TWENTY-FIVE: Plateau Drop

“He beat you to it,” I said to Edlawit.

“How did he do that? How’s that possible? He blocked me!”

“Because,” I sighed. “He has jurisdiction.  He’s a Guardian.”

Edlawit smiled.  “Well, that makes me feel better.”

I didn’t return her smile.

“Isn’t it?”

“Yes and no.  Guardians have the power of Life.  They can heal all sorts of brokenness and give you wisdom and strength to endure anything.”

“That sounds good.”

“They also have the power of Death. They don’t just guard people they guard purpose, the ultimate purpose, the Final Sound.  If you get too far off your purpose, too far away from the Final Sound that move life in its natural progression, then your purpose can be given to someone else and you’re dismissed from it.”

“So if you don’t keep moving forward in time, when it all comes together, toward the Final Sound, then?”

“Then, he’ll take you out of the plan.”

“There’s no deviation from the line, then. But what about the Thirteen? We can’t deviate, can we?”

“Um, well,” I said. “Not trying to make this more complicated than it already is but time is more like a spiral.  Like a wheel within a wheel within a wheel.  There are many wheels. It’s not just a straight line and it’s not just cyclical.  It’s neither and both.”

Edlawit didn’t look amused. I hadn’t answered her question.

“And they are all sort of jumbled up.  Well, they seem jumbled but there is order, was order. Like a rubic’s cube that someone all mess up. Except the cube is more like a sphere with wavy lines going through it. That’s time.”

“Forget time, Miguel,” Rhoda was exasperated. “I want to know about the Thirteen.  If we bring everything together then how can we deviate, I mean, can we? Has Arous stepped from the path?”

“It’s complicated.  It’s something only the Diofe can answer.”

“Who were all those others, then? I’ve never seen them before.”

“The cat,” I smiled. “Is the most important, right now.  He is her personal Guardian and he wasn’t talking to her.  He was talking to us.”

In less than fifteen minutes Arous was at Plateau Drop.  She got out of her hoveh and walked to the edge.  Arous looked down from the plateau onto the desert below. Her stomach did butterflies.

From the desert below, Plateau Drop was a sheer that towered almost one thousand feet to the top where Arous stood.  Looking down, down, down.

The instructions were simple: drive to the edge and wait.  A hoveh ferry would buoy it-self up and vehicles were driven onto it.  It then the ferry would descend to the dessert floor.  Desperados riding horses or others walking had to hoof it down to winding path that was one hundred feet north of the ferry; it took hours to get down that way.

Arous got back into her hoveh and followed the instructions: she drove onto the hoveh-ferry.  Snake like straps wound their way around the front and back of her car.  She made sure her roof was secure. Before she could look up from buckling her 2^nd seat belt she was free falling through the air. She screamed.

The hoveh-ferry bounced twice and stopped. The straps retracted with a zing and the ferry said, “Thank you for coming. I hope you enjoy your ride across the desert.”

Arous wasted no time heading straight for the City.