The Kingdom of Light E-Book

Gordon Saunders

• Herausgeber: mediaropa
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: The Verduran Pentology
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 405

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Though nearly a dozen years had passed they hadn’t gotten back to Verdura. They supposed they never would. But life had moved on for Joshua, Marie, Amanda and Steven. For one thing, they were all married with at least one kid; and those kids were almost as old as they had been the first time they were in Verdura. They had lives, though––truth to tell––lives not as exciting as their times in Verdura had been. Sometimes they struggled to find meaning in the mundane after the momentous events in which they had participated.

Things had moved on in Verdura, as well. Centuries, in fact. It had become dark. Almost all the time. And very few of the friends they had known as children remained––even though their lives should have been as long as that of their sun. The remaining people were at odds with one another. Tyranny had overcome most of them, madness––so it was said––the rest. Enemies had multiplied and triumphed.

And once again, it was the children who were sent to help. Or maybe they were sent mostly to watch. Because, as always, Ispri had everything well in hand. Or did he? The world was breaking up, dissolving before their eyes. There seemed no way to overcome the enemies. There were new enemies they’d never seen, and many of the people were enemies.

So how could they explain this buoyancy they felt? This optimism? This expectation? And how did this new person, this little empress of China, so she seemed to think of herself, and her pet dragon, fit into all this?

Besides, of course, they’d eventually have to go back to earth. How was that going to work out? Would they get back before Verdura collapsed completely and them with it? This really was their last adventure.

Leseprobe

THE KINGDOM OF LIGHT

GORDON SAUNDERS

Published by mediaropa press

The Kingdom of Light

Copyright © 2022 by Gordon Saunders

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-956228-12-0

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-956228-13-7

Hardback ISBN: 978-1-956228-14-4

Audiobook ISBN: 978-1-956228-15-1

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic or mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in information storage and retrieval systems, is forbidden without written permission of the publisher, mediaropa press. Reach us at: [email protected].

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover art by Anna Coleman

Cover design by Gordon Saunders

gordon-saunders-writer.com

To my wife, Caryl,

who allowed me the grace and solitude

to sit inside and write this and other books

when she would rather have been outside

doing something together.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

A Summary of the Verduran Pentology

Cast of Characters

A Map of Verdura in the Kingdom of Light

Author’s Note

Acknowledgments

About the Author

1

ESCAPING AUBURN

“String ‘im up! String ‘im up!” the mob shouted.

“Hang the Chinaman by his tail!” yelled a man quite close to Joshua. Other men lifted a Chinese man until his feet were at shoulder level, while men in a tree above them yanked his queue above his head and knotted it over a branch. They then let him roughly down and his head jerked back. He continued to scream, swinging slightly from side to side, held above the ground by the long woven strands of hair that had formerly hung down his back. The men laughed and jeered and began to collect stones to throw at him.

“Yellabelly! Ricebelly!” they shouted.

Joshua heard similar sounds from other parts of town and saw groups of men, women, and children heading toward Auburn’s Chinatown, torches waving above them. It was a warm mid-July night, warmer than usual for northern California. Joshua was closing his assayer’s office where he had stayed late to complete an analysis of some ore brought in that afternoon. It had been difficult to concentrate. Though trouble had been brewing all week and loud groups of men had stomped back and forth across his wooden sidewalk, he hadn’t thought any real violence would come. Now he knew he had been wrong.

He made his way along the street where the sidewalk ended, noting growing numbers of people wandering or walking or running in the direction of the furor. Here and there groups milled around Chinamen unlucky or stupid enough to have ventured out of doors.

Joshua ducked into the alley behind Main Street as he felt the mood of the crowd becoming uglier and uglier, and began to run toward his home. He and Carnelia had told very few about the Chinese house girl they had acquired on his trip to San Francisco in the spring, but others had discovered this information, and some of them might be willing to see her made sport of. Joshua raced down Quarry Street and east on Second to his home. He stopped briefly and looked around prior to stepping onto his porch. He saw several people in the street, talking and pointing in various directions. Some walked south toward the tumult. He decided to play it safe and get the horse and shay.

He then walked quickly beside the house, down his back alley, and south again toward the livery on the west alley behind Quarry Street. When he arrived, he flipped the stable boy a nickel, walked to the stall where his mare, Trony, was kept, and took her out.

“Hook Trony up to the shay and have her at the corner of Second and Quarry and you’ll have another nickel,” said Joshua.

“Okay!” said the boy, beaming.

Joshua gave him a hard look. “And keep this between you and me.”

The boy nodded, but made a peculiar face that Joshua caught out of the corner of his eye as he turned . But he let it go. He could only hope the boy would do as he had been asked.

Joshua bolted back out the door and up the alley, northward. Where the alley crossed Second Street he looked west and saw, a block or so away, another Chinese man swinging from a tree by his queue with a jeering, rock throwing mob around him. Joshua crossed the street casually, then dashed up the alley behind Second Street, turned there, and soon came out behind his house. He strode to the back door, and finding it locked, rapped lightly.

“Nelia,” he said in a stage whisper, “It’s me, Joshua. Let me in!”

The curtain on the window beside the door moved slightly, and a moment later the door was thrown open.

“Joshua!” cried Carnelia. “Where have you bin? We’re worried sick!”

“I know,” said Joshua. “Where’s Ling?”

“Under the bed in our room.”

“Get her,” he said, marching toward the sitting room. “And get Georgie.” He took his rifle from the mantle and hurried to the bedroom.

“Dress Ling in one of your dresses,” he said, grabbing some shells from the shelf in the closet. “And especially one of your floppy hats.” He dropped the shells into one of his pockets.

Carnelia had Ling out from under the bed. She was trembling so violently that Joshua could see it from across the room.

“That won’ keep them from seein’ she’s not white,” said Carnelia, taking off Ling’s peaked cap.

“Get some of that powder you use on the baby,” he said, striding into the kitchen and setting the rifle beside the door. He found a large clay pot and filled it with water from the pump, then carried it to the door and out onto the porch. Coming back in, he took two fresh loaves of bread from the top of the stove, wrapped them in newspaper, and set them on the floor beside the gun.

“I’ll be back in two minutes with the shay,” he said. “Be ready!”

He strode back out. All was quiet here, but to the south and west the noise seemed to be increasing. He ran cautiously down the alley to Quarry, thence to Second. As he came to the corner, the stable boy led Trony, attached to the shay, out from beside the shop.

“Thanks,” said Joshua, placing a quarter in his hand. “Our secret!”

The boy winked and put his finger to his mouth. But as soon as he returned to the stable he nodded at a group of men huddled in nearby shadows.

Joshua walked Trony east on Second to the alley on the east side of Quarry, then to the alley behind Second to the back of his house. He went to the porch for the water jug and tapped on the door’s pane before carrying it to the shay. He looked around carefully when he returned to the porch. The door opened a crack.

“It’s safe,” he whispered. “Get in the shay.”

Carnelia ran out, cradling their baby in one arm, leading Ling-Guang with the other. Looking swiftly from one side to the other, she darted toward the carriage. Joshua reached inside the door, taking the bread in his right arm. Then he grabbed the rifle, set it on the porch, pulled the door shut, locked it, picked up the rifle, and ran to the shay.

“Oh, Joshua,” whispered Carnelia looking worriedly at the rifle and then at Joshua. “Do you have to bring that?

“I hope not,” he said, stepping up and taking the reins, “but I am anyway.” He snapped the reins.

“Giddyap!”

Then, just as they got to the east end of the alley where it ran into Eureka Street, shadowy figures appeared in the gaslight.

“Evenin’!” said a gruff voice. “Kinda late to be out for a ride, ain’t it?”

“Not when you’ve got somewhere to go,” said Joshua.

“An’ where might that be?” asked the gruff voice.

“I don’t see how it’s any concern of yours,” said Joshua.

The man stepped forward and grabbed Trony’s bridle.

“Well, we’re makin’ it our concern,” said the man. “Ain’t we boys.”

There were grunts of assent and rough sounding laughter.

Joshua, as the man spoke, had taken a shell from his pocket and placed it in the rifle. Now he noisily drove the bolt home and pointed the rifle at the man.

“I don’t think so,” Joshua said. “Let go of the horse.”

The man backed off. “Oh,” he said, “we don’t mean you no harm. We just wanted a little fun with the Chinaman you got there.”

“We absolutely do not have a Chinaman here,” said Joshua.

“What?” said the man. “But we heard...” He looked up at Joshua squinting. “You swear it?”

“I swear it,” said Joshua quietly.

“Oh, well...’” said the man. “Beggin’ yer pardon then.” He walked off to the side of the alley to the other men. “Go on.”

“Wait a minute,” said one of the men. “You smell that bread?” The man began to walk to the carriage. “What you got bread for?”

But Joshua snapped the reins and was off around the corner. As the shay rounded the corner, gaslight fell full on its occupants.

“It’s a woman!” shouted one of the men. “They got a Chinawoman!”

“Get some horses,” cried another. “Don’t let ‘em get away!”

A few of the men gave chase on foot, but quickly gave up. Then they all ran back to the livery for horses.

After a few blocks they turned east. The gaslights didn’t go out this far and it was hard to see by the light of the moon, just rising in the east behind the mountains. As they proceeded, the way became steep, and moonlight was lost to shadow. Their road now merged into another that led out of town toward the abandoned diggings. Behind them, in the distance, the sound of racing hooves could be heard. They careened on.

“We’re almost to where you have to get out,” said Joshua to Carnelia after a few minutes. “You take the rifle and Ling can take the bread. I’ll be right back with Georgie and the water as soon as I get rid of the shay.” He glanced over at Carnelia. “Trony can find her way home by herself.” As the moon peeked over the mountains, Carnelia looked up at him with glazed eyes. “You think you can find my claim?”

“I don’t know, Joshua,” she said. “I’ve bin there only once, and that was during the day.” She looked up into the black mountain. “How can anyone find anythin’ in this darkness?”

“Well, you’ll have to, love,” he said, “because I simply can’t bring the shay any closer.”

Carnelia didn't move to get out. "Shouldn't I take Georgie and you take Ling?" 

"If you take Ling, they'll have no one to harrass. And besides, do you want to be alone with Georgie if you're not quite sure where you're going? I know how to get there." He paused and stroked her face lightly. "Please," he said softly. 

Carnelia placed her hand over his and nodded.

He held the reins up to keep Trony from moving and pointed. “Just to the right is a little dry gulch that runs a few hundred yards north and turns east, rising steeply. Stay in it until it turns. Then get out on the left side and go a few hundred more yards in the same direction until you reach what will feel like a wall. Follow it to your right until you see or feel wood. That’s the buttress around my doorway.”

Joshua reached into a pants pocket and produced a key that he pressed into Carnelia’s palm. “There’s a lock on it that this will open.”

Carnelia gently passed Georgie to Joshua. “You’ll take care of him?”

“Of course,” he said, “If they catch me they certainly won’t harm us. They’re not interested in us.” He picked the rifle up from the floor and held it out to her. “Here,” he said. “Take this.”

Carnelia jumped down from the chaise, followed silently by Ling.

“No,” she said. “You keep it. I wouldn’ know what to do with it.” She headed for the gulch.

“Then be careful!” said Joshua. “There’re torches and flints just inside the door, but don’t light up until you’re well inside.”

The sound of hooves grew louder, so Joshua snapped the reins at Trony and was off. He soon turned onto a little road that went down to some exhausted diggings to the west, and stopped. He set Georgie on the seat, and leapt out, undid the harness, took off the bridle and reins (tossing them in the shay), and slapped Trony on the rump. “Go home, girl,” he said.

Then he took the water jug from the shay’s floor and lifted Georgie out. He looked briefly at the rifle and decided he couldn’t carry it with Georgie and the water jug. So he picked up the water jug, and trotted off the road. No sooner had he gotten off the road then he heard hoofbeats close at hand and Trony slowed to a walk. Joshua feared she would stop altogether and the men would find her. He shook his head, then turned away and crept along as quickly as caution would allow, ducking low hanging branches when he saw them in time.

Up to this point, Georgie had been taking the situation rather well. But as Joshua bounced clumsily through the darkness, Georgie began to whimper and fuss.

“Oh, don’t do that now,” whispered Joshua. “Be a good boy and go to sleep.”

But Georgie just fussed more and more loudly.

“No-o-o,” whispered Joshua. “No, no, no! Don’t do that now!” Joshua tried to cover Georgie’s mouth, and Georgie wriggled and squirmed in indignation. Just as horse hooves thundered by, Joshua dropped the jug of water. He froze. But the crack and gurgle hadn’t alerted the men to his whereabouts. He tip-toed away as the water sighed into the thirsty sand.

“Oh, Georgie,” he whispered a few moments later, “now we’ll have no water.” This seemed to please Georgie, who now cooed and gurgled as Joshua set him over his shoulder and continued on his way.

After he had gone on for a few more minutes, he heard the horses returning back up the road.

“Found the shay,” he muttered.

But he was having great difficulty finding his own way in the dark, even knowing the area and where he was going. So he didn’t think that the men, half-drunk as they were, would be able to find Carnelia and Ling or himself and Georgie unless they stumbled upon them by blind chance, and they were now too far off the road for that to be likely. Still, while they were close enough to be heard, he thought it might be wise to find a place to hide and be still. He hoped Carnelia had done the same if they had come close to her.

Going east, he came to the road that had continued north after the west fork he had taken. Looking carefully about, he crossed it. When, after walking awhile, he came to a pile of boulders, he decided to stop there briefly and listen. Georgie had fallen asleep on his shoulder, so he sat down and leaned against a large rock, careful not to waken him. He thought of other piles of boulders he had known; twice in Verdura, but most recently, the pile under which he and Ling had hidden for hours in San Francisco, while her pursuers looked for her.

As he had done many times before, the past April Joshua had gone to San Francisco for supplies. The only way he could be sure of getting the chemicals that he needed, was to get them himself. He had heard the Chinese went into the claims white men spurned because they thought they were exhausted, and they had made a living. He wanted to learn their secret. He made friends among one “Company” of Tang men, or men of the Middle Kingdom, as they called themselves, and he hoped they might show him how they got every last bit of ore from the rejected diggings.

It was evening and Joshua had almost completed his business for this trip. He wanted to complete just one more task. The streets of Chinatown were quiet and empty, except for a few delivery carts returning to the laundries, with here and there a lone Chinaman walking wearily home. Behind him, down the hill and across the wharves, Joshua had seen the slightly swaying masts of the dozens of ships filling the harbor.

In dry docks, or settled into the bay, or beached, were ships whose masts no longer swayed; ships whose captains and crews had abandoned them for the lure of gold in the hills. That was ‘49, ‘50, ‘52. But now it was ‘57. In those early days, the gold was sitting on the ground to be collected or lounging in streams to be panned; at the rate of hundreds of dollars’ worth a day. But men had come in their thousands. Hordes had scoured those hills. And today, the Chinese, the people whom only five years earlier Governor MacDougal had called the “most desirable of our adopted citizens,” were now objects of hatred and wrath.

They, in the hundreds and hundreds had immigrated; they in their quiet, peaceful industry; they––so the whites said––took jobs that should have belonged to the whites. No matter that the whites disdained to do those jobs, no matter that many whites had gained and lost more than one fortune in those few short years. Now the whites shouted, “The Chinese must go!” There was an eerie, watchful silence in Chinatown that evening.

As Joshua passed an alley, he thought he saw the building he was looking for which a member of the Company had described to him. He started down the alley. Without warning, a knife whizzed past his ear. He dove toward the ground, looked around hastily, and ducked beneath some stairs. Looking out from between the slats, he discerned that the knife had not been meant for him.

In front of him, two groups of Chinese men confronted one another. Off to one side, apparently at stake in their contest, cowered a Chinese girl of indeterminate age. As Joshua watched, one man from the group with its back to him rushed to the girl, dragged her roughly upright, and ran with her past his group toward Joshua. He had not gone far when he screamed and slumped to the ground, a knife protruding from his back. The girl stopped, threw her hands up and looked wildly around. Joshua glanced at the two groups of Chinese men long enough to see that they had resumed their fray. He leapt from behind the stairs, grasped the hand of the hapless girl, and dashed around the corner of the building.

Not looking behind him, he ran toward the bay with no idea where he would go. Then, after a block or two, he chanced upon a building under construction. Large boulders had been assembled in a pile in one corner of the excavation and a stack of wood lay next to it. Hardly taking time to think, Joshua motioned and pulled the girl down into the excavation toward the corner near the boulders. He grabbed several planks of wood and placed them slantwise over her. Loud shouts that certainly weren’t in English could be heard coming from the street.

He threw his shoulder into two of the topmost boulders, and slowly, reluctantly, they began to move. The shouts grew louder. Had they seen him? Suddenly the topmost boulders rolled down the planks. Joshua leaped in with the girl, noticing that the planks weren’t completely covered, and from underneath tried to arrange them better. When he dared move no more, he sat silently beside the girl and held her shaking hand.

The shouts were right above them now. Joshua sat, gritting his teeth, thinking of the knife that had narrowly missed him and the one that hadn’t missed the Chinaman. Both he and the girl held their breath. Would they never go away? What were they doing?

Well, he thought, at least if they’re up there shouting and not moving planks or boulders, maybe they don’t know we’re here. The shouting continued, but began to fade. It sounded as though the group was splitting up to search in several directions. It seemed their hiding place had worked!

It wasn' long before the two fugitives began to breathe again. Joshua permitted himself to sigh. There was no other noise. No shouts, no moving feet, no prying hands. Perhaps they were gone. He let go of the girl’s hand and sat for a few more minutes. There was a distant shout and a nearer answering shout. So they remained under the boulders for what felt like hours.

Finally, he turned to the girl in the very dim light, found her hand again and squeezed it.

Knowing she wouldn’t understand, but needing to talk, he said, “Hiding under rocks. Little something I learned in Verdura, my first time there.”

The girl said nothing, but she was attentive, calm, and bright.

Cautiously Joshua reached out, rolled one rock further down the planks, and waited. Nothing. Then he moved another and waited. Nothing. In a few minutes, after moving more boulders and climbing out of the excavation, they were standing on the street. Joshua decided this was not the night for a visit to the Company.

He pointed at the girl and then back to where they had come from, but the girl only stood and watched him. Then he pointed to himself and the opposite direction. Still she only watched. He again pointed first at her and then back to where she had come from, then at himself, and the opposite direction. She stood watching. He repeated the gestures a third time. He began to be uneasy about standing in the open so long.

How could he make her understand that she was free to go now? He repeated the gestures again, almost frantically. Then she seemed to smile, pointed to herself and then to him, and then in the direction he had indicated he would go. He shook his head, turned, and walked away. She followed him. They repeated all the gestures again. Again he walked away and she followed.

So that is how she came to be our house girl, thought Joshua. She just wouldn’t go away. And she trusted me completely. Of course, Carnelia was delighted. She had been used to servants in the house back in Alabama, and all in all, Ling’s coming had seemed to work out very well. But now, here they were, trying to keep Ling safe from the angry mob.

Joshua heard shouts off in the distance that roused him from his reverie. “Better get on,” he said quietly to himself. “Come on, Georgie.”

He got up slowly and moved from gulch to boulder to scrub tree, finding east by the moon, heading for his claim. In about half an hour he found the end of the gulch he had told Carnelia and Ling to follow. Then he did what he had told them to do and in a short while came to the wooded supports around the opening to his digs. He was about to open the door when he heard a horse snort and pound the earth with a hoof nearby. He froze. Georgie woke with a start and let out a howl.

“What was that?” said a harsh voice.

Joshua clamped his hand over Georgie’s mouth and felt for the door.

“What was what?” said another voice.

“Ah, it’s the whiskey,” said the other voice.

“I tell ya they’re around here!”

The lock was open. Good, thought Joshua, they’re inside. I can lock it from the inside. With one motion Joshua took his hand from Georgie’s mouth and removed the padlock from the door as he swung it open. Georgie howled again as Joshua grasped him tightly and scurried into the holding  on his knees, slammed the door behind him, and threw the bolt he had made on the inside. Surely these men would grow weary and leave once they found they couldn't get in, if they even found it, wouldn’t they?

He let Georgie scream, cast a sigh of his own, and felt around in the dark at the place where he kept the torches and flint. What? he thought. Didn’t they get a torch? He placed the flint in a pocket and took one torch. Anxiously he clambered forward, holding Georgie against his chest with his left hand, feeling his way with the right, torch held unlit in his teeth.

He found the first wall, took the tunnel to the left, met the second wall and turned to the right, found the third wall and then turned back to the left again. He was not yet far enough in to light the torch, but far enough to call. He moved Georgie so that he was cradled against his chest by his arm. Then he took the torch from his teeth, and placed it in his left hand.

“Nelia? You here?” he called in a loud whisper. Georgie whimpered softly.

“Nelia?” Joshua crawled on. “Nelia?”

2

PHOENIX AND DRAGON

A dog barked.

“That sure sounds like Lep,” Joshua whispered. “I must be going crazy.”

“Carnelia?” he yelled. “You here?”

The dog barked again and Joshua heard feet padding quickly his way.

“Lep?” Joshua said. Suddenly a wet nose was against the hand holding the torch, and then paws were on his shoulders and he had to fend off a sloppy tongue. “Careful! Careful, boy. I’m holding a baby here.” Which Lep proceeded to lick, eliciting a small gurgle.

“Joshua?” asked a very surprised voice.

“Joshua! It can’t be you!” said another.

“No, I don’t believe it,” said Joshua. He pushed the dog down as well as he could. “Sit, boy,” he said.

He knelt, carefully set Georgie on the ground, pulled the flint from a pocket and made it spark; holding it to the torch. It grumbled into flame. Joshua picked up Georgie and stood, holding the torch up, looking toward the source of the voices. He gaped, open-mouthed, at Marie.

“That can’t be you, Marie,” he said. “It can’t be! You’re in Alabama!”

“No,” she said. “I was in Kentucky. Mammoth Cave.”

“And I’m here, too,” said Marie’s daughter, Miriam, moving to stand in front of her mom.

Then Marie’s husband, Johnny, moved into the light. “And me!” he said.

“And Lep is here, too,” said Joshua, “So it must be you.”

“And I'm here, as well,” said another voice Joshua recognized.

“Amanda?”

Amanda, with her boys Jimmy and Nathaniel, stepped into the circle of light. And from behind them all, Steven’s face appeared, bearing a broad grin.

“Though we’re not in Kentucky now,” Amanda said, smiling. “We’re in Verdura!”

“Well, yes, I guess,” said Joshua, looking around. “Maybe. But did you see Carnelia and Ling-Guang? I’ve lost them!”

“We didn’t see anyone,” said Marie. “Should we have?”

Joshua whirled to race back the way he had come.

“What if they’re still outside?” he whispered in a tight voice.

He ran quickly, with Lep following at his heels. After a short distance he slowed to a walk and stopped.

“The floor,” he said dully, “it’s checkered.” He turned and started back toward the others. “It’s a real floor and not the dirt of my claim or your cave.” He walked back to the group. The expression on his face was grim. “What will I do?”

When he stopped, Marie approached and hugged him. She reached for Georgie. “May I hold him?” She took him from Joshua, smiling at him, and rocked him for a moment as he gazed placidly into her face. “I don’t think I understand,” she said, looking back at Joshua. “What’s the problem?”

Joshua glanced at her and frowned. Lep leaned against Joshua’s leg and Joshua patted his head absently.

“He always did like you,” said Marie.

“I know. I know,” said Joshua. He looked at the faces around him. “I should be glad to see you all,” he said. “And I would be under any other circumstances, believe me.”

Johnny came up, grasped Joshua’s free hand, momentarily, and took the torch.

“We do believe you, Joshua,” he said. “Tell us what the problem is.”

Miriam now stood beside Marie and played with Georgie. “Could I hold him Mama?” she asked. “I’m big enough to hold him, now.” He smiled brightly at her in the dim light.

“Perhaps that would be a good idea,” said Marie, leaning down to place Georgie in Miriam’s outstretched arms. “Remember to hold his head up so it doesn’t fall backwards.”

“I know,” said Miriam. “I watched you.”

Jimmy stepped toward her and glanced over her shoulder at Georgie.

“Why don’t all you kids go over there a little ways,” Johnny said, pointing to his left, “and let the adults decide what we’re going to do.”

Jimmy gave him an offended look.

“It’s not that he means you’re really children,” Marie said quickly. “But someone has to decide what to do.”

Johnny handed Jimmy the torch. “Here, young man” he said. “You keep this and we’ll light another if we need it.”

“Where’re y’all goin’ to git it?” asked Jimmy.

“Well...” Johnny hesitated, then smiled. “Caught me!" he said. "I don't know. But we need some space to talk this through.”

“Come, Lep,” said Miriam, clasping Georgie closely to her and walking away from the adults. Lep looked at her, then at Joshua, and reluctantly padded after her.

For a moment before he turned back to follow Miriam, Jimmy watched Johnny join the adults. He caught up with Miriam.

"What are we going to do?" he said softly . "We suddenly got somewhere we don't know where we are and don't know how to get back or what's going to happen..."

"Shh!" said Miriam. "He's going to sleep. Don't wake him up."

“Huh!” said Jimmy to his brother Nathaniel when they had moved out of earshot of the adults. “They treat us like kids even if they say they don’t mean we’re kids.”

Nathaniel grunted. “Know what you mean,” he said. “They have to decide what to do. We just have to wait around an’ then do what we’re tol’.”

Georgie woke with a start and fussed and squirmed in Miriam’s arms. “I’d sure like to know what he wants,” she said. “Nathaniel, you leavehim alone!”

Nathaniel had started to tickle Georgie’s toes, so Miriam swung the baby away from him. But Georgie had stopped squirming and begun to giggle in those few seconds.

“Well, maybe it’s not such a bad idea,” said Miriam. “He seems to like it.”

There was a moment of silence, broken by a shaky voice.

“I...I don’t think that’s what it is,” said Jimmy. “There’s something here with us...something...”

“What?” asked Miriam.

Jimmy raised his free arm unevenly to point to the top of the torch he was holding. A large bird sat on it amidst the flames.

A woman's voice came to them from some distance away. They couldn’t turn away from the bird, but they heard her say, “Strangest thing I ever saw.”

“Nelia! you’re here!” Joshua yelled, which did cause the children to look in that direction.

Joshua rushed to her, grasped her by the waist with both hands and lifted her into the air. “How did you get here?”

When he had put her down, she put her hand to her mouth, looked into his eyes, and gradually moved her hand as she spoke.

“Would you believe me...” she turned her face away. “No,” she said, “You wouldn’t. No one would.”

Then she looked round the circle. “You must be Amanda,” she said, moving to her and reaching out her hands. Amanda took both of them for a moment. Then Carnelia released her and looked toward Steven. “And you’re the famous Steven Bishop we’ve heard mentioned in ‘Bama and even in California.” She curtsied slightly. “I’m so pleased to meet you, finally.”

Steven bowed slightly, nodding.

“Nelia,” said Joshua, some frustration showing in his voice, “How did you get here? I’m sure I’ll believe you!”

She looked at him and tilted her head sideways slightly.

“Well,” she said. “We followed a bird. There was a big, brightly glowing bird in your claim when we got there, and we knew we were supposed to follow him––don’t ask me how––and we did. And here we are.” She shook her head. “I know you’re supposed to be in Alabama, Marie.” she said. “But somehow, after followin’ the bird, I’m not surprised to see you. After that surprise, I don’t think there are any more real surprises in the world.”

“You said ‘we,’” said Marie. “Who is with you?”

“Oh. That’s Ling-Guang, over there with the children.” She turned and pointed.

“But there’s no one there!” said Amanda, voice raising in pitch and volume. “Where are the children?”

They were somewhere else, the children and Lep. It was silent except for Lep's loud breathing. Jimmy had not struggled to keep hold of the torch as the bird had gently lifted it out of his hand. And now, somehow, in that same instant in which the bird had taken the torch, they were somewhere else.

Jimmy broke the silence. "The bird is gone," he said. 

After a moment, Miriam spoke softly. "And so is the torch. But we can still see." She looked around and then upward. "Light is coming from up there," she said, momentarily lifting her chin upward. Then she looked back at Jimmy and Nathaniel.

"My Ma and Pa are gone and so are the other grown-ups,” said Jimmy.

"They can't be gone," said Nathaniel, frantically turning right and left. Then he looked upward. "It looks like sky. But it can't be sky. I won't believe it's sky. And they can't be gone." He lowered his head and glared at the others. Jimmy held his hands out in a gesture of "I don't know."

And then, suddenly, a girl who looked different than anyone they had ever seen stood in front of them. She waved her arms and made sounds they couldn't interpret. Then she shook her head, ripped off a floppy hat that she threw to the ground, revealing black hair wrapped with a rose-colored cloth from which two black braids escaped. She then lifted over her head a gingham dress that was obviously too big for her, uncovering a deep blue, knee-length tunic with huge sleeves and an embroidered black border. Rose-colored trousers with the same border and pointed black slippers made up the rest of her outfit. 

She surveyed the group then turned to Jimmy, bowed her head slightly, covered her fisted left hand with her right hand, raised them both slightly, and spoke to him. This time the sounds became words.

“O small one of the land of the Golden Mountain,” she said.

Small one of the land of the Golden Mountain? What did that mean?

He turned to look at Miriam and Nathaniel. From their expressions it seemed as though they, too, understood her words. But they were strange words, spoken in a voice whose pitch not only was much higher than any voice they were used to hearing, but that rose and fell as she talked; rose and fell in a peculiar, rhythmic, apparently meaningful way they had never heard and could not understand.

“I perceive that though you are a barbaric and uncivilized land, possessed of few superior men, nevertheless, the empress has seen fit to grace you with her presence.”

Lep went up and sniffed her, but came back to Miriam without seeming to come to any conclusion.

“What’s she talkin’ about?” Nathaniel asked Miriam.

Miriam just shook her head and stared. 

Eyes so dark they seemed only black peered out of the serious face. The girl’s nose was much flatter than theirs and her skin seemed slightly too dark.

This was strange, but Nathaniel didn’t care. He wandered away from the others a bit to try and find the adults. There wasn’t light enough to see very far. He decided they must have gotten to a place in the cave where light dribbled in from some other source, though how they could have done that while standing still, he couldn’t figure out. The strange girl and Jimmy stood where they had all been, talking, maybe arguing. Miriam, stood a short distance away holding Georgie. Lep sat in front of the two of them, looking up at Miriam ––with his head tilted in the way dogs do when they’d like an explanation––until Jimmy and the girl started to move. Then Miriam and Lep followed.

Why Jimmy hadn't kept the torch, or how he could talk to that girl, were mysteries to Nathaniel. At first the girl had been understandable, but now she wasn’t. Nathaniel scuffed along grumpily, miffed that they seemed to have forgotten about him. And when they stopped, he stopped far enough away so they would know he was still too mad at them to join them until they came to get him. But he was close enough to hear. After a moment, he looked at Miriam, puzzled. He moved closer to her and pointed to Jimmy.

“He...he...I mean Jimmy...does he sound like her to you?” Nathaniel asked, whispering, furrowing his brow.

Miriam nodded and hugged Georgie, rocking side to side even though he was already asleep. She chewed on her lip as a tear popped into the corner of her eye.

“Do you understand them?” he asked slowly.

Miriam shook her head. The tear streaked down her cheek.

Jimmy turned toward them for a moment and spread one arm toward them in a gesture that seemed to mean that they were somehow included in what he was saying. Then he turned back.

“Did you see that?” asked Miriam urgently.

“What?” Nathaniel asked.

“His hand,” she said, looking at Nathaniel, “the one that was holding the torch. It was...all white. ...an’ it shined like... well like a white candle under a shade, maybe.” She looked back toward Jimmy. “Didn’ you see it?”

“What are you talkin’ about?” asked Nathaniel. Suddenly his temper got the best of him. “In fact,” he shouted, “what’s going on here? Where are we? Where’d she come from? An’ what were we rushin’ for?”

“I don’t know,” said Miriam. 

Next instant, all light vanished. It became abruptly cold. Excruciatingly cold. And then––just as abruptly––everything was as it had been. 

Miriam and Nathaniel both stood as if frozen.

"Wh...what was that?" whispered Nathaniel after a while.

Miriam replied some moments later. "I don't know," she said. With one finger she wiped the tear still on her face and examined it. "It's ice," she said.

Then she spun toward Nathaniel and handed the waking Georgie to him. “Here,” she said. “You take him for a minute! I’m gonna fin’ out what’s goin’ on.” And she strode off toward Jimmy and the girl.

Georgie’s wail drowned out Nathaniel’s protest. “But I don' know nothin' about babies!” he sputtered, following as close on Miriam’s heels as he could.

But when he looked down for an instant to find his footing, he came to a sudden stop. “The floor’s checkered,” he said to no one in particular. “How can the floor be checkered?” He craned his neck to glance up toward the light coming from above in scattered beams and his mouth dropped open.

He wasn’t in Mammoth Cave. He was outside, somewhere, seeing light come through clouds. It was either a very weak sun or very thick clouds or an awfully strong moon, and it had just come up. He’d heard the word “Verdura” at least twice this afternoon, once from his Ma and once from Miriam, but he wasn’t going to be fooled. This was just a game they were playing, or a bad, confusing joke. He wouldn’t be pulled in. Steven had set up some kind of light overhead somehow––he knew Steven had a whole bag of tricks for the tourists who came to Mammoth Cave––and these other people were just part of the game.

Nathaniel hated the game. He decided not to play. He stood still, held the baby that Miriam had thrust upon him and spoke softly. “They’ll be back in a minute an’ git you,” he said. Then he wondered. “‘Course, Pa never came back...”

His father had died several years ago. At least that’s what he figured. His Ma kept saying he went to Verdura. But he knew that was only a game she had played with Steven when they’d been kids. He wished she’d quit. He wasn’t kid enough to believe it anymore. Still, if this was a game or a joke––or a trick––someone had gone to a lot of trouble over it.

The light grew somehow, and he saw lots of un-cave-like things. It almost looked like light over the tops of mountains in the distance, the distance seen through windows in a wall with lots of pillars, a wall whose roof had fallen from it to the checkered floor on which he stood. A slight swishing noise not far away was followed by what sounded like someone dropping rocks or a big dog crunching very big bones.

Miriam stopped suddenly, mid-way between Nathaniel and the baby and Jimmy and the girl. “What was that?” she asked of anyone who would answer. Jimmy paid no attention but continued his animated, indecipherable conversation with the strange girl.

Nathaniel rushed toward her. “I don’ know,” he answered. “You ‘spose it’s Ma ‘n the others comin’ back?”

She looked away from Jimmy and back to Nathaniel.

"Ooh!" she said, stamping a foot. Then she got soft and wistful. “I wish they would,” she said. “But I really have the feeling they can’t. I think we’re in some other place.”

“Oh will you quit that,” Nathaniel said vehemently to her. Then he turned toward the clouds and yelled. “You quit it, too! I don’ like the joke. Quit it now. I wannago home. It’s enough!”

The only immediate response was that Georgie started to scream and flail his arms around. Miriam came quickly and took him.

“You cain’ yell when you’re holdin’ a baby,” she said sternly. “What you thinkin’ of?”

“Never held no baby before,” he said, but hushed abruptly. The rough crunching sound came again.

“Jimmy?” shouted Nathaniel. “Jimmy, cain’ you come over here? We’re scairt Jimmy.”

Jimmy looked over from his conversation. “Jes’ a minute,” he yelled. The strange girl sat down, abruptly, folding her arms, and he walked over to the others. He had a kind of half smile on his face, and shook his head.

“Ling-Guang thinks...”

“Jimmy!” interrupted Miriam. “Can’t you hear those loud crunching noises?”

Jimmy cocked his head. The noise had stopped.

“Don’ hear nothin’,” he said. 

"An' didn't you feel the cold?"

"What cold?" said Jimmy. And returning to his subject, he said, “She thinks that the darkness swallowed up Ispri.” He rubbed his neck, looking over at her. “Says Ispri, ‘red bird of the south,’ she called him, say ‘she’s’ the spirit of the empress, bin swallowed up by the darkness. Says we’ll soon see a dragon that swallowed up the bird and’ put out its light.”

“Jimmy,” said Nathaniel impatiently, “we’re scairt! An’ all you cin do it stan’ there an’ talk about some bird with some silly girl.”

This time, the crunch was unmistakable. Jimmy looked briefly in the direction of the sound, then cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“Don’ know what I’m s’pose to do,” he said.

It had become about as light as a moonlit night at home, and the children could see a large pile of rubble in the vicinity of the sound's origin. As they watched, jagged chunks of rocks slid down the side of the pile. There was more noise and other rocks and fragments skittered down. Then a smooth shape rose above the top of the jagged edges of rubble; a smooth, rounded shape. And at its top, sticking out like cannonballs someone had half buried in the dirt, two smaller round forms. These seemed to capture whatever light was available and reflect it in all directions. Then the cannonballs seemed to be covered, for a moment, and were immediately visible again.

“It blinked!” cried Miriam, hugging Georgie.

“It?” said Jimmy.

The girl jumped up, ran to the group, pointed in the direction of the form, and began shouting at a frantic rate in her sing-song, high-pitched, indecipherable voice.

“It” climbed to the apex of the pile. Clouds shifted momentarily, and the children saw it clearly. As much as they could see was as long as at least three horses, but much thinner. It supported itself on short, squat legs; accompanied farther up its torso by shorter, thinner arms. It had a very long, whiskery jaw. Though the dimness made it difficult to see colors, it seemed bluish above the mouth and maybe golden below. A row of golden triangles rose in the center of its back from just below its head–where two enormous horns sprouted almost parallel to its back–until they were lost to sight around the pile of rocks. In its mouth it held a lone, rounded cylindrical object, maybe the length of a man’s arm. Very slowly, it opened and closed its mouth once. As the mouth closed, a great crunch was heard.

“It’s... it’s making the noise,” cried Nathaniel, pointing.

Pity I’m so full of worms, said a smooth, deep voice. The girl was struck to silence. She and Jimmy exchanged glances. An animal couldn’t talk, but a dragon...now a dragon; that was another matter. But had they heard the voice, or had they felt it? Where was the voice?

Another crunch was heard. They all looked at the creature anxiously. It seemed to spit the object it had been chewing from its mouth.

My gratitude for your worms, Sider, the voice went on. The crumbled, crushed cylinder rolled down the pile of rocks. Where was the voice coming from? That massive mouth did not move with the words, but the words clearly came from the creature.

Which of you would like to be the last of my supper? asked the voice – which felt like it was amused.

Was the girl right? thought Nathaniel. Had the darkness swallowed Ispri? Had the dragon won?

With incredible, startling speed, the creature was before Miriam. It bumped Georgie with a snout the size of a door. This one, it said. I will have this one.

“You absolutely will not have him!” shouted Miriam, backing up. “Go away!”

If dragons can laugh, the dragon laughed at that.

Lep jumped to his feet and rushed toward it, barking with all his might.

And what might you be? said the massive voice as the dragon turned his head toward Lep. Lep just continued to bark, occasionally rushing toward the dragon and then skittering backwards. Are you edible?

“He’s my American Leopard hound and don’t you touch him!” shouted Miriam.

Georgie kept on screeching and Lep kept on barking.

Oh. Only a brute. Edible. But tasty?

With a scream of outrage, Ling-Guang ran toward the dragon, grabbed one of its horns, pulled herself up on its back and begin pounding it with her fists. It flipped its head upward and Ling-Guang was knocked off, rolling down the pile of rubble.

Don't startle me like that, it said.

Suddenly, with its gigantic head right in front of Miriam, its mouth almost seeming to be grinning, it said, Did you want to give me the human child?

3

TWO WAYS

"No, I did not!" shouted Miriam. "Now you just go away and–"