Billy understood . . . but he didn’t care. Palin had sliced his throat, beat up his mom and Walter, and tossed him into a trunk like a bag of dirty laundry. Palin had tried to kill him and Bonnie once before; he was sure to try again. It was time to light this torch and let it blaze.
He waved his hand at Karen. “You might not want to watch. This won’t be pretty.” She stepped back but stayed close.
Palin extended his left hand with the remote control device between his thumb and forefinger, and the lid jumped open a crack. He swung the shield in front of him, reached with his foot, and kicked the lid up the rest of the way.
Billy didn’t wait another second. Thrusting with his whole body, he launched a stream of fire. The river of flames roared from his mouth and landed in the trunk, engulfing the interior in a tidal wave of raging heat and consuming the plastic gasoline containers.
The fuel ignited, erupting in a tremendous ball of yellow and orange, and flames billowed into the sky. As the car’s frame ripped apart, the flames blew over Palin like a wall of white-hot fury, knocking him flat. His shield kept his face and chest from taking the brunt of the onslaught, but the blaze covered his legs and gun arm, eating his limbs like a ravenous lion.
Within seconds, the fire died down, and Palin lay on his back with his shield still on his chest. Billy jumped out from hiding and ran to him, sliding to his knees. He grabbed the gun and then threw armfuls of snow onto the smoldering lower body.
Palin threw off the shield, ripping away his scorched sleeve. Billy jumped to his feet and aimed the gun at the wounded man’s head, his own legs trembling in pain. His mouth, once again torched by an unusually hot stream, felt like a nest of scorpions.
Palin propped himself up on his elbows and glared at Billy. With his body devastated, Billy knew that the wounded man couldn’t hope to fight.
The dark knight tried to speak, but his voice cracked, and the words rasped like sandpaper on rough wood. Keeping the gun trained on Palin, Billy leaned over to listen.
Palin’s eyes pierced Billy’s with cold malice, and his coarse voice spewed mocking venom. “You think you’re a hero now, don’t you, boy? You’re no hero, oh no, not a hero. You’re just like me, boy, just like me. Does a hero kill a man whose back is turned? Couldn’t fight me face-to-face, could you? I tried to kill you when you were wounded back on the mountain, and now you cook me like a goose when my back’s turned. Yes, boy, you’re just like me. You kill to get what you want.”
Palin coughed. He tried to continue, but his voice trailed away. He slumped back, and his body shuddered.
Billy drew closer, still wary of Palin’s devices. The dying man clenched his fist and spat out his final pain-streaked words. “My master will live on. He’s a true believer, not a hypocrite like you or me. He endured Arthur; he survived Napoleon and Hitler; he will outlive you, too.” The creaking voice faded away, as did the life of Devin’s evil minion.
Billy laid the dead man’s hand gently on his wet, blackened chest. His enemy was gone, yet he felt no joy, no joy at all. His belly gurgled and sent burning fluid into his throat.
What have I done? The professor warned me, but I didn’t listen!
His tears flowed, dripping down his nose and falling onto the snow-swept ground.
Billy chided himself, mentally buffeting his body. How could he weep over this brutal man, this hate-filled maniac? Was it the words he had spoken? Did his speech stab him like poisoned darts, accusing him of the same heinous crimes that dressed this foul creature in his cruel raiment of blood? It couldn’t be! There hadn’t been any other way, had there?
Billy slowly straightened his body and gazed for a moment at the blackened shell of a car. Leaning over, he dragged Palin’s corpse toward the boulder but stopped short, not wanting the girls to see the grotesque, half-melted body. He shoved a pile of snow together to conceal Palin and then hurried around the hiding place.
The girls were gone! He spotted them far away, running across a field and into a line of skinny, naked trees. “Wait!” Billy’s voice died in the blanket of falling snow. He ran after them, his cramped legs still complaining about their ordeal in the trunk. He knew he would eventually catch them. The youngest girl couldn’t possibly outrun him in the snow, and even if Karen helped her, they couldn’t stay ahead for very long.
After an exhausting chase, he finally came within a few feet of them. “Wait! Why are you running?”
“Stay away!” Karen screamed, running at the rear of the group with Monique in her arms. But as she yelled, she tripped and tumbled headfirst into a snowdrift. Monique flew from her arms and joined her in the powdery drift.
Billy dashed ahead and scooped Monique up in his arms. She gasped and stared straight into Billy’s eyes. Rather than trying to escape, she kept staring, her large brown eyes reflecting Billy’s war-torn face.
Karen pushed up on all fours. “Don’t hurt Pebbles, you . . . you monster!” The other two girls had scurried behind a tree and peered out from either side.
Billy wanted to laugh at their antics, but his mental image of Palin’s grotesque body kept his spirits low. He set Monique down gently. “I’m not a monster,” he said, holding out his arms in peace. “If you’ll give me a minute, I’ll explain.”
Karen stood up and brushed the snow from her coat and pants. Monique ran to her side, lifting up her arms. Karen motioned for Monique to stay put, and the little girl latched onto her leg. The other two girls crept out from behind their tree and crowded behind Karen.
With snow cascading in thick torrents all around, she crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Okay, let’s hear it,” she said, her expression mixing fear with skepticism. “This oughta be good.”
When Bonnie finished a long session of prayer and singing, she settled down to gaze into the darkness. With her improving vision she was able to see a collection of shadowy walls bending into myriad corridors and corners, like black halls in a blacker house. Every now and then, she thought she caught a faint glimmer of light, perhaps some other being watching, maybe hiding in a faraway recess.
She doubted it was Devin. He tended to come out boldly rather than hide around corners. Could it be that phantom, that strange picket fence of light that first kept her out of the slayer’s clutches? Bonnie had told Ashley that she wouldn’t be alone in the candlestone, so why couldn’t God’s spirit show up in a spectacular way like he did in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego?
But that glimmer of light could be something else. Maybe, just maybe, her mother really was in there somewhere. Whom should she believe?
Bonnie bit her bottom lip.
Ashley thought Mama was in the candlestone. Could she be held prisoner somehow, trapped by the slayer in one of those dark corridors? Could she have fallen into that crack, drifting now in that sad sea of souls?
There’s the glimmer again!
Bonnie moved toward it, and it disappeared, but this time she kept going, trying to follow a faint trail of luminescence. As she turned a corner, she noticed a bright gleam from around the next angle. She stopped and called out. “Who’s there?”
A bright radiance flashed into Bonnie’s hallway, but she couldn’t see its source. A voice, a slow, sad voice replied. “It is a friend. Draw no closer, child.”
Bonnie had no idea what to think about this new presence. Its voice was nothing like Devin’s; it was soft, and smooth. “Are you who I think you are?” she asked. “Are you . . . Him?”
A gentle laugh echoed in the darkness. “Only one who knows your thoughts would be able to answer that question, so I must not be who you think I am. As I said, I am a friend. That is all you need know about me. But I know who you are, Bonnie Silver, and I have watched you for a long time. You have an enemy here, and he can harm you, yes, kill you, should you let down your shield.”
“My shield?”
“Yes, lass. And a strong one it is. It nearly withered away, but you built it up again. Despair is the way of destruction. It will consume your light like a raging cancer and cast you into eternal shadows.”
Bonnie caught a new glimpse of her own light. It had changed quite a bit. Her human shape was now forming, arms and legs, even a hint of fingers at the end of her flowing robe, and her glow did seem pretty bright, but she didn’t want to dwell on that; she had to ask her most burning question. “Do you know my mother? Is she here?”
It seemed that she felt a sigh, an old, tired sigh, emanating from her mysterious friend. “Quite a number have entered this prison, but Irene has not passed by my eyes.”
Bonnie’s light dimmed, and the edges turned ragged. Her mother wasn’t here after all? But the strange being did seem to know something. “You called her Irene. So you do know her?”
“I know her well, perhaps better than you do.”
“But how is that possible? If you’re in here, and she’s never entered, how can you know her?”
“Although I knew Irene long before I entered this stone, I have seen her since that time. It took many years, but I have learned to see beyond these walls. We do not have vision, so to speak; our minds adapt to other input. If you stay long enough, you will learn. Your shape will naturally conform in appearance to that of your earthly body as your agitation at being transluminated diminishes. You can even learn to change your shape at will. Your enemy has learned. That is why he has an advantage over you.”
“But why won’t you let me see you? Why won’t you tell me who you are?”
“Because viewing me will lower your shield. When faith is made sight, it is no longer faith. We may lower our shields when the danger has passed, but the danger is ever lurking. I perceive even now that your defenses are lowering, so I must leave you.”
Bonnie felt an evil presence, the eerie sense of a ghostly sentinel watching her, stalking her. As the light from the other hall faded, she heard its final words.
“Sing, child! Sing! For psalms and hymns are your leather and mail.”
Bonnie shuddered and immediately lifted her voice.
If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me;
even the night shall be light about me.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee;
but the night shineth as the day:
The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
The eerie feeling, like tickling hairs on a cold neck, slowly faded away. The light of her friend also disappeared, slipping away into an imperceptible hall.
Billy finished his story and waited for Karen to react. She kept her arms crossed, and a hint of a grin peeked through her lips. “So, I’m supposed to believe that you’re a dragon? Human and dragon in one body?”
Billy pushed his boot across the deepening snow. “Well, yeah. I was hoping you’d believe me.”
“And what’s next?” she continued, her smile bursting forth. “A girl with dragon wings?”
“Yeah, in fact—” Billy stopped and read Karen’s grin. “Hey, do you know Bonnie?”
Karen ran to Billy’s side and hooked her arm in his. “Like a sister,” she said, beginning to lead him back to the stone archway. “Come on. Let’s get you to the lab. Bonnie told us to escape and call for help. We were trying to get to a farmhouse I know, ’cause we couldn’t really do anything to help her. But with that flame thrower you’ve got, you can do some serious damage.”
The other girls followed while Karen and Billy hurried ahead. Billy, puffing with excitement, tried to talk while running through the drifting snow. “Where is she? Is she safe?”
“I can’t say for sure. She went into the candlestone to get her mother out. That’s the last I heard.”
Billy stopped and clenched a fist. “Oh, no! That’s what I was afraid of. Her mother’s dead, and she doesn’t know it.”
Karen squinted at Billy and shook her head. “Dead? What are you talking about?”
“Bonnie’s father told her that her mother’s still alive, but we found out that isn’t true. We found her death certificate in the hospital’s records.”
“Well,” Karen replied, looking back at the girls who were just now catching up. “I don’t know about any death certificate, but I saw Bonnie’s mom down in the lab with Dr. Conner. I heard she was in a coma and they were going to transluminate her to keep her from dying.”
“Transluminate her? You know about all that stuff?”
“Yeah.” Karen grinned and lowered her head for a second before gazing up at him again. “What else do you want to know?”
Billy couldn’t help laughing at this spirited girl. Karen’s hood had fallen back, and as the snow settled on her head, Billy thought her fiery hair would melt it away. He sighed and blew a long stream of white into the sky. “I just want to know what’s going on. That rat, Devin, is probably in the candlestone, and I think Bonnie’s father wants her to drag him out. It’s gotta be a trap.”
Karen hooked his arm again and pulled him along. “Then all the more reason for you to get into the lab. The door to the stairway is framed by those rocks over there. C’mon! Let’s go!”
“No. Wait.” Billy withdrew a mechanical pencil from the deep pocket on the side of his pant leg, along with a small tablet of paper. He scratched down a number and began sketching a face. “How far is it to the farmhouse you’re trying to find?”
“Pretty far.” Karen pointed down the western slope. “I have to go to the end of this trail and then about a mile down the forest road. You probably passed right by it. We could get there in about thirty minutes if the storm lets up. But I don’t want to get lost in this weather, especially with Pebbles.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet.” After a few more seconds, he tore off the front page of the tablet. “Here. It’s a drawing and a phone number.”
Karen took the paper and studied the drawing while Billy pointed at the trail. “Just follow the car tracks. They should still be visible if you hurry, and they’ll keep you on the path. Call that number and ask for the professor.”
“The professor?” she asked, pointing at the sketch. “Is he this freaky dude with the big eyebrows?”
Billy laughed. “Yeah, the freaky dude. Now you’ll be able to recognize him. Tell him everything that’s going on, especially what you told me about Bonnie’s mom. Just give him the address of the house. He’ll find you. And tell him to get here on the double.”