Michael Cordy - The Source

As he wandered round the perimeter, large oval sunflowers and huge bulbous artichoke-like blooms reminded him of South Africa's proteus flower. He saw dog-like creatures in the undergrowth and odd insects, all recognizable from the Voynich. He imagined Orlando Falcon lying in his cell, mentally retracing the steps he himself was now taking, drawing their likenesses in his manuscript. What struck Ross most, though, was not how different everything was from the outside world but how similar. Even though the plants and creatures in this basin had evolved independently of anything outside, it appeared that evolution had arrived at similar solutions: petals, seeds, leaves, eyes, legs. He hadn't yet seen anything completely alien. Especially when he considered the creatures and plants he had discovered on his journey through the Amazon.

He looked back to the mound of stones where Sister Chantal had slept but she wasn't there. A moment later he spotted her standing by the stream at the far end of the lake, near the entrance to the forbidden caves. Sister Chantal looked different. She wore sandals and a white blouse over a white skirt, and she had undone her hair so it fell below her shoulders. The early-morning light lent her an ethereal air and she seemed younger, stronger. Her wrinkles hadn't disappeared and her hair was still streaked with grey, but the contusion on her head and the surface wounds from the jaguar attack had gone. Also, the weariness had left her eyes and her translucent skin glowed. A small bag was slung over her left shoulder. As he approached, she took his hand. 'Your wrist's better.'

He clenched his fist. 'It's fine. That's what I want to ask you about. And about Lauren.'

'Come,' she said. 'Let me explain a few things.' She pointed to the stream and the lake. 'As you've discovered, the water and any produce from the plants in the garden will not only rebalance and refresh the body, but heal any ailments.'

He thought of Lauren's broken neck. 'Heal anything?'

'Most things, it would appear.' She touched her face and smiled sadly. 'The one thing it can't do is make us younger. It can slow, even halt, the ageing process, but not reverse it.'

'Can it cure Lauren?'

'Of course. That's why I brought you here.' She spoke with such confidence that Ross had to blink back tears.

'So what do I do? Take her a bottle of the lake water or some fruit?'

She shook her head. 'I tried that once but when the water or plants are taken from the garden they lose their power. No living thing here can survive outside. The fruit rots and the water goes stagnant. I don't know why. It's as though everything has become so dependent on this place that it must die immediately it leaves. But creatures like us, who have evolved to survive outside its orbit, are revitalized here. However, we can only gain the benefits by drinking the water or eating the produce in the garden.'

'So I have to bring Lauren here?'

She smiled. 'No. There's another way.' She pointed behind her to the dark opening whence the stream came. 'Come, I'll show you.'

She took his hand and led him into the forbidden caves.

As Ross followed Sister Chantal along the stream to the forbidden caves trepidation must have shown on his face.

'The antechamber's harmless,' she said. 'The forbidden, dangerous part lies beyond.'

The first thing he noticed was a faint smell: a musky, damp, mustard-seed aroma – like the aftermath of sex. The space was high and deep. The cave floor rose in steps as he entered, culminating in a high ledge, behind which an ascending tunnel disappeared into the heart of the surrounding rock. The stream that fed the lake flowed down the tunnel to a small waterfall, which dropped from the ledge, forming two pools, then eddied into the garden. Inside the tunnel, alongside the rushing stream, there was a path wide enough for two men. When Ross looked closely he saw that it was made up of glittering crystals. In fact, the whole tunnel was encrusted with them.

He could see all this from the entrance because the interior of the antechamber was bathed in an ethereal glow, which emanated from deep within the tunnel, amplified by the crystals and the stream. The path emitted its own glittering phosphorescence, presenting an irresistible temptation to enter the tunnel and discover the source of the strange light. A potentially deadly temptation, Ross remembered, from a passage in Lauren's translation of the Voynich: Though the conquistadors could not communicate directly with the Eves, the scholar priest understood that it was forbidden to enter their cave. For many days they rested after their gruelling journey and enjoyed the beautiful garden. But soon, like all idle men, they grew curious and greedy, wondering what could be in the cave. It must be valuable, they reasoned. Gold.

The scholar priest counselled them to obey their hosts but the captain was a proud man who obeyed only his king. That night the conquistadors ventured into the cave. They found the Eves bathing in pools, filled by water flowing from a vaulted tunnel in the raised back of the cave. As well as water, light issued from deep within the tunnel bathing everything in a golden glow. Alongside the rushing stream, a path climbed and twisted into the rock. It appeared to be encrusted with diamonds, which sparkled in the light. Convinced that its source must be a vast treasure trove, the conquistadors were drawn to it like moths to a flame.

When they approached, the Eves emitted a high-pitched wailing and blocked their path. The scholar priest begged the men not to enter. But they pushed him and the Eves aside and began their ascent. The scholar priest watched each of them disappear into the tunnel and for many minutes nothing happened.

Then the screaming started.

And the stream turned red with their blood.

Twenty-one men entered the tunnel, all the surviving members of the original troop. Not one came down. Every conquistador died. The scholar priest understood then that the Eves had not been protecting whatever was in the tunnel from their greed but the conquistadors from whatever was in the tunnel. After witnessing the horrors of that night, he concluded that only man could turn Heaven into Hell.

The tunnel of blood also featured in the last pages of Falcon's notebook: the translation of the Voynich's astrological section that Lauren had not yet unravelled. According to this section, Falcon later went up the tunnel himself and discovered 'el origen' – the source, what Torino called the 'radix'. Ross took the damaged notebook from his backpack and studied the relevant pages, but apart from a typically cryptic reference to something called El Arbol de la Vida y de la Muerte, the Tree of Life and Death, they told him little. He pulled out his compass and watched the needle rotate furiously, then point up the tunnel.

'What's up there?' he asked.

'I don't know. Only Father Orlando lived to see el origen.'

'But in his notebook he doesn't explain what it is. Only that it's the power behind the garden, is incredibly beautiful and the path leading to it is dangerous.' Ross was burning to know more but something moved in his peripheral vision. He shifted his focus and saw that the glowing tunnel was not the only remarkable thing in the cave.

In the far recesses, white shapes moved in the shadows. He stepped closer and saw a creature staring back at him, a biped, about four feet high with translucent alabaster-white skin. It had two arms, a distended belly and two mounds on its chest, with no nipples. Its face was round with large, attractive eyes, a small nose and a wide mouth. On top of its head there was a cluster of strandlike growths, entwined with flowers. The creature seemed as fascinated by Ross as he was by it.

'Father Orlando was many things,' Sister Chantal said quietly, 'but, as you can see, he was no artist.'