The Source - Michael Cordy [120]
Suddenly the nymph with red flowers in its hair appears before him, stroking its distended abdomen. It begins to speak in a disconcertingly familiar voice, listing Ross's actions, good and bad, as if it knows his innermost thoughts and motives. As it recounts his balance sheet of deeds, the nymph morphs into his wife. Lauren stands before him, naked, beautiful, stroking her pregnant belly.
'Are we dead?' he asks.
With a heartbreaking smile, she tells him that deeds are everything and that he can still make amends for any wrongdoing.
'How? What do you want me to do?'
'I love you, Ross, and I know you love me, but there's something you must promise me you'll do.'
When she tells him he begins to cry. 'But I can't do that.'
'You can, Ross, and you must. This is important. Promise me.'
He tries to argue with her but it makes no difference. Deep down, after self-interest and self-delusion have been stripped away, he knows he has no choice. 'I promise,' he says.
Suddenly he's choking. He can't breathe. A wave of panic rushes through him. He tries to open his eyes but they sting as though bathed in acid. A reflex makes him swallow. He retches and sits upright, gasping for air. He opens his eyes again and the stinging is gone. He is sitting in the pool in the middle of the chamber. And he is alone.
He looks up at the looming hydra and crystalline monolith, then down at the pool. There is a strong mineral taste in his mouth. The water is less cloudy than before, almost clear, and it is no longer bubbling. He has no idea how long he has been lying there but as he looks down at his chest he knows one thing with cold certainty: he is no longer dead. Or dying.
He feels his chest, unable to find any trace of where the bullet entered his body, pierced his heart and exited his back. Sister Chantal claims to have subsisted for centuries by visiting the garden's lake, and taking away crystals from the tunnel. These by-products of the Source have limits, though: Weber died, even though he was immersed in the lake. Ross, though, has supped directly from the source of life. It has brought him back from death. He is sure of it.
He stands up, as naked as the day he was born, and climbs out of the pool. Studying where the water flows into the chamber, his caving experience tells him it will lead eventually to the surface. His clothes lie beside the pool and he can see samples of healing crystals everywhere. Though inferior to the Source, they appear brighter than those in the tunnel, which Sister Chantal is confident can cure Lauren. He can easily take one, climb out and escape. Within weeks he will be at Lauren's side with the means to save her and their child. He can have everything he wants, everything he dreamed of when he embarked on this insane quest . . .
Nevertheless, as Ross emerged with the others from the dark passageway into the relative light of the caves behind the ante- chamber, he knew he had received the gift of life so that he could fulfil the vow he had made to Lauren when he had died – if that was what had happened to him. Even if it had been only his conscience speaking, he knew that his vow reflected Lauren's thoughts and desires. He stopped chanting and Zeb touched him as if to check he was real. 'What happened to you?' she whispered. He heard the awe in her voice. 'The Superior General told us Marco shot you through the heart.'
'He did.'
'He said you were dead,' she said.
'I was.'
'I don't understand,' said Hackett. 'They said the nymphs fed you to the worms.'
Ross pointed to the white shapes flitting in the shadows. 'They took me to the Source.'
Sister Chantal smiled. 'It brought you back.'
'Yes.' As Ross led them to the antechamber he explained all that had happened to him. 'When Torino entered the chamber I slipped out of the back exit into the dark passageways, which eventually led to you.'
There was a pause, then Hackett said, 'You could have escaped. You could have got out and saved your wife. Why didn't you?'
'Too much unfinished business here.'
'But you could have cured Lauren,' said Sister Chantal.