The 49th Mystic Read online

  I released the sleeve, dropped my head, and began to weep.

  I had the Second Seal. The green seal.

  And that seal was me.

  30

  I AM THE LIGHT of the World. Inchristi is me and in me. The words kept rolling through my mind as I fell asleep in the cell with Jacob’s muscular body pressed against mine for warmth. The torch had long gone out. We’d spoken quietly in the aftermath of my finding the seal—I feeling great humility and wonder, Jacob stunned by what he’d witnessed. Seeing me shiver as the cell grew cold, he’d pulled me close.

  I’d never slept in the arms of a man before, at least not that I could remember. The fact that he was Horde seemed completely irrelevant. I accepted his kindness with gratitude, only hoping that my smaller body would offer him as much warmth.

  I found myself wondering if I preferred a man like Samuel over a man like Jacob. This was only the programming of my earthen vessel bound to polarity. But in the light, there was no polarity.

  It struck me that all conflict was built upon preference for possession. My land, your land. My house, your house. My rights, my food, my child, my religion, my knowledge, my man, my woman, my body . . .

  The list of the earthen vessel’s attachments to itself was endless. What would happen if a person could let it all go while still in an earthen vessel during this life? It was the question that all the teachings of Yeshua answered. Those who could let go of their slavery to the world’s system of protection and fear would sleep through the storm and walk on water, surely.

  My mind skipped to Samuel. What a beautiful creature he was. Such a boy at heart, like Jacob. And yet heroic and full of courage. I wondered where they’d put him, and if he was safe. He wasn’t an enemy to the Elyonites, nor a heretic in their eyes. In fact, Aaron distrusted him only because of his affection for me.

  And what of his father, Thomas? Talya had gone to find him . . . To what end?

  My scattered thoughts faded and I slept.

  I FELT myself being pulled from deep sleep there on my bed in Eden, Utah. I am the Light of the World. Inchristi is me. Inchristi is also in me. In me, my earthen vessel. That’s who I was. I was Inchristi in an earthen vessel for a brief time. Rachelle was only the word used to label that earthen vessel in the world of polarity.

  I had the Second Seal. The green seal.

  I opened my eyes. And it was only then that I remembered I was blind.

  I gasped and sat up as my heart crashed into my throat. I was blind again!

  My whole body went rigid and a chill spread over my skin. I clicked and my bedroom came into view just as it had a week ago, before I’d awakened in Other Earth and been healed by Justin.

  Was it all just one dream? Had nearly a week really passed?

  I threw off the covers and rose shakily to my feet, fighting back waves of fear. No, it couldn’t be. The details were too vivid. I’d seen Eden in vibrant color, unlike in any of my previous dreams. I’d been shot in the leg by Barth and been healed. I’d confronted Vlad and found the first two seals.

  Eden was in a synthetic bubble created by DARPA . . .

  I jerked up my sleeve and looked at my shoulder. Without having to click, I saw the tattoo, clear as day and in full color, a white circle and a green circle, framed by darkness. So it was real. All of it. Including the fact that Shadow Man had blinded me once more.

  Including the fact that my father was going off the deep end.

  I’d fallen asleep before he came home. And listening now, I could hear only the sound of birds outside. For all I knew, it could be noon.

  Clicking quickly, I ran to his room, knocked. When there was no answer, I pushed the door open. Clicked. His bed was made. Alarmed, I hurried to the living room, hoping he’d risen early.

  “Dad?”

  But he was gone. And I was blind.

  I noted the dish I’d used last night still on the counter. My father would have put it in the sink. He hadn’t returned at all last night, which meant he was either in trouble or creating it.

  I squeezed my hands together and paced. “Get a grip, get a grip.” I had to. Vlad was out there somewhere. The fate of Eden was in my hands.

  The thought nauseated me. Who was I but a pathetic blind girl? My whole life, Shadow Man had told me this would happen.

  For a moment I was in the nightmare again, hearing his low, haunting voice. I’m going to blind you. And when you see again, I’m going to blind you again. And again. His accusation crushed me. And what happens to you happens to them all. Through you, I’m going to blind them all.

  How could I go from the elation and power of encountering myself as light to such a fragile state? The seals were on my arm, so why this fear?

  I felt like I dangled from the face of a cliff, clinging to a vine. Above me, Shadow Man dared me to retreat into my old self. Below me, Shadow Man grinned wickedly, daring me to escape my inevitable future. I knew then that no matter what happened today or tomorrow, my struggle with Shadow Man wasn’t over.

  Not until I had all five seals.

  Rage washed over me, and I screamed at the unfairness of it all. The room returned only silence. It was just me in my living room, a girl born blind so that God’s glory could be revealed in her.

  Who have you become, dear daughter?

  I stilled at the gentle whisper, struck by the truth that sprang from inside of me.

  “Nothing different,” I whispered. “The same as I was. Your daughter.”

  Then see yourself as her and be her.

  The light of the world. Inchristi. Be that light. In light there is no darkness, only the shadow it creates in the world of polarity.

  Shadow Man.

  I swallowed and turned my thoughts away from what my eyes did or did not see. My role in this life was the 49th Mystic. I couldn’t let physical blindness stop me from trying, one step at a time. I had to do something.

  I paced again, thinking through my options. Above all, to the best of my ability, I couldn’t let anyone know that I was blind again. Jacob said that my eyes looked normal, apart from a redness that would clear. I needed the town’s trust—the fact that I’d been healed gave me at least some respect.

  But that meant I couldn’t betray my blindness by clicking with my tongue.

  Using echolocation, the only way to see is to send out a signal that bounces off of what lies ahead. You click, you read the signals, you move. That’s how you walk through the darkness, one step at a time, not knowing what’s ahead. Like faith.

  I would use a tap or a snap of my fingers if need be. I could still read the returning signals, if not as clearly.

  I had to get to Linda’s—the note from last night made that clear. But Linda lived on the north side of town. Barth’s lookouts would be everywhere. Vlad would be watching.

  Vlad . . . I had only two of the seals . . .

  But first, I would find my father.

  It took me twenty minutes to get ready, only because I moved slowly, going deep into my mind, rehearsing my experiences in Other Earth while I steadied my resolve in this one. To the extent I kept my focus on the light I’d seen as Justin and as me, I could remain in that vine of truth, even if I was blind.

  Taking a deep, calming breath, I opened the kitchen door and stepped out into Eden.

  I walked around the side of our house and clicked toward the town center. As far as I could tell, the streets were empty.

  My first instinct had been to stay out of sight by taking the long way around the town to Linda’s house, but I was no longer worried about being discovered. Barth would have come to my house if he wanted me dead.

  Gathering courage, trying not to think of my blindness, I walked out on the lawn dressed in jeans, a black shirt, and my Converse tennis shoes. Three rows of houses stood between me and the town square. I walked straight for Third Street, uncaring who saw me.

  I had cut through the Botswicks’ lawn when I heard John yelling inside the house. John Botswick, butcher by trade, pa
rent of two with his wife, Melanie. They were in their thirties and had married in Eden.

  I stopped by the hedge and listened.

  Melanie’s voice drifted through the wall. “I don’t care what you think is best for us! We’ve lived here this long without any problems, we just have to get back to normal.”

  “There is no normal anymore!” John roared. “I can’t even leave this house without fear of someone putting a bullet in my head. You call that normal?”

  “I said we have to get back to normal! That’s not going to happen if you go out there and cause trouble. That certainly won’t happen if you try to break out of the valley into . . . whatever’s out there.”

  “Well, I can tell you one thing,” he snapped. “What’s in here, what’s under this sky they put over us, it has a name: Barth. And as long as Barth has any power, we’re all doomed. If you think we have any chance with that lunatic waving his gun around, you’re not thinking.”

  “Oh but you . . . you, John Botswick, you have it all figured out, right? Oh wait, no, that’s David. All you have to do is kill Barth and everything will magically fix itself. You think Barth doesn’t have half the town cringing behind him? What do you want? War?”

  “They have the guns. David said so himself. If it’s war . . .”

  I didn’t hear the rest because I was already walking away, imagining the chaos behind every closed door in Eden. Vlad had gotten to my father, I was sure of it. My father was a scientist not given to impulsiveness. Vlad was manipulating him, sure that I would finally capitulate for fear of his life.

  I had to save my father without writing Vlad into the book.

  Thinking nothing of my safety, I passed the last house on our block and walked down the middle of Third Street, headed north. There was a large tree on the corner of Second, which ran east-west, and Third, which ran north-south. I could navigate most of the town from memory without echolocation, but I clicked for added comfort anyway. The square came into view as soon as I passed that tree.

  The streets surrounding the town square were empty. But the square itself wasn’t. I made out three forms, probably Barth’s men—two at the entrance to the courthouse, one leaning against the door of Bill’s Hardware, dead ahead. There were knives and axes in that store—and a host of other things that could probably be turned into weapons. Made sense they would guard it.

  I kept my eyes directed straight ahead and walked on without missing a beat. None of them called out to stop me. There were no fireworks. It was just me, the blind girl who could now see, walking through the town square.

  But that changed when I was within twenty paces of the hardware store. Clicking nonchalantly with my fingers, I saw the form step out to the curb, assault rifle hanging from his right hand.

  “That’s far enough.”

  Bill Baxter. He was guarding his store. Was he with Barth now? I could hear the fear in his voice.

  I kept walking, eyes fixed past him to the north, my four working senses hyperalert.

  “I said stop!”

  I didn’t stop.

  “Take one more step and I swear—”

  “You’ll what, Bill?” I asked, stopping in the middle of the road, ten feet from where he stood. “Put a bullet in my head? Kill the only thing Vlad Smith wants in this town? Be my guest.”

  I could hear the soft scrape of his wristwatch on the rifle.

  “I didn’t know you were a man of violence.”

  “What do you expect me to do?” His voice was lower now, meant for me alone. “Just roll over and let it all happen?”

  “I think you’d be looking for a way to make contact with DARPA.”

  “We have. Four of us went to the tunnel last night. There’s no way out. Even if there was, we’d be dead long before we got anywhere.”

  So he’d seen what my father and I had seen.

  “For the record, I know Barth’s turned into a monster and all monsters get what’s coming to them,” he said. “But he’s not the real threat. Vlad Smith is. Way I see it, as long as he’s in the picture, we’re all doomed. The only way to get to Vlad is by playing his game until we figure out his weakness. We can’t even figure out where he keeps disappearing to. So yeah, I’m out here protecting what little I have left in this world, because people are making enemies. And in this town, no one knows what to do with enemies but kill them.”

  He took a breath. “If people would just shut up and do as they were told, I wouldn’t need to be out here. Tell that to your father if you manage to find him.”

  By the sound of it, my father was fast becoming enemy number one.

  “I’m going to find my father, Bill,” I said, drilling him with a fake stare. “You’re going to let me go because stopping me will only cause you trouble.”

  I turned back up the street and started to walk.

  “Why, for heaven’s sake, won’t you just write in that freakin’ book of his?” he asked.

  “Because Vlad’s not who you think he is,” I said. “And for the record, I’m pretty sure guns won’t work with him.” The last part was only a guess.

  It took me another ten minutes to reach the Loving residence. I encountered four more guards as I walked through the northern half of town. Only one of them tried to stop me, but I ignored him without speaking a single word, and apart from a string of strenuous threats, he let me go. It was as I suspected. Vlad had given Barth the order to leave me alone.

  Taking a deep breath, reminding myself to hide my blindness, I rapped on the door. No answer, so I knocked again. And a third time. Surely they could see me though the eyehole.

  The door suddenly opened and my father grabbed my hand. Yanked me in. Slammed the door shut behind me. Rammed home the dead bolt. No one else was in the room.

  He spun around. “What are you doing? Do you have any idea what’s going on out there?”

  “You didn’t come home last night.”

  “I did come home! You were sleeping.”

  By the strain in his voice, I doubted he’d slept, here or there. I could smell the sweat on his clothes. Probably the same clothes from yesterday.

  “Bill tells me you’ve been busy,” I said.

  “You talked to Bill? What’s gotten into you, wandering around on your own?” A beat. “You okay?”

  Could he tell I was blind? My eyes, maybe . . . I said the first thing that came to mind that might throw him off any thought of what was happening to me in this world.

  “I was taken captive with Jacob, son of Qurong, and put on trial,” I said.

  When he answered, his voice was laced with dismissal and pity. “Don’t you see, sweetheart? Your mind’s programmed with those dreams in there. None of them are real.”

  “The programming doesn’t work on my mind.”

  “Would you rather have me believe that you’re being taken into captivity with some fellow named Jacob? Just try to imagine how that sounds to me.”

  He had a point.

  “Look, Freud would be the first to say your dreams are cathartic,” my father said, taking my arm. “Judging by your confidence, he was right. As far as I’m concerned, you just keep on having those dreams. But right now, I have to show you something.”

  He hadn’t mentioned my eyes. And when I tapped my thigh and snapped my fingers as we walked, he didn’t seem to notice. That was good. But how long could I keep up the charade?

  Someone was making a sandwich in the kitchen, but I didn’t notice anyone else on the first floor. My father led the way down the stairs to the basement, me following the sound of his every step, one of the first ways I’d learned to maneuver as a little girl. All council members had similar reinforced basements—bunkers loaded with supplies to supplement the main stores in the event the worst happened.

  Like a nuclear war. Even in this detail, DARPA had been deliberate. When the day finally came for the residents of Eden to learn the truth, they would already be primed to accept the stark reality of nuclear war and fallout. It was a part of eve
ry psyche in Eden. The whole town had been preparing for what had already happened.

  Any other group of people might very well be pulling their hair out. Not the loyal, brainwashed residents of Eden. They were more concerned with the direct threats within the valley. Evidently DARPA hadn’t planned for Vlad Smith.

  My father pushed through a door at the bottom of the stairs and led me into a huge room lit by hissing kerosene pressure lamps. The town still had no electricity.

  I felt beads of sweat on my forehead as I tapped and strained for the view I could manage. No fewer than a dozen forms milled about near one wall and a table in the center of the room. I could smell the sacked grains and tins. Survival stuff.

  “What about this section?” Linda’s voice. She was standing next to another form, tapping what had to be a map.

  “It was too dark. And it’s steeper than a steeple there. I doubt anyone could get up there, definitely not kids.”

  “I don’t care how steep it is!” Linda snapped. “Hank, mark section twenty-seven to be searched again as soon as the sun goes down.”

  “It’s pitch-black out there at night—”

  “That’s what the flashlights are for, Hank.”

  “No, flashlights are for getting shot at. Searching in conditions like these is absurd.”

  Linda spun to Hank. “How dare you suggest searching for my children is absurd!” she yelled.

  “I didn’t say—”

  “I don’t care what it takes or who gets shot in the process! We’re finding them! Get that through your thick skull!”

  The room stilled.

  My father stepped up to the table. “Take a breath, all of you. The last thing we need is to fight each other. The fastest way to find the children is to take back control of the town. Once we get the guns this afternoon, you’ll have all the cover you need to search. We have to get those guns before Barth and his goons have time to react!” He turned to another form. “Any more luck with the recruiting?”

  “Anyone else and we run the risk of leaking information to the wrong party.” I recognized Scott Wilson’s voice.