Eximere (The River Book 4) (23 page)

“I think you’ll need our help to stop it,” Roy said.

“Normally, yes,” Steven said. “But I wasn’t tagged. You’re
both in danger. It’s probably accelerated its drain of you, being so close.”

Neither Eliza nor Roy moved, they just held their hands to
their noses, trying to stop the flow of blood.

“Go!” Steven yelled. “If I can’t figure it out, I’ll come
back up and we’ll talk, I’ll get your input. Take a good look before you go,
and then get out of here.”

Roy and Eliza examined the device one more time, trying to
memorize it.

“Good luck, son,” Roy said. Then they walked out of the room
and began making their way upstairs, leaving a trail of blood drops.

Steven stepped up to the device, looking at every square inch
of it. He could see no way to get inside the sphere. He examined the black rim,
looking for a clue. There were other inscriptions, similar to the one Eliza
read. Then he examined the base. The quarter-sized ball continued to pulse and
glow. Upon close inspection he could see small glowing tendrils appear next to
the ball and then attach themselves to it, enlarging its size.

Let’s try the River
, he thought, and jumped in. At first nothing appeared to be
different, until a complete rotation of the discs occurred. He could see two
markings, one on each of the discs. As they rotated, there was a point where
both markings were on top of each other, and at that moment, a pulse of light
came from the sphere. Steven watched several rotations, and noticed that every
other pulse was different. The first pulse sent light out, and the next pulse
seemed to be pulling light in.
One initiates the drain
, he thought,
and
the second collects it, pulls it in. I’ve got to stop those discs.

He examined the other recesses of the base. They were
indentations of various sizes, none of them as big as the recess that held the
glowing ball.

One of the recesses was a small oval. Steven held his left
hand up next to the recess, comparing the shape on his ring – they were the
same size.
Why not?
Steven thought. He balled his left hand into a fist,
and tried inserting the slightly raised oval on his ring into the recess. It
slipped in perfectly, and the sphere lit up.

This has got to be it
, he thought.
Maybe it’s like a switch. He twisted his
fist to the right, and the discs began to spin faster.

Shit
! he thought, and turned his fist back to its original position. The
discs slowly returned to their original speed.

Well, if right speeds them up, maybe left will slow them
down.
He slowly
twisted his wrist to the left, watching the discs. He felt a ‘click’ under the
ring, and he stopped.
It’s working!
he thought as he watched the discs
begin to slow. It took a minute, but eventually they stopped. He pulled his
ring from the recess, and the light in the sphere went out.  He watched the
device for a few moments. The discs had stopped completely. The glowing ball
had stopped pulsing. He moved up close to the ball, examining it again.
No
more tendrils
, he thought.
It’s no longer sending out drain pulses and
collecting.

He ran out of the room and back up the stairs to find Eliza
and Roy.

◊

“It was the ring!” Steven shouted as he ran out of the
library, searching for Eliza and Roy. He found them in the sitting room next
door, each holding a white towel to their face. The towels were covered in
blood. Eliza was crying.

“It’s off!” Steven said. “The ring, it was like a switch. The
discs have stopped.” He was breathing heavily from his run up the stairs.

“You’re sure?” Roy said, standing up from the chair he’d been
sitting in. He walked over to Steven. “You’re sure it’s stopped?”

“I’m positive,” Steven said. “The ring was the key. It
controlled it, like a switch. Without the ring to turn it on, no wonder it
required something powerful like a focus. And it wasn’t all the way on,
either.”

“How do you know that?” Roy asked. Eliza had risen from her
chair and walked over to join them. She was trying to stifle a sob.

“Once I found where the ring should go, I turned it, and the
wheels began spinning faster.”

“Oh, that’s what that was,” Eliza said.

“You felt that?” Steven asked.

“Absolutely,” Roy said. “I thought maybe we’d hit the end,
and we were about to lose our memory of it.”

“Once I saw that they were moving faster,” Steven said, “I
reversed it immediately. The discs slowed. So, it made sense that turning the
ring the other direction would slow them even more. It did.”

“What a relief!” Roy said. “Well done, son!”

“Yes, Steven,” Eliza said, “good job.” She looked at him and
burst into tears, turning away from him.

Steven looked at Roy, shrugging. “The gift,” Roy said. “It’s
gone.”

Steven looked back at Eliza. He could see her shoulders
heaving as she cried.

“Completely?” Steven asked.

“Yes,” Eliza said, “completely. I can’t do anything. I’m
trying to remember how to enter the River, and I can’t even imagine it.” She
broke into sobs again.

“How about you?” Steven asked Roy.

“Me either,” Roy said, looking back at Steven. Steven thought
he saw Roy’s eyes look a little misty.
I’ve never seen him cry
, Steven
thought.
I’m not going to now.

“Do you remember what you read in the book?” Steven asked
Roy. “In Thomas junior’s section. Wasn’t it something about ‘no longer
reversible’?”

“Something like that,” Roy said.

“Come with me,” Steven said. “Both of you.” Steven turned to
leave the room, but neither Roy or Eliza moved. He turned back.

“Are you both able to walk?” Steven asked.

“Yes,” Roy said. Eliza, still turned away, nodded.

“Then follow me, right now!” Steven ordered. “Quickly!”

They both began to move. Steven led them back into the
library and down the stairs, then to the room with the device. Roy’s nose had
stopped bleeding, and he held his towel at his side. He looked defeated, like
he needed to get into bed and sleep for a year. Eliza kept her towel to her
face, a sob occasionally shaking her body.

Steven made a fist once again with his left hand, and
inserted the ring into the recess in the base of the device. The sphere lit, as
before. “I’m thinking,” he said, “that if turning it to the left slowed the
discs, then turning it further might reverse them.”

Eliza looked up, realizing what Steven was trying to do. He
saw a look of hope flash across her face.
I hope I’m doing the right thing
,
Steven thought, and twisted his fist further to the left. He felt the switch
under him leave the ‘click’ he’d felt earlier, and the discs began to move. He
heard Eliza gasp as they started up. Steven looked inside the sphere – the top
disc was moving counter-clockwise, the opposite direction from before.

He continued turning his fist, and the discs began to speed
up. He turned the ring as far left as it would go, until it met resistance and
wouldn’t turn any further. The discs were now spinning rapidly, much faster
than when they had first encountered the device.

“Feel anything?” Steven asked them.

“I do,” Roy said. “It’s working!”

“Eliza?” Steven said.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I…I can’t be sure.”

“Let’s give it a minute,” Steven said. “I think when James
would drain someone, he normally would use his key – this ring – and the
draining would happen relatively fast. When I was in the River, I noticed marks
on the discs. It’s when the marks sync up between the two discs that a pulse is
sent out. There are two pulses that alternate. The first causes the drain, and
the second one collects what was drained. Watch,” he said, turning the ring
back to the right a little, so the discs slowed down. “Try entering the River.
See if you can see the pulses.”

Roy jumped into the River. “I can see them, Eliza,” Roy said.
“The first pulse prepares something within the device, and the second pulse
delivers it. I can feel it each time the second pulse hits.”

“I can’t jump in,” Eliza said. “I can’t see anything! Maybe
it went too far with me, maybe I’m permanently drained.”

Steven turned the ring back to the left, accelerating the
discs. “Let’s give it some time,” he said. “It took several days to drain you
at the lower speed, who knows how long it’ll take to restore you.”

Roy left the room, returning with two chairs he took from a
table in the large basement workroom. “Here,” he said, placing one next to
Eliza, and the other behind Steven, so they could sit. Steven kept his ring in
the device, and sat in the chair. The position was a little awkward, but it
felt better than standing.

Roy left to find his own chair. Steven turned to Eliza.

“I think this will work,” Steven said. “You didn’t feel the
drain early on, either, remember? It may take a little time. If it’s coming
back to Roy, it’ll come back to you.”

She looked at him, her eyes pleading. “Oh, I hope you’re
right,” she said, and gave him a weak smile.

“I am,” Steven said. “I’m sure of it.”

Roy returned with a chair and placed it next to the others.
“Well, we might have to camp out here for a while,” he said. “Nothing we’re not
used to!”

That elicited a laugh from Eliza, and Steven joined her. It
felt good to laugh.

“Maybe not as long as that,” Steven said, pointing to the
glowing ball in the recess of the device’s base. “It’s about half as big as it
was. You should be feeling half full by now.”

“Try again, Eliza,” Roy said.

Eliza closed her eyes. “I can’t,” she said. “I do feel
different, but I can’t jump in.”

“I can easily,” Roy said. “It’ll come.”

They waited patiently as the discs continued to spin.

“I wonder how many people he used this thing on,” Steven
said, looking over at the crystal cube.

“Impossible to know at what point he moved from killing them
to draining them,” Roy said.

“Not impossible,” Steven said. “If we could get a total count
somehow, we’d only have to subtract the number of graves outside. The rest were
drained.”

“Yes, I suppose that would do it,” Roy said. “I wonder if
counting the books in the library would give us a total.”

“Not everyone has a book,” Eliza said. “But maybe he kept a
log in one of
his
books.”

“We’ll have plenty of time to search for it,” Steven said,
“as soon as we take care of Percival.”

“I hope this is working on Myrna and Russell,” Eliza said.
“They must be pretty shocked.”

“Do we tell them?” Steven asked. “Now that it’s all done, should
we let them in on things?”

“No,” Roy said, “I don’t think we should. The fewer people
who know about our plans here, the less likely we are to have them ruined. I
propose that we agree to not bring anyone in on this plan unless all three of
us vote on it. You all OK with that?”

“Sure,” said Eliza, who was sitting up in her chair now,
looking a little less depressed. “But what do we tell them? The conversation
with Percival will have to be private so they don’t get wind of it.”

“We tell them we don’t know what happened,” Roy said. “But
we’re just as happy as they are that it’s over. They’ll leave and go back to
their homes. So will we.”

“All right,” Eliza said. “Hopefully they believe us.”

“And Jonathan?” Steven asked.

“I would expect,” Roy said, “that at some point this morning
someone is going to find Jonathan in his bedroom. Then 911 will be called.
We’ll let that play out.”

Steven looked at the glowing ball. It was now the size of a
pea. Within a minute more it would be gone.

“I can’t believe it’s reversing so fast,” Roy said.

“That focus barely turned it on,” Steven said. “It was going
pretty slow. If it had been at full speed, we’d have had no chance of finding
it in time.”

Once the ball disappeared completely, Steven twisted the ring
back to the right until he heard the ‘click’ once again. The wheels slowly came
to a stop. He removed the ring from the base, and the sphere went dark.

“That’s that,” Steven said.
I wonder if Eliza feels any
better,
he thought.

“Much better,” she said. “I can enter the River again!” She
smiled.

That’s a relief!
Steven thought.

“To you and me both,” she said, rising from her chair.

Steven, Roy, and Eliza walked back down the brick path through
the front yard leaving Unser House. They were heading back to their car, parked
just off the main road by the turnout to the house, where they’d left it a
couple of days ago.

It was after noon, and Myrna and Russell had already left.
When they’d come back upstairs, they found Myrna and Russell in the dining
room, eating a breakfast and having coffee. Steven, Roy, and Eliza said they’d
spent the night back at the motel, trying to put distance between themselves
and the device, hoping it might slow the drain. With their abilities restored,
it didn’t matter anymore. They were all in high spirits. Russell was especially
excited, waiting for Jonathan to join them so he could gloat about his returned
powers. When Jonathan never appeared, Russell went looking for him, and discovered
him in his bedroom. Russell made the call to 911, and within the hour
paramedics wheeled Jonathan out on a gurney. Their initial guess was a stroke.
Myrna and Russell figured whatever happened to Jonathan must have played a role
in the restoration of their abilities, but they didn’t offer any theories.

They discussed with Myrna and Russell how to inform Marilyn’s
family about her demise. They all agreed that they would leave it to Percival
to approach the authorities and report her disappearance. Since they all knew the
cops wouldn’t believe anything about what really happened, they all agreed to a
version of events that involved warning Marilyn about wolves outside, and her
leaving of her own accord. When she didn’t return, they became concerned, and reported
her missing. Percival was to clean her blood from the brick path, and her disappearance
would be considered unresolved, since no body would be found.

Myrna and Russell left soon after that. They reasoned that
since their gift had returned, it was likely the device was no longer working,
and they’d be able to escape the town. Steven, Roy, and Eliza said they wanted
to stay and confront Percival, but asked that either Myrna or Russell please
call and inform them if they’d been able to make it past the town without getting
sick. Steven received a call from Russell about an hour after they’d left,
saying they were twenty miles out of town and feeling fine.

Percival showed up while they were waiting for the call. Roy
gave one of his best performances, describing how they’d teleported into James’
secret lair and had found the device. Roy told Percival that it was nearly
broken when they found it, and as they watched, it fell apart into pieces. Then
Roy described how they’d found James’ writing, and upon reading it, had all
become converts. Now they wanted to help Percival, provided he was willing to
go along with a few requirements.

Percival had been skeptical, but when Steven showed him
James’ ring, he nearly fell over. “That’s the symbol!” Percival had said, the
same symbol on the door that James’ writings had instructed him never to enter.
They learned that Percival had many times walked down to the door with the gold
oval, but had been too afraid to try and enter it. He said James left dire
warnings in his writings as to what would happen to those who entered that
door. He didn’t seem to know or care about the other passageways either. He’d
only used the door that he’d now blocked with the wire screen. Roy questioned
him until he was sure Percival didn’t know of any other way in or out.

Roy told him they’d work on fixing the device as long as Percival
agreed to never use any of the passageways. Roy told Percival how they’d
destroyed Anita by moving the marchers downstairs. At this point, Percival was
impressed, and ready to do whatever they asked. Roy told Percival they required
complete privacy and solitude to work, and were going to set monitors that
would alert them if Percival or anyone else ever descended beyond the level of
the first floor, and that if they discovered that the agreement had been
violated, they’d abandon their effort to fix the device. Percival readily
agreed, grateful that they were now on his side, and assuring them that he had
no interested in violating James’ directives by going downstairs. Then they
told him he needed to report Marilyn’s disappearance, and use the story the
group had settled upon.

As they neared the parking area, Eliza said she felt
different. “Something extra,” she said. “Something I haven’t felt before.”

“What do you mean?” Steven asked.

“I feel like I got my gift back,” she said, “and something
more. More ability than I had before. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I
can feel it.”

“I know what you mean,” Roy said, shifting his bag from one
arm to the other. “I can feel it too.”

“Well,” Steven said, “some of Marilyn’s abilities had been
drained before she died. What happens to your gift when you die?”

“She’d been tagged,” Roy said, “so it might have transferred
to the device.”

“We saw the glowing ball empty completely when I reversed
things,” Steven said. “That would have included Marilyn’s gift, too. Do you
think it dished it back out to all of you? You each got some of her ability?”

“Could be,” Eliza said. “I don’t know what Marilyn’s
abilities were. Perhaps we should find out. But I do know I’m leaving with more
than I came with.”

They passed by Percival’s van in the parking area, and walked
through the main gate, which Percival had left open for them.

“How soon do we come back?” Steven asked.

“As soon as we have Eliza on the plane,” Roy said. “I want to
come back with some supplies to make sure we can get in and out of those doors
in the tunnel when we want, and seal up the wainscoting in the pantry.”

“It’s a long drive out here,” Steven said. “If we need to
stay overnight, we can’t stay down there, due to the marchers. We’ll have to
stay at the motel in town.”

“Oh no,” Roy said. “That won’t do. We’ll have to figure
something out. We’ll stay in Aberdeen, or Olympia. Or maybe we’ll get a camper
we can leave parked by the tunnel, something like that. I’m not staying in that
shithole. I’m going to have to fumigate my luggage as it is.”

“Wouldn’t it be nice if you could stay down there,” Eliza
said, a dreamy sound in her voice. “It’s such a lovely place, so open and calm.”

“What keeps that running?” Steven asked. “What controls the
light?”

“Don’t know,” Roy said. “Could be another device in his
workroom in the basement, or maybe he had another contract with someone. I
guess we’ll find out.”

“What a crazy eccentric,” Steven said, stepping over the
chain that stretched across the driveway. “Some rich people build crazy things
with their money, but he used his money and his gift to build that strange
place underground. So bizarre. I looked up ‘Eximere’ by the way - it’s Latin
for ‘free’ and ‘released.’”

“Free from what?” Roy asked.

“From so many things,” Eliza said. “The house upstairs,
Anita, the gift he hated. That’s why the house feels so open and inviting,
almost the opposite of the house upstairs – it was his sanctuary, a place where
he could leave everything he hated behind.”

“But eventually Anita found it,” Steven said.

“And maybe that’s what ruined it for him,” Eliza said. “Maybe
that’s why he sacrificed himself to get back at her.”

“But it also means ‘to remove,’” Steven said. “Perhaps he
named the place after his goals.”

“If we’re lucky,” Roy said, “we’ll find some of his writings
in that house, and discover his real reasons.”

They reached the car and piled in. They drove back to
Seattle, talking about their plans for Eximere. Roy was focused on securing the
place, while Steven was interested in how to proceed with the books. Eliza
chimed in with suggestions as they planned.

After they reached Seattle, Steven and Roy waited while Eliza
packed a few things at Steven’s place, then they drove her to the airport. They
waited while Eliza dealt with an agent at the ticket counter, then she joined
them to say goodbye.

“I’m all set,” she said, brandishing her tickets and boarding
pass.

“Please say hello to Troy for me,” Steven said.

“And me too!” Roy said. They both gave her a hug.

“Thank you both,” Eliza said. “I know I said I was sorry I
wrapped you up in this, but I’m also glad.”

“I am too,” Steven said. “Involving us turned out to be a
great idea. Roy has a project now, it’ll keep him busy.”

Roy started to say something sarcastic, but instead he
stopped and took a breath. “He’s right,” Roy said. “You’ve given me something
worthwhile to do, something I feel strongly about. Something that will make a
difference to a lot of people. Thank you,” he said, reaching out to give Eliza
another hug.

“And if you need any help in the future,” Roy said, releasing
her and looking at her as he held her at arm’s length, “call someone else.”

She laughed, grabbed her bag and walked away from them
towards the security checkpoint.

◊

Steven waited behind the wheel of Roy’s truck as Roy jumped
out of the passenger side and walked towards the tunnel entrance. A month ago,
they had Aberdeen Fabrication install two large metal doors on the front of the
tunnel. Now it was secured with a lock and key, giving Roy the assurance he
wanted that no one would be able to go in or out of the tunnel. Roy swung the large
doors wide, and Steven drove the truck inside. Once he’d cleared the entrance,
Roy closed the doors behind them, and locked them. Then he returned to the
passenger side of the truck and hopped in.

The lights from the truck shone into the darkness of the
tunnel, lighting their way as Steven drove the truck through it.

“You know, every time we go through this tunnel, I think of
hunting Lukas,” Steven said.

“I think the same thing,” Roy said. “I keep thinking we’ll
make a turn, and there will be the lake we found him in.”

Once they completed the turn they found themselves at the
metal doors, which now had locks accessible from inside the tunnel. Steven
turned off the truck, and Roy brought an electric lantern out of the cab while
they loaded items from the back of the truck into backpacks.

“This is the part I like the least,” Roy said, “hauling all
this stuff in on foot. We should put in an elevator.”

“We spent enough money buying the property the tunnel was
on,” Steven said. “We need to economize until we can recoup some of the
expenditures we’ve already made.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Roy said as they walked through the
metal doors and secured them. Then they made their way to the stairwell that
led down to Eximere.

“Perhaps if we sold one of the objects,” Roy said, “we might
make enough to pay for the land
and
an elevator.”

“We don’t even know what they do yet,” Steven said, “or who
they belong to. If we find one without an owner, maybe.”

They walked down the steps, Roy grasping the handrail he’d
installed for safety. At the bottom of the steps Steven inserted a key into a
new lock. Roy had removed all the old locks and replaced them with new ones. He’d
spent some time and expense finding locks that were difficult to pick.

Once they were all the way down the stairs, they walked into
the open space and the brightness and calmness washed over them.

“I guess it’s worth the hike down,” Roy said. “Every time.”

They walked to the house and deposited the items they’d
brought with them in various rooms of the house. Most of it was food, and wound
up in pantries in the kitchen, but a few of the items were to outfit Steven and
Roy’s bedrooms they selected on the second floor.

Steven left Roy unpacking items in the kitchen and went
upstairs to his room, which was on the opposite side of the house from James’
room. It faced the back yard, and the view of the banyan tree filled Steven
with peace. He knew what they were doing was right, and important. They already
returned two books to their rightful owners, and those owners had been ecstatic
to receive them.
Kind of like delivering gold to Amy Maysill in Medford
,
Steven thought.

From his window he could see many of the graves outside,
under the tree. The open grave was now filled in, containing the remains of
James Unser. They found some of the rubbery substance in a barrel in James’ workroom,
and they used it to cover him over. He was now suspended in the goop just like
the others.
Like a scorpion in a paperweight,
Steven thought. Neither
Steven nor Roy wanted James to get wind of their goals, or worse, interfere
with them, so they made sure he was under as much goop as possible.

Roy discussed the possibility of digging up Thomas senior and
reburying him properly, without the goop. He wanted to be able to hear from him
without having to whip up a batch of dirt. Steven had mixed feelings about it.
He understood Roy’s desire to communicate with his great, great grandfather,
but he also thought the dead should be left alone.
Not everything has to be
convenient,
Steven thought.
We don’t need an elevator down here, and if
Roy wants to talk to Thomas senior, he can make a batch.
With his power
restored, Roy had the ability to make some on his own, so it was only an extra
step he could take anytime he wanted.
Not worth disturbing Thomas’ peace
over – unless he specifically requests it
, Steven thought.