He did not have to tell me twice. I sat and began filling my empty stomach. Naomi sat beside me and did the same.
“You two went to sleep before we could finish our discussion yesterday, and before I could offer showers, clean clothes, and an introduction to my friend.” He nodded to the man beside him. “This is Prince Gregory, the Duke of Wales.”
I looked up, with my mouth stuffed full of a hard-boiled egg. It was him, the heir to the British royal throne.
“I,” Naomi began with awe, “I knew you were in the order, but I didn’t expect…I didn’t.” She started to stand. I stayed in my seat, trying to chew faster.
“Please, please, there is no need.” He stepped forward and helped her to her feet. His blue, tailored suit had gold buttons and a purple silk pocket square to match his purple tie. The way he smiled at Naomi made me want to vomit. “We are on the same team here, on equal footing.” He bowed and kissed her hand.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. They all turned to me with surprised looks. I must have sounded angry.
“Apollos and I are the European members of the order.” He spoke as if his words were all the answer I needed. I glanced down at his hands. He had the same translucent thumb ring. “I have heard about you, Elijah.”
“Really?” I rose slowly to my feet. It was getting hard to separate dream from reality. I wasn’t sure whether it was weirder for the British prince or the UN President to know about me.
“Of course,” he said. “I have heard much from Chris and from Bart. We are thankful to have found you. Your vision will be needed in the days ahead.”
“Bart told you about the order, yes?” Apollos asked me.
“He mentioned the order of John. He did not say anything about the bloody Prince of England.”
“Elijah!” Naomi said.
Gregory put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay.” He smiled at her again, an annoyingly charming smile to go with his annoyingly charming accent. “I know this must be hard to understand,” he said to me. “We operate in teams of two, one public member and one private, a team for each continent. I trust my presence on this boat proves this is serious.”
I nodded, at a loss for words.
“Then, it is an honor to meet you, Elijah.” He held out his royal hand. I stared at it. “Your purpose is beyond even the order’s comprehension.”
I shook his hand, wondering what that was supposed to mean. As our hands separated, I suddenly felt uneasy, as if sick to my stomach. I could have sworn I saw Gregory’s face shift for an instant, almost like a mirage. I blinked slowly. When my eyes opened, everything looked normal. Maybe I needed a doctor.
“Very well,” said Apollos. “We are almost to Patmos now. We will meet with John. He insists that we visit the cave before we leave for Jerusalem. He wants to know if Elijah sees anything unusual there. After that, we must begin to activate our plan.”
“The plan,” Naomi explained, “is to go into hiding for a while. We believe great destruction is coming.”
“Like more earthquakes?” I asked. “Why?”
Naomi nodded. “Remember what Bart said?”
“Some of it.” Earthquakes, storms, meteors, you name it—those were Bart’s words. “I listened to him, but that man obviously has a few loose screws.” I pointed to my temple to emphasize the point.
“Bart is one of our leading interpreters,” Apollos said. “I admit he has some idiosyncrasies, but hasn’t he been right so far?”
“Earthquakes in 2066,” I shrugged, “that’s an easy guess, if it’s even a guess. Seismologists predicted more earthquakes would come, as the earth warms and the plates shift.”
“I like this kid,” Gregory said. “He’s got a mind of his own. I’ve been saying all along we should be careful how much we listen to Bart. And better to fight than to hide.”
“Gregory, please.” Apollos sighed. “Let’s not cover this again, not now. What Elijah saw proves Bart was right about the power, the position, and the dragon. Don is Abaddon, the destroyer and the prince of this world.”
“You’re putting a lot of faith in Eli.” Gregory glanced at me and spoke as if I was now a child to be ignored. This prince was all over the place. “He may be smart, but Naomi didn’t see what he says he saw. What if he’s wrong?”
“Bart trusted Elijah,” Apollos asserted. “This is real.”
Gregory’s eyebrows raised in skepticism. “Elijah said it himself. No matter who Bart was in the past, he has been losing his mind lately.”
“Enough!” Apollos’s fists were shaking. “We’ll not speak such words of each other.”
Gregory regarded him coolly, looking almost amused.
“I saw the dragon.” My quiet words filled the tense room. “Trust me, I wish I hadn’t, but I did.” I met Gregory’s stare. There was something soothing about him, kind of like Don. “Still, even if I saw it, that doesn’t make it real. We should believe in things that can be proven with evidence.”
“Your dreams are real,” Naomi said, “and so is what happened in Rome…so is whatever awaits in Patmos.”
“Like the dragon, coming again?” I replied. “If so, maybe I’ll sit out this time. I might be able to find a way to an airport to get us back to the U.S.”
“Indeed he might,” Gregory encouraged. “We should admit we have not been entirely honest with him.”
“I have been honest,” Naomi challenged. “Elijah, please, don’t back away now.”
I turned from Gregory to her. The same sick feeling covered me like a sheen of oil on water. My mind was racing, losing control. “Have you been planning this from the start?” I asked Naomi. “Just playing me, leading me along, so that your order can make me part of this scheme? And what about ISA-7? You know, my precept never found any trace of you having a friend from New Zealand named Jade. Was the whole wedding a lie?”
She looked like I’d stabbed her in the gut. I regretted the words, but I wanted the answer.
“No, it’s not like that.” She waved her delicate hands defensively. “I promise.”
“Then what is it like?”
“It’s like your dreams,” Apollos interrupted. “There are layers of truth, and layers of meaning. Look, everyone, these are trying times, and we have a long road ahead. We all agree”—he shot a defiant glance at Gregory—“that the devil is returning and probably through Don. But there is much we do not understand. Elijah, John knows more than all of us about these prophecies. Once we get to Patmos, he will tell us more. Until then, how about a shower and a change of clothes?”
“I brought an extra suit,” Gregory volunteered. “We’re about the same size.”
“Fine.” I stood. “Where’s the shower?”
Apollos led me there, away from Naomi. Once I was alone, I turned the water on cold and got in. Whatever it took to cool me down. I stood there, soaked and shivering and confused. The white marble floor of the shower turned into a brown puddle as the dust and blood washed away.
I stepped out and put on one of Gregory’s suits. The fabric was a flawless khaki linen, the kind I used to wear when my family went to our house in the tropics. The prince had good taste, and we were the same size except the suit was a little tight in the shoulders.
I left the bathroom and headed out to the yacht’s back deck, wishing I felt like a new man, or even a man at all. Instead I felt like a naïve boy, caught up in something too big to understand.
This time it didn’t help that Naomi was there on the deck, waiting for me.
“I’M SORRY,” NAOMI said.
She was radiant, in a yellow dress. Her hair looked darker. It was still wet from her shower, blowing lightly in the ocean breeze. The ship seemed to have slowed down.
“Thanks.” I joined her by the railing, resolved to get some answers. “I need to know, has this all been a game from the start?”
She pushed back a lock of my curls, just as she had before. “I told you, the start doesn’t matter anymore.”
; “It matters if it was a lie.”
“What’s a lie?” she asked. “People say there’s black and white with gray in between. But that’s wrong. There’s only black and white. The trouble is, we don’t always know which one is which.”
“Was it a lie?” I pressed her. “Why did you invite me to come with you to the Cathedral?”
“It was black and white,” she said. “I don’t even know all the reasons.”
“Then give me just one.”
“Okay.” She paused. “My precept ran the report on you, just as I’m sure yours did on me. It’s amazing how much we share. I mean, the same birthday? What are the odds?”
“Not high,” I said. “How about another reason?”
“Your dream, obviously.”
“I still don’t know how you dragged that out of me.”
“I asked God to reveal what you were hiding,” she said, “and whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
“Sounds nice, but I doubt that’s true.” It wasn’t very assuring, anyway. “What about the wedding?”
She looked down. “There was supposed to be a wedding.”
“What do you mean supposed to be?”
“You know now what I believed, that the wedding would never happen.” She turned back and held me in a steady gaze. “Does any of that matter now? Stay with me, protect me, like you did in Rome.”
I looked away, over the blue waves stretching to the horizon. I felt like screaming inside, but my voice came out cold and flat: “I won’t protect someone who lies to me like you did.”
“I said I’m sorry, and you’re right.” She breathed in deeply. “I was wrong to lead you on. I was wrong to bend the truth. But I hope you see now why I did it. It wasn’t just for me, or for the order. It was for you.” Her voice broke in the salty air. “And it was for us.”
I kept my eyes on the water. I was not going to let her break me down. Not this time. “What makes you think there’s an us?”
“I don’t think it, I know it…and so do you. You can’t deny there’s something between us. I’ve tried denying it. I’ve told myself there’s no way I can have these feelings for a guy who doesn’t believe in my God. But no matter how many times I’ve said it, I’ve known it’s wrong.” Passion crested in her voice like the ocean waves below. “Somewhere along the way—between ice cream, the reflecting pool, the sync, and you saving me in Rome—I fell for you.”
And I fell for you, I thought, but held back. My knuckles were white as I squeezed the railing, trying to stay behind my crumbling walls. “Fell for me,” I said, “or for somebody you think is a prophet?”
“For you,” she answered firmly. “You’re no prophet yet, not when you doubt your creator, the very one who gave you the visions. But I believe in you, Elijah.”
I gave in and turned to her, meeting her hurt and vulnerable gaze. Lines of dried tears were on her cheeks. She seemed as real and honest as I’d ever seen her. I sensed in my bones she was right: there was an us.
She pressed a finger onto my chest, as if there was some truth hidden inside me. “We’ll find out soon enough,” she continued. “I don’t know what’s coming. I’m scared about whatever Don did to me. I want you to be with me through this.”
“Okay,” I said, “but no more secrets, no more lies.”
She nodded. “From now on, I’ll tell you everything.”
“Thank you. I’ll do the same.” I put my hand on the side of her porcelain neck. “And I forgive you.”
She smiled and leaned her head on my shoulder. I held her tight. Our breaths were heavy, excited, relieved, united. It seemed like a moment that could go on forever, but then the sound of the engines stopped.
“Time to go,” Apollos called through a window in the yacht’s rear cabin. “Head to the front. We’re landing.”
Naomi stepped back and squeezed my hands. “Let’s go.”
I nodded and we walked together to the front deck, where Apollos, Gregory, and five armed guards were waiting. The late morning sun blazed over the sea. There was no trace of a cloud in the sky. The vessel was in a cove before a small beach and a rocky hillside.
“The sun appeareth!” Gregory announced, looking Naomi up and down. I felt a strong urge to give his pretty face a black eye. “Magnificent,” he praised. “And the dress is quite fitting for this day.”
“A bright day indeed,” Apollos said. “Where is John?”
“We saw him, sir.” One of the guards pointed his rifle up the hillside beyond the beach. “An old man was making his way down that path. He should arrive soon. Shall we cast off?”
“Yes, andiamo.”
Two guards moved to the port side of the boat, where a black raft was bobbing in the water. One of the guards hurried down a ladder by the boat’s side, while the other began guiding our group. Naomi went first.
Gregory put his arm around my shoulder and spoke as if we were chaps. “You don’t look so bad, yourself.” We were the last two in line for the raft. “Sharp suit, I must say. You ready for this?” He posed the question with an action-movie tone.
“No.” I shrugged his arm away. “But I’ll manage. The suit’s not bad. For a prince, I expected someone taller.”
He met my eyes evenly, for the first time without a smile on his face, and looking sincere. It gave me the chills. “Expectations are a weak thing,” he said. “In this game, you must come prepared.”
A guard tugged at me. I climbed down the ladder and into the raft. Gregory followed a moment later, and we pushed off. One of the guards fired up the engines and we accelerated. We reached the shore in seconds, coasting straight onto the thin beach.
An old man was waiting there, alone. “Welcome!” he announced as we stepped out of the raft. The man had a full head of white hair, with a long white beard. He was like a model prophet from a children’s Torah.
“You are a welcome sight.” Apollos embraced him like a brother. “I feared you might not make it to this day.”
The old man laughed at that, leaning heavily on a staff of gnarled wood. “God’s righteous right hand holds my right hand.” As the man raised his right hand off the staff and into the air, his body shook as if he would fall. “He says to us, fear not, I am the one who helps you.” I breathed easier when he put his hand back on the staff.
But then my breath froze when his gaze passed over me. He had the blank, white eyes of a blind man. Yet he smiled at me, an unnerving, knowing smile. He turned then to Naomi.
“Dear child, I remember you well. I even remember your face,” he said, like a grandfather. “As true and beautiful a face as I’ve ever seen. Now surely you stand as a young woman, a woman clothed with the sun.” Was that a lucky guess about her dress? She was wearing yellow. “Please, come to me.” He reached out to her.
She stepped forward and took his frail, withered hand into hers. “I remember, too,” she said, raising his hand to her face. “You told me that you would be waiting for me here, but that you would never again see me. I am sorry for your loss.”
“Loss?” The old man smiled as he gently ran his fingers over Naomi’s face. “My eyes were tired. They had seen enough of this world. If God saw fit to let them blink out, who am I to consider that a loss? It is gain, just as you may gain even from an evil touch.”
Naomi’s eyes hinted at surprise. She opened her mouth to speak, but Gregory spoke first. “And such evil there is in the world today, Father John.”
The old man’s blind stare snapped to Gregory. His face suddenly looked sad. “You speak more truth than you know, Prince Gregory. In these days, even a close friend in whom we trust, who ate our bread, could lift his heel against us.”
Gregory’s smooth face showed no emotion, but he stood rigid as if in a battle line, as if ready to defend against the helpless old man. “We must be ready for anything,” Gregory said.
“This is true,” responded the old man. “Anything from above, around, and inside, yes?”
Greg
ory nodded in silence.
“But are we ready for you?” The old man turned to me.
“Um, hello.” I had no idea what to say. “My name is Elijah Goldsmith.” I held out my hand awkwardly. I let it fall to my side when I realized he couldn’t see it.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Elijah.” The old man smiled and winked a blind eye at me. “My name is John.” He stamped his staff into the ground. “Let’s go, everyone. Holy ground awaits. Maybe there we’ll see a hint of what’s to come.”
JOHN LED US up the rocky hillside. We stayed to a thin path between thirsty-looking shrubs. He climbed with surprising speed. A brisk enough walk to make my breathing heavy. Naomi chatted away with the others as if unaffected by the pace.
They spoke of the other members of the order. It sounded like they were planning to converge soon, somewhere near Jerusalem. Naomi talked about Bart and Chris, and she told me the names of the seven other leaders, from all regions of the world: Ronaldo, Vicente, Zhang Tao, Jacques, Mehmet, Emeka, and Neo. With John, Apollos, and Gregory, that made twelve total. Of course a secret order would have twelve leaders.
It was not long before the midday sun began to bake my pale face. My sunscreen was in a bag in a hotel in Rome, probably under a pile of rubble. Sweat poured out only to be whisked away by the ocean breeze through Gregory’s fine linen suit. This was more adventure than I’d bargained for.
We were halfway up the hillside when the old man stopped. The rest of us halted behind him.
“Here we are,” he said. He went prostrate and kissed the ground before entering a small white door. Apollos and Naomi and Gregory did the same. I walked through last, pausing for just a slight bow. I figured the ground had enough kisses.
Inside was a cave decorated with wood and gold carvings perfect for tourist pictures. The five of us were a tight fit in the little space, and the stone walls gave it the feel of a dungeon. The others had looks of awe on their faces.
“This is it?” I asked.
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