The blackened part of the flower had disappeared, disintegrated. Instead, a corner of the new ragged bottom of the stalk had dug itself deeply into the mound and was tilting at an ever faster rate.
“Gods,” Livvy said, as she let Coco and the stone-eater go. Blanca stood behind her.
As the top of the flower tried to catch up with the bottom, it whipped across the sky in a giant curve. The timber groaned over the sound of the wind created by its branches and leaves. It whooshed as it raced toward the ground, toward the village.
“The ancestors!” yelled Livvy, taking a step in that direction.
“Followed us!” yelled Coco.
Livvy watched them swarm down the street in their direction. In the distance beyond them, the flower began its final descent. Moving with mounting speed and momentum, the trunk nearest the plaza crashed first. As though a timed demolition were taking place out of view, Livvy watched the horizon as plumes of debris rocketed upward where the tree collapsed across the village.
The explosions sped up as the entire trunk of the tree neared the ground until one long crash filled the air and shook the ground. Livvy covered her ears. A tidal wave of dust rolled up the street. She stepped in front of Blanca and knelt down over her.
“Get down!” she yelled, as the brown wave pummeled them.
Livvy held her breath as the stream of debris sailed by, only to find it was going so fast it was creating a vacuum. Livvy closed her eyes and moved her hands from her ears to cover her mouth and nose before the air was sucked out. Then, it passed, taking the wind and sound of destruction with it. Livvy opened her eyes and looked down at Blanca as she looked up and blinked. She checked left and right.
Coco and the stone-eater simply stood there, looking up.
Livvy stood and looked around. The flower was gone! They’d done it!
She spread out her arms and hugged both the stone-eater and Coco but neither of them responded. Her arms flopped down to her sides.
“What?” she muttered.
CHAPTER NINETY-THREE
“HOW DOES IT feel to be wrong?” Celestino screamed.
The tribal officer brought his other arm around behind his back and Dale heard the handcuffs close. Celestino was hardly aware of them, though. He was still trying to get closer to Dale.
Dale sat on the bench of the lower kiva, exhausted and spent.
Frankmann had already been removed. John Frankmann, suspected of murder in two states, was no Pahaana. He was a sociopath and, apparently, a smart one. The corner fragment of the tablet he had used as his calling card was a museum quality replica. It had been based on the tablet Celestino had been displaying in public for years.
“The Fifth World is upon us,” Celestino yelled, spittle flying. “It’s happening right now.”
Dale just stared at him.
“Go get ready,” Celestino yelled as they dragged him over to the ladder. “Make your final preparations. Say goodbye to all this.” He waggled his head around. “The lightning shaman couldn’t stop it. Not even Grandmother could stop it!”
A hand reached down from the floor above and pulled upward on Celestino’s shirt while the officer pushed up from below.
“I was right!” he yelled, not looking at Dale any longer as he climbed. “I was right!”
He repeated it a few more times and then he was in the upper story, out of view.
The officer began to climb the ladder after him and then paused.
“Dale?” he said.
Dale slid off the bench to sit on the floor.
“You go,” he replied. “I’m staying.” He reached out and picked up Celestino’s goggles. “I have some unfinished business.”
CHAPTER NINETY-FOUR
“YOU DON’T SEE it?” asked Coco.
“I see the flower isn’t there,” Livvy replied but as she looked back up to the sky she realized what they were seeing.
The sipaapuni was still there. Livvy lowered her gaze, glared at the ground, and shook her head. SK is on the plateau. Judging from the sun, it was getting to be afternoon here, early morning in the real world. The temperature must be hitting its low.
“Does it matter?” Livvy asked. “The flower is gone. There’s no way to reach it.”
“It’s the opening that leads to the passage to the Fifth World,” said Coco with a sigh. “He’ll find another way to reach it. Grow another sunflower.” She glanced at the stone-eater and Livvy before looking up to the sky again. “Destroying the path should have closed it.”
“Destroying the tablets was supposed to close it,” said Livvy.
“He is one determined kachina,” Coco said.
Determined to do what?
Coco had said he wanted to be the creator. Livvy thought of him tossing Celestino aside.
Had Tawa been using her too? Had she also been a means to an end? She tightened her jaw at the thought. Who else could have taken the tablet from her car? It hadn’t been Celestino. Tawa had needed her to retrieve it from the deep niche but the car would have been easy. And the last tablet–she’d led them all to it.
She’d ‘made the call’ and it’d been wrong. The possibility that she and SK might be together had been too much. She’d put aside her doubts, despite knowing Tawa always had an agenda. She shook her head. The wrong choice. And now SK might pay the price.
No. She would not let that happen.
“Good girl,” said Coco. “Keep it up.”
Livvy had been about to ask ‘keep what up’ when a shadow passed over them. She looked up. The clouds were back–thick and black, about to burst with power, flashing from one edge of the horizon to the other. Tawa was no longer keeping them at bay but she realized they could still see the sipaapuni.
“A rend in the Underworld,” said Coco. “Nothing will cover it. It has to be closed.”
On the plateau, time was running out.
“And I’m betting you know how to do that,” Livvy said.
“Grandmother knows everything,” someone said.
Livvy whirled. “Dale!” she exclaimed.
She remembered Celestino winking out.
“You found Celestino,” she said, walking toward him. “You pulled him out of the Multiverse.”
“I did more than that,” he said.
“Dale,” Livvy said, taking his arm. “SK is in the burial chamber. Where are you in the–”
“Look!” said the stone-eater, as he pointed to the sky.
The sipaapuni shimmered, distorting for a moment, then began to glow. As they watched, light emerged from it, before it gradually faded at the far end, but it was clear what they were seeing.
“A rainbow,” Dale said.
“That’s our ticket,” said Coco, animated once again. “Dale, you know what to do.”
“Yes, Grandmother,” he said, nodding.
“Owa-ngororo,” Coco said. “I need grinding stones.” She wagged a finger at him. “And don’t eat them before you get here.”
He nodded and headed down the street.
“I have some corn stored away,” she muttered as she started to head off too.
“Wait,” Livvy said. “What are we doing?”
Coco stopped and turned.
“Your business is the sky, Lightning Shaman. Get that rainbow down here.”
Then she turned and left.
“What?” Livvy said, as she lifted her hands. “How do I…”
The only one listening was Blanca.
Livvy looked up at the partial rainbow, the curve of it barely discernible. It had appeared after the clouds had returned, which made sense. A rainbow depended on water droplets for the prism effect. To bring it down would mean more water.
“Ready when you are,” she heard Dale call.
Ready?
Livvy ran in the direction of his voice, toward the plaza.
The giant stalk of the sunflower, even on its side, was taller than any of the surrounding buildings. It flattened anything that had been in its path. The plaza
was covered with the blackened remains of its base, spewed out in all directions. No trace of the marsh remained.
Dale stood in the middle of the mound, his bobcat slowly circling the perimeter of what used to be the stalk.
“Bring it down here?” Livvy asked.
“Yes,” said Dale, nodding quickly. “As low as you can. I’ll take care of the rest.”
How he’d do that Livvy had no idea, but now was not the time to question it. Coco hadn’t. Livvy looked up to the sky. This was something she’d never tried. She reached up a hand.
“Clouds,” she called out.
As she watched, they gathered together, sweeping in from every direction. They joined together and formed a towering thunderhead.
“Wow,” Dale said quietly.
Livvy felt like saying ‘wow’ herself.
Below the thunderhead, strands of darker cloud descended, trailing off in wispy tails. The moisture in those wisps might create a rainbow but the cloud wasn’t in the right place.
She raised her other hand, concentrated on the thunderhead, visualized it near the sipaapuni, and pushed with both hands. Born by winds aloft, it began to move. As it neared, the rightmost fringes caught the light and the rainbow grew wider.
“That’s it!” yelled Dale. “You’re doing it!”
As it drifted into position, Livvy could see the fringes were much longer than they had originally seemed. Like gossamer strands of silk, rays of color lit them up. The perfect curve of the rainbow suddenly blazed into life with colors more vibrant than anything in the real world. As the moist air finally slid into position, the bottom of the brilliant arch descended toward them with such speed that Dale actually jumped aside and ducked.
Although the rainbow was full, it ended somewhere above them, wherever the water droplets of the bottom fringe of the cloud ended.
Dale stood tall. “I got it.” He spread his arms wide and lowered his head. “Fog,” he said.
The temperature dropped by several degrees and a light grey mist filled the plaza. Livvy felt the heavy moisture on her face.
Dale lifted his gaze and slowly raised his hands.
As if a searchlight had come on, he was instantly bathed in light. He shut his eyes and Livvy had to shield hers. The top of the fog must have connected with the bottom of the cloud fringe. As her eyes adjusted, Livvy could see Dale swimming in colors. The filtered light from above moved around him, shifting hues and varying in intensity. It was as though he stood on the bottom of the ocean.
“Good!” Coco announced as she appeared next to Livvy.
Livvy realized the stone-eater was also there and he’d brought something: a stone slab with a concave face, worn nearly smooth at its center.
Coco bent down and lowered the hem of her dress to let something she’d been carrying in it spill out–dark blue kernels of corn. They clinked onto the slab. She knelt in front of it and the stone-eater handed her a different stone. Like a large and slightly elongated river cobble, the new stone had been worn flat on one side. Using both hands, she placed it on the larger slab and shoved it downward over the kernels. Livvy watched as Coco repeated the process, grinding the kernels into smaller and smaller pieces until only a fine, blue dust remained. Apparently satisfied, she set the hand stone aside and scooped the ground corn into a waiting gourd, enmeshed in a carrying net. Then, as Livvy had come to expect, Coco spit in it and swirled it around. She stoppered the top of the stem with another piece of gourd and looped the net over the top of Livvy’s head so it hung on one shoulder.
“That’ll do the trick,” Coco said.
Gods, Livvy thought. Why does it always feel like I’ve walked into the middle of a conversation?
“Take it up the rainbow,” Coco said, herding her toward the light. “Use it to seal the sipaapuni shut. It’ll be better than cement.”
Livvy walked into the light with Dale, his arms still spread wide and raised up. Livvy looked up into the dazzling brilliance as Blanca came to her side.
How was she supposed to climb a rainbow?
“Blanca,” Coco said. “Show her the way.”
Coco pointed at the puma. “Hold on tight,” she said to Livvy.
Livvy cocked her head and looked at Blanca who was waiting patiently. She reached out and gripped the scruff of her neck.
Blanca bounded upward. As the ground fell away, Livvy struggled to keep herself upright. She had no traction but she kept her feet flat, as a wake of sparks arced away from them. Every place she and Blanca touched the rainbow, it glowed and sparked with electrical charge. Blanca dug in her claws and climbed as though she didn’t feel Livvy’s weight. Below them, the village shrank and receded, blending into the mesa. The desert spread out all around them and the horizon began to curve downward. It was dizzying. Livvy had been about to look away when the air around them exploded.
Her eyes reflexively closed at the prickling she felt on her face, like tiny needles. Although it quickly stopped, she had no time to take notice as a new sensation replaced it–falling.
Livvy snapped her eyes open and tightened her grip on the skin of Blanca’s neck as she landed with a thud on her chest. Suddenly, she found herself looking straight down at the desert below, past her arm, and below a dangling Blanca. Somehow, a section of the rainbow had disappeared and Blanca had fallen through. Livvy lay on her stomach, at the edge of the bands of light, her arm hanging down.
Blanca yowled. With her paws and legs splayed out, it was as though she were trying to fly.
“Don’t struggle,” Livvy yelled. “I’ve got you.”
CHAPTER NINETY-FIVE
EVEN IN THE faint light of the crystal, SK could see small beads of sweat on Liv’s forehead. With some effort, he reached over and lightly brushed them away with the back of his hand. She was warm. No news there.
Maybe my cold hand will help. He let it linger.
He stared at his hand.
I’m not shivering.
That was supposed to mean something.
He shook his head.
It doesn’t matter.
He looked back at Liv’s face. She seemed fine. He nodded to himself and then glanced around at the surrounding walls and rubble. He didn’t have any water for her when she woke up. How could he have forgotten that?
“I knew I forgot something,” he mumbled, though his lips felt thick and uncoordinated.
He touched them with his fingers.
Cold.
Were his fingers cold or his lips cold?
He shook his head as his eyelids drooped. He was so tired. It’d been a long drive and a very long day. Maybe he’d lie down for a bit.
He’d earned that, hadn’t he?
CHAPTER NINETY-SIX
AS LIVVY WATCHED, the water droplets of the rainbow began to coalesce and colors reappeared. Unfortunately, Blanca was hanging down in its midst. Livvy didn’t wait to find out what that would mean. She needed to get Blanca back on top of the rainbow. She began to swing her, small movements at first. Blanca wasn’t particularly light and the dampness didn’t help her grip, but she swung the giant cat back and forth.
The colors flickered back to life. Blanca was bathed in bright green light. Livvy swung the puma, faster, higher, holding on so tight she knew she must be hurting her, but Blanca was silent and had gone limp. She was almost level with Livvy now. The desert below faded from view as the rainbow grew opaque.
Livvy swung upward one last time and yanked. Blanca collided with her chest as Livvy rolled to absorb the blow. Livvy hugged her close as they tumbled backward. When they stopped, Livvy was lying on her back with Blanca sprawled across the top of her. They both scrambled to their feet and looked at where they’d just been.
The rainbow looked as it had before, shimmering bands of colored plastic, opaque and solid. Suddenly, a tight ray of light shot up from somewhere below and sliced toward the rainbow. As the superheated light met the water droplets, the rainbow started to hiss and then exploded. Fine droplets pelted them agai
n.
Although it had already dawned on her what was happening, Livvy forced herself to look down in the direction of the beam’s source. Even from this insane height, she could see the stalk of the dead flower stretched out on the landscape. It ran away from the mesa like a straight, green road onto the brown desert floor. The beam had come from somewhere off the mesa and along the stalk.
“Tawa,” she muttered.
He had been climbing the stalk when it fell but he hadn’t given up. The concentrated beam lanced up again and sliced through the next section of the rainbow, nearer this time. Rather than watch the explosion, Livvy concentrated on the source of the beam, pinpointing its location.
It had to be him. No one else could harness the sun that way.
But how was she going to stop him?
Livvy looked at the gourd strung from the net. That was for the sipaapuni. Then she looked at the crystal of many colors. Colors like a rainbow. Colors that looked as if it was fracturing light internally. She lifted it from her neck hardly believing the plan formulating in her mind.
“We need to be as close to the right edge as possible,” she said.
Blanca didn’t hesitate. She moved to the edge so fast that Livvy subconsciously leaned back.
The rainbow bridge must have been miles long, even miles in the air, but it was only a hundred feet wide, at most. Livvy looked over the edge at the spot she’d pinpointed and waited. The bridge reformed itself and in seconds the beam appeared again. If she didn’t get this right, the rainbow directly under them would be vaporized.
Tight and white hot, the beam swung toward the rainbow. Livvy thrust the crystal out as far as she could without tipping over the edge. Blanca strained in the opposite direction to balance her. The beam intersected the crystal just before reaching the rainbow.
Olivia Lawson Techno-Shaman Books 1 -3 Page 83
