THOMAS AWOKE with a start and jumped to his feet on the hill overlooking the village. He scrambled to the lip of the valley. Dusk. The people were already heading up the valley to the lake. The Gathering.
Two thoughts. One, he should join them. If he ran, he could catch them. Two, he had to get to the black forest. Now.
He’d dreamed how many times since waking in the black forest? Yet something had changed. For the first time, he’d awakened with a compulsion to treat this dream of Bangkok, this lucid fabrication in his mind, as real. It was no longer only a conscious choice that he was making, it was something in his heart. He really did have to treat the dreams as real. Both of them, in the event either or both were real.
If Bangkok was real, then he needed Monique’s cooperation. The only way to get Monique’s cooperation was to prove himself by retrieving information. Information he hoped he could find in the black forest.
Thomas spun around and sprinted down the path that led to the Shataiki.
He had to learn the truth. The Great Deception, the Raison Strain, Monique de Raison—he had to know why he was having these dreams. He’d survived the black forest once; he would survive it again.
His feet slapped the earth as he jogged. The path soon faded, but he knew the direction. The river. It lay directly ahead. The slight glow from the trees lit the forest—even in the dead of night he would be able to find his way back.
He slowed to a walk and caught his breath. Then he fell back into a jog. This time he wouldn’t actually enter the forest. He would call out. And if the black bats didn’t respond? Then he would see. Either way, he couldn’t return without some answers.
What had Monique suggested he learn? The number of nucleotide base pairs in the HIV vaccine.
The journey must have lasted an hour, but there was no way for Thomas to know. When he finally broke into the clearing he recognized as the place he’d first been healed, he pulled up, panting hard. Just past the meadow lay a short stretch of forest, which ended at the river’s edge. He stepped out into the meadow and jogged forward. A snapshot of the hotel room in Bangkok flashed through his mind and he plodded on, across the meadow and through the forest toward the rushing river.
The trees gave way to riverbank without warning. One second forest, the next only grass. And the river.
The scene took his breath away. He leaped back into the safety of the trees and flattened himself against a massive red tree. He waited for a moment and then carefully peered out onto the bank of the green river. The bridge the Roush had called the Crossing glimmered fifty yards upriver, white in the rising moonlight. The river glowed, translucent and sparkling with the colored light cast by the trees. Beyond the river lay the outline of ragged black trees in the darkness.
Thomas stared into the black forest and began to shiver. There was no way he could enter that blackness again. He imagined red beady eyes lying in wait just beyond the black barrier. Or above. He slowly raised his eyes to the treetops across the river, but there was only darkness. He listened to the sound of the night, trying to filter out the river.
Was that a snicker?
Then he saw a lone dark shadow flee from the upper branches. He quickly pulled back into the colored forest’s cover, his heart pounding in his ears. A Shataiki! But it had fled. Maybe it hadn’t seen him.
He shut his eyes and took a deep breath. He should leave this place. He should turn and run.
But he didn’t. Couldn’t.
He stood by the red tree for ten minutes, slowly gathering his courage. The river bubbled on, undisturbed. The forest stood black, unmoving beyond. Nothing changed. Slowly his fear gave way to resolve again.
Thomas stepped from the forest and stood on the bank, washed in moonlight. No bats. Just the bridge to his left, the river, and the dead trees beyond. He took a few more steps, angling for the bridge. Still nothing changed. The river still rushed on, the trees behind him still glowed in oblivion, and the blackness ahead remained pitch dark.
Thomas took a deep breath and walked quickly toward the bridge. He gripped the rail of the white structure, and for the first time it dawned on him that the wood of the bridge, unlike any wood he had seen outside the black forest, did not glow. It had been constructed by the Shataiki, then? He paused and looked again at the black trees looming taller now. He should call out from here. What he should yell, he didn’t know. Hello? Or maybe . . .
A speck of red suddenly flickered in the corner of his right eye. Thomas jerked his head toward the light. He saw them clearly now, the dancing red eyes just beyond the tree line across the river. He tightened his grip on the rail and caught his breath.
Another flicker of red off to his left made him turn his head, and he saw a dozen Shataiki step out of the forest and stop, facing the river. And then, as Thomas watched with terror, a thousand sets of red gleaming eyes materialized, emerging from their hiding places.
Thomas told himself to turn and run, but his feet felt rooted to the earth. He watched with dread as the Shataiki poured silently out of the forest, creating a line as far as he could see in either direction. The creatures squatted like sentinels along the tree line, gazing at him with blank red eyes set like jewels on either side of their long black snouts. And then the treetops began filling as well, as if a hundred thousand Shataiki had been called to witness a great spectacle, and the black trees were their bleachers.
Thomas’s legs began to shake. The pungent smell of sulfur filled his nostrils, and he checked his breathing. This whole thing was a terrible mistake. He had to get back to the colored forest.
The wall of Shataiki directly ahead of him suddenly parted. Thomas watched as a single Shataiki walked toward the bridge, dragging brilliant blue wings on the barren earth behind him. This one stood taller than a man, much larger than the rest. Its torso was gold and pulsed with tinges of red. Stunning. Beautiful. The night air filled with the clucks and clicks of a hundred thousand bats as the huge Shataiki slogged toward the crossing. It moved slowly. Very slowly, favoring its right leg.
Thomas watched without moving. The beast’s green eyes were set deep into its triangular face, fixed on Thomas. Pupil-less, glowing saucers of green. Frightening and yet oddly comforting. Luring. Thomas could hear the scraping of its talons along aged planks, the whisper of its huge wings, as it slowly ascended the bridge. The Shataiki made its way to the center and stopped.
He raised one wing slightly and the throngs behind him fell silent.
Somewhere in the back of Thomas’s paralyzed mind, a voice began to re-assure him that this Shataiki could certainly mean no harm. No creature so beautiful could harm him. He had come to talk. Why else would he have come out to the center of the bridge? According to the Roush, no Shataiki could cross the bridge.
“Come.” The Shataiki sang as much as spoke. Hardly more than a whisper.
The leader was telling him to come. And why should he give that suggestion any mind? He could speak from here just as easily as from up there.
“Come,” the leader repeated.
This time, the Shataiki opened his mouth. Thomas saw its pink tongue. As long as he stayed on this side of the bridge and out of the creature’s reach, he would be safe. Right?
Thomas stepped cautiously onto the bridge. The Shataiki made no move, so Thomas stepped up the Crossing toward the beast. He stopped five meters from the Shataiki and looked directly into his eyes. They glistened like giant emeralds in the moonlight. A chill ran down Thomas’s spine. He had to be the one called Teeleh. But he wasn’t what Thomas had expected.
The creature let his shoulders droop and turned his head slightly. He retracted his talons and allowed a gentle smile to form on his snout.
“Welcome, my friend. I had hoped you would come.” Now he spoke plainly, in a low voice without a hint of music. “I know this may all seem a little overpowering to you. But please, ignore them. They are imbeciles who have no mind.”
“Who?” Thomas said. But it came out like a grunt so he said it again. “Who?”
“The sick, demented creatures behind me.” The beautiful bat withdrew a red fruit from behind his back and offered it to Thomas. “Here, my friend, have a fruit.”
Thomas looked at the fruit, too terrified to move any closer to the beast, much less reach out to take something from it.
“But of course. You are still frightened, aren’t you? Pity. It is one of our best.” The Shataiki raised the fruit to his lips without removing his eyes from Thomas and bit deeply into its flesh. A stream of juice dribbled through his furry chin and spotted the planks at his feet. “Possibly our very best. Certainly the most powerful.” He smacked his lips. He lifted his chin to swallow the fruit and tucked the uneaten portion behind his back again.
He withdrew a small pouch. “Are you thirsty?”
“No, thanks.”
“Not thirsty. I understand. We’ll have plenty of time for eating and drinking later, won’t we?”
Thomas began to relax a little. “I didn’t come to eat or drink.” Was it possible Teeleh could be a friend to him? The creature certainly disapproved of the other black bats. “How did you know I was coming?”
“I have powers you can’t imagine, my friend. To know you were coming was nothing. I have legions at my disposal. Do you think I don’t know who comes and who goes? I think you underestimate me.”
“If you have such power, then why do you live in the black trees instead of in the colored forest?” Thomas asked, looking past the beast at the throngs milling in the trees across the river.
“The colored forest, you call it? And who in their right mind would want to live in the colored forest? You think their fruit can compare with my fruit? No. Is their water any sweeter than ours? Less. They are nothing but slaves.”
Thomas shifted on his feet. There was only one rule here. No matter what happened, he could never drink the water. As long as he followed that simple standard, he would be perfectly safe.
“What is that in your pocket?” the bat suddenly demanded.
Thomas reached into his pocket and withdrew the small glowing carving that Johan had handed him in the village.
Teeleh recoiled. “Throw it over the side. Throw it over!”
Thomas reacted without thought. He tossed the red lion over the edge of the bridge and gripped the rail to steady himself.
Slowly Teeleh lowered his arm and stared at Thomas with his wide, green eyes.
“It is poison to us,” the beast said.
“I didn’t know.”
“Of course not. They have deceived you.”
Thomas let the statement go. “What do they call you?” he asked.
“What does who call me?” the beast asked.
“Them.” Thomas nodded at the bats.
The Shataiki raised his chin. “I am called Teeleh.”
“Teeleh.” He’d expected nothing else. “You’re the leader of the Shataiki.”
“Foolish minds may call what they do not know whatever they wish. But I am the ruler of a thousand legions of subjects in a land full of mystery and power. This they call the black forest.” The black bat swung a huge wing toward the forest behind him. “But I call it my kingdom. Which is why I’ve come to speak to you. To set your mind free. There are some things you should know.”
Thomas could hardly ignore the obvious fact that the creature wanted something from him. This show of power couldn’t be arbitrary. But he had no intention of giving them anything. He’d come for one purpose only, to gather some information about the histories.
Despite his confusion over the true nature of this creature, Thomas couldn’t allow Teeleh to gain the upper hand.
“And there are some things that you should know as well,” Thomas said. “It’s forbidden for me to drink your water, and I have no intention of doing it. Please don’t waste your time.”
Teeleh’s eyes brightened. “Forbidden, you say? Who can forbid another man to do anything? No, my friend. No one is forbidden unless he chooses to be forbidden.” The Shataiki spoke fluidly, as though he’d argued the subject a thousand times. “What better way to keep someone from experiencing my power than to say he will suffer if he drinks the water? Lies. Surely you, more than the rest, should know that such small-minded talk only locks people in cages of stupidity. They follow a god who demands their allegiance and robs them of their freedom. Forbidden? Who has the right to forbid?”
The reasoning was compelling. But it had to be fast talk. Thomas chose his next words carefully. “I also know that if even one of us drinks your water, the whole land will be turned over to those sick, demented creatures, as you call them, and we will become your slaves.”
The air suddenly filled with angry snarls of outrage from the army of Shataiki in the trees. Startled by the outcry, Thomas retreated a step.
“Silence!” Teeleh thundered. His voice echoed with such force that Thomas instinctively ducked.
The beast dipped its head. “Forgive them, my friend. I don’t think you would blame them if you knew what they have been through. When you have lived through deception and tyranny and you survive, you tend to overreact to the slightest reminder of that tyranny. And believe me, those behind me have faced the greatest form of deception and abuse known to living souls.” He paused and twitched his head as though he were trying to loosen a stiff neck.
In many ways the Shataiki’s actions were consistent with creatures who’d been abused and imprisoned. Thomas felt a sliver of pity run through his heart. For such a beautiful creature as Teeleh to be imprisoned in the black forest seemed unjust.
“Now come,” Teeleh said. “You must surely know that the myths you speak of are designed to deceive the people of the colored forest— to control their allegiance. You think you know, but what you’ve been told is the greatest kind of deception. And I’ve come to make that clear to you.”
Did Teeleh know that he’d lost his memory?
“Why did you try to kill me?” he asked.
“I would never do such a thing.”
“I was in your forest and barely got out alive. If I hadn’t made the Crossing when I did, I would be dead now.”
“But you didn’t have my protection,” the beast said. “They mistook you for one of them.”
“Them?”
“Surely you don’t actually believe that you’re one of them, do you? How quaint. And clever, I might add. They’re actually using your memory loss against you, aren’t they? Typical. Always deceiving.”
So he did know about the memory loss. What else did he know?
“How did you know about the memory loss?” Thomas asked.
“Bill told me,” the creature said. “You do remember Bill, don’t you?”
“Bill?”
“Yes, Bill. The redhead who came here with you.”
Thomas took a step back. The creature before him shifted out of focus. “Bill is real?”
“Of course he’s real. You’re real. If you’re real, then Bill’s real. You both came from the same place.”
Thomas couldn’t mistake the sense that he was standing at the edge of a whole new world of understanding. He’d come with a few questions about the histories, and yet before asking those questions, a hundred others had been deposited in his mind.
He glanced back at the colored forest. What did he really know? Only what the others had told him. Nothing more. Was it possible that he had it all wrong?
His heart thumped in his chest. The air suddenly felt too thick to breathe. Easy. Easy, Thomas. He couldn’t reveal his ignorance.
“Okay, so you know about Bill. Tell me about him. Tell me where we came from.”
“You still don’t remember?”
He eyed the bat circumspectly. “I remember some things. But I’ll keep those to myself. You tell me what you know, and we’ll see if that matches what I remember. Say the wrong thing, and I’ll know you’re lying.”
The smile faded from Teeleh’s lips. “You came from Earth.”
“Earth. This is Earth. Be more specific.”
Teeleh regarded him with a long stare. “You really don’t know, do you? You’re a sharp one, I’ll give you that, but you just don’t know.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Thomas said, careful to keep anxiety out of his voice.
“Don’t be so sure that you’re sharp? Or that you know?”
“Just tell me.”
“You and your copilot, Bill, crashed less than a mile behind me,” Teeleh said. “Which is why I’m here. I think I’ve found a way back.”
It was all Thomas could do to hide his incredulity. What a preposterous suggestion! It actually eased his tension. If Teeleh was stupid enough to think he’d fall for such a ridiculous fabrication, he was much less an opponent than Michal had suggested. Hopefully the bat still knew the histories.
For now he would play along, see how far this creature would take the story.
“So. You know about Bill and the spaceship. What else do you know?”
“I know that you think the spaceship is preposterous because you really don’t remember a thing.”
Thomas blinked. “Is that so?”
“The truth of it is this: You are stranded on a distant planet. Your ship, Discovery III, crashed three days ago. You lost your memory in the impact. You’re standing on this bridge talking to me because you don’t fit in with the simpletons in the colored forest, which is natural. You don’t.”
Thomas’s ears were burning. He wondered if this creature could see that as well.
He cleared his throat. “What else?”
“It’s good to hear, isn’t it? The truth. Unlike the pitifully deceived people of the colored forest, I will tell you only the truth.”
“Fine. Tell me the truth then.”
“My, my, we are hungry. The truth is, if you knew what I know about that colored forest and those who live in it, you would despise them.”
The throngs of Shataiki had lost their respect for the silence. A sea of voices muttered and squealed under their collective breath. Somewhere in the darkness, Thomas could just hear a dozen arguments raging in high pitch.
“We have been imprisoned in this forsaken forest,” Teeleh said. “That is the truth. For a Shataiki to touch the land across this river means instant death. It is tyranny.”
The throngs of bats screeched their outrage.
Teeleh lifted a wing.
Quiet fell over the forest like a blanket of fog.
“They make me ill,” Teeleh muttered. He looked back to make sure his legions were in order.
“What about the histories?” Thomas asked. The question he’d come to ask sounded out of balance in this new realm of truth.
“The histories. Yes, of course. I suppose you’re dreaming of the histories, are you?”
“They’re real? How can there be histories of Earth if this isn’t Earth?”
The question seemed to set the big bat back. “Clever. Very clever. How can we have histories of Earth if we aren’t on Earth?”
“And how do you know I’m dreaming of the histories?”
“I know you’re dreaming because I’ve drunk the water in the black forest. Knowledge. The histories of Earth are really the future of Earth. To you, they’re history, because you’ve tasted some fruit from the forest behind me. You’re seeing into the future.”
The revelation was stunning. Thomas didn’t remember eating any fruit. Perhaps before he hit his head on the rock? In its own way it made perfect sense. And there was a way to test this assertion.
“Fair enough,” Thomas said. “Then you should be able to tell me what happens in this future. Tell me about the Raison Strain.”
“The Raison Strain. Of course. One of humanity’s most telling periods. Before the Great Tribulation. Often called the Great Deception. I’ll speak of it as history. It was a vaccine that mutated into a virus under extreme heat.”
Teeleh licked his lips delectably. “Nobody would have ever known, you know. The vaccine never would have mutated because no natural cause would ever produce a heat high enough to trigger the mutation. But some unsuspecting fool stumbled upon the information. He told the wrong party. The vaccine fell into the hands of some very . . . disturbed people. These people heated the vaccine to precisely 179.47 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours, and so was born the world’s deadliest airborne virus.”
There was something very odd about what Teeleh was saying, but Thomas couldn’t put his finger on it. Regardless, the creature’s information matched his dreams.
“Come closer,” Teeleh said.
“Closer?”
“You want to know about the virus, don’t you? Just a little closer.”
Thomas took a half step. Teeleh’s claw flashed without warning. It barely touched his thumb, which was gripping the rail. A small shock rode up his arm, and he jerked the hand back. Blood seeped from a tiny cut in his thumb. It was smeared.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“You want to know; I’m helping you know.”
“How does cutting me help me know?”
“Please, it’s nothing but a scratch. I was merely testing you. Ask me a question.”
The whole business was highly unusual. But then so was everything about Teeleh.
“Do you know the number of nucleotide base pairs for HIV?” he asked. “In the Raison Vaccine, that is.”
“Base pairs: 375,200. But you know that it wasn’t the actual Raison Strain that brought such destruction,” Teeleh said. “It was the antivirus. Which conveniently also ended up in the hands of the same man who unleashed the virus. He blackmailed the world. Thus the name, the Great Deception.”
Thomas’s head buzzed. “The antivirus?”
“Yes. Cutting the DNA at the fifth gene and the ninety-third gene and splicing the two remaining ends together.” Teeleh suddenly grew very still. His voice softened. “Tell them that, Thomas. Tell them 179.47 degrees for two hours and tell them the fifth gene and the ninety-third gene, cut and spliced. Say that.”
“Say the numbers?”
“Don’t you want to know? Say them.”
“One hundred and seventy-nine point four seven degrees for two hours.”
“Yes, now the fifth gene.”
“Fifth gene . . .”
“Yes, and the ninety-third gene.”
“Ninety-third gene,” Thomas repeated.
“Cut and spliced.”
“Cut and spliced.”
“And you’ll need her back door as well.”
“The back door as well?”
“Yes. Now forget that I told you that.”
“Forget?”
“Forget.” Teeleh withdrew the same fruit he’d offered before. “Here. Have a bite of fruit. It’ll help you.”
“No, I can’t.”
“That’s just not true. I’ve just proved that those rules are a prison. How thick can you be?”
Teeleh stood, unmoving, the fruit perched lightly in his fingers. He spoke in a quieter voice now. “The fruit will open whole new worlds to you, Thomas, my friend. And the water will show you worlds of knowledge you have only dreamed of. Worlds your friends in the colored forest know nothing about.”
Thomas looked at the fruit. Then up at the green eyes. What if there really was a spaceship behind those trees? It was as likely a scenario as anything else he’d considered.
“Assuming this is all true, where is Bill?”
“Would you like to see Bill? Maybe I can arrange that for you.”
“You said you had a way to get us home.”
“Yes. Yes, I can do that. We’ve found a way to fix your ship.”
“Can you show it to me?” Thomas’s heart pounded as he asked the question. Seeing the ship would end the debate raging in his mind, but Thomas had no guarantee the Shataiki wouldn’t tear him to pieces. They’d tried once already.
“Yes. Yes, and I will. But first I need one thing from you. A simple thing that you could do easily, I think.” Again the leader paused, as if tentative about actually asking what he had come to ask.
“What?”
“Bring Tanis here, to the bridge.”
Silence engulfed them. Not a single Shataiki lining the forest seemed to move. All eyes glared with anticipation at Thomas. His heart pounded. Other than the gurgling of the river below, it was the only sound he now heard.
“And if I do that, then you will guarantee me safe passage to my ship? Repaired?”
“Yes.”
Thomas reached a hand to the rail to steady himself.
“You just want me to bring him to the bridge, right? Not across the bridge.”
“Yes. Just to the river here.”
“And what guarantee do I have that you will lead me safely to the craft?”
“I will bring the craft here to the bridge as well. You may enter it with no Shataiki in sight, before I speak to Tanis.”
If the Shataiki could actually show him this ship, the Discovery III, it would be proof enough. If not, he wouldn’t cross the bridge. No harm.
“Makes sense,” he said cautiously.
The living wall of black creatures lining the forest now hissed collectively like a great field of locusts. Teeleh stared at Thomas, raised the fruit to his lips, and bit deeply again. He licked the juice that ran onto his fingers with a long, thin, pink tongue. All the while his unblinking eyes stared at Thomas. Could he trust this creature? If what he said were true, then he had to find the spacecraft! It would be his only way home.
The leader stopped his licking. He stretched the fruit out to Thomas. “Eat this fruit to seal our agreement,” Teeleh said. “It’s our very best.”
He’d done this once already. According to the creature, it was why he was dreaming. Thomas forced his fear back, reached out to the Shataiki, took the fruit from his claw, and stepped back.
He glanced up at the creature smiling before him. Raised the half-eaten fruit to his mouth. He was about to bite down when the scream shattered the night.
“Thomasssss!”
Thomas jerked the fruit from his mouth and swung to his right. Bill? The voice sounded slurred and ragged.
Then he saw the redhead. Bill had emerged from the forest and was struggling weakly against the claws of a dozen Shataiki. His clothes had been stripped entirely, and his naked body looked shockingly white in the tangle of shrieking black Shataiki who now tore at him. Blood matted the redhead’s hair and streaked his drawn face. Dozens of cuts and bruises covered the man’s pale flesh. He looked like an abused corpse.
The blood drained from Thomas’s head. Nausea washed over him.
Teeleh swung around, his eyes blazing with an intensity that Thomas had not yet seen. Thomas’s fingers went limp, and the fruit fell to the wooden deck with a deadening thump.
“Take your hands off him!” Teeleh screamed. He unfurled his wings and raised them above his head. “How dare you defy me!”
Thomas watched, stunned. Immediately the Shataiki released Bill.
“Take him to safety. Now!”
Two bats pulled Bill by the hands. He stumbled into the trees.
Teeleh faced Thomas. “As you can see, Bill is indeed real. I must keep him, you understand. It’s the one assurance I have from you that you will return with Tanis. But I promise you, no more harm will come to him.”
“Thomas!” Bill’s voice cried from the trees. “Help me . . .” His voice was muted.
“Very real, my friend,” Teeleh said. “He’s been through a bit of turmoil lately and isn’t thrilled with the way the others have treated him, but I can promise you my full protection.”
Thomas couldn’t tear his eyes from the gap in the trees where Bill had vanished. It was real? Bill was real. Confusion clouded his mind.
A lone cry suddenly shrieked behind Thomas. He spun his head and saw the white Roush swoop in from the treetops. Michal!
“Thomas! Run! Quickly!”
Thomas whirled around and tore toward the forest. He slammed into a tree and spun around, gasping for air. Teeleh stood stoically on the bridge, drilling him with those large green eyes.
“Hurry,” Michal called. “We must hurry!”
Thomas turned from the scene and dived into the forest after Michal.