Chapter Twenty-Nine

Door of Death

I was submerged in a sea of ebony where things crept but did not live. No sound, no wind, no light. I called out to Isabel with my mind but found no reply, not even the echo of my own thoughts. I struggled toward the surface but sank beneath the pressure of an unseen hand. The sea floor enchained me with its milfoil cuffs. I was aware only of the darkness and the passage of time. Moments passed as I struggled. Then minutes. Panic set in.

The light from the red tower penetrated the inky blackness. I had nearly forgotten Isabel’s Kesemanetow, tightly gripped in my hand. The card’s illumination began to overpower the darkness of the bay.

I fought the invisible hold upon me and broke free of the myriad green links of water weed. I followed the card’s beacon of light until it led me to the bay’s calm surface. I inhaled hungrily as I took in my first breath of air.

A ship’s bell sounded off to my right, and overhead a blue heron took flight. The color of fading sunlight appeared on the horizon, and an immense joy overtook me. Land was in sight. I was about a half-mile out, midway between an island shrouded in fog and the mainland. I swam with the surf toward the shore of the latter.

The limestone bluffs of the approaching shoreline grew more pronounced until I could make out a herd of whitetail deer grazing upon a grassy field at the pinnacle of the bluff. Leaves of burnt orange and gold danced upon the limbs of sugar maple while the final, salmon-colored rays of sunlight brushed the bleached shoulders of giant boulders at the water’s edge. I was coming home. I felt it. The deer looked down upon me as I reached shallow water.

The smooth stones and sandy bottom felt marvelous beneath my bare soles despite the chill of the water. I suppose I was simply relieved to have survived the bay’s limitless depths.

In a near panic I felt inside the pocket of my wet jeans for my Fire Walker and was relieved to find it intact. Both Kesemanetow were. A series of gentle waves broke upon the boulder-strewn shoreline about twenty yards ahead of me. The tide carried me toward the beach.

The fading sun cast its final light over the water, and I was stunned by its breathtaking beauty. Several stars flashed like beacons in the sky. I wondered how I was surrounded by a landscape that resembled the tip of the Door County peninsula. And why were the trees here decked out in autumnal colors?

As I wondered these things, the cries of an unkindness of ravens began to drown out the sound of the breaking waves. The northern sky was blackened by the beating wings of those cursed demons. They flew south with determination and speed. I had a terrible feeling they were seeking Isaac. Or me.