Prophecy

by Gregory Cholmondeley

  Mr. Narwani added, “I’m not saying I believe any of this nonsense. It would, however, explain why politicians, instead of educators, are driving ineffective curriculums based more on testing than learning.”

  Ms. Datta concluded, “I am not convinced that Mearth Agents even exist, but the children do. And, I’ve learned to trust their instincts. They just want you to be careful. The awakened children are not much of a threat to the Septumcolans anymore. Still, they, or the person treating them, could lead these Mearth Agents to their true targets.”

  Dr. Price looked at the scared faces surrounding her and said, “Well, then I guess I don’t feel so bad that I slightly bent the hospital’s rules today.

  “Medical professionals, family members, reporters, and friends have all been asking how I managed to awaken these children. I, of course, haven’t had any answer other than to state that I recently attempted a rather standard procedure. No one really believes that my procedure worked, including myself, but I really don’t have a better story. This morning, however, two people from the Center for Disease Control barged into my office to ask me the same questions. They also demanded case files on any other comatose patients or patients with vivid dreams.

  “I didn’t like these people from the moment I saw them. They shouldn’t have been able to get into my office and had no right to demand my patient records. Besides, I never mentioned anything about dreams to anyone other than Mark, and they didn’t even appear to understand the standard medical procedure I used.

  “They told me their names but conveniently forgot to bring business cards. I called some friends of mine at the CDC after they left, and no one had ever heard of the names they provided. I immediately edited Mark’s records to show that, rather than being in a coma, he was unresponsive when admitted and awakened after several hours of hydration. I concluded that he had been suffering from dehydration due to heat and a bad cold. This wasn’t far from the truth, but I didn’t want his name appearing in a records search for people in comas.

  “I had never done anything like this before in my career and was feeling guilty all morning. Now, however, I know it was the right thing to do. I still find it difficult to believe your stories entirely but have to admit that there must be an underlying cause for all these coincidences. I’m not a believer in telepathy, but perhaps you’re all having some sort of shared dream.”

  “You don’t believe in telepathy because you haven’t met a unicorn,” I laughed.

  Nancy added, “or a dragon!” and Veronica bumped her fist.

  “We think Mearth dreamers travel to a parallel universe in their dreams,” said Malik.

  “Perhaps, Malik, but I think that a shared dream is more plausible than an alternate reality,” Dr. Price quietly disputed.

  “A dream that lasts thousands of years!?” Malik countered. He asked Mr. Narwani to pull out my paper showing that this had been going on for about five thousand years, and our conversation continued for another hour.

  Dr. Price received a phone call and told us she had to leave. She promised to discreetly inform her four patients that she now knew about Mearth and to remind them not to discuss their dreams.

  I asked her to invite them to our club when they were strong enough to attend. Dr. Price looked surprised at my request and asked why I thought they would want to come.

  I answered that it is tough to keep a secret like this. I would never have been able to make it without being able to talk about what I was going through with Malik, Ethan, and Tyler. My friends might not get to visit Mearth, but they are essential members of the team.

  Dr. Price stared at me and said that I was an extraordinary young man, which was totally embarrassing. Then she told the others they were also all special, so they got to feel uncomfortable too.

  I offered to have Mom give Tyler a ride home so that Dr. Price could go straight to the hospital. It felt good to have another teammate, well two more, if Ms. Datta can convince her husband that we aren’t all crazy.

  Chapter 5

  Dragon Lair

  December 23, Mearth

  The seven travelers arrived back at the cave well before dawn planning on an early departure, but the sky had brightened to a dullish-gray by the time they left. That was as bright as mid-winter skies get in this region of Mearth. Urtish was incessantly grumbling about punctuality and how Terra had not told him they were married on Earth. Terra countered that he wouldn’t be worrying if he hadn’t insisted on joining them and that she regretted ever telling him the truth. All of this bored the girls. So, they coaxed their dragon partners out of their nests and headed out to play.

  Saiph insisted that everyone have a healthy breakfast before leaving, which meant rousting Juice out of his warm nest to go hunting. He, of course, brought back inappropriate breakfast food and had to try again with more explicit instructions. Saiph puttered around straightening the cave until he returned. Then they spent over an hour trying to find the girls once breakfast was ready. Afterward, Saiph realized she hadn’t packed any snacks for the trip and sent Juice on another hunt with different instructions.

  The young dragons had finished breakfast and made a mess of the cave by the time he returned, which meant both parents had to straighten it again. Despite strict parental instructions, the girls did not remain close and were nowhere to be seen by the time the adults were ready to leave. The two adult dragons flew off to spend another hour searching for their offspring, followed by a good twenty minutes of scolding, sulking, and general disobedience.

  Stavius wasn’t surprised. He had expected this to happen when they arrived and explained to Janus how his family’s departures always required at least three hours. Janus, who was an only child, found this hard to accept and pointed out that dragons didn’t even need to pack. He begrudgingly agreed that Stavius’ prediction was correct when Saiph sent Juice out to forage for breakfast the second time. Janus was now also bored and suggested, “Hey, as long as we’re waiting, perhaps you can help me with something.”

  Janus led Stavius to the Soul Reaper’s room and explained about the Order of The Key. Stavius was understandably nervous about approaching the four Soul Reapers standing motionless in the room. Janus, however, casually walked past them and slid his arm into the solid rock wall. He pulled the stone back like a curtain and waved to invite Stavius to enter.

  Stavius quickly slipped past the Soul Reapers and into the room where Janus showed him L. Janus’ note.

  Janus said, “This is everything I know, other than that those books all appear to be handwritten in Latin.”

  “Ugh, I hate Latin,” groaned Stavius. “It’s like a combination of the worst aspects of my least-favorite subjects: writing and History.”

  “Yeah, it’s my worst subject as well,” agreed Janus. “But L. Janus claims to have deciphered some of it and left his findings on a workbench. I’m guessing that it’s in a room behind that door.”

  “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go into the workshop,” Stavius cheerfully replied as he pushed on the door. “Hey, it’s locked.”

  “No kidding, genius. And, it doesn’t appear to have a doorknob,” grunted Janus with a shake of his head. Some of the dragons’ grumpiness had rubbed off on the boys.

  “Who locks a door in a secret room which is only accessible by invited people?” complained Stavius.

  “Beats me. Perhaps you can search for a key in those drawers while I see if I can use some sort of magic to open it,” answered Janus.

  Janus tried every magical spell he knew to open the door while Stavius carefully searched through every cabinet and drawer. The two sat down in failure to consider their options ten minutes later.

  “Any luck with the magic?” asked Stavius.

  “Nothing that even works a little,” sighed Janus. “I’m guessing you didn’t find a key, eh?”

  “No such luck,” answered Stavius. “L. Janus was right. The books all seem to be written in Latin, although there are some ancient scrolls written i
n a language I don’t even recognize. And you do not want to know what is in those drawers. I’m not really sure what most of those objects are, but I sure hope they were carved and not mummified. Either way, I wouldn’t want to touch them.”

  The boys stared at the door for a while longer, and Stavius pointed at the silver stars and dragons randomly scattered over the door face. He said, “I wonder what those decorations mean.”

  “I don’t know what they are supposed to represent, but it has seen better days. There are scratches all over the door, and one of the panels is missing,” answered Janus.

  He was right. The door was solid wood and was designed to be faced with three rows, each with three wooden panels. The top-right panel was missing, and the rest had little silver stars and dragons embedded in them. Every panel had deep, straight scratches extending from the silver elements to the panel edges.

  “I wonder what happened to the missing panel,” asked Stavius as he stood up and touched the top-center panel. It was loose and shifted slightly to the right at his touch.

  “Well, I guess that answers that question,” he muttered as he started to sit down.

  Janus, however, jumped up and exclaimed, “Stavius, you’re a genius! The door’s not broken! It’s a puzzle!”

  Stavius tried to stop himself from sitting down at the last moment, but his efforts only caused him to fall over and crack his elbow on the hard rock floor.

  Janus was desperately jumping to reach the top panel but failing because he was too short.

  “We need to rearrange these panels! It’s like those cheap little plastic puzzles where you slide the squares around until you get a picture of a frog, or a kitty cat, or a series of numbers arranged in order. I bet rearranging the panels into the right pattern unlocks the door!” squealed Janus.

  Stavius was not feeling like a genius as he stood up to stare at the door and rub his sore elbow.

  He grumbled, “I always hated those birthday party favors. They were like the precursors to Rubik’s Cubes. I never could solve either one.”

  Janus beamed, “Well, we’re lucky that I am great at puzzles like this. I could solve a three-by-three slider in a couple of minutes if I knew the picture. However, this doesn’t look like a cat or a frog.”

  Stavius suddenly felt much more valuable as he stated, “That’s because it isn’t a picture of an animal, and those cracks and scratches aren’t accidental. This is a picture of a mighty hunter. See those three silver dragons in a row? The puzzle is a constellation map of Orion!”

  Less than five minutes later, the boys heard a satisfying click as the image of Orion firing his bow and arrow appeared on the door. The space for the missing panel was now on the bottom right, exposing a deeply carved grip on the heavy wooden door backing the moveable panels. Stavius drew a deep breath as he grasped the handle and pulled the door open.

  ✽✽✽

  The room looked and smelled like Janus’s grandfather’s workshop. There were various woodworking tools neatly arranged on the wall and something which looked like a lathe in the back. The most significant objects, however, were resting on a workbench along the right-hand wall.

  There was a sheaf of papers anchored to the bench by a polished stone cube. Cubes like these were popular on Mearth as religious symbols or decorations. Most had the sun, the moon, and the gods’ names carved on their six sides. This one had a ‘W’ on the top, an ‘N’ on the bottom, and the letters ‘L,’ ‘I,’ ‘E,’ and ‘R’ carved on the sides. It must be the artifact L. Janus had mentioned. But the object which caught the boys’ attention was the highly-polished, wooden container resting on the center of the bench. It was a scale model of the Cradle of Terra devoid of any ornamentation but with a shaft running through it and thin ropes extending from the bottom.

  Stavius extracted the wooden pins holding the two halves of the cradle together and removed the top to expose the interior of the container.

  Janus gasped, “Do you know what this is, Stavius?”

  Stavius answered, “Sure, it looks like a small model of all seven talismans fitted together. The shaft is the Spear of Mars. These pieces look like parts of the Crown of Helios. And those parts look like the Jewels of Luna. They are all stylized with no ornamentation, but I recognize them anyway.”

  “Yes, but I mean, do you know what this is?” repeated Janus.

  Stavius fought back his desire to yell at Janus for not listening. He had, after all, just explained what was sitting on the workbench. Instead, he carefully counted to ten, gritted his teeth, and said, “Why don’t you tell me what you think it is, Janus.”

  “It’s a DC motor.”

  Stavius realized Janus was right. He recognized it as being similar to the motor from a slot car he had disassembled once. It was one of the few times his dad had lost his temper. Mark had received the slot car set as a birthday present and had disassembled the car before they had even set up the track to play. Dad had yelled at him and stormed off, furious that Mark had broken his new toy so quickly. He returned fifteen minutes later to find that his son had rebuilt the car and was happily racing it around the track.

  They were definitely looking at a DC motor, although this scale model was much larger than Mark’s slot car motor. The full-size version must be incredibly powerful.

  The boys now knew why they needed all seven talismans, but they still didn’t know what would happen when they turned it on. Nor did they know where they would get power to operate it. There was no electricity on Mearth.

  Stavius said, “Janus, we’d better go. We’ll come back once we have all seven talismans and assemble them here, as L. Janus suggested. Now, however, we’d better follow the instructions in his note and leave.”

  “I agree,” said Janus. “This explains so much, but now I have even more questions than before. Let’s take L. Janus’ notes and this paperweight with us, though. Perhaps they’ll explain what we’re supposed to do with a DC motor made out of dragon stones and how to power it.”

  They slipped the sheaf of papers and stone cube into a small, leather satchel they found in the corner of the room without studying them further.

  The two boys returned to the main cavern room during the group’s final argument. No one seemed to have even noticed they had slipped out for the past few hours.

  Stavius shouted, “Hey guys, can we continue this fight in the air? I’d rather not be here when that Septumcolan army arrives.”

  “Fine, but you three stay close together and behind your father and me,” Saiph growled at her children.

  “We’ll stay nearby, but I’m not flying next to Nari,” said Sera.

  “I know you’re not because I’m flying in front of you,” countered Sera.

  “You are both wrong. We should fly in a V behind Mom and Dad. It’s a more efficient way to travel,” stated Mintaka.

  “Shut up, Mintaka,” screamed both her sisters at the same time.

  Stavius chuckled, “Yup, just like home.”

  ✽✽✽

  When they finally left, the girls rode their bonded dragons while Saiph and Juice each carried two riders. Janus and Terra rode Saiph while Stavius and Urtish rode Juice. Stavius desperately attempted to convince Janus that he should ride with his aunt. But Urtish was too heavy for Saiph to carry, and Juice insisted on taking Stavius.

  Juice flew in the lead with Saiph just to his right and slightly behind. Mintaka flew in a similar position behind her mother to complete the right leg of the flying V pattern. Sera and Nari refused to fly in such a ridiculous manner and spent the first hour of the journey racing back and forth and arguing about who should fly in front.

  Sera and Nari eventually became tired and began to whine. Saiph yelled at them to stop complaining and to fly like their sister to form the left leg of the V. They soon gave in, and Mintaka stuck out her long tongue at them when they did.

  Nari quickly blasted Mintaka with a fireball. Mintaka laughed and said in the most sickeningly sweet voice imaginable, “Oooooo
, that was so nice and warm. Would you please do it again?”

  Sera chuckled, and Nari angrily told her to shut up. She was tired and embarrassed, but her sister’s jab reminded her of her biggest complaint. She was cold.

  Late December is the beginning of the coldest part of the year in this region. Also, they were flying high in the sky, where it was much colder than on the ground. And, they were flying at a rapid pace with frigid wind and snow blowing in their faces. These are all reasons why few dragons choose to travel at this time of the year.

  The group fell into a rhythm after the girls flew into position and traveled in silence for about fifteen minutes before Nari asked, “How much farther is Grandma’s place?” That began a steady refrain of remarks like: “Are we there yet?” “How much farther?” “How long is this going to take?” “I want to go home!”

  Saiph finally asked Juice to stop for a snack after the fourteenth complaint of being hungry. He wanted to “push through,” but Saiph insisted, in no uncertain terms, that it was time for a break. She added that a snack break meant he wouldn’t have to continue carrying the half-dozen, giant beavers clutched in his claws.

  They stopped in a clearing, and Juice tossed the now-frozen beavers to the girls.

  “Hey, I can’t eat this. It’s frozen,” whined Nari.

  Sera and Mintaka poked at the stiff mammals and seemed to agree. They all wanted something warm.

  Juice angrily spun around and blasted the beavers with a small puff of flame. They were thawed within seconds, and steam was rising off their wet fur.

  “Mom! Dad just spit on our food!” shrieked Sera.

  “What? I was just warming it up,” complained Juice.

  “Ew, I’m not eating that! That’s gross,” said Nari.

  “Then you can just go hungry,” growled Juice. “We’re leaving in ten minutes whether you eat it or not.”