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Back Whirlwind Save as PDF
Chapters (95)
  1. Title Page
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. 11
  13. 12
  14. 13
  15. 14
  16. 15
  17. 16
  18. 17
  19. 18
  20. 19
  21. 20
  22. 21
  23. 22
  24. 23
  25. 24
  26. 25
  27. 26
  28. 27
  29. 28
  30. 29
  31. 30
  32. 31
  33. 32
  34. 33
  35. 34
  36. 35
  37. 36
  38. 37
  39. 38
  40. 39
  41. 40
  42. 41
  43. 42
  44. 43
  45. 44
  46. 45
  47. 46
  48. 47
  49. 48
  50. 49
  51. 50
  52. 51
  53. 52
  54. 53
  55. 54
  56. 55
  57. 56
  58. 57
  59. 58
  60. 59
  61. 60
  62. 61
  63. 62
  64. 63
  65. 64
  66. 65
  67. 66
  68. 67
  69. 68
  70. 69
  71. 70
  72. 71
  73. 72
  74. 73
  75. 74
  76. 75
  77. 76
  78. 77
  79. 78
  80. 79
  81. 80
  82. 81
  83. 82
  84. 83
  85. 84
  86. 85
  87. 86
  88. 87
  89. 88
  90. 89
  91. 90
  92. 91
  93. 92
  94. Also by DAVID KLASS
  95. Copyright Page

She must have been burning something in the pit—the place smells foul. I sit down next to the slumbering wizard, and a bird perches on my shoulder. I put my ear to Kidah’s bony chest. I can feel his faint breaths.

Suddenly I know for a certainty that we’re never going to be able to wake him. We could stay here for a month, and Eko could try every possible incantation and potion, and none of it would work.

P.J. will die. Gisco will be skinned for a rug in the colonel’s library. The trees will all be burned down. The future will go up in the smoke of the present. We have to try something else.

I go in search of Eko, to confront her with this bitter reality, but I can’t find her. A six-year-old boy I’ve made friends with watches me search and guesses who I’m looking for. He points downriver, to a hidden spot near the pool beneath the waterfall.

I follow his finger, leave the village behind, and soon spot Eko sitting by herself on a log above the still water. She’s not meditating. I think she may be crying.

74

74

I walk over and sit down next to Eko.

She turns her face away, and blinks back tears.

“He’s never going to wake up, is he?” I ask softly.

She shakes her head. “It’s over. We’ve lost. The Dark Lord has won. The future will be as he wills it.”

“And what does he want?” I ask. “You might as well tell me. What did you see when they called you back?”

She hesitates and gazes out at the water spilling down the rocks, and then at the still pool at our feet. “One minute we were flying over the Atlantic, and you were holding me tightly,” she whispers. “Then, in the snap of a finger, I was catapulted through space-time. I thought maybe I had died and was on my way to an afterlife. But instead of heaven or hell, I ended up on an operating table with masked figures hovering over me.”

“The Dannites brought you back to try to save you?” I guess.

Eko nods. “I was barely conscious. I remember thinking that if I survived their medical procedures I was going to wake up in paradise because you and I had used Firestorm to turn the future into a new Eden.”

“But when you woke up, you weren’t in Eden?”

Eko is silent, but her beautiful black eyes brim with regret. She looked this way on the Outer Banks, on the rooftop of our beach house, when she first explained to me why she had come back a thousand years. She wanted to turn the future in a better direction, but she was tormented by memories of the ravaged, dying planet she had left behind.