David shrugged and looked around.
“I’m here to save you?” It was more of a question than an announcement.
“Well, we don’t need saving, boy,” said Mr. Patterson.
“We need answers. Answers to all this.” He raised his arms. “Answers to this.” He pointed to Kara’s wings.
“And answers are what we’ll get if you help me find the yellow crystal.”
He kicked and tossed fallen debris, looking under fallen bookshelves and books.
Kara turned to David and lowered her voice. “I told you not to come.”
She looked at him with a mixture of irritation and delight; part of her was glad to see him again so soon.
David smiled mischievously.
“I just love a bossy woman. Even when I don’t necessarily listen to her every command, I just love the way she orders me around. I love being ordered by you. Any requests?”
“God, you’re so irritating sometimes.”
“One of the many qualities you love about me.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” she said, but she couldn’t hide her smile. “And help us find this thing—this yellow crystal.”
“Found it!” Mr. Patterson held a yellow glass sphere the size of an apple high above his head.
David stared at the yellow ball.
“That’s it? This tiny thing is what’s going to help us? A small yellow ball is going to give us all the answers? Are you serious?”
Mr. Patterson eyed David angrily.
“It’s going to help us find those who have the answers we are searching for.”
Kara watched Mr. Patterson. “And who might that be?”
Mr. Patterson scratched his beard.
“We need to look for the oracle mothers.”
“The—the oracle mothers?” Kara choked on her own words. The old man had clearly gone senile.
“I’m surprised that you would joke about something like that,” she said to her boss. “You’re joking, right?”
But Mr. Patterson had gone strangely serious. He looked sad, like something that had pained him a long time ago was resurfacing, like an old memory had suddenly become clear again.
Kara glanced over to David.
“There are female oracles?” she asked. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Did you know this?”
David had a dreamy smile on his face and said, “No, I didn’t.”
He turned to the old man and smacked him on the arm, grinning stupidly.
“Mr. Patterson, you old dog. Keeping all the ladies for yourself, eh?”
Kara shifted her wings in irritation.
She looked at Mr. Patterson again and asked, “The oracle mothers? But I’ve never seen any female oracles in Horizon. I didn’t know they even existed.”
“That’s because they’re not in Horizon.”
Kara imagined the oracle wives as pudgy little women with long beards, like dwarf Mrs. Santa Clauses. She could see them running on top of their snowy white crystals.
Mr. Patterson held out the yellow crystal ball.
“I’ve been keeping this for over three thousand years, hoping one day I might have use of it. That I might see…”
He trailed off, but there was panic in his look, real fear.
“This will lead us to them,” he said suddenly.
“What do we do about the key?”
Kara was worried about Peter. The last time she had seen him he looked as if he were about to rip open his arm and pull out the key. He had looked terrified.
“We can’t do anything about that now. The key is safe in Horizon with Peter, for now.”
“Yes, but soon the legion will send him out to fight the reapers again,” said David.
He had begun to feel the same sense of urgency as Kara. “He won’t be in Horizon for very long. He’s going to need our help.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” said Kara. “Peter will be in danger as soon as he materializes down here. The imps will be after him. We need to go back—”
“No.” Mr. Patterson reached out and grabbed Kara’s arm as she started to turn around. He squeezed it with surprising strength, the strength of a man ten times his size. Kara realized that there was much more to these oracles than she knew.
His eyes blazed with fierce determination.
For the first time, Kara felt that he really did fear her. Or at least he feared for her, or what was going to happen to her as she changed.
Kara looked away. She realized that she was using the key and Peter as an excuse to hide from the reality of her transformation, from her wings, from it all. She was afraid of what might happen next.
“You were used before, Kara, because of your unique essence,” said Mr. Patterson. “And I’m afraid we’re facing the same thing now…or a version of the same…I just don’t know. What I do know is that you’re being used again, and it’s dark.”
He let go of Kara’s arm.
“First, we must find out how and why you grew these wings. The key, the reapers, the archfiends—they’re all connected.”
As Kara hung her head, silently acknowledging the truth in his words, David squeezed her hand. A silent understanding passed between them. She squeezed his hand and smiled back, grateful that he was coming along for the ride, grateful that he was on her side.
“So where do we find these oracle mothers?” asked David with a sly smile. Mr. Patterson brought the yellow crystal to his lips and blew.
A bright light danced inside the crystal, growing stronger and stronger until the little globe shone like a miniature sun. He raised the luminous yellow crystal ball over his head and said, “In Eden.”
Kara raised her hand to shield the light from her eyes.
“Do you mean the Garden of Eden?” she asked incredulously.
But before Kara could ask any more questions, three beams of light exploded from the tiny sun, and the three of them vanished.
Chapter 18
Eden
Yellow. More yellow. Everywhere Kara looked, it was yellow. She felt like she was floating in a giant yellow ball. She couldn’t see David or Mr. Patterson, but she felt them, especially David. The sensation was like when it’s dark, and you can’t see, but you can still sense a person behind you.
She knew she was moving or being propelled to the place Mr. Patterson called Eden. As she felt her body tingle, the sensation reminded her of how it felt to use vega—from Horizon to Earth. And yet it was different somehow. She wasn’t exactly sure, but this time it was almost as though her body had remained intact. She had no sense that her body and soul had dematerialized or that it would rematerialize as it always did when she used vega.
It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. More than once she thought she heard laughter that sounded very much like David. It felt like she was floating along in a dream state, where she could sense her body, and yet she couldn’t.
Finally she felt her feet touch solid ground. She blinked the light from her eyes. Her vision cleared, and she looked out over a world of green and blue.
Eden was a giant garden. It looked like a paradise.
She stood in a vast meadow with rolling green and golden hills that faded to distant mountains. A brilliant sun hovered in a perfectly blue sky that was peppered with white clouds.
There was a large river that came up from the south-east and broke into four smaller rivers that streamed with silver and gold water.
A warm breeze caressed Kara’s cheeks and the air was thick with the rich scents of wet earth, freshly cut grass, and lilac blooms, her mother’s favorite. It might have smelled like spring, but it had all the mesmerizing beauty and color of the fall. Leaves fell from red, orange, and yellow trees, and drifted around them like multi-colored snow. Everything had color and brilliant light that never left. It was on the trees, the leaves, even the butterflies.
And there were animals.
Kara had never seen so many animals all in the same place. There were birds, cats, dogs, pigs
, and galloping horses in the meadows. Wolves, lynxes, foxes, beavers and mink prowled the rivers’ shorelines, and bears, cows, deer, and goats wandered in the woods. And in amongst the more familiar animals, exotic animals like lions, tigers, alligators, elephants, giraffes, hyenas, pandas, gazelles, zebras, and wildebeest fed and basked in the sun.
There were species she didn’t recognize and some she had only seen on her computer. There were thousands, probably millions of animals and insects in Eden, and they all shared something in common. They all radiated a type of inner light.
Watching a long-haired orange cat resting lazily in the grass, Kara could see the white light clearly coming off it, as if the cat itself was a light.
Butterflies of every color fluttered around them. Some even landed on their heads and clothes, like tiny fairies wanting to be a nuisance. Birds flew above them, chirping happily as they glided on a breeze.
Kara thought of her own wings. She still had them, that part hadn’t changed. She wanted to jump up and fly with the birds, to feel the wind on her face, to feel the wind on her wings. She almost did, but when she caught a glimpse of David and Mr. Patterson, she realized how foolish she was being and stayed on firm ground…for now.
This was paradise. It was absolutely breathtaking. Even more beautiful than the forests and mountains in the Miracles Division, something she thought not possible. But here it was, staring at her in the face.
“It’s beautiful,” said Kara finally. “It’s like an enchanted forest.”
“It is that,” said Mr. Patterson as he pocketed his yellow globe.
Kara had half expected to see him appear in his gleaming silver robes and standing above his crystal orb like the oracles in Horizon. But instead he was wearing his old brown plaid suit, with his crystal orb nowhere in sight.
Kara knew they weren’t anywhere in the mortal world. This realm radiated a pure light that was almost like a soul. It was everywhere, in the trees, the grass, and the animals.
“This is Eden,” said the old man.
“It is a world between Horizon and Earth. We’re on another plane of existence. Only creatures of the ethereal kind can come here. And you two are the only guardian angels ever to have set foot in Eden.”
Kara caught a glimpse of fear again in his eyes. She couldn’t imagine why he would be afraid in a place like this. It was so calm and peaceful. Kara felt safe here.
David watched Kara closely.
“I’m feeling kinda special right now,” he said with a goofy smile.
He tossed Kara his spare blade. “Here, just in case.”
Kara took it and slipped it in her jacket pocket, although she felt that she wouldn’t need it here.
“Follow me.” Mr. Patterson made his way across the rippling green grass.
They followed him down through the meadow, onto a little dirt path that wound its way alongside a rippling stream of silver water. They walked past great pine trees the size of skyscrapers, and fruit trees with pink and red blossoms.
And then through a break in the trees at the end of the dirt road, Kara could see a giant crystal ball.
It was the size of a mall. From where she stood, it looked like the moon had decided to drop by. It had the same gleaming polished surface and the same internal lights as the crystals that the oracles drove, only this one was a thousand times larger.
David whistled loudly.
“Why do I get the impression the female oracles are going to be big, real big?”
Kara frowned. Maybe David was right. Were the female oracles giants?
Mr. Patterson moved slowly, as if he were reluctant to move forward but did so because of Kara.
As they got closer to the colossal globe Kara could make out circular shapes that wrapped around the sphere in a geometric design, like windows. It looked like a giant golf ball.
Below the giant globe was a courtyard with brilliant white walls of shiny rock that stood out brightly against the green grass. There were pink flowering trees, and gold and orange trees that looked like they had been kissed by fire. Vines crawled over great stone walls, and fountains decorated with stags and horses sprayed rainbow-colored water from their outstretched mouths. Statues of animals stood in the center of the garden.
They moved together silently and arrived at the base of the giant globe. The circular patterns Kara had seen from a distance and had thought were just an elaborate exterior design were in fact windows. Most of them were closed, but a few facing the entryway stood ajar. She couldn’t see inside. They arrived at a single round door made of glass, and Kara could see gray shadows moving inside.
David glanced at her excitedly. She knew he couldn’t wait to see how big the lady oracles were. Kara found herself wondering the same thing. But mostly, she wanted to know why Mr. Patterson was so uncomfortable.
Mr. Patterson made a fist and raised it hesitantly, as if he wasn’t quite sure whether to be here or not, and whether or not to knock. Finally he knocked three times. He stepped back, flattened the hair on the top of his head and straightened his jacket unsuccessfully, like a nervous teen on his first date.
Kara felt sorry for him because no matter what he did, he still looked a mess. It occurred to her then that oracles must have had romantic liaisons. Why else would there be females? There was no such thing as romance in Horizon, but could it exist it Eden? And just when she wondered why he was trying so hard to make himself presentable, the door swung open.
David cursed.
Kara lost her voice.
An old woman stood in the doorway. She looked like a forest gnome, only a little bigger. She was short and pudgy, about four feet tall. Her hair, as milky-white as her skin, was tucked away neatly inside a high, pointy green hat. She wore a forest-green robe with golden and silver leaves stitched around the collar and sleeves. Her rosy bare feet peeked from below her long skirt. A heavy golden chain fell from her neck, and from it hung a crystal ball the size of a grapefruit.
She raised her brows at the sight of them, and when she saw Mr. Patterson her eyes narrowed.
“Jim,” she said, her voice strong and clear, “when the others prophesied your arrival, I thought they’d been to the Crystal River and had one too many sips. But here you are.”
Mr. Patterson lowered his head politely. “Mistral, how nice to see you again. It’s been far too long—”
“Three thousand and twenty-six years, eleven months and three days,” said the little woman.
Her round, yellow eyes sparkled with wisdom and intelligence. “That’s how long it’s been.”
“You chose to leave,” said Mr. Patterson, his voice low. “All of you.”
“Yes, because we value the souls of all creatures,” said Mistral. “Not just the humans. They are just—if not more important. Every beast’s soul requires looking after. Yes, we chose to leave, because we had to. We saw it. It was foretold in the crystals. The crystals never lie.”
The little woman crossed her arms over her round belly. “We haven’t had to deal with Horizon in all this time. I’m surprised at you, Jim. What brings you here now?”
Mr. Patterson’s head was still lowered, and he averted his eyes.
“I wouldn’t have come if there had been any other way. I swear to you on the crystals and the souls.”
Mistral pursed her lips.
“I believe you,” she said finally.
Kara saw a glimpse of a smile on the woman’s lips, as though she was enjoying seeing Mr. Patterson squirm like a teenage boy. Was she what he had feared?
“And I see you’ve brought company.”
The little woman leaned forward and peered curiously at David and Kara. “Two of them.”
Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped slightly open at the sight of Kara’s wings. “Oh dear.”
Kara tried unsuccessfully to hide behind David, but her wings were so large that she couldn’t hide them.
“This is Kara and David,” said Mr. Patterson. “Both outstanding guardians, the best w
e’ve got.”
“Well then,” said Mistral, her face grave, “You’d better come inside. The other oracles will want to see this for themselves. Follow me.”
The little woman turned and shuffled into the globe-like building without another word. With Mr. Patterson in the lead, Kara and David bent their heads and followed him through the round doorway and stepped into the giant crystal ball.
The building was just as large on the inside. It was hollow, and their footsteps echoed along the curved exterior walls. There were no staircases, no walls, no corridors leading to other rooms—it was just a gigantic hollow ball inside.
They walked along a yellow marked path that curved upwards slightly. The path was one of two intersecting paths that ringed the interior walls of the globe and provided access to the desks stacked with books, chairs, bookcases, glass cubicles, and lab areas with smoking vials and bubbling pots. Tables and chairs were fixed on the ceiling and on all the sides of the vast spherical structure. It was like walking in a funhouse, but instead of mirrors on the ceilings and walls, it was furniture. It was the most peculiar thing Kara had ever seen.
Why were they there? She wondered if she’d have time to discover why the oracles in Eden had tables fixed on their ceilings.
Kara pondered more deeply about these new oracles. Apart from being female, they were very similar to the oracles in Horizon. Her eyes went to the tiny lady’s feet.
Kara leaned over and whispered to David. “Where is her crystal?”
David only shrugged. He didn’t know why the mysterious little woman oracle didn’t run above a crystal ball, just like the oracles back in Horizon. Perhaps her crystal was the one she wore around her neck? But then why was she barefoot, if not for steering a great crystal ball?
Mistral caught Kara staring at her feet.
“What? Did you expect to see something there?”
Kara looked away embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude. It’s just…I was looking for your crystal ball.”
“Oh, I see,” said Mistral looking at Mr. Patterson. “Well, we oracles carry our crystals around our necks with a chain.”
Reapers Page 17