One Great Year (47 page)

“You're wrong,” Quinn challenged.

“You know better than anyone about the wonderful drugs … legal and illegal … the anti-depressants … letting them all tune out and feel numb … grey … no light or dark, just indifferent and apathetic. It makes them ripe for the picking.”

“This
is
a time of awakening. There is a collective consciousness emerging. You're afraid or you wouldn't have us here,” Eden rebutted.

“The hardship's just begun. I'll fan the flames of their innermost fears. They
will
shed their false cloaks of goodness and light, and scatter like cockroaches to hide themselves in the darkest corners. I will crush every Light-sentient being that walks this Earth, and the Darkness will reign forever,” the leader hissed, enunciating every syllable.

Elijah whispered to his mom, and she hugged him tightly.

“Why?” Nate asked simply. Nate, a man without memory or understanding of the higher consciousness, had asked the most important question of all.

“It is my destiny. It is … my
role
,” Grey Elder answered simply.

“But why?” Nate asked again.

When it was obvious that Grey Elder did not intend to answer, Quinn piped up.

“Because without choice, there is no true goodness. If there is no evil, and therefore no opportunity to choose
between
good and evil, then there is no real good at all. It is the original intention that we all develop and grow
into
the Light by choice, denying the Darkness,” Quinn said.

“The strife, the darkest times … they wake the soul and can lead to the greatest light,” Elijah interjected from where he stood with Eden's arms wrapped around him. His childish voice was high like a lizard's chirp in the night.

Zahn looked at him disapprovingly. It was important that he separate the boy from his mother as soon as possible. “The Emissaries have failed. The Bronze Age will not rise. The Great Darkness will remain,” he announced proudly.

“You can't keep us here!” the father of one of the Crystal Children protested, and more joined in.

“This fortress is impregnable. I suggest you prepare for a long stay,” Zahn shouted for all to hear.

The frightened group erupted in dissent and tears, but resistance was useless. The intimidating guards shifted their weapons, at attention.

“Bring the boy to me,” Zahn ordered, pointing at Elijah.

As a guard took hold of him, Eden punched and howled, all the while clinging to her son. Quinn was still restrained, but Nate and others near them joined the fight.

“Gently now!” Zahn shouted at the guards. He did not wish to injure or offend Helghul.

The melee ended quickly as a gunshot echoed through the air. Soldiers descended upon the unarmed group, pushing people roughly to the hard floor and easily scooping Elijah up.

“NO!” Eden screamed, as they held her back.

Quinn and Nate were unable to intervene. Eden did not relent and continued struggling and shouting.

“MOM!” Elijah wailed hysterically as he was carried like a sack over a beefy shoulder.

Elijah was maneuvered into Seducer-Producer's Range Rover and sandwiched in by guards on either side. Zahn climbed into the front passenger seat and did not look back at the crying boy as they departed.

Quinn was released by his subjugators, and the copper door was slammed and locked. Copper ceiling, solid stone floors and walls—Quinn was powerless to stop Grey Elder. He went to Eden, who was sobbing in Nate's arms. Quinn and Nate held Eden on either side as she continued to sob for her abducted child.

“I'm sorry I got you into this. I trusted him. It's so fucking obvious now. I can't believe I trusted him!” Quinn said, hanging his head.

Eden couldn't register his apology. It didn't make sense. There was nothing anyone could say to console her, but she had so many questions.

“He fooled everyone. The whole world thinks he's a saint or guru or something. He's on the board of half the world's biggest charities,” Nate comforted, his injured ego forgotten. “Max, who is he,
really
?” he asked from Eden's other side.

“I should have known better. I should have seen through him. How could I be so naïve after all these lifetimes?” Quinn said miserably, flashing back to the night in the cave, the many dreams about it. It had been there in his memory. Grey Elder had been the cloaked grand master to Helghul on the night of the exodus from Atitala. It had been Grey Elder who had first separated Marcus from Theron, with what Quinn now suspected had been a phony leg injury. How could he have missed it? He had gone back to the dream so many times; was he meant to have seen it? Had he failed? Could he have figured it out? Could he have paid closer attention and prevented this nightmare?

Seducer-Producer had been too good to be true, and Marcus had delivered to him all of the Emissaries. They were innocents, now trapped in some isolated outpost, useless and doomed.

Quinn could see the amethyst karmic code surrounding the crowd, and he noticed that their auras joined together and grew thicker and stronger when their energies combined. He hadn't been in the presence of more than two or three Emissaries at one time since leaving Atitala thousands of years earlier. Despite the anger and confusion that the prisoners felt, Marcus sensed that their spirits remained optimistic.

“It will be okay, things aren't so bad here,” one kind-faced girl had said brightly, putting her hand on Quinn's shoulder as she passed.

You don't understand
, Quinn thought, his cool demeanor strained by the gravity of their predicament. He looked desperately from face to face, searching for understanding and recognition, but there was none.

They were doomed and only he knew it. None of them knew the truth of why they were there or understood how they were alike. They saw the polished marble floors, miles of immaculate hospital-bright hallways, and stainless steel dorm beds and kitchens around them and they remained hopeful. Only Quinn knew for certain that Zahn had collected them like butterflies pinned under glass. They were neutralized and trapped beneath the beautiful remote wilderness.

There were Emissaries from every continent, of every age and color. Zahn had lured them with as many false pretenses as there were people. He had sent out pleas, calls for help, donations, and volunteers. In response, from around the globe doctors, teachers, environmentalists, and artists had flocked to him. The Elder had appealed to their sense of duty and service. He was the Seducer-Producer after all, his persona carried influence, especially among the philanthropic.

Zahn had identified and collected the Emissaries easily, like shiny rocks on a beach. Certainly he may have missed a few, or there were others yet to be reborn, but he was ever vigilant. He was determined to silence them and to withhold their energy from the world.

People sat on modular benches and cubes instead of traditional tables and chairs. It reminded Quinn of a modern university campus. It was amazing that a subterranean world like this could exist, but it did. It must have cost a fortune. Despite having Nate and Eden beside him, Quinn felt desperately alone.

Eden's head was pounding. She was terrified for her son, and in her head she replayed the conversation between Quinn and Zahn.
Murder? Theron? Plots? Ghouls? What had they been saying?
Eden's heart was heavy, and she felt responsible for having led so many of the people around her into danger. What the hell was going on?

“Where's he taken my son?” she demanded, rounding on Quinn. The tiny woman shook. Her throat constricted with emotion.

Quinn hesitated. He didn't know what to say. A few fellow newcomers hovered close by, anxious to hear anything they could, and those who had already been imprisoned there observed the exchange curiously.

“I don't know,” Quinn admitted. He watched helplessly as Eden was once again overwhelmed, turning to Nate for support. Quinn ached to console her, but it was not him she had reached for.

After a few minutes Eden's sobs subsided, and Quinn placed a gentle hand on her back. They each felt the powerful tug in the solar plexus, as though the very cores of them were connected. His energy affected her unlike any other. She did not blame Quinn for their predicament.

“What was all that crazy talk? What the fuck is going on?” Nate asked, bewildered, and Eden shuddered, her misery catching in her throat.

“I trusted him. I had no reason to doubt him,” Quinn said, but as he spoke the words they felt like a lie. Once again he flashed to the images of the cloaked figure in Atitala, and he wondered if he had always known that it was Grey Elder. Perhaps he had chosen not to see.

“We were all fooled,” Eden said with a gulp. She took another deep breath, summoning her inner strength and regaining her composure. Her chestnut hair was wild around her face, and strands were pasted by tears to her cheeks. Her eyes were bloodshot and glowing bright green, and Quinn thought she looked magical. “I'm no good to Elijah crying on the floor. We have to figure out what's happening and find him. Tell us everything you know that we don't.”

“I don't know where to begin,” Quinn said.

“Start anywhere! Just gimme some answers,” she demanded, a leftover sob catching as a hiccup as she spoke. She was standing on her own now, and Nate stood beside her, anxious for Quinn to explain.

Quinn was tired before even beginning. He spoke in low tones, not wanting those eavesdropping nearby to hear. “Eden, this is not the first time that we've met … nor is this the first time I have explained this to you. We come from a place long ago where we were chosen. We are Emissaries … many of the others here and all of the Crystal Children are Emissaries as well. We are envoys, chosen to bring goodness and hope to the world, to deliver the secret of creation and guide the world back into enlightenment. Like you … the rest of these people don't know it.”

Eden, and especially Nate, stared at him skeptically, but he had anticipated their disbelief and apprehension.

“Emissaries?” Eden said, repeating the word and remembering Quinn's blog name.

“There are a lot of us,” Quinn explained.

“This is impossible … I mean, it's too unreal … I don't
know
the secret of creation. How can I teach it, if I don't even know it?” she asked doubtfully.

“I've wondered that myself, but you always seem to find a way … all of you do … you just seem to … know.”

“Who is Theron?” Eden asked.

Quinn gulped. To hear her say the name was overwhelming. “You … it's you. Your name was Theron,” he said, and Eden gasped in surprise.

Nate listened carefully, the hair of his neck standing on end. Quinn could see and feel the karmic energy around Eden billowing and exploring as it joined with the many auras united in the room.

“Me? What do you mean?”

“It starts with the soul.”

“Oh, here we go,” Nate moaned.

“Shhh! Go on, Max, I need to know what all this means if I'm going to find my son,” Eden said, frowning at Nate briefly. The tears in her eyes had been replaced by determination. She was collecting information now, building a plan to rescue Elijah. She needed to understand everything that Zahn had said.

“There is an intrinsic essence in each of us that survives our bodies and connects us to one another … if you don't believe that, then there is no point telling you anything else,” Quinn said, exhausted both from eons of enduring his predicament and by the hopelessness of their situation.

“You know I believe it,” she said.

Nate did not claim to accept the idea of a soul, but he listened with new consideration. He wanted to believe.

“Go ahead,” Eden urged, gesturing impatiently.

Quinn began to explain. “Our home was called Atitala. There have been many civilizations before ours. They come and go with the cycle of the Great Year. A Golden Age ended about thirteen thousand years ago. We were chosen as Emissaries and given the responsibility of maintaining the Great Light and leaving clues of the ancient knowledge for those who would seek it. Our world shifted dramatically and we were scattered like seeds to the wind. We have been reincarnated many lifetimes, driven by our purpose. There is much Darkness in the world, our Adversaries. I thought Zahn was with the Light—he was an Elder, one of our leaders—but I was wrong. Now the Great Year is due to once more begin its ascent and eventually take us into a Golden Age. Zahn is trying to prevent that.”

Eden contemplated him intently. She had read the theories about the twenty-six-thousand-year cycle. It was everywhere: the notion that human history dated back much farther than historians and theologians believed, the belief that the placement of the stars mattered, and that civilizations came and went in cycles. There was even a yearly Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge
³³
that she had hoped to attend someday.

She looked into Quinn's eyes. There was no guile there, no urgency, no pleading or need to convince her. She saw only patience, weariness, honesty, and longing. With her gaze fixed on him so intently, the ache within him grew like grass being touched by sunlight.

“And who are
we
to each other?” she asked intuitively.

Quinn's eyes changed and became smoky and his lids lowered slightly. Nate grew rigid next to her—the talk about the Light and the Darkness had been confusing, but
this
he understood. The undeniable bond between Quinn and Eden was about to be explained.

“We … are
everything
,” Quinn rasped, and his aura was deep purple and green, radiating in beats around him. He dared to sweep the hair from her face, and he placed his hand on her cheek. Would she push him away? Would she reject his touch? He couldn't stop himself. To be so near, so close to her, and yet apart was agonizing.