Evelyn’s head felt ready to split apart when she regained consciousness. A smoky stench, like rotten eggs, fouled the air of the dim, twisting rock chasm where she lay. This isn’t Basil’s apartment¾where am I? How’d I get here?
She rolled to her right side, sat up onto her shins and gasped from the effort; her stomach knotting with every putrid inhale. On each side of her, the rock walls jumped back and forth like opposing car pistons revving into overdrive. Recalling the biomechanics from her choral training, Evelyn leaned forward, rested her head on her knees, and waited for her nausea to pass.
While she waited, she ran her fingertips along the length of her arms and legs. No broken bones. She wriggled her toes. Barefoot, too. She fingered the hem of her dress—rough linen instead of the silk and nylon composite one she had worn to Basil’s apartment. When did I get this?
Evelyn started shivering. Don’t panic! She let her gaze drift upward. A pallid sun glimmered through the mist in the spidery fissure above her head. As her senses cleared, she noted a faint, rhythmic hum like the splash of waves slapping against a distant beach. This must be a lava tube, she reasoned and wrinkled her nose. Recent, too, from the smell of it. How can I feel cold when the walls are still warm?
She leaned forward, intending to stand, and a coughing spasm wracked her chest. Evelyn sat back against her calves, clutched her arms, and waited for the spasm to subside. Stay calm. Grasping a nearby outcropping, she pulled herself onto all fours, and waited for her vertigo to subside. Wherever this is, I can’t stay here long. Who knows what poisons I’m breathing?
She peered up at the ashen sun and listened. If I follow the wave sounds, they might lead me out of this place. Drawing again on her voice training, she took two shallow breaths, then a larger one. Just enough to get to my feet. Using protruding rocks for handholds, she pulled herself to a standing position. “There!” she gasped with tottering pride. Wait until my head fully clears, then get out of here!
A few moments later, she made a few tentative steps in one direction, hesitated, and listened again. The wave slaps seemed muffled, further away. She stumbled back to where she had started and went a few steps in the opposite direction. No difference.
Feeling woozy again, Evelyn rested against a boulder and listened. Do the slaps sound louder this way? She closed her eyes, intent upon the waves’ unceasing roar. No difference. She bit her lower lip in frustration. They sounded louder the first direction I took; now they’re louder the other way. She shrugged in resignation. Relying on hearing is useless. There are only two directions I can go; I’ll have to take my chances.
She resumed her toil through the winding lava tube in the second direction she’d chosen, taking shallow breaths, then stopped due to another attack of giddiness. The beach can’t be this way, my feet feel angled uphill. She slumped onto the crusty floor to rest and review, her ears alert to every sound. The waves DO sound louder here.
Evelyn shrugged in self-pity. What of it? She gazed up and down the gloomy rock tube. I’m stuck here—wherever here is!
“OK!” she said, rousing herself. I can’t just stay here, either, when nobody knows where I am. “Forward, march.” Think of a marching tune. Singing the first verse of “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp” from Naughty Marietta renewed her coughing spasms, so she hummed the rest until she encountered a pale light shaft illuminating the grit under her feet.
An outlet? Evelyn ignored her rasping lungs, plunged forward, and rounded another rock outcropping. The crooked light shaft widened up ahead. Gasping and coughing, she stumbled over a stray stone, lost her balance, and tumbled onto the chasm floor. She staggered to her feet, brushed herself off, then rubbed the fine grains between her fingers. Sand! The beach must be close! Exulted by her discovery, she lumbered toward the fissure, the light shaft broadening with her every lurching stride.
When she reached the opening, she took three, deep, cleansing breaths and loosened the vapor from her lungs. Coughing yet feeling better, she leaned against the rocky opening and scanned the dark, sluggish river that extended to the gun-metal horizon. Along the horizon, several volcanoes chuffed out yellow steam clouds. Where is this place? How did I get here?
Evelyn inhaled, exhaled, and repeated. No pain! She grinned ruefully at her accomplishment. “Out here I can breathe, at least.”
Cupping her hands over her eyes, she studied the strand again. Where is everybody? She shrugged and called out as loudly as she could, “Is anybody here?”
No response. Listless waves slapped against the sand.
Evelyn descended the debris field, picking her way among the lumps of shale and pumice until she reached the shoreline and looked again in both directions. No sign of anything. The sun remained high in the sky. She frowned in perplexity. I spent at least half an hour climbing down to the beach, but the sun doesn’t appear to have moved at all!
Evelyn squared her shoulders and followed her pale shadow up the beach. I’ll try putting the sun at my back and head in the opposite direction. That way I should be going north.
She crossed over berm after berm until she lost count, collapsing finally atop one of the highest knolls. “Hello?” she called with little hope. “Does anyone know I’m here?”
Receiving no answer, she slumped back onto the sand and closed her eyes. Does anyone know I’m here? Did Basil do this? How?
An icy spear pierced her chest. Miriam! Evelyn surged to her feet. If Basil’s done anything to her—
In the corner of her eye, Evelyn spotted something moving. Far out in the water, what resembled the spar of a ship’s mast skimmed over the waves, running parallel to shore. Sudden flames erupted from one end of the spar and enveloped its top in smoke. Turning around, it headed back in Evelyn’s direction, revealing the flames and smoke billowing about the triangular head of a giant sea serpent.
Evelyn’s skin crawled with fear. Hide! She got to her feet, but her weary legs crumpled beneath her. What can I do? She scanned the berm. No caves; no place to hide.
Surging through the waves like a navy cruiser, the serpent neared the shore and thundered in perfect English. “Evelyn Gorovic. I’ve been expecting you!”
Evelyn flattened against the sand. The serpent halted in waist-deep in the water, fifty yards out, and flung its head in anger in both directions. “I won’t hurt you,” the beast promised. “But don’t make me have to come after you.”
Roll, Evelyn! Stay down! Twisting and turning in the sand, Evelyn rolled into a depression between the two dunes and peered over the top of the crest nearest the water. The giant beast stomped out of the water on its tree-trunk legs and flippered away the brackish water sluicing down its ample belly. Snorting fire, the irritated dragon lumbered up the berm and halted. “I have you now!” it crowed. “Come with me!”
“No!” Evelyn cried, springing to her feet. She plowed halfway up the next berm and stopped, her feet and legs scrabbling in the sand like tractor wheels caught in the mud. “No.”
The beast’s slobbering maw inched closer. “You have no choice.”
“Who are you?” Evelyn gulped, the beast’s slobber splashing off her forehead. “What are you?!”
“I am Angra Mainyu,” the dragon announced. “King of the Amesha Spentras!”
“What are they?” Evelyn gulped.
“My loyal subjects, the inhabitants of this place,” the dragon responded, its front claws encircling her rib cage. “The proud kingdom of Dakhanavar.”
“What?” Evelyn murmured, quivering with fright.
“Evelyn,” another male voice called from farther away. “Evelyn!”
At last! Somebody. Evelyn rocked her body back and forth in vain escape, “Help!”
Powerful hands grabbed Evelyn under her armpits and lofted her into the air. Soaring toward the frail sun, she spotted a stray storm cloud resting upon its lower rim.
“Wake up, Evelyn,” Zarkisian requested. “It’s all in your head!”
End Part 3
