Hidden Talents

pocket of his jacket.
    Quinton and Montrose waited until the hollow echo of Blade's heavy boots on the stone floor faded. Then they, too, got up without a word and walked out of the cave. From the corner of his eye Caleb watched them leave. He stayed where he was. For some reason he didn't feel like joining them.
    He could find his way back down the path to Witt's End, he thought. It wouldn't be difficult. He wanted to be by himself for a while.
    He closed his eyes and wondered what his relatives would say if they could see him now, sitting alone in a cave warmed by mysterious hot springs.
    Time passed. It could have been minutes or hours. Caleb had no way of knowing. He opened his eyes and started to look at his watch. But his attention was captured by the whirling mists above the hot pool.
    The vapor appeared denser now than it had earlier. There was more volume to it, a sense of depth and darkness. Caleb studied it with an odd detachment, the way he might have studied a painting. Something about the steam drew his eye down to the water.
    The crystal clear waters of the pool slowly began to flow around a central point, becoming a vortex that sank deeper and deeper into the spring.
    A hallway took shape within the whirlpool. It had no beginning and no end. There were doors in the walls. Caleb knew that one of them offered escape from the endless hallway. All he had to do was find the right door.
    As he gazed, fascinated, into the endless, whirling corridor, he saw the figure of a man running swiftly through it. As the figure moved through the hall, he paused long enough to open each door that he passed. Time after time he found himself looking through a doorway into a featureless gray room. Each time he closed the door and ran on to the next.
    Caleb could not see the man's face, but was certain he knew him. He could feel what the figure in the tunnel was feeling. He knew his thoughts, sensed the urgency that drove him. There was a shattering awareness that time was running out. His pulse was pounding and sweat had dampened his clothes.
    He was the man running through the endless hallway.
    He wanted to stop but he could not. The darkness at the end of the corridor was waiting to claim him. He had to keep moving; he had to keep opening doors, hoping each time that he would find the right one before it was too late.
    He had to find her. She held his future in her hands .
    Caleb's fingers closed around another doorknob. It was icy cold beneath his fingers. This was the last door.
    He opened it.
    The room behind the door was not gray like the others. It was bright and white and filled with sunshine.
    And she was there.
    Relief cascaded over him when he saw that she was waiting for him with the infants cradled in her arms. He walked into the room.
    Somewhere in the distance a waltz was playing.
    She smiled at him.
    He reached for her.
    The vision in the pool vanished.
    Caleb awoke abruptly. He drew a ragged breath and wiped sweat from his forehead. His pulse thudded heavily, as if he had been running hard for a long distance.
    For an instant he couldn't get his bearings. Then he saw the mist rising above the rocky pool. It curled and twisted and dissipated in an endless pattern.
    In spite of the warmth created by the springs, a cold shudder went through him. He glanced around the dimly lit cavern and then looked at his watch. With a shock he realized that it was nearly midnight. The others had left over an hour ago.
    Caleb got to his feet, aware that his heartbeat was slowing to its normal rate. He walked to the entrance of the cavern and stood looking out into the night. A handful of scattered lights from various cabins sparkled through the trees down below. He knew that the welcoming glow from the nearest windows came from Serenity's cottage at the foot of the path.
    He started to reach into the pocket of his jacket for the flashlight Blade had given him. Then he realized he didn't need it. There was enough moonlight to light his way.
    It took ten minutes to make his way to Serenity's cottage. The porch light was still on over the front door.
    He walked up the steps and knocked. Serenity, bundled up in a robe and slippers, opened the door immediately. Her hair was a frothy tangle of red curls. He knew from the anxious expression in her beautiful eyes that she had been waiting for him.
    “Caleb.” She smiled tremulously. “I was beginning to get a little worried. Quinton and the others came by over an hour ago to tell