Margga's Curse: A Vree Erickson Novel, Book One

by Steve Campbell

  “It is a promise of things to come,” he said. “You can kill me, but others will come until you are destroyed. Sleep easy tonight, child, knowing it will be your last.”

  Vree watched his eyes flash red at her.

  “Look away,” Enit Huw said to her. “Roualens are peaceful people who want to return to their planet. They don’t wish to fight you. But they will if it means their survival.”

  Vree kept her gaze on Sarlic. “You’re from another planet?”

  “Indeed,” he said. “We await rescue while our disabled ship is marooned here.”

  “Others like you are coming?”

  “We hope so. But what is a rescue if my people and I are dead?”

  Vree held her gaze on Sarlic for a few more seconds. Then she cast it at the floor in front of him. “How long have you been here?” she asked.

  Sarlic told her of the ship’s crash landing on the planet, of the many years of snow and ice that buried the ship and the people inside it, and of the ice that pushed the ship and the land around it to the location now known as Myers Ridge. He also told her of his birth inside the ridge five hundred and eight years ago, and of the death of his parents when miners dug minerals from the hill.

  “Over the years, we have adapted to some of your food and liquids for survival,” he said. “Our personal cloaking fields and garments protect us from the dangerous radiation bombarding your planet’s surface. But our cloaking devices are only machines. They will stop working. And our garments are thin.”

  “I see. And somehow, my ability to see through your cloaking fields causes them to shut down.”

  “Yes. The spirit of the one who called herself an enchantress, calls this ability magic.”

  “My daddy calls it being psychic.”

  “It is both,” Enit Huw said to Vree. “And it is how you’re going to repair Sarlic’s ship and help him and his people leave this planet tonight. So, get dressed. I will go with you to the ship.”

  “I can’t just leave,” Vree said, looking hard at the crow.

  “Leave is precisely what you did when you chose to run away,” Enit Huw said. “So, leave is what you shall do again. Now, get dressed. Sarlic and I will meet you at the road.” To Sarlic, he said, “She has the power. And she wishes to help, unlike the other who wanted you dead. Tell your people to ready themselves for their last few hours here.”

  Enit Huw vanished.

  Sarlic went to the stairs, stopped, and said to Vree, “Thank you.”

  “I never agreed to this,” she said, glancing at him once before looking at the floor again.

  “The spirit next door is the remnants of a horrible woman named Margga,” Sarlic said. “She possessed the same ability as you. But she chose to kill many of my people with her ability. And now, she wishes to kill you, as well. That is why she sent me for the book. It contains magic that she would have used to kill you.” Sarlic turned his head and rested his gaze on Vree. “I do not want that to happen. Not because of your ability to fix our ship, as the talking bird said, or because you are so very young. But because of the look I saw on your face when I told you my father and mother’s deaths made me feel lonely and sad.”

  He looked away and descended the stairs, leaving Vree alone at her bed with her thoughts.

  Chapter Twelve

  IT WAS TEN minutes to seven when Vree put on a clean, white T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans, and left a note on her bed that said she had gone for a walk. She eased her way downstairs and out the front door.

  “Tell me again how I’m gonna repair Sarlic’s ship?” she asked over the sound of buzzing bees when she met the crow and Roualen along the road.

  “You know how,” Enit Huw said. “I’ll meet you at the sinkhole.”

  The crow vanished.

  Vree followed Sarlic and the buzzing sound into the field across the road. She still wasn’t certain whether the sound came from her psychic powers, or from Sarlic’s protective suit with its life-support gear keeping him alive.

  The path they traveled was wide enough that she didn’t have to keep him in her sight as she followed.

  They said nothing while they went, though Vree read Sarlic’s thoughts and knew that with every step, he grew anxious and more excited about leaving.

  The way was long and winding. And it was wet from the storm; leaves dripped rainwater on them from the trees they passed under, and the field grass soaked Vree’s pants cuffs and tennis shoes until the insoles of her shoes were saturated by the time they reached a clearing fifty minutes later.

  The atmosphere there felt heavy. The sky behind them had become bruised, mimicking the colors Vree had seen three hours earlier when she had run from her grandparents’ home.

  She followed Sarlic through what once had been a cornfield, now grown over with dense weeds. She suspected that this was a part of the property her grandfather had been forced to abandon after last year’s harvest … the one with a sinkhole in it.

  She knew from geology studies at school that sinkholes were roughly funnel-shaped and connected to subterranean passages, such as collapsed caverns or streams in the limestone. But she never realized how big they could be. The one Enit Huw waited at was half the length of a football field, maybe bigger.

  As she and Sarlic approached the edge, she observed the slow, dancing flight of a small, brown butterfly with dark eyespots with yellow rims near its wingtips—perhaps a little wood satyr, she thought—fly into the hole.

  Moments later, it reappeared, glowing green. It landed on some grass behind Vree, folded up its wings, and sat for almost a minute before it took flight.

  “That butterfly turned green,” she said to Sarlic and Enit Huw who had left her and now stood along the edge thirty yards away. She recalled Lenny telling her about the green glow inside. She knelt on her knees at the hole’s edge and peered inside. Waves of green light traveled up the hole. She took a piece of brown grass, and stuck its tip into the hole.

  “You are too close,” Sarlic warned. “Many of my people have fallen.”

  Vree scrambled away from the edge and held up the grass. Its tip glowed green.

  “There is netting below,” Enit Huw said to Sarlic. “Your people were never hurt.”

  “True,” the Roualen said. “But we know how to land correctly so we are not injured or killed.”

  “The girl will get you home,” Enit Huw said.

  Vree ventured again to the edge and put her right hand in the hole for several seconds. When she took it out, it too glowed green. She did the same with her left hand. Then she held up her green hands for Sarlic and Enit Huw to see.

  “If you are finished playing,” Enit Huw called out, “we can continue to the ship.”

  “Where is it?” Vree asked.

  “At the bottom, of course.”

  Vree peered inside again. She tried to see the bottom, but it appeared there was none.

  “How do we get down there?” she asked.

  “Follow me,” Sarlic said. “I like to land on my back.” He took several steps back, then ran and jumped into the hole. “See you at the bottom,” he called out.

  Vree gasped and looked at Enit Huw. “You expect me to jump into that?”

  “Yes,” the crow said. “You’re not ready for astral projection, so you need to jump. Now.”

  “No way.”

  “Don’t make me come over there and peck your shins.”

  Vree glared at the bird. “You wouldn’t dare.”

  Enit Huw vanished, then reappeared on the ground behind Vree and squawked at her.

  Vree whirled around. “Stop doing that,” she said, still glaring.

  “Come to me, Verawenda. Then run and jump feet first. I’ll be with you the whole time, guiding you.”

  “The whole time?”

  “Yes. I will be at your side. You will hear me in your mind. And you can talk to me the same way; I will hear your thoughts.”

  Vree looked at the hole. “It looks awfully deep.”

 
“It is.”

  “I won’t get hurt?”

  “I will guide you to the bottom. There, Sarlic and I will take you to the ship.”

  “Are you sure I can fix it?”

  “I feel your power, Verawenda. You can do this.”

  Vree went to where Enit Huw stood, turned, and paused.

  “Trust,” Enit Huw said.

  Vree swallowed, then ran and leaped into the hole.

  She fell hunched forward, her long hair streaming above her. Whistling cold wind blew up at her and robbed her of her breath. She shielded her face with her hands and calmed her anxiety by breathing through her mouth.

  She heard the crackling sound of electricity where green bands of light encircled the walls. She looked between her fingers and saw that the bands increased in speed and intensity as they rushed upward, past her. Enit Huw’s voice entered her mind and told her that the green lights were transmission beacons from a generator below. The beacons were to aid in rescue should other Roualens ever come to Earth.

  The crow appeared in front of her, glowing green and facing her. Its wings were tucked close to its body and its feet were pointed down. The wind rippled its feathers and created a crest on its head.

  Vree lunged at the bird, wrapped her arms around its body, and held it close.

  “Get ready to tuck your legs,” Enit Huw said. Its head was pressed against one of Vree’s ears. “When you land, stay still. You will bounce a few times on the netting. Once you come to a stop, you will then be able to stand.”

  Vree squeezed the crow tighter.

  “Let go of me, bring your legs up, and hold them with your arms.” Enit Huw vanished. Vree looked down at a floor of green light growing closer. She brought her knees to her chest, held them, and closed her eyes. Impact was soft and spongy. Her descent slowed and stopped before the netting lifted her into the air. She bounced atop the net several times before she came to a stop inside an emerald world underground.

  She laid in a fetal position, suspended high above a cavern floor, and caught her breath. Through the netting, she saw stalagmites and rubble below, all glowing green. Even the wide expanse of net she was on glowed green. And so did she, including her clothes.

  “Come” Enit Huw said, appearing at her feet and glowing a brighter green than he had during her fall. He hopped across the net. “Follow me.”

  Vree followed the bird to a cavern wall. There, someone had carved steps in the stone, leading to the floor. She followed, being careful of loose rocks along the way to the bottom. There, they weaved around stalagmites, some of them towering eight or nine feet tall and standing like sleeping sentries guarding the cavern from intruders.

  When they reached the place where Sarlic awaited, the sound of buzzing bees filled Vree’s head and overwhelmed her.

  “Are you okay?” Sarlic called out.

  Vree held her hands over her ears and looked away.

  “It’s too loud,” she said.

  “The life support generators hum like that before they quit operating,” Sarlic said. “Many are failing.” He pointed at a tall, greenish-black metallic box near them. It, like several others inside the cave, was rectangular and as tall as Vree. “Come,” he said and turned. “I’ll show you the ship. Follow me.”

  He led them across the cavern, away from the sinkhole.

  The section of cavern they walked through was tall and wide. Dangerous looking stalactites hung from the ceiling like ancient stone spears guarding the place from more intruders. Vree imagined them falling and crushing her to death if an earthquake happened.

  High humidity pooled sweat on her skin. She pulled up the bottom of her T-shirt and wiped her face when Sarlic and Enit Huw stopped. Here, the buzzing was quieter and Vree could hear the drip of water against wet stone. She looked down at ancient rivulets carved in the floor, all pooled with green liquid that she assumed was rainwater. The one they stood at crossed in front of them and was two feet wide. On the other side stood a greenish-black disc as wide as the sinkhole she had jumped in, and as tall as her grandparents’ house.

  “Flying saucers are real,” she said.

  The spaceship was indeed a saucer, smooth and featureless, and apparently without lights, windows, and doors. It sat along the end of the cavern and tilted higher on the left where it sat on several enormous boulders.

  “It has been flightless for more than twenty thousand years,” Sarlic said.

  “How do I fix it?” Vree asked.

  “Put your forehead against the machine,” Enit Huw told her, “and take one of Sarlic’s hands in yours.”

  “Won’t I kill him if I do?”

  “No. He will concentrate on the engines and you will see them. By placing your forehead against the ship, you will see deep inside it and see the engines as they are now. Whatever differences you see, you will change them to how Sarlic has them pictured.”

  “How?”

  “By believing you can change things with your thoughts.”

  Vree stepped back. “That’s an awfully scary thing to imagine.”

  “It is who you are, Verawenda Erickson. It is how you are going to save the lives of Sarlic and his people.”

  Vree sidled up to the ship and placed her forehead against it. Sarlic stood next to her and placed one of his hands in hers.

  “Is that your skin?” she asked when she felt warm and dry leather in her palm. “Or are you wearing a glove?”

  “It is part of my protective suit,” Sarlic said.

  Vree held his hand, closed her eyes, and searched for the engines. She saw nothing.

  “Look for twenty spherical units attached to a wall,” Sarlic said. “They are the color of your hair and shaped like large bird eggs, and they are in rows of seven.”

  “Seven rows or seven units?”

  “Seven descending rows. The first row has one unit. Below it is a row of four units, two on either side of the first unit. Next is a row of three, followed by four, followed by three, followed by four until the last row, which has only one unit.”

  Vree searched through the darkness until she saw the engines just as Sarlic had described.

  “I see them,” she cried out.

  “Here is what they should look like,” Sarlic said.

  Vree saw a separate image float in front of the first. That image contained the twenty engines in seven descending rows, but in a sequence of three, two, three, four, three, two, and three.

  “This is our flight sequence,” Sarlic said. “But the units are stuck in the landing sequence you see inside. The release mechanism is damaged and poisonous contamination fills the engine room. Our suits are useless against the contamination, so we are unable to enter the room and move the four units needed for flight.”

  “Your ship has been this way for two thousand years?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, if I fix the release mechanism—”

  “The room will still be contaminated. We must be in space before we can release the contamination. We need someone who can enter the room and move the ends of the second row to the first, and the ends of the sixth row to the seventh. Someone like you.”

  “With my mind.”

  “Yes,” Enit Huw said.

  Vree looked again at the flight sequence. “May the force be with me,” she said.

  * * *

  MORE RAIN FELL at eight o’clock. It plummeted through the sinkhole, flooded the rivulets, and gushed across the floor, past the feet of Enit Huw, Sarlic, and Vree. The storm brought no thunder or lightning, and it lasted fifty-five minutes. During that time, Vree moved the first two engine units to their proper places.

  Now, her body sagged against the ship. Sweat drenched her clothes.

  “I need to rest a moment,” she said. She dropped to her knees at the nearest rivulet and drank the water with cupped hands.

  When she quenched her thirst, she said to Sarlic, “When I entered your ship with my mind, I saw that many of the rooms are filled with liquid. Why is that?”


  “It is the ‘atmosphere’ we live in,” he said, looking down at her. “It is lighter than your planet’s water, but heavier than its oxygen, which makes it appear like liquid. Unfortunately, our ship’s atmosphere has become almost uninhabitable with many of the life support engines inside shut off to conserve energy to our transmitters and suits. But once the main engines are in place and working again, we can flush it clean.”

  “So, you’re like some sort of fish creature beneath your protective suit,” she said, keeping her harmful gaze away from him.

  “We are more related to mammals on your planet than to fish, though we do have gills in our necks that take life-supporting gases from our atmosphere. And we can breathe through our mouths where we ingest food.” Sarlic touched the area above the long tube that looked like an anteater’s snout. “Our nasal discharge valves are on the tops of our heads, similar to the blowholes of your dolphins and whales. Our females have two valves, side by side. And like dolphins and whales, our females’ gestation periods last from thirteen to sixteen months. We even sing songs similar to your whale songs. But we have no fins.”

  “How do you know so much about dolphins and whales?”

  “From your books and TV.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “My people have been here a long time studying this part of your planet, especially the humans here. After we deciphered your language, we took to your homes and learned from you. For many years, I have collected data from science books and TV reports about science.”

  “You read books and watch TV in our homes?” Vree turned and glanced at Sarlic. “That’s really creepy.”

  “Unlike you, most humans cannot see us,” Sarlic said. “We usually dwell in unoccupied rooms, though. My favorite rooms for relaxing are the ones you call bathrooms.”

  “That’s even creepier.”

  The two were silent until Enit Huw asked if Vree was ready to move the remaining engines.

  “Take your time,” Sarlic told her. “Another hour will seem like a nanosecond compared to the years this ship has been on your planet.”

  “Thank you,” Vree said. She stuck out her tongue at the crow before she stood and returned to resting her forehead against the ship’s outer hull.

  * * *

  “IT’S NINE O’CLOCK. The sun set three minutes ago. Where are you, Sarlic, you stupid Roualen?”

  Margga paced the darkened ground where she had met with Sarlic earlier.