Underworld (Dark Passage) (12 page)

The wise will find the truth. The stars of twilight will
be dark when the hidden is illuminated. Ye may look
for the light in darkness and there lies the answer.

The paper of the book is yellowed and made of fine
parchment. Anxious to find out what it all means I
turn the first page and it is blank. I thumb through
page after page and find they are all blank.

What does it all mean? Could it be text that is unseen
to the naked eye? If that’s the case then where do I
find the means to see it? Does this have to do with the
refiners fire? Where do I find it? Grandma June was
wise even beyond her years. I know she must be
protecting me from something.

The sounds outside the cave have subsided. There is
a reeking smell of burning flesh. It is sweet smellingalmost like hard candy being cooked in the oven. I
hadn’t imagined that the beings here would cook meat
to eat. Nothing would surprise me in this place. I slip
into my sleeping bag and pull the top over my head.
My body is pressed against the cold cave wall and the
metal of my knife is pressed against my chest and
gives off a shimmering light. I focus on the sound of
my horse breathing and soon fall asleep.

Light stream into the cave in early morning. I sit up
halfway and look around. My horse is lying down
with his legs tucked under him. When he sees me stir
he scrambles to his feet and shakes himself like a dog.
The cave has the smell of horse and damp earth. It
has always relaxed me and my happiest days were
spent on horseback. I close my eyes and breathe in
the sweet essence.

The saddle blanket had served as a pillow and I shake
it out before putting it on Jast’s back. The tinkle of
the girth hitting the stirrups as I fling the saddle over
his back is the only sound to be heard. With the girth
tightened and in place I sling my saddlebags over the
back and lead Jast outside.

It’s early morning
but as I go outside I notice the sky
is grey. The further I ride toward the second realm
the darker it has become. There is a haze about much
like a winter day in Seattle. I shivered as I settled in
the saddle. I wonder what Jen, Bill and the others are
doing. No one can predict what Jen will do. She has a
mind of her own and I just pray she doesn’t come
looking for me.

Jast snorts and paws the ground with unease. A wind
rustles the trees and they seem like ominous, living
beings. The endless black wilderness before us is
unsettling. The forest is haunted and I know that
terror waits in the endless darkness. Something is
different today. There is an edge to the forest that
makes me tense and I can’t help but feel fear as we
ride into the twisted branches of the giant pines.

There is a curious feeling in the air that makes me
think something is watching us. Something cold,
calculating and evil that would love to kill me. I lean
down and pat Jast on his shoulder.
Easy boy. It’s
going to be ok
. The words sooth the horse and his
head tossing subsides. The words are spoken as much
for my benefit as his. I must appear confident and not
let my guard down.

I reflect on everything that has happened the past few
months. If you had told me a year ago that I would be
tracking Lisa in the Underworld I would have said
you were crazy. Me. Ivy. I’m the girl from the
wrong side of the tracks. I have no family, no
education and had no ambition for my life. As a kid I
used to steal from the neighbors. When I was 10 I
used to lift the barb wire and crawl under the
neighbor’s fence at night to steal vegetables from
their garden. As I got older I learned to pick locks
and would sneakinto people’s homes while they
slept. In my mind’s eye I can see the darkness inside
the houses. Always on guard and hopingthey didn’t
have a dog that would give me away. I was always
afraid I would be caught and be sent to a juvenile
detention center. All of this trouble just so I could get
something to eat.

I usually would stay inside the house I broke into
until I had my fill of food and then sneak back out of
the house. One time, as I was leaving a house, I saw a
leather jacket. This particular style was the new rage
at school and I had been trying to make a few bucks
here and there pulling weeds to buy one. As I walked
out of the house I just couldn’t resist taking the
jacket. It belonged to a girl in my class and she had
been so smug the first day she wore it to school. It all
seemed so unfair. Ididn’t have any jacket and
Melinda had a half dozen at least.

I almost didn’t wear Melinda’s jacket to school the
next day for fear I would be caught. I didn’t want to
go to the detention center but even more I didn’t want
Melinda to know I got my beautiful new coat from
her house. I would never be able to face anyone
again if they found out. No one said anything and
when Jen asked about it I told her my aunt Dottie had
sent the coat to me as a gift.

My life after 15 was a series of haphazard jobs,
struggling to make money and hooking up with the
wrong boys in order to not be alone. My mom went
crazy after my sister and brother died and she was
passed out most of the time in her room. She took the
small check she received each month from social
services and bought booze so she could keep herself
in a drunken stupor. In many ways I was lucky. I had
a friend who loved me and gramma June had become
like my mom. That was all I needed in my life. I had
just planned on trying to get into college and then all
the trouble began with Jen.

Now people are telling me I am something special. I
am supposed to be a force to be reckoned with and
even feared by enemies. Enemies I have never seen
and never knew I had before now. I had wondered
for the last couple of years what it would be like if I
could start over with a clean slate. It’s funny how
things happen to us that we can scarcely imagine.
Life is an endless mystery and can change in the blink
of an eye.

A dark shape glides through the trees ahead of me. I
glimpse burning eyes and then it is gone. No human
could move that fast. I sat straight in the saddle not
daring to move. My throat tightened and my mouth
feels like cotton.

We ride onward toward the North through the twisted
trees. The old branches on the trees are gnarled and
seem to reach out like arms. The forest reminds me
of back home but this one has a sinister darkness to it.
The shadows beneath the trees seem mysterious and I
half expect to see spirits materializing at any moment.
I know there is evil magic here and things that I don’t
want to see. I feel as though I have ridden into a
dream. Nothing seems real here. It is slow going in
the forest. The trees grow close together and the long
branches have to be pushed aside as we go.

The trees eventually began to thin out and its easier to
ride. There are mountains silhouetted against the
horizon and I keep moving in that direction. The
scenery changed from dense forest to rolling hills. It’s
a relief to be out of the dense trees where I had first
seen the man in a suit. He had a murderous look in
his eye and I had been stressed out at the prospect of
seeing him again. The sky is deathly quiet and
growing darker even though it can’t be much past
noon. Dark shadows are falling in the mountains
ahead and there is a faint smell of smoke hanging in
the air.

The forest eventually closes in again with clearings
here and there where tree stumps are all that remain.
The trees are larger here and grow to great heights.
The canopy is so thick in areas that light is unable to
filter through. I stop to rest in a small clearing. Moss
and lichen cover the stumps and some tall shrubs are
overtaking the smaller stumps. It’s impossible to see
for more than 100 feet between clearings and the lack
of visibility makes me restless. I am gnawing on a
piece of sourdough bread when I hear a commotion in
the distance. The sound of flapping wings can be
heard long before I see them. There’s a deafening
whishing sound that’s moving quickly in my
direction.

I quickly pull Jast into a thick bank of trees and when
I’m satisfied that he is hidden I creep to the edge to
see what’s going on. I hope that the moss I have
rubbed all over myself and Jast has hidden our scent.
It’s a trick Jen’s dad had told us about on one of many
camping trips. He said that the elk could catch
human scent from great distances and rubbing with
moss or other forest scent make it more difficult for
our scents to be picked up. I never thought much
about it at the time but it may be useful now. There
are several winged creatures flying not far from
where I am hiding. They seem to be in a hurry and
are soon out of sight.

Relieved, I make my way back to Jast and put my
saddlebags back in place. There is a well-worn trail
in the forest and I deliberately avoid using it. Instead
we make our way a few hundred feet away and find a
small trail that is likely used by deer. We hadn’t
ridden more than a half hour and I noticed some black
liquid in the form of a handprint on a tree.
Dismounting, I walk over to the tree and the back of
my hand to scrape some of the substance off. I bring
it to my nose and smell to be sure. There is no doubt
its blood and probably fresh too.

The sound of a waterfall can be heard from
somewhere ahead of us. We must be close to a
stream of some sort or at least a pool. The forest
seems so serene. The smell of pine sap and fresh
water has always been soothing to me but why do I
feel so afraid?

Making our way through another few acres of thick
trees I begin to smell something. When we break out
of the trees into a small clearing the smell is
absolutely putrid. I can feel my gag reflexes
twitching and have to swallow several times to keep
the vomit from coming.

My mouth is dry and I am feeling numb with fear. If
I don’t get a grip I won’t survive this place. I
mentally prepare myself for what is coming as we
ride forward.

The odor becomes more intense. I know we are close
to something horrible as the foul odor hangs heavy in
the air. Then I see the source of the smell.

A man’s body swings from a tree. His skin looks like
leather that had been peeled back to reveal tendons
and a tangle of arteries. A part of his arm lies a few
feet off. The bone snapped like firewood and ripped
from his body. His innards trail down to the ground
and steam rises from them. The man twitches and a
gurgling sound is coming from his mouth as he
aspirates in his own blood.

The yellow bowels glisten in the daylight as they are
still wet from the body cavity. His skin hangs down
from his body like a coat that had been shrugged off.
The sight is so hideous that I sit in the saddle as
though entranced. The branch the rope is tied to
groans as though in protest of the atrocity that has
occurred.

Could this be one of the horsemen I saw running last
night? The sounds of the chanting and screams come
to mind and I am filled with guilt. Why didn’t I do
something to help?
I start to swing out of the saddle
to go to the man. Jast is dancing wildly, snorting and
tossing his head. I have to steady him in order to get
off and still he will not stand to be dismounted. All
of a sudden I remembered the letter from last night.

Things are not what they seem so you gotta be always
on guard. Evil may come in the disguise of good and
what seems dark may contain light. When all else
fails look within yourself for the answers.

Something does not seem right. I get back in the
saddle and twist the reins around the horn. Taking
my bow off the back I hold it I my left hand a pull an
arrow out of the quiver. I close one eye halfway to
set my target and nock the arrow in the center of the
string. The string quivers as I pull back and the arrow
flies. It quickly pierces the man’s heart. His groans
cease and he swings quietly from the tree. I hate to
leave a person hanging from a tree but it is too
dangerous to get out of the saddle to cut him down.
Besides things are not what they seem here and it may
all be a grand illusion.

The first signs of dusk have come and I need to make
my way to the summit of the mountain to find a place
to camp for the night. A blue light appears on the
horizon. It grows larger and lingers for a few minutes
and then fades away. I have kept my fear at bay but it
now seems to be closing in on me.

The suddenness of coming upon the dying man has
hit me like a ton of bricks. I can’t help but wonder
what Lizzie meant when she said I was both spirit and
body? They wouldn’t have said anything to me if
they didn’t want me to figure it out. What reason
would they have to keep important things from me?

My insides are clenched tight. My life depends on
finding the answers to the pieces of the puzzle. What
advantage is there in being both spirit and body?
How does the 7 fit into this? How can I break
through the illusions of this matrix and find out what
my path is?

The thoughts swirl in my mind and I realize that Jast
has taken me to a cave. It is hidden well and seems
the perfect place to stop. My mind is tired and I need
to sleep. Maybe after some rest I can sort everything
out and figure out where to go from here.

My head is thumping from an intense headache as I
lead Jast into the cave and unsaddle him. My hands
are all thumbs as I struggle to loosen the girth and
pull the saddle from his back. Each movement makes
me wince in pain. I try and rub my temples to reduce
the pain but it doesn’t stop. I shake my sleeping back
out and arrange it near the cave wall and pull the
saddle to the top. Once my head burrowed into the
sleeping bag I pull the end up over my face. My
mind is growing foggy and I can hear voices in
behind the veil. They are trying to tell me something
but I cannot understand. I am fast asleep within
minutes of my head hitting my make-shift pillow and
dreams are carrying me away. I am going to a time in
my life that has long passed. The past and future are
but illusions on a linear time board. I will soon learn
they are there to learn from and are clues to the pieces
of my puzzle.