Still, any untested doorway could lead somewhere worse than their present location. She couldn’t go to the dimension of dead dragons and risk destroying their new home. Dwelling in the land of the living was out of the question; the people would think she was a freak and put her on display. And showing up at Morgan’s castle would be the worst idea of all.
Sapphira sighed. She and Acacia would just have to be content watching the upper lands from afar, cut off from everything that really mattered from Elam and his dangerous task, from the dragons and their new adventure, and, worst of all, from Elohim and his loving embrace. They would have to consider, however, what to do with the other girls. Since they looked like normal humans, they could find homes up above, and they would be a lot more comfortable there, having access to beds and blankets and something better to eat than worm guts. Of course, getting them there safely would be the hard part. Maybe she could somehow reopen the trench portal. Since it likely led to the hill near the church of Michael, she could find homes for the girls and then go back to the lower realms.
She leaned over and smoothed out the dirt on top of the planter’s hopeful womb. She felt as though she had entombed herself, Sapphira Adi buried alive in a God-forsaken hole. The girl Elohim had used and thrown away had died, and Mara the slave girl had come back to life, a girl trapped in a dismal prison with no rescuers in sight.
She rocked back and forth on her knees, her hands folded tightly in her lap. Maybe, just maybe, that blossom would root and grow. Who could tell? If dragons could become humans, maybe a freak of nature could become something beautiful, something that could be loved, not just used for a while and cast back into the darkness, but loved and treasured forever.
Sapphira lifted her head and gazed at Lazarus’s cross, nailed to the wall next to the shelf where she kept Enoch’s scroll. The dark-grained wood, burnished by the flames that spun her back to the lower realms, sparkled from afar, reflecting a lantern hanging near the museum door. The dazzling gloss seemed to flicker in rhythmic flashes, reminding her of the Ovulum’s pulsing cadence, yet radiating white light rather than red.
Bowing her head again, she raised her clasped hands under her chin. “Elohim,” she whispered. “I hope you’ll give me another chance. I. . I guess there’s still something I don’t understand, or maybe I did something wrong, and that’s why I have to stay down here. . but that’s okay. I know Acacia and the other girls need me right now.”
She tucked her lips in, trying not to cry. “I didn’t really mean what I said about wanting you to leave me alone. I was tired and scared, and losing Elam and the Ovulum made me feel awful. It was like I died inside, twice in the same day.” She looked up at the cross and blinked at its dancing glitters. As the sparkles rode the grain from top to bottom and side to side, it seemed to laugh with joy. She fixed her gaze on the dazzling display and sighed deeply. “I hope you’ll come back someday and show me how to dance with you again.”
Book 3: Refiner’s Fire
Chapter 1
But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Circa AD 1924
Crouching low, Sapphira peeked into the open trapdoor. With her flaming cross in one hand and a coiled rope draped over her thighs, she shook her head and whispered to Acacia behind her, “I can’t see a thing.” She grimaced at her own voice. The secret tunnel above the spawns’ mobility room always seemed to be a sanctuary of quiet, but now even a shushed tone sounded like a rushing torrent.
“I found a thick stalagmite,” Acacia whispered back.
Sapphira tossed one end of the rope to her. “Make sure it doesn’t rub on anything sharp. I don’t want it to snap on my way down.” As the rope tightened, she reeled out another loop.
“It’s secure.” Acacia crawled toward her along the stony floor but bumped her head on the ceiling. “Ow!”
“Shhh!” Sapphira warned.
Acacia rubbed her scalp. “I don’t think anyone’s down there to hear us. It’s been quiet for months.”
“Silence worries me.” Sapphira unwound the remaining coils into the open hatch and breathed on her cross. “Lights out for now.” When the flames died away, she pushed the cross behind her belt buckle and grasped the rope. “I’ll see you at the bottom.”
As she slid through the cold pocket of darkness, a chorus of sounds arose from below the familiar hum of magneto bricks; a persistent tick, tick, tick from an unseen source; and the rapid thrumming of her own heart. She clenched the rope more tightly. The silence above now seemed a lot friendlier than the noises of the forbidden room.
The long slide stung her hands. The fibers were coarser than those on the rope in the elevation shaft, but this had been the only one she could find in the land of the living. Ever since she finally opened the portal in the mining shaft and began foraging for supplies in garbage heaps, she had to make do with whatever people had thrown away or would give her out of pity. This rope wasn’t the best, but it would hold. . she hoped.
When her toes finally reached the rocky bottom, she breathed a sigh of relief, and, pulling out her cross, she whispered for its light. “Just a little for now.” Low flames crawled along the wood like bright orange worms. Though set on fire hundreds of times over the years, not a grain was ever consumed or even scorched.
She raised the torch high, signaling her safe arrival. Waving it slowly back and forth, she tried to imagine what lay in the shadows beyond her light’s reach. Could the giants be sleeping somewhere? Might a sudden noise awaken them? And where was Mardon?
Acacia finally came into view, first her bare feet, then the skirt of her tunic, soiled and wrinkled from the crawl space above. When she settled to the floor, she pulled a scroll from her belt and whispered, “Give me light,” and a gentle flame sprouted at the top.
With their torches casting a flickering glow, Sapphira and Acacia tiptoed side by side. The rocky floor smoothed out into a flat, almost glass-like surface, and the hum of magneto bricks grew to a crescendo, like a million locusts buzzing their afternoon chants. As the shadows on the walls sharpened, the sisters slowed to a halt. Acacia’s mouth dropped open. “These growth chambers are enormous!”
Sapphira reached her torch close to the chamber’s inhabitant and shone the light in his gruesome face. “It’s a giant. I think he’s asleep.”
Acacia skulked alongside the wall, raising her voice as she called back. “They’re all over the place! Napping like little babies!”
Sapphira moved her light to the next giant and grimaced. “Like big, hairy, monkey-faced babies. I doubt if even a mother could love these freaks of ” She stopped and bit her lip hard.
“What did you say?” Acacia asked.