The War Chamber (9 page)

Each link of the pure gold rings, though as large around as a dinner plate, is surprisingly lightweight and supple. Coupled together around the base of each of the Moon Singer's masts, the links derive their strength.

To make one long chain to act as a catalyst, however, Ishtar had to separate the links and connect the six ends together. To do this, he used a special tool and engraved a unique coded design on each of the end links. After David killed the Glass Snake, Ishtar reconnected the rings so they could encircle the three masts as before. No one else would be able to separate them again unless they knew how to decipher the code.

Bianca knows her husband's handiwork well. She had watched him make the same pattern cut on many valuable artifacts to keep them from being violated. The coded design Ishtar used is the same symbol engraved on the primary facet of the Singer crystal: a small perfect triangle, serving as a doorway into its powerful wisdom. The Trinity symbol, as Ishtar and Bianca's father had called it, cannot be easily seen. One must hold the crystal up to a bright light while closely examining all its faces and facets. Someday, when he is ready, David will discover this symbol himself. But he has a ways to go, Bianca knows, before he realizes complete physical, mental and spiritual synergy. He will not achieve this before he leaves Coronadus.

Bianca runs her fingers over the gold rings and feels the almost imperceptible indentations: the secret cut marks Ishtar so skillfully etched on the rings to be found only by the right person. With a deft maneuver, she separates them, thus cutting off their continuity of energy. No one will be able to activate the great ship now, even if they possess the Singer.

Bianca also knows that Ishtar and her father had foreseen the possibility of the Singer falling into the wrong hands and created still one more alternative to activate the ship. Bianca is prepared to use it when the time comes. She is prepared to die if necessary to make it a
fait accompli
. Unfortunately the time may come sooner than she ever expected.

“She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” Sokar tells the men who surround him. “She is gleaming white with masts of pure crystal, and gold rings as brilliant as a summer sunrise.”

Amony is impatient and dismisses Sokar's poetic wanderings. “Yes, yes. We know she is a magnificent vessel. But what did you find out about her engine, her power source? What kind of control tower does she have?”

Amony's complete change of face, from loyal friend of Sechmet to a desperate and aggressive enemy unnerves Sokar, as do the stern faces of the other men, all cronies of Amony who have also betrayed their allegiance to Sechmet. Years of suppressed ambition have taken their toll and the men want to get their hands on the riches and power the Moon Singer promises before the other citizens are able to.

“She has no control tower. There's nothing but the wheel at the captain's helm,” Sokar tells them.

“Not possible. Not possible,” Amony growls. “Without a transmitter or engine to power her, she has to rely only on the wind to sail her. There is no wind here. Are you holding out on me, boy?

“No. Honest.”

Amony's voice rises with exasperation. “What makes her move on the water besides the wind? You and that Nickerson boy must have talked about it. He came here on the ship, didn't he? He must know how she is powered.”

“He never told me. I don't think he even knows how he did it,” Sokar says defensively. “Besides, he said he didn't sail the ship here. He just washed up on shore and she appeared later, on her own.”

“What kind of story are you giving us, boy? Maybe you're just protecting him. Is that it?”

“No! I'm not protecting him. I just don't know!” And in truth he does not. Nothing he saw or experienced while on the clipper gave him a clue that only David's possession of the Singer allowed the Moon Singer to activate. To that end, his snooping mission yielded nothing of value for him or these men.

“Why did you agree to snoop around for us, then?” a gnarly man named Crue demands gruffly.

“I wanted to help my aunt, and find out how my mother died.”

Amony laughs cruelly, as do the others. “If you want to know that, all you have to do is ask your Aunt Bianca. After she answers, I doubt you'll want to help her with anything.”

Sokar's face blanches and his knees tremble. He backs away slightly. “What do you mean?”

Amony grabs Sokar roughly by his shoulders. “She's the reason your mother died.”

Sokar's face is now crimson with anger and disbelief. He kicks at Amony while Crue and the other man hold him back. “You're lying! You're lying!”

“Ask yourself why she was the only one who survived. Better yet, ask Bianca.”

“Because God chose her!” Sokar yells, tears streaming down his face.

“There was no God on Coronadus that day,” Amony proclaims cynically, “only the Devil doing his dirty work.”

* * *

As the first light of dawn appears on the horizon, David and Bianca sail the yawl calmly to within a half-mile of Coronadus. They approach from a vantage point that David has not seen before, even from Sokar's rowboat during their afternoon fishing trips. The boys had always used a remote cove to launch the rowboat from the south side of the island. The main harbor toward which he and Bianca now secretly sail lay on the west side of the city, with a channel to the open sea.

Because the central part of the city had been built on a slight incline, David can now see the entire landscape in a panoramic view. It is more beautiful from afar than up close. It is a marvel of design, one that Ishtar and Bianca's father had helped to transform from a quaint seaside village to a sophisticated, neatly arranged city in a remote part of the world. It was weeks away by ship from any neighboring land before the war. Since then, no other nations had any interest in the city with no wind, no power, no money and no industry.

Even now, David can see and feel the exhilaration and vibrancy of the Coronadus of times past. He can envision the hundreds of men and women building and beautifying the landscape with passion and pride. The streets were laid out symmetrically for easy travel. Every amenity and necessity was thought of: stores, outdoor theaters, three harbors - one for commercial shipping, one for recreational boating, the third for military defense.

The only indication that this tranquil society had anticipated a violent attack is the limestone wall that completely surrounds the city, with defensive towers at the main gate that once housed armed guards.

The yawl moves slowly back into the boat shed, and Bianca notices that the other boat has returned, perhaps several hours before she and David did.

“There's no sign of who took her out last night. But I am too tired to think about it now. Let's go home and get some sleep if we can.”

David, too, is completely exhausted and the two of them walk home in silence, making certain they are not detected. Once home safe and sound David and Bianca retire to their respective rooms, but their rest is short lived.

* * *

When the attacks on Coronadus destroyed all of the city's power generators, everything mechanized ceased to operate, including time-activated equipment such as bank vaults and security systems. Many of these devices had built-in triggers that would trip during a power failure. This meant that security alarms would sound off for a few seconds then die.

It meant that vaults in banks and other commercial businesses would automatically lock no matter the time of day, keeping intruders out and possibly locking in anyone who had been in the vault at that particular moment. Several people had been known to be inside the vaults at this crucial power shut down, and their families had mourned loves ones who had suffocated for lack of air, or who had frozen stiff in cold storage lockers.

Now, inexplicably, alarms are awakened and pierce the air for a deafening moment. Mechanically out of sync, the vaults open wide. Crowds of customers awaiting this very event rush in. So intent on plundering the money, the furs, the jewels, the rare and valuable coins, works of art and documents, they thrust aside the skeletons and mummified corpses. Like pirates, they stuff their booty into purses, pockets and bags, then leave hastily, every man for himself.

The domino effect has begun: from David's arrival on Coronadus, to the discovery of the Singer, to the reactivation of electrical energy, to the resurrection of desire for material wealth and military power. Suspicion, avarice, selfishness and the breaking of loyalties, all the human failings that Bianca believed would never resurface in Coronadus now rear their ugly heads and wag their serpentine tails. There can be no turning back. The dominoes have fallen. The river is raging. The winds of change blow hot, and deadly. There is but one solution.

Bianca holds the wooden miniature Singer steadily on her dressing table. With a small razor-sharp blade she splits open the hull of the sculpture to reveal a small crystal - a chip from the Crystal of Wisdom, a clone of the Singer's power. But by itself, it cannot activate the Moon Singer. It needs its companion catalyst, the Wind Rose Compass, to execute Bianca's plan.

She will destroy the old once again, destroy Coronadus and everyone on it, so that the great clipper ship can cast off into the cosmos, and take David home to his beloved Port Avalon, safe and sound. It is drastic and harsh, but there is no other way. Bianca places the wood sculpture in its box for safe keeping. She will retrieve it when she has completed the first few steps of her strategy.

Bianca knows that David will never leave her to die, especially when he discovers who she truly is. So, she must convince him to perform a true act of selflessness, to save the children of Coronadus. Only then will he save himself.

Lovingly, Bianca carries David's washed and neatly-folded Port Avalon clothes to the parlor where David whiles away the time with an antique wooden puzzle. She tells him to put the clothes on, for he is going home, but there is something he must do first before he leaves.

“What do you mean?” There's that question again. David and Bianca both smile.

“You'll see, but only when you are wearing your own David Nickerson clothes.”

David is puzzled, but he agrees and goes to the guest room, which he has come to think of as his own room. He changes into his white deck pants and the beloved blue shirt his mother made for him. It is good, he thinks, to feel the fabric on his skin once again. And he is suddenly overwhelmed with a yearning to see his sister and father, his Aunt Dorothy; to be home again among all his familiar memories and belongings.

But has he accomplished his mission, to resolve his feelings about his mother? How can he go home without the answer to what has tormented him about her death? Can't he stay a little longer?

“No. It's time to go, David,” Bianca tells him gently. “But when you return home, you will know all that you have come to Coronadus to know.”
And more, much more,
she whispers under her breath.

Together they leave the house, but Bianca remembers something with urgency. “David, do you have the Wind Rose?”

“Yeah. It's in my pouch with the crystals.” David reaches for the pouch to show her, but Bianca steadies his hand.

“Keep the Wind Rose with you always, David, and never tell anyone, ever, that you have it. Understand?”

“No. But I'll do as you ask.”

Outside the sanctuary of Bianca's house, there is bustling activity as Coronadans revel in their reclaimed competitive lifestyle. Bianca and David make their way solemnly through the town square to a school on the outskirts of the city. The children are still in class, including Maati. Sokar is nowhere to be found.

When David and Bianca enter the classroom, an excited buzz of young voices spreads across the room.

“What brings you here today, Bianca?” Loralene, the headmistress, is pleased to see her, as she and Bianca are still best of friends despite what has been happening lately.

“Well, in all of this hoopla going on, we've forgotten that the children need some fun. Something exciting and different. I'd like to invite all of them to the beach for a picnic.”

“Well, children, what do you say? Would you like that?”

A resounding “Yes” is heard from all the children, and Loralene appears relieved as well as pleased. “I have mountains of papers to correct today. This will give me a head start and give the children something to do besides sit and read for two hours. Thank you, Bianca.”

“My pleasure. I've taken the liberty of ordering a delicious catered lunch of all their favorite finger foods and cool drinks. So if it's all right, they can come with me now. I'll have them back in plenty of time for their parents to pick them up.”

In orderly, but excited fashion, the children line up and follow Bianca and David from the school to the beach. Their faces gleam with the vitality of youth and health, butterscotch complexions both inherited from their ancestors and enhanced by the year-round sunshine. David wonders if Coronadans were concerned about UV rays and overexposure, or even if they had such worries here.

Later, their tummies satisfied after polishing off the picnic lunch, the children follow Bianca and David from the beach to the marina. What comes next is a surprise, to David as well as the children.

They all board the yawl, Bianca fires the engine, and they cruise out of the locker to the bay. The children are ecstatic to be aboard a mechanically-powered boat, not at all missing the vivid blue and yellow sail that once carried it to sea, for it's a sight some have never seen and most have forgotten in a windless city.

Bianca steers the yawl about a half-mile out, then asks David to cut the motor and drop anchor. He is confused but obliges her. Bianca explains that she is going back to Coronadus, but he and the children are to board the Moon Singer before the sun begins to set. David protests, but Bianca says she wants to find Sokar and bring him to the boat.

“You're coming back then? You'll come with us on the Moon Singer?”

“Of course,” Bianca lies. “After I find Sokar.”

“But wait! How can we go anywhere without power?”

“You'll see.” Bianca lowers the raft, climbs in, and rows to shore.