The Dove (21 page)

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“What is that?”  Jasmine leaned her hands on the balcony railing.

“Big trouble.”  Bombarik shook his head and backed away from the woman.  He turned and shouted for the servants.

Jasmine squinted at the bright star that hovered over the horizon above the sea.  It was much too bright and too high in the sky to be Venus or Mercury or any of the planets she knew of, but it had no tail like the comet that had recently passed.  The sun was riding on into mid morning and there should have been no stars visible at all.

“Bombarik!”  She shouted after the Ifrit and then hurried after him into the palace.  He was in the courtyard, shouting orders to the servants in the language she had never learned successfully.  “What is it?!  What is happening?”

The servants were scattering in panic.

“Dynbarik!  Seularik!”  Bombarik shouted for his sons.  The two men slid to a stop in front of their mother and father.  “Take your mother below.  Into the mountain! Take all the servants and the foodstuffs!  Quickly now!  There is no time!”

“Bombarik!”  Jasmine grabbed at his yellow robe as her sons dragged her away.  “Tell me what is going on!”

“There is no time!”  He shouted at her and ran toward the opposite end of the courtyard.  “I will be down shortly! Dynbarik! Prepare to seal the passage!”

Chapter Eight of Sixteen

And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven

Lucio made a terrible face as he drank down the mead that Il Dolce Mio fed him from a wooden bowl.  He coughed and sputtered and then spit on the sand in front of his bare feet.  He was shivering and shaking and his eyes were rebelling at the bright sunlight reflecting off the stones around him.

“Cover your head, Sir.”  Luke Andrew threw a long mantel over his bare shoulders and raised the hood over the Italian’s head. 

“Santa Maria!”  The Knight of the Golden Eagle pulled the hood down over his face and closed his eyes tightly.  He’d never spent so long as a bird in the overworld and the transformation had taken him completely off guard.  His system had been so well adjusted to the bird’s carnivorous diet that the alcohol had done terrible things to his taste buds and stomach and was still threatening to come back up.  His voice was raspy and speaking tickled his throat like an itch he could not reach.  His muscles moved erratically, and he kept jerking his head around much like the eagle, which was causing his vision to fall behind his head movements.

“I brought your clothes, Poppi.”  Vanni said as he began to unload his backpack on one of the stone blocks.

“Th…thank you.”  Lucio held out his hands blindly.  “Why is it so bright?  Is it just… m…me?”

“Probably…”  Luke Andrew leaned down and looked under the hood.  The Italian had grown a considerable beard during his adventure.  “How about some water?”

“That would be good.”

“Come over here and sit down, Father.”  Il Dolce Mio guided him to a nearby stone.

“Are we still in Egypt?”  Lucio asked and took hold of the water bag.  He poured some in his hands and splashed it on his face.

“Yes.  Giza.  We are overlooking the great beast.”  Il Dolce Mio helped him hold the water bag to his lips.  “Drink and then we will eat.”

“I think he’d best get dressed first.”  Luke Andrew scanned the horizon doubtfully.  “We may have to make a run for it.  I don’t like being up here in the open.”

“Why did you not come down to us sooner, Poppi?  Did you not recognize us?”

“I don’t know.  I don’t remember.”  Lucio shook his head and tried opening his poor eyes again.  The sun was terribly bright.  “You didn’t bring my sunshades, did you?”  He squinted at Vanni and his son shook his head.

He took his shirt in trembling hands and pulled it on while the King helped him with the buttons.

“I brought underwear.”  Vanni laughed.  “And your boots and your sword and your daggers.  I also brought extra socks.  There was not much time or space.  I’m sorry.”

“And I brought your golden bird!”  Il Dolce Mio told him excitedly.  “And your favorite papyrus!”

“Oh, thank you.”  Lucio nodded with his eyes still closed.  “And what made you come down here?  What has happened?  Luke?  Where are you?”  He reached out and Luke took his hand.  “Who else is here?”

“Just us and the elves.”

“The dark angel desecrated my shrine.”  Il Dolce Mio told him fiercely.  “I could not sit aside and do nothing.  Besides you will need our help.”

“I will?”  Lucio cold not understand this.  He was supposed to go home.  He remembered that much.  He was supposed to fly home.

“Master Simon is down here somewhere, Sir.”  Luke told him.  “He and Selwig and Nicholas and Gregory left without permission.  They were coming down to try to find my father and Sophia.  We had a message they were headed for the pyramids.”

“What?  Blessed Mother,”  He shook his head and stood up while Vanni and the King helped him with the rest of his clothes.  “Why?  I’ve see no one.  Your company were the first humans I’ve seen.  Only the monsters!  They are everywhere. They eat everything!  Are you sure they were coming here?”

“Yes.  The message was quite clear.  You read it.  You translated it!  Don’t you remember?”  Luke asked and then pulled his sword as a long, wailing howl filled the air around them.

“Oh, wait!  Yes, yes.  I remember; Nicole and Bari as well.  Yes.  I haven’t seen anyone.”  Lucio sat down and pulled on his socks.  His eyes were adjusting to the light somewhat.  “Santa Maria!  I can’t see a thing!”

“Hurry up, father!”  Il Dolce Mio urged him.  “We are about to have company.”

The ground shook with the pounding of great feet, as if a stampede of enraged elephants was headed for them.

They were suddenly running pell-mell down a slippery slope of loose rocks towards the depression in which the Sphinx rested.  As soon as they were safe, below the walls of stone, numerous blue flames erupted around the top of the enclosure as the elves initiated their primary defense against the creatures roaming the plains of Giza.  The howls and roars increased as the frustrated beasts were confounded and terrified by the elven fire.  If they ever figured out that the fire would not burn them, there would be big trouble.

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“What do you suppose it means?” 

Bari put one hand over his eyes and squinted into the brilliant light of the double sun.

“I would have to guess something terrible.”  Nicole grumbled and turned away from the disconcerting sight.

“If it’s a comet, something is definitely wrong with it.”  Bari mused and had to look away from the light.  “For one thing, it doesn’t have a tail.”

“Haven’t you studied astronomy?”  Nicole asked him.  “Comets always have tails.  It has to be something else.  Maybe a new satellite surveillance system.”

“Like what?  Alien space invaders?”  The Emperor shrugged and then smiled ironically.  “It has to be something that creature dreamed up.  Probably some new weapon of mass destruction!”

“That big?  And that close? I doubt it.”  Nicole disagreed.  “What does the Colonel say about it?”

“He doesn’t know much about astronomy.  He doesn’t know of any satellites being launched or anything.  All the space programs that were in place before the wars are gone.  There aren’t anymore.  Even China got put out of business.  I don’t think America has anything left either.  It would have to be France or Russia and I doubt my spies would have missed it.”

“Who knows?  Maybe it’s the Aussies.  They were working on a new spaceport or something.  I remember hearing something about it before the war.”  Nicole glanced back at the ominous light in the eastern sky.  It didn’t seem to be moving.  It was as if a new star had appeared in the sky that was close enough or big enough to shine during the day right alongside the sun.  She hooked her arm through Lt. Galipoli’s and he patted her hand instinctively, comforting her. 

Bari rolled his eyes in disgust.  The man was a fool.

“Sergeant Spellman said it might be a supernova in our local vicinity or elsewhere.  He studied astronomy in college or something.”  The lieutenant offered as they walked back toward the officer’s barracks.

“A supernova?  An exploding star?”  Nicole looked at him as if he were a genius.  They had left the building after speaking with Simon of Grenoble and sought out the Captain of the Guard upon seeing the light in the sky.

“Yes.  It could even be in another galaxy, I’m told.  I hope it is something like that.”  Bari told her.  “Anything else would be too bizarre.”

“Weeellll, in case you haven’t noticed, nephew, things are pretty bizarre already.”  Nicole told him sarcastically.  “But I don’t think that’s a good thing.  Galaxies are made of billions of stars.  It would not be very comforting to know that one was hovering off the port bow.”

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Simon and the two brothers had gone to the roof of the barracks to observe the latest in a long list of unusual occurrences.  This one bode nothing but bad news.  As they stood on the flat roof of the building in the ultra bright light, they cast two shadows.  One dark one from the sun and another, even darker one, from the brilliant object that hung below the sun.

“What do you think, Master Simon?”  Gregory asked him after a few moments.

“I think that we might be in trouble.”  Simon shook his head and brushed back his blonde hair.  “That is no doubt a comet and it’s either very large or very close or both.”

“I thought comets had tails, Sir.”  Nicholas shaded his eyes.  “That looks like a star to me.”

“If it is coming toward us, the tail would be pointed away from us at too sharp an angle to make out or perhaps the head is so brilliant, it is obscuring the tail.”  Simon explained.

“It could be a supernova.”  Gregory suggested.  “I’ve read that they can be brilliant enough to be seen in the day time even when they are in distant galaxies if the exploded star was big enough.”

“Maybe it’s a quasar!”  Nicholas offered.  “They are supposed to be the brightest objects in the Universe!  Or maybe it’s a black hole passing through our Solar System!”

“Don’t be silly, old chap,” Gregory used a fair imitation of a proper English accent to object.  “If it was a black hole, we couldn’t see it!”

“Yes we could!  We could see the event horizon.  Also I’ve seen pictures of them and sometimes they have jets of gas shooting out of them.”  Nicholas demonstrated this with his hands and thumbs.  “Like this.  These photographs were taken with the venerable Hubble Space Telescope before it was left to drift aimlessly in space forever and forever.  Amen.”  The elder brother crossed himself reverently and Simon tried not to ask, he didn’t want to know.

“I don’t see anything shooting out of that.”  Gregory turned away and blinked, trying to clear his vision.

“I doubt there would be a world left if a black hole was passing through.”  Simon disagreed.  “I think it’s a comet.  A very close one.”  Sweat trickled down his face in the extreme heat.  “We’d best get in out of the sun.  There could be harmful rays… energy.  Who knows?”

The two brothers followed the priest down the stairs into the dimmer interior of the building as yet another argument erupted between them about what sort of rays might be emanating from the quasar or whatever it was. Simon had witnessed many such arguments and neither of them ever won.  The healer was impressed by Nicholas’ extensive knowledge concerning astrophysics.

Colonel McGuffy met them in the hall.

“My scouts just returned.” He told them at once.  “They say that the Prophet’s troops are less than a hundred miles away and headed toward Jerusalem.  We are going to have to make our move tonight.  The only thing saving us is the fact that he is traveling at a camel’s pace.”

“Then I should make preparations for moving the ark.”  Simon frowned.  He had hoped not to have to do that.  He did not want to go near it, but he was the only one qualified to oversee such an endeavor.  “Gregory and Nicholas will help me.  We’ll need a wooden crate big enough to hold it and a truck to carry it in.  Do you have a troop carrier?”

“There are several of them.”  The Colonel nodded and then shrugged.  “There are just no troops to fill them.”

“Then have your men clean one of them.  Take everything out except a good length of rope to secure the box.  Also see if you can find some incense, frankincense and myrrh, preferably and have them burn some inside the truck.  Knock both ends out of the crate and put it inside so that a man can walk through it.  Park it in front of the Temple and… we’ll need a ramp… wooden if possible.  Have them bend all the nails inside the box and cover them over with plaster or clay, something that won’t fall off.  Tar or pitch would be best, if you have some.  And then cover the outside of the box with the same thing.  We’ll need another length of rope to secure the ends of the box.  No nails or wire.  Make sure the rope is new.”