The Star-Fire Prophecy (14 page)

Her thoughts circled. A locked room. Dark. Where? Why was she here? Afraid, she was afraid to be in this dark room alone, locked in, and the fright sharpened her mind until she began to remember, and then she was terrified indeed.

The last she really remembered clearly was being by the corral, with Evan bringing her back to Star-Fire by force. Melantha had Amy; Danica had failed to get Amy away. Evan was in league with Melantha, had always been, and wouldn’t help. “Don’t rely on Gemini,” he’d told her once, and she’d thought he was joking.

Where was this room she was in? How had she gotten here? The dark was complete, no lighter square to indicate a window. A storeroom in one of the Star-Fire houses? Danica moved slowly ahead, arms outstretched. If she could find a wall, she could feel her way around the room and know something about it. There, a wall. She pressed her palm against the surface and began to walk to her right, sliding her hand along the wall.
Soon I’ll come to a corner
, she thought, but she went on and on and still there was no joining of two walls, no place where they met.

She made a whimpering sound that shocked her when she heard it. “No,” she said aloud. “Don’t panic.” But she didn’t like the sound of her voice in the dark, either.
The room is round
, she told herself.
A round room in a round house
. But none of the houses she’d seen had a room that was entirely round. Semicircles, yes. Where was she?

Is the room entirely empty
, she asked herself? Though reluctant to leave the comparative security of the wall, she put her arms out in front of her and took a step away from the wall. Was that a noise she heard? Yes, an odd whirring. A rattle. She pressed her hands to her face and shrank back against the wall. A rattlesnake.

Chapter Eighteen

Darkness rose in Danica’s mind to blot out the sound of the rattle, a darkness from inside as deep as the one that surrounded her. For a time there was nothing, then streaks of light shot across her vision. A voice spoke.

“The arrow. You must use the arrow.”

But when Danica opened her eyes, she realized the lights and the voice had been in her head. She was still in the dark.

The arrow. How could she use her amulet? She didn’t even know where Amy had hidden it. And use it how?

Had she fainted? Danica stiffened, remembering the snake, but now she heard nothing. Something crawled across her hand and she screamed, snatching her hand away. A scorpion? She got to her feet.
There must be a door
, she reasoned.
I’ll find the door and pound on it, call for help. Someone will hear me
.

She began to circle the room again with one hand against the wall, until at last she felt the crack where the door sat flush with the wall. Pounding against it with her fists, she yelled, “Let me out, let me out. Help!”

But no one came, though she kept on until her hands were bruised and her throat ached. She put her ear against the door, but there was no sound from the other side, unless that was music she heard very faintly. Why couldn’t anyone hear her? Where was she?

Not Lydia’s house, not Galt’s, nor Evan’s. Melantha’s? Suddenly she remembered her first day at Star-Fire, when Melantha had taken her into the room with the star maps. There’d been a door painted black and Melantha had said, “My meditation room. Soundproof. Once inside I’m insulated from all external stimuli.”

I’m in Melantha’s house
, Danica thought.
Melantha might hear me, but she won’t let me out. What does she mean to do? She can’t keep me here forever
.

Screaming will do no good
, she realized. The meditation room had no outside walls, and Melantha would be sure not to let anyone enter her house. Except Evan. How could he let Melantha do this?
He held me
, Danica thought,
kissed me, and I thought he was attracted to me, liked me. Was he—could he have been acting on orders from Melantha
? “Keep Danica distracted—make love to her”?

Danica grimaced in the dark, repulsed by the idea.

And Galt? She shook her head. How could she believe anyone at Star-Fire was what he seemed to be?

Her fingers felt along the door; no knob, instead, a recessed latch. But pry as she might, it didn’t move. A wave of fatigue swept over her.
I’ll lie here by the door
, she decided, but then she thought of what had crawled over her hand, and the rattle she’d heard earlier. Panic began to build, despite her efforts to remain rational. It was so dark…

She pounded on the door again, screaming and soon sobbing until, exhausted, she slumped against it, then slipped to the floor and finally slept.

She dreamed she was in a long tunnel and it was terribly important that she find the right way out. There were many ways, some brilliantly lit, some dim, and as she considered each in turn, she was confused and doubtful of her ability to make the right choice.

“I’ve marked your way,” the old man said, “for I am Path Marker. Since birth you have been destined to come to this time and this place and now that you have arrived you will know what must be done.”

“But I can’t be sure. There are so many possibilities.”

“Not for you,” he said. “You are the archer, the arrow, and the arrow flies straight.”

She studied the different branches of the tunnel and noticed that the one directly ahead of her was dark. She saw it was the only unlighted way. To either side lighted tunnels beckoned, some festooned with dazzling gems like the magic caverns of
The Arabian Nights
.

“I won’t be able to see my way,” she complained.

“The path is marked,” said the old man.

Reluctantly she took a step into the blackness, then another and another, until she could no longer see light behind her. There were noises in the dark as of unseen creatures scrabbling on the rocks, and she hugged her arms to herself and walked as quickly as she could, always afraid she would run into an obstacle. All at once the tunnel became lighter, a yellow light flared ahead and soon she came to a solid sheet of flame.

“I can’t go on.”

“There’s no way back,” said the old man. “You must complete your destiny.”

“But the fire—the flame…”

“You must go on.”

Against her will her right foot moved ahead, then her left. She struggled against the compulsion to walk into the fire. “No, no…”

“No, no,” Danica moaned, opening her eyes to darkness. For a few moments she was disoriented, still half in her dream, then she knew where she was. She sat up, stiff from sleeping on the floor, and her hands throbbed painfully.

How much time has passed
? she wondered, as she took a deep sobbing breath. The door opened.

Danica blinked in the sudden stream of light, then saw Evan outlined above her. She got to her feet. “Please let me out,” she begged.

He took her arm and led her into the next room and she saw she’d been right. There were the star charts and the zodiac symbols of Melantha’s astrology room.

“I brought you some food,” he said.

“Let me leave,” she pleaded.

“I can’t,” he said. “It’s too late for that.” He thrust a sandwich and an opened soft drink bottle at her, but she pushed past him and lunged for the closed door. It was locked.

“You can’t get out,” he said.

She saw the white door and hurried toward it, but it only led into a bathroom. She caught a glimpse of her face in the mirror over the sink and looked away, not caring to see the frightened, staring eyes in the pale face. But she went into the small room and locked the door behind her.
I won’t come out
, she decided.

After a few moments, Evan’s voice came through the closed door. “If you’ll notice, that lock is the kind that can easily be opened from this side with any pointed object. And I’m sure you’ve seen it’s an inside bathroom.”

Danica unlocked the door and came back into the astrology room. Evan offered her the food again and she took it listlessly.

“Why won’t you let me go?”

“Oh, you’re smarter than that, I don’t have to explain. It’s you or us now.”

“What—what are you going to do?”

With a single motion, before she was aware of his purpose, Evan shoved her back through the black door into the meditation room, and she heard the lock click behind her.

“No,” she screamed. “Let me out!” She banged the bottle against the door, and cold fluid splashed out and ran down her arm.

Slowly she turned and slid down the door until she was sitting on the floor again. The room seemed blacker than before, after her brief exposure to daylight. Daylight. The night had passed, she’d been asleep for hours.

She became aware of the sandwich and the drink in her hands. Despite everything, she was hungry.
Should I eat this
? she wondered.
Is it safe? Are they trying to poison me
? She placed the food on the floor beside her.

But after a while she was so thirsty it didn’t seem to matter if the drink was poisoned. She picked up the bottle and drank, then ate the sandwich, too. Nothing happened—no stomach cramps, no convulsions. And the food had tasted like what it was, a cheese sandwich and a grape soda.

Danica drew her knees up and clasped her arms around them.
I won’t panic again
, she reassured herself.
No matter what
.

Time passed.

Funny, those colored lights to her left, she hadn’t noticed them before.
In this dark room you’d think
…Well, of course, no wonder she hadn’t seen that color before. It was past ultraviolet, no one had seen such a color. Sort of an ultra-ultraviolet. She smiled to herself. What other color could a person see in the dark? Infrared, maybe, yes, there to her right, but again just a little different.
No one can see infrared
, some part of her mind told her, but she smiled to herself.
She
could, she was exceptional. The colors twirled and whirled in the room, now dancing, now flaring up into fountains, came closer, embraced her within them, and she felt the softness of them against her skin. She got to her feet and began to dance with them, turning and twisting.

The energies are here, too
, she decided,
flowing through me, making me a color. Am I golden
? She felt herself glitter as she danced to the music of the colors. Ruby red? Violet? “Om,” she chanted, and the hum filled the room, making her vibrate so that she lost her balance and stumbled into the wall and fell, twisting her ankle painfully beneath her.

The colors disappeared and voices began to talk about her, as she crouched on the floor, clasping her ankle.

“She’s the one.”

“Yes, I see her.”

“We all see her.”

There was a fearful noise of scratching, whirring, rustling, all headed toward her. Danica knew what they were as clearly as if she could see them. Snakes and scorpions and rats, all the horrid beasts that inhabit the secret places.

“No,” she whispered. “Oh, no, please…”

She got to her feet and limped until she came up against a wall. She could hear the crunch as she stepped on the hard bodies of the scorpions and once she felt a snake coil around her ankle. Too terrified to make a sound, she scrabbled her way along the wall until she came to the door once again.

She beat on the door with her bruised hands until she cried out with the pain, but the noises didn’t stop. Insects crawled along her face and she brushed at them, only to find nothing there. She turned with her back to the door and moaned in horror to see glowing red eyes staring at her out of the dark. What was it? Images of huge jungle cats came into her mind, crouching, leaping…

All the time a tiny inner core in her consciousness told her none of this was real. Not what she heard or saw or felt. She couldn’t believe the inner voice, but feebly she tried to gather awareness, to surround herself with the light-fire, the psychic energy that brought calmness.

Her thoughts skittered and flitted in the darkness like so many bats, refusing to come home to roost. Desperately she reached for them, throwing out a net of command.

Finally she felt she was together in her own head and she visualized the star, blazed it up until the stream of white light flowed down through her, all around her. Not the dancing colors she had seen before, but the true Ch’i Energy. With eyes closed, she concentrated on nothing but the flowing energy, the radiating light-fire.

She almost fell backward when the door opened.

“Here,” a voice said. Amy’s voice. A hard object was pressed into her hand.

By the time Danica, blinking in the overhead light, focused on Amy, the girl was disappearing out the door of the astrology room.

“Wait,” Danica said.

“I can’t. If I don’t come back, she’ll know I let you out.” And Amy was gone.

Danica stared at the arrow amulet Amy had returned to her. Why?

The lights in the house were on. Had so much time passed? Was it night again? Danica, dazed, wandered out of the astrology room, trying to think coherently.

It was evident to her there’d been a hallucinogen in the grape soda. Objects still wavered and took on other characteristics if she let them. And her thoughts came in random order.

Get away. She must get away, never mind if she couldn’t quite remember why. This was Melantha’s house. The evil flower of death. Get away from Melantha.

As Danica came into the front of the house, through the large windows she saw the blaze of fire below. The night of the ritual fire. Amy had told her. Warned her. The fire. No, she wouldn’t go near the fire, she knew better.

The way out is through the flames
, the old man said. But he was only in her mind, not real.

Get away.

She looked down at the arrow in her hand. The amulet. Why was she carrying the amulet? Amy had given it back to her. Amy. She couldn’t leave without Amy; it was important for Amy to come with her.

Danica walked to the door and let herself out into the night. Amy would be at the ritual fire with Melantha. She must go and find her.

But there were people coming down the path. She heard voices, laughter. They mustn’t see her, no one must find her, or she’d be shut up in that room again. She climbed the hill and huddled in the bushes.

No one followed, the voices faded and were gone. Still Danica hesitated. Wait until everyone was at the fire, that was best.

Soon she heard the chant rise, and the voices surrounded her, enveloped her in a rhythm, and she began to sway, listening.

Safe, she was safe here with the voices protecting her. But there was something she had to do, some reason she had to go to the fire. Danica got to her feet and scrambled down the slope to the path.

She’d follow the path to the steps, go down them and find Amy, she’d… But as she approached the long stairway she saw the black wings at the top. Melantha.