‘Vision? What are you talking about? Since when do you have visions?’
‘Well,’ I sniffed, ‘all my life, I guess. I just never thought they were important.’ I tried to dry my eyes on my shirt. ‘They always felt perfectly natural to me. I just assumed they were just sort of … spontaneous figments of my imagination, and that everyone had them.’
He didn’t reply. I let him think on it while I tried to compose myself. I had made his shoulder all wet again. Poor Bane. I felt him shift around a little.
‘Do you feel that?’ he asked. ‘These rocks are warm.’
Suppressing my undignified snivelling, I reached across him and felt a couple of them. He was right. The cave was freezing but the rocks felt like they had been out in the sun all afternoon.
‘Do you think there might be daylight on the other side of this?’ I asked.
‘Move away a bit, I’ll see if I can shift a few. Let me know if you see any of the rocks at the top start to move.’
Great. Very reassuring. He started pulling some of the smaller rocks out of the way, until he had made a small tunnel in the wall. Then he hissed and started blowing on his fingertips. The rocks were getting really hot.
‘What’s going on here?’ he asked.
He rummaged around some more, wiggling each little stone to find ones he could safely remove. Suddenly a few of the rocks cascaded down, opening up a small hole.
A piercing, pulsating light and a blast of hot air came through from the other side, blinding us for a moment, but that didn’t stop us both from cramming our heads into the gap to see what was going on. We looked into a bright cavern and gaped, because floating just a few metres away was the thing I had been both searching for, and hoping I would never, ever see. The mere fact of its existence grounded every wild thread of my imagination, weaving a reality that I had to swallow down in one gulp.
It was a huge sword, nearly two metres long, made entirely of a shiny, white metal I had never seen before, with an intricately carved handle. The crosspiece was encircled by a piece of metal so bright it reminded me of an angel’s halo. It was revolving slowly, and it was wreathed in bright, flickering flames.
Chapter 18
As I stared mesmerised by the sight of the spinning weapon, I wondered whether there were any forgotten stories or traditions of my mother’s people that could have helped to prepare me for what was happening now. Suddenly my lost heritage weighed heavily, and yet I knew that nothing could ever have really prepared me for what I was seeing. The sword had a huge presence, filling both the chamber and my heart with its glow. So real, so exquisitely beautiful and pure. Profoundly alive. My lamed spirit bathed in its dazzling majesty, entranced far beyond simple tears while the world lost its lustre to the sword’s deep mystery.
When my legs began to cramp I wondered how long we had been watching it for and I tore my eyes away to glance at Bane’s face. He remained utterly still, his large grey eyes unblinking, reflecting the dancing flames. In the eerie glow, his fine-boned features looked unearthly, and kind of … beautiful. After a while he pulled away and sat down.
‘What the hell is that, Lainie?’
Hmm, poor choice of words maybe, but an understandable reaction all the same. I was suddenly grateful that Harry had been patient enough to tell me what he could despite my rude behaviour. It made it all a bit easier to come to terms with now. Bane had no such advantage.
‘Um, I don’t suppose you’ve ever been to church, Ben?’ I asked slowly.
‘Church? Yeah, Mum and I have been going to the Anglican Church on Main Street ever since Dad left.’
It took a moment for that unexpected fact to sink in, but I tried not to let it show. ‘Have you heard the story of the Garden of Eden?’
‘Yes, of course. The Fall of Man. God cast out Adam and Eve when they disobeyed Him and He’s spent the rest of history on His plan to redeem the human race.’
He had been to church a lot then. That made things a whole lot easier, but I still struggled to reconcile the image of him faithfully attending church with his mother. He used to get in trouble at least twice a week for swearing.
‘The pathway to Eden was supposedly guarded by creatures called Cherubim and a revolving sword of flame,’ I explained with slow, clear words.
He squinted back through the hole in shocked amazement, but instead of the automatic denial and disbelief that I had been struggling with for weeks, all he said was, ‘Isn’t Eden supposed to be somewhere in the Middle East? The Bible specifically mentions four rivers that flow out of it. The Tigris and Euphrates, and I can’t remember the other two but I’m sure I would have noticed if the Nalong and Glenelg had been mentioned.’
I couldn’t help chuckling at that, despite the sombre atmosphere. ‘Some scholars believe the four rivers used to originate from a place that’s now in the Persian Gulf,’ I said.
‘Lost in a massive flood?’
‘That might explain why it got moved,’ I mused, staring bug-eyed at the spinning sword with its tantalisingly familiar golden fire.
‘To Australia? Are you mental?’
‘Yes, I am. I did warn you.’ Then I tilted my head towards the improbable sword to remind him that I wasn’t the one instigating the craziness. ‘Seriously though,’ I said, my lips pursed slightly, ‘you would think if Paradise was to be moved anywhere it would at least go somewhere in New Zealand. I mean, have you seen the south island?’
Reverting back to his typical grouchiness, he glared at me with a look of outraged consternation. ‘If this is another one of your practical jokes, Lainie, I don’t find it in the least bit funny. Some topics are sacrosanct …’
So maybe he wasn’t quite ready to see the lighter side of this yet. I, however, was feeling strangely uplifted. The sword was not natural. Every fibre of my being knew it. It was not just some cool trick, or a fake. It was real and it was alive. Something supernatural was right in front of my nose and I could no longer make myself deny that the Garden of Eden actually did exist on our farm. Which also meant that Harry had been telling the truth, so I really was not a human being. And yet instead of cowering into a trembling ball of frightened Cherub, all I felt was relief. All my confusion about why Aunt Lily and Harry had been telling me ridiculous stories had now gone. And maybe the stories I’d been told as a child weren’t so crazy after all either.
‘What if Adam and Eve weren’t the only people living in the Garden?’ I proposed, fiddling with my bottom lip.
‘Just stop, Lainie.’
I grabbed his wrist. He had to listen. ‘I guarantee you that this is no hoax. Look at it, Ben. No way could I ever manage something this awesome. Please, just help me think this through.’ He looked down at my hand clutching his, and I let go awkwardly. ‘What if there are still people in there?’ But even I wasn’t game enough to mention the word ‘elves’.
Bane shook his head. ‘The Bible doesn’t mention anyone else.’
‘Yes, but there might be a good reason for that.’
He glanced back at the hovering sword, biting his lower lip. ‘If there were, then they would still have access to the Tree of Life. And they would be pure and innocent people. Sinless.’
‘And when the Garden was about to be flooded?’
He stared at the weapon, lost in thought, then admitted, ‘They would have needed protecting. And not just from the water. People have been searching for the Tree of Life for thousands of years. So you think it was moved here to keep it secret?’
‘Keeping it secret would have been the best way to keep the people in there safe from the rest of us,’ I agreed.
‘Which would also explain why there’s no mention of them in any Jewish records,’ he said. He sat back and shut his eyes, as if he wanted to think without being influenced by the incredible spectacle on the other side of the wall.
But I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it
. I leant further into the tiny opening again to try to see if there was some evidence that Harry had been there. There was nothing. I figured though, that if the existence of Eden was true then I might as well believe that my aunt would be right about Harry as well. She had seemed so convinced that he was safe.
I looked up at the immense wall of boulders blocking the way through to the sword, and it dawned on me that the rocks had fallen in a very convenient location. Had Harry somehow caused the landslide? That would be some superpower. My imagination was spiralling way out of control. Perhaps he’d simply used some explosives or something.
‘So what does Eden have to do with you and me?’ Bane eventually plucked up the courage to ask.
Perching on a large boulder, I hugged my knees to my chest and peered over at him cautiously. I couldn’t put it off any longer.
‘I am not, entirely … human,’ I said, trying hard not to cringe. To avoid looking at his reaction, I squeezed my eyes shut as I spoke. ‘I am, apparently, one of the Cherubim appointed to guard the pathway. I’m supposed to make certain no humans ever find it.’
With a sinking feeling I realised I had just done exactly that. Bane was human. He had a bit of a weird supernatural compulsion thing going on but I was pretty certain he was fully human. And he was currently staring through a hole at the flaming sword. I really hoped we weren’t about to be struck down by lightning. It was turning out to be one of those days after all.
‘Is Harry a Cherub too?’
‘Yes, he—wait.’ My eyes flew back open. ‘You sound like you actually believe me.’ My distrust must have sounded pretty clear because he looked away from the sword and leant towards me, his silver eyes searching mine.
‘I believe you,’ he stated definitively.
‘Why?’
He shrugged. ‘Already a Christian. Not a big jump. Plus, I already know there’s something strange about you because I’ve healed you, more than once, but what I do doesn’t seem to work on anyone else. Your aunt didn’t even laugh at me when I asked her if I could try the other day when she whacked her elbow.’
My aunt hadn’t looked at all surprised when it didn’t work, either.
‘Plus, you’re clearly … different.’ He said the word ‘different’ like it was coated in chocolate. It made me feel as if ‘different’ was a good thing. The moment stretched so thin that our eye contact finally shattered, and I cleared my throat awkwardly.
‘I think Harry might have gone in there and then caused the rock fall to block the passageway behind him,’ I said. ‘There have been far too many people near here lately, and it was making him nervous.’ And me edgy, I realised, thinking back to all the times I’d felt like someone was invading my space.
‘But a few minutes ago you were worried he might be dead. Now you say he caused this?’
I began to fiddle with one of the smaller heated pebbles. ‘I honestly didn’t know it was all true. About Eden I mean. Harry only told me what I was a few weeks ago, but I didn’t fully believe him until now.’ It was all a bit overwhelming. I could only imagine what he was feeling.
‘So I’m supposed to protect you because you’re some sort of an angel creature?’
‘No, not an angel. I Googled it. Cherubim are different.’
‘Yeah, aren’t you supposed to have four faces and two pairs of wings?’
I had been a bit concerned when I’d read that particular description in Ezekiel. ‘Harry told me we were made to look like humans so we could do our job better.’ I grinned naughtily. ‘And yes, I really am seventeen.’
‘I don’t understand.’
I fiddled with the hem of my T-shirt. ‘It runs in the family. My mother was a Cherub too, apparently. I found out recently that she didn’t commit suicide like I had always thought. She crossed over into Eden a year after Dad died. My aunt implied that she forgot all about me. About this whole world, really.’ Shaking my head, I tried to clear away such morbid thoughts. I had Aunt Lily; I didn’t need my mother. All the same, I did wish I knew the truth about my parentage. Was there a way to get in? There were some significant, if uncomfortable questions I wanted to ask both Harry and my mother, if I could find them. With cold determination I tried to wiggle a rock to widen the hole, but it wouldn’t budge.
‘You could help,’ I suggested, trying not to sound too bossy. But Bane shook his head.
‘No. I can’t. The same way I couldn’t risk hitting you with a hammer. It’s too dangerous. Please stop before the whole thing collapses on us.’
He had that look on his face that made me think he was going to chuck. I’d seen it a couple of times now. It meant that I was probably about to get hurt, so I held my hands up in surrender and backed away.
Through the small gap in the rocks the sword seemed so close, and beyond that, the cavern seemed to narrow down to another tunnel. But the rock fall between us and the sword sat there, resolutely crossing its arms and denying us passage. If it had been Harry’s doing he had certainly done a pretty thorough job of it. We weren’t getting through this way. Maybe that was it. Maybe this was the only way in and Harry had made sure it was blocked so I wouldn’t have to do very much to guard it. That seemed just a little too convenient though, somehow.
‘I’m sorry, Lainie, about your parents. I lost my dad last year but we weren’t exactly close. He lived in Sydney. I still miss him though, I guess.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ I said, squeezing his hand in sympathy. I felt bad for him. We barely knew each other really, and now he was being forced to hear all my family’s personal dramas. He quickly looked away so I figured he didn’t want to talk about it.
‘We should head back,’ I said. ‘Aunt Lily just thinks we’re swimming at the Ashbrees’s. She’ll freak if we’re not home before dark. I’ll find another way into Eden somehow and try to find some answers for us both, but I don’t think it’ll be this way.’ I’d also told my aunt that I wouldn’t try to cross into Eden, but I was going to have to talk to her about that. The Garden was real, and just a rock fall away …
After one last regretful look at the gracefully spinning sword, we both started to pile the rocks back into place. It got very dark and cold again.
‘Here, Lainie, take my hand, I’ll make sure you don’t trip. I do need to guard the guardian, after all.’
In the dark it was impossible to tell whether or not his face had its usual sarcastic smirk, but I was more shaken up than I wanted to admit, from both fear and excitement, and so it felt reassuring to let him lead me with his warm, steady grip.
After eating the soggy ham sangers we’d stashed in the drum, we refilled the water bottles and then argued about using the canoe to head back downstream. Bane was uncomfortable with the idea of riding any more unknown rapids, so instead we fought our way through the thick scrub until we reached the fence line where the river left our farmland. It looped back into our paddocks much farther downstream. The quickest way home would have been to cross back over the river again and then follow the fence south until we hit our western track, but I was starting to get that edgy feeling again so I bullied him into detouring farther west. We left the drum behind and just took Bane’s nearly dead phone, which he refused to leave behind.
It wasn’t long before we found what had been bothering me. A familiar patch of egg-and-bacon bushes stretched out across a gentle hillside, their bright flowers almost spent. This was where the intruders had been in my vision, prompting Harry to block up the passageway and hide the sword. I hurried up to the tree line, and sure enough every hundred metres or so the trees had been marked with pink plastic tape. Kolsom had been trespassing. Furious, I proceeded to rip all the tape off and stuff it into the pocket of my shorts. The Garden of Eden was real. I could feel the truth of it every time my mind drifted back to the memory of the glorious burning sword. The Garden was real, it was close by, and it was my responsibility to keep it hidden. I wanted
no evidence of human interference anywhere near the place. Bane eventually had to stop me.
‘Lainie, it’s getting late. Are you planning to unmark every tree in the state park today?’
‘This is not state park here. I own this!’ I had never felt so possessive of the farm before. It had always felt like it belonged to Aunt Lily, but now I felt like a possum defending its territory. A fleeting imaginary vision of myself trying to wee on every tree the miners had marked made me realise it was probably time to go home and rest, so I let him drag me back to the fence line where we retrieved the drum and began the trek south.
Once she had finished squeezing all the air out of me, Aunt Lily finally let go long enough for me to explain what Kolsom had been doing. She was as angry as I was. I told her about finding the blocked cavern, and how I thought Harry had caused the landslide, and that Bane now knew everything. I kind of left out the part about the near drowning, though, and avoided too much detail regarding the location of the cave and the sword. I didn’t want to get her into trouble with some higher power as well, so I was reluctant to say too much. She told me she didn’t want to know the details anyway, and was just glad we were home.
‘Is it all right that I took Ben there?’ I asked worriedly.
‘Yeah, I guess so. Lucas knew where the cave was too,’ she explained. ‘Can you see the irony here, Lainie? You are a Cherub and you’re asking permission from a human to show someone else the cave.’
I pressed my lips together. I didn’t want to be reminded that I wasn’t human. ‘What do we do about the miners?’ I asked to change the subject.
‘I’ll head into town first thing tomorrow and speak to a lawyer about it. They have no right to be there. I wish there was some way to fence it but even then it wouldn’t stop them.’
Suddenly the idea of chaining ourselves to a bulldozer didn’t seem so outrageous, but there had to be a better way.
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