Tree of Life Book III

Part II - Chapter 12

TREE OF LIFE BOOK III – PART II

CHAPTER 12

I took them to my refuge in the heart of the mountain.

We rode upon the waves over to the far side of the peak, where the secret passage into my cavern was hidden, to see if we could still enter into it that way.

It was too late. That particular path in was already fathoms beneath the surface.

But there was still the oculus, the skylight in the ceiling of the structure. I lifted my head and began to search for it among the shards of the peak that still protruded above the water line.

"There!" I pointed to a spot on our right.

Annie gave the word and the twins obeyed. They were Elladan and Elrohir by name and on their Lady's command, they bent their will to it and lifted the entire ship into the air and we took to the sky.

Carried by the wind, we swooped over the water and then climbed higher, until we came to a round opening on a plateau by the side of the mountain near the top—the oculus, the aperture, the last remaining entrance into my secret hideaway from the world outside. We began floating in.

Up close, the oculus was large, nearly fifty yards across and we had no trouble fitting through it at all.

There was water inside too. Placing our ship down on its surface, we sailed aside a ways and got out of the whipping wind and the rain. We relaxed for a bit. We looked around at each other and smiled. At least for the moment, we were out from beneath the hammering and the beating of the storm outside. I saw Annie and the others breathe a sigh of relief as they glanced around and took in their surroundings. I did too.

The place was much changed from the last time I had been here.

It was dark now and the ground had been covered over with water. The previous landscape of lush grass and trees was gone. From what I could see, the place had become nothing but a murky lake with stony walls all around, curving upward into a round exit of light at the very apex of the whole structure, like the inside of a hollow, broken eggshell.

I sighed. My shoulders drooped. We had our work cut out for us.

~~~

There were three connections with the outside world, not counting the one in the roof. I knew exactly where they were. Two were the spots where the original river to the place came into and out of the cavern. The third was where I had normally walked in.

I led Annie and the others out to the first one and examined it in detail. It took us a while, because this first exit and likely the others too, was well underwater by now and we had to dive in deep just to see it.

After poring over the situation, we all came to the same conclusion.

It was obvious. As the water level rose outside, the excess had been pumped into the cavern through these passages and that's why we were now up to our eyebrows in flood water. If we were going to have a place for a shelter at all, these holes must be plugged up and the influx of water stopped. And quickly.

Annie and Malchus got to work right away. Manipulating the bedrock at the bottom of the first exit, they worked in enough debris and dirt from around it to block up the hole, so no new water could get into the place. It was like stitching up a wound. They fused it together by their power. They made it as secure as possible.

We hurried around to the other spots after that and the two did the same thing there.

When they had finished the work, we checked the water level again. The rise in the surface had slowed down but it was still moving up and fast.