The Secret Source (The Book of Sight 3), page 14
When they were done the Dund’s eyes were wide. “Talk of skulking around in the shadows! Fear and trembling, indeed. A tale of terror. Yet there’s nothing to fear except fear itself, they say, so perhaps that is true in this case. I did once hear that fear casts a large shadow but is itself very small, if you know what I mean.”
“Are you saying there was nothing there? We just imagined it?” said Adam.
“I don’t say that exactly. I was just talking, running my mouth, speaking before I think. The truth of it all is I just don’t know. If I knew, I could be more help. Knowing is half the battle, they say. Or would it be that a little knowledge would be a dangerous thing? In any case, I don’t know anything, so neither apply. The sad truth is that I never heard of such a place. Yet you all felt the same. The blind leading the blind it must have been. Very strange, very terrifying.”
“It was,” said Dom. “And Ralphie’s reaction doesn’t mean anything to you?”
“It means the world to me! It means that he felt it. It means that there was something to feel. I can’t say what it was. We only know that darkness is the enemy of light. They are as different as day and night. Now, I’m only making a shot in the dark here, so take it with a grain of salt, but if a mully fails to glow and instead seeks to hide his face in the darkness, perhaps he is picking up a signal that is the opposite end of power.”
“A power drain instead of a power source?” said Adam.
Logan was glad Adam had some idea what the Dund was talking about. It didn’t make any sense to him.
“Exactly! You’ve hit the nail on the head. You’ve hit the bullseye on that one. Though as I say, it is only a guess, a conjecture, a…well, as I said, a shot in the dark.”
“Do you think it has anything to do with the spy web?” Alex asked the boys. “Do we need to go back and check it out?”
Logan clenched his jaw to keep from saying no really loudly before anyone else could say yes. The only reason he would have to give was his own fear, and that wasn’t good enough.
“First things first,” said Dom. “We need to find the power source and get rid of it. Once the network is shut down, we can find out what else might have been using that power.”
Adam nodded seriously, and Alex looked relieved. Logan was sure her expression was mirrored on his own face.
“First things first, indeed,” said the Dund. “You can always count on Dominic to focus on priorities. You’ll never see him put the cart before the horse, no indeed. He’s a man with his eye on the prize, not chasing down rabbit trails, that one. Though rabbit trails sound lovely to me. I would love to chase down one. Do you suppose there really are rabbits on rabbit trails? I love rabbits. So little and furry. Oh yes, just like you, my fine little friend. Peas in a pod, you are, though not so much around the ears. Do your ears hang low, little friend? Oh no, they do not. Those rabbit ears, though. They wobble to and fro, all right. I remember the time a whole family of rabbits built a house right over there under that tree. That was a very pleasant year, watching them come and go, and watching those bunnies grow up from teeny, tiny bumps. Oh how the time flies. You blink and then it’s gone. Hare today and gone tomorrow, as they say, and those rabbits were no exception. Some children discovered their little nest, and off they ran like a shot. Never did come again. Living down some other rabbit trail, I suppose. But sometimes I miss them.” He sighed his long sigh again, and Ralphie shivered along with him.
“You really like little animals, don’t you?” asked Alex.
“Big, little, indeed I do. All God’s creatures great and small, you know. Each is wonderful in its way. I’ve seen quite a few in my time, too. It can be quite a zoo around here, you know. A real dog and pony show. Though I’ve never seen a dog and pony show, have you? I would so love to see a dog and pony show. It sounds thrilling. But I have seen many a dog and once even a pony. Or really he was a horse, I suppose. A girl rode him right by there. She looked just like a cowgirl, boots and hat and all. This was long ago. In the Dark Ages, as they say. Long before anything else was built around here. That was one beautiful horse. I remember seeing it toss its head and the girl said, “I know, Morgan, I feel the same. We’ll be there soon.” Spoke to him just as if he were a person. I always wondered where they would be soon. Where do you suppose they were going to be soon?”
“I don’t know,” said Logan, but he was thinking about something else. So the Dund had been here since before anything else was built. Exactly how long had he been around? “What is the earliest thing you can remember? You said that was the Dark Ages. Do you remember things from even before the girl?”
“Oh now, dark ages is just an expression. Long ago, you know, that’s all it means. I don’t know how long really. Time flies, as I said, and I’m not very good at keeping track of it. I have all the memories, but they get all jumbled. Couldn’t even say which ones were first. I’d lose my head if it wasn’t attached, I suppose. Though I don’t exactly have what you would call a head. Would you call this a head?”
No one knew how to answer that one, but fortunately, the Dund kept right on talking.
“In any case, I have been here long enough to see many, many animals. Not exactly since the flood, you understand. I haven’t seen any animals go by two and two or anything.” He chuckled at his own joke. “But long enough to know that there used to be many animals in these parts and now there are many less. Animals don’t stay when people come around, I suppose. Too afraid, I suppose. All except the dogs. Man’s best friend, you know. Loyal as a dog and all that. Loyal to a fault at times, but that’s the wonderful thing about them. To tell you the truth, just between me and you, and present company excluded of course, the dogs are my favorite. Did you know they never pass by here without leaving me a present?”
“Really?” said Alex. “A present?”
Adam snorted, and Logan tried not to laugh.
“Indeed! Never once does a dog pass by without lifting a friendly leg and leaving a bit of his water.”
Alex involuntarily stepped backward, and Logan lost his battle against laughter.
“Just as friendly as you please,” the Dund went on, oblivious. “And with no strings attached. Dogs are no Indian givers, you know. And I grant you, their gifts can be odorous at time (I assure you that some of them pack quite a punch.), but it is the thought that counts, you know, and I am not one to turn up my nose at a friendly thought. ‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’ is my motto, though I must say I’ve never gotten any horses as a gift. That would be a truly wonderful gift, now wouldn’t it? Oh dear! Alexandra, are you all right?”
Alex was giggling so hard that tears were streaming down her face. She tried to pull herself together to answer but then lost it again before any words came out.
Logan choked back his own laughter and tried to think of what Eve would say if she were here. “She’s fine. Just…um, emotional.” When the Dund still looked concerned and Alex just kept shaking and snorting, Logan racked his brain for a distraction. “I really like dogs, too. Um, did Eve tell you about the one that lives next door to her? She says he likes to solve mysteries.”
“A detective dog? How wonderful! A gumshoe! A sleuth! How does he do it, do you think? Sniffs out the clues with his powerful nose, I suppose. The nose always knows, they say. Oh, I wish Eve was here to tell me all about him.”
“I met him,” said Alex, who still looked shaky but was under control now. She told the Dund all about her introduction to Prince, the detective dog, and his fascination with Hitchcock. That led to them explaining who Alfred Hitchcock was and telling the plots of several of his most famous movies. By the time Dom was done telling him about the ending of Rear Window, the Dund was beside himself with glee.
“But that man sounds just like me, oh yes he does. Always watching, always listening, but unable to act. Just an impartial observer, an innocent bystander, on the outside looking in, as they say. Though he was looking out, wasn’t he? And I’m looking around. But still, the things these eyes have seen. I wonder if there are clues I’ve seen and missed. Oh I should really like to meet this mystery-solving hound. Do you suppose that Eve could bring him by someday? Whenever it’s convenient. I don’t want to be any trouble. Though speaking of trouble, has Eve found some today? You never said where she was.”
“She’s okay,” said Adam, “but she did find trouble. That’s actually the other thing we wanted to ask you about. Have you ever heard of a fountain that shows you pictures in the water?”
“Pictures in the water? Like reflections? Like ‘mirror, mirror, on the wall’? Or in the water, as the case may be?”
“Not reflections,” said Alex. “It showed you….things.”
“What sort of things?”
For a moment no one answered. Logan thought about what he had seen, the images of himself but older. He remembered how he was holding hands with Eve and how they were laughing. He wasn’t about to tell the others about that.
“Almost like it was the future,” said Dom at last. “Or some future.”
“A fountain that tells the future?!” the Dund said excitedly. “Oh wouldn’t that be something. To peer into the unknown. To part the sands of time. Sadly, it is impossible. As everyone knows, the future isn’t yet written. No one can change the past and no one can predict the future. It’s one of the Four Laws. It may be true, as some say, that laws are made to be broken, but not the Four Laws, of course. The Four Laws are true forever.”
“What are the Four Laws?” asked Logan. “You’ve never mentioned them before.”
“The Four Laws. The Four Laws, of course! Everyone knows the Four Laws. They are born within us, part of who we are. Pssshh. ‘What are the Four Laws?’ Indeed.”
“No, really,” said Alex. “We don’t know what the Four Laws are. We’ve never heard of them before.”
The Dund’s eyes were even wider than before. “No, I can’t believe that. Everyone is born with the Four Laws in their minds. I know that humans are very strange, are fish out of water, are round pegs in square holes, as it were, but surely even you know the Four Laws. They are a natural part of….nature. Of everything.”
“Well, maybe they are a part of us and we just don’t know it,” said Adam.
The Dund whistled his relief. “Yes! That must be it. The blindness of humans and all that. Yes, of course. You know the Four Laws. You just don’t know that you know them. That must be the way of it.”
“So, um, could you just tell us what they are and maybe we’ll remember them,” said Alex.
The Dund’s voice took on the flat tone that meant he was narrating something from his vast memory. “You are only a small part of something much larger. Everything comes from something. No one can change the past nor predict the future. What you don’t see is just as real as what you do.”
Logan had been expecting something more profound, the secrets of the universe or something, but these just seemed like basic facts, obvious even. He felt vaguely disappointed.
Dom nodded thoughtfully. “I think we did know those laws, just maybe not how important they are.”
“I thought that must be it. After all, humans may be blind, but you are just as much a part of the world as anything else. And anyway, you are not blind. You’ve read the Language of Awakening, you carry the Book of Sight, you are a full Circle. How could the Four Laws be unknown to you? I was silly to even imagine it. Dumb as a box of rocks. A few bricks short of a load, as they say. But I came to my senses quickly. Don’t say that I didn’t.”
“We’re not offended,” said Alex. “We’re the ones who said we didn’t know what they were.”
“So what the fountain shows isn’t the future,” said Dom, bringing them back to the main point. Logan could see the resignation on his face, as if he had known all along that it was too good to be true.
“Well, as I said, and as we all know, showing the future would be impossible. But if you saw something that looked like the future, there are many possibilities. I have heard of DreamFountains that reflect back one’s hopes. Everyone knows of Memory Anemone. And of course, there are rumors of the Sea of Impossibility.”
Logan would have liked to hear more about that last one, but Alex quickly began to explain their whole adventure with the fountain, including the exotic bird and the terrifying vines. The Dund watched her with bright eyes that became more serious as she talked. The little mully had settled down on his head now and curled into a ball like a tiny fur cap, but with two shining eyes.
“Eve, Eve,” murmured the Dund when Alex had finished, “you found first hand ‘what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.’ Curiosity nearly did kill the cat this time, or the Eve, as it were. How lucky that you all were able to find her and get her free. Or maybe you made your own luck, as they say. There is strength in numbers, as you know, and united we stand, but divided…well. I am so relieved that it all came out right in the end. Not many could say the same of an adventure with a Dream Fountain. Oh yes, it seems quite certain that’s what it is. And many have gotten lost in their dreams, some never to awake. ‘Hold onto your dreams,’ they say, but I say don’t let your dreams hold on to you.”
“So you’ve heard stories about these dream fountains before?” asked Adam.
“Not stories, no. Never heard of one being found, not by anyone I’ve met. But everyone knows about dream fountains. And everyone knows they will show you what you want to see, trick you into living in a dream world and never facing the true light of day, as it were. Very tempting, dream fountains, and very dangerous, as everyone knows.”
By now, Logan understood that when the Dund said ‘everyone knows,’ that meant he didn’t know where his knowledge had come from. Somewhere in the Dund’s vast mind, he had a vault of information, memories that had been placed in him, though he didn’t know how or by whom. The Dund was very sensitive about his mysterious origins, so no one mentioned that this was not information that everyone knew.
“I knew there was something off about that place. My dream was trying to show me that!” Adam said. “I can’t believe we almost fell for it again.”
“Well, we won’t be going back there, anyway,” said Alex. “Knowing what it is just makes that more sure.”
“The only question is if it was put there to distract us because we were on the right trail to find the power source,” said Dom.
“But we didn’t find the source down that way,” Adam said. “Just the dark woods and a dead end.”
“It seemed like a dead end,” said Dom.
“Or maybe,” Alex said, “it was there to distract us from finding whatever is in the dark woods.”
Logan shivered. If there was some connection between those trees and that fountain, he was definitely never going out that way again. If that was what his enemies wanted, good for them. They were going to get their wish.
“I wonder…” said Alex. “The trail was so obvious. The ridge we were following, I mean. The Clairi said that the web can appear and disappear in places, and we know Candace has some idea of what we’re doing. What if someone left that one there to lure us toward the fountain…or the trees…or both?”
“Leading us into a trap,” said Logan. “Sounds like her.”
“So we stick to the plan,” Dom said. “Follow new trails and avoid those places. And keep Ralphie with us. Seems like he’s our best bet for finding what we’re looking for. We’ll worry about this other stuff later. We can’t afford to get distracted any more. We’ve wasted enough time as it is.”
Alex raised one eyebrow, and Logan knew she was thinking of the day they had been delayed talking to her dad. That day hadn’t been wasted, no matter how it felt to Dom. Even this thing with the fountain wasn’t a total waste. Not if it gave them more information on how their enemy worked.
The spying web had killed Dom’s dad, and Logan didn’t blame Dom for being in a hurry to destroy it, but Eve’s near disaster had reminded Logan that they were moving through a world they barely understood. Ignoring important things that came up was a good way to get someone killed.
The Dund was talking again, something about the sands of time and ‘waste not, want not,’ but Logan tuned him out as he watched Dom, who was looking off toward the cluster of trailers with his jaw clenched. With a decisive motion, Dom turned toward his friends and caught Logan’s eye. He opened his mouth to say something, but then snapped it shut again. He looked at Alex, then down at the ground and shook his head slightly.
Logan narrowed his eyes. Something more was going on here than just Dom wanting revenge for what happened to his parents. Dom looked like he was trying to make up his mind about something, and it must have been big if it was eating him up this much. Logan had often wished he could make decisions as easily as Dom did.
“Logan, can you boost up her other leg?” Dom said in a tone that told Logan it wasn’t the first time he had asked.
Logan jumped. He had been so busy with his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed what the others were doing. Alex had the little carved animal she had taken from Maddie’s house clutched in both hands and one foot on Dom’s knee. They were standing under the tree nearest to the Dund, and he was going on and on about thankfulness and true friends.
“I’m just going to hang it right here where you can see it any time you want,” Alex said as Logan hurried over and bent down to lift her left foot. “It’s not nearly as good as a real pet, of course, but we don’t have any of those, unless you count Ralphie. We’ll bring him back to visit really soon.” She managed to perch the wooden sculpture among the leaves on the bottom branch and then jumped down, smiling at the boys.
“Really, you’ll never know how much it means to me,” said the Dund. “I won’t feel nearly so lonely with such a sweet little friend there looking back at me. For he does look friendly, doesn’t he? Even if he is the strong, silent type.” He chuckled to himself. “Silence is golden, you know, so I won’t hold it against him. And when I look at him I’ll think of you all, and especially of my little mully here, out braving the unknown until you can come and see me again. You were so thoughtful to give him to me. I just really don’t know what to say. I’m positively speechless. There are no words for what I feel.”
