Read Online Dead & Godless by Donald J. Amodeo - Free Book Online Page B

you?”
    “Because
I can explain that evidence without the need of any of your metaphysical hocus
pocus.”
    “I’m
looking forward to it, but first . . .”
    The
forest gave way to a small clearing. A circle of stones paved the sacred
ground, remarkable for just how ordinary they were. Crystal had accounted for
every surface on the island, but not here. These bricks were cut from
limestone; dull, opaque and bleached by the sun. Corwin guessed that they must
have been quarried from some remote region. Arches ringed the circle, and though
the ravages of time had reduced most of them to rubble, two remained intact.
    Rising
from her seat atop the base of a ruined arch, a female star child addressed
them.
    “When
I heard the Council say that you had been exiled to the forest, I knew you
would come here.”
    “Word
travels fast on this island,” muttered Corwin.
    “That’s
telepathy for you,” said Ransom.
    “Gaeda,
you shouldn’t have come,” spoke their translucent companion.
    “I’m
not afraid,” she told him, care and courage shining in her voice.
    Though
the star children were faceless, or perhaps because they were faceless,
their words held a depth of emotion that moved the heart as sure as the warmest
smile or most hateful sneer.
    As
the travelers stepped into the circle, something disturbed the air beneath the
two arches—a scintillating glow, barely visible from afar. Cycling colors, the
light gently coruscated like the surface of a pool.
    “Through
the portal to my left is a world unlike the one you know,” spoke Ransom. “Once
you step through, you will not be the same, nor will you ever be able to
return. What awaits you there is a life of toil. However, such a life also has
its rewards. You’ll find that which can fill your hollowness, strange new
gemfruits and jewelberries and maybe more.”
    “But
what shall I do when I find them?” asked the accused.
    Ransom
planted a friendly slap on his back.
    “You’ll
figure it out.”
    “How
can you know all this?” Gaeda inquired. “None can see beyond the gates.”
    “I
walked this land when the sun was young and the seven gates were raised. They
hold no secrets from me.”
    Firm
in his resolve, the accused faced the mysterious doorway.
    “I’m
ready.”
    “Then
so am I,” said Gaeda.
    The two
star children joined hands and strode towards the undulating light. Upon
touching it, they became light themselves, melting into the portal. Glyphs that
Corwin hadn’t before noticed lit up along the arch’s bricks and seared in runic
circles on the floor.
    “You’re
next,” Ransom intoned.
    “I’ll
take what’s behind door number two.”

8
    Shadows in the Storm
    A luminous
network of fibers stretched through the blackness like a spider’s web, had that
spider happened to be a master architect with a penchant for the psychedelic. They
brightened from violet to pink before meeting at bulbous orange junction
points, and countless pulses of light traveled their length, flashing in the
junctions, changing course or forking along multiple routes with the manic
speed of lightning channeled through a steel grid.
    “Neurons,”
perceived Corwin. “It’s like we’re inside a brain.”
    “A
mostly empty one,” said Ransom.
    There
was a methodology to the strobing of the thought highways. Some paths, heavy
with traffic, were almost constantly alight, feeding tributaries that branched
off in a hundred directions. Other fibers siphoned the signals into huge,
lambent clusters where the light cycled in complex loops but never escaped.
    “Did
you know that the brain can be triggered to sense a presence, even when no one
is there?” asked Corwin. “All you have to do is release the right chemical or
apply an electromagnetic current to the right spot, and presto! One ‘religious
experience’ coming right up!”
    “A
man may hallucinate that he’s drowning, but that doesn’t make the ocean any
less real,” replied Ransom. “And you seem to be