by Ted Dekker
I stared at him. My fingers were shaking. I was like a child who didn’t know fear yet? “But I do feel fear.”
“It’s easy to learn, trust me. And for us that’s a good thing.”
“Because we’re in danger.” I looked behind me again. “Who’s Vlad?”
“I don’t suppose you remember anything about Project Eden?”
“No. Is that a fact or something contextual?”
“Contextual.” He punched a button on the dash, and the six-inch screen switched to an image of ambulances around a huge cathedral. Half of the church was missing. Two small pictures were set into the image at the bottom, and under them the words “Authorities Searching for Fleeing Suspects” ran across a red banner.
I leaned forward, not sure that what I was seeing could be true. The two pictures were of me and Steve.
He tapped the screen off. “That was fast.”
I stared out the window, mind clogged with confusion. A picture began to form. One I didn’t like. Did not like at all.
“Please,” I said, voice shaky. “Just tell me. Everything.”
He nodded. “Okay. Okay then.” He blew out some air. “You were born seventeen years ago in a small town called Eden, Utah. But Eden wasn’t just any ordinary town.”
Then he told me everything. About DARPA’s Project Eden. About me being blind since a few months old. About my father, who’d spent his life trying to help me see.
About Vlad Smith, who took over the town and tried to force me to write him into a book—at least that’s what I’d claimed before the MEP, though Steve couldn’t be sure. What he could be sure about was that I’d regained my sight and found a way to bring down the synthetic sky that hid Eden from the world. In addition to my sight, I gained certain skills that I claimed were from another world in my dreams.
Skills like the ones I’d used to put Curt out of commission.
With each additional detail, my heart beat faster. It got worse about ten minutes in, when he started to explain what DARPA had done to me after I escaped Eden. They’d convinced me I had schizophrenia. They’d lied to me and wiped David’s mind. David, my father, though I had no memory of him. Steve said my father and I had been close.
But it wasn’t until he told me what had happened in the last few days that I really began to lose my grip. How my father had died. How we’d gone to church that morning. How they’d caught me on camera, saying some things about religion that they were going to twist. How the bomb had gone off . . .
How Vlad had to be behind all of it.
“My father was killed in another world?”
“I know it doesn’t make any sense, but I have some theories. I’m so sorry, Rachelle.”
I stared ahead, numb. “And I’m from that world?”
“No. Heavens no.” He paused. “Actually, I’m not sure how it’s working, but you’ve evidently tapped into another realm of consciousness. Like I said, I have some thoughts I’ll explain once we get to safety.”
“But I’m safe as long as I don’t dream, right? That’s what got my father killed.”
“I don’t have the drugs to keep you from dreaming. And maybe dreaming is exactly what you need to deal with Vlad, assuming this is his work.”
My mind spun, working fast.
“But if that’s true, he wouldn’t want me to dream.” I was having no trouble believing that another world was possible because I had no context that told me it couldn’t be. And if I was someone trying to hurt me, and my powers came from those dreams, I wouldn’t want me dreaming.
“Maybe. We’ll find out next time you sleep whether you can still dream. I don’t know any details about the new agent they used in your MEP.”
“But . . .” I faced him. “I have to dream! How else will I know what’s really happening?” Something else came to me. “Why does he want me dead?”
“I’m not sure he does. He could have killed you in Eden but didn’t.”
“Then what does he want?”
“Maybe to finish what he started. And whatever that is, it’s big. Assuming this is all Vlad, he’s pulled a lot of strings that aren’t easily pulled.”
My breathing became shallow as I sat there in the passenger’s seat. The world was flying by, but my mind was in another place. A horrible place filled with images of a wraith from another world coming for me.
“Do the words 49th Mystic mean anything to you?” he asked.
“No. Should they?”
“It’s something you used to think you were in Eden. Evidently, so did Vlad.”
It was all too much for my new mind, and I began to panic. “We have to hide!”
“That’s what we’re doing.” His voice had softened. “You’re safe with me. As safe as you can be, which is why I broke you out, remember? We’re in this together now, nothing’s going to change that.”
But I was feeling the horror of being in terrible danger and not knowing why. It was too much! I was just a girl who’d woken up in a white room! Why was this happening?
Overwhelmed, I folded over in the seat and began to cry, then sob until my whole body was shaking.
“It’s okay.” I felt Steve’s hand on my back. “We’re going to figure this out together, you and me, I promise.”
But I knew better. I knew that Vlad was going to find us and finish what he’d started.
17
“YOU’RE SURE this treacherous path is the way? It was dark when you came.”
Samuel spat and hoisted himself up between two boulders, found a place for his foot, and pushed himself onto a small ledge that hugged the cliff for fifty feet before widening.
“It’s the way. Trust me.”
Aaron scaled the trail easily enough, complaining only because his armies awaited his command. In every way, the son of Mosseum was Samuel’s equal. It had taken some convincing to persuade Aaron to make the six-hour journey to the Marrudo plateau because the high wasteland had been surveyed many times.
There was nothing but a sinkhole on the south end of the plateau and plains to the north.
Yes, but that had changed. Samuel had seen the transformation with his own eyes. And Jacob, son of Qurong, was now with Rachelle in that so-called sinkhole beyond these cliffs.
“If I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t be here,” Aaron said. “But you can’t deny that this is most unusual. My commanders await, the Horde is gathered, and I find myself crawling up a cliff with an Albino from a group of renegades called the Circle. If it wasn’t for the Leedhan’s insistence, I wouldn’t be here.”
“So you do believe him, the Leedhan, when he says the Mystics are the most dangerous threat to this world?”
“Of course I do. I’d be foolish not to believe the words of a shape-shifter who vanishes from my dungeons. What good would it do me to destroy the Horde army only to discover the heretics in my own lands will bring our order down?”
Heretics. Yes, heretics—he had to remember that word whenever he courted doubts about his decision to betray the Realm. Which he still did, far too often for his liking. But once he’d marched into Aaron’s quarters with the announcement that he’d succeeded, there was no turning back.
As Samuel saw it, what mattered more than the Mystics was the war against the Horde. Their slaughter would fulfill the prophecy and release all Albinos from their perpetual fear of their enemies. The key to ending the Horde threat was Aaron and his army. By proving his value to Aaron, Samuel and the Circle would be trusted.
He was doing this for the Circle then. For his father, really. And for Justin.
It didn’t sit entirely square in his mind, but that was only because he’d made the mistake of falling for Rachelle. Emotion had clogged his better judgment. Wasn’t love always that way? Up one day, down the next. Safe one night, dead the next.
The Horde had killed his bride two years ago. In the coming days he would show them the full wrath of Elyon.
They’d left their horses tied off below. The sun was high in the sky—p
lenty of daylight hours left to confirm the location of the Realm of Mystics and return to the city before dark. They would come back with a regiment at night, take captive or kill all who lived in the Realm, then set their minds on the Horde.
He hadn’t mentioned Jacob’s drowning and had no intention of doing so now. Better for them to think of Jacob as Horde. Regardless, he wasn’t here to end the life of Jacob or Rachelle but to save all Albinos, which included the Circle.
So he kept telling himself. So it had to be. It was too late to change his course.
“Just over this ledge,” Samuel said, bounding up the rocky slope. “When we reach the top, we go left to scale the final cliff.”
“Another cliff?”
“A short wall. I’ll have you at the top in five minutes.”
It took them maybe twice that, but then they were at the boulders from which Samuel had last peered into the Realm.
“Here.” He ran in a crouch with Aaron walking behind. Grabbed the side of the large boulder, heart pounding. Peered into the sinkhole.
Gasped.
Aaron walked past him, taking none of his precautions. He looked down at the wasteland and set his hands on his hips.
“This is it?”
“THIS MUST BE IT,” Thomas said, urging his mount to a trot. “Just ahead.”
Mikil pulled up, craning for a view beyond the cliffs that dropped off fifty paces ahead of them. “I thought you said it was a realm of some kind.”
“Eden,” Chelise said, spurring her horse. “He said we would know it when we see it.”
“A common sinkhole?”
To their right, towering boulders blocked the western horizon. A sinkhole, Thomas thought, but not common. Larger than any he’d seen by far, hidden in the high plateau. As uncommon as Talya himself.
The rest of the Circle was camped a few miles north, lost in arguments about what their next course of action should be. Marie’s death had left Vadal embittered; the death of so many others had left the whole gathering divided, searching for understanding.
Maybe they would find some answers now.
Thomas slowed his stallion and approached the drop-off with some caution, unsure of its stability. Mikil and Chelise had drawn abreast.
Slowly the depths of the sinkhole came into view. Steep, jagged cliffs on all sides cut into sheer rock hundreds of feet deep. Red cliffs. By what force of nature such a hole had been made, he had no clue. The cliffs weren’t the kind to easily fall, even if the bottom had given way and . . .
Chelise’s gasp cut his thoughts short.
“Dear Elyon!” she breathed, pulling her mount back. “What is this?”
“What is what?” Mikil demanded, leaning forward in her saddle. “I see only wasteland.”
But Thomas saw more. Far more.
And what he saw took his breath away.
SAMUEL stepped up to Aaron’s side, peering down. “I don’t understand. I swear it was here. I saw it this way, and then I saw it transformed. It’s here, I swear it’s here.”
Aaron gave him a dubious glance, then scanned the tall cliffs falling into the massive sinkhole. “Tell me again what you saw, exactly as you saw it.”
“That’s it!” Samuel paced, running his hand through his hair as realization dawned. “She has to be here!”
“I think your emotions for her are getting in the way. She isn’t here. Jacob betrayed us as the Leedhan said he would. They—”
“I mean the 49th has to be physically present for the Realm to open,” he blurted. “When she’s not here, it’s unseen, which is why you’ve never found it.” He shoved a finger at the cliffs. “It’s here, I tell you! I saw it with my own eyes. The old wizard, Rachelle, and Jacob, all here with a lion. When they were here, the way was open. Which only means they’re gone. Don’t you see it?”
“Actually, no. I see only wasteland. You expect me to believe we’re actually staring at lush forests but can’t see them?”
“As much as I expect you to believe the Leedhan vanished from your dungeons. Is that any more possible?”
Aaron didn’t answer quickly, so Samuel pushed on.
“It’s obvious. She has to be brought here. The Leedhan knew the gate would be open when she was present. It’s why he wanted her released and followed. Knowing what we do now, it’s only a matter of finding her again!”
Aaron crossed his arms and frowned. “All of this wizardry unnerves me. First the Leedhan and now the Mystic. Wounds healed, bodies vanishing, realms appearing and disappearing.” He spat. “Heresy is wicked business.”
“So you see it?”
“The Realm, no. Your logic, yes.” His frown deepened and he gave a reluctant nod. “So yes, I will believe you.” He eyed Samuel for a moment. “Tell me, how deeply are you connected to this woman?”
Samuel wasn’t sure where the man was headed. “In what way?”
“You seem quite taken with her. If the Leedhan hadn’t insisted you be the one, I would have sent someone else to follow her.”
“Elyon forbid! I had no idea she was a heretic when I rescued her from the Horde. How dare you question my motives?”
“On the contrary, I do believe your connection to the 49th could now serve us. So tell me, how deeply does she feel for you?”
He hesitated, disliking what Aaron was suggesting. “She trusts me, if that’s what you mean. Maybe more.”
“And you love her?”
“I was taken with her before I knew who she really was.”
“But you must love her now. It’s the only way she’ll trust you. In my experience women are far more intuitive than men in matters of romance. So if you’re scolding yourself for having fallen for her, don’t.”
“You want me to find her and bring her back. I have no idea where to begin.”
“And I do.”
“How?”
Aaron shoved his chin toward the north. “My scouts have watched a large gathering of Albinos cross the Divide and make camp north of here on the plateau. Perhaps three or four hours at a jog around the sinkhole and north. I instructed my men to stand down because I assumed them to be your Circle.”
Samuel spun to the man. “My father? You’re sure? How’s that possible?”
“You tell me. The point is, they’re here, roughly ten thousand.”
“All of them?”
“And if I were one of these Mystics searching for support, I would entertain approaching them.”
Two thoughts collided in Samuel’s mind. The first was reuniting with the Circle. If they were here, they knew more than he would have guessed. Regardless of how they knew, he was now in a position to argue for joining with the Elyonites against the Horde.
The other thought was that Aaron could easily be right. Rachelle wasn’t here because she’d gone to the Circle with her new Albino in tow. For all he knew, the old man Talya had been complicit in convincing his father to bring the Circle across the Great Divide.
He studied the northern lip of the cliff, too far away to see any detail other than groupings of massive boulders. There could very well be Circle scouts there now.
“You said there was another way into the sinkhole,” Samuel said, peering down again. “Where?”
“On the other side, if I recall.” Aaron nodded at the eastern cliffs, a few miles away as the buzzard might fly, but another day’s march around. “It’s the only opening large enough to accommodate an army. Short of that, I’m sure an enterprising person might find a crevasse through which to descend. But that’s not where you’ll go.”
“You knew that if we didn’t find the Realm, you would ask me to reach out to my people,” he said.
“Of course.” Aaron uncrossed his arms. “More than reach out to them. Be my hand among them.”
“I’ll go. Even if she isn’t there, no Albino has as much experience against the Horde as our Forest Guard. While you’ve been sitting in peace, hunting stray heretics for sport, we’ve been learning the strategies of the Horde.”
“No, and I mean no disrespect. But we know the Horde in ways you can’t. We live in their lands, for the love of Elyon.”
Aaron nodded. “I realize that. But it’s the 49th I want more than your fighters. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll gladly accept whatever guidance you can offer. But the Leedhan is right, she’s the greater danger.”
“Either way, you will wage your war.”
“Of course. Better in the Valley of Miggdon than marching halfway across the world to rout them. One way or the other, I intend to see the end of Elyon’s enemies. All Horde, all heretics, and if need be all Leedhan. The way of Justin must be honored at all costs. Unless a man willingly drowns and follows the only way, he belongs in hell. We will give them an early departure for their final destination.”
The logic, however different from his father’s, brought Samuel comfort. A world without enemies could only be realized by force.
“Then we’re agreed.” Aaron grasped his arm, then turned to leave. He took two steps before pulling up short. “Speaking of heretics, you don’t think your Circle will have a problem with sound doctrine, do you?”
“Not when you help them see its wisdom.” A task more difficult than Samuel would care to admit.
“Good. Then be my hand among your people, Samuel. Bring me the Mystic, bring me your seasoned fighters, bring me the power of Elyon if you can find it. The new age awaits us.”
THOMAS DROPPED from his mount and walked forward on numb legs, spine tingling. A forest unlike any he’d seen in a long time filled the bottom of the sinkhole, broken by large meadows of brilliant green grass and colorful flowers.
The leaves on most of the trees were green, but the trunks were golden and blue, some orange, others yellow. A scattering of white Roush glided over the trees, oblivious to the humans peering down on their Realm from above.
Talya’s Eden.