Sonoma Quadrant

Contents

Foreword

Prologue

CHAPTER 1

The Unlikely Encounter—July 5, 2003

CHAPTER 2

The Revelation

CHAPTER 3

Gone Missing

CHAPTER 4

Revelations I

CHAPTER 5

The Puzzle

CHAPTER 6

The Guardians

CHAPTER 7

The Meeting

CHAPTER 8

The Charm

CHAPTER 9

Malic’s Return

CHAPTER 10

The True Nature of Melas

CHAPTER 11

Revelations II

CHAPTER 12

The Preparation

CHAPTER 13

The Confrontation

Epilogue

Glossary

About the Author

Acknowledgements

Once again I am pleased to thank my brother, Tom Foertmeyer, for the design of the cover of Sonoma Quadrant and for his great help in editing this work. His willingness to devote time from his busy life to my projects is greatly appreciated.

My thanks also go out to Tim Jeffries and his son, Casey, for their great help with the editing this book.

Of course, this book would not be possible without the religious background provided to me by my mother. Although Sonoma Quadrant is a work of fiction, where would I have begun without the religious upbringing provided to me by my mother? She is truly a living Angel well worth mentioning.

Foreword

Although Sonoma Quadrant can be read and enjoyed on its own, there are characters within it from my previous novel, The Cats’ Lair. To fully understand who these characters are and their backgrounds, it may help the reader to have first read The Cats’ Lair. Great care was taken to introduce these characters to the new reader without it becoming redundant for those who have read The Cats’ Lair. I believe this has been a successful endeavor.

If the reader finds Malic and Damon, or the concept of Ahveen and its Guardians to be interesting, reading The Cats’ Lair after reading Sonoma Quadrant will not only be enlightening, but it will also make more clear certain aspects of Sonoma Quadrant.

C.H. Foertmeyer

Prologue

In the beginning the Father created Olin. Millenniums passed and He was pleased with His Kinder on Olin and populated the third planet from the Sun, calling it Earth.

As time passed the Father became concerned over the safety of His Kinder in both worlds and created Guardian Angels, Heavenly beings whose purpose it was, and remains to this day, to advise and council the Kinder of both Olin and Earth.

But, because of the Father’s greatest gift to mankind, that of free will, the Kinder of both lands continued to find themselves in situations of great peril. So, the Father created Guardians, Angels who would live on both planets rather than in Heaven. They were to remain a carefully guarded secret and live in Ahveen, two remote subterranean areas, one in each world, and they were to be responsible for the safety of all worthy Kinder.

To provide the Guardians total flexibility in their work, they were made the Keepers of Time on each planet and were given the ability to intervene physically in almost any situation that placed one of their assigns in imminent danger. As the Keepers of Time, they have total control over such situations, always being able to arrive just in time to save their hapless assigns from their own errors in judgment or unforeseen mishaps.

To aid in this effort, and to help protect their secrecy, the Guardians are possessed of the ability to transform into any form they should deem helpful. The form of the bobcat, chosen for its swiftness and stealth, was the form decided upon for travel about the two planets, but any human or animal form is available to them for accomplishing their goal.

Although the duties of the Guardian Angels and the Guardians are similar, there is a subtle and distinct difference between their actions. The voice in one’s ear warning one not to approach too close to the edge of a precipice is the voice of a Guardian Angel. The hand that reaches down, seemingly from nowhere, and pulls one to safety when the advice goes unheeded—is the hand of a Guardian.

Free will, which can be both a blessing and a curse, is inviolable in the Father’s plan for both Olin and Earth. A Guardian whose assign chooses the path of suicide is powerless to impede the free will that brings them to this point. Only a Guardian Angel can be of assistance to a Kinder in this desperation, and only before the fact. This is the only limitation on a Guardian. Free will is sacrosanct.

So as the Father set about creating wonderful and dynamic worlds for His Kinder, so Lucifer was already looking for ways and means of undoing His great work. Lucifer gave birth to Melas, inhabited by the Nomeds and put in charge as their leader, the Demon Quarternay, whose sole purpose in the lands created by the Father is to prevent righteous souls from reaching Heaven and the loving arms of their Creator.

CHAPTER 1

The Unlikely Encounter—July 5, 2003

"O h, it’s there boys, Griswald said, smiling at the two teenagers. As sure as my daddy settled on this land—it’s there."

Tom and John stared into the desert, shading their eyes with their hands and peering into the distorted landscape before them. The heat rising from Sonoma’s dusty surface created waves before their eyes, and mirages, which changed every time they turned to look in a slightly different direction.

I’m sorry, Griswald, but I don’t see a thing other than salt bush and ocotillo, Tom stated.

Me neither, John chimed in. Where’s it supposed to be?

"Right in front of you, boys. Right in front of your faces. You have to believe in Melas before you can see it—and have one of these, Griswald said, pointing to the charm hanging around his neck. But it’s there sure enough," Griswald continued, his voice rising with excitement at the thought of seeing again what he had left behind so many years ago.

Well it’s kinda hard to believe that there is a whole city here in this wasteland that nobody but you can see, John said to Griswald. Let me see that charm. Maybe if I wear it I can see it, too.

"And that’s your problem, Johnny boy. You don’t believe, and you don’t need to wear the charm to see it. You simply need to be in its presence. If you believed you’d see it clear enough."

How old is this city? Tom asked, squinting at Griswald.

I dunno—six, maybe seven hundred years old. I can’t be certain of that, and it’s not a city, just a small village of about fifty people.

I thought you’ve been in there and talked with the folks that live there, John said, looking back at Griswald.

I have been in there and I have talked with them. I even lived in there with them for almost two years. The problem is, they don’t even know how long their village has been here or exactly how it came to be, Griswald explained. They don’t seem to keep records or the like.

Are they Indians? John asked.

Some look to be, others not.

Who then? Tom asked, confused at who other than Indians would live here in these desolate surroundings.

Beats the hell out of me, boys. Some look like you and me, others a little like Indians, others like Mexicans, and then there are a few—well, they are hard to describe, Griswald said, rubbing his brow with the back of his hand.

What do you mean, ‘hard to describe’? Tom wanted to know.

Strange looking, these others. It’s nothing you can put your finger on, except that they’re tall, but there is just something strange looking about them. I guess it’s not so much that they look strange in and of itself, but that they all look alike. Not like twins or anything like that, but like brothers and sisters, maybe a dozen of them in all. You run into one of them in the cantina and then walk out the door and run into another in the street. It makes you take a double-take, like ‘Oh, I thought I just saw you inside’, or something like that.

Huh—Well, you know, that’s not so strange when you think about it, John said. It’s a closed community, right? I mean there’s likely to be a lot of inbreeding, right?

I suppose there could be, but then again, I wasn’t there long enough to know about that. Everyone I ever met was an adult, and very few old folks either. Just middle aged folks mostly.

No children? Tom asked.

None that I ever saw.

Did you get an explanation for that? John asked.

Nope, Griswald answered.

What the hell did you do in there for two years, sleep? Tom asked. You don’t seem to know much about them for having lived there and all.

Nope—I was their prisoner for most of the time I was there.

Prisoner? Tom said, surprised at Griswald’s revelation. And you want to go back there?

Sure. I said I was their prisoner most of the time I was there, but not by the end of my stay. I left there sort of a hero to them. That’s why they gave me the charm before I left, so I could come and go as I saw fit.

What happened to change things for you there? John asked. What did you do to become a hero to them?

Well, they have about everything they could ever need in there except for water. The second year I was there it was a really bad drought year and their well went dry. They don’t need much in there, but water they do need and there was none to be found.

So—What did you do? Tom asked.

I cut myself a divining rod and showed them how to douse, that’s all, and I got lucky and found them a new well.

Douse? Tom asked, looking confused. That doesn’t really work does it?

It did that time, Griswald answered, smiling. Lucky for me. If it weren’t for this charm, I’d be long ago dead and buried.

How do you figure that? Tom asked, studying Griswald closely. Do you think they’d have killed you if you hadn’t been successful?

I don’t know, maybe, but either way I’d be long gone by now. That was back in 1878 boys, when they captured me that is. One hundred and twenty-four years ago.

Damn! John shouted. I knew this whole story was a pile of crap. There ain’t no city or village out there at all and you’re one big bullshitter, Griswald.

Why the hell did you string us along like that, Griswald? Tom asked, still studying him closely.

"It’s all true, Tom. I was twenty years old when they captured me. I was crossing this valley on my way back to Fordyce from prospecting up on the Junto Plateau. I was riding along on my mule when they just rose up out of the ground and grabbed me down off of Old Bess. Scared the hell out of me ’cause I never saw it coming at all. One minute I was all alone on this desert, the next I was surrounded by six men. As soon as the first one touched me, the town materialized around us. That scared me even more, I’ll tell ya."

Yeah, right, John said, shaking his head. What a crock.

Tell ya what, John. It’s near dark now, so we’ll just go back to camp for now and then we’ll come back in the morning and I’ll take you in. How’s that sound to ya?

It sounds like a big waste of time to me, Tom replied.

Well, you can poohaw the story all you want and you’ll never know for sure if you don’t come back with me, now will ya? Griswald asked.

Suppose not, but it sounds like a fool’s quest to me, Tom answered.

Well, before I wandered into your camp that’s what you were already on, wasn’t it?

No! There’s gold out here. That’s not a fool’s quest. We found a nugget in an arroyo and where there’s one, there’s bound to be more, John said.

Maybe. Maybe not, Griswald said, smiling at John. So, will you come see the village tomorrow or not?

How are we going to see it, if it’s really even there? Tom asked.

Oh, there are ways. You’ll see it sure enough, if you come along.

Tom turned to John and asked, Well—What do you say, John? Should we?

Might as well humor Griswald. We can look for gold in our arroyo later on I guess.

Okay, Griswald. We’ll go along, but we’re not wastin’ the whole day out here. We came out here to find gold, not go on some wild goose chase, Tom informed him.

Tom—If they give you one of these charms, like mine, you’ll have better than gold to show for your trouble.

Tom thought about that for a minute and then turned back for camp. John fell in behind him leaving Griswald to bring up the rear. As he walked along the baked desert soil he began thinking about their unlikely meeting of Griswald who had wandered into their camp earlier in the late afternoon.

He and John had come out to the Sonoma for a four day weekend in search of gold. They weren’t prospectors or anything like that, just a couple of guys who thought it would be neat to go prospecting over the long Fourth of July holiday.

The Sonoma was only twenty-five miles from their home in Fordyce and the closest primitive area to their homes. There had been tales they had heard growing up of gold in the Sonoma and it had seemed like a good adventure to go look for themselves. On their second day out in the desert they had found a nugget, which seemed to weigh about a half an ounce by their best guess. That one nugget would finance their whole expedition, but the thought of more nuggets had them eager to continue their search.

Griswald had hailed their camp late on that second afternoon, appearing out of nowhere at the perimeter. He had appeared to be a harmless old man of about sixty years of age, so they had invited him in for coffee and camp stew. The discussion that ensued had led to Griswald’s reason for being out in the middle of nowhere and that is when he had told them of Melas.

To the boys, who had never heard of any city out in the Sonoma, it had seemed a neat enough place to go check out, but that was before Griswald had turned out to be a crackpot, or so they now suspected.

John, Tom said, after walking along in silence a few hundred yards. I think Griswald has been out in the sun too long.

Yeah, I think so.

Think we should go back with him tomorrow, or just blow him off and tell him to hit the road? Tom asked.