Something wet, cold, and circular pressed against her forehead. Jandra moved her hand to see what it was and found her fingers touching the snout of some kind of animal. She opened her eyes and looked up into the face of a pig, its hide mottled black and white. The pig looked down at her with an expression that resembled concern.
She'd never actually met Zeeky's pig, but her porcine examiner seemed to fit the bill.
"Poocher?" she asked.
"Yes."
It took her half a second to realize it hadn't been the pig who answered. She sat up and discovered a girl standing in the center of the room. She was dressed in a white robe; her golden hair was washed and braided. She stood before a glass orb the size of a man's fist, which floated in the air seemingly without support. The girl's eyes were fixed upon the orb in an almost hypnotic gaze.
"Zeeky!" Jandra cried. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," said Zeeky, not taking her eyes off the orb. Her tone made it sound as if Jandra's voice was an unwelcome distraction.
She rose, looking once more around the room. Jandra somehow recognized it though she'd never been here before. It was a cell built by Jazz, accessible only via an underspace gate. She had a faint memory of building it.
"How did I get here?" Jandra asked. "Did you guide me here somehow?"
"Yes," Zeeky said again, tersely.
Jandra walked over to her and placed her hand on Zeeky's shoulder.
"Is something wrong?"
Zeeky turned away from the orb. Tears welled in her eyes as she said, with a trembling voice, "Everything is wrong! I don't know what to do!"
"What's happening," Jandra said, squatting down to Zeeky's level. "What's the problem?"
"My family and my neighbors are still inside," Zeeky said, wiping her cheeks. "I can hear them; we've been talking. But they've been in there too long. It's changing them. They've forgotten what their bodies looked like. They say they don't want to come out. They say it's like heaven in there."
"Heaven isn't what I experienced," said Jandra.
"It wasn't what they first experienced either," said Zeeky, running her fingers along the glass orb. "They said it was more like being dead. They're spirits without bodies. It terrified them at first. But, slowly, they found out that the place responded to their thoughts. It became what they wanted it to become. They imagined heaven, and it became heaven. Now they want me to go inside with them."
"Could you?" Jandra asked. "Does this crystal ball have that power?" She looked into the transparent sphere, but saw nothing but the distorted image of Poocher on the other side.
"Jazz left it here for me. She says there's a tiny slice of underspace forever opened at its heart, but I can't reach it while it's sealed in the globe. The globe isn't really glass… it's some sort of energy that that looks like glass. Nothing in this world can ever break it."
"How do you know that?"
"The villagers told me. They're telling me so many things. I don't understand half of what they're saying. Freed of their bodies, existing as pure thought, they're beginning to know everything… but they're forgetting what it was to be human."
"Jazz told me she wanted to stay inside underspace because it would make her omniscient," said Jandra. "Perhaps she was right."
"Jazz can't be allowed inside," said Zeeky. "They don't want her there. Jazz is a bad person."
"I know."
"They say I should go with them to escape her," said Zeeky. "But, I don't want to. I don't want to live without a body. I want to stay in this world with Poocher. I want to see Jeremiah again. I just want things back like they were." A tear traced down her cheek as she spoke. Her lower lip trembled.
Jandra wrapped her arms around Zeeky and pressed her wet cheek against her own. "It's okay," she whispered. "I won't let anything happen to you."
"How touching," said a woman's voice behind her.
Suddenly, the room smelled of cigarettes.
Bitterwood had come once more to the shores of the island. He walked its perimeter, trying to find something he could use as a boat. He came at last to a broad beach of black sand. In the distance, he could see a second island. Perhaps Zeeky was there. His search of the temple island had certainly proven unproductive.
Bitterwood looked up as he heard the rustling of leaves in the forest behind him. The greenery parted as the copper-colored heads of three long-wyrms pushed through onto the beach. Adam rode the wyrm that led the way. Behind him were two riders Bitterwood had never seen.
Adam's voice shook with outrage as he spoke. "The temple is destroyed! Gabriel is dead! One of your arrows was discovered near his remains. What have you done, father?"
"You know what I have done," said Bitterwood.
"The goddess possesses infinite grace," Adam said. "She may forgive any insult if you approach her with a repentant heart. Throw down your bow, father. Surrender yourself. She may yet show you mercy."
"I do not desire mercy," said Bitterwood. "I have slain her angel. Is this the act of a repentant heart? Let Ashera show herself if my actions anger her. I want very much to see her; I still have arrows in my quiver. Let her test her power against me."
"Blasphemer!" shouted the rider to Adam's left.
"Calm yourself, Palt," said Adam.
"No!" he cried. "He speaks of arrows. We are the arrows in the quiver of the goddess! We are the missiles of her wrath! Let us fly, Adam. We shall strike this heretic down!"
Adam looked toward Bitterwood once more. "Father, if you've any love of life, you will drop your bow. Do not make us kill you."
Bitterwood lifted his bow and calmly drew an arrow. He took aim, dead center of Adam's chest.
"I have no love of anything," he said. "Kill me if you can."
Chapter Twenty-Seven:
Bad Woman
Jandra spun around.
"You've locked the helmet," Jazz said, taking a drag on her cigarette. "Interesting."
"I didn't enjoy being your doll," said Jandra.
"Then we won't be having tea with Mr. Teddy?" Jazz said, her voice mocking Jandra's accent. "Fine. You still need me, Jandra. Those memories I gave you won't be of much use without me to guide you through them. And I kept a lot of the good stuff to myself. Wouldn't you like to learn to open the underspace gates? Wouldn't you like to tap into a thousand years of experience and wisdom without the tedium of actually having to trudge through all those centuries? Swear your loyalty to me Jandra, and I'll help you become a goddess."
Jandra guided Zeeky behind her. Poocher came up next to her knees, grunting as he stared at Jazz.
"Godhood doesn't hold much attraction for me," Jandra said. "I'm having a tough enough time learning to be human."
Jazz rolled her eyes. "You're such a drama queen. Fine. You don't want to be my friend. But, we don't have to be enemies, either." Jazz stepped aside as a glowing rainbow opened in the air behind her.
"Here's the door," she said. "It leads back to Shandrazel's palace, your old stomping grounds. Get out and don't bother me again."
Jandra looked at the gate. It would be so easy just to grab Zeeky and leap for it. But, escaping Jazz wouldn't solve anything. If escape were all she wanted, she wouldn't have come back from the Nest.
Then, to her surprise, Poocher charged toward the rainbow and leapt in. Zeeky ran past her, grabbing her hand. In Zeeky's other hand, she cradled the crystal ball. "Hurry!" shouted Zeeky, dragging her toward the gate.
Seeing a look of shock flash across Jazz's face, Jandra decided to trust Zeeky. She leapt once more into the place that was not a place.