The Yanti (38 page)

Geea urged Drash to move into the doorway of the cave. There she employed something she and Ali called voom. Blowing on her palms, she clapped them together, shouted out
words—they may have been simply sounds—Ra did not expect. A sonic boom exploded all around. A large crack appeared in the rim of the cave. Geea used voom six times in a row before the top of the cave collapsed.

They barely escaped the fall. Geea liked to play close to the edge.

For now, at least, the smoke and the dark fairies were sealed inside.

“Were we in time?” Ra asked as Drash flew above the top of Tutor, still shielded by Geea’s magnetic field, but feeling the effects of the laser bolts. Yet, for some reason, the dark fairies had ceased to attack them.

“The dark fairies have a hive-like mentality,” Geea told them. “When they get separated from each other, or a portion of their clan gets killed, they have a tendency to panic in unison. Doren knows that. She’s just used them to throw us off balance. The ones trapped outside here—their attacks on the dragons will fall apart. The dragons will have no trouble killing them. But the damage is done. Smoke covers the land. The scaliis will now have cover to attack.”

“Surely we can take care of them,” Ra said.

Studying Mt. Tutor, the fairy queen did not appear so certain.

Beneath the yellow sand, it seemed as if the bedrock shifted.

Or else it was the sign of a million monsters crawling. Scabs.

Geea sighed and bid Drash to return home. Finally she answered Ra.

“One way or the other, Doren’s going to hit Uleestar with a hammer.”

“Any idea how to stop her?”

Geea’s answer made no sense. “Maybe by helping her,” she said.

When Cindy awoke, the sun was bright and high in the sky. She felt a moment of embarrassment; that while she had been peacefully snoring, the others had gathered their things together and gone off without her.

But when she crawled out of her spot, beneath the shade of Overhang, she saw Mr. Havor and Terry having breakfast, and Mr. Warner heating a pot of coffee. Nira was also nearby—refilling their bottles from a stream that flowed over the smooth stone. Odd, but Cindy did not recall the stream from their last visit.

What was even stranger was Terry was not eating breakfast. He stared down at the protein bars Ali’s father had given him with an expression so blank, he could have been the one who was autistic. At least he had let the hood of his sweatshirt fall back.

During the night, while hiking through the tunnel, she had not seen him drink once. Now, in the light of day, he looked familiar to Cindy.

She had seen the guy before, she could have sworn it.

Where? When? She did not know. But Ali would know.

Cindy tried to call her friend again. The phone just rang.

Nira looked over at her. “Ali is fine,” she said.

“You’re sure?” Cindy asked.

Nira faintly smiled. “Are you sure you love her?”

“Yes. But what does that have to do with how she is?”

“When you love someone, you feel them, even when they are not there. A new mother does not have to hear her baby cry in the night to know it needs attention. She is up to take care of it in a moment. You hear wise people say we are all connected, but that is only true when the love is complete. Then the connection cannot be broken.” Nira added, “I am sure Ali is fine.”

“Was it hard for you to watch Steve die?” she asked.

Nira hesitated. “I never saw him die.”

“But you were there . . .”

“I do not see death,” Nira interrupted. “There is no death.”

The lesson was too abstract for Cindy. They were chasing after a crazy woman with a nuclear bomb. Death was all around them. She did not need to see it to feel it.

Not long after, they continued their hike toward the cave. She turned out to be their main guide. It was not far away, Cindy remembered. Soon they would be back underground, and searching for a nuclear bomb. God.

Whenever Cindy felt tired, or that the air was too thin to breathe, she would hold Nira’s hand and a few seconds later she would feel fine. Cindy noticed Mr. Warner doing likewise. Nira did not seem to mind sharing her energy.

Yet Mr. Havor and Terry seemed to get by without help, although the blind man did occasionally call for a break. Cindy could not help worrying about him. He acted so guilty—as if he should have stopped Sheri Smith years ago. At the same time, Cindy found him a difficult read. He never took off his dark glasses.

Ali tried following Nemi’s advice, by sitting quietly and feeling for what Geea was doing. The task was perhaps the most difficult he had ever assigned—to simply be still. What was she seeing anyway? Visions of reality? Or her own projected fears? Ali could not be certain, but she did sense Geea was already at war with a number of creatures: dark fairies, scaliis, dragons maybe . . . At the same time, an even more dominant image began to form in her mind.

Ali sensed that her friends were up on the mountain.

She was about to fly up and have a look when she received a call on Hector’s cell. Nancy Pillar. The woman sounded sane.

“You told me to call you,” she said, and she sounded close to tears, happy ones. “I wanted to thank you so much for what you did for me.”

“I didn’t do much,” Ali said.

“You gave me back my life! I remember now what happened to me.” Hesitating, her voice dropped to a whisper. “I just don’t know
why
. Why my own daughter placed a compulsion on me.”

“In the same way she put you under a spell, she was placed under a much more powerful one after she got burned in the accident with Hector.”

The words seemed to make sense to Nancy. “There was this time at the hospital, after she had an operation—she was having one every month—when a man came to visit. I don’t recall his name, but he came several days in a row. Lucy enjoyed his company, but he gave me the creeps. When I asked what he did for a living, he was vague. He hinted that he could help Lucy with her scarring. That made me think he was some kind of doctor. But then . . .” The woman didn’t finish.

“Then what?” Ali prodded.

“Then I’m not sure what happened. It’s one of the reasons I didn’t call you earlier in the day. I’ve been sitting here trying to remember the sequence of events. It’s a blur. The man kept showing up. After Lucy was discharged from the hospital, he began to stop by our house. It was then I felt as if I sometimes lost track of time. Does that make any sense?”

“Yes.”

“I’d be talking with Lucy and the man and then, it would be later in the day, or even the next morning. Then I remembered coming home from work one evening, and I saw Lucy studying herself in the mirror. She didn’t know I was there, at first,
because I came up from behind her. But then I saw her reflection in the glass and it was . . . well, this is hard to explain.”

“She was no longer scarred.”

“Yes! She looked perfectly normal!”

“Then what happened?”

“I think I must have made a noise. She turned around, and suddenly her face was as bad as ever. She got angry at me, very angry, like I had never seen her before. It was like she wanted to hurt me for discovering her dirty little secret. Only I hadn’t a clue what was going on.”

“Then?” Ali said.

“That’s it. That’s the last
clear
memory I have . . . until I woke up this morning. Of course I remember Lucy visiting occasionally, and I can recall the last few years of my life. But all these memories I’ve had since that day I saw my daughter’s reflection in the mirror—they’re not mine. It’s as if they happened to someone else. Do you know what I mean?”

“Yes.”

“You worked a miracle on me. You gave me back my mind.”

“But you know who you are.
What
you are. It was no miracle.”

There was gratitude in the woman’s voice. “Yes it was, Geea. And yes, I know who you really are now. I even know my own Doren. You say she was put under a spell, but I still don’t understand why.”

“It wasn’t her fault. She didn’t want to hurt you, or her father. Or anyone for that matter. But after she was burned in that accident, an evil power entered this world. We don’t know how many people it pursued, but because Lucy was a powerful soul—in a weakened condition—it went after her. And I’m sorry to say it got a hold on her, a hold she hasn’t been able to
break off.” Ali paused. “That’s why I’m here. I’m here to stop that power from doing any more damage.”

Nancy Pillar hesitated. “You mean, you have to stop Lucy?”

Ali closed her eyes, had to take a breath. The woman was no longer a fool. She deserved the truth. “Yes,” she said.

“
How
are you going to stop her?”

“I’m going to do whatever it takes.”

The bluntness of Ali’s answer shocked the woman. A note of strength entered her voice—a note that would not have been possible yesterday. Ali had to remind herself she was now talking to a high fairy. She had her own strength.

“She’s my daughter. She’s your sister. How can you . . .?”

“What’s inside her . . . she’s not Lucy or Doren anymore. She’s something else, and the horror she’s preparing to inflict on Earth, there’s no way to imagine it. She could very well plunge this entire world into a living hell.”

“But there’s good in her. Why else would she have bothered to come to see me? And I know how much she loves Nira.”

“Perhaps she loved her, but she put a spell on her as well. If there’s any way I can stop Lucy without hurting her, I’ll do it. At the same time, I don’t want to lie to you.”

There was a long pause. “Do you know where she is now?”

“I have an idea.”

“Is there any way I could talk to her?”

“No.”

The woman considered. “I hear it in your voice. I caught you just before you were going to leave. You’re going to kill her now, aren’t you?”

“I’m going to do what I have to do.” Ali added, “I’m sorry.”

Nancy was not exactly bitter. There was more pain in her
voice than anything else. Yet she was not going to roll over and let her only child die.

“There must be some way to save her,” she said firmly.

“Tell me what it is and I’ll do it.”

“Geea was a healer, not a killer.”

“Geea—I—have always been a warrior—when the situation demanded it. I am sorry, truly, to have to speak to you this way. But, short of killing her, I can see no other way to stop her.”

A long silence passed between them.

“I wish you had never visited me last night,” Nancy said finally.

“Pardon?”

“I could have just floated along, you know. Thinking about my Lucy. Thinking about . . . nothing. Now that I have my mind back, that’s all I’m going to have. I’ll be back where I started from. My husband’s gone thirteen years now, and soon my only child will be dead.” Nancy added quietly, “I’ll have nothing.”

Ali sat in silence with her for a few minutes. Finally she spoke.

“As you say, I am your queen. If there is anything else I can do for you?”

“Save her soul,” the woman said. “Don’t let her die like this. Not . . . in darkness.”

“I understand,” Ali said.

There was nothing else to be said. Setting down the phone, Ali had to wipe away a wealth of tears. In all this time, how seldom had she thought of her enemy as her sister. How little she had considered Doren’s suffering at the hands of the Entity, and the pain she had endured inside Hector’s burning car.

Ali had just wanted to kill the witch. It had taken Doren’s own mother to remind her that her sister deserved at least pity, if not love.

“How can I let myself love her?” Ali whispered aloud.

How? When she had to ready herself to kill her.

Ali flew over the mountain in the bright sunlight, keeping her elevation high, not wishing to be seen by any hikers or campers. Not for the first time, she wondered if she showed up on the armed forces’ radar screens. Or even local airport radar. There would probably be reports of UFOs in tomorrow’s papers. She had been zipping back and forth across the country so often and so fast,
somebody
had to notice something.

Ali searched for her friends but did not see them. Unknown to her, had she started her search ten minutes earlier, she would have seen her father, Mr. Havor, Terry, Cindy, and Nira just before they entered the lower portion of the cave.

Yet that entrance held little interest to Ali. It was too far from the six tunnels and the seven colored doors, not to mention the other three doors—which she still did not understand. The top of the cave, where she’d killed Radrine, was where she put her focus. She was hoping to see either a helicopter—that might have lifted the nuclear bomb to the cave—or else signs that the helicopter had come and gone. Such a vehicle would have left tracks in the earth, or in the small pools of snow that continued to linger in the vicinity of the peak.

Unfortunately, Ali saw nothing from the sky. Even when she landed beside the cave entrance, she found no extra set of footprints on the ground. It was possible Sheri had yet to bring up her weapon, or else she might have used the lower entrance, although that would have complicated her task. Taking the lower entrance, it was over eight times farther to the doors.