Ancient Echoes (34 page)

Dame Rumor soon whispered about the curious book, causing
others to covet it. Gerard fled to Egypt. There, he discovered the Land of
Pharaohs where Hermes was said to have explained alchemy to the world in his
Emerald Tablets. Gerard learned the true meaning and value of the book he
carried with him. As long as he could remember, he had Intuition and
Sensibilities that others did not possess. Because of it, he had turned to the
Church, thinking he was saintly. Instead, in Egypt, he learned he was quite the
opposite. There, he gained a sense of the potential power of his new calling.

He continued
East
, eventually
reaching Cathay where he gained the trust of Taoist priests who taught him the
Dao Zan which brought an understanding of his precious book beyond his wildest
imagination.

His associations with so many Ungodly persons caused the
Jesuits in Cathay to harbor suspicion, and the Mandarins to do the same. Once
again, the abbot found himself in danger, and took flight. He traveled by ship
across the Pacific to the New World.

Supplied with the various tools of Alchemical Arts, he
joined a group of fur trappers traveling inland. One night as they slept, he
headed into the mountains. Alone, he almost died of starvation that first
Winter
, despite a store of gathered food. The
Winter
was cold beyond belief. He oft longed for his beloved
Paris.

Throughout this time, his studies of his Miraculous Book
continued. Using the vast store of information and explanation he had gleaned
from his days in Egypt and Cathay, he created a Philosopher’s Stone, the stone
he now wore.

With that stone, he told us with a sly wink and a smile,
the world of alchemy opened to him as a flower’s petals to the sun. I must
admit to a sense of unease at his demeanor.

He stopped his story there, although we knew his tale was
far from over.

Quickly, his strength returned. He showed us which plants
were edible in this land, and at times prepared most delicious stews for us. We
were, for a time, content to be alive and free of the Tukudeka. But eventually,
a natural longing for home overtook us one and all, and despite the ease of
life with the Abbé, we grew unhappy and angry, and demanded to find a way to
leave.

Now that we wished to leave this place, he told us we
must hear the remainder of his story.

In Egypt, he had learned of Hermes Trismegistus’ greatest
achievement. The great Hermes had created a portal between the mortal world and
the Land where Pharaohs live for all eternity. The abbot proclaimed that he had
become consumed with the desire to enter that portal, to live with the gods. He
saw that as his Destiny, the reason for all the travel, trials and tribulation
that befell him. To open that portal, to enter it, would allow him to live
forever.

I stared at him, scarcely believing the words I heard.
Immortality! It was too
Unnatural
to contemplate, and
I shrank back from the abbot in horror. Something in his eyes chilled my blood,
and made me wonder if we had erred in saving this man’s life.

He relayed that he had built an altar, and then continued
for three more years using his Stone, his Book, and his studies. To survive, he
created gold and occasionally traveled to trading posts to purchase supplies.
He killed any Trapper who attempted to follow him to steal his gold, and soon
word got out that he and his gold were Evil. He relished that, and built upon
it. As a Sign of Evil to ward off thieves and Heathens, he used the alchemical
symbol of immortality with triangles, a circle and vees. To my Horror, I knew
that symbol and that gold caused our Good Expedition to venture to this
Wretched place.

He continued with his attempts to contact the Portal of
Hermes.

And one day, he succeeded. The Earth shook. Lightning
filled the Sky over his altar and Thunder crashed. The Tukudeka ran to him to
see what was happening, as the ground swelled into a perfectly shaped pyramid,
and two magnificent pillars, inscribed with letters from the Gods themselves,
dropped from the Sky onto its flattened top.

All stared in Wonder and Awe. But three Tukudeka
warriors, swaggering and brave, climbed to the top of the pyramid. They
inspected the pillars, but when they stepped between them, one by one, they
vanished.

Their women and children lamented for
them,
and amidst wailings and affirmations to find them and pull them back to safety,
crossed the threshold of the pillars and also disappeared.

The Tukudeka were
furious,
and
told Gerard that if he did not return their brethren, he would be killed by
being roasted alive, one small portion of him at a time. The Abbé tried, but could
find no way to retrieve the lost warriors. He cared little about them in any
case, and desiring nothing more than to join the Pharaohs and Hermes the Great,
he gathered up his Alchemical tools and his marvelous book and flung himself
between the pillars.

To his astonishment, despite the ancient Egyptian letters
on the pillars, he was not in Hermes’ World of the Pharaohs, but in a separate
world build on Gerard’s own experience—a world familiar to him. Fool that he
was, to think the Dark Power of Alchemy would allow otherwise!

Wearing the Philosopher’s Stone, ingesting bits of the
vast quantities of gold he created and stored away, and using the knowledge of
alchemy he gained in his travels, he divined for himself the state of
immortality.

He exulted in it, and lived happily for a while. But
then, he found it took a great deal of work to prepare food and shelter for the
long winter.

Several more Tukudeka had crossed over to rescue their
brethren and became stuck in this world. Generally, he hid from them but one
day, he set a trap and captured one. He soon realized, however, that a Human
was both too intelligent and too wily to be trusted. He had learned that
transformations were possible in alchemy, and not only of base metal to gold.

With his alchemical powers, he practiced on captives,
creating them into confused but docile creatures, some mixed with birds, some
with coyotes, some with bears, all with a variety of talents in hunting,
fishing, and hauling that Gerard could use.

Finally, he enjoyed life. His creations provided
companionship and would do his bidding. But slowly, they changed. They realized
their own strength, and instead of loving and serving him for granting them
Eternal life, they came to hate him. They wanted freedom and to be changed
back, but he knew not how.

He had to run from them.
To hide.
To spend his days constantly moving.
Even in
Winter
, he would starve and freeze, but he would not die.

In time, this Immortality became repugnant to him. His
years of training as a man of God seeped back upon him, and he realized he was
being punished for having abandoned his God, and for turning instead to Evil.
Creating this place, destroying and transforming the bodies of the Tukudeka,
was surely
Evil
.

Man, he learned, was too small and too ignorant to tamper
with nature. We lacked sufficient knowledge of the interconnection and balance
of all things. Even with the best of intentions, man most often harms Nature,
seldom can he mend it, and never can he perfect it. The
man
who attempts to usurp the creative power of his Maker, will create a monster in
its place. And that was his legacy.

In despair and sorrow, he gave up running from the
Creatures trapped here with him. He allowed them to capture him, and faced
their Judgment. He told us he expected to die from all they subjected him to,
but he did not. He remained alive and suffering.

Crying to Heaven now, he proclaimed that he welcomed
Death. He only prayed to be spared the Fires of Hell for his dreadful deeds,
and that someday he might serve his Penance and kneel at the feet of his
Beloved, Jesus Christ, and plead for his Divine Mercy and Forgiveness. He said
his last act would be to destroy the Stone.

At this, Orril Munroe cried, “No!
Never!”
He grabbed the stone, wrenching it from the Abbé’s neck. Why, he asked, should
a sick old man deny him gold and eternal life? With it, Orril raged, he would
find a way to escape to the real World, take the abbot’s gold with him, and use
the Stone to create more.

As Mr. Munroe held it, the magnificent stone glowed with
shifting colors amidst subtle transformations in shape. The Stone became a
living agent of Change, and I sensed it had Intellect.

I could feel myself being drawn to its Unnatural power.
All that made me Francis Masterson seemed to fly from my mind, my body, even my
Soul, and I came to Desire the Stone beyond all Reason. I looked upon Orril and
the Abbé with hatred, and knew I would willingly kill to possess the beautiful
red object.

And as I felt, so did the others. We were near to blows,
or worse, when Captain Crouch turned to the abbot and demanded he create five
more Stones.

The abbot said that would take many months, and the
faster, easier route would be to divide the one we had into six pieces, for
each would be as strong as the whole. Even as I rejoiced at this news, it
crossed my troubled mind that we contemplated blasphemy, that we were creating
an Idol that was Sacrilege itself.

With little heed to the Priest, we immediately took out
his tools and used them to chisel the Stone into six equal parts. When we
finished, however, the Stone lost the strange aura it had possessed, and seemed
no more than a common red rock. Seeing that, all six of us pelted the frail
abbot, for he had
Tricked
us into believing him, and
caused us to destroy that which we most coveted.

We demanded he create another Stone. The abbot refused to
yield, but called up his God to give him Fortitude to withstand our fury, and
offered his suffering as Penance for having once believed that he, a decrepit
excuse for a man, sought to elevate himself to the level of God.

Desire for a Philosopher’s Stone drove us beyond the
Realm of Madness. We believed that the Stone was our only means to leave this
Unnatural Land that Sorcery had created, yet that was but a small part of our
Desire.

With it, we would have Gold and Power. Also, as we had
seen with our own Eyes, with the Stone’s magic we would not die.

The torture the abbot suffered at our Hands was worse
than that of the Tukudeka, but no matter the cruelty we bestowed on him, he
would not yield. If we came to fully command the Stone, if we unleashed it on
an unsuspecting World, he believed the Harm would be Irreparable. Once he
managed to escape, but we tracked him and caught him near the Great River that
runs through this area. The effort cost him, and finally, the Power of the
Stone he once wore dissipated. At our hands, the abbot died.

We hurled his body into the fast and treacherous River.

Guilt filled my soul, and with it came a quiet, desperate
Madness. He was a Holy Man who had lost his way, but who, I believe, had found
Repentance.

As for our pitiful but murderous Expedition, we had
destroyed the Philosopher’s Stone. Thus, we were doomed to remain here, and
here, we would die.

The tale horrified Charlotte, and left her sick at heart. If
true, if the very creator of this blasphemy could not leave it, how in heaven’s
name could they? Were they all doomed here? The students, Michael, Jake…

“May I borrow this?” she asked Will. “I’d like my companions
to read it, to understand.”

Will covered the manuscript with sheepskin and handed it to
her. Soon, she and Rachel returned to the community house.

When they retired for the night, Charlotte couldn’t sleep.

Eventually she gave up and snuck out of the community house
and quietly crept to the stable, careful to stay in the shadows. Jake must have
heard her
footstep,
or the opening of the stable door
because he stood up as she entered.

Her bleak expression and the wildness of her eyes alarmed
him. “Are you all right?” Large, strong hands brushed the hair that had fallen
to her face, touched her cheek, her jaw. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

“I’m all right, but you must read this.” She handed him the
papers, her voice tremulous. “It’s beyond belief, yet has the ring of truth.”

He took the papers. “You’re shaking.”

She tried to pull herself together, to hold her chin up. “It
seems so hopeless, Jake.”

He put down the papers, and put his arms around her. “As
long as we have breaths to take,” he said, his voice strong, “we have hope.”

She saw his determination and fortitude, and placed her
hands on his shoulders. Her gaze drifted from eyes that were the deep green of
pines, to strong sun-burnished cheekbones, a straight nose, and sensitive
mouth. How had she ever thought him cold and heartless?

As she looked at him, his eyes darkened, and neither could
look away.

“Who’s there?” Lionel cried. “What’s going on?”

He woke the others with his shout. Charlotte fled back to
the community house while Jake tried to quiet Lionel.

New York City

JIANJUN AWOKE FEELING as if he had
spent the night in Dracula’s castle. The massive bed’s wooden headboard reached
nearly to the ceiling, its ornately carved panels reminiscent of gothic
architecture. Dusty purple velvet drapery hung over the windows, blocking all
sunlight. Flocked green, gray, and purple floral wallpaper covered every wall.