Eighth Fire (32 page)

Nick looked a little awkward, like he didn’t
know what to do. “Thank you, sir. I’m honored to meet you.”

Mr. Grob smiled and turned to Mr. Diefenderfer.
“The ladder is still in place.”

“Mark...would you open...the entrance...to the
labyrinth?”

He produced the staff and did as requested.
After a couple of bug bombs were tossed in they made their decent.
The machine was right where it had been before and had apparently
not been touched. Mark said, “They haven’t even removed the tarp.
They had to at least be curious about it.”

Mr. Young held the lantern up and examined the
seal and the rope. It was intact. He broke it and started loosening
the ropes. “Benrah is neither omniscient nor omnipresent. He can
only be at one place at any given time and if he doesn’t observe it
himself then in order for him to know about something he hasn’t
seen someone else has to tell him. It is quite possible that he
either still doesn’t know about it or that he’s just recently found
out about it. Spirit beings cannot break the seal so they couldn’t
have found out what it is. Getting it out would be problematic for
any corporeal being unless they had a key and knew how it operated.
I believe any corporeal being would still be present had they
entered this room and so far we haven’t found anyone else.”

They pulled the tarp away and Nick said, “It
looks pretty much as I thought it would.” The machine was an open
framework constructed somewhat like a dune buggy with two
perpendicular metal loops in the back. It was the loops that gave
it the appearance of a concrete truck under the tarp.

Nick produced the flint knife and inserted the
crystal handle in a slot on the dashboard. Nothing happened. He put
his thumb against a small glass bezel on the dashboard. Still
nothing happened. He climbed into the driver’s seat and maneuvered
it away from the wall. The vehicle was electric. When the vehicle
was pointing toward the interior of the building he turned on the
headlights and there they were.

Six men were fast walking toward the group. Mr.
Diefenderfer shouted, “Hold!” The men kept coming, swords in
hand.

“I said hold!”

The men paid no heed.

Nick said, “Get behind me!” A moment after they
were clear a small click preceded a very large electric discharge
that emanated from the front of the vehicle and ended where the men
stood. A few seconds later the last one crumpled to the ground.
“Get in and we’ll get out of here.”

There was no sensation, the vehicle didn’t rise
into the air and there was no indication at all that they were
moving through time except the men on the floor abruptly
disappeared and the readout on the dashboard was counting
backwards. It was about an hour before the labyrinth simply
vanished and the car with its four passengers was sitting atop a
narrow peak that projected from a wide mesa. The sun was high
overhead. The readout on the dashboard had stopped at 10,308
BC.

Mr. Young said, “Zoroaster’s Temple. The First
Mountain was discovered when a young priest seeking more spiritual
knowledge fell asleep atop Mount Damavand. When he awoke he was the
first to discover some of the secrets of the seven mountains. Mount
Damavand is the physical entrance from this world to The First
Mountain. This peak is the entrance to The Seventh Mountain.”

Mr. Diefenderfer said, “Nick...I must drive...in
order to...remanifest this vehicle...to the place...where we
may...intercept...Xocotli.”

They switched seats and just as it appeared they
were about to drive off the edge of the mountain they were
someplace else.

“Hey!” Mark exclaimed, “I know this place from
my dreams about Xocotli. I remember that arch.”

“Nick...you may take...over and take...us to
the...year 12 BC.”

It was dark when they stopped. They listened for
about fifteen minutes before Mr. Diefenderfer said, “The stars
are...not quite right. Would you move...us forward...very
slowly?”

“I don’t know if it will do very slowly; I’ll
try.” Nick rubbed his hand over the dashboard and pushed in several
places until he found a compartment that opened. Behind the lid
were several electrical switches and dials. He fiddled with them
and then said, “There we go.” They began moving forward in time
slowly enough that each day-night cycle took about five minutes.
One night about three hours later there was a yellow-orange glow at
the base of the arch and Mr. Diefenderfer said, “Stop.”

Mr. Young got out and walked toward the
campfire. Mark and Nick started to get out but Mr. Diefenderfer
said, “Wait...for his return.”

Mr. Young returned a few minutes later and said,
“Seems he’s been expecting us. He says a spirit in his dreams has
been watching him and telling him when danger is near.”

Mark asked, “You can talk to him?”

Mr. Young said, “Not so different from you
speaking to animals.”

Mr. Diefenderfer asked the obvious question,
“Raphael?”

“He says not; it’s a young spirit with fair
hair.” Mr. Young looked directly at Mark. “Dream casting?”

“Maybe, it wasn’t intentional. I didn’t know
about dream casting when I had the dreams, but I wanted to help
him.”

“Come on, he wants to meet you all.”

Xocotli was a large man by any standard with
chiseled muscles glistening under a sheen of perspiration. His long
dark hair draped across his shoulders gave him a fierce appearance
barely softened by his smile. He stood and spoke words Mark didn’t
understand as they approached.

Mr. Young translated, “He greeted us and doesn’t
understand why Mark is here as a physical being.”

Nick removed the stun-baton from Aaron’s Grasp
and a butane lighter from his pocket and said, “Tell him Mark wants
to give him some gifts.”

When told, Xocotli fell to one knee and bowed
his head before speaking. Mr. Young said, “He’s deeply
humbled.”

Nick said, “These gifts will help him along his
journey.” Nick flicked the lighter and handed it to Mr. Young who
in turn handed it to Xocotli. Nick pointed the stun-baton at the
stone arch and activated it. The electrical discharge caused
Xocotli to tremble. “Tell him not be afraid; this is his weapon
now.” He handed the baton to Mr. Young who handed it to Xocotli.
Nick held his partially closed fist out and exaggeratedly closed
his grip showing Xocotli that he needed to squeeze the handle.
Xocotli pointed the baton at the arch and the electrical arc almost
immediately followed. Xocotli grinned.

Mr. Young spoke with Xocotli for a few minutes
and then said, “Mark, step forward; he’s going to give you the
power source.”

Xocotli picked up his fur pack and removed
something that looked too big to fit in the pack. It looked like
two short elephant tusks back to back. He knelt, bowed his head and
handed it toward Mark with both hands. Mark accepted it. When
Xocotli stood Mark nodded his respect for the warrior.

Back in the time machine Mr. Diefenderfer said,
“As unlikely...as it may seem...we may have...been tracked...from
farther...in the future. It would be...prudent...I think...to
plant...a decoy. Hold on to the vehicle.” He glanced around to see
that everyone was holding on and the next moment they were at a
different place.

“Where are we?” The wall looked like the wall
that surrounded The Seventh Mountain but not really. He thought
they were behind the wall, but there were no buildings.

“The Seventh Mountain...but two thousand...years
before you...were here.” Mr. Diefenderfer climbed out of the
vehicle. “We need...to acquire a...box and...some parchment. The
market square...inside the mountain...may have the...items we
need.

The walk to the mountain was nice. The school
grounds looked the same, but the main entrance was somewhat
different. The huge olive tree that sat in a planter yards from the
front steps was gone as were the statues. The door was covered from
the inside by drapes and there were no hinged glass doors. It
looked Spartan compared to how it had looked, or will look.

Just inside was almost barren too. The Good
Steward was just a large area that looked like it had been carved
out of the stone wall. The Oasis looked a little closer to normal,
but just a little. The tables were low to the floor and there were
no chairs and no booths. The door was covered with sheer strips of
fabric hung in arcs from the apex of the door.

The mall area was not a mall. There were no
shops that he could see, just vendors around tables everywhere he
looked. They walked among the vendors and it was unnaturally quiet,
only the occasional whispered exchange with transactions.

Mr. Young said, “We’re strangers to them.” He
spoke loudly in a language Mark didn’t understand, but from the
cadence of his words he surmised it was the Magi greeting; we are
travelers from a far place seeking a box and parchment, or
something similar. No sooner had he finished than what he thought
of as normal market noise started.

Several vendors approached the group, most
carrying wooden boxes, and a few with parchment. Mr. Diefenderfer
examined the boxes one by one, rubbing his fingers across the wood
and tapping each and listening to the sound. He finally found one
to his liking, “Locust wood...this one will...suit our purpose.”
Then he selected a sheet of leather to use as parchment. He paid
for each item with a nugget of gold.

They continued to walk among the vendors until
they came to a stone smith. “Joseph...please inquire...if this
man...is capable of...setting a stone...within a stone...using the
old...method.”

Mr. Young asked and the man grinned and nodded.
Mr. Diefenderfer said to Mark, “Your necklace,” and held out his
hand. Mark put the necklace in his hand and Mr. Diefenderfer
promptly pried off the necklace’s finding that coupled the stone to
the chain and handed the chain back to Mark. He handed the stone to
the man along with a gold nugget.

The man spoke briefly and Mr. Young said, “We
should come back in an hour or so.”

There weren’t many people in The Oasis, if they
even called it that here and now. Almost as soon as they were
seated on the floor around a table a man approached. He was wearing
a rough weave pattern dyed skirt and a turban, no shirt. Mr. Young
pointed at all four around the table and said, “Kabobs.” Mr.
Diefenderfer placed a gold nugget on the table.

Mark asked, “What are we doing here? I know you
said we need to hide a decoy, but I don’t get it.”

Mr. Young whispered, “When you returned from the
cave and we saw your experience, Nick recognized the object you
recovered. He knew it wasn’t the power source. It was something he
had invented and he was working with a time machine. He put two and
two together and told us about it. He also told us about how you
felt when you were in the cemetery. We searched and located a stone
marker with a Fairystone cross embedded in it. Buried under the
stone was a box with a note in it. These are the very same items
we’re getting ready to place. When we’re done we’ll move forward in
time and put the time machine in the cave you explored. The spirit
of fear is still there.”

the sunstone sat upright on
the floor in the large lab room. It was wedged with wooden supports
to keep it from rolling. Mr.
Young inserted the power source
into a slot of the same size and shape in the middle of
the sunstone
’s face. Immediately a moving
image was projected from the backside of
the
sunstone
into the air and sound came from somewhere inside
the sunstone
. After a few minutes the
image stopped and then repeated playing.

Mrs. Shadowitz pointed at
the
sunstone
. “What date is indicated on the face?”

Mr. Young opened the notebook on the table
beside
the sunstone
. “It doesn’t say and I
don’t know how to read the markings.”