The Tree and the Tablet (The St. James Chronicles Book 1)

by Kathryn O'Brien

  Turning to Duck, I suddenly felt an urgency to get back to Earth. He sensed my feeling and said, “Whenever you are ready, Mistress Maggie, we can leave this place and transport back to the land of earth and stone. You only have to close your eyes and see it in your mind to wish it so.”

  Turning back to Andrea, she smiled, “Go, Maggie. Time’s running out.”

  Giving her one last embrace, I was reluctant to release her. Finally, I sighed and stepped back toward Duck, I reached out to him and patted his snout, “See you on the other side.” He winked his big eye.

  Closing my eyes, I relinquished my hold on the strange land. Spinning and turning through a vortex of earth, clouds, and a myriad of nonsensical objects, I landed with what felt like a thud on my bottom and quickly found myself surrounded by darkness so thick I couldn’t see the hand in front of my face.

  Remembering where I’d been when this started, I turned to my left and gingerly reached out a hand to find that Daniel was still there, breathing softly and peacefully. Briefly, I wondered how long I’d been gone.

  The sound of a rock slide came from my right side and a mist of warmth surrounded me. Duck must have arrived and was now made of stone again. That made me a little sad. It was much more exciting to see him in his true dragon form, all bright and beautiful. Reaching out my thoughts, Duck affirmed my belief with his responding thought. Engulfed by a funny sensation, it kinda felt like a long lost friend hugged me.

  A soft ringing sound came from Daniel’s pack. It sounded like the ringtone I had set on my phone for Sherri. Looking in his pack, I soon located my cell phone. For a second, I was in shock and wondered how my phone had ended up in his pack and why he hadn’t let me know. Standing up to move away and answer the phone, I was surprised when my eyes began to adjust and the return of the strange night vision which illuminated the cave. Startled, I fumbled with the phone and attempting to catch it, I ran into Duck’s foreleg. The phone fell to the ground and Duck, attempting to move out of the way, stepped on the phone, smashing it into a hundred tiny pieces of plastic. Moaning, I looked at Duck and said, “Seriously?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Unfortunately, I’m not that agile,” looking down at hisself, “Or light.”

  “It’s alright.” Frustrated and wondering why the secrecy and how he got my phone, I sat down next to Daniel again. Starting at the tiny shards that were once my phone, it was unfortunate it was irreparably broken, but I’d gotten used to not having it and it felt good not to be chained to the electronic device. The new vision must have been due to the odd mind-link that Duck and I shared. Lost in thought, I gradually noticed Daniel had been laying on his side watching me intently, and I wondered how he was able to see in the dark. For some odd reason, I decided not to let him know I could see him watching me or that I’d found my phone, and instead made a big deal out of looking for the lost flashlight. Keeping secrets of my own, I kept the tablet hidden beneath my right leg as I fumbled around. He murmured and began to sit up.

  “How are you feeling,” I asked.

  “Better than ever.” He responded lightly. “Have you figured out how to get us out of this cave or are we doomed?” Finding the tiny flashlight on the floor of the cave next to his large thigh and clicking the button at the back to see if it worked, it shined into his eyes. He gave an odd sounding laugh and shielded his eyes.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled as I redirected the light. “I think I have an idea about how we can get out of here.” Grabbing my pack, I turned away from Daniel to block his view and pulled out the journal. Sneakily, I tucked the Tablet of Power into the pack while I was still turned away. Taking a moment to close the top of my pack, my attention was soon redirected to the journal.

  Talking more to myself than anyone in particular, “I recall seeing a map of the cave on one of these pages.” Putting the flashlight in my mouth, it was easier to flip through the pages of the journal.

  “Aha!” My voice echoed in the empty space as the flashlight fell to the floor of the cave. Retrieving it, I refocused it to the pages in the book. “Here it is.” Duck leaned over and snorted as he looked at the pages in my hand.

  “That is at the furthest part of the cave where the water seeps in.” He said matter-of-factly.

  Positioning myself in his direction, I bumped my nose on his snout since he was so close. Rubbing my nose, I wondered why he was made of stone again and asked, “Is it easy to get to?” Daniel had moved to my other side to see the journal as well. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught him looking toward my pack but refocused his attention to the journal by putting it up in front of his face to show him the location.

  Duck apologized for hurting my nose as he pulled away slightly, “Yes, it is, but the doorway shown on the map is under water.” His brow was slightly wrinkled in consternation.

  “Well, then, we’d best be on our way.” As I put the journal back into the backpack and cinched the top closed securing the hiding place of my new possession, I rose to my feet.

  “Daniel, are you able to swim,” The question was more due to his injury since I’d seen him in the lake and a way to distract him from my pack as it was soon slung over my shoulders and connected at the waist by the belt.

  “So, we’ll be diving I presume?” He was putting his pack on and securing it in place. Again, I couldn’t help but wonder why he was hiding that he could see in the dark, but I decided to play along and kept my visual acuity to myself as well.

  “Duck, my friend, lead the way.” Moving aside, I allowed Duck to step out in front of me and made a big deal of trying to find his tail to hold onto. Reaching behind me, I slid my hand down Daniel’s arm and grabbed his hand, asking, “Ready?”

  “After you, milady.” He replied jokingly. The sarcasm dripped from his lips.

  Duck started off at an upward angle leading us away from our small hole in the wall. Suggesting to us that we should watch our step, we were suddenly veering to the right and at a steep pitch downward. At one point, the walls seemed remarkably thin or there was some sort of echo as I thought I could hear someone speaking as if through a megaphone. Only it was extremely muffled and I couldn’t quite make out the words. At my inquiry, Duck grunted and affirmed that it was Maxwell. “He talks to himself for hours.”

  Finally, we reached an area where the cave opened up into a large cavern that had filtered light shining down from a hole in the ceiling. The hole was probably only about five feet in circumference, however, it was almost fifty feet in the air straight above our heads. I could see light shining down through trees and over the top of the hole there was a thin layer of what looked like ivy.

  We could clearly hear the sounds of water rushing. It almost sounded like it surrounded us. Probably just acoustics. The walls were slick and curved upward in a dome-like shape. My vision soon adjusted to normal and I could see that we were standing on a ledge high above a pool of water. It appeared to be fed by water that seeped through the walls of the cavern and made the walls look like they were crying. Stalagmites covered the upper ceiling and milky white drops of water dripped from them into the pool giving it the appearance of milk. A soft gasp of appreciation formed in my mouth, taken in by the incredible beauty but also filled me with dread.

  “How are we supposed to find an opening in that,” I asked incredulously. “Duck, can you fly us up to that hole?”

  Stepping back from the ledge fearfully, “No. I can’t fly in this form. I tried once and was stuck in a cave-in for months from all the flapping.”

  It was then that Daniel took advantage of the fact that I’d unclasped my waist clip for my backpack. He quickly pulled the backpack from my shoulders and opened it to find the tablet laying on top. My mouth dropped open. So, he had seen me put it in my backpack in the immense darkness. I’d suspected but wasn’t sure.

  He turned it over in his hands and holding it up to me, asked angrily with a tinge of awe, “Are you sure this is it? There is no writing on it at all.”

  Reaching for it, “Of c
ourse there...” My words fell short as I grasped the tablet in my hands and it began to glow fiercely. It was blank. Turning it over and over in my hands, confusion dripped from my voice as I stuttered, “But, there were words on it before.” Again, I looked at both sides of it and turning to Duck I asked, “Is there anything that you can tell me about this thing?”

  Duck looked at me pitifully, “I’m afraid I can’t help you.”

  Feeling totally lost and quite frankly at my breaking point, I dropped to my knees and just stared at the tablet, willing it to show me something, anything, just to help me figure out how to get my niece back. Suddenly, I was exhausted. The events from the pool of Valoria and the Glenn were suddenly like weights holding every fiber of my being down.

  Rest. All I needed was to rest. As I crumpled into a pile on the ground with the tablet clutched to my chest, my eyes closed with the weight of a thousand emotional ties pulling them down. Sweet oblivion engulfed me and I knew nothing else existed or mattered at that moment. Like a blanket of peace and tranquility, I was enfolded in a warm cocoon-like embrace of utter exhaustion. There was no time to see that Daniel had slipped away into the darkness again or that Duck was desperately clutching my leg to keep me from toppling over the ledge into the pool.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Auntie?” The voice sounded so familiar. “Auntie?” More urgently now. “Please hurry, Auntie, I’m scared!”

  “Kelsey?” My mind responded.

  Waking up abruptly to the sound of Duck persistently talking loudly in my ear. “Mistress!?! Mistress MAGGIE!!!! Wake up! Please! I can’t hold you any longer.” The urgency in his voice was hard to miss.

  Opening my eyes, they felt gravelly and dry. Although I was feeling rejuvenated, like I had just woken from the most luxurious nap ever, my eyes struggled to adjust. As my vision started to focus, I realized that I was actually partially hanging off a cliff. The entire left side of my body was dangling at an awkward angle and looking over my shoulder I saw the milky white pool directly below me. Turning back toward Duck’s heavy breathing, I felt the pressure of his large clawed foot barely holding onto my right ankle.

  Trying desperately to roll to my right side, I didn’t have enough upper body strength to counter my body weight. The tablet was still clutched against my chest with my right hand. “Duck, don’t let go!” Even though Duck was a large dragon of about eight feet tall at his shoulders and about three foot of head and neck as well as twenty feet long from snout to tail, I knew he couldn’t hold me much longer. He was as large as an adolescent elephant, and even though I felt like he would probably grow larger, it didn’t help at that moment because I knew that eventually he would lose his battle with gravity.

  Deciding on self-preservation over the tablet, I swung my arm out to the right which sent it away from me by a couple of feet to a safe location. That movement caused Duck to lose his grip on my foot, and my body began to shift away from him. As I screeched with fear, he screamed like a frightened child. Spinning in place and rolling to my stomach as my other foot slid over the ledge, I clawed at the earth, breaking my nails against the dry dirt and rock. Duck pounced forward in an attempt to grasp my flailing hands as I was pulled from my precarious position on the ledge by my own weight. The gentle grip he had on me was such an odd sensation. Even though I felt fear that he would crush my wrists under all that weight, I was also surprised by his awareness. The comprehension that he placed the most minimal amount of pressure on my hands with his clawed front feet in order to halt my fall was reassuring.

  Kicking my feet toward the ledge, I was shocked when my momentum stopped. My foot had landed on some sort of rock outcropping or a small ledge that was jutting out right below the overhang I was dangling from. Duck was finally able to grasp my hands completely in his massive clawed front feet. He started to pull me up, but I stopped him. “Wait! I think there’s something below me.”

  Duck stopped pulling. As I felt around with my feet to make sure the landing was firm, I ducked my head below the overhang. There it was, in an alcove, a small wooden door, carved into the rock and inset by several feet. It was very elaborately carved around the framework with multiple different hieroglyphics that resembled the Mayan carvings on the amulet and the tablet. The only problem was that the doorway looked like it was only big enough for a dwarf as it was roughly three to four feet tall and about three feet wide. Seeing that the ledge was safely large enough for me to stand on, I looked up above the ledge to Duck who was still holding my hands tightly.

  “It’s alright, Duck. You can let go.” He looked at me doubtfully, blinking his large eyes. “I promise.” He slowly released his grip. On seeing that I was still standing in the position without slipping, he released me and grunted in relief.

  “ I was so scared.” He looked like he was going to cry. To see such a beautiful, strong and magnificently built creature almost in tears over me was humbling.

  “Sweet, Duck. You are so amazing.” Putting my hand toward his large paw and caressing it, “Thank you, my friend.” He dropped his head low and licked me. It caused me to giggle. His tongue tickled. It felt like a million tiny smooth round pebbles that had the finest little feathers attached to them.

  It was at that moment that I realized Daniel was gone. My heart jumped into my throat and pain filled my soul. “Duck, where’s Daniel?”

  He simply shook his head and replied, “I do not know, Mistress.”

  Not understanding why or how he left, I knew at this moment, I needed to put my hurt aside and focus on getting out of the cave to find Kelsey and save her from Mr. Maxwell. “Duck, hand me the tablet please.”

  His clawed foot hovered over the spot where I’d tossed it, and he gently scooted it across the dirt floor toward me as the size of his claws made it extremely difficult to pick up something so small that was lying flat on the ground. As I grasped it in my hands, it started to glow again. “Don’t go anywhere.” He nodded.

  Dropping to my knees on the small landing, I leaned forward to where the door was. Hmmm. The journal would be nice to have right now. The thought flitted through my mind. Within two seconds, my pack was being thrown toward me from above. Smiling to myself, “Thanks, Duck.” Did I think it or speak it?

  “You’re welcome.”

  Pulling out the journal, I sat down and started looking through the pages to see if there was anything that would give me a clue about the doorway. Reading through pages about the tablet and it’s many powers, there was a small passage about the power to gain access to a myriad of alternate lands, but there was no explanation on how to use it to gain access to the doorway.

  Looking at the door, the hieroglyphs suddenly refocused themselves into words. It read - Entry requires a lover’s touch As the light of the One in your hand you clutch.

  “What the heck does that mean?”

  I felt Daniel before I heard him. Strange how the connection we had was so strong and electric. It was like a jolt of energy hit me every time he was near. He was above me on the ledge. “Where is she, Dragon?” He sounded menacing and angry.

  “She is below.” Was all I heard Duck say out loud, but in my mind, it was like I had opened a window and suddenly I heard, “Do I tell him how to find you?”

  Giving it some serious thought, I decided that maybe Daniel had a good reason for abandoning us without a word. Deciding to trust my choices, I responded mentally, “Duck, show him how to get down here.”

  Soon, Daniel was lowering himself over the upper ledge into the small alcove within the rocks. Facing him as I waited patiently trying not to show any emotion once he came face-to-face with me, he smirked at me, “You look refreshed.”

  “Where were you?” My words dripped like venom from my lips. There was no hiding it now. I was angry and hurt by his disappearance and I had no idea how long he’d been gone as the light from the cavern had only slightly diminished in the time since I fell into my deep sleep.

  He stepped closer to me which caused him to h
ave to stoop and bend over at the waist to get into the small opening near the door. “Did you miss me?” His voice was husky and so sensual it was like a caress against my battered emotions. Ugh. He answered a question with a question. That was one of my pet peeves.

  Trying to keep from responding to his nearness, I chided him, “Don’t answer a question with a question. And, No, I didn’t miss you, but it would have been nice to have your assistance. I was barely hanging onto the ledge. It was all Duck could do to keep me from falling into the pool.” As I glared at him, he reached out and gently caressed my face.

  “I’m sorry about that.” There it was again, a glimpse of humanity and was that true sorrow? “But you are alright, and I knew that you would be.”

  “Ugh. That’s no excuse. You Left Me Hanging. Literally,” my hands made a motion to mimic a body hanging over a ledge, “HANGING!”

  “Maggie, I apologized. One day…” his voice hung suspended with words unspoken.

  “Why can’t you be more open with me? It's like there’s always these secrets between us.” My frustration was tangible, and I swallowed hard. How could I judge him when I was keeping secrets too?

  “You’re not being honest either, Maggie.” He read me like a book. “Come now, I think the time has passed for these games.” He sat next to me which put him closer and less at a disadvantage due to stooping. Pulling me down onto his lap, he asked, “Will you please stop hiding things from me?” Opening my mouth to talk, he shushed me with a light kiss on my lips. My senses were reeling, but I placed my hand on his chest to push him away.

  “Daniel, if you want honesty and full disclosure from me, then you have to share as well.” My eyes searched his longingly. It felt like all my hopes and dreams were hanging in the balance.