King of the Dark Mountain (15 page)

“We’ll work on his attitude in a little bit.”

Melton looked at Richard, “Did you notice that your wife was not in the picture when we showed you the scene with your son?”

“Yes, why do you mention it?”

“She took a trip to visit someone.”

“If you’re trying to imply something fishy ...”

“We don’t deal in rumor mongering of that sort, pay attention. She’s beside a road in New Hampshire along with Theodore Griffin, the writer.”

“What?”

“She apparently thinks he can help her get information about you. Of course, he doesn’t know a thing about where we have you or what this is all about. We just wondered why she thought that he would. Any ideas about that?”

Richard shrugged, “I’m a fan of his work … what do you mean she’s beside the road. Is she alright?”

“For now. We’re going to hold her until the event is successfully concluded. That’s added incentive for you to help your friend, McCane. Wiggins here is right, Mr. McCane is in serious need of an attitude adjustment. We think you can help us there.”

“I don’t know how I can convince him that this whole thing isn’t a crock of shit.”

“What may help you is to consider how all you hold dear is dependent on this crock proceeding according to plan. No last minute efforts to stall or obstruct. When the energy is loosened, as the old texts describe, it is absolutely imperative that he has complete presence of mind to direct it to the mountains around here. If he falters, the thing could go awry and we would be out of luck for another ten thousand years. That’s the time frame for the event that is about to occur. A lot of people have invested significant amounts of their lives in this project, and it is up to you and McCane to complete the process so that we gain the full benefits of it when it comes.”

“Why would you set it up so that people who have no faith in what you’re doing are given the key to making it work?”

Melton blinked at him, “There are details of the master plan you can never understand unless you accepted the master program, which you have declined to do. Just be aware that this event has been worked out to obtain the maximum amount of energy.”

“I just hope you haven’t over-estimated what these mountains can hold.”

“Oh we have that worked out to the last degree.”

“Even though you don’t really even know what this energy consists of, right?”

“We know what our ancestors did with it, even though they had no scientific knowledge such as exists today. If they did so much under those conditions, there’s no limit to what we can achieve with it.”

“Unless it won’t work for people like you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You said you knew that empathy counted in connecting to it, what if it won’t operate without that?”

Melton smiled, “Now you’ve answered your own question about why we would let the project ride on the likes of you and McCane.”

Richard shook his head. “So, now you terrorize us by threatening the lives of my family to get us in the proper empathetic mind frame,” Melton gave him a blank stare. “So you never intended to put either McCane or me in the magic programming chair did you? You knew it would turn us into soulless zombies, so that was just a ruse to what? Create a sympathetic bond between us?”

“Don’t trouble yourself now trying to work out all the ins and outs. It’s just about over. All you need to do is focus on saving your family by keeping McCane focused on his role as activator.” Melton turned to Wiggins who was frowning at the fake fire. “Wiggins take those over to McCane’s room.” Wiggins yanked up the robes and left the room. “I’m afraid he’s still miffed that McCane doesn’t appreciate the great privilege of wearing one of his finest creations. He’s quite well known in the fashion world, and quite eager to come on board when we approached him. Some people have vision.”

“I wouldn’t mention that it’s all la de da in the fashion world to McCane if you want him to wear the things,” Richard remarked.

“Oh yes, you and he are above good taste. Don’t worry he can go back to his bib overalls and shit kicker boots as soon as we get this thing done, in...” he glanced down at his watch, “One hour and thirty five minutes.”

“It’s that soon?”

Melton nodded. “I want you to spend that time, helping him get in the proper mind frame. I sent some files to your email account; look at those if you need any ideas.”

“Can I see the video that shows my son?”

“You’ll be home with him soon if you do what we ask,” Melton said and left the room, his laptop crammed under his arm.

Richard threw a coffee mug at the door after him and threw himself on the sofa. After a few gasps that were close to sobs, he forced himself to dig out his own laptop and look for Melton’s files. He read through them quickly and almost sent the laptop flying as well. He was stopped by a knock on the door. The sight of Hez in ceremonial robes caused him to forget all about destroying the laptop.

“Don’t laugh,” Hez said between gritted teeth.

“I’m not. It’s better than I thought it would be. You look like a young Gandalf.”

Hez laughed, “I think I would need a beard to pull that off.”

“Yeh, the outfit calls for a beard, but at least you have the hair.”

“I’ve been meaning to get a haircut, but the girl who usually cuts it … never mind. Jeez, I feel like little Bo Peep.”

“So you need a shepherd’s crook. Here try this on for size.” Ewing went to his closet and pulled out what looked like a walking stick. “They say you need a staff.”

“You’re joking. Do you think it can transport us out of here?”

“I think you have to focus your mind on that shiny thing on the end.” Hez picked it up and examined the tip.

“That’s what, a crystal?”

“I guess. They gave it to me a few weeks ago, without explaining what it was for, so I just stuck it in the closet. I just read a memo from Melton and it says I should tell you to project your thoughts inside the tip of the staff.”

“This is stupid. My sister goes in for that kind of crap, I never have.”

“Just play along, like with the outfit, it’s all the same song and dance. We’ll have a great laugh about it over beer someday.”

“I can’t believe grown men are caught up in a bunch of hooey like this.”

“I know it’s all been surreal. Oh by the way, I found out they never intended to wipe our personalities in the magic high chair. That was just another head trip.”

“So’s all of this shit, probably, But hey in for a penny, in for a pound.”

“Yeh, let’s just think of it like you’re an actor and you have to get your lines right. I have them here. What you need to say at the crucial time.”

“I know what I would like to say right now and be done.” Richard gave him a worried look. “Don’t worry; I know they’ve got your kids.”

“And my wife, they’re holding her, with of all people, Ted Griffin. Didn’t you say he got you into this whole mess?”

“Does your wife know Ted?”

Richard shook his head, and then added, “I’ve read his books. He’s got some amazing ideas; I think Sam might have sought him out to try to figure out this whole side show.”

“She could do worse. He’s really bright. My sister worked with him, like I told you. I wonder if Ellie’s with them.”

“They didn’t mention it, if she is. But then, they love to keep us guessing don’t they?”

“I’m still worried about helping them. I don’t want to, but it looks like they have us by the balls. So let’s go over what they want me to do for the big event.” He sat down beside his friend and they began to go over the lines. There weren’t many. Hez began to say them out loud, and decided it was like reciting a poem.

“It says you should look at the sword, I guess they mean the constellation sword. No wait, it says they’re going to provide a sword.”

“So I have to hold a staff and a sword?”

“The staff is just for starters, the sword is what matters, I think.”

“Okay I guess I should be glad I don’t have to stand on my head at the same time.”

“Now that you mention it,” Richard said, and then burst out laughing at the dismay on Hez’s face. “I’m kidding; you just have to hold the sword over your head. I guess the staff is just to get you started focusing on something phallic.” They both laughed at this.

“What a strange set of circumstances has brought me to this. All I wanted was to get my sister back home, and now I’m buried in a hole in Siberia, decked out like Little Bo Peep, reciting poetry, and hoping that somehow it’s all going to turn out fine.”

“It will,” Richard said, suddenly serious. “It has to.”

“Yes right, let’s go over the lines again,” Hez said, suddenly remembering the causes Richard had to worry. Maybe there wasn’t much cause for hope, but nonetheless, they had to try to keep it alive.  Somewhere someone had written that hope didn’t count for much unless things were truly desperate. From that perspective, they were in the ideal situation to hold onto some. With that encouraging thought, he said the words with more confidence. Richard shot him a grateful glance. Just think of his kids and do this thing, he told himself to overcome his own sense of the absurdity and futility of the upcoming rite or whatever the hell it was supposed to be. The kid had looked like a normal, happy kid playing his video game and he deserved to have his father back. If there’s even a world to have a father in, a cold voice added. A shiver shook him and he bellowed out the next line to cover, “And when the.”

“No that’s not a line, it’s commentary,” Richard interrupted him.

“Okay, then we’re done. I’ve got it. I’m pretty good at memorization, but they ought to let you stand nearby in case I forget a line when the time comes.”

“I don’t know if I get to come up there or not. They might need you to go it alone.”

“Well then, I’ll just have to make sure I don’t forget my lines.” Hez said quietly.

Richard slapped him on the upper arm, “You’ll do fine. You’re a natural.”

Hez laughed, “Natural born loser. Well, when do we get this show on the road?”

Richard looked at the clock on the wall, “A little less than forty minutes.”

“I’m nervous, but I think it’s really not that big of a deal. I say the words blah blah blah, I lift the sword, wait for something to happen to the sword and throw it down. Then it’s over, how hard can that be?”

“Piece of cake.” They exchanged a look and sat in silence for a few moments.

Chapter Fourteen

Ellie stood on a platform, her head was bowed, and her hands were open by her sides. The stars were brilliant overhead. Orion shone like a beacon. The nebula at the center of the sword had turned a fiery red color. A few dozen people stood below her, they were all frozen in place. Some of them were looking up at the stars but most of them were staring at Ellie. A slight wind lifted a few strands of hair near her face. She paid no attention to the people; all of her thoughts were joined to the mountain. She felt that her body was no longer simply her physical self, but now it was encompassing the mountain, and the mountain she stood on connected her to many others that extended down the Appalachian Trail all the way to Georgia. Yet her identity did not stop there, for as she began to sense herself at one with the ancient mountain chain of her birth, she could see through them another chain. 

It was aware like her through a human presence standing on a platform across the seas. That person was holding up a sword, he was waiting for a sign from her. What she had to do was call across the ocean to him. Speak a word he knew and then he would send the signal across the void between their star and the nebula. Aleister’s words about his experience viewing the constellation with his father came back to her. He had called it a jewel that holds the most ancient light of all. She saw clearly now that it was a container of that precious original dispensation of light, ancient beyond telling.

It all seemed simple now and a great calm engulfed her. Hezekiah was the other person standing on a mountain platform. In her mind’s eye, she saw him clearly; wearing a white robe, the sword he held seemed made of lightning. Below him was a mountain, but there was something wrong. Unlike the mountain she was standing on, his was dark. There was a sullen glow from some globs of knotted matter, which stretched from his mountain to the neighboring ones strung out from his. The material was like a knotted rope connecting them all. When he tries to bring down the first light it won’t have anywhere to go, she thought. I can fill every hill from here to the end of this chain, but his are filled already. She didn’t know what to do. She looked at the people below the platform. “I can’t do this,” she yelled down to them. At first nothing happened, and then someone was climbing the stairs to reach her. It was Aleister. His face was grim.

“You have to do this, it’s only minutes before the burst of energy, we think,”

“They’ve got it blocked on the other side, it’s choked off with something.”

“Then when he calls to it, bring it here and do not send it back to him, hold it here,” he said.

“Do you think that will work?”

“Yes, it will work. Just let him send the signal, and when it comes across to you, direct it down this chain.”

She nodded. He clasped her upper arm and said, “You can do this.” Then he turned and descended again.

She closed her physical eyes and looked again at Hezekiah with her mind’s eye. He was poised, the sword was lifted, and then the change began. It started with a pulse that lasted a fraction of a second, then it came again and lasted a little longer, and it continued in this way, each pulse getting longer and closer together. People were crying out and pointing to the sky, but she kept her mind focused on the image of her brother. She found herself saying, “You can do this Hez, keep going.” She could see that the light was swirling around him now like a serpent.

“Hez, send me the energy,” she yelled to him with her mind. He seemed stunned by her voice. He didn’t know it was me, or that he has to send it out, she thought. Maybe they told him just to keep it over there. “Send it over here, Hez,” she yelled at him mentally again.

He heard the shout, and suddenly the energy was shooting across the ocean towards her. It zigzagged over the vast reaches of water like a lightning bolt. She caught it in her mind’s eye and directed it by raising her arms over her head. She closed her open palms and then the energy began to cascade into ribbons of light that hovered above the tree line. It shimmered down and away from her as she guided it over the whole vast mountain chain. She realized as the light continued to flow that it was also sound and it was like a choir of many, many voices chanting. A verse from the Bible came to her mind, “when the morning stars sang together,” and she realized that this was what that meant. It was the song of first creation. It was how stars were made and also how human spirits were made. We were made from light and sound she thought, while the energy was continuing to flow above her and over all the Appalachians for as far as her extended mind could see. Suddenly, in her mind’s eye she could see one mountain that was hollowed out and dark. It looked like a deep, dark bowl and she took a deep, long breath and then drove the energy like a gigantic shaft into the center of that mountain.

The energy flowed down and down like a massive waterfall to what depths she could not imagine. She felt that she was riding the current of light, commanding it to do her will. It felt like flying on a tremendous dragon. The speed kept increasing and she began to feel faint, despite the exhilaration. When she was certain she really would pass out, the energy abruptly disappeared. It created a sensation of falling violently back into full body awareness. She tried to focus again on Hezekiah but he was no longer on the platform. Someone or something had brought him down. She dropped to the ground. Once again she thought she would lose consciousness, but she fought to stay aware. She tried to find Hez again, but the intervening Atlantic Ocean rose in her mind and she could no longer see those other mountains or Hez on top of one. Aliester was suddenly standing above her; he brought her to her feet. “What’s happening?”

“They’ve stopped Hez from receiving,” she managed to reply. He signaled to some men and one of them came and picked her up. It was a strange sensation to be carried like a child, but she felt suddenly completely spent. She was too tired to even glance up towards Orion. Later she would see the videos of the burst of energy, but for now nothing interested her but sleep. Even concern for Hezekiah could not keep her awake. She was completely unconscious by the time they got her to the elevator below the platform. She would not awaken for many hours.

*

Hez was so completely focused on sending Ellie every bit of the stellar power surging around him that he did not notice that men were rushing the platform. They knocked him over and yanked the sword out of his hand. “What are you doing?” Melton was screaming. His voice was coming from far away.  Hez felt all of his personal energy drain away. I’m going to die now, he thought and that was a pleasant thought. He heard someone calling his name, was it Gran? He could see her face, no wait, it was someone else.

He was being yanked forward, and he had a moment of clarity, “Damn it Hez, what happened?” Richard was yelling at him. Melton shoved him aside.

“Get him down below,” he snapped at some men. They dragged Hez to his feet.

“He’s too weak to walk, can’t you see that?” Richard was yelling at them.

“Carry him down,” Melton hissed. Hez was aware of hitting the shoulder of someone hard and then he passed out.

*

Samantha Ewing and Ted Griffin were sitting in Ted’s SUV beside the highway. Samantha was staring out the window at nothing, thinking about her kids. Ted was looking at the sky. He was waiting for the sign and when it came he jumped outside. Samantha followed. “What’s happening?” she asked.

“Look at those stars up there,” he said pointing straight above their heads. Someone approached them from the vehicle in front of them.

“Please get back in the car, Mr. Griffin,” the man said.

“I have to see this,” Ted said. The man spoke into a microphone of some sort. Ted kept staring up at the sky.

“Oh my God,” Samantha said. A laser like light was shooting out of the nebula in the center of Orion’s sword. The man turned to look. The other men in the other vehicles were getting out to look as well. The light pulsed for several moments and then disappeared. Suddenly a tremendous beam of light appeared out of the east with a great roaring sound. 

“It must have hit over at the other site and now they’ve sent it over.” Ted explained to Samantha. They all were staring at the stream of light that now flowed gently like a river over their heads down towards the south. As it curved above them, they all seemed to let out a collective sigh, and their faces were lit with a soft glow of pink and gold. They raised their hands up instinctively, overwhelmed with a sense of good cheer and light heartedness. This continued for several minutes and then abruptly the glow disappeared.

“That shouldn’t have happened,” Ted said.

“What do you mean?” Samantha said.

“It shouldn’t just stop like that. Something must have gone wrong somewhere.”

“How could humans affect a thing like that?” she asked.

“It’s complicated. I need to get up the mountain right now; I’ve worked on this project a long time.  Check with your supervisor,” he said to the man who was speaking into his microphone again.

“Get in your vehicle and I’ll see what I can find out,” the man said. Ted started to object but decided to go ahead and get back in the truck. Samantha followed.

“Do you think they’ll let you go back there?”

“They might as well. What just happened won’t come around again for another ten thousand years. We didn’t do what we needed to do. It’s a bloody shame.”

“What did they need to do?” she asked

“They needed to harness what you saw, that energy is not like any other. There are places on the earth that still carry the imprint of the last time it got here and you can still feel it. I mean if you climb those mountains, the sensation of divine light or first light as we call it is palpable. People back then were ready when it came so they captured it in some sacred mountains. I thought we would be able to do the same, but something went wrong.”

“Are you sure? It lasted for a few minutes; maybe it was long enough,”

“I doubt it. I think it needed to last for at least twenty minutes. In the one written source that I uncovered they claim their high priestess called it down for that long. Ours just got shut down somehow.”

“What kind of high priestess?”

“She may have played that role a long time ago, but she’s quite modern now, a dear friend of mine. I just hope she’s alright.”

Samantha nodded, then said, “You know maybe it’s best the thing got stopped. If the wrong people get power they always use it for bad ends.”

“Yes, but there was a lot of good we could have done with it,” Ted said and shook his head.

“Do you think they will let Richard go now that this whole thing is over?”

“Maybe. I don’t see why they wouldn’t.” They sat in silence for a few moments. Suddenly there was a rap on the window. Ted rolled down the window, “Can I go up now?”

“We’ll escort you up there.”

“Alright,” he said and turned to Samantha. “I’ll try to get some information about your husband as soon as I can.” She nodded. They followed the SUV in front of them and the other vehicles followed behind them. “I just wish I could’ve been there to help Ellie, so much of my life’s work down the drain now.”

“Maybe there’s something you will be able to salvage.”

“I don’t know what it would be.”

“Richard always says he can use anything that happens to him in his writing. Isn’t it the same for you?”

“When I was still young as your husband I thought so. This thing was more important than writing; it was something tangible to contribute to the world we live in.”

She touched his arm, “You’ve done a lot for the world already. Your books help people get along in their lives.”

“Trivial, but thank you for saying that.” He gave her a little smile and looked towards the mountain top. If only I could have been there, Ellie, he said to her in his mind. Inside the mountain, Ellie moaned in her sleep. She thought she heard someone calling her, but the voice was distant and faint. She seemed to be falling and falling through vast caverns, dimly lit by some faintly glowing stones or were they stars?

*

“You knew he was going to screw this up!” Melton was yelling at Richard. They were inside Richard’s room. Hez was passed out on the sofa. Erickson was staring dully at the floor.

“He’s a grown man. I had no idea what he was going to do. I gave him the instructions, we went over them.”

“Don’t patronize me. We know you were trying to sabotage the project.”

“If you thought we were going to do that, why did you go ahead with it?” Richard asked evenly.

“Because we had no choice,” Melton hissed. “That hayseed over there had the right mix of chemicals in his DNA to pull it off. They said it had to be him and his goddamn sister on the other side.”

“His sister?”

“Yes, she must have blocked it or sent him some signal to block it.”

“So it might not have had anything to do with Hez at all.”

Melton paced up and down. “I never wanted to work with the damned Americans. We could have done it all right here, and got it done right. Now we’ve got nothing, after a whole decade of setting it up and preparing the vessels.”