by K. C. Dyer
Brodie gave a low whistle, and the girls walked over to his side. He had found the symbols on the wall and was examining them closely with his light. Two symbols glowed a dull red in the wavering light, beside another, tree-shaped, which could just be made out as a soot-blackened smudge. Darrell brought her flashlight closer to the smudge, and in the more direct light, the shape of a tree appeared out of the dark. It was rimmed with the faintest trace of red, like a line of old blood, delineating the sooty symbol from the rocks behind.
Darrell peered at the symbols through the erratic light of their lamps.
“What do you think they mean, Brodie?”
Brodie looked puzzled. “I’ve never seen anything like these symbols before,” he said slowly. “They’re clearly extremely old, and drawn in a really primitive fashion, but ...”
“But what?”
He looked at her and shrugged. The light from his headlamp careened around the walls of the cave. “Usually cave paintings take the form of animals, or hunters. They were a means to record success and failure before people could really write. They were the first way history was written or drawn for people to remember. When I looked at these before,” he continued, “I could see right away they were not cave paintings. They just don’t look like anything I’ve ever seen painted by the indigenous people of this coast. That’s why I think they’re glyphs or runes.”
“What do you mean? Is there any difference?”
“They’re kind of similar, actually. Runes were sort of a rudimentary alphabet used by early Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian people. Often they’re used to symbolize the occult these days. Y’know, hex signs and that sort of thing. Glyphs are like hieroglyphics, the sort of picture story symbol that the Egyptians used.”
He looked closely at the symbols, his nose almost touching the red pigment. Kate’s jaw dropped as she looked at the symbols, and she exchanged a glance with Brodie.
Kate found her voice first. “What is this place?”
“I just don’t know. These things look like a cross between glyphs and runes, but not like any cave painting I’ve ever seen a picture of. And look at this.” He gestured to the symbol on the end that resembled a tree.
“What is it?”
“It’s a different colour than the rest of them. The other two are reddish, like they were painted on with ochre, which was a common substance used in cave paintings. They’re in the shape of a sword and a face or a mask of some kind. But this one shaped like a tree seems to be made of charcoal or something. It’s really hard to see on the rocks in the dark. It looks like it’s been burnt on with a brand, but of course that would be impossible. It’s weird, but last time I was here I remember this tree looking much redder. I could see it more clearly on the wall, anyway. The charcoal was singed around the edges but the tree itself was the same ochre colour as these other glyphs.” His voice trailed off.
Darrell looked closely at the symbol. She could see it was in the shape of a tree, but it was completely blackened and very difficult to see against the dark cave wall. With a ghost of remembered nausea, she thought about the glowing tree symbol in the cave near Mallaig and about how she had watched the glyph she looked upon now fade from glowing red to black, like a fire burning to ash when she returned from the past. She instinctively stepped away from the wall, hands tightly clasped behind her back. Could these symbols be the key to a doorway to the past?
Suddenly Brodie turned and grabbed something out of his pack.
“What are you doing?” Darrell cried.
Brodie looked determined. “I’m going to take a sample of both these substances.” At Darrell’s shocked look he said, “Don’t worry, it’ll be so tiny no one will ever notice. I’ll be careful not to harm the symbols in any way.”
“NO!” Darrell’s voice rang out through the cave. “Don’t touch them, Brodie.” She began to babble. “I can’t explain why but it’s really important ... just ... just don’t touch them.” She frowned and muttered to herself. “I need to think about this for a while. I don’t know what to do!”
Brodie gave Darrell a puzzled look and then turned back to the symbols. He reached up with a tiny scalpel-like instrument that he had pulled out of his pack.
“Don’t worry, Darrell,” Brodie said quietly. “I’m very careful and I take things like this very seriously. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt the glyphs.”
Darrell shook her head in disbelief. Brodie stood, unharmed, in front of her.
“Are you ready to go back to the school?’ he said with a grin.
“I am,” answered Kate, and turned to leave.
Darrell was baffled. Brodie had touched the symbols on the wall. Delaney was curled up on the floor of the cave near where she herself had fallen. If her time travel experience had really happened under these same circumstances, why was Brodie still standing above her and grinning? Her mind reeled with unanswered questions.
Darrell rose to her feet and stood in silence for a moment, staring at the symbols in the wavering light.
Kate stepped over beside Darrell and gently traced the outline of the second symbol: the shape of a knife or a sword. She turned and looked at the others, with her hand resting lightly on the rock face. Her eyes were huge in the lamplight. “I’ve never seen anything like these glyphs ... or symbols ... or whatever you call them. You’ve found something really important here, Brodie.”
Brodie leaned forward for a closer look himself, his hand on Kate’s shoulder.
“What do you make of this?” he said, excitement in his voice. As Darrell bent forward to look more closely, several things happened at once. Delaney stepped between Darrell’s legs and she nearly fell. Darrell grabbed Delaney by the collar and clutched at Kate’s shirt to break her fall. Kate teetered and bumped heads with Brodie, causing both headlamps to go out.
“Hold on, guys,” breathed Darrell. “I think ....” There was a loud bang, a snap, and then silence. The earthen room was dark again, and empty. Brodie’s backpack slowly tipped over and settled itself on the sand.
CHAPTER TEN
Darrell lay on her back in the sand, feeling like she had just been through a tornado. Unlike the previous journey, which had taken place entirely in darkness, this time she opened her eyes to a dimly lit cave. She watched the colour slowly fade from a glyph on the wall. It was charred around the edges, in the shape of a sword, but still held a reddish glow. A river of emotion rushed through her. It had happened again ... somehow. But this time, she was not alone.
She turned her head and gazed over at Brodie and Kate, lying flat on their backs in the sand. They both looked pale and unconscious. Darrell felt a sharp knife of fear slice through her stomach. She had learned from past experience not to try to move too quickly, but she was determined to find out the condition of her friends. As she rolled over onto her side and lifted her head, she saw with relief that Brodie was blinking, his eyes unfocused and bleary.
Darrell stood up. She staggered over to the other two and dropped to her knees between them. A heavy woollen skirt of rich purple billowed out around her legs. She ran her hands over the fine texture of the cloth, but nausea gripped her again. Rummaging in her pocket, she brought out a handful of unwrapped candy. She raised her eyebrows at the sight of it and examined it carefully, then popped one in her mouth. She thought for a moment about Luke’s aunt, and shivered. Brodie groaned and she put a mint into his hand.
“Here, Brodie” she said. “Take this and put it in your mouth. I think it should make you feel better a little sooner.” Brodie groaned again, but he did as Darrell instructed. Within a few moments, he was struggling to sit up. The two looked anxiously at Kate. The short red hair framed her face, and her freckles stood out clearly against her pale skin.
“She hasn’t even opened her eyes yet,” said Darrell, with worry in her voice. Brodie turned his head to look quizzically at Darrell’s strange appearance, and opened his mouth as if to speak. Darrell looked back at him bleakly. Brodie seemed to make up his mind
and closed his mouth abruptly. He crawled across the cave floor to Kate and peered at her through the strange red glow that lit the cave.
“She’s coming around now,” he said, relief on his face. “Just give me a mint. I’ll slip it in her mouth and maybe it will make her feel a bit better. It seemed to help me.” He took a small peppermint from Darrell’s hand and pushed it between Kate’s lips. She gagged and started to cough.
“That’s just great, Brodie. Now she’s going to choke to death.” Darrell rolled her over onto her side and patted Kate on the back. Kate caught her breath and then opened her eyes wide.
“What’s going on? Why do I feel so sick? Hey ...” she gasped and choked again on her mint. She coughed violently for several minutes while Brodie and Darrell pounded her on the back. When she finally got her breath, she was able to finish her thought.
“LOOK AT YOU TWO!” she shrieked. Glancing down, she added, “LOOK AT ME!”
Darrell glanced over at Brodie and saw he was wearing a crude shirt made out of wool over a dirty under-shirt of some softer material. He wore rough trousers that only came to just below his knees. His shoes, like the one she had on her earlier journey, had wooden bottoms and leather uppers, and were ripped and worn. Darrell was surprised to see that her style of dress had substantially changed from the previous visit. She wore a long dress and over-skirt and a fine wool shawl. Kate’s outfit mirrored Darrell’s, but her skirt was made of a coarser cloth and she had a rough wool sweater for warmth instead of the shawl.
“Keep your voice down, Kate,” whispered Darrell. “Do you want anyone to hear us before we figure out what we’re doing?”
Brodie sat back on his heels and ran his hand across the stone wall. “It feels real,” he muttered, “but it’s not the same rock.” He scraped the rock with his fingernail. “Definitely limestone. Not anything like the granite cave near the school.”
“Brodie!” said Kate, furiously. “What are you mumbling about? Who cares what rock the cave is made of? This is serious!”
Darrell shook her head as if to clear it and looked at Brodie and Kate in wry disbelief. Now that she could see that Kate and Brodie were both okay, she felt seized with a sense of exultation. They’ll have to believe me now! she thought triumphantly.
“What are you grinning at?” Kate crawled on her hands and knees across the sand and thrust her nose into Darrell’s face. Kate’s skin had gone from pale to bright red with remarkable speed. She looked as though she didn’t know whether to hit Darrell or cry. Her wool skirt was rucked up around her knees, and her face reflected complete confusion.
Darrell’s insides felt clenched. Her relief at being proved right washed away at the sight of Kate’s misery. “Look,” she said, “I don’t know what happened back there. I didn’t intend for you guys to end up here with me.” She shrugged and looked around. “I didn’t intend to end up here myself ...” Her voice trailed off and she looked up at Brodie, still standing by the glowing glyph on the wall of the cave. It was becoming harder to see as the blood red light began to recede.
“You’re right, Brodie. This is not our cave by the school. The problem is, when that glyph fades away, we are going to be in pitch darkness. We need to get closer to the mouth of the cave before we can decide what we’re going to do.”
“Darrell,” Kate’s voice was filled with fear, “if you have some idea of what is going on here, I want to hear about it right now!”
Darrell stood up and realized with a sigh that she had to balance again on a wooden peg instead of her prosthesis. She reached down and grabbed Kate by the hand. “I’ll tell you all about it when we get a bit closer to the entrance, okay? C’mon. I know the way.” She nodded her head at Brodie. “Better grab his hand, Kate. We need to stick together.”
The last of the red light faded back into the rock like a candle puffed out, and Kate gave a little cry of despair. “What are we going to do, Darrell?”
Darrell clenched her teeth and reached out to touch the face of the rock wall in the dark. The rock was chill and a little damp under her fingers. She squeezed Kate’s hand. “It’s going to be okay. Let’s just get to where the light’s a bit better, then we’ll figure out what to do.”
Darrell led the way toward the mouth of the cave, her left hand tightly clenched by Kate. Her right traced their way along the cave wall, to avoid scrapes from the broken old barnacles that lined the rock surfaces. After a few long moments, she could see the glow of the entrance in the distance, and she sighed to herself with relief. Soon the three were seated on the damp sandy floor near the mouth of the cave, looking curiously at the strange clothes they were wearing.
Darrell rubbed the crease between her eyebrows and sighed.
“I’m ... I’m not sure what happened back there ...” she began.
Kate’s lips began to tremble and her eyes filled with tears. She looked pleadingly from Darrell to Brodie. “This can’t be happening. Please tell me this is something you’ve cooked up just to tease me, Darrell.”
“Kate, try to stay calm.” Darrell looked from Kate to Brodie. “This is a bit of a long story,” she whispered, “but I’ll try to give you the short version.” She picked up a broken fragment of shell from the cave floor, took a deep breath, and began. In a rush of words, she told them about her discovery of the cave and about the strange series of experiences that followed. As she talked, of Luke and his mother, of the journey and the plague, she kept her eyes downcast so as not to see the disbelief she knew would be on their faces. She related as much as she could remember of the strange and remarkable journey she had taken. “And that’s why I didn’t want you to touch the symbols, Brodie.”
Darrell paused and somehow found the courage to look up at her friends. “I know how I would feel if someone had told me a crazy story like this,” she said evenly. “The truth is, I thought I was crazy, too, or maybe I just had a bad dream or something. But seeing the black tree glyph today has made things a bit clearer to me.”
“Why’s that?” said Brodie, with a tremor in his voice.
“Because that tree represents the mystical rowan tree in Arisaig that Luke told me about,” Darrell replied. “And where we are now proves it. Somehow that glyph on the wall has pulled us all back in time.”
Kate clutched Darrell’s arms, her face a palette of emotions as she stared wildly from Darrell’s eyes to the strange clothes they all wore. After a moment, she curled into a ball on the sand, tucked her face into the folds of her voluminous skirt, and sobbed.
Brodie knelt beside her on the cave floor and patted her back awkwardly. “It’s going to be okay, Katie. Try not to cry.” He looked at Darrell sharply as he struggled to find the right words. “Think about your tae kwon do training, Kate. You told me your instructor taught you to concentrate only on what’s in front of you and to hold your opponent in the highest respect. Just think of this situation as a really tough opponent.”
Kate lifted her tear-stained face out of her hands. Brodie pulled a linen rag from his pocket. He gave it a strange look and then handed it to Kate. She wiped her eyes and nose and tried to hand it back.
“You keep it,” Brodie said hastily. “It used to be a Kleenex tissue, and I wouldn’t have wanted that back, either.”
“Just a minute,” said Darrell, slowly. “Look at this.” She pulled something out from behind her ear. It was a long thin piece of black material, hard with rounded edges.
“What’s that?” said Kate in a troubled voice.
“It’s charcoal,” said Darrell. “But what’s more important is what it’s not.”
“Okay, Darrell, now you’ve really lost me,” said Kate, her face red from crying. “This is so weird! First we go through some kind of whirlwind storm, and we’re all knocked out cold. Then, when we finally recover from that, all these strange things have happened to our clothes and our possessions ... and you!” She turned in fury to Darrell. “You brought us here. You need to get us back!”
“Wait a minute, Kate,”
Darrell said. “Stay with me a minute, here. When I said it’s more important what this thing is not ... I meant it. When we went into the cave, I had a few things in my pockets. I brought a package of breath mints, and I stuck a pencil behind my ear. And this is what I have now.”
They all looked down at the black object. It was the same length as a pencil and roughly the same diameter, but there any resemblance ended. Kate snatched the object up out of Darrell’s hand. She turned round to the rock wall and began to rub it along a flat portion of the rough surface. It left dark, unmistakable marks. Darrell cleared her throat.
“I think it is a pencil, Kate. It’s a pencil from before there were such things. This looks like the charcoal I sketch with, sometimes. I think it’s what pencils looked like at this time ... whenever we are.”
Brodie looked at Darrell. “Your breath mints look more like old-fashioned peppermint candy. And what was my tissue seems to be an old piece of rag.”
Darrell nodded. “And then there’s this.” She pulled up the hem of her skirt and showed them the wooden peg that replaced the elaborate prosthesis she had been wearing moments before.
More than anything, this sight seemed to have the largest impact on Brodie and Kate.
Kate looked at Darrell, aghast. “How are you going to walk on that thing?”
Darrell shrugged. “I did it the last time. It just takes a little practice and it hurts a bit more to walk.” She paused and smiled ruefully at Brodie. “It also means I won’t be winning too many foot races with you.”
