Song of Ariel: A Blue Light Thriller (Book 2) (Blue Light Series)

by Mark Edward Hall

  Jason and Laura both agreed and went off to finish their preparations.

  Back in the antechamber Danielle said, “Now that Johnny’s gone, who gets to hold the third object?”

  “It should be Eli,” Ariel answered.

  “Of course,” Annie said bitterly. “Jason, Danielle and Eli are the only ones who get to go with Ariel.”

  “Mama, I’m so sorry,” Ariel said wrapping her arms around her mother’s neck as a new bout of tears overtook her. “I didn’t make the rules.”

  Annie and Doug were both worried that the stress was getting to Ariel, and that because of it, her judgement might be off.

  “That’s why Johnny’s dead, isn’t it?” Danny Wolf said suddenly. “He was never meant to go. It was Eli from the beginning. Johnny was just a currier, a way to get that object into Eli’s hands.”

  “Sadly that might be true,” Jason said.

  “Well, what about the spear fragment?” Eli asked.

  “That stays with me,” Doug said.

  “Why?”

  “It was entrusted to me a long time ago. Right or wrong it’s not going with you guys.”

  “Papa’s right,” Ariel said.

  “Why is that?” asked Nadia.”

  “After we’re gone Earth will still be here, and it will be a dangerous place for a long time. The ones who stay behind will need to be clever to survive. They will need to fight and many more will die. The spear fragment is Mama’s and Papa’s ace in the hole. It will help them and the ones who stay close to them to survive.”

  Danielle said, “I can see now that from the beginning what seemed like random coincidence wasn’t coincidence at all, but a carefully constructed plan.”

  Slim clasped his hands together and gazed up at the ceiling. “Every move we make is being guided by a higher power.”

  Laura said, “If that’s true, then it wouldn’t matter what we did. If we’re being guided by some higher power then why don’t we just go back into the main cavern and wait, see what happens.”

  “That would be a mistake,” Ariel said. “Free will always usurps randomness. We are blessed with the powers of reason. We should all strive to use that power wisely.”

  “So how do you explain everything that’s happened?”

  “I can’t,” Ariel said. “I know I’m smart, perhaps the smartest human being to ever walk the earth, but I’m just a child without life experience. Something inside me says we have to act now or none of us will survive. I think you should trust me.”

  “I do trust you,” Doug said. “Those who don’t are free to turn back.”

  Not a soul moved.

  “Okay, now that that’s settled, let’s see if the objects will work.”

  CHAPTER 49

  Ice Caves. Northern Maine Wilderness. July 6th.

  The antechamber was perhaps thirty feet long, ten feet high and ten to fifteen feet at its widest point. Several flashlights were in use. Even so, the darkness was pervasive. For the ritual several of the lights were placed at strategic points around the chamber. Whenever anyone moved, shadows drifted like dark ghosts.

  Doug reached in his pocket and extracted the four artifacts. He doled out the three alien objects to their respective recipients, one for Jason, one for Danielle and one for Eli, and held the spear fragment in his own hand.

  “Okay,” he said, “everybody form a tight circle just the way we did the last time. Annie, I want you and Ariel as close to me as possible. Annie, who was still holding Ariel, moved over and pressed herself against Doug. Next Jason, Danielle and Eli moved in, and between them they formed a rough circle. Jennings, Laura, Danny Wolf and Slim moved in next to form the outside part of the circle. Doug looked over at Nadia, Dr. Randal and the six soldiers. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. You guys can either try this with us or take your chances on your own. Personally I suggest you get into the circle.”

  Nadia moved into the circle.

  “All of you drop your weapons and move out of the circle!” Randal commanded. Next came the sound of boots on rock and the squad of soldiers were aiming their weapons at them.

  Eli had to blink twice in the shadowy light to make sure he was seeing correctly. “I don’t believe this,” he said.

  “Seth, what the hell are you doing?” Nadia said, moving out of the circle and facing him.

  “Shut up and get out of the way, Nadia,” Randal said.

  “Don’t be stupid.”

  “I’ll kill you, Nadia.”

  “I don’t think you will, Seth.”

  “Don’t push it,” Randal said. “You can’t win. There’s still time for you to switch sides, you know.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? There are no sides. There’s just right and wrong.”

  “There’s the side of God and then there’s everybody else,” Randal said. “The world is a very different place now, Nadia, and those who survive will need an advantage. They’ll need God on their side.”

  “Have you lost your mind, Seth? You’re a scientist.”

  “Yes, but I’m also a priest. The events of the past several weeks have shown me that science has failed us, that the only true path is faith.”

  “You want that spear fragment, don’t you? You think that’s your path to God.” Nadia gave a bitter laugh. “You’re not that stupid, Seth. Why are you really doing this?”

  “Why?” Randal said. He had his pistol trained on Nadia’s chest. “Why! Because I’m sick and tired of playing second fiddle to you, and to the Brotherhood. That’s why. I’m sick and tired of being excluded from all the magic that seems to be going around these days. I want my piece.”

  “Oh my God,” Annie said. “My father’s gotten to you, hasn’t he?”

  “I make my own decisions,” Randal said.

  “No,” Annie said. “I know his work, and this is it. He bought and paid for you.”

  Randal said, “I want all four of the artifacts and then I want you to very carefully hand me Ariel.”

  Ariel had her face pressed against her mother’s chest weeping.

  “What did he promise you, Seth?” Nadia asked. “Immortality?” She burst into hysterical laughter. “You are such a fool.”

  A cloud of doubt crossed Randal’s face. Even in the dim light it was plainly visible. “This is your last warning, people. I’m not going to say it again!”

  “You’re dreaming if you think I’m going to turn my daughter over to you,” Annie said.

  “I won’t hurt her,” Randal said. “She’ll be taken care of. I promise.”

  “The way I was taken care of? My father nearly ruined my life. He’ll not ruin my daughter’s.”

  Laura and Jennings were both becoming impatient. They knew what was supposed to happen. They just couldn’t be sure it would actually play out the way it had been planned.

  Jennings’s hand had been on his weapon since the moment Randal had spoken. Now his grip on it was tightening.

  The next few seconds happened in a blur. Nadia went for her weapon but she wasn’t fast enough. Randal shot her point blank in the chest. Annie ducked down into the center of the circle to protect Ariel as a barrage of shots rang out. She did not see what happened but fully expected to see everyone fall dead around her. That didn’t happen. The next thing she heard was Doug’s voice saying, “It’s okay, Annie, you can stand up now.”

  Annie stood up and saw the six soldiers all standing at parade rest against the far wall, their weapons at their sides. Both Nadia and Dr. Randal lay on the floor, but as far as she knew everyone else was okay. “What just happened?”

  “Yeah, what the hell just happened?” Eli said. “I thought we were all dead.”

  Doug went to where Nadia had fallen and was kneeling down checking her vitals. He looked up at Annie and she saw the raw emotion in his eyes. “We couldn’t trust that she wasn’t part of it,” he said. “If we’d known we might have been able to save her.”

  “Part of what?” Slim asked.

&n
bsp; “Why don’t you tell them, Sergeant Blake,” Jason said.

  “Yes, sir.” One of the soldiers stepped forward and said, “What Dr. Randal told you was correct. At least some of it. We were part of a team that arrived along with everyone else, supposedly to look out for you people. Except we were held in reserve far enough away from the fighting to survive, which is more than I can say for the rest of our men. We didn’t know why until Randal came to us and told us what our mission would actually be, which was to kill you all and take the child and some artifacts. After helping Captain La Chance survive outside and then coming inside and meeting you people . . . well, we just couldn’t do it. When you were all busy gathering supplies we decided as a team to not go along with Randal’s plan. Later we informed Captain La Chance and he alerted some of you others.

  “You knew Randal was going to try something?” Annie said to Doug.

  “Five of us knew. Me, Rick, Jason, Laura and Danny. There wasn’t time or opportunity to share the info with anyone else. We didn’t know how it would go down. We didn’t know if Nadia was involved or not. I’m so sorry I doubted her.” Doug turned to the soldiers. “Thank you all for saving our lives. You guys now have two choices. You can come with us or you can go back out there and take your chances.”

  “We’ve already decided,” Sergeant Blake said. “We’re going with you, sir, to . . . ahh . . .” A cloud of confusion crossed the sergeant’s face. “To wherever it is you all are going.”

  “Good choice.”

  Ariel was sobbing again. “Something bad is coming.”

  “I don’t understand, sweetheart,” Annie said. “The bad has already happened.”

  “No! What’s coming is worse. We have to go now!”

  “Let’s do this,” Doug said. “You guys know the drill. Move into a tight circle and pray that these things work.”

  The artifacts seemed almost eager to do their thing as a stunning blue light exploded silently from each of them, tongues licking out, seeking, finding, connecting, until the cavern was filled with a swirling maelstrom that consumed everyone.

  EPILOGUE

  On the shore of Parker Pond. Date unknown.

  And suddenly they were all standing on the dock at Parker Pond looking out across the calm water to the forest on the far side. The day was bright and clear, the sun riding high in a brilliantly blue sky. At the side of the doc sat Rick Jennings’s Cessna pontoon plane, tied just as he’d left it two days ago. At the edge of the shore in front of the cabin stood the remainder of Sergeant Blake’s platoon.

  “What in the world is going on?” Laura said. “When we got here day before yesterday the cabin was destroyed.”

  “Yeah, and it’s supposed to be dark outside,” Eli said. “It was past ten pm when we headed into that cave.”

  Annie panicked when she realized Ariel was no longer in her arms. “Oh my God,” she said. “Doug, where’s Ariel?”

  Everybody stopped and looked around them. At the end of the pier stood a young woman who turned and began walking toward them. Her skin was white as ivory, she wore a flowing white gown and her light brown hair shimmered in the noonday sun.

  “Who is she?” Slim asked, his voice nearly breathless with wonder. “She’s the most beautiful vision I’ve ever seen.”

  “She’s our daughter,” whispered Doug, his voice filled with equal measures of awe and pride.

  “What?” Laura said. “That’s impossible.”

  “Believe what you like,” Annie said. “That’s our daughter.”

  Ariel stepped up to her mother. For a long moment the two women gazed into each other’s eyes before falling into a long embrace. To Annie the adult version of Ariel felt as real and substantial as any human being she’d ever hugged. Tears burned Annie’s eyes.

  “Don’t be sad, Mama, everything’s okay. Everything’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

  “No it’s not, Ariel. I’m about to lose you forever.”

  “No, Mama, as you can see I’ve been gone now for a very long time. You haven’t lost me. You will never lose me. I promise.” Ariel placed her hand over her mother’s heart. “I will always be with you here.”

  “I don’t understand any of this,” Annie said. “Will I ever see you again? I mean like this, in the flesh?”

  “Some day when Earth has found peace and all the right stars are in alignment.”

  “That day may never come.”

  “Anything is possible, Mama.”

  Doug stepped over and stood beside Annie. Ariel moved away from her mother and embraced her father. “I miss you so much, Papa,” Ariel said as tears traced silver lines down her flawless cheeks. “I love you more than I can say. You loved me unconditionally. You protected me. You saved me for this moment.”

  “I wish we’d had more time together. I wish I could have done more.”

  “Your time has just begun, Papa. But we cannot dwell on that. Now we must hurry. Time has been briefly altered and everyone here needs to get to safety before it returns to normal.”

  “This isn’t real,” Laura said. “None of this could be real.”

  “It’s real enough for our purposes,” Ariel said. “Now please, heed my warning.”

  Jason, suspecting what was coming, turned to Sergeant Blake. “How did you and your men get here?”

  We brought utility vehicles, sir. Last I knew they were parked over in the cutoff.”

  “You think they’re still up and running?”

  “We hope so, sir.”

  “I suggest you gather your men and head out quickly. Get as far away from this place as possible as fast as possible.”

  “Yes sir,” Blake said and saluted. “It’s been a privilege meeting you all.” He gathered his men, wished everyone Godspeed and the platoon of Brotherhood soldiers marched off into the woods toward the cutoff.

  “Now you all have to leave,” Ariel said.

  “We will,” Doug said. “But not until you’ve gone, Ariel.”

  “Uncle Rick,” Ariel said, embracing the big man. “There will always be a special place in my heart for you. You’ve done so much for me and Mama and Papa. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

  “You can repay me by surviving, little Ariel. There’s no better way.”

  “I’ll do my best,” Ariel said with a sad little smile. “But you need to concentrate on saving this world. Your world. It’s time for the human species to come together as one. You can’t be thinking about me. Understand?”

  “I’ll do everything you say except the last part,” Jennings replied. “I’ll never forget about you. Get that notion out of your head right now.”

  Ariel lifted a delicate hand toward Jennings’s face and gently touched him on the cheek. Then she moved away, gathering Jason, Danielle and Eli. “It’s time to go,” she said. “Let me have your artifacts. You won’t need them where we’re going.”

  Confused the three pilgrims handed their artifacts over to Ariel. Ariel turned them over to her father. “Here, Papa, these are for you.”

  “What am I supposed to do with them?”

  “Just keep them close. You and Mama will need them. I promise.”

  “One more question before you go, Ariel. What about the codes in Robert Browning’s poetry and Danny Wolf’s song. What do they mean? How will you use them?”

  “In a way I’ve already used them, Papa. That’s why we’re all gathered here by the pond instead of still in that cave. Now you and Mama and Danny and Uncle Rick will need them. Don’t ask how. It’s complicated. You’ll know when the time comes. The codes were a necessary step towards understanding why things had to happen the way they did here on Earth. And they will be a necessary step in healing the Earth. Robert Browning’s poem is a message of hope for all of humanity. Danny Wolf’s song is a history lesson and a stark warning not to repeat the terrible mistakes of the past. Healing will not be easy. It will start with the human psyche, but it needs to move into the heart. Peace begins with love. All of you who rem
ain, in one way or another, will be instrumental in that healing:

  “All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good, shall exist;

  Not its semblance, but itself; no beauty, nor good, nor power

  Whose voice has gone forth, but each survives for the melodist,

  When eternity confirms the conception of an hour.

  The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard,

  The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky,

  Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard;

  Enough that He heard it once: we shall all hear it by and by.”

  As the last vestiges of the poem faded, a shaft of magnificent blue light descended from the heavens, bathing Jason, Danielle and Eli in its pristine glow.

  “So long,” Eli said, his small, deformed hand rising in a farewell wave. I’ll never forget any of you. And Danny, I’ll always love you, brother. Never forget that.”

  They were gone in a heartbeat, winking up through the shaft of blue light like ghostly fireflies in the heat of a summer night.

  Ariel, tears streaming from her eyes, was next. She stepped into the light, kissed the palm of her hand and blew it toward the group standing on the pier watching her.

  And the light takes her heavenward, her ivory skin and snow white gown melding as one, glowing like spectral fire in some cosmic crucible.

  Then there were six souls standing on the dock; Doug and Annie McArthur, Laura Higgins and Danny Wolf, Rick Jennings and Slim Pickard. For a long moment the thickness in the air between them was too heavy and their thoughts far too poignant for words.

  Finally Laura pointed at the plane and asked, “Can you get this thing off the water with six people in it?”

  “Don’t you worry about me,” Slim said with a dismissive flap of the hand. “I’ll make it out on my own.”

  “That’s not an option,” Jennings said. “You’re part of this group now. Ariel brought you to us for a reason and we’re not letting you out of our sight.”