Depths of the Heart in the Depths of the Rock

Happy New Year

As this is hitting inboxes on December 31st, 2024, allow me to wish you a very happy and blessed 2025. Thanks for sticking with me to read The Story of the Marsh Boy so far. It’s a privilege to write it and I’m grateful you take the time to read it. For everyone who has taken the time to give me an encouraging word or express interest in the story, it means so much to me.

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Depths of the Heart in the Depths of the Rock

Jeremiah leaned forward. “What do you mean, Apkallu?”

Zeke picked at his mustache. “He who wants the women. Need women to get a wife. You said your Lily was taken.”

Jeddy and Cole stood next to Jeremiah. Jeddy watched Jeremiah’s face as Zeke spun his yarn. “Are your saying Lily is here?”

A soft voice echoed off the walls of the cave as it called out, “Who goes there? Who seeks the lord of this temple?"

The men stood in silence as the lithe figures came closer. They were holding hands as they approached. Cole shook more dirt out of his hair as Zeke coughed and spit. Jeremiah and Jeddy both took a step towards the women.

The soft voice spoke again but with more of an edge. “Proceed with caution, travelers. Know your heart, for the lord welcomes seekers who live in spirit and truth.” The groups steps slowed. They were barely walking now.

The men were not close enough to discern the faces of the women in front of them. The four women holding hands stopped and formed a circle around a woman whose hair was tied back beneath a shawl. “Are they guarding that one?” Jeremiah asked.

“I’m guessin’ that’s her, yonder,” said Zeke.

Cole jumped. “Mama!” The floor of the cavern was rough and had many small pools and puddles. Cole pumped his legs and tumbled as fast as he could get his legs to respond to get to the woman in the center of the circle.

“Cole!” his dad yelled. Jeremiah and Jeddy chased after him. Zeke staggered behind them, tripping and falling and getting back up again.

The four women in white who held hands and made up the circle didn’t acknowledge the group running up to them. Three of them were blonde. The fourth a brunette. The woman in the middle was also brunette. She had her eyes closed and hands folded as if she were saying her prayers. They were humming a melody, soft and sweet, like a lullaby.

Cole squirmed between the women of the circle to reach the women at the center. She looked down at the boy and gasped. “My boy! My baby boy! How on earth are you here in this dark place?”

“Mama!” he cried again and threw his arms around her. The woman squeezed him back and ran her fingers through his tousled dirty hair. She said, “You’ve got some dirt in your hair.” The two laughed together.

Jeremiah approached slowly, keeping his eyes on what appeared to be Lily. This would be the third time he saw what he thought was his wife since he untied The Herald at the docks. The first time, she seemed like a ghost. The second time, she had turned into a Tannite fish monster. To say he didn’t trust what his eyes saw was an understatement.

Jeddy scanned the scene. He stared at the woman in the center then shifted to each of the women around her. All but Lily kept their eyes closed and hummed the lullaby melody. This was not the single note the Tannites had been singing. He broke the circle and said, “Lily, we’ve got to get you out of here.” He took her by the shoulder and led her away from the other four women.

One of the blonde women, whose face was the most symmetrical of all, said with a tone of warm caution, “Know your hearts, strangers.” As she said the word, green light shimmered across her eyes locked sight with Jeddy. She was the owner of the soft voice.

The woman took Cole by the hand and followed Jeddy out of the circle. She looked at Jeremiah with bright eyes. “You came.”

“Was that you at the docks?” Jeremiah asked.

She nodded. “I told you Cole needed you. I needed you.”

Jeddy butted in. “He never would have gotten himself out here if I hadn’t pushed him.”

The four women closed their eyes, pressed their hands together, and hummed louder.

“How were you at the docks? Is it really you, Lily?” Jeremiah took her hand from Cole, and she touched his face with her other hand. “Yes, it’s me,” she responded. “I’ve learned their song. They use it to push beyond and through the nexus. I sang it and found you.”

“Lily, I told him I saw you,” Jeddy interrupted again. “He wouldn’t have come if it wasn’t for me. He’s been a shell of a man. He’s like an old dirty dish rag that’s been laid next to the sink and forgotten about. He’s given up. I fought to get down here to find you.”

Jeremiah couldn’t believe his ears. “What are you doing, Jeddy?”

Cole wrapped his right around her side and hugged his mother tightly again.

Splashes began to echo through the cavern.

Jeddy pushed Jeremiah aside. “Lily, I don’t know if I’ll live to see another day down here with those things. I can’t go without saying it. I love you, Lily. I fell in love with you the moment you moved to town, and I can’t stop thinking about you.”

Jeremiah’s mouth hung open and his eyes narrowed.

“Don’t even look at me like that, Jer. You can’t take care of anybody, let alone this magnificent woman. You can barely get yourself out of bed to take The Herald out on the water to provide for your son. If that’s what you call what it is you do.” He spat.

Jeremiah clenched his jaw and balled up his fists. He knew it was true, but he’d never been the kind of man to hit people when they told him the way it was. He’d beat himself up. As painful as it was to hear, he didn’t disagree. As his thoughts were pulling him deeper into the well of his own self-loathing, his ears began to ring. As the volume of the ringing grew, he shook his head and rubbed his ears.

It didn’t make sense to him and he couldn’t abide what he’d seen and heard. “What about this little light of mine? Weren’t you singing that Sunday school song? What was that all about?”

Jeddy gave a wry smile. “They were all singing. That’s the only song I remember the words to. I’m not exactly a man of culture. Doesn’t mean I believe it. Seemed good to sing at the time. Besides, Lily has plenty of light to sing about.” He beamed as he looked at Jeremiah’s wife.

Jeremiah couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

The women were still humming the melody. Lily had pulled Cole away from the men. The ground began to shimmer in green light. Zeke spoke and green lights sputtered from around his own eyes. “They comin’! Boys, they a comin’!”

The ringing echoed off the walls of the cavern in the entrance to the temple of Erets as the single note song of the Tannites filled the halls.

As Jeddy stuck his finger in Jeremiah’s chest to give him another round of accusations, Zeke slapped his hands over his ears and screamed. “Aaiyeeeeeeeah!!” Zeke pulled his wool toboggan down over his eyes and stumbled back against the wall.

Cole looked at his mother with questioning eyes. They were the same eyes that looked up at her when she nursed him as a baby. The same eyes that looked to her for comfort when he was in pain. He didn’t understand what was happening, he only knew that it hurt. Even now as a teenager, she saw her baby boy. All the questions and all the fear welled up in those two eyes that begged for his mother’s help and safety without having to say a word. She rubbed the back of his head and whispered to him, “Shhh. Look at me. Don’t look at them.”

There were splashes in the puddles and pools of the cave. The women in white hummed louder. The Tannites crept in as the floor reflected light like a green glass. Luminescent pink and yellow mists hung in the air. Lily and Cole held each other tight and backed against the wall by the fire.

Jeddy began shoving Jeremiah. “You’ve always been a loser, Jeremiah. You never deserved Lily! She needs a man like me!” Jeremiah fell to the floor next to Zeke, who was writhing and hollering as the song of the Tannites rang on. Jeddy kicked Jeremiah in the ribs. Jeremiah gasped for breath.

Zeke spasmed and seized and arched his back then curled into a fetal position before he went rigid and straight again. He fell into one of the cavern puddles and his body shook as a wave of green light flowed under him and through him. He coughed and hunched up as if he had been the one Jeddy kicked. Zeke wretched. He looked at his reflection in the dirty pool of water and in a flicker of light, the old man was pulled into the puddle. He pressed his hands against the surface of the water as he stared at the scene. The pool was like a glass, and he was trapped on the opposite side of a mirror image. Zeke yelled and banged his fists against the image in an echoless silence.

The Tannites ceased their song. Cole cried. Lily comforted. Jeremiah and Jeddy were both breathing hard. “She is mine,” Jeddy said flatly. Lily turned her face away and wept.

Jeddy shifted his weight and spun to look at Lily and Cole. Jeddy smiled a wide and wicked smile. As he bared his teeth, his mouth gaped open. Without breaking eye contact with Lily, Jeddy spread his arms out wide. He gathered his height and stood as tall as he could, black eyes drilling into the woman in front of him. She was the object of his dark affection. He opened his mouth to speak the poetic ruminations that had been boring through his heart, but all that emerged from deep within his chest was a low and raspy hiss. Jeddy gnashed his teeth and threw his head back. It snapped on his neck at such an unnatural angle, Lily thought he may have been dead. Jeddy held his stance. He dropped his head forward.

Except for Cole crying, there was silence in the cavern. Lily didn’t say a word. She stood and stared and wondered what to do.

Jeddy lifted his head and in no surprise to Lily, his eyes were bulbous and black. His teeth were like needles and razor sharp. His forehead slanted backwards and his body had caved in. The man who only moments ago had been professing his love while he accused and beat her husband was gone. There was only a Tannite.

The four women resumed their humming and lifted their heads and hands in unison. Whispers echoed in the mist of the cavern. “Apkallu.”

The Tannite that had been Jeddy Lee clicked its long fingernails together. It locked his eyes on Lily and Cole and walked straight toward them.

Aether travel

This was a long one. The preternatural is on the edge of our existence. The bill of the aether is coming to collect for Old Zeke as Lily has just learned to travel herself. What lies in the hearts of men is birthed. Will they be given over to it?

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Talk to y’all in two weeks.

~ J.P. Simons

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