"Wake up! Wake up!" I heard a voice say.
I struggled to open my eyes but the intensity of the glow forced me to keep them shut.
"Holly, wake up! We're in danger!"
Suddenly I felt someone grab me hard by my arm. The brilliant light wavered then flickered out.
"Get up you idiot!"
"What? What?" I muttered, as I felt my aching body react with resistance toward the intrusion.
Again the light fell upon my face, but this time not so harshly, and I could see another face on the opposite side illuminated by its gentle glow.
"Angelique!" I cried as I lifted myself out of the bed of leaves. "What are you doing here? How did you find me?"
I was so excited at seeing her that I nearly fell into her arms, driving her backwards onto her heels.
"Take it easy for Christ's sake!" she said, as the lantern fell from her hands.
Not far off stood Antares, who whinnied loudly at the commotion.
As I helped her to her feet she looked at me and shook her head. I now saw that she was shouldering a rifle.
"We've had people searching for you all night," she said impatiently. "What were you thinking?"
"I don't know," I said feebly. "I lost track of time and before you know it, the sun was going down. It was foolish of me, I know."
"I heard the shots. Did you see anything?"
"I saw two poachers. But some other guys came along and shot them with something...arrows I think. I was scared to death."
"You were told not to go this far into the forest. Serves you right. You're lucky I found you."
"I'm so thirsty," I said, realizing that I had had nothing to drink in many hours.
My cousin pulled a canteen from her saddle and handed it to me. She watched me drink down the liquid with a disapproving grin.
"We have to get out of here. There might be other poachers around."
"Let's go," I said, eager to return home, and thankful that I had been found.
She mounted Antares first and then helped me into the saddle behind her. The first hint of dawn began to show itself in the eastern horizon and Angelique goaded the horse into a steady gallop, keeping close to the forest's edge and avoiding the open countryside.
"There's an secret entrance into the Masturbatorium only a few miles away," my cousin said. "It's our best bet."
The first faint rays of sunlight were beginning to pierce through the trees to our left, and I was grateful to see the welcoming light. I knew that there was still a chance of encountering vagabonds and other assorted riffraff along the way, and knew Angelique was only being prudent by suggesting we use the secret entrance. We soon came upon a series of hillocks, one of which appeared to contain an open fissure leading down into a tunnel-like opening. We dismounted and led Antares toward the mouth of the cave.
Despite the nascent sun's warming glow, this place seemed to me a very dismal one, with fog steadily rising from the surface of the ground, permeating the air with a foul stench of sulfur. The air was fetid and heavy, forcing me to draw my gloved hand over my mouth.
"What is this place?" I asked coughing into my hand. "The odor is terrible!"
"Just keep moving," Angelique replied, heedless of the stench.
As we approached the entrance to the cave, the fog had grown so dense that I could no longer see where I was going. I turned toward my cousin but she seemed to have vanished into the fog.
"Angelique," I said uneasily. "Are you there?"
No answer.
"Are you there?" I repeated more urgently.
Nothing. Not a sound.
I felt as if I were enshrouded in a dense wall of mist, afraid to step in any direction lest I tumble and fall into oblivion.
"Angelique!" I shouted. "Where are you?"
I knew my cousin well enough to know that when faced with an emergency she was not one to fold under pressure. Although she had seemed to be as frightened as I was, she had a resolute nature and would not have purposely left me alone to face the unknown. We must have separated from each other much earlier on, and that distance—and the muffling effect of the fog—was serving to prevent us from hearing each other.
After several more unsuccessful efforts to locate her, I decided that I had no choice but to begin moving again and hope that I could find my way out of the pervasive fog. I took tiny steps at first, afraid that, like a blind woman without a cane, I might fall flat on my face. But soon my anxiety grew to the point where I started to walk haphazardly, without too much concern for where I was placing my feet, so panicked with fear had I become.
With both my arms outstretched before me, plodding along like a somnambulist in someone's demented dream, I waded through the thick mist, fearing that at any moment my life might come to an abrupt end at the slightest misstep. I called out to my cousin several times more, but to no avail. All I could hope for was that I was headed in the right direction and would meet up with her inside the underground tunnel leading to the Masturbatorium.
For what seemed like an eternity I walked and walked, the earth beneath my feet growing progressively muddier and warm. The smell of sulfur had somewhat diminished, but the air continued to hang heavily about me, the sun's rays hardly permeating the wall of fog. Thankfully, I managed to make my way without once falling or encountering any obstruction. And, as if in reward for my perseverance, the blanket of mist began to slowly fade away until I found myself at the mouth of a cave, though unsure if it was the same one that my cousin had led us to. The air was cooler here, and the ground was flat and strewn with boulders and loose rock. I could see the sun now, its crescent rising up slowly above the trees, helping to dispel the thin tendrils of mist that stubbornly continued to languor over the forest floor.
Now that my vision had improved somewhat, I clambered up toward the small incline leading into the cave and saw that someone was standing there as if waiting for me. It was very dark inside, and at first I could not tell if it was Angelique or some other member of the Sisterhood who stood guard at the entrance. I took a few more cautious steps toward the person, but whoever it was seemed not to notice me, even though I was standing directly in the line of sight.
"Angelique, is that you?" I said with a sinking feeling in my stomach, knowing that my cousin would not react in this way if she had known it was I.
The person gave no answer.
"Angelique, don't play games with me!" I said angrily. "This is not funny!"
Again the figure remained mute, unmoving.
I boldly made a quick ascent up the last few yards of the rock-strewn entrance, putting all fear behind me, ready to give my mischievous cousin a piece of my mind. But as I reached the summit of the incline, the figure suddenly walked toward me and out of the shadows. I stopped dead in my tracks, as a woman, dressed in nothing more than a simple black robe and slippers, extended her hand to me as if to help me in my effort. The first faint rays of sunlight revealed a lovely face belonging to a woman in her late twenties, and her gentle smile, yet confident demeanor, helped to allay some of my fear.
"You have a courageous spirit," she said to me as she took my hand firmly in hers and helped me to gain a foothold.
"Thank you," I said, holding on to her hand. "I'm Holly, Angelique's cousin. She was supposed to take me back to the castle. Have you seen her?"
"No, I haven't seen her," the woman replied. "But I will be happy to guide you the rest of the way."
"She was with me just a short time ago," I said, perplexed. "Why would she lead me here and then disappear?"
"I do not know," she answered softly. "But this is not her journey, it is yours."
I looked at her as if I had misunderstood. "My journey? What do you mean?"
The woman looked at me carefully, smiling faintly.
"Who are you anyway?" I asked.
"My name is Yvette. I am a distant relation of the Anjou family dating back to the time of Philippe of Lyon, who was once a nobleman who served under the tyrant king of France whose name we do not speak. I am a visionary, and one who wields the power of the ancient Sybil. I will show you many wonders both terrible and sublime, and the world and what it shall become in the days ahead should you shirk your duty to the Sisterhood."
I shook my head and laughed.
"If this is some kind of joke," I said, stepping away from her, "I'm not amused."
"This is not a jest," she replied sternly. "I know that what I am saying must sound incredible to you, but I am here for your welfare."
"Just tell me where my cousin is. I'm very tired and cold and I want to return to the castle."
"I cannot, for I do not know where she is."
She then reached into her pocket and withdrew what appeared to be a pomegranate. Taking a small knife from her belt, she cut into the fruit and gave half of it to me.
"Eat this," she said passing the fruit to me. "It will give you strength for the journey."
I was so hungry by this time that the pomegranate looked to me like nothing short of a three-course meal. Without another word to her, I tore into the fruit and ate ravenously. She seemed pleased to watch me eat in silence for a few minutes, smiling at me like some bemused benefactress.
"It will get warmer the further we go down into the tunnels," she resumed, as she, too, made short work of the succulent fruit.
By now my hands were wet with the juice of the pomegranate and although I did feel much stronger, I was still cold.
"Can we go now?" I asked her. "My hands are freezing."
Yvette withdrew a small piece of cloth from her pocket and handed it to me. "Dry your hands off and then give it to me."
