by Bolz, Stefan
She couldn’t decide if his eyes were gray or blue, but they showed the wisdom of his years and revealed a deeper understanding of things, a sorrow that resonated with her. She was sure he’d seen his share of hardship. It looked as if his hair hadn’t been touched by water or soap in a while. His face was weathered and his back bent slightly forward as if he had stood too long crouched over his work.
“It’ll probably take them another ten minutes to gather before they’ll attack the outer door with everything they’ve got. By now they must be in possession of some military vehicles. An M2 can do some damage. Those are two inch steel reinforced doors but they have their limits.”
Blair was leaning against one of the stacks of books and Aarika had sat down in a chair and was unwrapping a power bar. How fast we can accept as normal something that would have been impossible to comprehend only a few days ago, Kasey thought.
“Then it’ll take another half hour for the second door before they’ll be in here.”
“Is there another way out?” Jennifer asked. She was cleaning Jack’s face and swollen eye with a wipe.
“No. Yes. And no. Both answers apply, depending on where you are.”
He looked as if he had just made a joke and now waited for a reaction from his audience. When his eyes found Kasey’s, his face changed. It became softer. It was as if he knew that what he was about to say should be said in kindness.
“I gave you the amulet,” he continued. “It was necessary. Trust me, I would not have brought this into your life if it wasn’t of the utmost importance. And you have yet to accept it as yours. NechhRuhd has not been forged in this world. In fact, it has not even been forged yet, if you look at time as linear.”
Everyone was quiet. Then Aarika coughed.
“Sorry, wrong pipe.” He coughed again. “I didn’t get that last part. Could you repeat it?”
“NechhRuhd. That is its name. Now, you gotta understand that in the place it was made, forged, where it was brought into existence, nothing is named unless its power has been recognized.”
The man cleared his throat. “Excuse me,” he said. He pulled a flask from one of his pockets and drank from it. He handed it to Blair. “You look like you could use one.”
Blair took a sip. He started to cough. His face took on a dark red tone. “What is that shit?”
“I made it myself,” the man replied. “Do you have any questions?”
“You can’t be serious,” Blair said. He was still coughing. “Of course we have questions. The first of which would be who the hell are you? I mean, don’t get me wrong. Your timing was impeccable but…”
The man silenced him with a gesture.
“My name is Douglas McNamara. Kasey, I apologize. Again. For what I have done and for what I am about to do to you.”
Jennifer looked up. She had been bandaging Jack’s wrists with gauze. Now she looked like she was readying herself.
“When I gave you NechhRuhd, when I gave you the necklace with the… amulet, I didn’t come from um—”
“Douglas,” Kasey interrupted him. “May I call you Douglas?”
“Yes,” he nodded.
“Please tell me what’s going on. And stop apologizing.”
He let out a sigh.
“You are not just your basic humdrum eighteen-year-old teenager. I didn’t come to you ten years ago because you were the only person on the beach that morning.”
“Okay…” Kasey felt hot all of a sudden.
“I came specifically to you that day.”
The heat rose from her stomach through her chest and into her face.
“For God’s sake, spit it out!” Blair said. His eyes were still watery.
“You are a weapon, Kasey. Well, not quite yet but possibly in an hour or so, depending on if you agree to do what I am about to ask you.”
Blair threw his hands in the air. “Could you be more vague?”
“Let him speak!” Aarika said.
“The world as you’ve known it, as we’ve known it, changed yesterday morning. It will never be the same. And not just here. Everywhere. In this country, Texas, L.A., New Hampshire, New Mexico, Florida, Louisiana, the Arctic Circle, overseas, everywhere. Something happened that… set in motion a series of events which caused me to travel back here and give you the NechhRuhd. But the amulet is only one half. You are the other. One without the other has very limited power. But both together can yield a force that might… help us.”
He took another sip from the flask. “But you’re not ready. Nowhere near ready. And in an hour or so, they’ll come through that door. And if what you’ve seen so far has scared you, you will not want to find out what’s next. The blood riders were scouts. The weakest link in a chain of—”
“What do I have to do?” Kasey was surprised at her own question. She didn’t think before she’d asked it. And now she almost regretted saying it out loud.
Douglas took out a handkerchief and wiped sweat from his brow. Then he walked to the center of the room and moved a small Persian rug to the side, revealing the square outline of a trapdoor. Everyone stared at it for a moment.
“I’m assuming that doesn’t lead to your wine cellar,” Aarika said.
“That depends on who you are. Kasey, tell me what you see,” Douglas said.
Kasey took a few steps toward the open trapdoor. She looked over at Jack. He didn’t look as bad as he did when they came in. His face had a little more color and his left eye seemed less swollen.
“Smoke,” she said. “Fog maybe? I can’t see anything. What is it?”
“You with the glasses, what do you see?” Douglas asked.
Aarika got up and peered into the opening.
“A ladder. A cement floor.”
“What?” Kasey asked. “Are you sure?”
“Some kind of a crawlspace,” Blair added.
Douglas gestured for Jennifer and Jack to come over.
“Crawlspace, yes,” Jennifer said.
Jack nodded.
“Neither of you sees the fog,” Kasey stated.
They shook their heads no.
“This down there,” Douglas said, “or up there, however you wanna look at it, is a place where time is thinner than usual. Space folds into itself. It’s a door. A gateway.”
“To what?” Kasey asked. Jack, who stood next to her, took her hand. She took comfort in his touch and she felt the urge to tell him how much she had missed him and that she was glad they were together now.
“The amulet without the carrier is worthless,” Douglas continued. “But the carrier has to able to wield the power that both together brings forth. In order for you to help us, you need training.”
“Training? What kind of training?”
“You’ll have to go through extensive physical training. And I mean extensive. You’ll have to be able to withstand pain. Heat. Cold. You’ll have to go past your fear. Far past it. You’ll have to learn how to discipline your mind. That’ll be the hardest part. That which you will invite and which you will become will obliterate you if you’re not prepared. It will take over and nothing of you will be left.”
Kasey remembered the encounter in the dark basement from this morning all too well. And when she had tried to free the horses and couldn’t control whatever it was that had come to her.
“And you want me to do all that in an hour?” Kasey asked.
“No. Not an hour. That would be impossible. Three years.”
“What?” Blair exclaimed. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“There is an ancient training ground. Not here. Not now. In a distant past. Somewhere else entirely. It’s there solely to train those who can be used, formed, forged if you will, into weapons to fight... to help us fight.”
“Come again?” Blair said after a moment of silence.
“Here, in this room, one hour will pass. But there, three years will have gone by before… before your training is completed and you can come back. To us.”
The he
at in Kasey’s chest had turned into a block of fast-freezing ice. She had trouble breathing.
“I’m sorry,” Douglas said. “But the white dragon is vast and powerful and you have to become its equal before it can become you.”
“What’s the white dragon?” Kasey asked.
“The white dragon is the purpose of your journey. To find it. To tame it. And to bring it back.”
There was no sound in the room. Kasey looked into the fog just below the floor.
“Where do I find it?”
Douglas shrugged. “I don’t know. No one does.”
Kasey looked from one to the other. She had trouble wrapping her mind around what Douglas had said. She had so many questions but none of them had to do with what she felt she needed to do.
“Okay. I’ll do it.”
“I’m coming with you,” Jack said.
Douglas smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that. The one who has been touched by love knows pain. But, unfortunately, if you jumped in there you’d most likely break your ankles on the concrete floor.”
“And me?” Kasey asked.
“I don’t know where you’ll land. Or when.”
“How do I get back?”
“There is a way but if I tell you now — which I can’t because I don’t know it — you wouldn’t be able to make any sense out of it.”
“What do I take with me?”
“Nothing. No possessions. No clothes. The amulet is the only thing you can keep. It’ll be your guide.”
A loud bang shook the fluorescent lights in the ceiling. It was a single blow.
“If you are willing to do this, you have to do it now. I don’t know how long it will take them to get through the doors, but if they do and you’re still in there, they can shut the door and seal the entrance and you’ll be stuck in there forever.”
Kasey realized that she had been squeezing Jack’s hand the whole time. He didn’t say anything.
“Okay.”
Douglas nodded. Kasey hugged him. “I’ll see you in an hour,” he said.
From him, she went to Aarika and hugged him.
“You should take another bite,” he said holding yet another power bar in his hand. “And bring me a souvenir okay? Some kind of ancient, I don’t know, bottle opener or Swiss army knife or something.”
“Sure.”
Blair hugged her hard and quick. “Thanks,” he said.
Jennifer shook Kasey’s hand. “I’ll hug you when you get back,” she said.
When she stood in front of Jack, she was nervous all of a sudden.
“There was something I had wanted to do,” he began. “And I just never got around to it and now that you’re—”
Before he could continue, she kissed him on the mouth. His lips were soft and they trembled. She didn’t know if it was from the pain so she withdrew just a little bit. But he kissed her back. The stuttering sound of the M2 reverberated in the room.
She withdrew from him.
“See you soon,” Jack said.
“See you in an hour,” Kasey replied.
She began to untie her boots.
“Guys, give the girl some privacy,” Jennifer said. “Turn your asses around, gentlemen.”
Douglas, Jack, Aarika and Blair turned around.
Kasey took off her boots, pants and tank top. She still had her bikini on. She slipped it off.
“I’m gonna hold it till you’re back, don’t worry,” Jennifer said. “I won’t let any of the boys touch it.”
She and Kasey exchanged a brief smile.
“You’re a warrior, Kasey,” Jennifer said. “And I’d go into battle with you anytime.”
Kasey looked from her down into the fog. Don’t think. Just do it. In the deep crevasses of her mind, something stirred. It felt alien still but its power brushed against her like air on a feather.
She jumped.
Epilogue
“I am the distant star on a cloudless night. The dream of comfort when there is no light. I am closer than your skin and closer still. I am always with you, always will be. Good night, Darren.”
Douglas kissed the boy on his forehead and pulled the blanket up to his chin. As hot as the days had become, the nights were colder than he could remember.
“Good night, dad.”
The boy rolled onto his side, facing the wall. He would be fast asleep before Douglas was out of the room. Eleanor, Doug’s wife of twenty-eight years, didn’t want to tell Darren that his father wouldn’t come back. She insisted they not tell him. Officially, he was going away for a while to look for work up north. In truth, the war and the heat had ravaged the lands for decades; had taken from it what could be taken and had left but blood and sand and sorrow.
But there was hope. A tiny shimmer of light in the ever-darkening sky. It was an impossible dream. Highly improbable. A death sentence for Douglas and leaving yet another shattered family without a father.
But the small infinitesimal ray of hope could not be undone. It appeared usually right after he’d woken up in the morning. It stood unwavering in his mind, telling him of that one possible scenario that could change everything. The grain of sand in the clockwork of evil, the child that could yield to the power of The White and tame it.
So he needed to go, leave his wife and son, his only son, the one he had held throughout his life, the one he could not imagine living without. Even though Eleanor was furious, angry, and most of all terrified, even though she fought him tooth and nail, explaining every possible outcome to him — only one of which would bring him back safely to her — she understood, grasped the importance of him going where nobody had gone, nobody had dared to go. He would leave this world through the fog and enter a different world altogether. There, in the shadow of the mountain, on the easterly side, above the entrance to where legend had placed the White Dragon’s den, there was an eagle’s nest perched on the black rock.
It was there, under the watchful eyes and razor sharp beaks and talons of its guardians, that NechhRhud lay. The Fog would spill him out — dizzy and weakened and bereft of cherished memories — two klicks northwest of the nest. He’d have to pass through the shadow wall and the land of the mouth-less, the raptures and the sirens of Sarona.
Once in possession of the talisman, he’d make his way south to the deep and from there into the fog again. With a little bit of luck, he’d reach the shores of the alien world and meet the one who could wield the power of the White Dragon and restore balance to his world.
But that was impossible.
The End
Dear Diary,
7th grade sucks. Also, I went to the doctor again today. Mostly for waking up in the middle of the night soaked in sweat and screaming from the bottom of my lungs. They did all kinds of tests. Blood and x-rays and even a CAT scan. There’s nothing wrong with me. My mom was upset because of my temperature. Because I’m always so hot, she started to measure it every time I wake up at night which... is every night right now. It was between 106 and 108 degrees Fahrenheit over the last two weeks. It doesn’t matter if I use a blanket or not. My temperature is always the same right after I wake up. I didn’t tell anyone about my dreams yet.
Gotta go.
Kay
Dear Diary,
We went to another doctor today. This time it was a family psychologist. He asked me if I wanted to tell him anything about what was going on at home. I told him about the fighting. He asked me how I felt when I heard mom and dad fight downstairs. I told him it made me upset. He let me use his punching bag for a few minutes. He didn’t ask me about my dreams so I didn’t tell him. Also, I don’t remember them unless it’s right after I wake up.
Peace,
Kay
Dear Diary,
It’s 2:14 a.m. I’m writing down my dream. Otherwise I’ll forget. I didn’t scream today, I think. So my mom isn’t coming into my room to take my temperature. In the dream, I’m walking on this sharp rock inside a tunnel. I’m older. Not a lot but a few years. I’m
not wearing any shoes. It’s very hot in here. The air I’m breathing is very hot also. It almost hurts to breathe. The amulet is burning my skin but I don’t dare take it off. It smells like when we burned sulfur in chemistry class. Then I come to a lake. It’s red. I think it’s made of lava. The lake is basically the bottom of a large cave with walls similar to the floor I was walking on before. Black stone that looks like coral in the ocean.
In the middle of the lake, a large rock sticks out of the lava. There’s a lot of smoke that covers the top of it, but I know there’s something sitting there. It watches me. It’s big. That’s when I wake up. It’s always when I wake up.
Going back to sleep but I hope the dreams stop soon.
Kay
Dear Diary,
Today was moving day. My mom and I moved into an apartment in Bay Shore. My dad moved someplace else. He’s still on the island but more like thirty minutes away.
I hate my new room.
Kay
Dear Diary,
16!! We went to the beach for my birthday. We surfed all day and played guitar by the fire. I haven’t had the dream for a while. But I remember it now during the day sometimes when I do chores at home or during homework. I see the cave and I see the rock sticking out of the lava, right in front of me.
Twice in the last month I went to the emergency room because I was burning up during the day. It went away very fast and I know my mom doesn’t catch it all the time. I tell her that it’s okay and that it happens often. I might have to have more tests.
Peace,
Kay, who is 16!
Dear Diary,
Richie Glasco is hot. He’s different than the other kids. I think he lives with his brother who works in construction. Rumor has it he’s got a chance to play for the Long Island Lions when he gets out of school. He’s going out with Susan. She’s a senior. I don’t know what he sees in her. He’s not looking at me. At all.
