Eighth Fire Read Free Page A

quill; the crest of the Neo-Phylum or
New Order. He said, “They’re either getting careless or much
bolder. Do you know if he was a full-fledged member or a
recruit?”
    “I believe he’s too young to be full member.
If he was a recruit that just found out what they’re capable of,
what they stand for, and tried to back out, that could explain his
death.”
    “Yes, but why would they try to frame Mark
Young?”
    “There was a lot of animosity between those
two, and you already know Mark isn’t entirely innocent in that
regard.”
    “Do you think they’re trying to recruit Mark
or his friends?”
    “They’d be stupid not to try, but from what I
know of Mark’s group, I highly doubt they could succeed.”
     

     
    In the labyrinth, Mark
opened a duffel bag and pulled out two more lanterns before taking
up a position beside Ricky’s body. Both Mr. Diefenderfer and Mr.
Young were kneeling on either side of the body, both with their
hoods up and their heads bowed. Mark wasn’t wearing his cloak, so
he just bowed his head and turned his thoughts to, Why?
    He knew full well it was possible for Ricky
to come back to life, but didn’t think it likely at this point. If
God were going to consent to letting it happen, it would most
likely already have. Although, history has it that Abraham was able
to change God’s mind—once.
    A full two hours had passed before Mark
whispered to himself, “God, I wish I could honestly say take me
instead of him and mean it, but I can’t. I can say I don’t wish him
to be dead and plead my heart that you would return him.”
    A booming laugh filled the cavern of the
first room in the labyrinth. Mark steadied himself from falling
over sideways. He recognized that laugh; it was the same laugh that
had filled his mind when he awoke in the labyrinth a couple of
months ago. “BENRAH!” Only this time the laugh wasn’t in his head,
it was in his ears.
    Instinctively he reached into Aaron’s Grasp
for his sword, but it wasn’t there. He had been disarmed before
being brought in for questioning and hadn’t thought to retrieve his
sword in his haste to get Ricky into the labyrinth. It probably
would have been useless against the apparition now towering over
the group anyway.
    He couldn’t tell how big the creature was,
but it was big, very big. He was too close to get a good feel for
its size, but it was at least as big as a dragon. Its body was sort
of an amber color and the wings stretched out of the range of the
lantern’s light. A bundle of necks extended from the top of its
body to a very odd shaped head. The head was like a group of heads
meshed together with eyes and mouths all the way around. The
laughing sound seemed to be coming from a tambourine shaped
membrane in the center of its chest.
    He looked at Mr. Diefenderfer and Mr. Young.
They both had scrambled to their feet and were reaching for their
pockets.
    Benrah’s right wing swept down and swished
Mr. Diefenderfer and Mr. Young backwards like they were nothing
more than a piece of lint. Mark heard their bodies thud against the
far wall, more than fifty yards away.
    Benrah boomed, “Not today...good sirs. I
have...business...with your...young companion.”
    It was obvious to Mark that Benrah was
mocking the way Mr. Diefenderfer had spoken for the last fifteen
years as a result of his injuries. Injuries that Benrah’s own
thralls had inflicted on him. Mark got his fingers around a bug
bomb.
    Benrah’s heads split apart and the necks
fanned out like a peacock’s feathers. Each head came to bear on
Mark. Benrah’s voice thundered, “If you activate that, I will be
forced to leave, but not before I can kill your friends.”
    Mark raised his arm in order to smash the bug
bomb onto the floor. “Go ahead. Nobody dies for good in here.
They’ll be back within three days at the most.” Mark started his
arm moving down to smash the bomb.
    “Untrue.”
    The small capsule ruptured on the stone floor
causing the water to