Ashley’s cheeks flamed. “Exactly what are you trying to say? Are you mad at me for dissing you about cracking the code?”
Just as Sapphira opened her mouth to reply, a loud click echoed in the chamber, followed by a low hum.
Walter yanked out Excalibur. “What was that?”
“It’s the timer!” Sapphira showed him her digital counter. “It hit zero!”
Elam lowered the spyglass and scanned the field of crooked trees, but the gatekeeper was now nowhere in sight.
“Glewlwyd?” he called.
Leaves crunched. Elam jerked around toward the noise. Could the Caitiff be lurking somewhere? Keeping his eyes focused in the direction he had seen the gatekeeper, he called again. “Glewlwyd, I am Elam, son of Shem, grandson of Noah the ark builder. Merlin has commissioned me to go to the altar of martyrs and find Enoch and two worthy young ladies for an important mission.”
A high-pitched male voice replied, scratching its way through its words. “So you say, young man.” The voice drew closer. “I would know Merlin by sight, but how am I to believe who you are?”
Elam squinted at the source, a barely visible, stooped old man, now standing two arm lengths away. His transparent image seemed to undulate, like ripples on a pond.
“I don’t know how to prove who I am,” Elam said. “Merlin just told me to answer your questions.”
“He did, did he?” Glewlwyd rubbed his hands together. “Well, what shall I ask this wanderer who looks sixteen but would have me believe he is Elam, a boy born thousands of years ago but kidnapped and thought dead?”
“You seem to know a lot about me,” Elam replied.
A low howl drifted through the trees. As the skinny needles on a nearby fir tree trembled, Elam tensed his jaw. The old man, however, seemed to pay no attention to the howl. His voice stayed calm. “I am Glewlwyd the Guileless, the oracle of integrity and candor. I see through to the soul, and I speak all matters plainly. Since we commune at the altars of Heaven, I am well acquainted with Noah and his family, but I have never met this son of Shem.”
“That’s because you couldn’t have seen me in Heaven. I ate fruit from the tree of life, so I never died.”
“I have heard the old tree-of-life story before.” Glewlwyd raised a barely visible finger. “But there is another possible reason for someone’s absence from Heaven. The real Elam could be an unbeliever wandering in Hades, a lost soul who will someday suffer eternally in the Lake of Fire. You, on the other hand, are obviously one of the faithful, for I perceive not a single dark spot in your soul.”
Elam tapped himself on the chest. “Then you must know I’m telling the truth. If I’m spotless, then I couldn’t be a liar!”
“But you could be deceived,” the old man replied, half closing one eye. “You might truly believe you are Elam, and you would be making that claim with all integrity. But I must doubt your claim. The light in your eyes indicates that you are among the living, not one of Hades’ prisoners. If Elam were alive, he would be more bent and ugly than I am, and that is a considerable statement.”
Another howl sang out from the opposite side, closer. The first call answered, closer still. Elam shifted his eyes from left to right. The Caitiff were coming.
The old man smiled. “It seems that we will soon have some very dangerous visitors. Perhaps I should ask you a question that will test your claim so you can either escape through the gate or run for the grasslands.”
Elam nodded. “Go ahead, but we’d better make it fast.”
“This should be easy.” Glewlwyd’s liquid fingers stroked his equally liquid chin. “Name all of your brothers.”
“Okay.” Elam tucked his spyglass under his arm and began counting on his fingers. “Asshur and Arpachshad were the only ones born when I was kidnapped, but I memorized the rest of them from the Bible, so there’s also Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and . . .” He paused, glancing for a moment into the tree canopy overhead. “Meshech,” he said, looking down again at the old man.
“That is correct, but as you indicated, anyone could learn that answer, especially someone who is trying to impersonate Elam. So the value of that question is now void.”
Elam heaved a loud sigh. “Then can you ask another?”
“Certainly. I thought of another while you were counting.”
A new sound trickled into Elam’s ears, soft footsteps crackling leaves—in