by Bryan Davis
The wall of fire dipped into the water and raised thick plumes of steam. The wall fizzled, becoming thin and transparent as it cooled. Three snake bodies humped over the water’s surface about four paces in front of them. The dog crowded the bank and growled, his lip curling away from his teeth. A trio of scaly heads popped up from the swamp, their mouths open and fangs bared.
Sapphira waved her stick faster, nearly knocking it into Acacia’s tiny flame. Sapphira slid her arm around her sister’s waist. “We need more power! Call for a firestorm!”
The chilly water seemed to consume their dwindling wall. The dog waded toward them, closing in. One of the snakes swam through a gap in the flames and slithered around Acacia’s legs. As it traveled up her body, it wound her in tight coils, and when it reached her chest, its head swung around to the front, ready to strike.
Nearly blinded by steamy vapor, Sapphira grabbed the snake’s neck and wrestled it with one arm while trying to keep her firebrand rotating. The struggle jostled Acacia’s arm, knocking the Ovulum into the water.
The other two snakes swam around them in a slow orbit, drawing closer with each revolution. Pushing with all her might, Sapphira wrenched the snake’s neck toward the swamp’s muddy bed. She shoved her toe into the wet sand and nudged the Ovulum onto the top of her foot, raising it to the water’s surface, but with neither hand free, she couldn’t grab it.
Acacia reached for the egg, but the snake’s thick coils kept her from bending. She grunted, her voice breaking. “I. . can’t. . reach it!”
The other two snakes turned toward them and broke through the fire. Sapphira screamed at the Ovulum as it rocked precariously on her foot. “Elohim! Help us!”
Chapter 7
The Price of Betrayal
The Ovulum slipped off Sapphira’s foot, and its splash erupted in a gigantic spray that wrapped around the girls in a tight waterspout. As the other two snakes spun away, the swamp dried at the girls’ feet. The Ovulum sat next to Sapphira’s toes, pulsing crimson halos that seemed to spin the water around, making a vacuum that drew everything upward, including the girls’ hair and their drenched clothing.
Sapphira’s arms ached, but she kept her grip on the serpent, still coiled around Acacia as it snapped with its needle-like fangs. Lifting her firebrand higher, Sapphira shouted, “Give me a new firestorm! I need all the power I can get!”
Tongues of fire leaped from her hand, and the stick exploded in a shower of streaming flames. The fire expanded into a new spinning wall that circled around them inside the waterspout. Sapphira’s vision suddenly sharpened. Sadness crept through her mind. There was no doubt; a new portal window was taking shape, but, with her arms throbbing, could she keep the writhing snake at bay?
Air rushed upward, and the sunlight winked out. They zoomed down, the whole world plunging so fast their bodies seemed to lift off the ground and hover in midair. The walls of fire and water blended together into billowing clouds of vapor. Then, in a splash of fire and steam, they crashed into a shallow bed of water that cushioned the blow of the rocky ground below. Sapphira lunged for the snake, but it had slipped from her hand. Now crawling on all fours on wet stone, she groped for its neck. When she finally found it, she jerked it up, but its limp body lay loose within her fingers. The snake’s head had been crushed.
Sapphira glanced around. Elam stood next to her holding a thick scroll. “That snake won’t bother anyone,” he said, smacking the scroll’s heavy dowel against his palm.
The portal’s column of light flickered between blue and orange and finally settled on a muted orange hue. Acacia stirred next to Sapphira, trying to push the serpent’s coils down to her ankles. With her soaked white hair plastered against her pale face, she looked like a frazzled ghost.
At Sapphira’s feet lay the Ovulum, cold and dark, but unharmed. She breathed a long sigh and gazed at Elam, barely able to whisper, “Thank you.” She reached over and helped Acacia unwind the snake’s coils. A dozen more hands joined in, one pair wringing out Sapphira’s dress, another combing through Acacia’s hair.
Acacia pulled her clinging sleeve away from her skin. “We need to get out of these wet things.”
“You know,” Elam said, pointing his thumb at the exit corridor, “with Morgan gone now, I think it’s safe to explore. There are quite a few rooms I was never able to see.”
Sapphira smiled. Elam’s chivalry never seemed to falter. She nodded toward a lantern near the museum door. “Give me light!” she called out. The lantern’s wick ignited. “There. Come back when the fuel’s about half gone and tell us what you find.”
Elam winked at her and draped the dead snake over his shoulder. “Got it.” He strode to the corridor and dropped the serpent’s body at the entrance. “I’ll leave it here. It shouldn’t stink too bad this far away.” He smiled and disappeared under the arch.
Sapphira pointed at a pile of scrolls stacked against the museum’s outer wall. “Could some of you girls bring about ten of those scrolls over here? That’s my throwaway pile, and they’ll be good for building a fire.” She pulled her outer dress over her head and stuffed the Ovulum into its pocket.
Acacia stripped her outer dress off as well. As she rung out the excess water, her eyes followed the three girls who began building a stack of scrolls. “Why would you want to burn scrolls?” she asked.
“If you knew what was in them, you’d want to burn them, too.” Sapphira nudged a scroll with her toe. “One is Nimrod’s account of his temple activities, and another describes how to prepare human sacrifices for the idols in Shinar. The others are just as bad or worse.”
Acacia picked up one of the scrolls and scowled at it. “Ignite!” One end burst into flames, and she threw it back into the pile. The fire quickly spread to the other scrolls.
Sapphira laughed. “I think you’re getting it!”
Acacia pulled off her inner tunic. One of the girls removed her own outer dress and handed it to Acacia, then helped her stretch it over her head.
Acacia smiled. “Thank you, Yara.”
Yara, now wearing only her inner tunic, spread Acacia’s wet clothes over two broken ladder pieces. She grinned bashfully at Sapphira. “Your turn.”
A taller girl, also dressed only in an inner tunic, presented Sapphira with an outer dress. Sapphira peeled off her underclothes and slipped on the dry outer tunic, letting the bottom hem drop to her ankles. “Thank you, uh. .”
“That’s Awven,” Acacia said.
Sapphira nodded at her and smiled as sweetly as she could. “Thank you so much, Awven.” Awven smiled back and hung Sapphira’s wet clothes next to Acacia’s.
The two oracles of fire faced each other, sitting cross-legged with the crackling scrolls between them. The other girls gathered in a circle around them and sat quietly.
Sapphira rubbed her hands in front of the fire. It flashed orange, matching the portal column’s new color. “Well, I guess moving the portal worked. This place will be a lot more peaceful knowing Morgan won’t be sneaking up on us.”
Acacia laughed softly. “Right. No more plunges into the chasm. That was no fun at all.”
“I can believe that. Your scream haunted my nightmares ever since it happened.” Sapphira nodded toward one of the other girls. “Do you know their stories? I don’t remember seeing any of them before today.”
“You wouldn’t. We were still in our growth chambers when Morgan decided these girls were too smart for her purposes. She threw them into the chasm not long after we were uprooted. Yara overheard Morgan telling Mardon to keep you and me so he could learn why we were so different and to try to” she glanced at Paili “uh. . alter the next brood, I guess you might say. Then, Morgan caught her listening and threw her into the chasm.”
“So,” Sapphira said, tapping her fingers on the stone floor, “Yara made it through the whirlpool along with the other eleven who came before us. But I wonder what happened to Taalah and the spawns who came later. And what about the little embryos that Mardon
incinerated?”
“Before you came and freed us, the man we listened to told us that some girls burned in the magma, and some burned elsewhere. He said their souls traveled to other destinations, but he wouldn’t tell us where. He pretty much said, in a kind way, of course, that it was none of our business.”
“Your teacher is the person inside the Ovulum? And you listened to him for centuries?”
“It sure looked like him, but we didn’t listen to him all the time. He would tell us stories for a while and then we would sleep. I think we slept for very long periods of time, but I’m not sure. I never dreamed, so it was hard to tell. It never got boring, and we never got hungry or sick.”
Sapphira nodded at Yara. “The only difference between these girls and the ones who didn’t survive the magma is when they were spawned. Why would that be?”
“That couldn’t be the reason,” Acacia said. “Paili survived, and she was spawned after we were.”
Sapphira raised her knees and propped her chin on them. “Well, then Paili is the real key. Why is she different from Taalah and Qadar?”
Paili leaned forward and whispered in Sapphira’s ear. “They ate Morgan’s fruit.”
The words echoed in Sapphira’s mind and dredged a painful trench in her heart. She swallowed through her tightening throat as tears welled in her eyes. The truth behind “They ate Morgan’s fruit” rang like a clear bell.
“Is something wrong?” Acacia asked.
Sapphira nodded. Her lips quivered, and her voice cracked. “It’s my fault! I shouldn’t have let Paili use that fruit in the stew. I should have thrown it all in the river.”
Paili laid her hands on Sapphira’s back. “You told them,” she said softly. “They not listen.”
Sapphira shook her head and kicked a protruding scroll farther into the fire. The flames leapt up and crackled louder, masking her squeaking voice. “I could’ve stopped them. I really could have.”
Acacia squinted at her. “What are you talking about?”
After taking a deep breath, Sapphira related the story about Morgan’s fruit from the tree in the museum. She added most of her other significant adventures, from the tower collapse to the amazing midnight dance with Elohim. As she spoke, Acacia paid close attention, glancing at the tree in the museum from time to time and stoking the fire whenever one of the girls brought a new scroll for fuel.
When Sapphira finished, she exhaled loud and long. “There’s a lot more to tell, but I’m getting tired.”
“Don’t worry,” Acacia said. “I’m sure we’ll have time later. I don’t think we’re going anywhere for a while.”
Sapphira raised her eyebrows at the drying clothes. “We’d better get dressed before Elam gets back.”
The girls hurriedly changed clothes, giving back the outer dresses to their owners. As Yara continued to feed the flames, Acacia ventured into the museum library and browsed through the scrolls that lay within reach, picking up a few and blowing dust off their yellowed exteriors. “Are there any maps that show the layout of this place?” she called. “We could use one for exploring.”
“Yes,” Sapphira replied, pointing. “Check the third shelf up, near the back, over by the ladder with the broken first rung.”
“I think I see the shelf.” Acacia grasped the ladder and began climbing.
Sapphira strode to the corridor, stepped over the dead snake, and peered into the dark hall. Elam should have been back by this time. Could Mardon have found him? Knowing Elam, he probably tried to get into every forbidden room he could find.
“Sapphira,” Acacia yelled from the ladder. “I found it. It shows everything ”
“Wait!” Sapphira held up her hand. “I hear something.” Slaps of sandals on stone echoed in the tunnel. Light appeared, drawing rapidly closer. Sounds of heavy breathing mixed in, then a shout.
“Sapphira!” Elam’s face glowed in the bouncing light of a lantern. He stopped at the end of the corridor, his cheeks red and streaming with sweat. “You won’t believe what I saw!”
“Try me.” She kicked the dead snake’s body. “At this point, I’m ready to believe anything.”
“I found the mobility training room for the spawns. It’s amazing!”
“How did you get in?”
Acacia walked up, an open scroll in her hands. “Through the ceiling, I’ll bet.”
Elam mopped his brow with his sleeve. “How did you know?”
Acacia held up the scroll. “This is a map to the layout of this place. There’s a heat release vent and tunnel above the mobility room ceiling.”
“Did they see you?” Sapphira asked Elam. “They’re all giants now, right?”
“They’re huge!” he replied, spreading out his arms. “But, no, they didn’t see me. I just peeked in from above and closed the trapdoor real quick.”
“Was Mardon in there?”
“Uh-huh. He was showing the biggest giant how to train the others.”
Sapphira shook her head. “I’ll bet that was my spawn, Yereq.”
“Yes!” Elam pointed at her. “That was the name he called it. Yereq.”
Acacia took the scroll closer to the firelight and rolled it out on the floor. “Here,” she said, pointing to the upper right portion of the map. “This one’s labeled the mobility room.”
Elam pressed his finger on a room at the bottom left. “We’re way over here.”
“That’s strange,” Acacia said. “The room we’re in isn’t labeled.”
“I remember looking at this a few years ago.” Sapphira tapped her finger next to Elam’s. “I think this was an empty chamber before the museum dropped in. Mardon probably drew this map long before that happened, and he still might not know about it. Morgan never told Mardon anything he didn’t need to know, not even about the abyss.”
“The abyss?” Acacia tilted her head at Sapphira. “What’s that?”
“Something only Morgan, Paili, and I know about. Paili and I found it while mining and almost fell in, but we had no clue what it was.” Sapphira scanned the map. “Where’s the mining level?”
Acacia rolled it out farther. “Let’s see. . Laborers’ quarters. . Ah! Mining level.”
Sapphira slid her finger along dark lines that represented the trenches. “This is an old drawing. We mined past the end of this before I got promoted to the control room.” She pointed at a spot off the map. “If you extended the drawing, the abyss would be about right here. It’s a deep hole, so deep I couldn’t see the bottom.”
“Then I guess you wouldn’t know what’s in it,” Elam said.
“Not for sure. We heard someone moaning, and I read something in a scroll that told me what might be down there. I assumed the scroll was right, so I never went back. One thing’s for sure; Morgan seemed interested in it.”
“Well, I don’t know about you girls,” Elam said, “but if Morgan’s interested in it, I want to know what’s going on.”
“What’s your hurry?” Sapphira asked. “It seems safe enough where we are.”
“Until we learn everything that’s going on here, I won’t assume we’re safe.” He picked up the lantern. “Anyone want to join me?”
Sapphira sighed. “I guess I should. I know exactly where it is.”
“No!” Paili shook her head and grabbed Sapphira’s hand. “Not the deep hole!”
Acacia gently pulled Paili away from Sapphira and hugged her close. “I’ll stay with the girls. If Mardon doesn’t know what’s in this chamber, maybe we should set up a home here.”
Elam nodded. “That sounds perfect.”
Sapphira picked up a scroll from the fire and tapped out the flames. “I’ll use this if the lantern fuel runs out.”
Sapphira and Elam hurried along the corridor, Elam staying a step or two in front. They passed the original portal chamber and wound through the meandering corridor that led to the laborers’ hovels. When they reached the lift platform, Elam paused and stared at the cudgel and metal plate hanging on the wall. �
�We don’t want to wake Chazaq, that’s for sure, but he might not be down there, anyway.”
Sapphira touched the warped plate, making it swing like a pendulum. “So we’re stuck?”
“Looks that way.” Elam tugged the pulley rope, but it wouldn’t budge. “It’s probably tied at the bottom.”
“Do you know another way to get down?”
“Sure. If you can climb down a rope.”
Sapphira tapped her foot on the platform. “You mean there’s room to squeeze between the wall and this board?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never done it before. But once you get past the passenger platforms, there’s probably lots of room, and going down should be pretty easy.”
“True, but we also have to get back.” Sapphira laid the scroll down and grabbed the rope with both hands. She pulled herself off her feet and dangled in the air. Her arms weren’t as strong as when she was digging for magnetite and chiseling out chambers, but she felt pretty confident she could lower herself to the mining level. Dropping back to the platform, she pointed at the lantern. “What about our light?”
“Not a problem.” Elam unfastened his belt and looped it through the lantern’s handle, then tied it in place. “As long as we get down before it burns a hole in my clothes.” He pulled his sleeves over his hands, latched onto the rope, and began sliding down with his back against the side wall, but the lantern bumped against the platform, keeping him from descending.
Sapphira pushed against the side wall to make the gap wider. “Good thing you’re going first.”
After sliding down farther, he paused, his face now the only part of his body above the platform. As a breeze from below blew his hair into a frenzy, he smiled. “Don’t worry. If Nabal’s down there, I’ll chase him away with his own whip.”
He slid out of sight, and the lantern’s glow faded, leaving Sapphira in almost complete darkness. She groped for the scroll and tied it in her own belt, then copied Elam’s descent. Being smaller than Elam, she managed to squeeze herself and the scroll between the platform and wall without help.
