The Seventh Seal (The Chronicles of Daniel Stone Book 1)

by A. J. Dobbs

  Daniel Stone was in two battles for survival: the physical one that he faced from Smee and his own fight to get back from a dark place within. He was unable to speak and could not make eye contact. Normal sounds were nothing more than unrecognisable noise to him so when Smee came in to check on him he was angry when he got no response.

  ‘Snap out of it, boy. What sort of man do you expect to become if you can’t deal with a bit of danger? You shouldn’t blame me for this, you know… I’ve shown you the truth. Those Keepers are the evil ones here, they and your mother and father are the ones who have lied to you… they made you like this, not me… talk, boy.’

  Frustrated, he walked out of the tent and met Simean.

  ‘That boy is a mess; he won’t speak, eat or do anything. Anyway he can wait; how are the preparations going?’

  ‘Good, we’ve created a minefield in the middle section of the plain and we’ve looked at all possible attack options, every nook and cranny we’ve covered… they won’t stand a chance if they’ve come for a fight.’ He laughed.

  ‘Don’t be too cocky, Simean, they will be prepared… don’t underestimate them; it will be your undoing,’ Smee warned.

  ‘How long do you think we will have to wait, Smee?’

  ‘Not long… they will be with us soon enough, just keep the men ready.’

  ‘Do you want me to do anything with the boy?’

  ‘Do? What can you do? He’s just a weak-minded Earthien like all of them, pathetic in the extreme.’

  Simean grew angry. ‘You’d do well, Smee, to keep your mouth shut… all those men out there are from Earth or Arthe and those “weak-minded” men, as you call them, are prepared to fight with you, including me.’

  Smee was taken aback for a moment. ‘Yes, well… I was referring to the boy… not you.’

  ‘I know who you were referring to.’ Simean turned and walked off angrily.

  *

  Daniel was still in a confused state, but amongst the noise, he had picked out two words from Smee’s outburst at him: mother and father. They had somehow acted like beacons to the darkness that had enveloped him. Perhaps just as a child’s first words of ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ reach out from within, so now in his darkest times two simple but important words connected once again somewhere deep inside his brain. Two short moments of clarity, two lights to momentarily lift the darkness and for a brief moment he wondered where he was.

  He had a conscious thought about his current predicament but it frightened him. In his mind’s eye he was standing on the edge of a lake and on the other side his mother and father were calling him to come home. As he put a foot into the lake a large stone head began to emerge from the middle, creating rippling waves that were instantly whipping at his feet. Piercing eyes glowed with menace and its forehead and scalp mutilated by cracks and crazes played on Daniel’s fears and he quickly stepped back from the water as the stone head laughed at him.

  ‘You are not the Keeper of the Seventh Seal, boy, I am,’ the head bellowed at him. It was Smee.

  Daniel’s mental recoil cut all his enlivened brain activity and his mother and father faded along with Smee’s stone head and the lake as the darkness, once again took over. However, he had made connections; brain signals had flowed down paths he had shut down and somewhere inside, Daniel was still there waiting for his moment.

  *

  By evening the Pelican was full of locals all gossiping about the group in the corner, and furtive glances and concerned faces only added to the weight of the Professor’s earlier words on all of us. As we all sat around the same table with wonderful food and drink, our appetites were quashed by the anxious tension of what we were about to embark on. It wasn’t the danger as such; we faced danger every day. It was the thought that we had to go and train, as the Professor referred to it, while poor Daniel, in goodness knows what state, was left alone. The thought that we could be injured or worse, training in highly dangerous conditions made it seem a foolhardy exploit. If we were to lose our lives then better it was for a cause worth losing them for.

  ‘Professor, I don’t mean to be rude and I think I speak for the whole group here… we don’t have time to train. We all know the dangers of what we face in the Eastern Desert, but that’s where we need to be!’ exclaimed Jade.

  ‘Jade… all of you…’ The Professor looked at each of us.

  ‘I understand your eagerness, but remember Daniel is safe. The danger for him will come when we arrive. If we are not at our best, then we will be letting him down.’

  The Professor’s normal jokiness had now gone. ‘We only have one chance of saving Daniel; all I’m trying to do is give us the best chance… I know what I am proposing is high risk, but all I ask is that you trust my judgement.’

  ‘The Professor is right. As much as I want Daniel back, you have to be prepared; you have to give him and yourselves the best chance of success…’ said Sarah.

  ‘Very well, what do we need to do, Professor?’ said James, echoing the thoughts of us all.

  ‘We need to be like a wasp.’ More riddles.

  ‘What does that mean?’ I said, joining in with the impatience expressed by the others.

  ‘Well we are outnumbered by a considerable margin so our tactics in the fight must reflect that. Like the wasp we are small and agile, a difficult target but with a mighty sting. If we can think and act like the wasp does, we can strike and flee, taking Daniel with us. Our wasp will be the Theran fighting triangle.’

  ‘That’s all very well, Professor, but as soon as they see we don’t have the Seventh Seal they will kill him,’ said Lucius despairingly.

  ‘Ahh, yes, the Seventh Seal… don’t worry about that… Albertus will take care of the Seventh Seal, Lucius.’

  By now we were more confused by the situation than when we had started; the Professor, as usual, was talking in riddles and half facts and well, we did just have to trust him.

  Sarah looked at the Professor with a concerned look. ‘What is Albertus planning? If he has some hair brained plan, then I want to know about it.’

  ‘Sarah, the truth is I don’t know; when you’re dealing with the balance, fixed plans are not reliable, you have to just pick a direction to travel in and then respond and change to the environment you are presented with. This is how we do things on Thera; this is how we maintain balance… it’s not hair brained, as you put it… we know what we are doing.’

  ‘For your sake I hope you do,’ she replied.

  Paris now joined in the conversation with a sarcastic tone. ‘Alright, Professor, putting aside wasps and the Seventh Seal, which we don’t have, what are we going to do on a freezing cold mountain with no equipment?’

  The Professor was now back in a jocular mood. ‘Paris, you ask an excellent question and you will all find out when we get together again on the mountain tomorrow; we leave at dawn. I have organised all the equipment we need already so you will just need your min-ed clothing and a good night’s sleep. Sarah, I’m afraid you won’t be able to come with us; you too, Geddy, it’s far too dangerous for you. We have a much higher tolerance to the cold and lack of oxygen due to our slower metabolism; you would not be able to survive, I’m afraid. Albertus will come for you within the day and we will meet you in the Eastern Desert.’

  Sarah turned to all of us. ‘Good luck to you all… stay together and be safe,’ she said emphatically.

  Prophetic words, as it turned out.

  13th September 2012, Earth

  We arrived at Everest base camp, 17,600 feet above sea level at first light. The Professor travelled with me and we were greeted by a series of tents and two Sherpas, who talked to the Professor like old friends. It was cold, even with our min-ed clothing, and more difficult to breathe than on Thera. I’m not sure if it was the lack of oxygen or the view that took my breath, but this was indeed one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The scale of the Himalayan Mountains was beyond all our collective experience. The crispness of the air and sheer mas
s of the terrain was very humbling. I felt so small within such a huge landscape and buried within these emotions was fear; the mountains felt like sleeping giants. I would swear I could see them moving as my mind played its little tricks on me, taking my imaginative wonderings and making up its own reality. Everest stood proud, the patriarch of the giant family, herding the smaller child mountains around it to keep them safe. I wondered if Everest would keep us safe today…

  The Professor called us together.

  ‘Well, welcome, everyone, to Everest. I’m sure having soaked up these wonderful views for the past few moments you are now wondering what I have in store for you. I have brought you here to one of the harshest and most dangerous environments on Earth so that you will quickly learn to sense and respond to each other’s needs without consciously thinking. When we leave here and head for the Eastern Desert, we will have to face Smee and his force of men. We need to be like the wasp and combine fright with flight. We need to be able to control a Theran fighting triangle without a Seventh Seal Keeper and we need to win. So, my friends, we are at the base camp, and using ladders, ropes and crampons we are going to climb up through the Khumba Icefall.’

  He turned and so did we, like automatons, to look up at the imposing river of ice from the Khumba Glacier.

  ‘We are going to make our way to what is known as Camp 1, which is 2000 feet above where we are now. The Khumba Icefall is deadly; there are deep crevasses, often hidden by weak snow bridges and shifting and falling ice. The risk of avalanche is high and fierce storms may blow up unexpectedly. We will need to work together, protecting each other and on the constant lookout for danger. We will tie off, in two pairs and a three; Elias, Paris, you come with me, James and Thomas, Lucius and Jade, you go as pairs. The Sherpas will leave us here. I will lead.’

  The Professor had now become very matter of fact, issuing simple and short instructions.

  The Khumba Glacier sweeps down bisecting Everest and Nuptse, an adjacent mountain, like a blue and white snake, slowly moving, creaking, and alive. The blue ice, dense and devoid of air, was mesmerising and as the charmer charms a real snake, so this big blue and white snake charmed me. Its skin was not scales but deadly cracks and crevasses, a labyrinth of danger, a labyrinth where we were about to walk to try to tame the beautiful beast.

  Our route, as balance would have it, was not all down to guesswork. Our friendly Sherpas, known as the ‘ice doctors’, a name given to them for their knowledge and understanding of the glacier, had already prepared what we hoped was a safe route for us. They had laid out ladders as bridges across the open crevasses, across cracks so deep no light could find its way down to their bottom, and strung ropes across the steeper sections to aide our progress. The problem, of course, was that the white snake moved, only by small amounts but nonetheless its constant shifting, like a fidgeting child created dangers we could only be fearful and respectful of. If we were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, she would snap. This snake’s bite was fatal.

  Just before we left, the Professor handed each of us a watch. We all looked strangely at the object and he smiled at our reactions. I had never worn a watch before and had often wondered what use they were.

  ‘Wear these, my friends. Time is both friend and foe; if we are impetuous, it will kill. Take time in all you do today; be aware of its passing with patience. All the watches are set to the current time of 10am; we will take all day but must be at Camp 1 no later than 6pm. That is the reason for giving you watches. You are Therans and I know you do not mark time, but today you must; our lives could depend on it. We do not want to be stuck on the glacier at night.’

  I looked with fascination at the watch face; three hands synchronised in movement, destined to forever turn and tell time. The second hand moved in a semi-smooth motion, juddering slightly with each passing second and for a moment, I found this most disturbing. It was like having a countdown timer to my life, each second a second lost, an opportunity lost. I now understood why we don’t wear watches on Thera. Then I came to think of it as a heart, each tick a beat, and when I put it to my ear, the mechanical tick-tock was quite soothing. I came to love my watch that day. Its black face with white numerals was embellished with a small inverted red triangle above the centre and above this was an emblem, which looked like a propeller similar to that of old planes used by the armies on Earth and Arthe. On the outer edge of the dial in small capital letters was the word ‘LONDON’. My new ‘friend’ taught me how important time is, how precious moments with friends and loved ones can be.

  ‘Okay, is everyone ready?’ commanded the Professor.

  We all nodded in acknowledgement and now fully clothed in min-ed from head to toe, backpacks on and full of food and water, we set off, walking on the strange spikey crampons to give us grip on the ice.

  The ice crunched and cracked beneath our feet, which was a good thing. If it were too soft, the chances of avalanche and ice collapses would be increased. We headed skyward up into the heart of Everest and the Khumba Glacier.

  It had proved quite difficult to breathe when we were stationary, but now we were moving, even with a Theran metabolism, it was hard work. I was feeling dizzy, lightheaded, and quite glad that I was tied on to Paris and the Professor.

  ‘How are you doing back there?’ asked Paris.

  ‘I could think of better ways to spend a day. I’m feeling quite queasy.’

  ‘Me too, just take it nice and slowly as the Professor said; step by step, minute by minute, we will keep moving upwards.’

  ‘Can we stop talking now?’ I pleaded.

  ‘Sorry, Elias,’ said Paris.

  I turned to see the others making steady and steadfast progress behind me and was heartened they were all safe.

  We had been walking for two hours according to my new wrist friend and I had noticed little change in my surroundings. The colour palette was simple: plenty of white and grey and some blue in the sky’s cloud windows. With the weather dull and overcast I worried about our fate as my imagination created an endless stream of possibilities. A storm up here would be of a different magnitude to one on Thera, even one in the Northern Ice Fields, which I had experienced many times.

  We had become quite used to our rhythm now. Each foot we planted created a familiar sound, crunch and crack, and just as a musician uses a metronome for tempo so the sound of our crunching feet did the same for us, setting a steady pace up into the heavens of Earth. The crunches and cracks continued behind us and this background soundscape eventually became lost in familiarity, until in a new moment our world shifted.

  Just in front of me I heard the Professor lay down his foot as he had for the past two hours and the sound changed. No one noticed but me, but it was too late.

  I waited, hoping that all was well, but all I heard was crack and then my line tightened and pulled. Paris screamed as the Professor fell like a stone into a black unknown. I was fortunate to be still on solid ice and reacted instantly, digging in hard with my crampons and grabbing onto the rope in a one-man tug of war.

  Paris had partial grip but was on her backside, sliding after the Professor. I now held on for dear life thinking that the others would soon follow behind and give me some help to pull everyone out. Fear gripped me; where were they?

  Fear now turned to panic and I strained to turn, still taking the weight of the Professor and Paris. There was no one there and the weather had also closed further. We may as well have been blind walking up the glacier for we failed to notice the subtle but deadly weather change. I shouted, ‘James… Thomas… Jade… Lucius…’, but there was no response. The thin air was crippling as my body strained to take the weight and I had to focus on holding them, as slowly panic turned to despair. What had happened to my friends?

  *

  James, Thomas, Lucius and Jade had been walking steadily behind us from the outset in a tightly formed line. I’m not sure whether it was the fact that there were three of us or the Professor was just pushing the pace a litt
le quicker than he and we realised, but progressively a gap had opened up between us and the trailing group that we hadn’t noticed.

  James was the first to realise, but his shouts to us were lost in the thin cold air, where sound like our own breathing struggled in the harsh environment. As the weather had closed in, ghost-like, they lost sight of us.

  ‘James, what are we going to do?’ asked a worried Thomas.

  James looked back. ‘Lucius, Jade, come here quickly.’

  ‘What’s the problem?’ gasped Lucius.

  ‘We’ve lost them…’ He could not say anything else and nor did he have the time as Lucius launched into him.

  ‘How could this happen? We were right here with them. James, you were in front, didn’t you see them move from sight?’

  ‘I was concentrating on my feet and where I was placing them. I was looking down not up… they must have just been going too fast.’

  James now thought, attack not defend. ‘Anyway, it’s not my fault; you were just behind us and you should have seen them too,’ his voice now angry.

  ‘Oh, shut up, all of you, bickering is not going to find them. I think it’s time to take the Professor’s advice, to see if we are stronger together rather than alone. Get your seals out,’ said Jade in a calmer, more commanding tone.

  *

  I was now really struggling, my strength was waning fast and I was starting to slip. I caught sight of my watch; it was approaching midday and with the temperature rising slightly, the danger we were in was increasing. The little second hand kept turning; each new second could be the one that marked our demise.

  This is the strangeness of time; in a moment your life can be changed forever. Life and death are only separated by moments like the seconds on my watch and my time, I felt, had come. I could see Paris still fighting to get a grip and help me, but the weight of the Professor was just too much and her grip on the ice gave way. This was all that was needed, a single moment where it all changed.