by Dan Glover
"I only wish I did... do you think they are worried about us back at Orchardton Hall, my sweet Lily?"
"I imagine they are beside themselves, my precious Natalia... especially since we lost radio contact when we started up the eastern seaboard."
"Do you feel it too, lovely Lily?"
"The pull of the Lake? Yes, my sweet Natalia."
That's the way it was with the Ladies. They knew what she was thinking before she even thought it. Lily had often told her how they had no sense of time... that before coming to Orchardton Hall and living among the humans, they had never stopped to count the years.
Natalia thought at first it was because those of the Lake were blessed with abnormally long lives, perhaps even immortal. But lately she'd been considering an alternate theory... that they lived time wholly and not piecemeal like she and the others did. To the Ladies, time didn’t flow so much as it simply was.
She noticed how Lily and Lauren often spoke of their days beneath the Lake as if it only happened yesterday... no, that wasn’t right. Rather, it was as if their time in Lake Baikal was still happening even now, as if part of them were still there cavorting beneath the chilly waters.
She considered that her life was like that too, in a weird sort of way. All she had to do was to catch a whiff of an odor or take a taste of certain foods and she was transported back to the moment of the experience.
What separated her from the Ladies were their prescient abilities. They seemed to be able to sense the future as if it had already been written upon the world and all they had to do was to read it.
The thought bothered her more than it should, perhaps. It that was so, it meant none of them had any free will... every choice they seemed to make was in actuality the only move possible. Though she had attempted to bring this up to her lovers numerous times, they didn’t seem to understand her concern.
Apparently they had long ago accepted that the free will human beings took for granted was nothing more than an illusion based upon an incomplete understanding of time and space. Having lived for countless thousands of years they had seen beyond those limits though not in any way that they could communicate to Natalia about.
After a while she saw the futility of pressing her Ladies for questions that they had no answers to. She imagined a time when she too might come to see the secrets they possessed like so many shiny baubles, willingly giving them away to anyone who asked but finding no takers.
"I do not understand, my darling Lily... it has been less than a year since we visited the Lake. Why do we feel its pull now?"
"It is this terrible stress we are under, sweet Natalia. It saps our strength. Our bodies know this and react instinctively. We planned poorly. Instead of traveling to America we should have gone to Siberia. Our wonderful Lauren begged us to do just that. I was fearful for Nate's health, however, and Dr. Karen advised us that a complete break was the best thing for him. Now that he's made a complete recovery I am beginning to believe Lauren was right and we were wrong."
"We've made a marvelous discovery, my precious Lily. We rescued three men who were being kept in conditions worse than death and we found Chester... or perhaps I should say he found us."
"I fear we have not seen the last of Micah and his metallic machines, my darling Natalia. The whole of America will soon be contaminated with his monstrosities. But yes, you are right, my lovely Natalia... we did well in saving these men and our Chester. The girls of the People will be excited by our find."
"Those poor men have no idea what they're in for."
Chapter 68—Wraiths
With Ginger and Kāne gone, Orchardton Hall took on the lonely hue of a blue castle marooned in a desert long deserted.
Though there were the People all about her Lauren felt surrounded by ghosts, phantoms of dreams, wraiths who were slowly sucking the life from her bones and the wealth of happiness from her heart.
She spent her days in her private gardens which were growing feral now that she hadn’t the wherewithal to tend them as she once did. In the evenings she climbed the parapet to gaze out at the sea always searching the waves for the sign of sails.
The radio had been silent since that day Ginger and Kāne arrived. Lauren turned up the volume full in order to hear it day and night but the cursed thing only spouted stillness and hushed crackles like a hen searching for her chooks.
She felt the lonely waters of the Lake calling to her.
She couldn't go alone and she refused to go with just anyone else. If the Nautilus and the Liberty were lost she would rather fade away than continue living without her friends and lovers.
Her dreams were dying in the chilly gray that gathered around her like a suffocating veil of tears. She found herself walking misty paths to nowhere in a pale twilight that was neither dawn nor dusk. The day star overhead was an enormous orange orb that put off no heat.
Lake Baikal was gone.
Where its crystal blue waters once lapped upon verdant banks only a hissing crack in the earth remained as the scorched earth trembled under her feet. Walking along that decaying shoreline her feet quickly became mired in a kind of dry metallic sand cold to the touch and yet somehow insistently clinging to the soles of her feet.
Struggling to move she began to sink. The sand seemed to climb up her ankles in rivulets like tiny black rivers running backwards and upside down. Soon her shins were covered in the muck and then her knees.
The more she struggled the quicker the sand took hold of her. Looking upward she saw shattered mountains denuded of the trees which lay rotting and festering under a sky no longer blue but an ugly shade of chartreuse. Though the day star shined feebly and without warmth she saw stars huge and bloated dotting a hoary firmament no longer familiar.
It took all her strength to continue progressing along the shore. With each step she was sinking deeper into the nothingness that called out her name. The sand flowed up to her waist and then began to besmear her chest. Her feet could find no purchase and yet by sheer strength of will she moved on flapping them like flippers in a stagnant sea.
This sand was alive.
Besides her, it was the only living thing on earth. As her feet continued to churn she felt myriad grains of metal pouring over her skin seeking sanctuary from what it knew was coming. The sand was up to her collar bone now, tiny particles swarming like demented bees in search of a hive of salvation. Now the sand was up to her neck and then her chin. She had to turn her head skyward in order not to smother under its cold metallic embrace.
If there were birds flying on high and looking down upon her she knew they would see only an insipidly white face floating in a sea of gray shadows. But there were no birds left in this world. The earth shook and grumbled as a gargantuan moon tore itself out of the horizon red and bloated. And yet still she struggled.
Her toes gained hold upon something solid.
It was the tip of a ledge of sorts, a crumbled step. Perhaps there was once a house here or maybe a road. Each step forward brought her a little higher, away from this horrid swarm of sand that even though she climbed free of it still insisted upon overtaking her, insinuating its very essence into what was hers.
The metallic sand chimed against her auditory sensors making a crackling sound that both disturbed her and thrilled her. As the dream faded the noise in her head continued to invade her sleep.
She shuddered herself awake in the cold light of dawn.
She wasn’t sure what had brought her up to consciousness. She lay in bed staring at a crack in the ceiling orientating her mind to familiar surroundings that seemed oddly strange.
The radio crackled.
Jumping up and flying into the adjoining room Lauren picked up the microphone.
"Hello? Is there someone there?"
Her voice was hoarse with sleep. An early morning chill seeped in through a window she inadvertently left open the night before. Not wanting to leave the radio for fear she might miss a call she shivered involuntarily wishing she would have
grabbed her robe.
"Darling Lauren... is that you sweetie?"
She was momentarily stunned. Lily's voice was clear and lovely and she had never perceived a more beautifully sweet sound in all her long life.
"Oh my sweet, sweet Lily... yes it's me! Where are you? We've all been so worried."
"We are still in old America, my precious Lauren."
"Have you seen Maon and Silas?"
"Why would we see them? Aren't they with you, my lovely Lauren?"
"Maon grew worried when you didn’t return after six weeks. He discovered another ship that he named the Liberty, prepped it, and sailed to America in order to rescue you. He thought the Nautilus might have had problems and you were stranded there.
"He radioed two weeks ago, my sweetest Lily... they were caught in a terrible storm. He kept saying: mayday, mayday. I have the coordinates he gave me... their last position. Let me give them to you."
"Oh no... this is terrible news, darling Lauren. We were delayed in old New York City but it had nothing to do with our ship. Do you know what route they sailed?"
"Maon planned on taking the same route as you, sweetest Lily."
"I'll let Nate know... we'll find them if they don’t find us first. Oh my precious Lauren... I miss you so badly. We'll be home soon my darling one."
"I'll be watching for you, my lovely Lily. Come home to me."
"I'm signing off now, sweet Lauren. I want to tell the others about Maon. Perhaps Nate will want to adjust our course. I will call you again in six hours, sweetie."
Suddenly the day seemed bright even though a steady drizzle was falling from a slate-colored sky. Dashing into her bedroom Lauren dressed quickly wanting to share how she made contact with the Nautilus. It dawned on her that there was no one near who would enjoy the news nearly as much as she did.
Alpin had been gone three weeks come Friday. Knowing he was alone in the old Scottish highlands concerned her a bit though she knew the boy was more than capable of handling any emergency that came along.
"I'm going to travel north up the west coast, Lady Lauren. I want to keep watch for our ships."
"Where will you sleep my darling Alpin?"
"It depends upon where I am when night falls. If there are lodgings about I will stay inside. If not, I will camp out of doors."
"Take care for the creatures of the night, my precious one. Dangers abound."
"I promise I'll be careful, Lady Lauren. I have my rifle."
She envied him his freedom to do as he would. It seemed to fall to her to stay at Orchardton Hall while the rest of her family and friends were off exploring the world, bringing home treasures and keepsakes to stock the empty hallways and wide open rooms of the castle.
She told herself her turn would come though she knew even if such a chance was proffered that she would turn it down. This was her home. Other than the trips to Lake Baikal every seven years she had no yearning to see new lands or to have the grand adventures that traveling a decimated world entailed.
"You must come visit us at Edinburgh Castle, Mother Lauren. We've fixed it up. You should have seen the horrid mess when we first discovered the castle. Wild animals found their way inside. You wouldn’t recognize it as the same place now."
She knew Ginger invited her out of love but she had no desire to see another castle no matter how beautiful it was. She didn’t want to turn the pretty girl down outright, however, so of course she promised to visit when there was time.
She had been neglectful of her gardens and even though a steady rain was falling Lauren pulled on her hooded shirt and went down the hidden corridor to enter the alcove. Water dripped from every leaf as her lovely flowers bowed their tiny shiny heads in thanks to the bounty from the skies.
Today wasn’t a day for working, however. Her thoughts were with Lily and the others. She sat on a concrete bench green with both age and mold feeling her pants become soaked and not caring. Pulling back the hood of her sweatshirt she relished the rain on her head feeling it drip down her face enlivening her senses and making her long all the more for the shores of the Lake.
Chapter 69—Dreaming of Tigers
The injury was much worse that Ena first realized.
Though she saw her mother lying on the beach she was more upset that her father and Amanda left her alone floating on the ocean. Now, she felt remorse over her anger.
"We didn’t have a choice but to get your mother to shore as quickly as we could, my darling Ena. I was coming back for you."
Ena chided herself for behaving like a selfish child whining about being left alone. Her irritation of the night before dissolved into the new day as she started awake with slivers of sunshine prying open her eyelids.
Amanda had sat up all night with Sileas. Though Ena meant to stay awake with her, she realized she must have nodded off during the night. Her father was still sleeping. She felt guilty for leaving the well-being of her mother in Amanda's hands.
She rose to start a fire. She remembered her father's words from the night before.
"We should keep a fire going all the time. The Nautilus will be looking for us when they find out we are missing."
"How will they know that we are missing, father... the short wave radio isn’t working, remember?"
"If my father and mother make it back to Orchardton Hall and we are not there, they will set out looking for us. We have to keep a fire going at all times. During the day we can throw green fronds on the fire to produce smoke when we spot a sail. At night we will keep a fire burning on the beach so they can see it if they pass the island."
She knew her father exerted himself a great deal in bringing her mother to shore as well as unloading everything he could salvage from the Liberty. She talked quietly with Amanda so as not to awaken him.
"I can swim back to Orchardton Hall, sweet Amanda."
Ena didn’t know if she really could swim that far or how long it would take but if it helped save her mother she was willing to try. She could swim as much as three hundred kilometers in a single day.
"You can't swim across an ocean, my precious Ena. You'll never make it."
"It will take me a couple of weeks but I can do it, darling Amanda. I know I can. We'll wait for a few days before I set out, however. Perhaps the Nautilus will appear, plus I am feeling weak from the hit I took on my head."
"You didn’t tell me that, sweetie. Come over here and let me have a look."
Amanda placed a gentle hand on the back of her head feeling for the lump. She then gently touched Ena's stomach for a long minute examining the position of the baby.
"You're going to have this baby in just a little while, sweetie. The head is shifted into a downward position. This only happens during the last couple weeks of pregnancy. You will not be swimming across the ocean any time soon, my darling Ena."
"But we need to get help for my mother."
"The best thing we can do for your mother is to keep her warm and stay with her. Lady Lily always told me how she was a healer. Perhaps you have the same abilities, sweet Ena. Why don't you try caressing her head? Keep talking to her. I know she can hear us even though it appears she's sleeping."
"Can't you do surgery to repair her wound, darling Amanda? You are a skilled doctor, are you not?"
"Oh sweetie... I'm not qualified to do something like that. The best I can do is to drill a hole in her skull to relieve any pressure building in her brain. Even doing that much is tricky, though... I would rather wait to see if she recovers on her own."
"How long will it be until we know something, precious Amanda?"
"She should wake up within forty eight hours."
"What if she doesn’t wake up by then, darling Amanda?"
"We'll have to give her all the time she needs, precious Ena. Dr. Karen often told me that those of the Lake have the ability to recuperate from the most horrendous injuries all on their own."
"I feel so useless just sitting here, my beautiful Amanda. I should be doing something."
"But you are, my lovely Ena. You are keeping us fed and the fire going. If not for you, we would be in real trouble."
"I guess I just feel guilty... maybe that's my biggest problem, darling Amanda."
"But what on earth do you have to feel guilty about, precious Ena?"
"It’s my fault, my lovely Amanda. I had hold of my mother but I lost my balance when that wave hit us and rolled the Liberty over. I let go."
"We are all lucky to be alive, sweet Ena. None of this is your responsibility."
"I knew the Liberty's hull was weak in spots."
Though she knew there was no sense in finding fault, Ena couldn't help but blame herself, especially if her mother died. The wound on her mother's head looked particularly hideous in the early morning light.
She knew Amanda was right... it was better to allow her mother to heal on her own rather than attempting a risky surgery that might well end in her death anyway. Still, she had always been proactive. She detested the thought of impotence in the face of her own mother's injury. Amanda, as precious and darling as she was, seemed to sense a change of subject was in order.
"Do you really think the Nautilus will find us here? We don’t even know where we are, darling Ena. That storm might have blown us hundreds of miles off course."
"I dreamed of a tiger this morning just before I woke up. You were in my dream too, sweet Amanda... but I don't want to say what we were doing... I fear I might embarrass you. Suffice it to say we both became aware of a presence at the same time. I don’t know why but I didn’t feel fright when the tiger approached us even though it was far bigger than any creature I've ever seen. I had the feeling it was here to help us. What do you suppose my dream means?"
"Dreams are funny things, darling Ena. I like that I was in your dream. Perhaps you might teach me more of it. I promise I won't be shy... not in your arms. But tell me... do any of your dreams ever come true?"