"What did you see?" he asked, gently enfolding her. "I'm gonna take it from you and send you back to the team . . . you make sure Medic heals you up, all right? You did real good," he murmured as her breathing calmed and the images began to flood his mind.
"Water. An abyss," she said quickly, sending lightning-fast images from her mind into his. "A cave. Bi'r al arwah"
"Say it in English for me," he said, holding her tighter, unable to scavenge his mind for the translation while also receiving her transmission.
"Well. Cave. Spirits," she said, beginning to liyperventilate. "Crusaders.. South. Bedrock."
Out of nowhere, fetid hands began to reach, through the fallen rock, moving Carlos's man-made dam. His kissed Dragon Rider on her forehead. "You did real good," he said again. "Thank you." Then he sent her away in a burst of white light, reached out and called his blade into his grip, spun and hacked away a clawing hand, and was gone.
He hit the floor of the safe house without warning, almost causing Tobias to shoot him.
"Sorry, man, it was hectic down there. Did Cordell get through?"
"Yes, he is in," Tobias said, his gaze torn between Carlos and the window for a moment before he ducked down. "And Dragon Rider?"
"She'll have a helluva headache, but she's back with the team. So many wars, so much emotion is charged into those stones . . . she almost had a stroke." Carlos wiped his brow with his forearm. "I only got pieces. . . gotta hope Cordell can put it together. She said a word I don't know . . . Bi'r al something. Cave, bedrock, water, spirits, abyss, south, Crusaders, which I know is the Templars, but the rest. . . hey. It was hitting her so hard that all I could get was one-word sound bites."
"Bi'r al arwah?" Tobias said slowly, lowering his weapon.
"Yeah," Carlos said, still breathing hard. "I think so."
"Bi'r al arwah is the Well of Souls. Crusaders hacked an entrance hole into the bedrock of the Temple Mount from the south. Under that rock is a natural cave where it is believed that the Ark of the Covenant was originally hidden during the destruction of Jerusalem before it was secreted away to Ethiopia . . . also in the Talmud, the cave is said to be the center of the world where the waters of the Flood still rage from the abyss."
Tobias dropped down to sit and allowed his back to lean against crumbling plaster. "Carlos, that rock is where they say the archangel Gabriel held it here on earth when it wanted to ascend to Heaven with the great prophet Muhammad. The crack in the rock is from where he made his visionary journey. Souls of martyrs and saints guard that well."
Carlos just stared at Tobias for a moment. "If Gabriel has his handprint on pure bedrock beneath a temple that people from the three major religions have devoutly prayed in for thousands of years . . . pure rock that sits over the rushing waters that began the world and also wiped it out, with spiritual sentries on 24/7 watch ... I can tell you that if I was trying to keep something safe from the darkside, I would think that would be like a spiritual Fort Knox, don't you?"
Dragon Rider came out of Carlos's jettison, took two staggered steps forward, and dropped. Damali, Marlene, and Berkfield were on her in seconds. But Marlene quickly held out her stick and used it to bar Damali from going closer.
"Me and Richard got this," Marlene said. "If she came back with contagion or a demon presence, you don't need that in your system."
Berkfield squatted beside the fallen Guardian, instinctively placing his hands on either side of her head as Marlene slowly passed the now-glowing ebony walking stick over Dragon Rider's body.
"Her nose is bleeding, never a good sign with a seer." Berk-field stared up at Marlene as Quick came to squat beside her fallen Guardian sister, and the rest of the team gathered around.
"I don't care what you say, Mar," Damali said, pacing behind Marlene. "If she doesn't come around in the next few minutes, I'm going in."
People were beyond touching one another. The guards at the shrine entrance lowered weapons and used gun nuzzles from their automatics to run up and down Cordell's body to be sure he was clear of firearms.
"There is limited food and water here," a soldier said, not allowing Cordell to immediately pass. "If you are not injured--" "I don't need to eat, I just want to pray. Bricks fell on my head and--"
"You are not bleeding."
Cordell nodded, his nervous gaze darting around the fearsome retinue of soldiers. "This is why I want to pray. The way the ceiling fell, I was in a pocket. I got knocked out but not bloodied. My neighbors weren't so lucky," Cordell replied in Hebrew, beginning to weep earnest tears. "But I saw the creatures pulling my neighbors down the hall to the deaths--the screaming, the crying. I cannot get it out of my head. What are these things that eat human flesh . . . that murder?"
"He is an old man," another soldier argued from a high post. "He's able to talk, isn't sick. Let him through--it could be your father or your brother . . . and since we're all probably going to die in this Apocalypse, do you want to have it on your head that you left an old man out here to fend for himself against demons? What will you say to Yahveh?"
The soldier that had stopped Cordell lifted his automatic to allow him to pass. "Shalom."
Dragon Rider sat up slowly, coughing as Berkfield wiped his bloody nose with the back of his hand arid the collective teams released quiet exhalations of relief.
"You really took one for the team there, kiddo," Berkfield said, dabbing his nose.
"Thanks for going in and putting my poor head back together." She lifted her dark sandy hair off her neck and closed her eyes with a wince. "Can't remember a thing I saw, but have a nasty headache for the trouble."
"You'll be all right," Marlene said, stooping down to massage her neck. "I can draw the rest of it out, but whatever you saw was for Carlos and Cordell only . . . just as well, because it might have been something that would haunt you for the rest of your days."
Dragon Rider leaned into Marlene's nimble touch. "Like none of the rest of this would?"