The Stolen Karma Of Nathaniel Valentine (The Books Of Balance Book 1)
Page 25
Sol took a seat at the table. “We’ll stay here tonight. Tomorrow we’ll rise early; it shouldn’t take us long to finish the journey. Once we’re there, we can get what we need from Magdalene and end this business once and for all. She holds within her mind the death of every living soul. She will be able to tell us who Elizabeth Cummings was reincarnated as, and when he or she will die.”
Nathaniel propped himself up on his elbows. His body protested the action, but he forced it into submission. The karma policeman looked drawn and worried, and he drummed his fingers restlessly on the table. “Why are you so afraid of her? I mean, I know she’s Death and all—”
“Do not call her that,” Sol interrupted.
“What?”
“She cannot be called by that name by any but herself,” Nova explained. “Speaking the name of Death in her presence releases her power, and when that happens, she is uncontrollable. So you must only refer to her as Magdalene. Do you understand?”
Nathaniel nodded. “But why are you both so afraid? Don’t you know how to deal with her, like you did with Pestilence?”
Neither of them spoke for a moment. “We do know how to deal with her,” whispered Sol. “And we’re not afraid of her. We’re afraid for you.”
Nova continued her brother’s thought. “She has no power over us. But you fall under her dominion. She is young and could kill you on a whim if she wished, and you are too important to lose. So we want to keep you away from her.”
“But we haven’t figured out how to do that yet,” Sol went on. “We would prefer to keep you out of sight, but you can’t stay in the desert by yourself, and the place where she dwells—”
“If she’s even there,” Nova interjected.
“Yes, if she’s even there, we can’t leave you alone in that place either. It’s dangerous, more so even than the desert.”
Nathaniel looked at them quietly. “Where are we going?”
The siblings exchanged a glance. Neither tried to hide it. “Better for you to see it when we get there tomorrow,” Nova said. “Easier that way.”
Nathaniel sighed.
Sol spoke again, his voice hushed, soothing. “We’re going to split up, we think. You’ll stay with Nova, out of Magdalene’s sight, and I’ll confront her, get what we need from her. We’ve discussed it and that seems like the best option.”
Nathaniel nodded, happy to hear he’d be getting alone time with Nova, then fell back onto the bed. Nova rose to her feet and went to the bed beside his. He crawled up to his pillow, pulled back the covers, and wriggled beneath them. The weight of sleep hovered just above his head. “All right,” he said. “That sounds good.”
“I’ll wake you tomorrow, Nathaniel,” Sol said. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” echoed Nova.
“Goodnight,” finished Nathaniel, and the weight fell.
Chapter XX
On the fourth day after his dream of fives, with the dream now forgotten, Nathaniel was awakened by the gentle shaking of the karma policeman. They left the oasis soon after, once more bundled up against the cruel teeth of the wind. At midday they stopped for lunch, huddled together in a tight circle to keep the grit out of their food, but otherwise, they did not halt.
They reached their endpoint toward late afternoon. For an hour the spot had been growing rapidly larger in their vision, and Nathaniel could see that he had been right, the peaks and swells he had seen were indeed trees. As they had drawn closer, however, Nathaniel’s excitement about finally being out of the desert had been tempered. All of the trees he could see appeared dead, nothing more than black hulks. He couldn’t understand what this might mean or where they were going, but it cast a pall over his mood.
When they did arrive, as they stood before the massive, wrought iron gates, his confusion increased. In elegantly scrolled letters across the top of the gates was a single word, the name of the place worked in metal, but he found himself almost unable to read it, so contrary were the name and the appearance. Everything beyond the gates was lifeless. Gray vines coiled around the close-set bars like petrified serpents. On the other side, a path led through the devastation, dead trees lining the sides like a macabre honor guard.
“I don’t understand,” whispered Nathaniel.
Sol stepped forward and examined one of the gate doors. It was slightly ajar, open just enough to admit someone small, a child perhaps. The karma policeman yanked on the gate, and the hinges shrieked. The vines which had been holding it to its mate snapped in a dry puff of powder and disintegrated. Sol then stepped back and raised one hand toward the path, like a carnival barker beckoning passersby into the freak show.
“Behold,” he said, “the Garden of Eden.”
“I don’t understand,” repeated Nathaniel.
“This is one of four entrances into the Garden,” said Sol. “Two open onto the north and south side of the lake, one into the part of the Garden where Adam and Eve resided. This one opens onto the forest.”
“I don’t understand,” Nathaniel whispered yet again. There were other words in his mind, plenty of them, and even more questions, but he seemed unable to give voice to any.
Sol looked past the gate and into the Garden, seemed to weigh the options, then turned back to Nathaniel. His eagerness to be inside was evident on his face. “It’ll be better if I explain here, I suppose,” he began. “This is Eden, where the Source began its experiments with humanity. It was also where Magdalene resided. It was not her home, it should never be called that, but she stayed here while she murdered it. There is only one patch of green that she has been unable to destroy: the Tree of Life still grows unharmed at the center of the Garden. The plants and trees surrounding it draw from its power and remain alive. If she has indeed returned with her siblings, then she will be at the Tree. That is where I will question her.”
Nathaniel’s eyes moved in rhythm from the scrolled word at the top of the gates to the path beyond to the karma policeman’s face and back to the name. “What will happen if she kills the Tree?”
Nova shook her head. “No one knows. No one even knows why she’s doing it.”
“Is the entire place like this?”
The karma policeman nodded, standing tautly by the gates, looking through. Impatience grew in his features like winding ivy.
Nathaniel looked down the path, considered the trees. Many of them had not lost their leaves, as if the entire tree had been killed instantly, and little light was let through the shifting, crackling canopy. The path continued straight for as far as Nathaniel could make out, until the gloom fell thick enough to obscure his view. His mind still struggled to accept that this could be the same Eden that he had been taught about in Sunday School. That Eden was teeming with life, green and vibrant. This one could not even be deemed a shadow of the first, nor could Nathaniel imagine it alive. It was eerie, as if the vines might come to life and strangle him, as if the trees might pull up their roots and bury him beneath. It was as if this place, this supposed birthplace of life, had itself been born dead.
Nathaniel’s gaze fell on Nova, looking to her for reassurance, but her attention was focused on Sol, and worry lines creased her brow. She was concerned for her brother, but Nathaniel did not know why. She herself had said that Magdalene held no sway over them.
“Come on,” Nathaniel said, stepping forward. “Let’s get this over with. I don’t like it here.” He raised a hand and patted the karma policeman
(a woman with long black hair and a red scabbard and eyes like slivers of ice.)
on the back. He shook his head to rid it of the image he had just snatched from Sol’s mind.
The karma policeman, much like his sister, seemed to have no idea that some kind of psychic transfer had even happened. He smiled and there was something wild in the grin. “Once we get inside, stay between Nova and I. You’ll be safest there, if anything should happen.”
“Magdalene can kill me with a thought. How are you going to protect me from that?”
Nathaniel felt scabrous fingers of fear brush up his spine, but he nodded and together they stepped into Eden. The Garden smelled of mold and fungus, of death and damp. The air was heavy with filth, and though Nathaniel could feel a pulse of life buried deep within the dead forest, it was weak. He did not think there was much resistance left in the Tree of Life.
The murkiness of the forest encroached upon them quickly. Several times, Nathaniel sensed presences watching them from the shadows of the heavy underbrush, saw shadows move through the trees above, but none approached. Trees had fallen across the path in some places and they were forced to climb awkwardly over these as the trunks dissolved to mush in their hands. No one spoke.
Nova was the first to spot the tiny patch of green clover. Among all the black, dead vegetation, the leaves seemed like limes scattered across a volcanic field. There were brown spots on the thin stems, but none of them mentioned this fact. It was enough to know that there was still life in the dying garden.
They walked a little further. The patches of clover became more prevalent on the forest floor, along with mosses and grass. Shrubs that would have been just skeletons fifty yards back were now thick and lush with leaves, and the first live trees appeared. Sol pointed out a bed of flowers far off the path, their colorful blooms swaying back and forth in the breeze. The stench that had plagued them since they set foot in Eden had begun to dissipate, and Nathaniel felt fewer of whatever beasts the trees hid. The pulse of life emanating from the Tree grew stronger with each step, became a throb, then a steady, constant flow. At last they left the final dead tree behind and came into the Garden as it once had been.
Here, life abounded. Everything that Nathaniel’s eye fell on was a startling, brilliant shade of green. Trees towered over them with vast, leafy canopies and pines bristled with vitality. Thick, healthy vines sprawled from one treetop to the next, suspended in gentle arcs. Flowers bloomed everywhere, dazzles of color on the forest floor, in the trees, on the vines. A stream gurgled somewhere nearby. Grass replaced the dirt of the path, blanketing it with soft, lush blades that begged to be run on with bare feet. Nathaniel was reminded of the Elysian Fields, how it had felt to walk through them, how they had seemed to offer him strength.
When they caught sight of the clearing, the karma policeman motioned for a halt. Nathaniel squinted and tried to make out something, either Magdalene or the Tree, but the difference in the qualities of light prevented him from stealing any peeks beyond the faint colors that his mind could sense.
“We’ll go a little farther,” the karma policeman whispered. “You two can take the next path that branches off. I’ll continue on to Magdalene. Understood?”
Nathaniel nodded. After a moment, Nova did the same. Nathaniel looked at her curiously and saw the same troubled expression he had seen outside the Garden. He frowned, considering.
They pressed on. When their path was intersected by another, they paused at the crossroads. Nova stood on tiptoe and kissed her brother on the cheek, then whispered a wish of good luck. They separated, and Nathaniel realized with a twinge of dismay that it was the first time he would be away from Sol since the beginning of this mad journey and the seraph’s trip into Limbo. He cast a look over his shoulder, but the karma policeman had already disappeared into the bright light of the clearing and was lost from view.
He followed Nova a short distance down the curving path. She had removed her straight razor from her pocket and was twirling it through her fingers, the blade still inside the pearl handle. Nathaniel’s eyes moved from her weapon to her face, which was set and determined and pointed in the direction of the Tree of Life.
“What’s going on?” he asked, his voice hushed.
She gave him a distracted glance. “What are you talking about? He’s trying to find out who the Allamagoosalum’s next victim is going to be. You know that.” Her tone was quiet, but he could hear a note of annoyance in it all the same.
“That’s not what I mean. What’s going on with Sol? I’ve seen the way you keep looking at him. Something’s wrong.”
She regarded him for a long moment, then allowed her gaze to be drawn back toward the clearing. “Now’s not the time.”
“When would be a better time? We’re alone. Sol is occupied. I know it has something to do with him and I want to know what.”
“This is a dangerous business we’re involved in, Nathaniel, and I haven’t the time—”
“Then you’d better make the time,” he said, “because you’re right, this is a dangerous business and I have a right to know what I’m stepping into.”
Nova turned to him and looked him in the eye. She tarried a moment longer, shooting a quick glance back toward the clearing, then turned her full attention to Nathaniel. “There was a part of Sol’s story that he glossed over and hoped you wouldn’t notice. And you didn’t. But…” She paused again, crossed her arms over her chest. She lowered her face, her hair brushing her shoulders, then touched the side of her finger to her lips. “I suppose you do have a right to know everything.”
Nathaniel looked at her. She was breathtaking, standing as she was; the sunlight coming through the leaves high above cast flickering shadows like birds’ wings over her face and white-blonde hair. For a moment she seemed like just a beautiful young woman, and he had to remind himself that she was nothing of the sort. Beneath her skin raged a fire.
“For Sol, this is about vengeance,” she began. “It is duty as well, of course, but that is only a small part of it. He is responsible for the creation of the Allamagoosalum, and it is his responsibility to see that it is killed. But its death won’t be the end of it for Sol. There is one more thing he has to do before he’ll see his vengeance as complete.” She stopped and glanced toward the clearing, then quickly back, frowning.
“Go on,” Nathaniel prodded.
She shook her head. “I shouldn’t be telling you this. He didn’t want you to know.”
He reached for her arm and caught himself before he laid his hand upon her. He withdrew it slowly, tried to make it look natural. “I need to know everything if I’m going to take on the Allamagoosalum, Nova. Every piece of this puzzle that I don’t have when the final moments come will just keep me from seeing the whole picture. I can’t go into this blind.”
She gave a barely perceptible nod, but said nothing for several moments. She tilted her head down, scuffed her shoe in the dirt. “Do you remember in his story, when he was sitting in the park and felt the karmic disturbance that sent him to Stella’s school?”
Nathaniel nodded.
“He never talked about what caused that disturbance, because it was never known for sure what did cause it. When Sol investigated, he found that Raymond had been in an entirely different part of the school when he abruptly changed direction and headed right for the classroom where Stella and her friend were hiding. He deviated from his carefully set plan just to double back and kill those two girls.”
“Are you saying someone interfered and directed him to Sol’s daughter? That’s what created the karmic disturbance in the first place?”
“That’s what Sol thinks. He’s been caught between his duty and his desires for so long, but once the Allamagoosalum is dead, he plans to take his revenge, to balance out the hurt that was inflicted upon him. All things balance.”
Nathaniel grabbed the karma policewoman by the arm, unable to stop himself. A blur of images played through his mind, but he paid no attention to them, cast them away as quickly as they flooded in. “You mean he knows who did it?”
“Yes,” whispered Nova, her eyes wide. “He means to kill her, even though it will almost certainly be suicide to do so. He is determined to have his vengeance, no matter what the cost.”
“Who?” hissed Nathaniel. “Who was it?”
“Luna,” answered Nova. “The seraph Luna.”
“I don’
t understand,” said Nathaniel. It was becoming something of a mantra for him. “Luna’s the captain of the Emerald. She’s an angel. She would never do something like this.”
Sorrow flashed across the karma policewoman’s face. The pearl-handled razor traced serpentine paths through her fingers. “She is no longer captain. After the business of Sol and Bertha’s relationship, she grew distant from the Silver City. She became irrational, paranoid. She blamed Sol for undermining her position and, for whatever reason, the focus of her rage became Bertha. She was convinced that the thwarted execution of the Gatekeeper had been the lynchpin upon which Sol had built some massive, shadowy coalition against her. She felt as if Sol had stolen her prize from her, and she was determined to have it back. She plotted and schemed, and the Citizens grew more and more weary of her, this angel who, charged with the protection of Heaven, had turned her attention to the Library. Shortly before Raymond’s attack on the school, she tried to assassinate Bertha, but the Gatekeeper’s voice proved to be too much for her. There are securities around the ring valley which alerted the karma police that Bertha was in danger. When they arrived, they found Luna huddled in a ball, her hands pressed over her ears, and the Gatekeeper humming a single note. Just humming beneath her breath as she braided her hair a few feet away, as if she were simply whiling away the hours instead of completely incapacitating the captain of the Emerald. Luna was humiliated.”
“What happened?” Nathaniel asked. He had forgotten all about Magdalene, the Garden of Eden, the Allamagoosalum. It was the story again, pulling him into its embrace.
“Sol arrived, calmed Bertha down, got her to stop singing. Whatever note she was humming only affected Luna. When the captain was helped to her feet, she staggered around drunkenly for a minute, then refocused on Sol and his wife. She swore that she would make them pay for what they had done to her. Swore that she would bring about their ruin. And then she denounced the Source and fell, as her brother had so long ago.” Nova fell silent for a moment, flicked out the blade of her razor, flicked it back in. “She bided her time, quiet as a little mouse, and when her moment came, she gave Raymond a push when he needed it, and Stella was murdered.”