Bored me to death. Ha! I think the Watcher had just made a joke. I suspected I was dead, and although it was nothing like I had imagined, it was not bad. Where I was and who I was felt pretty perfect. Still, a sublime restlessness swept over me. The Watcher wanted to communicate with another Watcher. The Watcher thought of tracy and just like that I flew to her.

Chapter Twenty-Four.

tHe next tHinG I KneW I was sitting in a hospital room beside a patient. The woman was lying on her back in bed with a tube down her throat and another tube attached to her belly. She also had an iV line dripping a clear solution into a shunt in her left arm. The woman on the bed was tracy. She had once been beautiful, but years in a coma had eaten away her fat and what was left was the proverbial bag of bones. Still, there was something in the contours of her sunken cheeks, in the color of her hair, and especially in the glow that lit her sleeping face, that said her beauty was far from exhausted.

"Do you think so?" a woman across from me asked. She was sitting on a chair on the other side of the bed. Her shiny blond hair was cut short, her nose was cute, small like my own. She had blue eyes like mine, too, but hers were pure cobalt.

"Tracy!" I said.

"Hi Sara."

"Are you alive? Did they lie when they said those were your ashes?"

"My sister didn't lie. She thought I had been cremated.

Your father lied."

"He's not my father." tracy chuckled. "Don't you think I know that?" I laughed with her. "this is amazing, sitting here, talking to you. It's something I've dreamed about for years." I paused.

"It's not a hallucination, is it?"

"Does it feel like a hallucination?"

"It feels real, more real than the life I just came from. You wouldn't believe what I've been through."

"I wouldn't believe it? Sara, I've been watching you."

"How?"

"How do you think? through the carpet."

"You can see through the Carpet of Ka?" she nodded solemnly. "I can speak through it as well." I almost fell off my chair. Honestly, I was the ghost who almost fell.

"Are you saying I've been talking to you this whole time?"

she grinned. "Who else would have taken the time?" she teased me to keep the mood light. But this new information didn't just fill me with joy. It made me want to explode. The carpet was so dear to me and here we had shared it in such an intimate way. No wonder when I had found it, I had felt like I had found my best friend. I wanted to run around the bed and hug her. She must have read my mind. She made a gesture for me to remain seated. "I don't know how much time we have. And there are things you must know."

"What sort of things?" I asked.

"The rules have not changed. I can tell you many things but it is still better if you ask the right question. Then I'm free to say more."

"Who gives you permission to answer any of my questions?" she smiled. " I'm sorry, I can't answer that one." I considered. "You're acting like I might survive this ordeal."

"You can survive but you must act soon."

"But I'm dying in a pool of freezing water, never mind the fact I'm surrounded on all sides. I've got Lova waiting to change me into a thrall. And I've got the three Anulakai sitting around with their pashupas." I paused. "How am I to escape?"

"What do the temples on the island and the shar temple have in common?"

"Cold water?"

"True. What else?"

"They're both djinn temples."

"excellent. They're connected-the djinn connected them.

Your fake father said as much. But what he doesn't know is that at the height of the war with the Anulakai, the djinn created a gateway between the temples."

"But my father said the devices the Anulakai installed in the cavern are there to keep the djinn out."

"This gateway is secret and is not affected by those devices."

"Are you saying I can use the gateway to reach the island?"

"Yes. Lova knows about it; the others don't. But she doesn't imagine for a second that you'll be able to use it to escape."

"How do you know about it?"

"I've used it in the past."

"What do I have to do?"

"Swim."

"Swim where?"

"Down and out. You've seen how the pool deepens as it approaches the rear of the temple. You have to swim to the center and then down. If you swim deep enough, a powerful current will take hold of you and sweep you to the island."

"But the island is a hundred miles out at sea," I protested.

"Time and s.p.a.ce are not constants."

"You're saying this gateway is like a dimensional doorway between the shar temple and the island?"

"If you like. Humans have yet to invent the words for these things."

"Hold on. Don't start talking like the carpet again."

"The carpet did not talk to you. I did. It merely gave me permission to talk through it."

"Why did you need permission?"

"It's very old, ancient, and it's sacred."

"Sacred? Does that mean it's alive?"

"That's a mystery you must solve for yourself."

"I think I know the answer. It feels ten times more alive than most people I've met." I paused. "Have you owned the carpet before?"

"No one owns the carpet. It chooses a different partner at different times. Right now, it has chosen you. You belong together."

"Who built it? Or made it?"

"That's a great mystery. Many mysteries surround it.

Another time, I will tell you stories about it, some so beautiful they'll bring tears to your eyes."

"Can I ask about the djinn island?"

"Of course."

"You wanted me to go there."

"You had to go. You had to begin your education."

"My education to be a Kala?"

"Yes."

"What will I do as a Kala?"

"right now a war between humans, the djinn, and the Anulakai is about to start. You must help stop it or you must help win it."

"Where do the Anulakai come from?"

"Out of the darkness." I sighed. "What do they want with the earth?"

"They're a race that seeks to enslave other races. But they're not all evil. There are many among them who question the direction they've chosen. It's my hope that you'll be able to contact such beings in the near future. They could be of immense help to us."

"Who is 'us'? What are we trying to do?"

" 'us' are people like you and me, and others who are human beings descended from powerful bloodlines. We are the Order of the Kala. Our purpose is simple: survival. We are fighting for the survival of mankind."

"Could the Anulakai propel us into another realm the way they have the djinn?"

"It's possible. It's possible they could wipe us out all together."

"Lova says they made us. Is that true?" tracy hesitated. "She mixes truth with lies."

"Did you set up what happened to Amesh on the djinn island?"

tracy looked puzzled. "I didn't set up anyone."

"But the way things turned out, I was forced to remain on the island and learn about the djinn in order to save Amesh. You admit that's what you wanted."

"Last summer, when Amesh heard of the shar temple, he became obsessed. He did every thing he could to learn about it."

"Was that bad?" I asked, although I knew the answer.

"His interest wasn't innocent. He heard it was a djinn temple and he wanted the djinn inside it to grant him wishes. Of course, there were no djinn inside it."

"I guessed as much," I said with a sigh, thinking of his poor behavior on the island.

"I'm sorry," tracy said.

"Why are you sorry? is he not cut out for this type of work?"

"He's a nice boy-with faults and strengths like anybody else-who might grow into a great man. I know you care about him but I cannot predict his future."

"Are there Anulakai on earth?" I asked.

"At present, they work through agents like the man who pretends to be your father."

"Didn't you recognize him when he appeared in my mother's life? I mean, in your sister's life?"

"Not at first. I apologize for that. His disguise was subtle.

He has a great deal of knowledge, but it's a different kind of knowledge than what we aspire to."

"How so?" I asked.

"The Kala seek to learn the secrets of nature. There's a place deep inside every Kala that knows the creation is alive.

We trust in the creation; we have faith in nature and believe it has a plan for each and every one of us. The Anulakai are the opposite- they're more interested in controlling nature, not working with it. They trust more in machines than in life. They seek to control life through the use of technology." I frowned. "Does that mean technology is evil?"

"Not at all. But it must be used in harmony with nature."

"Can humans and djinn be allies?" I asked.

"They fought together against the Anulakai in the past."

"Lova acts like we contributed little to that war."

"Lova has her prejudices. But she was a perfect djinn to invoke the first time around." tracy paused. "You know how to negate your contract with her?"

"Yes."