The Chronicles of Heaven's War: Burning Phoenix (44 page)

It soon became apparent the entire submerged
cavern wall was riddled with passages large and small. Some gushed
dirty, filled with debris washed down from the raging storms
outside. Others washed warm over the girl’s naked body as she swam
past the openings. She reasoned that those passages went down into
the depths of the earth, to the realm of the Lord of Despair, or
possibly worse, to the very heart of the fiery denizens of even
greater evil far below.

Then there were the wide, calm passages
leading off into placid darkness. How tempting to seek refuge in
places seemingly safe from the turbulence of the excited ocean
around her. More than once, the desire nearly overcame Ishtar to
slip away into such peaceful repose. After all, there might well be
many caverns that had not flooded, would not flood, and in one of
these she might seek some respite from this gathering tumult until
she had time to contemplate a decisive move.

Suddenly the words of the troll flashed
through her mind. ‘The lazy do not think, but take their ease and
go off to drown.’

Yes! These tunnels might well lead to off
into comfort and safety, but more than likely they disappeared into
black, empty abysses filled with fetid waters long void of life and
hope. Off she swam, racing to the surface to recharge famished
lungs. Returning again to the shadows, the girl began anew her
search to depart from the Land of Uncertainty.

Diving past a submerged outcropping, Ishtar
was suddenly swept into a swirling void filled with roiling masses
of bubbles and debris. End over end she tumbled, slamming and
crashing into the passage’s jagged walls as she was sucked through
a violent, twisting vortex of flooding waters racing into the dark
unknown.

While spinning helplessly along with this
raging madness, the girl slammed into a rocky protrusion.
Life-giving air forced its way past gritted teeth as the shock of
the unexpected blow bruised ribs and collapsed tired lungs. Even
though being knocked nearly senseless, the girl refused to
surrender to certain destruction. In desperation, she clutched hold
of the rocky protrusion, then slowly began to fight her way from
this approaching certain doom.

When hope of escape was waning, aching lungs
screaming for air, and fear of dying growing certain, the watery
onslaught suddenly stopped. Before Ishtar could grasp what was
happening, a violent rush of air bubbles came racing up from the
cavern depths far below and caught the girl up in their angry
excitement until the storm tossed her unceremoniously from the
passage back into the open water and up to the frothing surface of
the lake.

The pain of bruised ribs and torn flesh went
unnoticed until the frantic ache of starving lungs was satisfied.
Ishtar groaned in discomfort as she struggled to keep her head
above the water. It was obvious that she had suffered many injuries
from her recent misadventure, but there was no dry footing
remaining in this growing flood to examine the damage. Besides
that, time was running out. Not only was the flood growing in
power, and the crystal lights losing their glory, Ishtar needed to
find a way out before she succumbed to her injuries. The only thing
remaining for her was another diving attempt to find a safe
exit.

Again she filled her lungs with air and
plunged back into the depths, her body crying out in agony as she
fought her way down through the troubled sea. Although the pain
from her many injuries was excruciating, the girl refused to
surrender the moment. She was not going to become a meal for any
troll, at least not here, not in the Land of Uncertainty! If she
was to die, it would not be while timidly cowering in this abysmal
ocean, but fighting her way to escape from it. And escape it now
was, or be forever lost to this evil place.

Kicking hard against the agitated waters,
Ishtar struggled into the depths that now reached beyond the fading
light. Although not knowing the way of escape, she did understand
well the different forms of entrapment. Gliding down through the
dark, murky waters, the girl made sure to remain far enough away
from the rock face so as to avoid being sucked into another deadly
tunnel while at the same time remaining close enough to discover
any possible opening leading her away from here.

The pursuit was not an easy one, so many
being the tunnels and passages that appeared to offer delivery from
this foreboding place. Some were filled with raging turbulence
while others offered warmth and serenity from the growing tempest.
Still others reached out to gather up the unwary and effortlessly
deliver them to someplace far from here. Ishtar was now wise to the
tricksy ways of this underworld, believing the troll used riddles
to toy with the unfortunate souls ending up here. She was also
beginning to believe that the Lord of Uncertainty might well have
delivered the floods to entrap his victims, all the while
professing his innocence regarding their demise.

Finding no safe exit, Ishtar swam further
down into the growing darkness. Sight alone might well lead her
astray. It could be so easy to mistake a dangerous passage for
little more than harmless shadows. No! Trusting to sight alone was
dangerous. ‘Think. Use your mind. Use all your senses.” Yes, that
was what the girl must do - sharpen her senses, feel, listen,
discern, taste. Taste? She laughed to herself thinking how foolish
it was to believe that taste could gain her escape.

Her laughter suddenly stopped, she frowning
with curious perplexity. It was dark down here, her thrashing hands
little more than fleeting shadows. Sight was useless, and the
surging waters, filled with frothing bubbles and filth, flowed cold
and hot, confusing her other senses. Everything was directionless.
Yet when the girl turned her head a certain way, she could sense a
fresh taste in those waters. Somewhere near was a passage or
opening delivering clean, unpolluted water - water that must be
coming from outside, but not a product of the flooding downpour.
Ishtar began to swim in the direction where the water tasted
cleaner.

The girl laughed to herself. The troll
revealed the secret of escape, not by what he spoke, but by his
actions. Yes! Smacking his lips was the clue, always smacking his
lips. Look for the tasty path, the path that tasted right, clean.
By seeking answers from riddling words, one might only find
solutions that satisfied the heart, the desires. But by tasting the
universe around her, she could discover the reality, the safe
passage away from this dismal world.

The old fellow spoke winsome words to
confuse the heart and befuddle the mind. When the reality sank in
that the riddling words only misled his chosen victims, it was
often too late to make escape. Yet, bound by the desire to remain
forever innocent, the troll needed to confess the reality, the way
out.

Escape? No, wait, the troll declared escape
to be unnecessary. That meant the path was always open. A person
only need use their common senses to find it. Sight alone,
credulity, may well betray a trusting heart. As her father often
said, ‘Little good are eyes that see only what the heart desires to
see. And the darker the night and uncertain the journey, the more
willing the heart is to believe whatever the eyes declare to be
real.’ On the girl swam.

Ishtar soon discovered a rather large
opening in the side of the cliff wall. Round it was, about four
cubits across. Fresh and clean to the taste its purging waters
were, and cool like that of late spring morning it was to the
flesh. Again her father’s words came to mind. ‘You must taste the
sunrise. It smacks of the joy of life.’ Was this the sunrise to a
new life, a new beginning? Whether or not, the girl was confident
that this was the way out of the Land of Uncertainty. Although
tired, and with aching lungs, she entered the opening and began to
fight her way against the current, pushing further and further into
the black unknown.

It is a funny thing about dreams. A person
can do such amazing things and yet never consider it odd or out of
place. Ishtar’s lungs were aching to the bursting point, their need
for fresh air excruciatingly clear, yet on and on the girl swam,
ever fighting against the strong current in her search for release
from this watery underworld.

Although Ishtar believed she had chosen
wisely, the journey was not without its perils and dangers. Sharp
bends and jagged obstructions often barred the girl’s path, causing
new injuries, forcing her to search out her advance with
outstretched hands, slowing her pace. And the total blackness
played tricks on her mind, creating a world filled with dancing
orbs of flashing whites, greens, blues, and haunting yellows. Then
there were the screeching hoots and ghostly cries that echoed along
the passage. Whether these noises were games played upon the ears
or the wails of a distraught troll, it mattered little. Ishtar was
determined to continue on and not allow anything to dissuade
her.

Eventually the girl noticed a faint glow
that appeared so very far away. At first she believed it to be
another false vision of the mind, but when it did not fade, hope
began to grow in the girl’s heart. No, indeed! The ghostly, golden
glow slowly drew ever closer, or should it be said that Ishtar drew
ever closer to the golden glow. All so quickly, she burst forth
from the tunnel’s blackness into the shimmering light of a
planter’s moon, its round, smiling face dancing in the sky above
the surface of a huge, rippling pool. With her last bit of energy,
Ishtar forced her way up from the depths far below, crying with joy
after sucking in her first breath of life-sustaining air.

Ishtar’s joy was short-lived. Before she
could ascertain where she was, two long arms swooped down and
scooped the child up from the water. High up the shocked girl was
lifted until she found herself staring into two huge gray eyes that
looked out from a giant, weathered, beech tree. No, wait! It was a
beech tree with eyes, and… and, also a mouth!

Pulling the girl close to have a better
look, the old beech mused, “It is such a puny little thing, isn’t
it? Oh well. It is as I expected.”

The beech grinned. “Welcome to my world.
Been expecting you...”

Surprised by her own reply, Ishtar quizzed.
“Expecting me? How did you know I was coming when I did not know it
myself?”

Yep, dreams are such queer things.
Talking trees we ignore while asking other silly questions
.

The old beech smiled while slowly lowering
Ishtar to the ground. As he released her, he looked down,
answering, “Why, it was the saintly hemlock that called out to me,
telling of your coming arrival.”

Looking up, Ishtar asked, wondering, “How
did the hemlock know for certain that I would stay on the trail, or
even survive my journey through the Land of Uncertainty? That is,
if he knew of that land and its dangers?” Then she grumped. “And if
he knew about the evil troll, why did he not warn me about
him?”

The old beech answered, surprised, “Why, the
kindly hemlock need not have warned you of a thing, nor did he have
to save you from those weedy field people. A kindness he provided
out of consideration for you, because you are a foolish thing, and
careless also, may I add.”

Raising his eyes toward the moon, the beech
confessed what he considered to be the obvious, but to the girl was
so profound. “Land of Uncertainty? Old troll? Child, from the
moment you awoke in my world, you have been in the Land of
Uncertainty. Indeed, you have always lived in the Land of
Uncertainty. Never will you escape it. As long as life exists,
Uncertainty will always haunt the shadows.”

Lifting a bough, he continued, “The troll
you speak of, the Lord of Uncertainty, tries not to hold you in his
world, for his world always surrounds you. He seeks instead to
paralyze you into inactivity, to make you useless to yourself and
others.”

Gently sweeping his leafy branches through
the girl’s hair, the beech explained, “Uncertainty is your
ever-companion. The trail you took through the wood was one of your
choosing. My dear friend, hemlock, warned you of the dangers that
exist when you lose sight of the trail you are on. You may get lost
in the forest and never find you way through. That is the desire of
some of the aged trees in the forest. They know you will change
their world and they will resist it - old wine skins and all that
stuff.”

At that, the old beech removed from an upper
limb a beautiful gown, the same as the one Ishtar had earlier worn.
“Here, lift your arms high.”

Ishtar obeyed.

The beech then slid the gown down over the
child and adjusted it carefully. “There!” He laughed. “Pretty a
picture as just might be.”

He then took Ishtar’s hands, caressing them
with his leafy fingers. He frowned. “Be wary, my child. Your
journey is only beginning, the Lord of Uncertainty being but one of
your many adversaries. He is not really such a bad fellow. Yes, his
desire is full of selfishness, and his council self-serving, but he
did teach you the way out of Uncertainty’s trap. Learn to use the
wisdom of others, even when they do not appear kindly. Trollish
wisdom may still be lifesaving wisdom. Be careful of the smiling
kiss giving undo praise while offering wisdom.”

Ishtar was full of questions, but the old
beech was finished with his council. Offering a gentle push, he
pointed her in the direction she needed to go. “Your journey is yet
to begin, and many are the lessons you must learn before the sun
settles upon a new age. Remember well this adventure and do not
forget the kindness you have received here. Even that old troll you
may one day come to appreciate.”

He patted her back. “Now off you go. There
is much for you to see before the cock crows a new morning. Hurry
along and don’t be late.”