19

Kai started to follow Bree but changed his mind. His heart burned hot and raw. He turned in the opposite direction and walked back to Tau’s temple. He couldn’t believe that someone who truly knew Tau would be kept out. Zap and Ruaan had probably finished their food by now, but they’d have to keep themselves busy for a little while longer. Kai needed Tau. Nobody and nothing else would do.

Time worked differently here in the spiritual realm. Kai had no idea how long he’d have to wait until the worship service started, but however long it took, it would be worth the wait. As he got closer to the temple, the crowd around him swelled, all walking in the same direction. He kept walking, hiding his head from a pair of Temple Guards who patrolled on the far side of the road. Being careful was necessary for now, until the mixup had been sorted out.

By the time they reached the temple, Kai had bundled up the tangled mess of emotions and shoved them deep. A grim resolve settled over him. He was going to make this right. Whether Bree ever spoke to him again or not.

He checked the inside of his wrist. The imprint was still there though it had dulled to a grey colour. Watching the faces of the people around him, he expected to feel their buzz of excitement. Surely, they would have hope, yet the people around him didn’t seem to have received the memo. Kai sneaked a sideways glance at the girl next to him. Her forehead was creased into many frown lines.

A boy on the far side of her was agitated. His eyes roamed, scanning the crowd. For what or whom, Kai had no idea. They followed the swell of people through to an open-air courtyard, flanked on one side by a raised platform. A set of drums waited unmanned on the platform. There were no other instruments that Kai could see.

Maybe Tau himself would step out. A doorway opened in the wall at the back of the platform. Three women walked out and lined up across the stage, equally spaced from each other. The middle one raised her hands and a hush fell over the assembly.

“Welcome to the Stone City Worship Service. Before we begin, let us take a moment for quiet reflection.” She lowered her hands and silence consumed the courtyard.

Kai leaned over the girl next to him. “What are we supposed to be reflecting on?”

“Shh!”

Kai was pretty sure that he wasn’t meant to reflect on shh. He had to find someone less serious. He turned to the guy on the other side. “What are we meant to be reflecting on?”

“Today’s failings, shortcomings, weaknesses.” He sighed a bit, and his face creased as if he had toothache. Then he turned his attention back to the woman on the podium.

“Well, that doesn’t seem very useful.”

“Oh, believe me, it is! It is the single most important thing you can know. Know yourself.”

“But we’ll always be weak and fail. Focussing on it is not going to make it go away. I think it will only make it worse.”

The guy studied him with one eyebrow lifted. “Are you serious right now?”

“I think so?”

The girl on the other side turned to them both with red spots riding high on her cheeks. “You two need to keep quiet, or I’m going to single you both out for disruption.”

Kai pulled on the guys arm and leaned close to whisper, “When do we get to see Tau?”

“What do you mean? To look on the face of Tau would surely mean certain death. Oh, but such a sweet death that would be.” His eyes grew misty and lost focus as he stared off into nothingness.

Kai leaned closer to follow his line of sight. Yip, he was truly staring at nothing. This boy was a space cadet. Kai glanced at the others around him and picked a black-haired girl who wasn’t staring off into space as if violins were playing inside her head. “Excuse me,” Kai whispered. Hopefully, no one else would hear. The girl turned to him, her eyes a violent shade of purple.

“Can you tell me how I could get to see Tau?”

The girl blinked, obviously confused by his question. But then she smiled and pointed to the left. “There is a gallery full of pictures just around that corner. Some real beauts. You should go see.”

“No, you don’t understand. I need to see him. I need to ask him some things.”

“You have nice eyes.”

“What?”

“Your eyes are lovely.” She turned red and stared at the floor. “I’m sorry. I’m not supposed to notice things like that anymore. I just can’t help myself. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Kai thought he might be going insane. None of the people here were normal. Then again, would he even recognize normal if it slapped him in the face? He was beginning to doubt it. Tau, where are you?

Without knowing why, he stepped forward, pushing himself between two others. A few shuffling steps, and he made his way through two more groups of people who muttered something unintelligible about rudeness but didn’t stop him. He kept going, threading his way, this way and that. Some of those he pushed past were so deeply caught up in their own contemplation that they didn’t notice his passing. Others glared as he jostled his way past.

He was sweating by the time he made it to the front. The swell of bodies moved together as one giant organism, pressing him against the stage. The three women on stage had their eyes closed, heads thrown back, and their arms outstretched.

Tau, I need you.

~*~

Evazee woke to the beating of drums vibrating through her from the rock walls of the bed-hole where she curled up. She had no memory of getting back, and the events of the night before seemed nothing more than an odd dream. Somewhere in this mess, she hoped to find Peta. Had to find her.

There was no room for stretching, so she angled her legs out and dropped to the floor of the underground cavern. Pins and needles numbed her feet, and she gave up trying to stand. She leaned back, shut her eyes, and stretched her body, working life back into her feet. Drumbeats rippled through the cave, and Evazee tried to ignore them. Blocking her ears with her palms, she hummed a tuneless ditty. When she looked again, she’d pushed off the wall and stumbled to obey the drums on her tingly feet. She joined the streams of people shuffling along deeper underground.

It was hard to tell how many of them there were. Evazee struggled to focus on anything else while the drums beat. The crowd poured through a corridor into a wide cavern. The roof arched high above, lit by glowing moss. The light cast by the plant-life shone down eerily, making the faces around her seem ghoulish.

The drumbeat stopped and, as one, they all dropped to the floor. A voice filled her head. “Welcome, Awakened One.” Evazee glanced around at the others. Some sat with eyes closed and rapture on their faces. Others huddled over their knees with faces hidden. Each one seemed caught up in their own little world. Evazee couldn’t tell if the voice was only in her head or spoken to all of them.

“This is just me and you. Don’t worry about the others.”

Her stomach turned. Shasta was back in her head. And disturbingly, there was a part of her that relished him being there. She shivered and rubbed her arms, fighting panic.

“Calm yourself. Everything is going to be just fine.”

His voice rippled through her. Her cheeks flushed, and she shuddered. The desire to lose herself and surrender to the pull on her insides was overwhelming.

“Don’t fight it, Evazee.”

The sound of Shasta speaking her name was double cream chocolate. It slid through her and left a trail of well-being that took her breath away.

“Come. It’s time.”

As one, the crowd rose and moved deeper into the cave. Eva found herself on her feet shuffling along with them. The girl next to her tripped, and Evazee shot out a hand to stop her falling.

“Thanks.” It was the same brunette she’d walked with the day before. There couldn’t be two girls with Africa plastered down their necks. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she frowned as though her head was sore.

“Hey, I remember you from yesterday. I’m Ash.” She stuck out a hand and grinned, which quickly turned to a grimace as her forehead creased.

“Evazee. Are you OK?”

“I just have this headache. It won’t go away, and I keep hearing a voice in my head, talking to me. I don’t really mind. It’s just that it makes the pain so much worse. Wait.” She turned to Evazee with her eyes wide. “I’m not crazy. I’m really not. It’s just a voice. It’s not real. Right?”

Evazee opened her mouth to answer but nothing came out. Change the subject. “Um, I’m sorry about your headache. Do you know where we’re going?”

Ash shrugged. She folded into herself. “Sorting, I think.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Oh, don’t stress. It’s all to help us with our futures. There are some nice people up ahead, and they help you figure out where you fit in life. That’s what the voice said any—” She shut her mouth and sighed so hard her shoulders drooped.

Evazee slowed. “Wait, what if I don’t need help? What if I know exactly what I want to do?”

Ash frowned, “That’s weird. How could you know that?” She blinked and seemed to dismiss it. “I dunno. Tell them and let them figure it out. Look. We’re close to the front now.”

Booths were set up all across the tunnel. Behind the booths, Evazee counted four different tunnel openings branching off. Only four people were ahead of them in line. The guys manning the booths wore no shirts, baggy pants with the crotch hanging between their knees, and barefoot running shoes that were moulded around each toe.

Evazee bumped Ash and pointed. “I don’t think we should ask these guys for fashion tips.”

Ash grinned. “But darling, I’ve always wanted those pants.”

“It’s the shoes that do it for me.” Evazee shook her head with a snort. She focussed on the girl at the front of the queue. She stepped up to the booth. One of the guys had a scanner pressed to her forehead. His lips moved as he silently read whatever was scrolling up the screen. The other man fiddled with something that looked like a gun. Evazee’s heart went cold. The two men conferred briefly. The one with the gun nodded and toyed with the settings.

Without any fuss, the second man held the gun to the girl’s arm and pulled the trigger. Evazee expected her to fall down or bleed, but the girl did neither. She passed through the booth, the man escorted her to the second corridor and she disappeared.

Blood rushed past Evazee’s eardrums. The line moved quickly and it was her turn next. Ash clasped her hands together and squeezed them.

“Are you nervous?”

Ash shook her head. “No. Maybe? A little.” She slumped. “OK, maybe a lot.”

The man waved Evazee over. On impulse, she grabbed Ash and whispered, “I hear the voice in my head.”

Ash’s face lit up. “Are you kidding me?”

The man pulled Evazee forward, and her window for making conversation closed.

~*~

The music washed over Kai, and he fought the overwhelming sense of loss threatening to swallow him up. He remembered being with Tau and feeling as if his insides had been replaced with sunshine. There wasn’t a hint of sunshine in any of these people, not if their faces were anything to judge by.

The lady in the middle of the stage dropped her arms and the music cut off. The three women stepped back as a tall gentleman took to the stage from the wings. His face seemed familiar, though Kai couldn’t place him.

Silence fell over the room.

“Welcome Seekers.” The man spoke in a formal tone. “You are all here for one purpose, and one purpose alone. To become acceptable to the One. The only One. I am here to help you in your quest.” The man paused and his eyes swept across the crowd, piercing and intense. He cleared his throat. “Before you can approach Tau, you have to lose yourself. Lose your individual ways and thoughts. Outgrow the need for things to be all about you. Embrace the emptiness that remains when all that is you is burnt up, cast off and destroyed. There is no room in the heart of Tau for those who aren’t willing to die. Do you want to be acceptable? Sacrifice. Do you want Tau to love you? You’ve got to earn it. Nothing comes for free.”

His voice droned on and anger burned hot in Kai’s chest. This man claimed to know Tau, but he was twisting everything that Kai knew to be true. In between nuggets of truth, most of what this man said didn’t fit Kai’s experience of Tau in the slightest.

The man paused and dramatically stared into space. “Tau is here, and he is ready to perform a miracle so that you will all believe. Who needs a miracle?”

The crowd went wild. The preacher singled out a young girl who’d been carried in on her friend’s back. She was passed forward from hand to hand and deposited onto the stage. Her legs flopped uselessly and she had to lean back on her hands to look up at the preacher, who paid no attention to her. He worked the crowd, pacing from one side of the stage to the other. “Crank up your faith people. You can’t expect to see a miracle if you haven’t earned it.”

Finally, with the crowd buzz at an all-time high, he stopped in front of the girl. Her eyes were stretched wide, and her breath came too fast. The preacher plastered a hand to her head and yelled words at such speed that the words made no sense. Then he got down with his face in hers and shouted, “Get up! Walk!”

He reached down, took her hand, and helped her to her feet. The girl’s wobbly legs steadied. With the preacher still holding her hands, she managed to take a step. The crowd went ballistic. A girl in the front row shrieked and fainted. Some congregants bounced up and down, laughing and screaming. Others doubled over, cheeks wet with tears. The preacher let go of both her hands and stepped back. The girl took a few slow steps. Then she increased her speed and began to run.

~*~

A hooded, dark figure melted out from the shadows of an overhanging rock and slipped alongside her. Evazee ignored the person, instead concentrating on not face-planting. The floor was pitted and uneven, causing many to stumble as they followed the drums. Evazee’s shoulder stung, and she felt sick to her stomach.

The reading and shooting had been quick. After that, they’d guided her to the left-most tunnel. The light in this tunnel throbbed in a blinding shade of milky white, lit by a roof covered in crystals.

“Here, put these in your ears.”

Evazee tried to brush past, but the man in the hood sidestepped to block her. Evazee cast a quick glance around, they were drawing some suspicious looks. “Excuse me, please.”

“Stop being stubborn and put these in your ears.” He threw back the hood and Evazee’s breath caught.

“Elden? What are you doing?” She checked behind to see if they were being watched.

“What does it look like I’m doing? Getting you out of here. Put these in before the next round of drum beats.”

Evazee dubiously eyed the makeshift earplugs. They seemed to be made of chewed-up bark. “I’m not leaving without Peta.”

“We found her. Zulu is extracting her as we speak. Earplugs now, please.”

Evazee reached for them as another beat shuddered through her from the ground. One dropped, but before it could hit the floor, Elden grabbed and shoved it in her ear. Evazee cringed at the damp coldness but held out her hand for the other.

With her ears blocked, the drumbeats still rumbled through her feet, but she had no desire to follow blindly anymore. There was something far more effective about these plugs than simply using her fingers.

Elden took her hand in his, and she allowed him to drag her along. They stayed with the group, careful to blend in. Elden squinted down each passage they passed. The third opening seemed to be what he’d been looking for. It was low and the walls were rough, dotted with growing clumps of purple mushrooms.

Evazee doubled herself over, following Elden’s example. Just when she thought her back might never manage to straighten up again, they reached the hole that led upwards. He boosted her from below, and she scrambled for handholds in the rough rock.

A many-legged creature crawled over her fingers, and she bit her tongue to stop herself screaming. Fresh air washed over her face as they moved higher. With each swallow, the chaos in her mind resolved. She drank it in, longing to think straight again.

Zulu waited at the top to haul her out. His muscles bulged under the strain of her weight, but after one pull, she lay on her back next to the hole, breathing hard.

She fingered the chewed-up wads poking out of her ears. “Can I take these out now?”