Heartlight (22 page)

The Nurse Crystal’s voice grew smaller, almost as small as Ariella’s. “Yes. Trethoniel will die instantly.”

“And everything that’s part of it? This planet? You and the other Nurse Crystals, too?”

“Everything.”

“But that’s terrible! That means Ariella . . .”

“Yes,” the Nurse Crystal answered, in a tone of voice that reminded Kate of the True Music. “All of us will die.”

“But how can that be good?” she demanded. “This Pattern is crazy! How is that any different from being swallowed up by The Darkness?”

“It is totally different. The Darkness is the opposite of the Pattern, a creature made of negative energy that has grown as the Voice has grown. The Voice has used it as a tool, but what it does not know is that The Darkness is really part of itself, just as an arm is part of the body that bears it. And The Darkness contains the seeds of the Voice’s ultimate destruction. Today, it is merely a slave; ultimately, it will grow so powerful that it will consume the Voice itself.”

“So the Voice will finally end up in a big black hole?”

“No,” corrected the Nurse Crystal. “A black hole still belongs to the Pattern. It may be unfathomably dark and deep, but it is still part of reality. The Darkness, by contrast, is negating reality. A black hole merely transforms heartlight; The Darkness consumes it.”

“Isn’t there any other way?”

The crystalline creature looked at Kate remorsefully. “Not in this universe. No, there is no other way. The Pattern is not crazy. It is only very difficult to accept. I cannot live beyond my time, nor can any other being. Not without robbing something else of life. Not without upsetting the grand balance. I have lived a full and beautiful life.”

“And I have lived a beautiful life,” said Ariella bravely. “Just not a full one.”

“Dear child,” spoke her mother as she plucked her gently from the velvet floor. “I pray your story has some chapters yet to be written.”

The Nurse Crystal turned again to Kate. “You are fast running out of time, if you still wish to try to stop your grandfather. Even as we speak, he is preparing to give his heartlight to the Voice. Gather all of your strength, Kate, then finally decide whether you truly want to risk such grave danger to yourself. No one would ever fault you if you do not.”

Nervously, Kate tossed her braid over her shoulder. “If the Voice is really stopped, will that bring the Sun back to health?”

“We can’t be sure. But if the Voice can be stopped before the Pattern is broken, it is possible—just possible—that all the pure condensed light it has stolen could flow back to its natural home, wherever that home may be.”

“And that would return the Sun to health?”

“If my guess is correct, yes.”

Kate drew a deep breath and stood erect. “I’ve got to try. But what can I do?”

“You can try to speak to your grandfather,” answered the great crystal. “You can try to reach him, to talk with him, to help him hear his own deepest heart.”

“But he’s so far away! I can’t hear his thoughts at all any more.” Kate raised her troubled eyes to the dense clouds billowing above them.

“Perhaps you have not listened hard enough,” suggested the Nurse Crystal.

“All I really want is to be someplace safe with him again,” said Kate wistfully.

“I hope you will be one day. Right now, all you can do is try to reach him, if you dare.”

“I don’t know . . . I don’t know . . .” Again she felt the sting of doubt and despair.

Ariella leaped from her mother’s arms and hung in the air, suspended before Kate’s face. She twinkled and gleamed like a miniature star. For an instant Kate wondered whether there could be microscopic worlds and creatures living on Ariella, creatures as small in relation to the crystal as the crystal was to the star.

Ariella’s round eyes shone softly. “Trust, Kate. Trust in yourself.”

Then the memory of the Sage of Sauria returned, and Kate heard again her final words:
If you trust in the Pattern, you trust in yourself. And if you trust in yourself, your voice holds all the power of truth.

Bravely, she turned to face the spot in the darkened clouds where she imagined Grandfather now stood.

XVII: Grandfather’s Choice

Grandfather studied what little remained of his ring. But he found no comfort, only the painful memory of the loved one he had lost.

“We must act!” thundered the Voice. “Will you join us?”

“I will help you,” said Grandfather, speaking slowly and deliberately. “I will do as you wish. But first, I need you to answer just one last question. Before I go out of the universe altogether, I must understand. Forgive me, but I am still a scientist.”

“What is your question?” the impatient Voice demanded.

“I am troubled by just one thing. If you continue to live forever, because of my heartlight—”

“And if you delay any longer, I will collapse and die! I will perish absolutely!”

“Yes, I know,” continued Grandfather, thinking hard. “Just answer this question, and my heartlight is yours. Tell me why, if you continue to live forever, is not your energy displacing some other life in the universe? If energy is conserved, not destroyed—”

“Nonsense!” boomed the Voice, with such force that the globe jolted and Grandfather lost his balance for an instant. “You are asking for a class in the last eight billion years of developments in physics. I cannot answer your question in the time left to us. We may already be too late!”

“Prancer!” scolded Ratchet’s raspy voice. “Didn’t I teach you to overcome your doubts in order to pursue the truth? Haven’t you learned anything about the way science works? Put your questions aside. We will deal with them later.”

“All right. All right. No more questions.”

“You are very wise, Doctor Miles Prancer,” said the Voice in its most soothing tone. “Great scientist that you are, you will appreciate the most fundamental fact of all. This is an issue of life against death! Do you side with life, or do you side with death?”

At last, Grandfather’s mind was clear. “I side with life, Great Star. With your life and the life of my lost Kaitlyn.”

He drew in a deep breath, and opened his arms to the swelling mists. “I am yours, Trethoniel! You can take my heart—”

“No!” cried a young girl’s voice from far away. “Grandfather, don’t do it!”

He dropped his arms. “Kaitlyn!” he called, tears filling his eyes. “Kaitlyn, you’re alive! You’re alive!”

“Yes, Grandfather! I am alive. Don’t do it, Grandfather. Don’t listen to the Voice! Remember the music we heard . . . That is the true voice of—”

“Stop!” roared the Voice, with a force that rocked the globe and sent Grandfather sprawling backward. “Do not listen to that voice! It is not her, but an imposter! It is the voice of the Enemy!”

“It doesn’t feel like an imposter,” objected Grandfather as he struggled to get back up. “It feels like Kaitlyn!”

“It is the Enemy!” bellowed the Voice. “It is the voice of Death! Do not allow your longing to obscure your reason! Give me your heartlight now!”

Grandfather’s turmoil swelled until he felt like he would explode. “What do I do?” he cried into the churning clouds.

“Give us your heartlight!” commanded Ratchet. “Do it now!”

“Don’t do it, Grandfather!” came the voice of Kate, shrill and urgent. “The Voice doesn’t value any life but its own. It’s destroying the Sun, just to feed itself.”

“That is a lie!” roared the Voice. “Do not believe the Enemy! Give me your heartlight before it is too late!”

*  *  *

“Don’t do it, Grandfather!” cried Kate, straining to reach him telepathically. She leaned against the Nurse Crystal for support. “Don’t—”

At that instant, she started coughing. The terrible coldness was coming back, creeping into her heartlight. She felt a dark and evil force reaching deep into her chest, squeezing, squeezing hard.

“What’s happening?” screamed Ariella in fright. “Kate! Kate! What’s happening to you?”

Smash!
The great dome was rocked by a gigantic blow, like a terrible earthquake.

“The Darkness!” exclaimed the Nurse Crystal. “It’s trying to break through the dome!”

Smash!

The terrible tail of The Darkness slammed violently into the dome, and the vibrations nearly knocked Kate and the Nurse Crystal to the ground. Pieces of jagged green crystal showered on them from above.

Then Ariella screamed in terror and pointed to the dome. The electric red eye was scanning them through a crack in the crystal.

But Kate did not look up. She was struggling with another foe—an invisible foe.

“Grandfather!” she choked, trying desperately to keep herself from coughing. “Follow your heart!”

She fell to one knee. “Follow the Pattern!” she cried before another spasm of coughing made her collapse to all fours.

“Grand—” she began, when another blow exploded overhead, cutting her off. A gigantic crack appeared in the dome, and the tip of the deadly tail began to probe inside.

Suddenly, Kate felt very dizzy. She couldn’t breathe anymore without coughing. Her face was on the floor and the world was going dark.

With her last ounce of energy, she pulled herself back into consciousness. It was all she could do to send one final message to Grandfather. She was too weak to wonder whether it would ever reach him. She coughed savagely, then fell totally silent.

*  *  *

“Give me your heartlight before it is too late!”

“Don’t do it, Grandfather!” called Kate, sounding weaker than before.

The old man was completely torn. “Dear God!” he exclaimed. “What should I do?”

“Grandfather!” cried Kate’s voice, suddenly stronger again. “Give your heartlight to the star! Do as the Voice tells you!”

“Kaitlyn!” he screamed into the whirling winds. “Are you now saying I should give up my heartlight?”

“Yes!” came the response, clear and strong. “The other voice was just an imposter! I am alive, Grandfather, but not for long! Give your heartlight to the star and I will survive!”

Now Grandfather knew exactly what to do. “Trethoniel!” he declared. “I give you my—”

Then a different voice halted him.

“No!” cried another Kate, sounding much weaker this time. “That’s not my voice. That’s an imitation. Grandfather, please . . . Follow your heart.”

With all his concentration, Grandfather listened to the competing voices. “Kaitlyn! Kaitlyn!” he cried, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Which voice is yours? Give me a sign!”

“Save me, Grandfather,” called the stronger Kate, beginning to choke with coughing. “Save us all before it’s too late!”

“Follow your heart, Grandfather. Follow the Pattern,” pleaded the weaker Kate, now barely audible.

“Give us your heartlight now!” bellowed the Voice.

“Give us your heartlight!” echoed Ratchet.

“Save me! Save us all!” screamed the stronger Kate.

“Follow the Pattern . . .” whispered the weaker Kate.

Grandfather’s face twisted in pain. He closed his eyes, trying desperately to concentrate.

“Save me! Save us all!” cried one Kate.

“Follow the . . .” began the other Kate, before fading away entirely.

Grandfather strained to hear the final words of the weaker Kate. But no more words came. He could hear nothing but the wailing winds. Then, in the far, far distance, he heard a small voice whisper hoarsely:

All praise to thee my Lord this night . . .

“Make your choice!” roared the Voice. “Make it now!”

The winds screamed. Grandfather opened his eyes. He lifted his arms high above his head, and cried: “I choose the Pattern! I choose love! And I love you, Kaitlyn! I love you with all my heart!”

XVIII: Revenge of The Darkness

A blinding flash of light seared the starscape. Thunder and electricity erupted everywhere. Crystals cracked, then dissolved into nothingness; mists sizzled and exploded with luminous lightning. The great cape of colored gases began to whirl about itself in a storm of devastating frenzy.

“Fool!” cried the Voice above the din. “Mortal fool! You have doomed us all!”

Wild winds lashed Grandfather. A floating crystal burst just above him, pelting the globe with flying fragments.

“Oh, my God,” he moaned. “What have I done?”

“You have destroyed me!” screamed the Voice. “You have destroyed me and all of my works!”

“Prancer, you idiot,” called the strained voice of Ratchet. “I sacrificed so much—and for what? For nothing! All because of you. You and that—”

His words were cut off by a wave of explosions that originated deep within Trethoniel itself. The raging surface of the star shook violently, sending blazing towers of fire in all directions.

“I can survive no longer,” called the Voice, now barely audible above the great cacophony. “But if Death the Enemy takes me, it will also take—” A new wave of explosions buried the Voice’s last words.

At that instant, the globe began to vibrate. The intensity grew and grew until it shook so violently that Grandfather fell on his side. Suddenly, it exploded into tiny pieces, hurling him into space.

“Hellllp!” His scream was swallowed by the shrieking winds.

As the clouds crackled with electricity, Grandfather spun madly downward toward Trethoniel. Helplessly he flailed as the forces of wind and fire tossed and bounced him. All about him the majesty of the star was disintegrating. Down, down he tumbled, faster every second, toward the seething surface of Trethoniel.

“Forgive me, Kaitlyn!” he cried.

A jagged blast of lightning ripped across the sky, illuminating everything.

Just then Grandfather glimpsed something breaking through the clouds. Torn by the angry winds, the object bobbed like a kite crafted of luminescent paper. Closer and closer it came, fighting vigorously against the storm.

“Orpheus!”

“I am coming!” called the butterfly, his powerful wings beating furiously.

With a swoop, Orpheus dove underneath him and gradually slowed his fall. Grandfather embraced the sleek, strong body and felt the rhythmic beating of the great wings, wings that flashed with the light of ten million prisms.

“Orpheus, you’re back!”