The Six Messiahs - Mark Frost [160]
She sat, carefully controlling her breathing in order to send no harsh signals into the room; after a few tense moments, Jack sat across from her.
"I want to tell you about my dream," she said.
After a few moments: "Go ahead."
He watched her with a cold, impatient scowl. She took another deep breath; how she began was most important.
"In my dream the earth is my mother; my father is the sky. They are apart but they live side by side, touching each other along the horizon, in balance. Because they are in harmony, the animals are born into the world, each in the image of the gods who share the heavens and the earth. The people are the last creatures to appear; they take the longest to create."
"Why?"
"They carry the most responsibility...."
"What does that mean?"
"They are the only ones who are given both light and darkness. Animals obey their gods without questioning; they know only goodness; the people are the only ones who must listen to both sides. They are the only ones who must decide."
"Decide what?"
"Which side is stronger in them."
She met his eyes briefly; anger flashed in him before she looked away.
"Did he send you here?" said Jack, jerking his head at the wall he shared with Doyle's compartment.
"I am only telling you my dream," she said simply, waiting.
"All right," he said finally.
"In my dream, the people have fallen from balance; they have forgotten that they were born from both earth and sky. Their minds grow strong but their hearts are closed; they have lost respect for the other animals and their gods. The people now believe they found their own way to the earth and that they are here alone, separate from the rest of creation. Their minds are strong, but by deciding to follow this path they have turned away from truth.
"This creates an emptiness in them. Into this emptiness come thoughts from the mind, thoughts that speak without the voice of the heart. Thoughts of power and controlling others. Darkness. This is how the wound begins to open."
"The wound?"
"The wound in the earth. The wound we have seen in our dream."
"In the desert."
She nodded. "What the people need is a healing, to bring the heart and mind together; what the mind tells them is that they need more power, and in this way the wound grows deeper. I am only telling you my dream."
Jack's look softened, interest creeping into his eyes, fighting the pain.
"In the dream we share, a tower has been built in the desert," she said, feeling confident enough to include him now. "My people use the medicine wheel to open their hearts and hear the voices of our gods; although we call out to the sky to hear them, we know the gods live inside us and that is where we must listen."
"And the tower?"
"This tower is like our medicine wheel, except it calls out to the darkness. A wound is open beneath it in the earth and the Black Crow Man asks the darkness to rise out of the wound and send its power over the earth."
"And this is how the darkness wins," said Jack.
"This is how time ends. This is how the people are destroyed; because they have opened the wound and allowed the Black Crow Man to invite this darkness into the world." "Who is this man?"
"In each of us, the false voice of the mind. In the dream he is the one who leads the people to the wrong path and calls out the darkness from deep inside the earth."
"And in the real world," said Jack, "he is my brother."
She hesitated. "I believe that is so."
"Who are the Six?"
"The ones who are called to stop him."
"Called by whom?"
"That is not for us to say."
"But you and I are among them."
"We were given the dream. Yes, I believe that was the reason."
Jack sat silently, face contorting as he struggled with waves of emotion. She watched compassionately but made no movement toward him; he would have to reach for her.
"How? How can we stop him?" asked Jack, raw fear