75

All Heart

Soon, they crawled out of the tunnel into the far chamber where they stood up and waved with the flashlight to their parents.

"We're okay,” Lottica called across the chasm and then realized she wasn’t sure about Nick’s head. “How’s the bleeding?” she whispered to him.

Nick gingerly touched his temple with the wad of tissues. The bleeding had almost stopped, but the wound was tender. "I think I'll live.” He let Lottica take a look.

“It’s not that big a cut, but all that blood at first was scary,” she told him.

“Head wounds bleed a lot.”

“Well, thanks, Dr. Breima. What do we do now?”

Nick didn’t have a chance to answer because Beilla shouted across the chasm, "Take the rings to the pools!"

Lottica and Nick each dug the rings from their pockets. When Nick held his father’s ring it was pulsating brightly. In Lottica’s hand, Beilla’s ring was too.

"It's as if they've come alive," Nick whispered.

"Like Hawk’s eyes the other day," Lottica said in awe. "Do you get the feeling Beilla may be right about all this?"

"He may be right, but for the wrong reasons,” Nick reminded her. “Come on. Let's check out these weird pools."

They approached cautiously. Each of the four pools was sunk into solid rock. The two placid pools of water appeared to be only about two feet deep but appeared have channels the water flowed in and out of. The depth of the radiant lava pools was impossible to gauge as they simmered and popped hypnotically.

Beilla’s voice boomed across the chasm. "Listen carefully, Breimas. Put the rings exactly where I tell you! The two pools closest to the chasm are the top. The two furthest are the bottom. The ring of the Fareima must go in the top lava pool. The ring of the Kareima must go in the top water pool. Then you must stand near the bottom lava pool."

"What happens then?" Nick asked, not particularly liking the idea of standing so close to boiling lava.

"The Astreima will be revealed if all is done correctly," Beilla answered.

Nick turned away from the chasm and spoke softly to Lottica, "He's not telling us everything. Let's have a look for ourselves."

They walked around the four pools, keeping close to the cavern walls when they passed the pools of lava. Near the farthest pool of lava in the very back of the chamber was another opening, larger than the passage they had crawled through, which could not be seen from across the dark chasm. Lottica stepped closer and shined her flashlight in it. The passage inside was wide and had an upward slant. And, more importantly, Lottica noticed a steady current air issuing from it.

"Nick, do you feel it? The air is cooler and smells fresher. This might be another way out."

Nick sniffed at the opening of the passage. "I think you’re right. But how do we get Mom and Dad over here?"

"Maybe at least one of us should go for help?" Lottica suggested.

"I don’t think I could leave you and Mom and Dad down here,” Nick replied. “I’m betting you feel the same way.”

"I get that, but what’s our alternative?"

"I think we gotta try what Beilla suggests,” Nick said. “But, let's have a look at the missing piece first. Something is bugging me about his plan." Nick looked back across the chasm and then addressed Lottica again. "Stand here for a second."

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He positioned Lottica so that she blocked Beilla's view. He slipped the pane out of his jacket pocket and quickly unwrapped it. The mysterious pane seemed to absorb the fiery lights of the chamber. It glowed like an LED display.

From beyond the chasm Beilla yelled, stern and impatient, "What are you waiting for? Do as I’ve told you!"

Nick was quick with his shouted reply. "Lottica's a bit shaken up. She's afraid for our parents."

"Way to buy us time with the girls-are-weak stereotype," she scolded him, knowing she’d been anything but weak back in the tunnel when Nick had been knocked out.

"Take your time, honey!" came her mother's reassuring shout.

They took the opportunity to sit down and look closely at the stained glass piece. The problem was that the picture could be read two ways. Facing one way, Beilla's orientation of the stones and children was correct, but if the glass pane was turned over, the stones and the children flip-flopped their positions.

They puzzled over the correct way to view it.

Nick looked from the stained glass to the four pools a few times. Then he took a long look around the four-pooled chamber and the passage they had crawled through to get in, plus the larger passage behind them that seemed to be a way out.

An inlet passage, four pools and an outlet passage.

Bingo!

He got it. He finally got it. The missing piece of the puzzle he and Lottica had been wrestling with. It was like sitting in a tough biology lesson and finally getting the concept.

Nick scooted next to Lottica, so that their backs were to Beilla across the dark divide of the chasm. He spoke excitedly. "Listen, it just hit me. I think I understand the set up here. The four pools are the four chambers of the heart. The pools of water are the right atrium and ventricle. They are the side that we entered. That's where deoxygenated blood flows in. It's blue. The other side, the lava, represents the left atrium and ventricle that receive the oxygenated blood, bright red, and then circulate it through the body."

Lottica stared at her brother. "Seriously, is this really the time for Anatomy 101? Do you need me to check your head again?”

"Lottie! You're usually the one who's good with the symbols. Look around you. Check the layout. We are literally in the heart of Mount Breima. If all this other crazy stuff we've been going through is believable, then this makes perfect sense."

Lottica saw how earnest he was. "Okay, I'll buy that. So how does it help with where the stones are placed?"

Nick kept his voice low. “Beilla told us to put the Kareima ring into the lower water pool and for us to stand by the lower lava pool. I think that's backward. He's going by the picture of the stained glass piece, not the reasoning behind it. If the Astreima is really here, then it should issue from the lower left ventricle. Look, even that pool is larger than the other ones, just like in chambers of a real heart. It makes sense, Lottica. As much as any of this makes sense."

"Okay. I see what you’re saying. I trust you. But it still doesn't tell us what's going to happen."

"I think it might. In some sense Mount Breima is going to come alive."

"Alive?” Lottica gawked. “What do you mean?

"Your guess is as good as mine."

She stared at her brother in disbelief for a long moment. "Well, then what are we waiting for?" she said as if about to jump off a cliff. “Let’s bring Mount Breima into the 21st Century.” She stood up and yelled across the shadowy chasm. "I think we're ready. Wish us luck."

“Always!” Deilune and Linda shouted back.

Nick walked around to the top of the "heart." In the upper pool of water, he placed his father’s ring with the Kareima, its vibrant light pulsing through the crystalline water.

"Good! Good!" came Beilla's encouragement. From his vantage, there was no way he tell that they had reversed the order of the stones. It would not be until they reached the back pools that he would see what they were planning.

Nick tried to forestall this knowledge. "Lottica, we need to step into the pool of water together and then you toss Beilla’s ring into the pool diagonal to it."

"Why do we have to get in the water?"

"The missing piece shows the two figures lined up just like the gemstones. I think it's important that we be in a pool just like we are putting pieces of the Kareima and Fareima in. The water isn't deep, and I'll check the temperature before we step in just to make sure it’s safe," Nick explained.

"Make sure you do, or this’ll turn into a dead-children story."

“Yeah. We don’t need that.”

As they stood at the back of the cavern facing across the four pools, Lottica could more easily see what Nick had been trying to explain. The cavern layout did seem like a heart. She could imagine the profile of Mount Breima. The hands folded above the chest awaiting the descent of Hawk with his gift of the Kareima.

Her thoughts turned to her grandparents and where they might be at this moment. It pained her to imagine them out looking for her and Nick. In disobeying their grandparents, they’d acted irresponsibly. Now, they were about to disobey Beilla's plan. Who knew what dire consequences that might create.

Nick bent down and held his outstretched hand a few inches above the clear water of the lower pool. He gingerly touched the surface with the back of his hand. "Feels fine," he told her. "You ready?"

"Let's do it, Lord Breima."

As in the image on the stained glass pane, Nick took Lottica’s hand and, together, they stepped into the pool.

Time stopped.