred, spinning aerial photograph. Given her memory of the trip and the fact that it had begun in Northern Virginia and ended in a tropical jungle, the only conclusion she could reach was unfathomable.
She had somehow become a part of living lightning. No, she had become lightning itself.
The same force that had put her in a coma just days before had acted like some kind of magical transit, with Eudroch as her guide, picking her up and depositing her somewhere in another part of the world.
Judging from the difference in climate and the local vegetation, she wasn’t even in the same hemisphere anymore. The sounds of the jungle were like nothing she had ever heard in person before—a cacophony of bugs, birds, and other animals, so loud that it hurt her ears at first.
Looking up, it took her several seconds to realize that Merrick’s twin, Eudroch, was standing above her, offering his hand to help her up from where she had ungracefully landed.
She grasped his hand and felt the inhuman strength in his grip as he smoothly pulled her to her feet.
She looked around as her senses returned to working order, and the last of the electricity dissipated from her body. It was still nighttime, but despite the lack of sun, the air was humid and the heat sweltering. Eudroch watched her too closely as she unfastened the top two buttons of her white shirt and wiped the sweat from her neck.
“Welcome to my home,” he said, with a slight bow of his head. “The people of my tribe await us.”
He gently took her by her elbow and led her through the mass of tall trees that formed the dense canopy overhead. As they picked their way through the foliage, she slipped her arm free and walked next to him.
After a little more than an hour, they came to a moon-drenched clearing that was the size of a football field and surrounded on all sides by the thick jungle. Throughout the clearing, columns of steam rose from baseball-sized holes in the ground, making the air even more humid than the rest of the jungle. The steam was visible as pure white against the backdrop of the surrounding dark woods. Eudroch led her closer to the center of the open space, casually avoiding the jets of scalding steam as they walked.
At the center of the clearing, there was a gash in the earth. Mona briefly pictured in her mind a great mythological beast ripping open the ground with a swipe of a single immense claw. From the edge of the tear in the ground, she could plainly see a set of steps that had been cut into the rock and which disappeared into the darkness below.
Eudroch motioned for her to follow him into the crevice.
She hesitated, paralyzed for a moment by her fear of the unknown. He offered his hand to her, but she waved it off and placed a trembling foot on the first of the stone steps. She would not let him see how afraid she was. Tentatively, she followed him. She hoped that her confidence would grow with each step, but as the moonlight became less and less intense, she reluctantly placed her hand on Eudroch’s shoulder to maintain her bearings and to steady her nerves.
As they continued deeper still into the earth, the temperature rose steadily. Soon, she was soaked and had to repeatedly wipe the stinging sweat from her eyes. The stone under her feet turned slick, and she was afraid that she would lose her footing and fall into the blackness.
Just as her fears were reaching a crescendo, they came to the bottom of the staircase and stood together in what was now complete darkness. Mona could hear the sounds of unseen people echoing all about her. Eudroch muttered something under his breath, sounding like a great whoosh of flame, and suddenly, they were bathed in light. Blinded at first, she could eventually make out that they stood in a small cave-like entranceway, and that there were several tunnels leading away from the cave in all directions.
He took her hand again and led her down one of the connecting tunnels. This time, she did not resist. The light that he had conjured stayed with them as they moved, but even so, she stumbled a few times as she gazed about, distracted by the ancient drawings on the walls and by the occasional white lizard that scuttled about their feet.
Within minutes, the tunnel opened up into fresh, but still humid, air. Even though her logic told her that they were deep underground, within the belly of the earth, her senses told her that they were outdoors, with the moon above in the sparkling night sky. Trees and large rocks filled the area, and Mona could hear the gurgling of naturally running water in the distance. Confused, she turned to Eudroch as he swept his hand across the open area in front of them.
“This is the home of the Viracocha, the Fire Tribe. We will wait here. My family will be along shortly to welcome us properly.”
No sooner had he said this, than people started appearing as if from nowhere, walking quietly into the lighted area that surrounded Eudroch and Mona.
Despite apparently living underground, they were dark-skinned, as though they had spent their entire lives in the sun. Their hair was blacker than black, with highlights of blue reflecting in Eudroch’s light.
When the people saw him, their faces opened into broad smiles, their eyes sparkling with familiarity. Several women came up to her and gently ran their hands through her brunette hair. Even though it made her uncomfortable, she stood motionless and returned the smiles of her new hosts.
Eudroch motioned with a nod of his head, and the adoring women backed away, their smiles taking on a plastered look—their enthusiastic eyes turning to glares. Eudroch, Mona, and most of the crowd that had gathered around them, started walking down a road made of what appeared to be dried lava.
More and more members of the tribe gather around them, anxious to see the newcomer. The path they were taking led downward and seemed to run along the outer edge of what she could now tell was a deep valley, filled with and sheltered on all sides by overgrown jungle.
When they eventually reached the valley floor, they continued to make their way through the dense foliage. Even though Mona thought that there was no room to fit even a single body through the thick layers of trees and plants, Eudroch led the way, and they slipped through the jungle together easily.
They turned off shortly, onto
a worn path, and for the first time, she saw signs of civilization—stone buildings partially hidden by the jungle, adorned with intricate carvings of what looked like dragons and people wearing ritualistic costumes. Judging from the style of the art and the people of the tribe, she guessed that she was somewhere in Mexico or maybe South America. The buildings they passed reminded her of the shows she and Merrick had watched on television about the ancient Mayans or Aztecs.
The jungle suddenly gave way to an enormous clearing the size of several football fields. As the group of followers filled in around them, she stared in awe at the sight in front of her.
Somehow, in the heart of this lost valley, there was a gigantic stone pyramid, with a stone staircase that seemed to rise up to the sky. Before she could say anything, Eudroch made his way across the open field, to the base of the steps.
She followed close behind, her legs aching already from their trek. She looked at the stone steps in front of them, then back to Eudroch.
He smiled and started up the staircase.
“Why didn’t you land us at the top of the pyramid instead of making us walk this whole way?” she said as she struggled to keep up with him.
“There are spells surrounding this valley that even I will not transgress lightly. Also, doing so would have disturbed the ritual, as you shall soon see.”
They were only half way to the top of the pyramid, but each step was more painful than the last, and her heart pounded in her chest so hard that it hurt. Just as she thought she would have to stop for a rest, he pointed to a stone archway she had not seen before, cut into the side of the pyramid.
She desperately tried to calm her breathing and to slow her heart rate enough to ask him where they were, but she abandoned her efforts as she followed him through the archway, into the body of the great pyramid.
In only a minute, they stepped into a giant stone room. Moonlight shone down through a large chimney that ran up the center of the pyramid and opened to the night sky at the structure’s apex. Between the moonlight and the flickering orange glow of the torches mounted on the cave walls, she saw a dozen or so dark-skinned people standing around an altar made of the same lava stone she had seen earlier. Above the murmurs of the small crowd, two sounds were distinct—that of a young child crying and that of a frantic woman sobbing.
As they moved closer to the ceremony in progress, she saw a young boy, no more than eight years of age, writhing on top of a giant stone altar. No visible bonds restrained his limbs, but he was secured nonetheless and unable to move.
At the foot of the altar, a woman cried and struggled against the tight grip of two well-muscled men who kept her from rushing to the aid of the boy.
Eudroch took a final step toward the altar, and the people surrounding the child turned in unison to look at him. As one, they bowed their heads—except for the man standing closest to the helpless child.
The man looked at Eudroch directly, almost defiantly.
He wore a bright yellow-feathered headdress that cascaded to the middle of his back, and he was covered with tattoos of black geometric shapes. She guessed that he was a priest or some sort of holy man. His face was painted with angular motifs in black also, and in his hand he held a dagger, the blade of which appeared to be forged from pulsating lava.
The man turned away from Eudroch without a word and raised his dagger high. Eudroch said something to the man in a language that reminded Mona of Spanish, and the man lowered the knife slowly.
The man scowled at Eudroch and waved his hands excitedly in the air while yelling at him. Eudroch said something else, then looked up at the sky while the man shook with rage.
The man yelled something at Eudroch, but Eudroch continued to ignore him.
Frustrated, the man spit on the ground, then spoke a single word that sounded like a match fizzling out in water. The blade of lava immediately disappeared, and the man threw the knife handle to the ground at his feet. He motioned for the guards to release the sobbing woman as he turned his back on the writhing child. As soon as he did so, the boy sat up, no longer held by his invisible bonds.
Mona felt the muscles in her neck relax, as the mother and her son embraced.
Eudroch turned to her.
“The Viracocha are my family—my blood. But I do not agree with all of their ways. That man is King Polopu. He is also the self-appointed High Priest of the tribe, after the former priest went mysteriously missing one night. He is the one among us who communicates directly with Sigela, the Fire Dragon. I just convinced him, rather against his will I might add, to release the child and to sacrifice a goat in his stead to Sigela. I’m sure that his men are frantically searching for a suitable animal to offer up to Sigela before she awakens to start another day.”
Mona looked at him, still in shock from what she had just witnessed.
“Maybe I’m not such a bad person after all,” he said, “and my people aren’t bad either, you know—they just have their own ways.”
“I never said you were a bad person, Eudroch. Put yourself in my place for a minute, though. Yesterday, I didn’t even know that Merrick had a brother. Now, I’m standing inside a pyramid, in the middle of who knows where, watching a child almost be sacrificed to a Fire Dragon. Fire Dragon…I can’t even believe I just said that with a serious face.”
“Sigela is no laughing matter,” he said. “And she is very real. Long ago when this world began, Sigela was chased away by the other three dragons—banished by her own brothers and sister. They were afraid of her power but even more terrified of what she awoke in humans—the passion in them that she ignited.”
Mona looked at Eudroch, who continued talking, ignoring the chaos around him as if he were their prince.
“But, it wasn’t enough for the other three dragons to simply banish Sigela from the creatures she had come to love. Her three siblings shredded her to pieces and kept the power of her tail here on the earth, so that man could have fire to control. Even in exile, she warms the creatures of this world from the heavens, waiting patiently for the day when she can once again be whole again and return to her home.”
Mona looked at Eudroch incredulously.
“When you say that Sigela wants to return to this world, do you mean that an actual fire dragon wants to fly back to this planet and…and do what? Breathe the fire of passion into us?”
Eudroch cocked his head slightly and grinned.
“Sigela is not a flying dragon, like the kind you have seen in the movies. She is fire incarnate. She is the flame that keeps you warm in winter. She is all that is passionate and safe about this world.”
“Isn’t she also the flame that burns down forests in California and scars people for life?”
Eudroch smiled slightly and nodded.
“Yes. She is that as well, but she is beyond good and evil and is not subject to the laws of morality to which you subscribe. She is a force unto herself as are all the dragons. And she will return.”
“Can’t you hear what you’re saying?” she said, reaching out and grabbing his arm. “You’re talking about the end of this world, not a new beginning. If the sun collides with the earth, we’d all be destroyed, including you and your tribe. How can you want something like that to happen?”
He reached up and covered her hand with his own. He looked at her, his eyes reflecting the moonlight.
“You cannot understand all the aspects of what is about to transpire,” he said in a soft voice. “You have only known the world as it is. To understand what will happen, you must forget science and what the physicists and the astronomers tell you. They simply try to explain that which they can never hope to comprehend.
“When this world was created, Sigela was here, and my people did more than survive. They thrived. It’s her blood that boils at the core of this planet. It’s her fluid that races under its surface, giving the planet its energy. Don’t think of Sigela as just the sun. She is so much more, with abilities well beyond our imagination. She would not come here
and destroy a place that she loves so much. She wants to make things better for all of us—to fill us with her light, and to make all of us whole again.”
“Is that how Merrick fits in? You think that if Sigela shows up, you and Merrick will be made whole again—a single person the way it should have been anyway.”
He chuckled, but nothing about his laugh was mirthful.
“No. We have to become as one before Sigela returns. So it is written. Merrick is a piece of me, and I am a piece of him. Without the other, each of us is only half alive, with only half of our potential, and half our power. We will not literally become one person, but by merging our magic, we will at last have the strength to free Sigela and to bring her back.”
He had been looking past her as he spoke, like he was in a daze. His mind seemed to suddenly clear, and he turned and barked orders in his tribal language to three of the guards. They leapt into motion, two exiting the chamber through a tunnel in the back of the room, and the other one leaving the way through which Eudroch and Mona had entered.
“What did you tell them to do?” she said.
“To gather our forces and prepare for combat. Soon, we will rescue Merrick…if he is where I believe him to be. I’m waiting for news from one of my most capable agents who will confirm what I suspect—that my brother is being held by the Earth Clan. If we are truly fortunate, my agent may even bring him with her when she returns, and there will be no need for bloodshed today at all.”
Mona inhaled sharply when she heard that Eudroch’s spy was a woman. She knew that was the last thing in the world she should worry about right now, but she couldn’t help feel a twinge of jealously at the thought of Merrick being seduced by some exotic tribal goddess. Perhaps Eudroch sensed her discomfort, because he stepped close to her and put his arm around her shoulder.
“Firefly is a young woman of many talents and of almost unnatural beauty. I assure you that she holds no real interest in Merrick, but she will use her charms to convince him to return with her. Whether she retrieves him, or if I have to take him from the Earth Clan myself, once Merrick is with us, the two of you will be reunited. You have my word.
The Conservation of Magic Page 21