Ashley took the other dowel while Sapphira continued unrolling. “It’s near the end.” She set her finger on the yellowed parchment. “Here it is. It’s seven lines of numbers. I tried matching them to letters a thousand different ways, but nothing made any sense.”
Leaning over their shoulders, Walter let out a whistle. “That looks like a job for Larry.”
“Maybe.” Ashley frowned at the scribbled entry. “I can’t pick up any obvious pattern. Even the number count in each row isn’t consistent.”
Sapphira touched Ashley’s shoulder. “Mardon used the combination six, nine, and thirteen to unlock a door and a gate. Does that help at all?”
“It might. It could be an encryption key.” Ashley tapped on her jaw. “Larry? Are you there?”
A garbled reply buzzed through her tooth.
“I guess we’re too deep now. There’s no way we can verbally communicate all these numbers through that static.”
“How about scanning it?” Walter asked. “It worked great with that writing on the wall.”
Ashley shook her head. “The wall script was a lot neater. Larry would spend too much time just reading these numbers accurately. If he got even one wrong, the code would be unusable.”
Walter nodded toward the ceiling exit. “Then I guess I’ll have to wait for Karen while you and Sapphira start climbing out of here.”
“No,” Ashley said, tightening her grip on the dowel. “I can figure it out. I’ve cracked lots of codes tougher than this one.”
“How do you know how tough it is? You haven’t cracked it yet.”
Ashley took the other dowel from Sapphira and spread the scroll out on the floor next to the lantern. She knelt in front of it and, pulling her hair back, studied the code. “Walter, this Mardon guy was just trying to hide a secret from any ordinary Joe who might be lurking in his laboratory. He’s not going to stump me with a bunch of numbers he chicken-scratched on a roll of parchment.”
Walter pointed at Sapphira. “She’s been trying for years, and she hasn’t figured it out. Are you going to do it in a few minutes?”
Ashley spoke through her teeth, barely moving her lips. “Walter, I’m not Sapphira.”
Sapphira stared at Ashley, without a blink or a twitch of her lip. Her hands and cheeks began to glow, and tendrils of fire rippled over her skin, like flaming grass in the wind. Her eyes sparkled, and twin beams of iridescent blue poured forth, expanding as they crossed Ashley and covered her body.
Ashley shot to her feet and backpedaled, swatting at the beams. “What are you doing to me?”
Sapphira clenched her eyes shut, extinguishing the blue light. “I’m sorry.” She rubbed her eyelids with her knuckles. “Something came over me. It’s only happened once before.” She opened her eyes again and took a step closer, but Ashley backed farther away.
A tear trickled down Sapphira’s pale cheek. “I … I saw this strange, dark shadow inside you. It looked like a dragon.”
Ashley’s chin trembled. “You … you saw a dragon inside me?”
“It was sort of like a phantom, a shadow that filled your body.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Walter said. “She’s the daughter of a dragon.”
Sapphira shook her head slowly. “That couldn’t be the reason. Bonnie is also the daughter of a dragon, and when I saw her shivering in the snowstorm back when the slayer killed her mother, the same thing came over me. I looked inside her and saw an angel of light.”
Ashley’s cheeks flamed. “Exactly what are you trying to say? Are you mad at me for dissing you about cracking the code?”
Just as Sapphira opened her mouth to reply, a loud click echoed in the chamber, followed by a low hum.
Walter yanked out Excalibur. “What was that?”
“It’s the timer!” Sapphira showed him her digital counter. “It hit zero!”
Elam lowered the spyglass and scanned the field of crooked trees, but the gatekeeper was now nowhere in sight.
“Glewlwyd?” he called.
Leaves crunched. Elam jerked around toward the noise. Could the Caitiff be lurking somewhere? Keeping his eyes focused in the direction he had seen the gatekeeper, he called again. “Glewlwyd, I am Elam, son of Shem, grandson of Noah the ark builder. Merlin has commissioned me to go to the altar of martyrs and find Enoch and two worthy young ladies for an important mission.”
A high-pitched male voice replied, scratching its way through its words. “So you say, young man.” The voice drew closer. “I would know Merlin by sight, but how am I to believe who you are?”
Elam squinted at the source, a barely visible, stooped old man, now standing two arm lengths away. His transparent image seemed to undulate, like ripples on a pond.
“I don’t know how to prove who I am,” Elam said. “Merlin just told me to answer your questions.”
“He did, did he?” Glewlwyd rubbed his hands together. “Well, what shall I ask this wanderer who looks sixteen but would have me believe he is Elam, a boy born thousands of years ago but kidnapped and thought dead?”
“You seem to know a lot about me,” Elam replied.
A low howl drifted through the trees. As the skinny needles on a nearby fir tree trembled, Elam tensed his jaw. The old man, however, seemed to pay no attention to the howl. His voice stayed calm. “I am Glewlwyd the Guileless, the oracle of integrity and candor. I see through to the soul, and I speak all matters plainly. Since we commune at the altars of Heaven, I am well acquainted with Noah and his family, but I have never met this son of Shem.”
“That’s because you couldn’t have seen me in Heaven. I ate fruit from the tree of life, so I never died.”
“I have heard the old tree-of-life story before.” Glewlwyd raised a barely visible finger. “But there is another possible reason for someone’s absence from Heaven. The real Elam could be an unbeliever wandering in Hades, a lost soul who will someday suffer eternally in the Lake of Fire. You, on the other hand, are obviously one of the faithful, for I perceive not a single dark spot in your soul.”
Elam tapped himself on the chest. “Then you must know I’m telling the truth. If I’m spotless, then I couldn’t be a liar!”
“But you could be deceived,” the old man replied, half closing one eye. “You might truly believe you are Elam, and you would be making that claim with all integrity. But I must doubt your claim. The light in your eyes indicates that you are among the living, not one of Hades’ prisoners. If Elam were alive, he would be more bent and ugly than I am, and that is a considerable statement.”
Another howl sang out from the opposite side, closer. The first call answered, closer still. Elam shifted his eyes from left to right. The Caitiff were coming.
The old man smiled. “It seems that we will soon have some very dangerous visitors. Perhaps I should ask you a question that will test your claim so you can either escape through the gate or run for the grasslands.”
Elam nodded. “Go ahead, but we’d better make it fast.”
“This should be easy.” Glewlwyd’s liquid fingers stroked his equally liquid chin. “Name all of your brothers.”
“Okay.” Elam tucked his spyglass under his arm and began counting on his fingers. “Asshur and Arpachshad were the only ones born when I was kidnapped, but I memorized the rest of them from the Bible, so there’s also Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and . . .” He paused, glancing for a moment into the tree canopy overhead. “Meshech,” he said, looking down again at the old man.
“That is correct, but as you indicated, anyone could learn that answer, especially someone who is trying to impersonate Elam. So the value of that question is now void.”
Elam heaved a loud sigh. “Then can you ask another?”
“Certainly. I thought of another while you were counting.”
A new sound trickled into Elam’s ears, soft footsteps crackling leaves—in front, to each side, and from behind.
Glewlwyd raised a finger again. “How many souls lived in the uppermost level of the ark?”
“Ten,” Elam replied quickly. “Eight humansNoah and his wife, Noah’s three sons and their wives, and two dragons, Makaidos and Thigocia.” He pointed at Glewlwyd. “You can’t find those two names in the Bible.”
“An excellent attempt, whoever you are, but you are wrong. The correct answer is eleven, because Canaan, son of Ham, was there, born on the ark during the flood.”
Elam spread out his arms. “That’s a trick question!”
“Not a trick, young man. It was designed to be answered only by a true grandson of Noah, for the time of Canaan’s birth is not recorded in the Bible but is still well known by his family.”
“But I knew the dragons’ names!”
“True enough. Very impressive. Yet even their names have been repeated through the centuries in songs, so I cannot give you full credit.” The old man smiled. “Still, I am a fair-minded gentleman, so I will ask a third question, but this is your last chance.”
“Okay.” As the crunching footsteps grew louder, Elam swallowed and licked his lips. “I’m ready, but please hurry.”
Glewlwyd rested his chin in his palm and tapped a finger on his cheek. “I must conjure something that only the true Elam could answer, one that cannot be found in book or rhyme.”
Elam caught a glimpse of a grotesque face peering around a knotted tree trunk. Its red eyes flashed, and its fangs slipped over its bottom lip before it pulled back again.
“I have it!” The old man drew close and looked Elam in the eye. “What was your mother’s favorite color?”
“Her favorite color?” Elam’s jaw tensed so hard, his teeth ground together. Could he possibly remember such a detail? It had been thousands of years since he had seen her!
More ugly faces peered around trees, then arms and torsos emerged. With only dirty gray cloths wrapping the loins of their hairy bodies, they formed a wide circle and began a slow march toward him, each one baring its long, pointed fangs.
Elam froze in place, his eyes darting from one beast to the other. They seemed jittery, perhaps wondering if he might raise a weapon, but with each second, they stepped closer with more resolve.
“You had better answer quickly,” Glewlwyd said. “If you really are Elam, I will rescue you. If not, then I have no choice but to leave you to your own devices, for now that these monsters have surrounded you, the gate is the only way to elude them.”
Closing his eyes, Elam tried to lock the danger out of his thoughts. He had to concentrate and take his mind back in time. After a few seconds, images from millennia past drifted in, some he had recalled hundreds of times before—the cave he and his family had to live in during King Nimrod’s despotic reign, the tower that scourged the distant skyline in the midst of smoke rising from tar pits, and dragons who patrolled the skies from dusk until dawn.
A cascade of hues rained over his mind, the dull beige in his mother’s dress, the purple in the apron she wore to keep charcoal from drawing gray streaks on her clothes, and the scarlet blush in the flower she often wore in her hair. But one color kept breaking through over and over—the vines she draped around the doorway, the garlands she would make from fresh cuttings and arrange on the table, and the single emerald his father had given her that she always wore in a ring that never left her finger.
Elam took a deep breath and looked Glewlwyd in the eye. “Green.” He exhaled and smiled. “Green was her favorite color.”
Chapter 8
The hum reverberated, growing louder by the second as vibrations rippled under the feet of Ashley, Walter, and Sapphira. Dust and pebbles drizzled from the ceiling and pecked the floor with loud taps. A white light poured from each of the giants’ alcoves, illuminating the cavern. With a deafening crack, a jagged fault line fractured the chamber wall. One of the giants toppled forward and sprawled on the floor, groaning.
Walter slid Excalibur into its scabbard and leaped up to Karen’s growth chamber. “You two get out of here!” he yelled.
As she stared at the cracking walls, Ashley backed up, grabbing the air behind her in search of the rope. “But we have to”
A stalactite crashed next to her feet, splashing fragments over her legs. Another crack ripped through two alcoves as a second giant tipped out. The first one rose to his knees and looked around. Red beams shot from his eyes and scanned the room like twin neon flashlights.
“For once, don’t argue with me!” Walter shouted. “And get up there now!”
Ashley finally caught the rope and called to Sapphira. “You go first. I’ll be here to catch you if”
The growth chamber wall exploded, spitting out Karen and the remaining giants in a hail of debris. Walter caught her and rolled on top, using his back to shield her from the storm of spewing rocks.
“Walter!” Ashley screamed. She ran through the cloud of dust and knelt at his side, brushing dirt and pebbles from his shoulders and back. “Walter! Say something! Are you okay?”
“I’m okay.” Walter rose to all fours, still shielding Karen, who was lying facedown, motionless. “But Hades is giving me a headache.”
Ashley laid a hand on Karen’s back. “Is she alive?”
“She’s alive.” He hoisted her limp body into his arms. “I could feel her breathing.”
Ashley passed a trembling hand over Karen’s dirty red locks. “She’s so pale!”
With light still emanating from the blown-out wall cavities, Walter scanned the room. “Where’s Sapphira?”
“I’m here!” Just a few feet away, Sapphira pushed up from under a mound of debris and shook the dust from her hair. She crawled over and crouched next to Karen.
“We’d better get going,” Ashley said. “It looks like they’re waking up.” She nodded toward a series of rock piles, each representing one of the giants. Three mounds began to move, revealing massive bodies arising from under the rubble.
Karen blinked and moaned. “Where am I?”
Ashley slid her arm under Karen’s back. “No time to lose.” She clutched Walter’s sleeve with her free hand. “You’d better fire up that sword.”
One of the giants stood upright, his entire body glowing and his red eyes flashing. With a grunt, Ashley lifted Karen and carried her to the rope, then set her down and supported her back. “Can you sit up by yourself?”
Karen rubbed her eyes. “I think so.”
Sapphira marched up to the waking giant and stood with her hands on her hips, her head angled sharply upward. “Chazaq!” She continued speaking to him, but now in an odd language.
As other giants rose to their feet, Chazaq’s beams tipped down and fell upon her. “It has been many years,” he said with a deep voice and perfect English, “but I recognize you, Mara.”
“So, Mardon taught you English.” Sapphira shook her head, laughing. “I should have expected that. He wasn’t one to ignore the details.”
“He taught us many languages, including modern dialects that came about after we began our sleep. Even as we slumbered, he spoke to our minds through a communications device he imbedded at the base of our skulls, enabling us to be completely prepared to carry out his plan.”
Twelve other giants gathered behind Chazaq, each one with his own set of ruby lasers slicing the dusty air.
Walter lit up Excalibur’s glow but kept the destructive beam turned off as he edged toward them.
Sapphira kept her hands on her hips and took another step toward Chazaq. “Do you remember how you used to pull me up and down in the elevator shaft?”
“I remember. You were one of the intelligent ones. I admired that.”
“If you admire intelligence, then why have you allowed yourself to fall prey to Mardon’s trickery? He put you all to sleep, and now it looks like he left you here to die.”
The giant laughed, and those behind him smirked. “I have not fallen prey to trickery. Mardon told us to expect to awaken without him. It is all part of the plan.”
While Ashley shuttled rocks to the rope, piling them in a pyramid next to Karen, Walter skulked toward the giants. Just a few more steps and he would be close enough to strike with either beam or blade.
“Is that why he poisoned the other giants?” Sapphira continued. “Was that part of the plan, too?”
Chazaq reached down and picked up two grapefruit-sized rocks. “Morgan taught me the cold facts of our cruel existence. Nothing matters but power and control.” He smashed the rocks together, pulverizing them over Sapphira’s head. “Getting rid of excess giants was simply a necessary chore.”
Sapphira ran her fingers through her hair, scattering the gravel as she coughed through her words. “And where is Morgan now? Do you know?”
“Because you are obviously baiting me with that question, I assume that she has reaped the hatred she has sown through the years.” Chazaq brushed his hands together, raining more grit on Sapphira. “But her fate is inconsequential. It is Mardon who now guides our destiny, and we are to ascend to Earth’s surface and carry out his orders.”
Sapphira stepped out of Chazaq’s spiteful dust shower. “Mardon might be able to guide you in this realm, but he’s dead, so he can’t go to the land of the living.”
“He told us that we would already be in the living world when we awoke, just thousands of feet below the surface.” Chazaq cast his beams on her again. “Perhaps you noticed a dimensional shift.”
Sapphira stared at him but said nothing. Walter crept closer, also remaining silent. Ashley continued piling rocks, keeping her eye on the giants.
“Your silence proves that you did notice.” Chazaq’s eyebeams swung to Ashley, then to the rope and trapdoor above. “I believe I have found the way out that Mardon promised.”
Sapphira raised her arms. Flames erupted from both hands. She began swirling the fire into a flaming cyclone that expanded toward the Nephilim.
Chazaq wrapped Sapphira around the waist with one arm and pulled her against his chest, binding her and extinguishing the flames. “Traveling to another dimension is not in our plans, Mara.”
Sapphira’s face turned red as she gasped for breath. She looked like a struggling toddler in his massive grip.
“Let her go!” Walter marched toward Chazaq, Excalibur’s beam blazing.
Chazaq laughed. “Here comes another David, thinking he can slay Goliath, but he comes with a shining blade to replace sling and stones.”
“Maybe you need a demonstration of what this sword can do.” Walter angled the beam toward one of the other Nephilim. “I can’t use it on you while you’re holding Sapphira, but I’ll fry your toadies one by one until you let her go.”
Chazaq squeezed Sapphira, making her eyes bulge. “Go ahead and test your feeble blade. This should be entertaining.”
“Then laugh at this!” Walter swiped the beam at the closest Naphil. The light surged into the giant’s body, but instead of disintegrating him, it seemed to infuse him with energy. His skin glowed, and he sent out twin beams in a more vibrant scarlet than ever.
“Walter!” Ashley called. “Sapphira said they have plant genes, so they must be phototrophic. Light gives them energy.”
“Yeah,” Walter said, dousing Excalibur’s beam, “I guessed that.”
Chazaq loosened his hold on Sapphira, allowing her to breathe. “The inhabitants of Earth will learn of our skills soon enough. In the meantime, we will take Mara with us. A little insurance might be beneficial.”
Sapphira slipped an arm free and desperately gulped air. “He can’t … kill me. … If he does … he will die.”
“Is that so?” Walter drew back the sword. “You plant creatures might be immune to the beam, but I haven’t heard of one yet that can withstand an axe.” He charged at the Naphil he had energized and sliced through his leg, cutting it off just above the knee. The giant toppled over and crashed to the ground. As his life fluids poured out, he roared, writhing in pain.
Drawing back the gleaming sword again, Walter scowled at Chazaq. “Want to be next?”
Three of the Nephilim lunged at Walter, but he leaped out of the way, slicing a finger off one giant as he breezed by. The others made a circle around him and closed in slowly. Walter swung Excalibur frantically in every direction, lunging whenever one of the giants came within range.
“Stop!” Chazaq commanded. “We cannot afford any more casualties.”
As the Nephilim backed away, Walter let out a huge sigh, sweat dripping from his chin. The fallen Naphil now lay still in a pool of dark blood, his face ashen.
“Begin the ascent,” Chazaq ordered. “When we are fully energized on the surface, that little sword will not be so effective.” He stomped over to the rope and picked up Karen with his free arm, releasing Sapphira at the same time. As his arm locked Karen close to his body, she gasped and her head lolled forward. “Here is our new insurance. When we are safely out of this hole, I will let her go.”
Lifting his sword once again, Walter charged.
Chazaq squeezed Karen’s throat. “One more step, and she’s dead!”
As Karen gagged, Walter halted, letting the sword’s tip rest on the floor, his face flaming red. “Coward! Hiding behind the skirt of a little girl!”
“Not cowardice. Expediency.” Chazaq released her throat and waited while the other giants made a human ladder to the trapdoor high above. When the fourth giant’s hands reached the door, the others climbed up the bodies. Once the seventh Naphil began his climb, Chazaq transferred Karen to him. “Take her to the top. When we’re all safely away, we will return her.”
Seconds later, only Chazaq and the four giants forming the ladder remained in sight. The top one pulled himself into the air shaft, then reached down for the others. The three remaining linked themselves hand-to-ankle while the giants above hoisted them upward. As the bottom giant rose, Chazaq wrapped an arm around his feet and rode upward with the chain of Nephilim. “Farewell, valiant warrior. I must admit that you have great courage. It’s a shame you’re on the losing side.”
As Chazaq’s feet disappeared through the door, Sapphira stepped underneath and called upward. “How are you going to lower Karen down safely from way up there?”
Walter dropped the sword and rushed to her side, whispering, “Don’t give him any ideas.”
In a flurry of red hair and flailing limbs, Karen dropped from the ceiling. Walter held out his arms, and she crashed into his chest, crumpling his body. Karen rolled to the side and groaned.
Ashley knelt next to them and laid a hand on each of their heads. “Are you two all right?”
Walter blinked at her. “Not exactly a gentleman, is he?” Just then, the rope slid down, collecting in a pile on his leg, and the trapdoor slammed shut.
Laying a hand on her stomach, Karen wheezed. “I … can barely … breathe.”
Sapphira stooped at their feet. “I think Chazaq collapsed her lungs! We have to get her out of here!”
“I was working on building a pile of rocks,” Ashley said, “but those creeps knocked it down. We’ll have to start over.”
Sapphira raced through her words. “There might be an easier way back at the museum room. The portal is gone, but if the dimensional barrier is still thin, I should be able to get us through. Even if we go to an unexpected dimension, at least we’ll be out of this place, and maybe I can figure out what to do from there. But there’s no way Karen can get very far in this state.”
“Sapphira’s right,” Walter said, struggling to his feet. “Ashley, you’d better try to heal Karen right now.”
Ashley pointed at him. “I was just thinking that.” She sat down and pulled Karen up into her arms. “Better stand clear, Sapphira.”
Sapphira backed away a few steps. “I think I’ve seen you do this before. How does it work?”
Walter picked up Excalibur. “Ashley is a healer,” he explained. “When I shoot the sword’s beam through the ground and into her, somehow she uses the energy to heal people. Since I’m an heir to King Arthur, I can make the sword do some pretty cool stuff.” He raised the blade and summoned the beam. “Watch.”
The shaft of light burned into the ceiling above. Walter slowly lowered it to the ground, making it sizzle across the scattered debris as it sent up gray puffs of smoke. Then, guiding it toward Ashley, he called out, “Ready?”
Ashley hugged Karen’s heaving body close. “Ready!”
The streak of energy surged into Ashley, lighting up her whole body. White beams poured from her eyes and into Karen’s chest. As arcs of energy danced around both girls, Karen cried out with a loud moan.
“That’s enough!” Ashley shouted.
Walter jerked the beam to the side and shut it down. The light from Ashley’s eyes blinked off with a tiny popping noise. Then, like a heated coil cooling down, her radiance faded. “Whew!” she said, rubbing her eyes, “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.”
Karen, her face gaunt and dirty, shook her head slowly. “I hope someone wakes me up soon. I don’t like this dream at all.”
Walter put the sword away and hurried over to the two girls, extending a hand to each of them. “I think this nightmare is far from over.”
“Can she walk?” Sapphira asked. “With those Nephilim heading to the surface, we should get going. There’s no telling what they’re planning to do.”
Karen stood and tested her legs. “Yeah. I’m okay.” She squinted at Sapphira. “Who are you?”
“I’ll explain later.” Sapphira marched toward a door at the far end of the room, tongues of white fire emanating from her hands. “Everyone follow me. That includes Gabriel and Roxil. I’ll be our lantern.”
“Wait.” Ashley limped to a pile of rubble and tossed fragments to the side. She pulled out a finely polished, rectangular block and held it up. “Is this one of the gravitational field bricks?”
Sapphira looked back. “Yes, but it’s only one of seven different kinds.”