King of the Dark Mountain

by Galili Black

  “You mean the vision of the tree?”

  “Yes, also there’s another aspect to that. Here let me show you. He pressed some keys on his laptop and the wall in front of them lit up with the image of the tree. “We had the words analyzed by a super computer, using all the linguistic elements derived from all known languages. It seems to be from a very early Indo-European proto-language as far as we can make out. We think it says: Miekka, skal Kalyx, gart and then Kalyx skal Meikka gart.

  “So what do you think that means?”

  “Well the best guess we have is that it means, sword of the sky, shell of the earth, and then it becomes sword of earth, shell of the sky. We think it’s referring to an exchange of energy, where the planetary energy of earth gets taken up and we receive the stellar energy. Shell in this context should be thought of as a container, something that receives. The sword is something that fills. It’s obviously got a sexual connotation, but so does electricity. Because of the diagram of the stars on the back of the tree, we’re pretty sure it refers to the type of energy that Ted discovered while doing his research in Ireland.”

  “But how did you get the date?”

  “Some calculations Ian’s team performed relating to the triple spiral on the entrance stone at Newgrange as it compares to the triple spiral inside the monument indicates that it will occur when the nebula in Orion’s sword appears to change slightly in position in relation to the Milky Way.” He paused and then continued in an almost dreamy tone, “There’s an old fragment of a poem that I learned as a boy from my father that might also hold a clue.”

  He looked away from her and then back again and smiled shyly. “Once we were out on a lake near our village, it was early spring and Orion was setting. I’ll never forget the way it looked that evening, reflected in the water. I couldn’t stop staring at it. In fact, I almost tumbled out of the boat while staring at it. My father laughed and caught me. I’ll never forget what he said then. ‘Those are not ordinary stars, son. Our people have kept the memory of their true nature alive in our songs.’ He went on and sang me a song in Old Norse. It was so wonderful to hear the sound of my father’s beautiful baritone voice intoning those ancient words.”

  Ellie smiled at him. “Do you remember them?”

  “I can’t sing it for you, if that’s what you mean, but the meaning of the ballad was that at the end of days, the jewel in the sword of the great hunter will spill forth the light from the beginning of time. And the sign of this will be that it turns to red fire.” He pushed some buttons and the image of the tree was replaced by an image of the nebula.

  “It’s really red, is this a recent picture?”

  “This one was taken last night. It’s been changing color for the past several weeks. It’s glowed pink for ages, but now it’s changed to red. Our best prediction is that it will be at its most intense shade very soon. We think that is the clue that we should be ready to receive the input.”

  “I just wish we knew what kind of energy it is exactly.”

  “We thought it might be directed, though we couldn’t imagine by what. Now we think it is an automatic process, something that just occurs every ten thousand years or so. The poem I mentioned is very old. We believe that the reference to the “end of days” means the end of the cycle prior to the energy getting released again. Of course this is all speculation. Anyway, they put it on the rock at Newgrange and perhaps built the Great Pyramid to act as a transformer for it when it comes.” He paused, then continued, “And maybe somehow or other it was coded into your mind and Ted’s mind so that when it was due to come round again, the two of you would be able to remember and take advantage of it.”

  “But surely it isn’t just me and Ted. Other people must have this knowledge.”

  “Everyone might have it, but not everyone has access to the regions of their minds that you and Ted do. Ted thinks he understands how to get the most from this opportunity, it’s in the notes. We want you to take the rest of the day and go over them and think about whatever questions you might have. We’re hoping we can get you in touch with Ted at some point to answer them. We understand he won’t be much help to us, if his mind is distracted by his wife’s condition.”

  “I wasn’t even thinking about Irena. Do you know if she’s going to be alright?”

  “As far as we know, she’s going to make it, but I believe her condition is still not very good.”

  “What about those other people, the ones that have Hez, could they interfere with the process or cause something to go wrong?”

  “We think anyone set up to receive the energy will be able to do so, and they’re set up in a way similar if not exactly the same as us. They’re operating from inside a granite range of mountains, probably more than one range, for example. Were you able to get any information regarding your brother?”

  “I just keep getting music when I try to tune in to him.”

  “Well, there may not be time now to pull him back through. If you can’t get a very precise sense of his location, it might not be possible anyhow.”

  “Ted said they were dangerous.”

  “They may be, but honestly, we can’t worry too much about them now. This thing is moving more quickly than we had anticipated. We’ve just run out of time. If you do happen to get anything regarding your brother we’ll jump on it; but right now, please look at those notes and think about what you need to do to prepare.”

  Ellie nodded, “I’ll go over them and see what it is he is saying I have to do to get this done.”

  “Great, I know you won’t let us down.” He gave her an encouraging smile.

  Ellie nodded and looked away, feeling suddenly self-conscious, “Can I take these back to my room?”

  “If you like, I’m going to put a call in to find out what’s going on with Ted and his wife. I’ll let you know in a few hours, unless something urgent comes up before then.”

  “I think that will be enough time to get a handle on this.” She stood up and went to the door, staring down at the pages as she walked. There were only four pages with pictures, but Ted’s hand writing was small and there were a lot of details that she felt that she needed to go over. When she got back to her room, she got out a laptop they had provided her and began to do a little research. Some of the information was straight forward, but much of it referred to data she had not encountered before. She felt that she needed to understand everything in the notes as completely as she could. Whatever happened with Irena, Ted would probably not be able to focus in the same way, so she just had to fill in for him now.

  *

  Ted was standing in the hospital room looking down at Irena’s pale face; her lips were drawn down in a bow that made her look deeply disappointed. He brushed the hair back from her brow; a nurse was buzzing about but he scarcely noticed her. He wished he could reach inside his wife’s mind and understand what had brought her to this. He couldn’t help feeling guilty for all the time he had spent away from her, especially over the past several months.

  If he had explained more of the details would she have held on a little while longer he wondered. The truth was he had filled her in as much as he could, but she really didn’t seem to care that much. She grasped the concepts but when he told her some of the details she seemed unconcerned. It had struck him as odd that she could be so nonchalant about the future of the human species.

  He thought about the moment when Ellie had finally understood and committed herself whole heartedly to the task. That moment had never come for Irena, even though it touched him to remember how she had tried valiantly to encourage him on. He sat down beside her bed and picked up her hand. It was so cold and damp. He pressed it to his lips and prayed that she would make it through, even though he wasn’t much of a believer. Although he knew there were many mysterious forces at work in the universe, he hadn’t spent much time labelling them. “Please let her come back from this,” he said to the God that he heartily hoped was there.

  During his prayer, his cell
phone started ringing. “Is this Theodore Griffin?”

  He tensed, fearing it was a fan who had managed to get his personal number. It happened occasionally. Usually he did not mind so much, though it was a hassle to get the number changed once he answered the usually perplexing deep background question about a character in a book he could barely remember writing. He started to give his standard, Mr. Griffin is not available speech to get off the phone as soon as possible when the woman on the other end said, “Mr. Griffin, my name is Samantha Ewing, you might have heard of my husband, Richard.” She had a pleading tone in her voice that made him pause. He wrecked his brain trying to remember Richard Ewing. “He’s a writer like you, similar types of books, at least some people think so,” she continued.

  “Yes, I think I’ve heard of your husband. I’m sorry Mrs. Ewing this is not a good time to talk. My wife is seriously ill. I’m sorry.”

  “I’m sorry to bother you. I know it’s annoying when strangers call you out of the blue, but I really need to talk to you. Richard is involved in a secret project, that I think you might know about. I got this number from a mutual friend . ..” here her voice broke. “Richard’s friend …” she added.

  “Listen Mrs. Ewing, this sounds like something I need to talk to you about in person. Where are you located?”

  “I’m in New York right now. I had to give a speech at a charity function Richard and I have been involved with for a while. I didn’t want to do it, but they said I should act normal, stick to all my usual routines, if I wanted everything to turn out alright for Richard.”

  “Okay, I can’t leave my wife right now, but we really need to talk. Is there any way you can come to New Hampshire this evening?”

  “Yes, I’ll get up there as soon as I can. I need to talk to someone about this or I’m going to lose my mind.”

  “Okay, I’ll text directions to my house to this number.”

  “No, don’t. I will call you again and you can send it to that number. I bought a bunch of disposable phones. I don’t know if it will do any good, but I’m trying to find ways to keep them from knowing every move I make.”

  “Okay, go ahead and call me again and I’ll text the information. Rent a car and use cash if you can.”

  “I have that part figured out. I’ll get off now. Thank you so much, Mr. Griffin.” The phone line went dead. He waited for the phone call and when it came he sent the information. Then he put in another call.

  “Karina, hi this is Ted. Yes, she’s doing a little better, stable at least. You asked me if there was anything you could do. It would help a lot if you could come by the hospital this evening and sit with Irena. I’m sorry about the short notice, but something unexpected has come up. Oh that’s so wonderful. It will mean so much to Irena to see you, if she does happen to come round. They’re saying she could come out of it at any time, but they don’t want to force it. She’s going to be in a very fragile emotional state, of course. We just have to give her all the love and support that we can muster to help her to get back. Alright fine, thanks again so much.”

  His sister-in-law showed up within the hour. They embraced. She was smaller than Irena, and seemed to almost evaporate inside his arms. She looked up at him with large frightened eyes, “I just can’t believe she would do a thing like this,” she said, stepping away from him and digging a Kleenex out of her coat pocket.

  “I know it’s a shock, but you know she’s been on that antidepressant medication for years. It must have stopped working.”

  “I talked to her on the phone yesterday and she never said anything about feeling depressed. She sounded upbeat if anything.”

  “They say that they often do once they make the decision to go through with it. So when you talked she didn’t say anything unusual?”

  “No, she said you were working on some research that you were very excited about. She was planning to go to Mexico in a few weeks, suggested I come along. Does that sound suicidal to you?”

  “That is odd that she would talk about a trip.”

  “There was another odd thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Someone came to the door while we were on the phone; she came back on and sounded very serious.”

  “Did she say who it was?”

  “No, she just said some men were there and wanted to talk to her about your work.”

  “About my work?”

  “Yes, do you know who it might have been?”

  “No, my work is very confidential. That doesn’t sound right.” He thought for a moment, and then he drew Karina aside. “I’m meeting with someone this evening who might have some light to shed on some of this. Just don’t discuss it with anyone until you hear from me.” Karina shook her head. “I know I can count on you. Irena says you’re the practical one in the family.”

  Karina smiled, “Irena’s the practical one, but go ahead; I’ll stay here until I hear from you. Darren’s coming later. Is it okay if I fill him in on some of this?”

  “Yes, but please don’t talk to anyone else about it, I’ll get back here as soon as I can.”

  Karina nodded, “Ted, try not to worry, I’m sure it will all work out in the end.”

  “The same goes to you. Maybe when Irena’s feeling better and this project of mine is done the four of us can go down to Mexico together.”

  “That sounds nice,” she managed a little smile.

  “Good,” he gave her a quick hug and headed for his car. On the way, his phone rang again. “Oh hi Ian, yes Irena’s stable. I know I need to get with Ellie, but something else has come up. Do you know if anyone from the Theta project would have had any reason to pay a visit to Irena? That’s what I thought, but someone paid her a visit, claiming to have information about my work. Can you check your sources and make sure. I really don’t know who it was. All I know about it is that it was a couple of men. Now she’s in the hospital and it seems to me there could be a connection. I know, I know, that’s why we have to check it out to make absolutely certain. Okay, let me know if you find anything out. I have something I have to take care of as soon as possible. Right, thanks.”

  He put the cell phone away and got into his SUV. It was evening and on the drive to his house, the stars were very bright. Orion wouldn’t be visible for several hours, but he had an irrational urge to pull over and scan the night sky to look for it anyway. He stifled the urge, feeling suddenly very old and tired. When he got home, the house felt particularly empty, almost sepulchral.

  He turned on some music to banish the feeling. He didn’t bother to check to see what was queued to play. Irena normally kept some obscure folk music, related to her most recent trip abroad loaded up. This time however he was pleasantly surprised to hear the opening bars of Magical Mystery Tour. Of course they were Beatles fans like everyone, but did not play old albums ordinarily. He wondered what had gotten into Irena to dig it out of the digital pile. They had a very good stereo system, but he still thought he could detect something tinny in the way the digital version sounded. Sometime in the near future, he intended to invest in an old fashioned turntable and go back to vinyl. Yet in spite of everything, he could still detect the way Lennon’s voice caressed the vowels in the lyrics like no one else ever could or ever would, he thought. He poured himself a glass of Scotch and sat down on the sofa to listen.

  When “Strawberry Fields Forever” began to play, the doorbell rang. He glanced at the clock on the wall; surely Mrs. Ewing hadn’t made it all the way from New York City in an hour and a half. He went to the door and opened it to find a stout, determined looking woman staring at him. “Mrs. Ewing?” he asked. She nodded, “Please come in.” She followed him into the living area. He paused the music and asked her to have a seat. She plunked down on the sofa. “How in the world did you manage to get here so quickly?”

  “My uncle has a private plane. There’s a small airport in your town in case you haven’t noticed. I took a cab from there.”

  “This is excellent. So can I get you
something to drink?”

  “No, no thank you. I just want to tell you what I know about those people who took my husband.”

  She began the story about the episode in Budapest. “They didn’t even give us a chance to speak to each other before they took him. I had gone shopping to pick up some things for our kids. When I got back to the hotel room, they were waiting. They told me, that if I cooperated, Richard would be able to return in a few months. This was almost a year ago, now. I’m really afraid that they’re never going to release him.”

  “You said that he was thinking of contacting me before this happened. Do you know why exactly?”

  “He said he thought you were someone who understood some big change was coming. He said he thought you might even be someone who had started this big change. I thought he was joking. After all, you’re a writer, he’s a writer, you deal in imaginary worlds.”

  “Did he give you any details about the changes coming?”

  “Not really. Before Richard’s work began to really take off, we struggled a lot. I kept things going so he could keep working. I believe in my husband’s talent as a writer, but to me, it’s just a game he plays in his mind. I’m sure you know what I mean.”

  “Yes, that’s the usual way of things, but not always.”

  “What do you mean?” She clenched her hands and took a deep breath, “I really must get a grip on this, Mr. Griffin. My whole world’s been thrown into chaos, apparently because some group has confused my husband’s fiction with something real. How can that even be possible?”

  “I can’t speak for your husband. I’m sorry to say that I’m not familiar with his work, a situation I will certainly remedy shortly. However, I will tell you some things about my work and perhaps in that way we can come to understand what is going on with your husband.”

  “Do you think we’ll be able to get him away from those people?”