***
“Jesca, are you all right?”
In the blink of my eyes, I’m no longer walking behind Onawah’s mother, but rather Sebastian. As we continue to walk, he turns his concerned gaze on me. “Jesca?”
“It’s all right. Just a vision,” I say as I keep my brisk walk behind him.
He slows his pace and his eyes widen as he asks, “Right now?”
I nod my head. “Yes.”
Another tremor hits, knocking all four of us into the wall of the tunnel. I notice an outlet to the right and another ahead on the left. The passage is lined with lanterns set intermittently along the wall. Which tunnel did Nate take? Both Sebastian and I push off the wall and take hold of a lantern. As Luke helps Ms. Olivia up, I notice a gash on his forehead.
“Your head.”
Ms. Olivia instinctively places her hand on the wound and bows her head. Within seconds, she pulls her hand away and the wound is completely gone. Without wasting another minute, she takes hold of a lantern and leads the way through the main passage passing first the outlet on the right and then the one on the left. I slow my steps to look down the tunneling on the left. I see cavities branching off on either side of this vein of the mound.
Nate could be anywhere — or nowhere. What if Xander catches him? What will Nate do? What if the hybrid kills them both?
I try to push those thoughts from my mind and stride to catch up with Sebastian. Ira has gone after them. He will find them and keep them safe until the ritual is done.
The earth beneath us rises as we walk on behind Ms. Olivia’s lead; we are on an incline. Curious about Ms. Olivia’s lead, I wonder how she knows where she’s going.
Without me saying a world, Ms. Olivia answers my thought, “When I got to the mounds. I could feel the pull within me, leading me to the kiva, leading me to my purpose. There was a blockade of timber logs in front of it, barricading the sacred place from the rest of the mounds passages.”
The passage breaks to the left as the incline levels out for a few strides. Then, another slanted ascent has us rising again. Curious as to why Daniel or any of the others never tried to enter the kiva, I ask, “Why didn’t they take down the logs? Go inside?”
The slope of the ground levels out again just as Sebastian stops walking. I look ahead of him. So have Luke and Ms. Olivia.
“The kiva is a sacred place and this was the most sacred and coveted by our ancestors,” she says as she holds up her lantern and points to the passage wall on the right.
The illuminating lantern lights both the wall and beyond, an opening. Ms. Olivia motions for me to come to her. Silently, I move past Sebastian, Luke and closer to her. Before us, displayed on the wall, is a scene with rudimentary figures in motion divided in sections, scenes.
Ms. Olivia points to the one at the far left and says, “This is where it starts.”
The first set shows a figure holding a bundle in its arms, a small face peeking out from the bundle; a baby. Around the figure and baby is a scene of war, figures battling against each other. A dividing line separates that scene from the next. In the next one, the same figure from before is holding the hand of a smaller figure, a child. In the distance is a drawing of the mound with a thatch-roofed hut atop it. Smoke is rising from the top of the mound into the sky into a thin layer of what looks like clouds. Above that, three stars aligned just as I’d seen them in my vision. The next set of images show one figure, a man, sitting across from another smaller figure with long hair. A fire separates them from each other.
As I study the scene, and remember my vision detailing Onawah’s ritual, I mutter, “It is the scene in my vision. This is the shaman and Onawah.” My eyes dart to Ms. Olivia. “Is this the ritual?”
Ms. Olivia’s eyes meet mine. “It is the ritual Onawah, your ancestor, did to summon the legacy onto her tribe, forever branding their bloodlines.”
Ms. Olivia motions with the lantern toward the final scene in the mural. A figure of a man standing at the opening of the kiva, spear and tomahawk in hand. Words below written in a foreign language.
I ask, “What does it say?”
“It says that only those with original bloodline of this legacy may enter,” says Ms. Olivia as she turns away from me and moves into the dark opening beyond the mural.
Luke follows behind her, but Sebastian waits for me to enter. I move ahead, but I’m stopped by Sebastian’s hesitant words, “Jesca, I cannot enter.”
I look at him, shocked. “Why?” I ask.
He lowers his lantern by his side. “I can’t watch you—leave.”
His voice catches on the last word as he draws in his breath. His eyes wrinkle and his mouth tightens as he tries desperately to keep his mourning from spilling over. “I’m sorry.”
I hold my breath, careful not to let my own feelings overflow, and nod quickly. I turn away from him before the mixture of my own emotions slips from me. Ahead of me, through the passage, I see Luke and Ms. Olivia waiting, their lanterns raised, giving light to their surroundings.
Slowly, I cross the invisible threshold between the tunnel and the passage to the kiva, walking toward them. Ms. Olivia walks around the two cylinder legs of a ladder cresting an opening in the rock below our feet. Standing next to the opening now, I watch as Ms. Olivia holds the lantern in one hand and takes hold of the wooden legs with the other as she lowers herself step by step into the hatch.
“I’ll follow,” says Luke as he reaches for my lantern, takes it from my hand and lowers it to the ground. He continues, “I’ll be right behind you.”
I look at him wearily as I come around the ladder, place my hands on the two legs of the ladder and step down. As I lower myself into the kiva, I angle my eyes to the passage opening, hoping Ira has found Nate and Xander.
CHAPTER 40: LABYRINTH
Xander
I run through the main vein of the passage, just in time to see Nate topple over two of the lit lanterns before turning left down another passage.
“Nate!”
He doesn’t even flinch, just keeps running.
Running hard and staying close behind him, I call to him, “Nate, I know you can hear me in there!”
He picks up speed and pulls away from me, just as my footing begins to slip. Damn it, I’m sliding! As the ground beneath me shakes, pulling the gravel out from under me, I fall into the stone wall, hitting my shoulder against a jagged edged boulder. The pain shoots straight through my arm and into my neck. I breathe through it, get my footing and stumble along the passage. Another aftershock knocks me against the wall, hitting the same shoulder again and sending another wave of nauseating pain into the core of my arm, numbing my hand. With my breathing coming faster because of the spike in pain, I feel the dizziness set in. I look down at my arm hanging limply from my body. Dislocated, great! I lean my back against the tunnel wall and with my eyes; I follow the sporadic lighting from the lanterns ahead.
One, two, three, four outlets from the main vein. I notice two lanterns have been knocked over. Hell, he could be down any of them! The earth behind me begins to tremble just as Ira appears at my side. His eyes are targeting all of the passages. “Which one?”
I grunt through the pain, “He disappeared ahead of me. I don’t know. Wait, why are you here? You should be with Jesca!”
Ira looks down at me, taking inventory of my pain. His eyes hone in on my shoulder and he steps toward me.
I tense at his approach and ask, “What are you doing?”
Ira’s golden eyes rest on mine. “Healing you.”
He places one of his hands on the back of my shoulder, and then rests his other on top of my collarbone.
“I didn’t know that Rephaim had the ability to heal,” I tell him as I close my eyes and wait for the warmth of healing.
Suddenly, the contortion of my shoulder is raised and popped back into its p
lace in one swift motion. The pain follows, bending me in half. “Ahhh! Damn it, Ira!”
As I rise back up, I notice Ira has disappeared.
“Ira?”
Shit, where is he going?
With the pain beginning to subside, I roar, “Ira!”
Ira is at my side again, growling, “He isn’t in these passages.”
With the feeling coming back to my hand, I flex it to get the blood pumping through it again. “He was here. This place is like a labyrinth! I need to get into his head just long enough to track him.”
I close my eyes and let go of the block fastened and fixed on my mind.
Silence.
Ira groans, “What are you doing?”
Agitated with his interruption, I open my eyes and glare at him. “Trying to find him. If even the smallest part of Nate shows itself while under the hybrid’s control, I’ll be able to find him.”
I close my eyes again and open my mind and think, “C’mon, Nate. Fight it, cousin.”
Silence.
“C’mon!”
Silence.
“I won’t let it take her, Xander. If it means my death, so be it.” Nate’s thought comes to me so strong, I expect to open my eyes and see him standing right in front of me. Locked onto his presence now, I open my eyes and walk straight ahead, past the first two outlet passages.
I look back at Ira standing hunched over in the passage waiting for me to give him direction. “This way.”
I walk straight ahead, as I send Nate my thoughts. “Nate, you don’t need to run away. Ira is here with me. We won’t let the hybrid Dweller take Jesca or you.”
I feel his presence stronger to my right just as I come up on the third outlet. I run quickly through the passage, Ira striding just behind me.
I hear Nate think, “I can’t let it take her.”
Is he not hearing me? I think, “Nate! It won’t take her! None of us will let it take her! I won’t let it take either of you! I promised! I won’t break that promise, cousin!”
I feel Nate’s presence getting stronger as he thinks, “I won’t either.”
Instantly, his presence lifts, shrouded once again in silence.
I stop walking and hiss, “Damn it!”
“What happened?” asks Ira.
“I lost him,” I say as I kick the dirt under me, sending a rock tumbling along the passage. Watching it roll, it ricochets from two fallen lanterns.
I move toward the lanterns as I think over what I said to Nate. “It won’t take her. None of us will let it take her,” and what he said in return, “I won’t either.”
The flash of lightning and roar of thunder pouring through the tunnel opening in the distance has me fixated as I remember when I’d seen this very tunnel before, in a vision––walking through the tunnel and the woman in the kiva.
As I let the images set in I turn around to face Ira, tell him what I’ve seen, when I spy Sebastian leaning against the wall of one of the outlets, head tilted back against the stone wall.
Feeling my legs weakening from where my thoughts are taking me, I stumble toward him and ask harshly, “Sebastian, where is Jesca?”
The words don’t sound like my own. They are tearing, breaking, falling apart, like me right now.
Sebastian lulls his head toward me and his expression becomes panicked.
He pushes his body from the rock wall as I grab his shirt and meet him eye to eye. “Where is Jesca?”
He points down the main passage into an opening at the other end and says feebly, “In the kiva.”
I let go of his shirt as it sinks in.
“Nate is going after her,” I whisper breathlessly.
Temporarily suspended in a state of shock, I shuffle a few feet down the tunnel. The passage seems to stretch forever before my eyes, the other end so far away. I tell myself to run, but my legs feel like they are weighted down with lead as I continue to sludge down the passage.
“No, Xander! The ritual has already begun!” Sebastian’s words pull me from my stupor. I run as hard as my body will carry me through the passage to get to Jesca and Nate.
CHAPTER 41: LIFE OR DEATH
Nate
The heavy lethargic curtain the hybrid Dweller has thrown over me is fading suddenly. I didn’t want to run from her, but I had to before it attacked. I felt its temperament stirring inside, about to blow, and I needed to get out of there. I ran as fast as I could away from all of them for their own safety.
Through the clearing fog in my head, I hear Xander’s voice like a beacon of light. “C’mon, Nate. Fucking fight it!”
The hybrid Dweller’s hold on my mind loosens suddenly, allowing my thoughts to break free. What has happened to make it weaken? Not wanting to think too long on it and chance its return with vengeance, I tell Xander my thoughts. “I won’t let it take her, Xander!”
I mean every word. If I have to hold this hybrid Dweller in me to keep her safe, I’ll die with it in me before I let it loose into this world again. Suddenly, I feel the strength of Xander’s presence expand as he sends me another thought. “Nate, you don’t need to run away. Ira is here with me. We won’t let the hybrid Dweller take Jes or you.”
He is too close; I can feel him right on me. I get up from the cavity I’m hunkered down in and dart across the main passage into another side cavity. Still free of the hybrid Dweller I think, “I can’t let it take her.”
Xander’s forceful energy comes at me through his thoughts loud and clear.
“Nate! It won’t take her! I won’t let it take either of you! I won’t break that promise!”
Suddenly, a series of images saturate my mind––Jesca stepping down into an opening in the earth, holding onto a ladder. As she steps away from the ladder, a fire pit rises in the middle of the room. I remember this room, this kiva from Sebastian, Xander and Jesca talking about their visions.
Oh no! She is about to perform the ritual! My panic is suddenly quelled by a constricting haze settling back over me. Son of a bitch! The hybrid used me to see where she was. I can’t let him take back over! If he does, he will attack her through me! I think of Sam, fighting for control of his body and soul beyond the veil. I remember him having Jesca in a strangle hold, a dagger against her throat. He stopped it. He surfaced the heavy fog of Michael’s evil soul and he stopped the control. I can surface it too. I send my thought to Xander, “I won’t either.”
CHAPTER 42: SACRED
Jesca
My feet touch down on the hard ground in the kiva. With the lanterns our only light, the sacred room is cold, dim and damp. I hear the wind howling above me and the rolling thunder sounds oddly closer.
The warm smell and orange glow of kindling wood animates the murals on the kiva’s walls. Luke is stoking the beginnings of fire in the middle of the kiva as Ms. Olivia lays a thick woven blanket down on the ground in front of the fire pit. I notice one has already been placed on the other side. I walk over to the vacant blanket and sit down, facing the fire.
“You can hear the outside world in here because of the ventilation hatch,” says Ms. Olivia as she sits on her own blanket. She continues explaining, “It’s above the opening into the kiva.”
“What’s it for?” I ask.
Ms. Olivia takes hold of a tightly wrapped bundle of hay-like leaves and branches and places the tip over the growing fire in the pit. “For the spirit to rise,” she says.
Luke rises from the center of the kiva and walks back into the shadows.
I hear Ms. Olivia soft whispers as she hits the bundle of branches. She opens her eyes and begins waving the smoking bunch of branches into the air. She walks around the now-blossomed fire to me. She begins waving the tightly woven grass and leaves in front of my face. “Rub your hands in the smoke,” she says, placing the sage and cedar under my hands, letting the smoke rise into
them as I rub them together.
Olivia whispers, “Sage and Cedar. Both burned together will keep evil spirits from entering this sacred place and allow purification of your soul.”
As I breathe in the fume, I feel my body lighten and my mind become heavy. Ms. Olivia turns and leaves me, going back to her side of the fiery pit, and sits on her blanket.
Her face glows beyond the flicking flames of the fire, her whispering ritual becoming a voluminous chant now. I don’t understand the chants; they are spoken in her native language. Even though the meaning of the words is lost with me, their mystical dominance in this room takes precedence over me quickly. Seemingly hypnotized, I stare beyond the fire at Ms. Olivia. Her features suddenly transform into the amber-eyed shaman from my vision.
* * *
The shaman’s lips move as the voice of Ms. Olivia escapes them. Bit by bit, the voice deepens until it is only the shaman’s tone leading the ritual. This isn’t real. I’m in the kiva. I tell myself to rise, but I’m motionless, in a vision. I see an open palm moving toward me out of the corner of my eye. The shaman passed the copper medal to Onawah’s mother in my last vision. I look up into the woman’s eyes as my hand extends to collect the medal. She tries holding back the tears rimming her eyes as she places the medal in my palm. As it touches my skin, it instantly warms my hand, the tendrils of heat ribboning through the veins of my arm, my chest, my core follows quickly. All of a sudden, the medal begins to glow brightly, reflecting native symbols along the rim.
The growing fieriness running along my skin seems to rise in one spot, just above my chest. I look down and see the Copula resting just below my neck gleams with an afterglow that warms me in unison with the growing warmth of the ancient native medal in my hand. Feeling overcome by the building heat stirring within me, my eyes close.
***
When I open them, the glowing medal in my palm is gone. I look up in the direction I’d seen Onawah’s mother and she is gone.
I look beyond the quivering blaze and see the warm golden glow the flame casts in Ms. Olivia’s eyes. Her voice rises, forming a singsong chant, and her eyes remain fixed on me in heavy concentration.
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