The Other Tree (36 page)

Luke grimaced as he wiped the resin onto his neck and hands—it felt tacky on his skin, like smearing himself with maltose. If Chris had mislabelled her jars, he was going to be very annoyed. Chris scooped out some of the resin, scrunching it into her shirt and slapping it onto her jeans.

“If this works, I’m going to write a paper on it,” said Chris.

“Hold on,” said Luke, stopping abruptly. “What do you mean, ‘If this works?’”

“Okay,” said Chris, standing up. “Are we all good to go?”

Emir nodded, crouching by the archway with his helmet on and his SinaCorp pack secure over his shoulders.

“Wait, about this theoretical provision—” said Luke, but the rest was muffled as Chris pulled the helmet over his head.

She gave the helmet a playful knock on the faceplate.

“Let’s go!” she said.

Emir sprinted into the flames, closely followed by Chris, a resin-coated handkerchief tied over the lower half of her face. In the empty hall, Luke stared at the roaring fire for a moment, wondering just how contagious insanity was. He took a deep breath and plunged into the burning cavern.

It was hot. Not hot like a sauna. Not hot like a heatwave. Not hot like standing at a barbeque on a fifty-degree day, serving an endless queue of other hot and cranky people. It was hot like being
on
a barbeque on a fifty-degree day, the hotplate searing your flesh to a crispy well done. Luke felt as though he were burning, and he had the brief suspicion that he was running through fire while covered in blackberry jam.

Interestingly, although his flesh certainly felt like it was cooking, he was still able to run and breathe, as opposed to collapsing in a screaming heap of oozing mess. As he crunched over the pebbles, he could just make out the shadow of a wall looming ahead and the frighteningly unprotected figure of Chris huddled against the arched doorway.

About five metres to the left, Emir stood with his palm pressed against something carved into the wall. Luke skidded to the right and homed in on a wavering shape. As he neared, he could see a stylised image of a standing flame engraved in the stone. He glanced back through the swaying fire towards Emir, who made some kind of military signal, which Luke assumed meant “Now” as opposed to “Stop! Change of plan!” Luke pushed the emblem as hard as he could.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then a thin black circle appeared around the flame with the sound of stone on stone, and the circle depressed into the wall like a button. A grinding noise rumbled through the room, coming from the far entrance and growing rapidly louder. Emir ran towards Chris, who strained against the double doors, and Luke sprinted to join them. As the heavy doors began to part, Luke risked a glance over his shoulder and saw what appeared to be a wall rushing towards them.

Luke decided that pointing this out would not be helpful, and he heaved against the doors, the rough marble digging into his palms. With a groan, the doors swung open, and Chris, Emir, and Luke burst through the archway, falling into a deep pool of water. There was a loud crash from behind them as a stone wall slammed into the archway, sealing off the burning room. Smoke drifted from the solid surface, pieces of twisted metal plunking softly into the water.

Luke wondered briefly if perhaps they’d missed a set of switches earlier that would have deactivated the wall of doom. And possibly the flaming jets. The Book of June hadn’t mentioned conscientiousness as a prerequisite, but perhaps it’d been implied.

For several seconds, the only noise was stunned, heavy breathing, as the three of them stared around the dim chamber. It was actually not so much a chamber as a circular pool, tiled all in white, and filled with chest-deep, crystal-blue water from wall to wall. The room was illuminated solely by the luminous lilies floating on the surface, their fleshy leaves glowing a silvery blue.

Chris scooped up a small, glowing plant, studying the wet trail of roots and radiant leaves. Tiny salt crystals crusted the pale petals of a moon-shaped flower.

“It looks like it’s related to aloe vera,” she said, half-smiling to herself. “I guess whoever built this place had a sense of humour.”

She struggled to tug a specimen bag from her satchel and dropped the plant wetly inside.

“Does anyone else notice there aren’t any doors?” said Emir, his eyes scanning the surface of the water warily as the plants drifted around in the wake of their entrance.

Luke was paying attention mostly to the fact that he was no longer burning, and not yet drowning, so he was in a fairly good place right now. He was also happily discovering that the resin was water-soluble.

Chris removed an empty water bottle from her satchel and submerged it in the pool, letting it fill before screwing the cap back on.

“Did you guys have any riddles about this place?” said Chris.

“After the flaming sword it was the final gate,” said Emir. “I’m not sure this is it.”

“We’re not necessarily going to recognise it,” said Luke. “It could be a metaphor. As long as the ceiling doesn’t start coming down—I think I’ve had enough of nearly being crushed.”

Emir looked at Luke, wondering how the slightly built priest had managed to get entangled in this mission. He clearly didn’t have an enthusiasm for adventure, nor did he seem to burn with religious fervour. Luke certainly didn’t seem enamoured of Chris, although Emir could sense a strong familiarity between them, and he suddenly wondered how long they had known each other. It occurred to Emir that Chris might well have had a whole slew of close friends she had met since they’d parted ways at uni so many years ago.

Emir waded through the floating plants towards Chris, who was moving along the circular wall, running her hands over the glazed porcelain surface.

Luke deliberately examined the wall on the far side.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” said Emir, his voice low. “I mean, what have you been up to, you know, since uni?”

“I’m kind of still
at
uni,” said Chris, her fingertips tracing the edge of a tile.

“I know, but, I mean… I guess you’ve been busy, but…” Emir ran his hands over the wall, shuffling alongside Chris. “We kind of fell out of touch.”

“Well, you kept on changing your email address, and your postal address, and your home address, and not answering your phone. I kept getting these recorded messages saying ‘Emir is currently under communications silence. Please try again in three months.’ And mail kept on getting returned stamped, ‘The Location and Existence of this Person is Classified.’ After one of them spontaneously combusted in my mailbox I figured it was a case of ‘You’ll call me.’”

Emir had changed agencies a few times, particularly after that awkward cruise ship assignment, not to mention the fiasco at the Iron Trophy Tournament. Early on, he had sent a few souvenirs back, but when he’d stopped hearing from Chris, he had just figured…

“Do you feel it, too?” asked Chris softly, looking up at Emir.

“I think so,” said Emir, looking at her upturned face, framed in strands of wet hair. “Wait—feel what?”

Chris looked down, shuffling to the left, then right again. She pulled Emir closer.

“That,” said Chris triumphantly.

Emir concentrated, and yes, he felt it too. Through the thick fabric of his suit, he could just feel the push and pull of movement against his legs, like a very faint current. Before he could say anything, Chris had taken a breath and ducked under the water. She immediately burst out again, gritting her teeth and hopping across the pool, clutching her shoulder.

“Salt water and open wounds,” gasped Chris. “Bad combination.”

At the commotion, Luke swam casually over.

“There’s a current,” said Chris, drawing a breath through clenched teeth.

“I’ll check it out,” said Emir.

“You’ve got open wounds, too,” said Luke.

“Where?” asked Emir.

“You’ve got blood all over your face,” said Luke. “I assume it’s yours.”

“Oh.” Emir self-consciously wiped his face with a sleeve.

“I’ll have a look,” said Luke, squeezing between them to the wall.

Luke could definitely feel the current against his legs, swirling in and out gently like breathing. He took a deep breath and plunged under the layer of lilies. The water was a clear, night blue beneath the surface, the glow of the plants like moonlight through the pool. The graze on his cheek stung like a slap, but he could push that aside—it was the other kind of pain he couldn’t shake, the kind that had only grown, ever since—

He could see the opening of a tunnel in the tiled wall, perfectly circular, about a meter in diameter, and pitch black.

I guess this is what I’m here for
, thought Luke, and he kicked into the narrow darkness.

Chris and Emir waited in the atrium, surrounded by the glowing blue lilies.

“I shouldn’t have given up on you,” said Chris, leaning against the wall, her satchel resting on her head. “It sounded like you were leading such an exciting life, while I was…pushing trolleys.”

“It was pretty interesting,” said Emir. “Most of the time. But it…”

It was lonely. You could travel the world and see the most incredible things, places you never imagined, artefacts you never would have believed were real. But somehow, it still didn’t feel real until you shared it with someone, passed on the memory and made it more than just something floating around inside your own head. He’d felt disconnected, like a camera without a photographer, churning out photos that just fell into the sea. In some ways, all those years of travelling from place to place seemed less real to him than the memory of standing in the rain, holding that muddy rock.

Emir’s hand reached automatically to the amber pendant at his neck.

“I got the ornamental dagger you sent me,” said Chris.

“Actually, turned out we needed that as evidence,” said Emir, cringing slightly. “But it’s okay, we got the guy anyway.”

Chris’s smile faded into slight worry.

“I don’t think Luke can hold his breath that long,” said Chris. “He always panics when we have to drive through a river.”

Emir started to remove his backpack, but Chris had already ducked under the water.

“Chris!” he cried.

Suddenly, Chris and Luke burst from the water. Luke sucked in a lungful of air, pushing the wet hair from his eyes.

“Tunnel. Goes too deep,” gasped Luke. “At least twenty-five metres.”

“You can’t hold your breath for twenty-five metres?” said Emir.

“Emir, you’ve got a spare oxygen tank, don’t you?” asked Chris.

“I had to leave it behind,” said Emir. “The backpack’s not heat-proof.”

The other gates were lessons
, thought Chris. Wisdom, humility, community. Faith.

“I think it’s supposed to be a one-way trip,” said Chris. “I think we can make it if we don’t save anything for the way back.”

Life, unfortunately, was a one-way journey, with no do-overs, no extra lives, no save-game points. You could rarely see what was coming up ahead, but you had to plough forward anyway—time saw to that. As to what was at the end of it all, well, everybody found out eventually.

“Do you think you guys’ll be okay?” asked Emir, having a brief flashback to Chris almost getting washed away by a waist-high brook. “Chris, you’re not taking that satchel, are you? Remember those polar explorers who froze to death because they wouldn’t leave behind their sacks of rocks?”

“They weren’t ‘rocks,’” said Chris. “They were rare geological specimens. And I’ll be fine. Emir, how about you bring up the rear?”

Emir nodded. Chris turned to Luke, his breathing still heavy from the first dive.

“Ready?” asked Chris.

“Days ago,” said Luke.

Years ago
, thought Luke.
Give me an answer I can believe in
.

Chris plucked a glowing plant from the water and dove with it into the cool, dark tunnel. Luke took a deep breath, then followed close behind. Emir stepped forward, then paused. After a moment, he shrugged off his heavy pack, watching as it sank beneath the lilies. He wouldn’t be able to swim with it through the tunnel, and he had a feeling the passage had been designed that way. Emir took a breath, and dove into the water.

Holding the bioluminescent plant in front of her, Chris kicked through the water, feeling the walls rushing past. In the blue-green light, she could see pale shapes peering at her from the bare limestone walls—variegated fossils, shells, and curled animalistic shapes. The tunnel went on, and Chris could feel her lungs straining to draw breath, her shoulder screaming at her to stop what she was doing. She was burning inside and out as she continued to kick forward, her head starting to feel light and bright spots bursting across her vision.

All she saw was darkness ahead, and she had a flash of fear that perhaps this was the last, mocking lesson. There was no such thing as eternal life, only mortality. Life’s a tunnel and then you die. Chris could feel her heart pounding faster, and she couldn’t hold her breath any longer. She thrashed forward, letting go of the plant as she burbled and gulped water, her vision dimming in a terrifying way. Suddenly, as she kicked forward, there was a splash of light directly above, and she pushed against the floor, bursting up into the cool air.

She flailed and grabbed onto a stone siding, retching violently as water gurgled from her throat. Choking for breath, she turned to see Luke break the surface, looking wan and exhausted. A moment later, Emir rose from the water, flicking his hair back, barely out of breath.

They stood chest-deep in a large ring of water, like a cross between an athletics track and a swimming pool. A massive cavern rose around them, carved from the living rock, dusty red and ragged. The roof pressed upwards in irregular crags, and enormous lapis lazuli seals studded the walls high above. The seals were inlaid with swirling silver pictograms, and they lined the circumference of the cavern, embedded solidly in the rocky walls.

The ring of water was set in the middle of the huge cavern, and it encircled a flat island of packed red earth. In the centre of the island stood a waist-high pedestal, carved from the same stone as the cavern.