Rise of the Mystics Read online

  The president stood, straightening his jacket. He stepped around the desk and crossed to Karen. “Excuse us for a moment, will you?”

  “Sure.”

  He opened the door into the warehouse and ushered his chief of staff from the room, followed by his security.

  “What do you think?” I asked Thomas as soon as the door closed.

  “I think you’re magnificent.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  He drew a deep breath and paced to the bookcase, eyeing the thick volumes there, hands clasped behind his back.

  “I can only wonder what you’re doing there.” Other Earth. “I’m only here, but you’re in both places. It must be strange.”

  “Not really. In a way we’re all in two places.”

  He turned back to me, brow arched. “Earthen vessel and spirit.”

  “Something like that.”

  “I suppose so. I just can’t help but wonder how the Circle is faring. War is waging there, I saw that deep in the lake.”

  The revelation took me off guard. “Already? You’re sure?”

  “I thought you knew.”

  “The Fourth Seal only opened my eyes to the lessons I’ve learned, not all the circumstances surrounding them. I haven’t dreamed for a long time.”

  “You’ll dream tonight, then you’ll know more than I know. I would have news of my son, Samuel.” He sighed. “Either way, you must find the Fifth Seal before the Realm of Mystics is destroyed. My wife, Chelise, is there, you know.” A smile curved his lips. “It’s all a bit mind-boggling.”

  “How did you find the boy?”

  “I climbed the cliff to the upper lake. It feeds the lake in the Realm.”

  “So the upper lake and the sea are the same.”

  He gave me a nod, eyes sparkling. “It has no boundaries.”

  We turned to the opening door. The president stood, hand on the knob, glancing between us, then settled on me.

  “I’ll do what you propose.”

  His agreement brought me some relief. But that reprieve was immediately overshadowed by another thought.

  What would I say?

  “Karen will take care of the details,” he said, crossing to the exit. He turned back, drilling me with a measured stare.

  “For the love of God, I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  34

  What is shown to be in the one who sees, my love?

  The voice spoke to me like a tender mother. A gentle father.

  “The one who sees, sees light,” I said, but my voice was silent because they’d gagged me.

  And I was seeing darkness because they’d bound me to a horse and tied a hood over my head. We’d been traveling for hours, up the Divide and across, followed by the muted thunder of two armies who crushed the ground underfoot. It was night and cool. Jacob was on a second horse behind me.

  My poor, beautiful Jacob! How my heart broke for him. I found myself doubting the decision I’d made to give myself up for Samuel. What had I been thinking? Nothing! I’d only followed my heart, just as Talya told me to.

  Just as I knew I must.

  The comforting voice kept me sane, reminding me always of who I was when it whispered through my mind, but then I would hear the rattling and crunching of the massive army marching me home, and tears would fill my eyes.

  They were going to destroy my home. The home I would expose to them.

  Tell me again what your journey in this life is. Whisper it to me.

  “The Third Seal,” I said. “Seeing the Light in Darkness is my Journey. And then the Fourth Seal: Surrender is the Means to Seeing the Light.”

  And when you surrender to see the light, what do you see?

  “The First Seal,” I said. “You are infinite and can’t be threatened. You are the light in whom there is no darkness.”

  What else, dear one? Tell me what else you see.

  “The Second Seal. I am the Light of the World. Inchristi is me and in me. I’m also beyond threat, one with you, only temporarily in an earthen vessel, like a costume.”

  My sight shifted and I saw light there under the hood. Immediately my anxiety vanished, replaced by the tender embrace of that light, which was love. It was as though I was breathing a power beyond this world, so that each and every atom was infused with that light. When the light came into darkness, it came into all of it, down to the tiniest electron. It came into it, not next to it.

  For long minutes I forgot all of my concerns.

  Then I saw darkness once again and my jaw began to quiver.

  The Fifth Seal would have saved me from my wavering. But I wasn’t there. I was still vacillating.

  When Yeshua was on Earth in a body, he came into alignment with the light through his suffering, just like you, daughter. This is written. Even your elder brother had to learn that obedience. And he cried out to me, begging for the cup to pass. It was then that he finally surrendered his own will and became the way for you to follow, as written. I gave him comfort as I comfort you now. Then they hung him from a tree.1

  “Am I going to die too?” I was shaking.

  Death is no more. It is finished. That’s what happened and that’s what you’re learning to see, my dear one.

  A calm settled over me. In that moment, I loved Yeshua as I never had. He was my elder brother? Justin was my elder brother? He understood my struggle because he had experienced it! The thought pushed me far away from the army’s incessant clanking and crunching.

  “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” Why? Because death is only a shadow. There is no fear when you realize it is finished.

  “There is no fear in love,” I said in silence.

  There is no fear in love, nor darkness in light. Death is only a shadow.

  Held in that embrace of comforting light, my heart soared.

  Thirty minutes later, I was sweating in fear.

  And so it went. Mile after mile. No one spoke to me. No one offered me water. No one eased the ropes that dug into my wrists and my ankles, bound together under the horse’s belly.

  Talya had told me there was a back way into the Realm, a full day’s journey from the Elyonite city. They were taking me there so the armies could enter. I was a thin place, and my presence would lay the Realm bare to be seen by all.

  Then destroyed.

  So why had I given myself for Samuel? I was only following my heart.

  After many hours, exhaustion finally overtook my aching joints, and I found myself dreaming.

  Once more I was Rachelle on Earth. Thomas was with me, guiding me, giving me courage. Vlad was in a panic. So then, I might still find the Fifth Seal there before the Realm was destroyed here.

  There was still time! The 49th Mystic could still fulfill her role by finding the Fifth Seal there, maybe at the World Security Summit. Anticipation shortened my breath even as I dreamed.

  But I had dreamed there as well, and in that dream, I’d become this me, being led to the Realm of Mystics, bound and gagged. I’d dreamed it and woken with an urgency that shook my bones.

  We were both rushing headlong into a final showdown that would bring either light or darkness, love or fear.

  The sun was hot when I woke on the horse. I could see light filtering through tiny pinpricks in the hood. But something else had changed. I slowly sat up from where I’d slumped over my mount’s neck.

  Our stopping had awakened me. Not just me, but the whole army, silent now.

  I jerked my head to the right as if doing so might give me sight.

  I could hear flies buzzing. A horse grunting. Someone behind me coughed. Jacob. Then the clopping of hooves as someone approached me.

  “Let her see,” Ba’al rasped.

  Fingers untied the cord around my neck and the hood pulled free. I squinted in the bright sunlight as my eyes adjusted.

  We’d stopped on a wide swath of rocky sand between two towering cliffs. Ahead, more wastelan
d surrounded by cliffs. And above . . .

  A huge vortex of slowly circling Shataiki hung high above the wasteland. They’d followed us the whole way. And the wasteland was the Realm of Mystics, now masked by a desert landscape.

  I twisted in the saddle. Jacob sat on his mount ten paces behind me, gagged and bound. But he was defiant, his eyes steady on me. A shallow nod and I knew he had no remorse.

  Behind him, a sea of Horde and Elyonites, awaiting their orders.

  “Now we see, witch.” Ba’al sat on his mount to my right, lead rope in his bony grasp, eyeing me with gray eyes. “Prove your sorcery to us.”

  I don’t do magic, I wanted to say, but I was still gagged. Even if I hadn’t been, I was far too distracted by thoughts of what awaited me to exchange words with someone as blind as Teeleh’s high priest.

  “What he means to say,” Aaron said, pulling his mount abreast on my left, “is that the time has come for you to show us what you’ve been hiding for so many years.” He looked at the wasteland. “If your power fails us, I will tear Jacob limb from limb in front of you.”

  Qurong was mounted ahead of us next to six of his commanders, eyes forward. “Lead her.”

  Ba’al led me like a lamb to the slaughter. Past Qurong and his men, through the wide canyon, toward the mouth that opened into the Realm of Mystics. The others fell in behind, a slow and wary procession. They didn’t know what to expect.

  But neither did I.

  I am everywhere, daughter. Everywhere.

  “Please give me strength. Please . . .”

  I ride on the horse as you, one in light. Nothing can threaten me. Nothing.

  My saddle creaked beneath me. We drew closer, closer, only a few horse lengths from the end of the canyon, and I was praying that nothing would happen. If nothing happened, the Realm would be spared.

  If so, Jacob would suffer. Then what should I hope for?

  A new thought filled my mind. Could the Realm even be destroyed?

  We were past the canyon’s mouth, stopping on a rocky strip of sand, gazing at the towering cliffs that encircled the massive sinkhole. On the far side up high was the ledge where Talya had opened our eyes. I was a thin place, he’d said. My pulse was pounding. Maybe I had to be up high. Maybe it didn’t . . .

  A faint, crackling hum filled the air, and the scene before us began to shift from wasteland to forest, rolling out like a scroll from where I sat toward the center of the sinkhole.

  Ba’al’s mount startled and reared.

  I watched in wonder as the depression transformed from wasteland to forest in the space of three breaths. It wasn’t just any forest, it was a colored forest spotted with lush green meadows and stunningly bright flowers. A waterfall thundered on the cliff to our far right. And though I couldn’t see it from here, the village rested near it.

  My fingers were shaking. I had exposed the Realm of Mystics.

  Above us, the swirling mass of Shataiki surged eagerly, screeching with either delight or rage—they were the same now. None of the others could see them, but I could, and I knew they’d been waiting for this day a very long time.

  For a full minute my escort stared at the lush valley in disbelief.

  Ba’al was the one who gave the order, twisting in his saddle.

  “Bring the armies!” he cried. “Crush every blade of grass and slaughter every living soul.” He shoved a shaking fist into the air. “Burn it to the ground!”

  35

  WE’D SPENT the night at a new secure hotel called the Hyatt, a location Karen doubted Vlad would suspect—her house was far too risky. The summit was being held across town at a building they called the Abernathy Center, on the northern side of Washington, DC. Three thousand were expected to attend, dignitaries from every participating nation as well as representatives from all segments of security and welfare within those nations. Held once every three years, the summit was the largest of its kind, passing resolutions that affected every aspect of global security and well-being, from armed forces to planet care.

  The whole world was watching.

  Driving to the summit now with Karen, I understood what she meant when she said that security would be heavy. We passed through three checkpoints before approaching the large round dome surrounded by a huge, full parking lot.

  Karen had given me other details that morning, but more than half of my mind was on the dream I’d had while sleeping. Other Earth was falling apart. I’d given myself up for Samuel and was being taken to the Realm of Mystics, bound, gagged, and hooded.

  But what could that mean for me here? I had the Fourth Seal on my arm—I checked three or four times just to be sure. I’d experienced true surrender of myself, and I no longer cared what happened to me. But so many innocent people now depended on me. Why had I ever agreed to such an impossible quest?

  Had I agreed? Or had it been forced on me?

  “You agreed,” Thomas had said when I mentioned it to him earlier, pacing. “They said you chose it in the Realm of Mystics when you were younger.”

  Yes, I already knew that.

  “But you’re not alone. In this world, all are on the same journey of awakening to truth. Not in the same way you are, but we each get to discover where we come from, who we are, and why we’re alive in earthen vessels.”

  We were all born blind to discover the glory in darkness. But I already knew that, didn’t I? I just wasn’t thinking clearly.

  He put his hand on my neck and kissed my head. “Trust, 49th. Trust what Talya has shown you. Trust the boy. Trust Elyon. Trust Justin. Trust yourself.”

  Yes, I would. I did, but so much of what I’d experienced now felt like a dream, and many of those dreams were from a long time ago in Eden, Utah. I was suddenly unsure of my abilities.

  “Allow, don’t resist. You were made for this. I’m returning to the pool that I came through. My task is finished here. It’s your turn to shine.”

  I felt a moment of anxiety even though I already knew he would be leaving. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

  What is shown to be in the one who sees, sweet daughter?

  That tender voice blanketed me with a deep calm. I’d learned part of the answer in Other Earth already. It had to do with love—true love that held no record of wrong. But the Fifth Seal hadn’t come. So either there was more, or I hadn’t experienced that love yet.

  I had no choice but to trust.

  As I saw the Abernathy Center now, that calm slipped away, because in that large structure, thousands from all over the globe waited. For what, not even I knew.

  “I’ve made arrangements for us to go in the back,” Karen said. “The fewer people who see you, the better.” She reached for a bag in the back seat. “If you don’t mind, put these on.”

  I pulled the bag open. Dark sunglasses and a white hat. A badge that read “Holly Radcliff, White House Staff.” My image was plastered all over the internet, the face of a terrorist. This was my disguise.

  “They’ll run a fingerprint scan, but I’ve altered your records. You’re officially one of my clerks. Fair enough?”

  I peered ahead as she drove past the full lot toward the back side of the building. This was it. Dear God, help me. What was I going to say?

  You will tell them what I say, precious daughter.

  “But what do you say?” I asked silently.

  What is shown to be in the one who sees? The answer is found there.

  The Fifth Seal. I would find the Fifth Seal in this building. Once more a calm settled over me, and I let my fear slip away. Allow, don’t resist. Trust. Thomas’s last words to me.

  Steve was taking him back to the cabin. He’d soon be gone. Not me. Not until I dreamed. I wasn’t sure which was worse, here or there.

  Neither.

  Allow, don’t resist. Trust.

  “You go on in ten minutes,” Karen said.

  “I do?”

  “The president’s opening the summit at ten. He thought it best you speak at the beginning o
f his time rather than at the end.” She kept glancing in the rearview mirrors, wound tight. “He’s in a real vise, you know. This whole thing . . . I don’t think he could give a speech now if his life depended on it.”

  “You want me to wear this stuff inside?”

  “No, you’ll go on stage as you. Then you’ll tell them you’re being framed but you don’t know by whom. Tell them what DARPA did to you, show them your innocence, say whatever else it is you came to say. Just don’t mention me or the president. I gave him my word. You have fifteen minutes.”

  “I’m here to find the Fifth Seal, not point fingers.”

  She pulled the car into a spot marked “White House Staff” and turned the motor off. Then twisted to me and put an unsteady hand on my arm.

  “Listen to me. If I hadn’t seen what you’re capable of with my own eyes, I’d say you were certifiable. You’re not. You may be the most sane person I know. Just do what you do. Whatever happens to me now, I’m okay with it.” She gripped my arm tighter. “I’m behind you, Rachelle, you hear me?” Another beat. “Just go in there and be you.”

  Be you. I felt a fresh surge of confidence. But of course. Just be me.

  “I will,” I said.

  “Let’s go.”

  “Hold on.” I slipped on the sunglasses and white hat. “Okay.”

  I was wearing black pants and a white blouse that Karen had purchased in the hotel lobby store. Black sandals. It was the fanciest outfit I’d ever worn, I thought. The white hat probably didn’t look right, but I was way beyond that.

  It only took us a few minutes to pass through the rear-door security—two of the agents knew Karen. I was the new staffer. Then we were through, hurrying to the back stage.

  I don’t know what I’d been expecting, but it was all going so fast. We were alone at a side door in a dimly lit hall. I closed my eyes, listening for the comforting voice. My head was empty. But maybe that was a good thing.

  Just be who you are. Just walk out there and wait for the words to come.

  That’s what I was thinking when the door opened. I looked up at the coordinator, a man dressed in white who nodded at Karen. “The floor’s yours.”