by Ted Dekker
And yet here he was, in the flesh.
He stepped up to me and dipped his head. “It’s an honor to finally meet you, 49th. I think I was expecting a giant.”
He took my hand and kissed my knuckles, and I liked him immediately.
He turned to Talya. “And so we meet again. Forgive me for my reluctance.”
Talya winked. “Aren’t we all hesitant at first? And yet here you are.”
“Here I am.”
“Good,” the boy said. “There’s no time like the present. Talya, old friend, tell them what you’ve cooked up.”
With that, the boy hurried up the beach to Judah, ruffled the lion’s ears, and sat down beside him, legs crossed. Like a boy on a beach looking over his sandcastle. And what a magnificent creation the world of earthen vessels was.
“Come.” Talya walked back down the shore to the water’s edge. We followed quickly, keeping up with his long strides. Now I saw the Talya I knew, walking in authority. I glanced back and saw the boy scratching the underside of Judah’s belly.
“Focus, 49th.” He winked at me. “Show Thomas your shoulder.”
I pulled up my sleeve to expose the three seals.
Thomas reached for my arm and ran his thumb over the tattoos. “They . . . I’ve never seen markings like this. They’re set into your arm.”
“Like a holographic tattoo,” I said. “From Earth. Neat, huh?”
His eyes darted up to meet mine. “So you really are from there.”
“And so are you, right?”
He took a deep breath. “It’s been so long since I dreamed, I was beginning to wonder.”
“Wonder no longer,” Talya said. “You won’t be dreaming this time. You’ll be going in the flesh. The Fourth and Fifth Seals will be found there, but the 49th seems to have lost her way in that world. Her blinding is deep and you’ll have to work quickly.”
“Work how? You mean to say I’m . . . What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that you’ll enter this thin place, which has no boundaries,” he said, staring at the sea. “At the bottom you’ll find yourself in another dimension called Earth, which is a mystery because this sea has no bottom. There, you’ll find Rachelle. Everything you need to know to help her, you’ll learn in the waters. That’s what I’m saying.”
A quiver had taken to Thomas’s fingers. He stared at the crystal-green waters. “I can go in the lake?”
“Do you want to?”
“Yes! Yes, I want to.”
“You’ve been in before?” I asked.
“Not here, no. But I’ve been in another lake, before the Fall into darkness. I . . . Maybe it was this one, but smaller. Yes, I want to go. Yes, I most definitely want to go.”
“Good,” Talya said. “By my reckoning, you’ll have two days at most.”
“What happens in two days?”
“Even now the armies gather to crush the Realm of Mystics. But that’s Rachelle’s concern here. Her concern there is to find the last two seals before they succeed. Your concern is to help her see so that she can. Her way will be treacherous with the seals, impossible without them. Am I clear?”
“What’s my way?” I asked, wondering what he meant by treacherous. “What’s happening with Jacob?”
“He returns as promised.” Talya looked out over the water. Then bent and scooped some up, letting it trickle through his fingers. Light swirled through the water as it caressed his hand and slipped back to the sand. “The Fourth Seal will give you strength.”
“Strength for what?”
“You’ll know when you find the Fourth Seal, assuming you find it soon enough.” He put his hand on Thomas’s shoulder. “Which is why you must go now, my son. Dive. Dive in, dive deep. Breathe. Follow your heart. Bring her sight!”
Thomas glanced at me, then Talya, eyes wide.
“Now, Thomas.”
He needed no further encouragement. In the space of only a few seconds he’d stripped out of his tunic and torn his boots off. It reminded me of Jacob running for the red lake.
Bare-chested and wearing only his black slacks, Thomas plowed into the waters. He stopped and twisted back, water to his knees.
“Go on,” Talya said, flipping his hand at the water. “Dive deep.”
With that Thomas turned and dove into the clear green waters.
The moment he slipped beneath the surface, the sandy bottom vanished. A current snatched his body and pulled him deep with breathtaking speed. His torso arched and I could see his jaw spread in a scream. It wasn’t fear. It was love.
And then Thomas Hunter was gone.
Gone to me.
29
I HAD FALLEN asleep in the barn, exhausted from Vlad’s madness at Karen’s house. No dreams. Just sleep and then waking again, caught between darkness and shafts of light streaming through cracks in the barn walls.
Slowly, the events of the last couple days filtered into my awareness—the church bombings, DARPA’s wiping of my brain, my role as the 49th Mystic, Vlad and his Leedhan . . .
Were they real? How was that even possible? I blinked as the thought filled me with anxiety. Why was all of this happening to me? Who was I to be caught up in such a terrible state of things?
But I knew who I was. Vlad had told me. I was the one who couldn’t trust anyone. Including myself. Maybe least of all myself. I mean, I hardly had a brain! Well, I did, but it was floating away from me because I didn’t have anything to tie it to.
Steve. Steve was the only one I could trust. But Steve was out of ideas, assuming that he was still Steve.
I gasped and jerked up. How long had I been asleep? What if Vlad had . . .
My question stopped there, because there was a man in the barn, sitting on one of the hay bales, watching me.
For a long second we just stared at each other, he smiling, I panicking, because all I could think about was Vlad. And this Vlad didn’t have a shirt on. Or shoes. Only black pants, drenched, like his long hair.
“Good day, 49th. My name is Thomas Hunter.”
All I heard was hunter and I knew that he was Vlad. He’d found me again!
I bolted to my feet, only then remembering my speed. My instinct was to escape. Flushed with adrenaline, I embraced all of my fear and rage and flew at him, screaming.
He didn’t even have time to wipe the grin off his face before my fist slammed into his jaw, knocking him backward off the bale of hay.
I fled, streaking for the door, across the lawn, up to the house.
“Steve!”
In that panic, I didn’t care if Steve was really Steve or if Karen was really Karen, because I knew that Vlad was behind me and he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
In my rush, I failed to turn the doorknob all the way, so when I crashed through the door, the frame splintered with a loud crack.
“Steve!”
He was jumping up from the couch, shotgun spilling to the floor. Karen sat on a stool at the breakfast bar, stunned by my entrance.
“He’s here!”
“Who’s here?” Steve started for the window, then thought better and jumped back for the shotgun. “Who, Vlad?”
“He’s here?” Karen cried, shoving off the stool. It clattered to the wood floor.
I bounded to the stairs and was halfway up before thinking that getting trapped upstairs might not be a good thing. So I whirled back. Steve was at the blinds, looking through the slats.
Then leaping for the door. Slamming it shut.
“That’s him?” The door bounced open, latch broken. He dropped the shotgun, grabbed a crate filled with firewood, and shoved it against the door. But that wasn’t going to hold anyone out.
“You’re sure that’s him?” he shouted.
Karen was at the window now, peering through the blinds. That was another thing—the window was broken. Keeping Vlad out wasn’t going to work. We had to either get out or use the shotgun.
“That’s not Vlad,” Karen rasped, stepping back. “Not Vlad, Vlad.”
But Vlad could be anyone. I vaulted the railing and landed on the floor like a cat. “We have to get to the car!”
“And go where?” Steve asked. “We can’t just run, they’ll find us!”
The clock on the wall read 9:37. I’d been asleep less than two hours.
“He isn’t wearing a shirt,” Karen said. “His hair’s wet. You sure he’s Vlad?”
“Who else would he be? Just keep the gun on the door. Go for his head, his eyes.”
Karen still wasn’t convinced. “Hold on . . .”
But then it didn’t matter because a fist was pounding on the door.
“Hello in there! There’s no need to be frightened.”
Steve backed up, shotgun raised. None of us spoke, we just stood there, rooted to the floor.
A hand suddenly tore down the blinds at the broken window. In the frame stood the bare-chested man, breathing hard. His green eyes glanced between us.
“What’s the meaning of this? I’m here for the 49th—to help her, not harm her, for the love of Elyon!”
“We can’t trust him,” I snapped, and I almost went after him again, because who else would know anything about the 49th except for Vlad?
Steve had the shotgun on him. “Don’t move.”
The man eyed the weapon and slowly lifted his hands chest high. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen one of those. Please don’t use it.”
“Who are you?” Karen demanded.
His eyes settled on me, deep and piercing. “My name is Thomas Hunter, as I said. I’ve come with urgent news for Rachelle. That is you, isn’t it? The 49th Mystic from Other Earth?”
The roof ticked as it warmed under the sun.
“Thomas Hunter?” Karen said. “That’s not possible.” Spinning to Steve: “Shoot him!”
“Wait!” I was terrified, but I wondered if he could be telling the truth.
“It’s one of them!” Karen cried, stepping back. “Looking like . . . Thomas Hunter died two decades ago.”
“In this reality, yes,” the man claiming to be Thomas said, eyes still on me. “But not in my dream world, Other Earth, which is as real as this world. There, I’m the commander of the Circle. I was sent here by Talya, the man with the lion, and by Justin, who appointed the 49th to find the Five Seals of Truth before the Realm of Mystics is destroyed.”
It all sounded impossibly true to me. A fantasy I had once dreamed.
“Vlad could say those things,” Karen said.
“He could, but he isn’t. Thomas of Hunter is.” His voice was gentle now, unconcerned. “Look in my eyes and tell me, 49th: what is seeing beyond what you think should be?”
The voice I’d heard in my head. It was his? Heat gathered at the back of my neck.
“It’s the voice of truth, leading you to the Fourth Seal. Hear it and you will know that I’ve come to help, not harm. Please, I beg you. Listen to your heart.”
“Why are you wet?” Steve demanded. “What kind of pants are those?”
“I’ve emerged from a pool beyond the trees,” he said. “I’m not dreaming of this world, like I used to. I’ve come through the sea. But we’re running out of time. If you don’t find the last two seals in the next two days, the Realm will—”
“How can we know any of this is true?” Steve interrupted. “It’s crazy!”
“It doesn’t matter if you think it’s true. Only whether she does, and for her I have proof. If you just let me in, I’ll show her.”
“Show her now,” Karen snapped. “From there.”
He considered this briefly, then lifted one hand and squeezed some water from his wet hair into his palm. He held it out to me.
“Drink.”
I glanced at Steve, at a loss.
“It’s from the lake I just passed through. Drink it and you’ll know.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Steve’s tone was as adamant as his words.
“For the love of Elyon, please. How can I point the way to the Fourth Seal if you stand here questioning my identity? We don’t have time for this!”
“What will happen if I drink it?”
“You’ll know.”
“Know what?” Steve asked.
“Know that I’m not a Leedhan, who are incapable of love. Know that I speak only truth. Know the meaning of the seals now on your arm.”
“Water can’t—”
“These waters can!” Thomas interrupted. “She was poisoned with Leedhan blood. It was used with your mechanisms to erase her memories. This water will return her memories. Drink!”
I stepped forward slowly, drawn by his promise. The heat in my neck was spreading down my back.
“This is a mistake!” Karen said. “All of it. None of this was supposed to happen! I have to reach the president!”
“Shut up,” Steve shot back. To me: “Just hold on, Rachelle. I’m not sure about this.”
I ignored him, eyes on Thomas. Steve had convinced me I’d tapped into a different consciousness found in my dreams. That’s why I could do the things I could. If what Thomas said was true, he knew all about that higher consciousness, or whatever it was. If not . . .
What did I have to lose? My mind? I’d already lost it.
Steve made no attempt to stop me as I stepped up to the shattered window and held out my hands. I could smell the scent of fresh flowers on Thomas. His jaw was smooth and his chest was scarred. A strong chest with bronzed skin.
The mad idea that he was a man from the same world I’d visited in my dreams felt nearly irresistible. Maybe because it was true.
He poured hardly more than a splash of water into my hands, then put his much larger hands under mine and looked into my eyes.
“Know this, daughter of Elyon.” Tenderly, like a father. “The Leedhan doesn’t know I’ve come. In taking your mind, he’s unwittingly made you like a child, which is a gift. Use your innocence for truth now. Believe. Drink the water and know that in this realm, the lake is inside of you.”
Then he lifted my hands to my mouth.
I set my lips into my palms, tilted my head back, and let the water flow into my mouth, then down my throat.
The moment the liquid hit my stomach, heat flashed through my hips, gathered at my back, and rose like a ball of fire up my spine. It happened in the space of a single breath, and when the heat reached my mind, it detonated in a light that blinded me to this world and opened me to another.
My head jerked back and I gasped, overwhelmed by the intensity of it. Of love. Of truth. Of knowing.
Steve was yelling something, but he was distant to me. Karen’s shrill voice sounded like a cricket at the far edges of my consciousness. I was at the center, watching streams of truth flooding into my awareness.
And I knew . . .
I knew I was tapped into the higher consciousness that Steve had tried to explain to me. Only it wasn’t what he thought, because it was a consciousness that couldn’t be described in words.
My whole body was shaking, I could feel that, but I was strangely disconnected from it. It was almost as if I was filling my mind. My eternal self, unbound by space and time. My body was only an earthen vessel and I was using it to experience myself in this world. Until now, that earthen vessel had somehow taken me over.
My earthen vessel self only knew up and down, plus and minus, and all things as polarity, but my eternal self knew an infinite reality, beyond the knowledge of good and evil. And in that infinite space, I knew once again the full meaning of the three seals on my shoulder.
The First Seal, the outer band, was white. White: Origin is Infinite. God is infinite light.
The Second Seal was a green band of light. Green: I am the Light of the World. Inchristi is me and in me.
The Third Seal was the way. Black: Seeing the Light in Darkness is my Journey.
All of this I knew instantly, and it shook me to the core. But there was more, because I also remembered everything I’d forgotten about my dreams in both worlds—everything surrounding m
y quest for the five seals, both in Project Eden and in Other Earth. All of it, including meeting the boy before Thomas vanished into the clear green sea to find me.
I knew it all, and then the light collapsed back in on itself and was gone.
The room had gone silent. I opened my eyes and looked around, breathing hard, still shaking. Steve was by the door, staring. Karen was at the breakfast bar, crying silently into her hands. Thomas stood by the fireplace, watching me with a smile.
How much time had passed?
“What happened?” Steve managed.
I turned my head. “I’m . . . I’m in love,” I said.
His stare was blank.
To Thomas: “With Jacob. He’s Albino.”
“Yes, he is.”
“Samuel’s in trouble.”
“Yes, he is.”
When the student is ready, the teaching will appear. I was ready. I was very ready.
“I’m going to find the Fourth Seal.”
“Yes, you are.”
The voice filled my mind as it had so many times, tender and loving.
What is seeing beyond what you think should be, precious daughter?
But I knew! Talya had told me. Little Maya had told me. I had known about this truth for a long time and known it in the storm with Talya. And now I knew it here, in this reality, where the Fourth Seal could be found.
There was only one way to see the kingdom.
I turned to Steve. “At DARPA I saw words etched into the wall. A riddle.”
“You . . . How can you . . . You’re remembering?”
“What were they?”
He hesitated. “What is seeing . . . something about beyond.”
“What is seeing beyond what you think should be?” I said.
He nodded. Glanced at Thomas.
But my eyes were on the door beside Steve. Because the words were there now, burned into the wood. And as I watched, a band of light emerged from the wood, forming a two-foot white circle around the words.
“Like that,” I breathed, staring.
Steve followed my eyes, saw the markings, and stumbled backward.
I stepped forward as a green band emerged from the wood.
