Tree of Life Book III

Part II - Chapter 12

We all lifted our heads as one. It was clear what the problem was.

The oculus.

We had to stop up the top as well.

Annie bit her lip. She scanned about her. "Where are the twins?"

The twins had been behind her all this time. But they were not on their feet. They had sat down and only meant to shut their eyes and rest for a second, but before they knew it, they had passed out with exhaustion and now were slumped over and snoring with abandon and drooling.

Annie shook her head. "Never mind them. I'll fly up myself…"

I touched her arm. "No, we are all spent. We can wait until the morning…"

"We don't have until morning! By morning, this whole place will be filled, all the way to the oculus…"

"Lady, look!" Malchus pointed.

Annie followed Malchus' finger.

I did too.

In the distance, a hundred yards from the ship, a figure was slicing in and out of the surface as it sped along the water, like a dolphin, a dancer of the sea. I couldn't see it clearly, but it wore the appearance of a shining, translucent, figure of a young woman, with long hair and a long mirror-like dress to match. Her dress was light blue, like the sea beneath the summer sun.

I stood back and frowned. How could anyone swim that fast?

Malchus spoke to Annie without turning his head. "That's her, isn't it?" He shook his head. "I haven't seen her for so long. I didn't even know if she was still…" He turned to her.

Annie's face was grim.

Malchus edged closer. "What do you think she'll do?"

Annie made no answer.

Back in the distance, something else was happening.

The water had begun to turn, around and around in a wide circle.

A whirlpool.

The rest of the people on the ship were now focused on it too. They saw the woman. They saw her amid the waves. Some cursed. Some were pointing over at her. Others murmured and argued among themselves over what will happen next.

They gasped.

A waterspout appeared.

A clear blue pillar.

It shot up from the surface, from the middle of the whirlpool.

It rose higher and higher until the tip of it was halfway up the height of the cavern.

A shadow flitted along the side of the water column and I couldn't make it out for what it was, until it blew out of the side of it and landed onto the very top of the pillar.

It was the woman.

She was riding atop of it as it lifted her toward the aperture, much like I would do on a tree of my own making, if I had wanted a view of the forest from the very top of the canopy.

The waterspout grew taller and taller and as it did so, it drew water toward itself to shore up its base. Water beneath our boat was in turn sucked in toward it and by it, our ship as well.

By this time, the twins had woken up again and they dove into the situation. They managed a gale to blow on the ship in the opposite direction, to keep it away from the centre of the whirlpool. They kept us at a safe distance throughout.

Another minute and the column had reached the top. The woman got off her ride to stand on the stony lip of the edge of the opening. With a wave of her hand, she guided the water and made the column continue its journey to the outside, past the oculus until it was well away from the cavern and the opening, so it could not possibly drain back into our hollow structure inside the mountain.