The Soulkeepers (30 page)

"Give me a break," she laughed. "Since it
cannot take direction, it will follow Mordechai to its cage.
Father!" she yelled.

To his horror, the black winged Watcher
returned, grabbed him by his upper arm and yanked him from the
room. Jacob chided himself. He would've been far better off with
Auriel than Mordechai.

Jacob was forced down a long hall before
exiting the building and boarding something that resembled a train
made entirely of glass. At first he wondered why the Watchers would
want a train with clear walls but when he thought about it, it made
absolute sense. They were all about appearances. This was a world
of illusions. Even traveling, they lived to watch and be
watched.

Everywhere he went other Watchers bowed to
the one holding his arm and said, "All hail Mordechai!" or "The
great and powerful Mordechai, your presence is an honor." Mordechai
must have been someone important in this society but Jacob made no
guesses as to his station. He was too busy glancing rapidly from
wall to wall looking for any way to escape.

When the train stopped,
Mordechai pushed him through a huge metal archway labeled
Zoo
. It wasn't until
they came to the first cage that Jacob realized the full extent of
his fate. The room was eight-foot square with bars on three sides
and a full size picture of a living room pasted to the far concrete
wall. There was a bed, a chair, a toilet and a ball behind the
bars. Sitting on the chair was an African man with ebony skin, a
muscular frame, and a proud jaw. He looked sadly at Jacob. The sign
above the cage read
African
.

The next cage was exactly
the same except the woman was blonde with large blue eyes. The sign
said "Swiss". She looked vaguely familiar, but Jacob couldn't quite
place her and her blank expression didn't help. Cage after cage
went by,
Italian, Lebanese, Cambodian,
Egyptian
. Every color and ethnicity was
displayed like animals. Each clothed in rags. Each with the same
bed, chair, toilet, and ball. The only thing that differed was the
background picture that changed with the person's ethnicity, a
twisted reminder of what they were missing.

Two Watchers walked up to
a cage marked
Indian
. A gorgeous human girl, who painfully reminded Jacob of
Malini, lay on the bed in rags. One of the Watchers, a redhead with
fair skin and pink wings, looked at her, circled her hands above
her head, and transformed into an Indian Watcher, an exact replica
of the girl, but with parking cone orange wings. Her red hair
turned black, her green eyes brown, and her pale freckled skin a
light russet. The other Watcher giggled. Jacob stared in
astonishment. Was this what they used people for: a physical image
to copy for their amusement?

"It will go there," Mordechai said. Opening
the door to a cage exactly the same as any other except for the
back wall that was painted to look a lot like the Laudners living
room. The door clanged shut behind him. He walked, almost in a
trance to the chair and sat on the uncomfortable hard surface.

"What's this one Mordechai?" a young male
Watcher asked.

"Mixed breed—very rare. Another Horseman."
And before Jacob's eyes the boy circled his hands and transformed
into him. It was surreal, watching his image walk away from the
cage.

He sat staring out the
bars for what seemed like an eternity. He stared at nothing, but in
his mind the same thoughts played over and over in an endless loop.
This was his fault. He had brought this upon himself. He deserved
this
.
The guilt
was a straightjacket. Jacob knew he belonged here—after what he'd
done to Malini, to Dr. Silva, and to John. Auriel was right. If he
rotted in this cell for one thousand years he would never feel like
he'd paid his debt. The worthless feeling settled over him like a
shroud. He would never forgive himself. He understood now why the
people here acted like shells. The despair in this place was
impenetrable. There was no hope, no escape.

The zoo was clearing out now, the last
Watcher making his way out the archway. Jacob's eyes wandered down
the row of cages, at his fellow prisoners, "Vietnamese," "Korean,"
"Japanese," and finally "Chinese."

The "Chinese" cage enthralled him. Something
about the person in the cage was familiar, more familiar than the
Swedish woman or the Indian girl, more familiar than a casual
resemblance. Her back was to him as she sat on the floor of her
cage, rocking back and forth, her straight black hair sweeping her
shoulders as she did. It was as she rose to move to her bed that
she turned giving Jacob a clear view of the outline of her
profile.

Even at a distance, he was sure it was her.
The almond eyes, the wide nose and the strong jaw Jacob shared.
After all the time he'd tried to find her, after planning and
scheming ways to go back to Oahu to look for her, Dr. Silva had
been telling the truth all along. Here in this hell, in a place
that was everywhere and nowhere, there she was.

Jacob was looking at his own mother.

The Other Side

Dr. Silva, Gideon, and Malini landed
silently in the garden, the first two crouched and ready to attack,
the third in a heap in the sand gasping for breath. Dr. Silva
pulled a bottle of something that looked like tea from her pack and
brought it to Malini's lips.

"Drink," she whispered. "There's no time to
rest."

Malini did as she was told. The tea burned
through her veins like a shot of adrenaline. Her heart raced in her
chest and she had a sudden urge to run. She leapt to her feet.

"Do I want to know what was in that?" Malini
gasped.

"No."

"As long as we're clear," Malini whispered,
blinking her eyes several times in the darkness. She could make out
the outline of thorn bushes but there was no visible source of
light. Even the night sky was empty of stars. There was a statue of
an angel at the center of the garden that looked menacing in the
darkness. Malini wondered if it was supposed to be a fountain
because the figure stood in a concrete pool, but it was bone
dry.

"There's no water in Nod," Dr. Silva said,
as if in answer to her unasked question. "That's why it's so
dangerous for Jacob here. He's powerless."

"Do you know where we're going?" Malini
asked.

"Not exactly, but I know someone who will."
Dr. Silva turned to the large red cat. "This is Gideon. You could
say he has a nose for Nod. I could get us there, by magic, but I
might accidentally hurt you in the process. Gideon, on the other
hand, is much better at navigating in a way that's safe for you."
She clipped a long black leash on his collar. "Sorry Gid, I know
this is humiliating but without it she'll never keep track of you
in the dark."

She placed the cat on the ground and the
leash in Malini's hand.

"Gideon and I can see in the dark. He will
be your guide and I will follow from behind. No matter what
happens, stick with him. If you get lost on the way, you'll never
find your way out."

"Wait! Aren't you going to light the candle
so we can see where we are going?" Malini asked, desperately hoping
for some break in the darkness. The blindness was terrifying.

"No. We can't risk it. Light is a powerful
thing anywhere but especially here where its presence is so rare.
Above all things we need stealth if we are going to help Jacob.
Just hold on to Gideon and follow along."

"You want me to trust your cat with my
life?"

"Do as you wish, but he's more trustworthy
than I am."

Malini couldn't argue with
the logic. Gideon pulled gently on the leash and she followed him
blindly. She tried not to dwell on the
what if
thoughts that teased her
brain. What if the cat doesn't know where he's going? What if we
are somehow separated in the darkness? What if one of us is injured
and we can't get back to the real world? She decided to leave
the
what ifs
behind and instead concentrated on the prayer that she
repeated under her breath as she walked.

At first, Malini thought the blue glow that
arose in the distance was a trick her brain was playing on her,
like when you turned out the lights at night but could still see
spots on the inside of your eyelids. But as they continued down the
path the blue grew brighter and taller on the horizon until she
could make out her hand in front of her face. Closer still and she
could see the outline of Gideon in front of her and Dr. Silva
behind her.

The glow was not a warm natural light but
the color of a cheap fluorescent bulb. It bounced off the steel
gate and the bland silver buildings that stood like stacked boxes
against the desert-like landscape. The style of the gated city was
almost surgical. There were no gables or etchings or decorative
architecture of any kind. The gates were not scrolled or weathered
and had no more character than a concrete slab. Its massive size
did give the illusion of grandeur but anyone who had experienced
the magically historical skyline of Chicago or the twinkling
majesty of New York City would find it ugly and repulsive. Malini,
who was a veteran traveler of three continents, was sure she was
looking at a glorified dog kennel.

"Is this Hell?" Malini asked.

"No. Hell is for the dead. No one in Nod is
dead, just lost. Hell is much worse. Much more permanent," Dr.
Silva answered.

Malini looked out over the twisting thorns
in the cold dark behind her and then at the ugly mass of steel and
stone. It was hard to believe there was a place worse than
this.

"Gideon," Dr. Silva whispered, "You'll have
to wait here for us." She turned toward Malini. "There are no cats
in Nod and even in disguise, they would recognize him."

The cat nodded and disappeared into the
thorns.

"Now, how about something to help us blend
in?" Dr. Silva faced Malini and pulled an orchid from her pouch.
"It won't take much of a change for you," she said, pulling a tiny
tube of water from the stem. She passed her hand over the flower
and it melted into a blue ball of energy. She worked the ball
between her fingers like clay and it grew. When it was about a foot
in diameter, her head snapped up and before Malini could protest,
she hurled the energy at her chest.

It felt like a fifty-pound medicine ball had
hit her in the ribs and kept going. Malini doubled over in pain.
The thing burned in her chest, a crushing sensation. Was she having
a heart attack? Her upper back ached. A heavy weight formed between
her shoulder blades and her bones popped as if she were on a
stretching machine. Before her eyes, her arms grew longer, her
nails painted themselves and her clothes changed from jeans, a
t-shirt and sneakers to six-inch heeled boots, a mini-skirt, and a
skintight sweater. It seemed like an eternity before the pain
eased. She faced Dr. Silva, ready to tell her off.

"You could have warned me…" she started, but
was distracted by the hot pink wing that reached around from her
back and pointed at Dr. Silva. Malini's mouth fell open. Over her
shoulder she could see her new pink feathers and with some
concentration she flexed and stretched them. The effect was
fascinating. She snapped her jaw closed and nodded in Dr. Silva's
direction.

"It hurts more if you can see it coming, or
so I am told. Now something a little less recognizable for me."

Two platinum wings unraveled from Dr.
Silva's back. Malini raised her eyebrows, wondering how it was
physically possible for her to retract her wings. She watched as
Dr. Silva circled her hands above her head and a blue energy ring
traveled down her body like a hula-hoop. When it reached her feet,
she was a tall redhead in a shimmering green dress with two silky
red wings that matched her hair. She was just as gorgeous as
before, but in a completely different way.

"Remember, your illusion will only last an
hour within these walls. This is very dangerous for you," Dr. Silva
said to Malini in a voice that was lower than it had been minutes
ago. "These beings do not understand compassion, they do not know
or follow any law, and they do not respect any boundaries. You must
move quickly and do not draw attention to yourself." With that she
walked up to the gate and with a flick of her hand, opened the door
to Nod.

Immediately, the smell of the place
overwhelmed Malini. The difference between the foul, poisonous odor
from before and now was like the difference between smelling a
dirty toilet and being submerged in raw sewage. Her arm
instinctively moved to cover her nose.

"Sorry, forgot about your special ability."
Dr. Silva directed a snowball of energy toward her face and soon
Malini couldn't smell anything. "Is that better?" Dr. Silva
whispered, as they walked through the gate.

Malini nodded.

The chaos that was Nod struck the two as
soon as they entered the city. They joined a mob of angels moving
in every direction in the space between buildings. The street was
in poor condition, the packed earth covered in garbage and
dangerously uneven. Malini supposed roads weren't important if you
had wings.

Malini was taken aback by the beauty of the
glamorous Watchers that surrounded them and of the wretched
treatment of the humans who seemed to serve as pets to these
creatures. Scantily clad Watchers with full feathery wings
certainly looked angelic. However, every form of evil behavior was
clearly visible on the street. Nearby a Watcher in a rickshaw
whipped his human mule mercilessly: its face contorted into a
grisly mask of rage. Two perfect looking Watchers sat at a café
table eating strips of flesh off of a man's arm. The man would
shriek a bloodcurdling scream every time the knife would slice his
skin but as soon as the Watcher took a bite, the wound would
regenerate itself. The man was being forced to endure the first
cut, the most painful cut, again and again. Malini had to look
away.