“Cash, damn it, be careful with that thing,” Colcord said.
The ovoid object rested in the palm of her hand. It rapidly became lukewarm and then toasty, but never hot. This time, she didn’t drop it but instead closed her fingers around it. A pleasing, even delicious tingling sensation began in her fingers, traveled through the palm of her hand, and worked its way up her arm. It felt nice.
“You all right?” Colcord asked. He sounded a little panicked.
Colcord’s voice sounded like it was far away, as if Cash were floating up above the lake. She knew she should probably let go of the artifact—whatever was happening to her, it wasn’t normal. But she did notwantto let it go. It made her feel amazing, like a drug. The feeling rapidly climbed to her shoulder, her neck, and then into her head. Suddenly, a rush of images, and understanding—all packed together—erupted into her mind like a computer ZIP file being extracted at high speed. A burst of extraordinary knowledge was being downloaded into her brain. She saw things happening—imprinted in her memory as if she had actually experienced them. Wonderful things. Otherworldly places beyond her comprehension. The artifact was like a massive hard drive of information.
A moment later, or an age—Cash had lost all sense of time—the artifact went cold again. Her outer vision returned. The pleasant sensation in her limbs was now being replaced by the chill from her wet clothes, the throbbing pain in her shoulder, and the hard edge of the boat against her spine. She was back with Colcord and Moore, who were both staring at her, their faces full of alarm. The sphere dropped from her hand, but the revelations remained.
“How… how long has it been?” Cash asked, dumbfounded. It felt like part of a lifetime had passed.
“What the hell happened to you?” Colcord snapped. “You lost consciousness and you started shaking like you were having a fit!”
But she hardly heard him, her mind still grappling with what she had experienced. It was crazy, so utterly bizarre and disturbing. It challenged everything she had known.
“Cash? Wake up. Are you there? Hey!” Colcord snapped his fingers in front of her face.
She stared at Colcord, but her mind was still in turmoil. She didn’t…couldn’texplain what had just happened.
“Are you okay? What the hell is with you?” Colcord asked.
“I… don’t know how to explain it,” said Cash.
“What do you mean? Did something happen?”
“There’s absolutely… no way… to describe it. You’ve got to see for yourself.”
“I don’t mean to interrupt,” said Father Moore, “but we should really get moving. I don’t think you realize how severely injured you both are.”
Colcord waved the priest off and turned back to Cash. “Okay. I will.” His hesitation from before seemingly gone, Colcord seized the artifact from where it had fallen, and held it in both hands. A moment later, his entire body shuddered and his eyes rolled up in his head—and then, after no more than a minute, it slipped from his fingers.
Colcord stared at Cash, wide-eyed and speechless. She wondered if he had had the same experience as she had, learned the same things. Had he… understood the message?
“My Lord,” said Moore, breaking his silence. “What is going on here?” He reached out and, before Cash could warn him, picked up the object himself. Again, just like with Colcord, his whole body began to shake and his eyes rolled up, and then after a long moment, he let it go. When he came back to reality, he looked dumfounded, if not horrified.
Colcord, still recovering himself, shook his head as if trying to clear it. “What… the… hell.”
“Did you get…it?” Cash asked.
A long silence. Colcord nodded silently.
“What do we do?” Cash asked.
Colcord’s dirty face was screwed up with perplexity. “I… don’t… know.”
Moore remained thunderstruck, paralytic.
Cash struggled to find the words. “Are we… just going to… bring this thing back with us? Into the world?”
Colcord shook his head wordlessly. The canoe drifted on the silent lake. Nobody spoke for a long time—until Father Moore finally seemed to shake off his shock.
“No,” he said.
Cash looked at him.
“No,” he said again. “Wecan’t.”
“But—the knowledge—” said Cash.
