“I can see that.”
“Louisa,” Julia said, “I’ve got some bad news.”
Louisa seemed to brace herself. “You couldn’t find the camp?”
“Oh no,” Julia said. “We found the camp.” “Then what?”
“We … we weren’t able to find any mushrooms.”
Louisa looked from Julia to Gregory, then back to Julia. “That’s it? That’s your bad news?”
“Yes,” Julia said with mock sadness. “You said to come back with a bushel of mushrooms, but all we brought back was this.” She pulled the talisman from around her neck and held it toward Louisa.
Louisa squealed so loudly Julia was afraid it might cause a rockslide. Or remind every Gul’nog within a hundred kilometers that they were here. But it did warm her heart to see Louisa so happy.
“Oh!” Louisa said, hugging them again and again. “I can’t believe this! We are saved! However did you manage to come by this?”
Julia began to explain, but the others emerged from the cave wondering what was going on. Alyce came out with Alexander. Priscilla came back out, looking half asleep. Imogene was there. In thirty seconds, the entire band of survivors stood around Julia and Gregory, rejoicing over the return of the talisman and basking in its blue glow.
“It’s kind of a long story,” Julia said. “It’s enough to know that we did find the Gul’nog camp. Then we found the talisman. And … then we jumped off a cliff and swam in the ocean, with spears and things falling all around us.”
The crowd looked at them with awe.
“Actually,” Gregory said, “it was mostly Julia. When we found their camp, I was ready to return here, but Julia wouldn’t have it. You should’ve seen her. She was unbelievably heroic.”
Louisa took Julia by the shoulders. “Unbelievably foolish.”
Julia shrugged. “Yes, I thought that a few times along the way. But it was what you needed, wasn’t it? And we didn’t know if we would ever have the opportunity again.”
Gregory coughed. “And there is the slight possibility that there are hundreds of Gul’nog on our trail,” he said. “Angry Gul’nog … but with fewer weapons. Or very wet ones.”
This sent a tremor of fear through the group.
“Then there’s not a moment to waste,” Louisa said. She turned to Julia and Gregory. “Everyone inside, we must prepare.”
Julia followed Louisa inside their cave. She was struck again by how much damage the Gul’nog had done — and how few people lived there now. Way over against the far wall she saw her bed and longed to stretch out in it, rocks and all, but there was no time for that now.
Louisa led them to the map of the island Gregory had etched on the wall. She pointed at the volcano. “The Shadow lies here. Now that we have the talisman back, we can defeat it. But we must do so at its source.”
Gregory looked around at the women and children and wounded who remained. “But how? If we had an army, perhaps we could do this. But what can we do?”
Alyce stepped forward, Alexander’s hand in hers. “Yes, we are the weak and the wounded. But we are all that’s left, Gregory. And our courage is no less than that of an army.”
“But … what of the ones who died? Surely you haven’t finished burying all of them in a day.”
Louisa shook her head. “We will trust the Lord of Hosts to care for them until we can return.”
Alyce got a knowing look in her eye. She leaned forward boldly and took the talisman from Louisa. She stretched out the cord and placed it around Louisa’s neck.
Julia gasped. As soon as the talisman rested on Louisa’s chest, it was as if Louisa became someone else. She seemed to stand straighter, and she looked older. Her skin glowed, as if the talisman were shining from inside her.
The others cried out in surprise and joy, and as one they went to their knees.
Julia found herself with them. Could this be Louisa, the impossible stepsister who had followed Julia and Peter out the door to bring them trouble? Before her now stood — not a petulant brat — but the one thing they had all thought Peras was.
Louisa was the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.
He had answered their prayer before they had known what to pray for. And He had transformed a heart in the process.
Louisa, healer and deliverer, walked among the people. “Don’t kneel before me,” she said, touching each person on the head. As she did, Julia saw each person’s face relax. Louisa touched Gregory’s face, and it was as though the deep gash above his eye was only a spot of dirt that Louisa wiped away with her finger. A thrill went through the group.
When Louisa touched Julia’s head, Julia felt as though she were a young girl again, nestled in her father’s arms. He had been so kind then. Before. As Louisa passed to the next person, Julia caught a glimpse of the talisman. One large piece and a star-shaped hole. When they’d first seen it, the hole had been empty. Then Julia had found the missing piece and had placed it where it belonged.
Could she do that with her own father? His heart was missing some piece. He’d lost it when Mother had died. Could Julia somehow fill that hole?
“Stand, all of you,” Louisa said.
The survivors of Aedyn stood. But to Julia’s eyes they were no longer the small and broken. They were no longer even simply survivors. They stood strong and tall and ready to storm the very gates of the underworld. These were no wounded and weak. These were the warriors of the Lord of Hosts. He had his army now, and they would march on the enemy.
“The light will lead us!” Louisa said.
As she said it, a light sprang out from the talisman and shone in the cavern like a bright white flame. All the fatigue washed out of Julia — and all the hunger was replaced by a pleasant fullness similar to the one she always got after eating Christmas dinner. She felt as if she could march right up the side of the volcano, jump in with a cup of water, and vanquish the fire.
Without another word, Louisa led everyone outside their cave again. They stepped over the rubble as though it were the ruins of Jericho, and their faith in the Lord of Hosts had brought down stone walls.
Light flooded the clearing. It was still afternoon, but it might’ve been noon on a sheet of arctic ice for how brightly it shone. Louisa stepped resolutely toward the volcano, and the nineteen others fell in behind, shielding their eyes from the unaccustomed brightness. The light traveled with them, surrounding them like a shield. It no longer seemed to emanate from the talisman, but from all around.
As Julia walked, marching along in step with Louisa, she thought she could almost hear parade music playing. Here they went, striding to victory. She looked up at Louisa — stepsister, friend, and heroine — and smiled. The look Louisa gave back told Julia that come what may, the battle was theirs.
“Wait!”
Julia looked off to her left, toward the sea. The group had been walking in the light for more than twenty minutes, but she felt she could continue walking forever.
Over a ridge and upon a wooded slope, she saw Peter and the others from the rafts. “Peter!” she cried.
The men came running forward, then faltered and raised their hands against the glare of the light around Louisa’s warrior walkers.
“It’s all right!” Julia called. “It’s the power of the Lord of Hosts. You’re safe.” To Julia, Peter and the men looked exhausted but confident. She almost thought they had built a new ship and were here to take them home. But someone was missing. “Where’s Peras?”
Peter and the others approached the group. Several had warm reunions with people in Louisa’s group.
Peter seemed to be moving with difficulty, as if he were in pain. He gave Julia a gentle hug. “Hey, sis. It’s good to see you.”
“Took you long enough,” she said. “But Peter, where’s Peras?”
He looked over his shoulder. Julia saw Mitchell and Kelman come over the ridge with Peras walking between them. The large man was bound at the hands, feet, and mouth. He shuffled along in baby steps. His
long, blonde hair was stringy and matted. His clothes were in tatters, and he had bloody bandages on his right arm and around his middle.
“What on earth did you do to him?” Julia asked.
Peter walked to Louisa and looked like he might give her a hug, but instead he extended a hand as if shaking hands with a fellow scientist. “Louisa was right all along. We got out on the water, and Peras turned into … Well, if I described what his eyes did, you wouldn’t believe me. I’m still looking for a rational explanation for it all. But we discovered one thing for sure. He is not a servant of the Lord of Hosts.”
Julia beamed at Louisa. “We know. She is.”
Peter looked at Louisa with wonder. “What?”
Louisa smiled humbly. “It’s a long story. I’m just glad you saw the truth about Peras before any of you were seriously hurt. Though I see several wounds among you. Let me look at you, Peter.”
For the next fifteen minutes, the group rested on the forest turf in the bright light of the talisman as Louisa saw to every injury. Julia saw Alexander, Alyce’s son, following Louisa as she made her rounds. Louisa smiled at the boy often and seemed to be instructing him. She would whisper to him, and then they’d go to an injured man and touch him near his wound. Julia saw more than one look of amazement as something happened in the wounded men. Louisa would smile and give Alexander a hug and a word or two, and they’d move to the next man.
At last, Louisa came to Peras. Julia and Peter went over, as did nearly everyone else. They clustered around as Louisa and Peras squared off once more.
“Well, Pretender,” Louisa said, “I see you have done what I could not.”
The gag was still on Peras’s mouth. His expression remained hard, but questioning.
“I tried to tell these people that you were a traitor and blackguard,” Louisa said. “But they wouldn’t listen. It is said that a tree is known by the fruit it produces. I see you couldn’t maintain your illusion for very long at all. I’m only glad they saw through you before you were able to work your treachery.”
Louisa reached forward, and Peras flinched away as if expecting to be struck. But she merely laid her hand on his right arm. Julia wasn’t sure she liked what she saw, but it was clear from Peras’s face what she had done. He moved his arm back and forth and around as much as the bindings allowed. Judging from his manner, Louisa had healed him. She touched his belly wound next, and he had the same reaction.
Peras stood as if stunned, looking at Louisa with wide eyes. Whether he was thinking she was an idiot to heal her enemy or thinking something else altogether, Julia couldn’t tell. She only knew that she would probably not have healed him. A glance at Peter’s face made her think he wouldn’t have either.
Alexander looked from Peras to Louisa. “Healer,” he said, “why did you help him? If you make him stronger, won’t he just try to hurt us again?”
Louisa smiled mysteriously and winked at Alexander. She lifted her head to the group. “We’ve a battle to fight, men and women of the Lord of Hosts. Come, let us advance on the enemy.”
With that, she turned and strode toward the volcano. Julia and Peter and the others followed, and the light traveled with them.
CHAPTER
13
“Were there this many in the camp?” Peter looked over the battle line of Gul’nog standing between them and the active volcano.
Julia wagged her head. “A few more in the camp, I think. They lost a few at the cliff.”
Peter and Orrin looked at each other in amazement. Peter whistled. “Julia, I take back everything I ever said about girls being cowards.”
Gregory grunted. “You should’ve seen her.”
It was early evening now, and the setting sun had again broken through the Shadow near the horizon. This had the curious effect of making it brighter now than it had been at noon. Nevertheless, the shadows were long behind Louisa’s little army — and longer still behind the Gul’nog force that stood a hundred meters before them.
The people from Aedyn stood on a wide plain that led gradually up to the base of the volcano, which even now sent roiling clouds of gray ash into the sky and dumped burning rivers of lava down its slopes. The Gul’nog battle line was over a hundred strong. They had apparently either found more weapons or made them, because every Gul’nog was armed. And it didn’t look like the sunlight was bothering them in the least.
The light from the talisman was as strong as ever, but Peter didn’t feel as shielded now as he had in the dark forest. He looked at his fellow rafters and the other men, women, and children of Aedyn. It didn’t take a theoretical physicist to predict the outcome of a battle. Of course, ever since he’d come to this strange land, he’d begun to see that there just might be something beyond the laws of science and reason.
Trevor, the old man from the raft, pulled Peter aside. “Remember what you said about our hostage proving himself useful?”
Peter looked at Peras, who was still bound and gagged and held by Mitchell and Kelman. Peter smiled back at Trevor. “Exactly what I was thinking.”
For the tenth time since they’d emerged from the forest and seen the Gul’nog waiting for them, Peter reached for the knife on his belt. It was still gone. He’d lost it in the fight with Peras and had forgotten to look for it until they’d gotten on land. By then it was nowhere to be found. It had probably gone overboard in the scuffle.
So Peter settled for trying to sound tough. He walked to Peras and gave him a little shove forward. “Send them back.”
Peras, Mitchell, and Kelman looked at Peter uncertainly.
Peter glanced over at Louisa, who nodded. He pulled the gag from Peras’s mouth and began working on the bindings around his arms. “Waddle out there, get their attention, and send them back. Or we will finish what we started on the raft.”
With the gag off and his arms free, Peras looked menacing again. His eyes didn’t go black, but they narrowed. “Even now, in the presence of the Shadow, you think you can escape destruction?”
Kelman yanked Peras’s hair. Peter thought the gesture was too harsh, but then he remembered how both he and Kelman had been jerked around by Peras in the same way. Still, Peter didn’t like copying a tactic he despised.
“All right,” Peras said, probably wondering how much damage he could do with his arms free but his legs bound. “But it’s going to take more than a bright light to save you today.”
Peras took a baby step toward the Gul’nog lines, but at that very moment the creatures let out an inhuman shout and charged forward. They raised their weapons and galloped forward like a tsunami of muscle and hate.
The creatures kept coming, despite Peras’s shouts and waving arms. When they were fifty meters away, Peter could make out the crazed eyes and slobbering jowls of each one. He saw an especially large one in the middle, leading the charge, wearing spiked armor, and brandishing a white horn in one hand and a cruel-looking sword in the other. Peter recognized this Gul’nog from the raid at the cave.
Peras gave up his attempts to get their attention and retreated as quickly as he could.
The footfalls of the Gul’nog horde shook the earth. Twenty meters away they still came at full speed, their feet pounding the hardened dirt like the hooves of stampeding cattle. Weapons wouldn’t be necessary, Peter thought. They’d just run them into the ground. The survivors began to melt away from the oncoming charge.
Then the light flared and gathered into a massive ball, pulsing with power. It seemed alive, like billions of shimmering fireflies. Peter shaded his eyes but couldn’t look away. The ball of light rose higher, grew brighter and more blinding, until the attackers were only ten meters away, then it launched itself at the Gul’nog like a flash of brilliant lightning.
The creatures yelped in fear and stumbled. Some fell. Others turned and ran. The largest one pulled up in surprise, but he had no fear. He saw his army faltering, so he raised his horn and blew.
It was the same rumbling bellow Peter had heard before. It sho
ok his bones and reverberated in his chest.
The Gul’nog stopped fleeing and rejoined ranks. But they did not advance. The two forces stood in a stalemate, the Aedyn troupe regaining their courage and the Gul’nog shielding their eyes from the light, but not turning in retreat.
Still, Peras’s eyes were somehow shrouded in darkness. He had his back to the Gul’nog, and he looked up with hatred at Peter and Julia, lingering on Louisa with a hatred so intense it seemed to spark the air. But he turned to the creatures and shouted, “Back! Let us pass. In the name of the Shadow, let us through!”
The creatures did not move. They looked confused. Then some of them seemed to notice Peras’s bindings for the first time, and this caused them to step back. They looked at Louisa with fear, as if she were some kind of witch with powers that could not only bind their strongest ally but possibly do worse to them.
Though none of the Gul’nog had fled, Louisa stepped forward as if no wall of giant ogres stood in her way. Peter and the others followed.
And the Gul’nog moved aside. They backed away and made room. Like Moses walking through the midst of the Red Sea, Louisa and her little army — along with Peras and his handlers — passed through the Gul’nog host and strode toward the volcano.
“I thought I was free of this place forever,” Alyce said. The group stopped walking and stared into the entrance at the base of the volcano.
Here was the place where they’d all been slaves under Captain Ceres, where he and the Gul’nog forced them to search for something — the talisman, it turned out. But they hadn’t known that. All they had known back then was torture and hopelessness.
Julia looked directly up the slope of the volcano. The eruption had blown out a side of the mountain, flattening trees on the far side of the island and blanketing it in white ash. But the side where they stood looked unchanged. High above, the cone’s edge glowed orange and the air shimmered in the heat where lava continued to flow. Before them, the tunnel opened like a portal to nothingness. The light from the talisman surrounded the group, but barely illuminated the jagged edges of the rock walls ahead. Were they really going in there? Did the Shadow really reside inside?
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