“Surely creating life can’t be so simple,” Henry added, pushing his spectacles back on his nose but looking at me with a hint of challenge.
Elizabeth surprised me with her quick reply. “Is it so different from the way God created Adam, fashioning him from the mud?”
“Well, no,” Henry said. “But you’re also forgetting the black liquid Victor described. That was one of the ingredients.”
“It wasn’t liquid,” I said. My mind still felt seared by the ancient words and images, as though I’d stared too long at the sun. “What came out of that sac was alive. It didn’t just flow; it moved of its own will.”
“Right,” said Henry, “so all we need is mud, a body part, and a magical liquid we don’t have.”
I shook my head, suddenly realizing something. “No. Even then it wouldn’t make life. The body’s just a shell. It has no spirit. The body must first be grown in our world until it’s ready for Konrad to inhabit.”
“This was all in those writings?” Henry asked, incredulous.
I nodded. “In the end it all came in such a rush.”
I saw Henry glance at Elizabeth before returning his gaze to me. “And you’re certain, absolutely certain, that this is what you read-or saw in those cave symbols? It can’t have been an easy translation, even with the butterfly’s help.”
Firmly I said, “I’m sure, Henry.”
“And you’re already imagining going ahead with this?” he asked. “It seems a primitive, barbaric thing.”
“What other choice do we have, Henry?” Elizabeth said to him impatiently, and I was startled-and delighted- by her fervor. “If I’d merely read it in a book, yes, I’d say it was outlandish. But we’ve entered the land of the dead, all of us, and seen what it holds. And we need to get Konrad out of there as soon as possible. That noise…”
I saw Henry suppress a shudder as he remembered the weird moan lifting to us from the depths. But I also remembered how Analiese had said she’d never seen anything-which meant that, whatever it was down there, it hadn’t stirred for a long, long time. I didn’t see why it necessarily had to be evil. A greater part of me wanted to know more about it. But if Henry and Elizabeth feared it and thought it would harm Konrad, all to the good. It would keep them focused on the urgency of our endeavor.
“Yes,” I said. “I don’t think we should waste any time.”
“That liquid,” she said, “or whatever substance it was. We need to know how to get it.”
“Why didn’t the hieroglyphs tell you?” Henry asked.
“There may be other writings in the cave,” I suggested. “Or elsewhere. We’ll need to go back.”
She nodded reluctantly. “Though, I don’t like the place.”
“Henry does, I think,” I said.
He leaned back with the look of someone remembering a fleeting and guilty pleasure. “I can’t deny it,” he said. “There was something… Can ‘liberating’ be the right word?”
“You’re the expert with words,” I said, and grinned.
“I’m different when I’m there,” said Elizabeth. “I don’t like myself.”
I laughed. “You are more yourself. That’s the wonder of it. We all are.”
She blushed and set her gaze on the shoreline. “Well, if that’s true, I’d be very worried if I were you. You’re even more reckless and arrogant inside.”
I was indignant. “How so?”
Henry snorted. “With those butterflies on you, you carry on like you’re a demigod. And what you did with the spirit clock-”
“Didn’t we all return safely?”
“Well, yes,” he said.
“And how long were our bodies without us?”
“A minute and two seconds.”
“An extra second only!”
“There are limits to what the human body can endure!” Henry exclaimed.
“I think you’d be amazed, my friend.” They clearly had no idea of the kind of power and vitality I felt in the spirit world, how my senses and experiences there seemed even more real than the sunlight and wind and water that surrounded me now. I realized that, more than anything, I wanted to return.
“Victor.”
I was expecting Henry to chastise me further, but I saw him staring fixedly at the tiller. He pointed.
“There’s something on your right hand.”
I glanced down quickly and in amusement said, “That, Henry, is called a shadow.” I was remarkably glad to see that familiar look of worry etched upon his pale brow. He was not yet so transformed by the spirit world.
“No,” he said, moving closer. “Where your fingers used to be.”
I looked and gave a rueful grunt, for, by some trick of the light, it did indeed look as if I had a fourth and fifth finger, gripping the tiller.
“It’s just shadow, Henry. Look.” And I moved my hand along the tiller. The two phantom fingers elongated and then seeped back beneath my hand with a fluid speed that was not at all shadowlike.
I jerked my hand off the tiller.
“It’s still there!” Elizabeth cried, pointing.
I turned my hand over and saw something dark and slick against my flesh.
“What is it?” gasped Henry.
“Some kind of beetle!” Elizabeth said.
I gave my hand a violent shake, but it clung. I swiped it off with my left hand. “Where’d it go?” I said, looking about the cockpit floor.
“It’s on your other hand now!” shouted Henry.
I saw it slyly squeezed into the fold between my thumb and palm. In growing alarm I stood, striking at it.
“I can’t get it off!” I cried. “I can’t even feel it!”
Unmanned, the boat strayed into the wind, and as the sail luffed, direct sunlight washed over my hand, and instantly the shadowy insect seeped up my shirt sleeve.
Horrified, I tore off my jacket, threw it to the deck, and desperately began ripping open my shirt, popping buttons.
The boat swayed, and the swinging boom nearly brained me.
“There it is!” cried Elizabeth, and I caught just a glimpse of something scuttling into my armpit.
“Gah!” I lifted my arm high, staggering off balance, and turned to the sun so I could see better. The thing oozed from the tangle of my underarm hair around to my back so that I lost sight of it.
“Where’s it gone?” I demanded, lurching about so Henry and Elizabeth might spot it.
“It doesn’t like the light!” Henry said. “It rushes to hide.”
“Just get it off me!” I cried.
“It’s too quick!” Henry protested, hands slapping at my skin. “It flows like mercury!”
I was in a near frenzy to rid myself of this pest, and whirled about, looking back over my shoulder.
“Victor,” Elizabeth said with frightening solemnity, “it has gone into your pants.”
I tore my waistband loose even as I kicked off my shoes. I yanked one leg free and saw the shadow crawler dart down my second pant leg. When I finally rid myself of the pants, the diabolical little creature stretched toward my underpants and disappeared.
I hesitated only half a second before dragging my underpants off. I was stark naked now and didn’t care one bit, so frenzied was I.
“Get a jar from the picnic hamper,” I shouted, “and catch it!”
Elizabeth’s eyes traveled all over me, tracking it. I didn’t care. All I could think was, Would it get inside me somehow? I clenched my buttocks tightly together.
As the boat swayed and turned, sun and shadow played across my body, and the shadow creature now bolted from my privates to the back of my thigh.
“On my right leg!” I cried.
Henry dumped out two jars of water and tossed one to Elizabeth. I turned my front to the sun to keep the thing behind me.
