‘For a moment,’ he breathed, ‘. . . just for a moment, it was as though it were alive.’
Theuli put her hand over his.
‘Tell us what you saw. Did you see anything?’
Malina made an audible gulp.
He blinked as though he had been momentarily blinded.
‘I saw, as in a dream, a woman who was a vision of terrible beauty. She was trying to speak to me, but I could not hear her words. She seemed a great and powerful Lady, trapped in a prison of deafness and silence, able only to watch and to despair.’
He and Theuli exchanged a long look.
‘It was the Earth Mother, wasn’t it.’ Malina said quietly.
Pran didn’t reply, but turned his gaze to Ralph, who muttered, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have made the thing.’
Pran tried to force a smile, but failed.
‘This . . . device you have made . . . I believe that, in some manner, the Earth Mother guided your hand in its forging. That She would reach out to you is exceedingly strange, but She must have had good reason to do so. From what I saw . . . I fear that she is in dire need.’