Eighth Fire (36 page)

Mrs. Shadowitz turned and looked him in the
eyes. “Had it not been for Tim she would have died that day; she
almost did anyway. It was his love for her that enabled him to find
her and she doesn’t even remember.”

She wiped her nose lightly with a handkerchief
and continued walking. “Shirley had no idea that Tim had romantic
feelings for her. She thought they were just close friends. Of
course she thought that; Tim had given her no reason to think
otherwise, but it was these very feelings that allowed him to
remanifest to where she was, and just in the nick of time too.”

Steve said, “I thought you had to think of a
place in order to remanifest.”

“That’s usually true, but the important thing is
to visualize the place and to make it as real in your mind as if
you were already there. Tim visualized himself in Shirley’s
arms.”

He pondered a moment and said, “I understand.”
He nodded slightly while concluding in his mind that Tim still
loved his wife and that was why he was there at the stables the day
Mark was born.

“I don’t think you do, not fully. You see; had
Shirley chosen Tim, or anyone else for that matter, none of this
would have happened. She loves you, of that there can be no doubt
and she has never associated you with the cause of her suffering. I
mean, how could she know? How could you have known? Nageed Shade’s
intent was to prevent your firstborn from being born.”

“Nageed Shade? I know about Benrah, but who or
what is Nageed Shade?”

“Benrah can’t harm anyone with a specific
destiny directly, but he can harm those associated. The moment
Shirley agreed to marry you she was targeted by Benrah. Nageed
Shade is the chief prince of Angra Mainyu’s hoards and as such
subject to Benrah’s wishes.”

“Angra Mainyu?”

“I believe you know him as Lucifer. While Benrah
and,” she looked at Steve, “Lucifer can manifest in whatever
corporeal form they choose, Nageed Shade must possess another’s
flesh in order to carry out physical acts and that is exactly what
he did fourteen years ago.”

“Benrah is the son of Lucifer?”

Mrs. Shadowitz nodded. “Nageed possessed a
caretaker at the Zimbabwe national animal preserve and that is
where he took Shirley. He has an affinity for living organs and
having his victims staked out on the ground watching helplessly
while he consumes them. He was actually the one that taught Central
and South American tribes how to cut out a victim’s organs while
they still lived and how to save the heart for last...

“Tim arrived after he’d taken one of her
ovaries. He knew he couldn’t beat Nageed alone since Nageed imparts
the strength of twenty strong men to whomever or whatever he
possesses, so Tim remanifested back to Shana and Gerod, grabbed
them and remanifested back. Shana remanifested and brought more
help while Tim and Gerod did their best to keep Nageed away from
her. Nageed just tossed them aside when they attacked and continued
with his meal. Gerod wishes he had finished developing his bug
bombs sooner; they could have helped prevent a lot of the damage
Shirley suffered.

“Her body healed with treatment and her ovaries
grew back but her mind never recovered. I doubt that it ever will.
Her mind doesn’t want to remember what happened. It causes her to
just shut down, to faint whenever anything might trigger those
memories and, as you’ve seen, she’s pretty hostile about Mark and
James being here. It’s her mind’s way of coping.

“Tim’s mind suffered too. He hides it well, but
the scars are visible if you knew him before it happened. I don’t
know if you noticed but Tim never uses contractions when he speaks,
and for Tim that’s very unnatural. Some part of his mind was broken
that day as well.”

Mrs. Shadowitz pointed out one of Shirley’s
paintings hanging on the wall as they approached. “That was her
favorite horse. She always rode her in the flags matches until she
made second team. Then she had to switch between horses to keep
from tiring out the horses too much.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Aftermath

Mark, Nick and several other students arrived on
the healing ward balcony with Cynthia Dover when she remanifested
back. Mark, followed by Nick, went directly inside, scanned for
familiar faces among the hubbub of activity and spotted Mr.
Diefenderfer and Mr. Young standing trancelike near the main
entrance. He made his way toward them dodging healers and
caretakers every step of the way. When he was standing directly in
front of them he asked, “How can I help?”

Both of them just stood there as if he wasn’t
even there. He asked again and neither stirred. Cynthia came up
behind him and said, “They can’t hear you. They’re listening to
reports.”

“Listening to reports? What’s going on? Why’d
they attack the school if all they wanted was the sunstone?”

“I don’t have any answers yet, but I’m going to
find some. You can come with me if you want.”

Mark shook his head, “Thanks, but I think I’ll
stay here.” It wasn’t that he didn’t want answers; he just didn’t
want to leave the most likely place where answers were apt to be
found first.

Nick said, “I’ll come with you.”

Cynthia said as they passed him on the way to
the door, “Don’t get in the way.”

Don’t get in the way? I’m not a toddler that
needs to be told to stay out of the way. Is that how she sees me?
Is that how everybody sees me: as a little kid?

A few minutes later Mr. Young stirred from his
trance. He called, not quite shouting, “There is extensive damage
on the basement level. It is believed that there are people trapped
there.”

Suddenly there was a shift in the controlled
chaos of the healing ward. A large number of people, including some
healers, stopped what they were doing and started heading for the
door. Mark looked back at Mr. Young; he had resumed his trance.
There was nothing he could do here except wait, so he joined the
crowd heading for the door.

The stairway landing on the basement level was
totally blocked by rubble. Dust was hanging in the air and it
smelled like freshly dug soil. Someone farther down the stairs
called, “Human chain.” A moment later someone farther up repeated
the order. A moment after that the guy on the next lower step
handed Mark a dark brown stone weighing about fifty pounds which he
passed up. He turned back and was handed another dark brown stone.
Three hours later he was exhausted and very glad when someone above
called, “Clear out. The engineers are here now to set up conveyers
and bring in machinery.”

He couldn’t imagine how much work it was going
to take to make any significant progress in clearing enough rubble
to be able to get to anyone that might be trapped down there. The
time that he’d been there had seen only about five feet of progress
onto the landing. Rubble from higher up kept sliding down and
filling in what they managed to clear away.

He was extremely tired but he had also worked up
an aggressive appetite. He was sweaty and grimy and wanted to get
cleaned up before going to get dinner and he knew that getting
anywhere close to a bed might be too much of an inducement to
sleep. He wanted answers more than he wanted food or rest.

He put on his communicator ring and pressed the
buttons for Nick, Jamal and Chenoa. Jamal answered, “Where are
you?”

“I’m heading for the dorm to get cleaned up.
Meet me at your kitchen in about an hour.”

“I’m heading for the dorm too. See you
there.”

The shower was invigorating except his muscles
still moved with a slow lethargy. He knew he’d sleep hard once he
finally got to bed, however that had to wait. They’d gotten the
sunstone and blown up the basement level. Were they hiding the
sunstone in the labyrinth and trying to keep him out? No, that
didn’t make sense. He could get in through the moat and hadn’t that
imp last year alluded to another entrance? There had to be another
reason, but they had to be connected. Maybe it was part of the
diversion, but why blow up the basement when they were keeping
everyone occupied with the attack on the field? Were they after
something in the basement too? That had to be it.

Jamal was waiting for Mark in the common room.
He looked as tired as Mark felt. “Heard anything?”

Jamal shook his head, “Everything is still in
turmoil. Everyone I spoke with didn’t even know the sunstone was
stolen until I told them.” He started walking toward the door. “I
need to get to the kitchen. I imagine there’s going to be a lot of
hungry people.”

It was getting close to sunset and there were a
lot of people waiting in the picnic area around Jamal’s Kitchen.
Everyone had questions. Jamal dismissed himself from Mark, “I’ve
got to get my cooks started; that is if any of them are here,” and
started walking toward the kitchen.

Mark stepped up onto a table and waited for the
crowd to quiet down. “I don’t know a lot about what just recently
happened. What I do know is we were attacked by the Neo-Phylum. The
sunstone was stolen. The basement level was blown up. Casualties
are being treated in the healing ward. Excavation of the basement
is underway to rescue those that might be trapped. Assessment of
the situation is still underway. I don’t have the answers to any
other questions. When I find out I’ll tell you.”

He stepped down and sat at the picnic table.

The dream’s sense of urgency woke him; everyone
was being called to assemble on the school grounds in view of the
healing ward balcony at eight a.m. He got dressed and went straight
to The Oasis. It was seven thirty a.m., enough time to get a cup of
coffee and a bagel. The rest of his close friends arrived piecemeal
and ordered a simple breakfast. Shana and Jeremy were nowhere to be
seen. Someone without any answers waited on them. A short time
later they walked out as a group.

The crowd on the grounds was huge; it looked
like everyone from the school and Magi City was there. A few
minutes later Mrs. Shadowitz stepped to the balcony wall. Even from
a distance she looked weary. Her voice was amplified and it sounded
dejected, “It is my sad duty to inform you that there were three
people that did not survive the explosion and subsequent collapse
of the basement structure. They were: James Wiggins, Agate Tribe,
instructor in the school of art, Elizabeth Casper, Diamond Tribe,
worker in the Museum of Artifacts, Charles Baltz, non-Magi, janitor
for the museum. Funeral services will be held for all three in the
cemetery this Saturday at noon.

“If you haven’t yet heard, all seven mountains
were attacked simultaneously. There were thirty-seven more deaths
as a result, the names of which are now being posted at the
entrances to this school.

“The initial analysis of these attacks reveals
that they were after many artifacts, most notably the sunstone. We
believe they acquired most, but not all, of what they were
after.”