Eternity's Edge (5 page)

Staying low, Nathan dropped the chain and peeked under the bed's wooden frame. A violin case lay on the carpet next
to more of the ripped-out mattress padding. He slid it out and snapped it open. Inside, he found his old violin, the one he had smashed against Mictar's face in the performance hall's prop room just a few days ago. Apparently, Nathan Blue had never experienced that adventure, so his violin remained intact.

He handed Kelly his mirror. “Let's see what the big picture looks like.”

She slid open the frame's fastener, pulled the glass free, and set the square in the wall mirror's empty space. It seemed to jump from her fingers and snap into place. A burst of energy swept across the reflection like a rippling wave of light, ending at the upper corner with a quiet popping sound.

Daryl's jaw dropped open. “Coolness!”

Staring at his reflection, Nathan lifted the violin and bow. What should he play this time? Interfinity's mirrored observatory ceiling needed specific melodies to create dimensional portals, but this Quattro-enhanced mirror had responded to almost any kind of music. Yet, it worked only when it wanted to, as if it had a mind of its own.

After giving the violin a quick tuning, he pressed the bow against the strings. With the ridiculous weather outside, a Christmas song seemed appropriate. As he played Mendelssohn's tune for “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” Kelly closed her eyes. Her brow furrowed, accentuating the gash across her forehead, the wound the mirror's edge had gouged into her skin during their recent plunge toward the Mississippi River.

Nathan tried to read her expression. Was she hearing words this time? Since she was the music interpreter, maybe she was getting another message from his mother that would help them figure out where she and his father went.

As he continued the melody, the swirl in the reflection expanded. The tiny lights on the funnel's perimeter brightened, pulsing like miniature strobes. The misty edges drew closer to the reflections of the trio. Although the real swirl stayed small,
Nathan and Daryl backed away from it, giving their mirror images some space between them and the mysterious funnel.

Her eyes still glassy, Kelly stared again at the mirror. Moving her feet in time with the music, she inched toward the reflection. She lifted her hand and eased her palm close to the glass, murmuring, “There's something inside the swirl.”

Nathan squinted at the swirl in the mirror — nothing but fog and lights, thicker and brighter, yes, but nothing else.

Daryl touched the outer edge of the funnel. “I don't see anything.”

“It's a human figure.” Kelly drew a picture in the air with her finger. “Like a ghost … shapeless … floating with the spin.”

“Do you hear any words?” Daryl asked.

Kelly nodded. “A female voice. Singing. The words fit Nathan's music perfectly.”

“Then belt it out, sister. What are you waiting for?”

“I'm waiting for a new verse to start. It'll be hard to listen at the same time.” Kelly cleared her throat and sang, weakly at first, but her strength grew as the verse poured out.

Called to courage, called to rescue,
Called to join the precious few;
Given strength to rise from earth,
Reach for light and give it birth.
Plucked from earth and rising sunward,
Plunge within and journey onward,
Never fear the cries of men,
Rise above their mortal ken.
Take the reigns of freedom's light;
Help the weak escape the night.

 

Kelly let out a long breath. “Now she's repeating that verse.”

Still playing, Nathan eyed the funnel in the mirror as it expanded toward their images. Was the reflection showing
the future? Did it need a flash of some kind to come true? With the electricity out and no time to hunt for a battery-operated light, the only option they had was the flash on the camera from Earth Blue, but that would be, as Daryl had said, “crossing the streams.” It always created a huge explosion of light that came back to zap them. Should they just jump into the vortex and hope for the best?

While Kelly kept her gaze locked on the mirror, Daryl turned to Nathan. “So, Amadeus, what's the verdict?”

“Just wait,” Nathan said, lifting his bow for a brief second to answer. Maybe the mirror would tell them what to do.

Daryl backed away from the reflection and spoke in elongated sing-song. “We've got company!”

In the mirror, the room's window to the front yard slid open, forced upward by a hand with sharp fingernails. A white-haired man climbed through. Tall and lanky, he was dressed in black boots, loose trousers made out of some kind of shimmering white fabric with royal blue stripes running up each leg, and a darker blue shirt, silky, with three-quarter-length sleeves and a V-neck that revealed a snowy plume of chest hairs.

Nathan caught a glimpse of the back of his head. No ponytail. Unless Mictar had cut his off, this had to be Patar.

The newcomer approached the foreground of the mirror, though he was absent from the bedroom itself. The reflected images of Nathan, Kelly, and Daryl froze in place, staring at the now stationary funnel of mist.

Nathan looked back at the real Kelly and Daryl. They, too, stood petrified, their arms and legs stiff and their expressions locked as if time had stopped.

Patar set his hands on his hips, a frown dressing his face with scorn. “What are you doing here, son of Solomon?”

Nathan fumed. Patar wasn't exactly Mr. Congeniality, but Nathan knew he had to pay attention. His father had said this vision stalker would guide him in the right direction, but he
emanated the charm of a headless horseman. He had more riddles than answers. “I'm looking for my parents. What was I supposed to do?”

“Are you so dull of senses? You saw for yourself how your father was trying to help your mother play the great violin. Have you forgotten his wisdom?”

Balling a hand into a fist, Nathan took a step toward the mirror. “Spit it out, Patar. Cut the questions and just tell it to me straight.”

Patar's eyes flamed red, but his voice stayed calm. “I tell it straight, as you say, to those with enough wisdom to understand the mysteries of the cosmos. You, child that you are, must learn wisdom as you proceed through the maze of unknowns. Otherwise, you would never be able to choose the right path when no one with wisdom is there to guide you.”

Nathan let out an exasperated sigh. What choice did he have? He would have to play along. “Okay. So, I'm a child. Just give me something to go on.”

“Very well.” Patar's brow lifted. “Finding your parents is an act that most would declare noble, but it is the selfish vision of an unlearned boy.”

“Selfish!” Nathan slapped the mirror with his palm. “They're trapped in some kind of black vortex. Releasing them from their prison isn't selfish.”

Patar thrust out his hands. As if blown by a hurricane gust, Nathan staggered backwards and fell on his bottom.

Holding up two fingers, Patar roared. “Two humans! Only two! You search the universe for the ones you think you love, while the lives of over fifteen billion others hang in the balance! You try to save two
Homo sapiens
who give you comfort and status, while billions of souls you care nothing about teeter on the brink of destruction.” He pointed a rigid finger at Nathan. “That, young traveler, is selfish.”

Nathan scrambled to his feet and matched Patar's pointing
finger with one of his own. “If you would get off your high horse and tell me what to do, I wouldn't be searching for two needles in a galaxy-sized haystack. My father probably knows how to save the universe, so tell me where to find him, and we'll do it together.”

A wry smile crossed Patar's face. “Your father is in no position to help, and even if you found him, you would become as incapacitated as he is. Just carry out what he began. Play the violin, and all will be made right.” He backed away and set his hand near the misty funnel, still frozen within the reflection. “Use the camera. It will cut through to a place you have never been, the realm that houses Sarah's Womb. There you will find the violin, the healing instrument. Once you do, follow the wisdom you gain each step along the way.”

“Sarah's Womb? What's that?”

“Allow words and places to define themselves, son of Solomon. All in good time.”

As Patar touched the funnel, it jumped back into motion, spinning as before. He vaporized, and his own misty form joined the slowly turning cyclone.

Kelly shook her head, blinking. “Did something weird happen? I just had a big-time déjà vu.”

“Yeah,” Nathan said, “super weird.” He nodded at the camera hanging at her chest. “Go ahead and use it. It'll be all right.”

“Who was the creepy cotton-top character?” Daryl asked. “He just disappeared.”

“Patar. Don't worry about him. He's
my
problem.”

The Nathan in the mirror packed the violin in its case while Kelly's reflected image lifted the camera to her eye and aimed it at the trio in the real bedroom.

“Uh-oh,” Daryl said, reaching for Kelly. “Your twin's way ahead of us.”

Nathan shoved the violin into its case. “It's showing what we're supposed to do. Let's just follow along.”

As the real Kelly lifted the camera and pointed it at her duplicate, the funnel in the mirror enfolded their reflections in its cyclonic swirl. The mist veiled their bodies, and they slowly faded away.

Nathan pulled them into a tight group. “Now, Kelly!”

She pushed the shutter button. The camera flashed. A jagged bolt of light bounced off the mirror, but it bent away from the camera and knifed into the swirl. The lights on the perimeter brightened, seemingly absorbing the energy. As the vortex expanded toward them, Nathan kept one arm around Kelly and the other clutching the violin. Daryl latched on to his elbow and squeezed until it hurt.

Within seconds, thick fog and sparkling lights drifted across their eyes. A floating sensation — weightlessness, or maybe air pushing them upward—gave Nathan an awkward, unbalanced feeling. Unable to see anything, he lost all sense of position. Were they flying? Upside-down? Zooming at a million miles per hour? The mist, swirling around them far more quickly now, gave him an awareness of motion, like a bullet spinning toward its target.

Kelly and Daryl stayed quiet, their eyes wide and their bodies stiff. Daryl's grip tightened even more, but Nathan just endured the pain.

Finally, the mist slowed its spin and thinned out, evaporating as if burned away by the sun. Yet, there was no sun. When the fog disappeared, only darkness met their eyes— complete, utter darkness.

Nathan pressed his toes down. Whatever they were standing on seemed firm enough, but without even a hint of light, could they go anywhere? Might a single step plunge them into a void? Music filled the air, sweet and gentle. Was it a voice? Just the wind? It resembled no instrument he had ever heard. It was more like a thousand instruments blending their tones into a sound so perfectly balanced, they seemed to play as one.

He breathed a sigh. Such richness! Such clarity! He could listen for hours and still beg for more.

The sound of Daryl's wheezing breaths broke through the music. “You two sure know how to travel!” she said. “That made the bus in
Speed
look like a kiddie ride!”

“Yeah,” he replied, “but it looks like the bus station needs better lighting. I can't see a thing.”

Kelly's voice drifted by. “You can't? I see fine. Better than ever.”

Nathan searched for the source of the voice. Two bright spots pierced the darkness — Kelly's eyes, shining through a black canopy. The glow spilled across her face and illuminated her cheeks and forehead. He let out a breathy whistle. “It's like there's a ten megawatt light bulb inside your head!”

“Check it out!” Daryl said, laughing. “Kelly's got headlights!”

Kelly blinked several times, casting their new world into blackness with each stroke of her lids. “That's not cool. You mean I have to lead you two around like a guide dog?”

“Let's hope it's just temporary,” Nathan said. “What does this place look like?”

As Kelly's eyes drifted back and forth, the beams followed her movements. “We're standing on an elevated walkway of some kind. It looks like it's made of glass. I can see through it, but there isn't anything holding it up, at least nothing I can see.”

“What's down below, and how far?”

“Just a blanket of colorful mist moving parallel to the walkway on both sides, kind of slow, slower than a walking pace. Some swirls are caught up in the flow, like whirlpools of fog, sort of like that thing in your bedroom.”

“Where does the walkway go?”

Kelly paused for a moment, blinking as her eyebeams penetrated a transparent floor. “Hard to tell. It's like we're out in
the middle of a catwalk over a foggy swamp. We can go either way, but we'd just walk into another fog bank.”

“Do you see any good reason to stay where we are?” Nathan asked.

Her eyebeams waved back and forth. “Nothing but rainbow-colored fog up, down, and all around.”

Nathan reached toward Kelly's glowing eyes. “Give me your sleeve, and we'll make a train.”

“Here you go.”

Her sleeve pushed into his palm. As soon as he tightened his grip on it, a tug pulled back his sweatshirt. “I'll be the caboose,” Daryl said. “Lead the way, Kelly-kins.”

“But which way?” Again, Kelly's beams moved from side to side. “There are two ways to walk.”

“You said the mist is moving,” Daryl said. “Let's just go with the flow.”

“Makes sense to me.” Nathan tucked the violin case against his side. “I'm ready.”

Kelly turned her head, blocking the twin lights. The sleeve pulled. Nathan hung on and shuffled his shoes against the smooth surface as he followed. Daryl added just a little weight to his slow progress, her body warmth and gentle breaths indicating her presence very close behind. She whispered, “It feels like we should chant, ‘Lions and tigers and bears, oh my.’”

“If you do,” Nathan said, “you're going over the side.”

“I see. That's a horse of a different color. No chanting.”

“When I get close to the fog bank,” Kelly said, “it seems to get farther away. But when it does, I don't see anything except more walkway.”