Enoch's Ghost
Oracles of Fire, Volume 2
Enoch’s Ghost
Bryan Davis
Enoch’s Ghost
Copyright © 2007 by Bryan Davis
Living Ink Books, an imprint of AMG Publishers
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in printed reviews, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (printed, written, photocopied, visual electronic, audio, or otherwise) without the prior permission of the publisher.
Enoch’s Ghost
is the second of four books in the youth fantasy fiction series,
Oracles of Fire
.
All Scripture quotations, are taken from the King James Version Bible. Public Domain.
Print ISBN: 978-0-89957-871-2
ePub ISBN: 978-1-61715-005-0
Mobi ISBN: 978-1-61715-034-0
DRAGONS IN OUR MIDST and ORACLES OF FIRE are registered trademarks of AMG Publishers.
First printing June 2007
Cover designed by Bright Boy Design, Inc., Chattanooga, Tennessee
Interior design and typesetting by Reider Publishing Services, West Hollywood, California
California
Edited and proofread by Jeff Gerke, Dan Penwell, Rick Steele, and Sharon Neal
Contents
Chapter 1: Return of the Dragon
Chapter 5: The Other Side of Heaven
Chapter 6: The Endless Staircase
Chapter 15: The Prophetic Wall
Chapter 17: A Tale of Two Daughters
Chapter 19: The Oldest Memories
For every child who fears the darkness, for every father who plunges into the darkness in search of the lost, and for every hero or heroine who carries a flaming beacon that dispels the shadows this story is for you.
Enoch’s Ghost
is the second book in the
Oracles of Fire
series. It is a sequel to the
Dragons in our Midst
(DIOM) series and picks up the story where
Eye of the Oracle
and
Tears of a Dragon
ended.
Here is how the stories line up in chronological order. The
Oracles of Fire
series is boldfaced.
Readers who have not delved into
Dragons in our Midst
or
Eye of the Oracle
will have no trouble understanding and enjoying
Enoch’s Ghost
if they read the recap at the end of this book first. This story extends earlier adventures that will lead readers into a multidimensional land, a fascinating journey guided by the
Oracles of Fire
.
To my best friend and biggest fan of all, Susie. Hearing you read my book out loud is one of the blessings of life. With every breath from your lips, you bring life and love to my words and remind me that God has blessed this effort. You are a treasure.
To my AMG family: Dan Penwell, Warren Baker, Rick Steele, Dale Anderson, Trevor Overcash, Joe Suter, and all the staff: even if I were to thank you a million times, it wouldn’t be enough.
As always, I thank God for his Amazing Grace. I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
Last, but certainly not least, I thank my departed father for his role in inspiring me to include a powerful theme in this book. Even as he lay on his deathbed, his feeble yet deeply meaningful words ignited an amazing string of miracles. Now I know the meaning behind the twelve people, the ten faithless wanderers, and the two precious copper coins.
When fathers, sons, and daughters part,
When hearts are cut and hewn,
No solace can replace the love
No song can bind the wound.
For blood that spills from shredded hearts
Can never be restored
When love is lost, when trust is torn,
When shattered faith is poured.
Will pride forever break the bond
Of love that spawned a birth?
Will memories of death be lost
When life sprouts new from earth?
O what will soothe betrayal’s pain
And what will smooth the scar?
Can sacrificial blood rain down
The healing from afar?
A witness goes to spy the land
With nine more flaunting pride,
But giants seize their quaking hearts,
And faith is cast aside.
Yet two bear witness to the truth;
They trust in God afresh
To catch their souls and take them home
Should giants slay their flesh.
These giants born of demons’ seed
Will cast a net to snare
The holy city high above
And snatch it from the air.
O who will stand within the gap,
And who will sacrifice?
O who will bleed for love alone,
And who will pay the price?
A widow lays her copper coins,
Two mites, her treasure store,
While hypocrites parade their gifts,
Mere sweepings from their floor.
The humble gift restores anew
The hope when life began,
When fathers, sons, and daughters clasp
Their hands of love again.
But will the daughters take the gift
Of coppers from the king,
The wounds that pour his saving blood
To heal the family ring?
The great dragon’s eyes glowed with bloodred luminescence, and his voice rumbled like distant thunder. “Mardon, the time is short. When will the giants awaken to bring about our final victory?”
“Soon, very soon.” Standing on the edge of a precipice, Mardon held a shining rope of gold, as taut as a harp string and almost as slender. It stretched across a chasm that lay before him, the canyon path of a magma river far below. A mere stone’s throw away, a nebulous figure held to the golden line from another precipice, too far to detect any features of form or face. The barest of glows emanated from the slow-moving river, casting reddish light and illuminating the rutted walls and jagged ceiling of their underground cavern.
“Sapphira’s latest use of her power,” Mardon continued, “has allowed me to draw Earth and Hades so close, only a mere thread of dimensional space separates them. A few more pulls should bind them as one. Even then, I cannot guess how perfectly the two dimensions will combine. The dead souls should eventually become as they were when they were alive, but we might have to wait for the merged realms to reach a state of equilibrium before everything settles.” He strained against the line again, letting out an almost inaudible grunt. “That’s why the synchronization has to be precise. The realms must not touch until the timers are ready to expire and the escape route for our giants is complete.”
The dragon beat its wings and joined Mardon at the edge of the chasm. “Leave the escape route to me. The giants will need to loosen their muscles after such a lengthy nap, so I envision a staircase that will lead them to the light.”
Mardon pulled the line, drawing the other precipice a few inches closer. With every painstaking inch, the ground trembled, raising the crunching complaint of stone grinding against stone. “An excellent idea,” he said. “Many steps to strengthen their resolve … and their anger.”
“And then our next step.”
“The greatest step. When I finish creating my tower to draw Heaven down to Earth, my plan will be complete.”
“
Your
plan?” The dragon’s eyes blazed. “I sowed the seeds of this plan long before you were born, the seeds of Eden that I gave to Samyaza’s wench, Lilith. It was she who first cultivated the Nephilim. You merely took her place in my grand scheme.”
Mardon averted his eyes and focused on the narrowing chasm. “I see. Morgan never told me where the seedlings came from.”
“Giving credit to others was not in her nature.”
“True enough.” Mardon turned back to the dragon. “I am therefore pleased to give you credit. When Heaven meets Earth, and I am installed as the mediator of the final covenant, you will be a chief prince.”
The dragon flashed an odd smile, toothy enough to be menacing, yet it carried a hint of amusement. “Beware of overconfidence. There are forces, human forces, that can stop us.”
Mardon shook his head. “Sapphira’s power is insufficient without her sister, and no one has seen Acacia in years.”
“Do not underestimate an Oracle of Fire. You consider Sapphira a mere seedling who has outgrown her pot, but she is far more powerful. She has already meddled in too many of my affairs for my liking.”
“Trying to kill Sapphira is dangerous,” Mardon said. “It means death to any who shed her blood.”
“We need not kill her as long as she remains ignorant.” The dragon raised his head and looked into the cavern’s dim upper recesses. “Yet, there is another who could ruin our plans. She is capable of discerning the meaning of your need for building a vortex connection between Heaven and Earth.”
“Thigocia’s child?” Mardon laid a hand on his head. “I have forgotten her name.”
“Ashley Stalworth. If she alerts her mother, then all is lost.”
Mardon pulled again. The rope vibrated, shaking off golden sparks that floated into the chasm. “Do you have a remedy?”
“Divide and conquer. While you build your tower, I will deal with Thigocia.”
“And what of Ashley?”
The dragon’s eyes flashed once more, this time with a glow of triumph. “For now, she is under my control. Fear has kept her from the light, and I intend to keep it that way.”
Chapter 1
Dragon riding isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” Ashley grumbled. As she retied her hood, a thick cloud bank enveloped her in white mist, dampening her coat sleeves and drawing a shiver from her chilled arms. She clutched Thigocia’s protruding spine with a gloved hand and slid forward, ducking under the streaming fog as she reseated herself. Wearing long underwear and thick denim jeans turned out to be a lifesaver. After over a thousand miles of flying, dragon scales felt like broken concrete under her backside.
She lifted the GPS locator in her palm and brushed a layer of mist from the display with her thumb. On the playing-card-sized monitor, a red dot pulsed in the middle of a blue splotch on the map. Each beat of Thigocia’s enormous wings jostled the screen, but she managed to hold the unit steady enough to figure out their ground position as they flew a few thousand feet above Montana’s highlands.
She swung her head around to the pair of teenaged passengers seated behind her and shouted through the whistling wind, “I think we’re right over Flathead Lake!”
Thigocia dropped suddenly through an air pocket.
“Whoa!” Ashley yelled, squeezing her legs tightly around the dragon’s neck.
Finally, Thigocia caught stable air with her powerful wings. “Sorry about that!”
“No problem,” Karen shouted. “I lost my breakfast an hour ago!”
Walter pulled down the bill of his baseball cap and regripped the spine between him and Ashley. Scrunching his thick, wet eyebrows, he peered down into the blanket of clouds. “Any sign of attack jets coming to greet us?”
“No worries.” Ashley rubbed the dragon’s thick hide, still yelling to overcome the roar. “Thigocia’s scales would skew the radar echoes. She probably looks like a wandering albatross on the screen.”
Karen, sitting behind Walter, the wind whipping her dampened red hair around her freckled face, pulled on his sleeve. “We’re more likely to see gawking bird watchers than attack jets.”
“Too bad. I was kind of hoping to get a jet to follow us.” Walter leaned to the side and pointed past Thigocia’s swinging tail. “Can you imagine how a pilot’s eyes would bug out if he came up behind us and”
“Hey! Not so far!” Karen grabbed Walter’s back scabbard and pulled him upright. “I only have you to hold onto.”
Ashley pressed the GPS unit against her chest. “Walter! Don’t scare us like that!”
“Sorry.” Walter’s blue eyes sparkled, and a wide grin spread across his boyish face. “I guess I’m not cut out to be an albatross.”
Rolling her eyes, Ashley turned her attention back to the locator. After flying so far, mostly in the middle of the night, and having to endure Walter’s never-ending jokes and Karen’s constant fretting over his safety, it was time to get their feet back on the ground for good. Yet, even at ground level, life had been a pain—drinking water from streams, eating berries and nuts as well as wild game Thigocia would capture and cook, and wearing the same clothes for days on end. Everyone was ready for a change.
Walter sighed. “So how far is it to the mountain?”
“We’re coming up from the south on this path,” Ashley said, tracing a line on the grid with her finger, “so, if we don’t have to take a detour to stay in the clouds, we’ll probably get there in about ten minutes.”
Walter leaned into the beating wind. “All I heard was ‘ten minutes.’”
“Right!” Ashley said, raising her voice to compete with the strengthening gale. “Give or take a minute!”
“Good!” Karen blew a strand of hair from her brow. “I’m getting soaked.”
Bending her long, scaly neck, Thigocia brought her head close to her riders. Thin strings of smoke swirled away from her flared nostrils. “When we get there, I will give you the Sahara treatment. You will be warm and dry in no time.”
“Unless it’s raining,” Walter added.
Karen shivered and slid closer to Walter. “Or snowing.”
Ashley tapped her jaw with her fingers and spoke into the breeze. “Larry, what’s the weather forecast for the Flathead Lake area in Montana?”
A computerized voice hummed through Ashley’s tooth-embedded transmitter.
“Cloudy and cool today, high in the fifties. Rain changing to freezing rain tonight, low in the thirties.”
“Not good.” Ashley pulled a soaked tissue from her jacket and wiped her nose. “I hope we can find shelter, or we’ll all die of pneumonia.”
“An excellent suggestion, O daughter of a dragon. The official forecast calls for a sixty percent chance of precipitation, but that seems low to me. Based on the satellite presentation, I calculate a sixty-three-point-seven percent probability. On a scale”
“No!” Ashley shouted. “Not another dragon scale joke!”
“Your mind-reading capabilities are working perfectly, O maiden of the mailed membrane. On a scale of one to ten, your mental perception rates a nine point two.”
“I don’t read minds!” Ashley moaned.
Walter laughed. “Good one, Larry. You slipped in your scale joke anyway.”
Ashley swung her head toward Walter. “You heard him?”
“Barely. It sounds like a buzz coming from your ears, like the highest note in a bumblebee choir’s scale.”
“Cool!” Karen chirped. “Another scale joke!”
“Walter! Cut it out!” Ashley scowled at the GPS unit. “It’s a good thing we’re almost there. Another night of this craziness and I’d be ready to check into Arlo’s mental hospital.”
Karen reached over Walter and patted Ashley on the back. “Well, they do have a vacancy now that we sprang Arlo, but you probably wouldn’t get any treatment. Thigocia scared the workers so bad with that blast of flames, I don’t think they’ll ever come back.”
“Yeah,” Walter agreed. “I guess you could say Thigocia fired them!”
Walter and Karen gave each other a high five, while Ashley just shook her head and groaned. When Walter and Karen finally stopped laughing, Ashley called out to Thigocia. “Mother! Get ready to descend!”
Thigocia curled her neck back again. “Ashley, I am not a dog to be commanded. A bit of courtesy is always appropriate when addressing your elders.”
Walter whispered into Ashley’s ear. “And your mom is about as elder as you can get.”
“Speaking of courtesy … ,” Ashley whispered back, glaring at Walter. She rubbed the dragon’s neck scales and sighed. “I’m sorry, Mother. It’s just that five days of flying with these characters has made me crawl right to the edge of sanity.”
“I fell over the edge,” Karen said.
“I jumped,” Walter added. “And I can’t seem to climb back up.”
Thigocia’s scaly brow wrinkled sympathetically. “We are all tired, but we will soon be able to rest without fear of being discovered. The mountain site is remote enough for us to remain in hiding, but we will have to descend quickly in order to keep our approach a secret.”
“Bring it on!” Walter pushed his cap tightly over his head. “Riding a dragon roller coaster in the daylight sure beats all the slow night flying we’ve been doing.”
He grabbed the spine with both hands, and Karen wrapped her arms around him. For the moment, except for the whistling wind and slow flapping of dragon wings, all was silent, allowing Ashley to concentrate on the map. When the blinking dot glided across the border of the blue expanse and into a green region, she raised her hand. “Okay, Mother, we should be right over it. Time to make your dive.”
A low growl rumbled from the dragon’s throat. “Ashley?”
She winced and leaned forward. “
Please
make your dive?”
Thigocia began folding in her wings. “Hang on!” As she angled downward, her scarlet laser eyes pierced the clouds below.
Ashley hugged the spine and lowered her head. Suddenly, it seemed that the whole world fell out from under her. Her body floated upward. Her stomach squeezed the breath out of her lungs. With streams of cloudy vapor whipping by, she tightened her grasp, forced in a chest full of air, and shouted into the gale. “You two okay back there?”
“Yeah!” Walter choked out. “Except I lost my cap, and Karen’s strangling me!”
Ashley ducked lower. “Just hold tight!”
When they broke through the clouds, Thigocia pulled up and banked to one side. “I sense a hint of danger,” she said as she coasted into a circular descent.
“Where?” Ashley yelled through the swirling breeze. “How far?”
“It is difficult to measure. The intensity is low, and the location seems vague.”
Ashley peered at the mountainous terrain below wooded peaks, plunging slopes, and two river valleys nestled between high, uneven ridges. Autumn had stripped many trees to a few stubborn brown leaves, while bushy firs and ponderosa pines infused the mountain with lush greenery. “Should we land?”
“Yes. We must fulfill our reason for coming, and if a battle ensues, I cannot fight with three untrained riders. Besides, our warrior needs firm footing if we expect him to use his weapon.”
Ashley glanced back at Walter. His expression had hardened. His eyes flashing, he reached over his shoulder and grabbed Excalibur’s hilt. He slid it out partway, as if checking its readiness, then returned his grip to the dragon’s spine.
As Thigocia approached a mountaintop, her eyebeams sliced into the shadowy, forested slopes. The blanket of clouds hovered low as she drew up her wings to angle sharply toward a small grass-covered clearing at the very top of the rounded peak.
Holding her breath, Ashley leaned into the dragon’s dive, trying to duck under the torrent of fog-soaked air. Seconds later, Thigocia thumped against the ground, making a loud squishing noise as she skidded through a carpet of wet grass.
Walter slid down her damp scales, avoiding her beating wings, and landed feetfirst. He whipped Excalibur from his back scabbard and pivoted slowly, firmly gripping the hilt of the sword with both hands. Although no sunlight penetrated the low cloud bank, the blade shimmered, emanating an aura that coated the silvery metal.
Thigocia lowered her head to the ground, making her neck into a stairway. Ashley grabbed a duffel bag strap from her mother’s spine and clambered down the scaly ladder, followed closely by Karen. They rushed to Walter’s side, turning with him as he scanned the encircling line of denuded trees and tall conifers that lay only a stone’s throw away in every direction. Although a hint of wood smoke tinged the air, no sign of fire arose from the thousands of acres of forest that spread across the distant hills.
“I don’t see anyone,” he said, twisting back toward the dragon. “Do you still sense danger?”
Thigocia’s ears rotated, like satellite receivers searching for a signal. “Something sinister … not close at hand … perhaps among the trees, but I saw nothing in the forest as we descended.”
“Something invisible?” Karen asked. “Maybe a demon of some kind?”
“We destroyed the Watchers.” Thigocia snorted twin plumes of smoke into the air. “I doubt that any other demons would be foolish enough to seek a confrontation.”
“As long as the danger stays on the sidelines,” Walter said, lowering Excalibur’s point to the ground, “let’s get started on what we came here to do.”
“But first …” Thigocia blew a hot dry breeze toward the three humans.
Walter spread out his arms, letting the desert-like wind flap his wet sleeves. “Ahhh! The Sahara treatment!”
Ashley and Karen stripped off their coats and basked in the drying flow.
“Can’t beat this with a stick,” Karen said, squeezing her eyes closed. “Ashley, I’m glad your mom is so full of hot air.”
“Good one.” Walter pointed at Karen and winked. “And it’s a good thing she doesn’t need a breath mint.”
As Walter and Karen continued trading jokes about hot air and halitosis, Ashley rotated her body slowly and basked in the luxurious breeze. She winced now and then at the heat and the inane jokes as she watched Walter playfully jabbing Karen. Would he ever grow out of his childish ways? He was a valiant warrior, but at times he seemed like such a kid. Still, it would be fun to join in, kind of let loose and laugh with them. She closed her eyes and shook her head. No. Someone had to be serious around here, so it might as well be her.
After a few minutes, the girls put their coats back on, now warm and dry. Walter patted Thigocia on her side. “You’re better than a thousand hair dryers, and we didn’t have to worry about popping a circuit!”
“Time to get to work!” Picking up her bag, Ashley strode through lush, calf-high grass until she reached a thinner section with only a short carpet of greenery. Something underneath had obviously stunted the growth. She scuffed her shoe across the soil, exposing a solid foundation. “There’s a slab here,” she said, looking back at her mother. “Was this our home site?”
“It has to be.” Thigocia flicked her tail toward a tall oak. “That tree was next to your grandfather’s bedroom window.”
Ashley walked under the oak’s dripping branches and ran her hand along the trunk’s rough bark. Her fingers traced a deep furrow until they came across the outline of a heart. Stooping, she gazed at the initials carved in the center but could only make out the first letter of each pairT and H.
“Timothy and Hannah,” she whispered.
A trickle of memories seeped into her mind, a lanky man lifting her into the tree’s lowest bough. As his brown eyes gleamed, a smile radiated from his noble face, but as thin veils darkened the scene, he backed away, his body fading as he withdrew. With her little bare toes wiggling in front of her, she reached out a pair of chubby hands, and a childlike voice squeaked out.
“Daddy!” Ashley said softly, tears welling as she dug a fingernail into the bark. “Daddy, come back!”
Her mind’s eye still watching from the tree, a window came into view, white drapes drawn closed on the inside. Her thoughts drew her into the bedroom, and, against the adjacent wall, she found a single bed covered with a blue downy comforter. Another man, an older man this time, sat on the edge and gestured for her to come to his lap.
Ashley whispered the nickname she gave to the man after her father died. “Daddy!” He had become a replacement daddy, a kind but sickly old man who assuaged the pain in a little girl’s heart. After a few seconds, the image of her departed grandfather also faded away in darkening shadows.