“Huh?” Aisha’s nose wrinkled in confusion. “What are you doing back down here already?”
“I have to continue by myself,” I said, sliding out the letter from River’s pocket. “It’s far too toxic up there for River.”
“But the oracle—” Aisha began.
“And if the oracle kicks up a fuss,” I went on, “well… so be it.”
Ben
Traveling back up the mountain, I flew fully into the cloud of smog. It became so thick that I could barely see two feet in front of me. I climbed higher and higher through the toxic gas, and it started to make even me feel heady.
Finally, I reached the top. The peak was actually not as sharp as it looked from the ground. Its very tip was a wide plateau and in the center bubbled a crater, spewing forth smoke and sparks of fuming lava. I moved around the crater, trying to scope the place out through all the thick fog, and as I’d almost come full circle, I found myself rooted to the spot. There, standing in a corner just ten feet away, was an old woman. An old woman with fleshy pits instead of eyes. She wore a long black robe.
“Hortencia,” I breathed. “You’re… you’re here.” A part of me wondered if this was some kind of illusion brought about by the fumes.
Lowering her hood, she hobbled close to me. She looked so ancient, even more now that I saw her in the flesh. So feeble that she might crack a bone just by walking.
Her shriveled lips curved in a smile that revealed her yellowed teeth. “Good,” she croaked. “You passed my second test.”
I gaped at her. “What?” But I didn’t even follow your rules.
Chuckling, she planted a hand around my right forearm and led me away from the middle of the volcano toward a clearer patch of plateau, where the wind was stronger and the air was slightly clearer.
“Some rules, boy, are meant to be broken. That is where the skill lies, of any true leader; deciding which rules should be broken and which should be kept intact.”
I still stared at her, wondering where she was going with all of this.
“Why don’t you take another peek at your letter,” she suggested patronizingly.
I unfolded it to see that the text had changed.
“Place love before law, and you shall live a fruitful, though not flawless, life.”
Okay… I guessed my refusing to bring River up here was approved by the oracle. This sure came as a surprise to me. Hortencia hadn’t exactly given me the impression that she was the romantic type, and had always struck me as quite callous when it came to finer sentiments like love or awareness of the feelings of others. I narrowed my eyes on her. Is this really the same Hortencia?
“What’s happened to you?” I asked.
Her mouth stretched in a small smile. “What must happen to all of us.”
“What?”
“Never mind that now,” she said. “Consult your letter again.”
My eyes shot to the parchment to discover a new note.
“What are you waiting for? We’re standing right in front of you. Kill us.”
There were lots of things about those few words that sent my head into a tailspin, though the first that surfaced was: We are standing? Hortencia was here, but I couldn’t see…
No sooner had the thought entered my mind than I caught a glimpse of another frail, old women approaching from the other side of the crater. She was exactly the same height as Hortencia and the structure of her face was identical too. The only striking difference between them was that Pythia was stark naked.
I fixed my eyes firmly on Hortencia’s face. Apparently Pythia was the more, ahem, eccentric of the two.
Pythia slunk up to us, her face panned up to me as she stood beside her sister. They linked hands.
“Well?” Hortencia quirked a practically nonexistent brow. “What are you waiting for?”
My focus returned to the note. “I-I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“Does this smoke impair your tender little eyes?”
“I can read,” I said, exasperated. “But I can’t kill you!” Hollow disappointment swelled in the pit of my stomach. All throughout this journey, since the very beginning, I’d been hoping that she would have some trick up her sleeve to get us all out of this—one that wouldn’t involve actual murder. That was crazy.
“Why not?” Hortencia asked, frowning. She manifested a blade in her hand and pushed it into mine. “You have the means… and we are ready for it.”
I gaped at them in disbelief. What is going on?
“I cannot kill you!” I said, discarding the dagger and throwing my hands in the air. “And why would you even want to die?” None of this makes any sense.
“Death comes for all of us eventually,” Hortencia said. “As you can see by our bodies revealing their natural age, we are well ripe for leaving this Earth… And besides, don’t you think we deserve it? After all I showed you about us?”
“I don’t care whether you’re willing to die or not,” I said. “Or whether you deserve it. I’m not the one to do it. Though I will say,” I couldn’t help but add, “I don’t think you’re really that bad. Honestly, you just seem… intensely unhappy.”
As I said the words, I realized that was exactly what they were. The root of all their meddling seemed born out of frustration. They were unhappy, miserable souls, with a curse in disguise as a gift. Born without eyes, they’d never once been able to experience the true beauty of the world. Even after everything the oracle had put me through, I couldn’t bring myself to feel a sliver of hatred for her. Instead I just… pitied her.
Hortencia smiled broadly. “Now that wasn’t too painful, was it?” she asked.
“What?” Man. She was tying my brain up in knots. Is this all a fourth test?
Hortencia beamed like the Cheshire Cat. “Just as loving is important, so equally is mercy. Remember this, Benjamin.” She clutched my wrists and if she’d had eyes, I was certain that they would be boring into me right now.
“I have lived a thousand lives,” she said, her voice dropping to a whisper, “none of them my own. But I have witnessed enough mistakes by others to have learnt the secrets to leading a wondrously happy life… I also know the makings of a hero.” She paused, removing one hand from me and planting it on her sister’s shoulder. “Now I have done many abhorrent things in my years, as has my sister, but at the dusk of life, whoever we are, we wish to look back on something worthy of pride.”
I still don’t understand.
“Let me tell you something, child. I’ve never been proud of anything I’ve done… until I started helping you.” Huh? A clammy hand reached up to my face and patted my cheek. “In time you will understand exactly what I mean by this. For now, just know that the world in a couple of decades’ time will be in great need of men like you. All final boundaries will collapse, and that which should never be fused will fuse. You will live through this time and it will not be easy. You will be forced to become the hero whom… whom I have been attempting to train you to become. In the brief time that we’ve spent together, I’ve tried to give you a crash course, to instill in you a selection of morals I have learnt and that I believe will serve you well in the future.”
My head spun. Crash course is an appropriate term, all right…
“Why… why would you do this, though? Why would you even care?”
She smiled, bittersweet. “To leave this world with a lighter burden on my shoulders, I suppose. If you become the warrior that I see within you, and set an example for others to follow, fate might smile a little more kindly on me… for where I go next.”
“But… Hortencia. You just said that this was a test, and I should not kill you, right? Then the question remains, how will I fulfil all this without a body? How do we undo the fae’s pact?”
Hortencia let go of me completely and took a step back, her right hand still clutching Pythia’s.
“The answer is simple,” she croaked, beginning to back away from me with her sister.
Th
e motion sent alarm bells ringing. Is she just going to abandon me now? Tell me to figure it all out by myself, as part of some fifth test?
“Wait,” I said, moving forward.
“Fear not,” Hortencia cooed. The twins’ steps sped up, even as they continued walking backwards. Can she sense that they’re heading in a direct line for the crater?
“No, I mean, seriously wait! You’re going to fall!”
I lunged to grab the sisters, but by some mysticism, I found myself grasping air instead, even though they were less than a foot in front of me. Then in a sudden jolt, their speed ramped up to a supernatural level and then it was too late. They’d ventured too far. Except they didn’t fall.
My heart leaping into my throat, I skidded to a stop in front of them. Through the thick smog, I glimpsed the soles of their feet virtually a centimeter from the edge. All it would take to make them lose balance was a strong gust of wind, yet still they remained facing me, their backs to the sweltering crater.
Before I could utter a word, Hortencia rummaged in her robe pocket and withdrew a round metal pendant. She reached out and pressed it into my hands.
“Keep this,” she wheezed amidst the smoke.
As she withdrew her hand, her clothes vanished from her body, rendering her as stark naked as her sister. Then the two, holding hands, whispered in unison like a chant, “Together we came, together we go. Just you and I, sisters both.”
They turned to face one another, their arms wound around each other’s waists, their forms locking together with disturbing symmetry. The next thing I knew, they’d released their balance on the edge and were falling. Falling. Falling. I peered over the edge just in time to glimpse their tightly bound forms making contact with the molten lava. And then they were gone.
Ben
The last thing I’d been expecting was for the oracles to kill themselves. Taking themselves out of the picture to not only keep me alive, but also prevent more disaster in the human world—which the fae had promised to cause if we failed—it was selfless.
Stepping back from the crater as it belched up a spurt of lava, I gazed down at the pendant clasped in my hand. To my surprise, it had popped open, revealing a little compartment within its belly, where lay a key. A tiny silver key.
What is this? Why did she give it to me?
Typical Hortencia. Puzzles, even after her death. She just couldn’t help herself. Perhaps it was something that Sherus needed.
Gazing at the crater—now the oracles’ grave—one last time, I didn’t stick around to see if I could spot their spirits flying out. I hurried back down to the desert.
“Well? What happened?” River and Aisha demanded.
“They’re dead.”
“What?” River gasped, while Aisha’s eyes bulged. “You killed them?”
“No,” I said quickly. “They killed themselves. Leapt into the crater.”
“Oh, my goodness,” Aisha breathed.
“Hortencia gave me this before she left,” I said, handing the pendant to Aisha. I wondered if she would have a better idea what it was.
She examined it curiously, yet tentatively, as if expecting it might explode. She picked up the small key. Then she shrugged. “No idea what this is.”
“Wh-why would they kill themselves?” River asked, staring at me.
I explained to the girls what happened. By the time I was done their jaws were on the ground.
“So… they weren’t that bad after all,” River said.
“I guess not,” I replied.
There was a span of silence as we exchanged glances.
“So I guess we need to head back to Sherus now,” Aisha said, handing the pendant back to me.
I glanced at the letter I still clutched in one hand. Hortencia’s last message had disappeared. An unexpected feeling of melancholy washed over me as I stared down at the blank parchment. The oracles are gone. It was a shame they had seen no other way than to take their own lives. They could have been infinitely useful to us in this mysterious future she spoke of. I also felt humbled that she had chosen me to impart her final words of wisdom to.
Placing the note on the sand, I pushed it deep, as if in a memorial for Hortencia, a burial that she would never have.
However the world around The Shade would transform in the future, I fully believed that in the short time I’d known her, and the few interactions I’d had with her, she’d made a mark on my character—a mark that would not easily be scrubbed off.
* * *
Since we still had time, we returned first to the area outside Hortencia’s cave—a strange place to return now, knowing that she was gone—in order to fetch the others. When we arrived, our jinn and fae were waiting among the rocks, but everyone else, except for Jeramiah, was nowhere to be seen. Lucas was the first to spot us as we approached.
“Where are the others?” I asked anxiously.
“They finally took your suggestion to leave. They trust you’re in safe hands with the jinn.”
Good. I was glad they’d gone back. Now there was just River for me to worry about. She and Jeramiah were the only wholly physical creatures remaining with us.
“So, what happened?” Lucas asked, as the rest of the fae—Nolan, Chantel and Marcilla—along with Horatio and the Nasiris gathered round me.
I recounted as briefly as I could what had transpired, and what remained for us to do now. Once all questions were answered, we left the rocks and headed back to the snowy mountain portal.
Even though we were early, somehow I was already expecting Sherus to be waiting there for us. And he was. But I had not been expecting to see an army of fae with him. There must have been over two hundred fae on the icy plateau, lining up in rows, armed with slender bows and arrows, spears and swords, among other weapons.
What on earth is going on here?
As we descended, I caught sight of Sherus. He looked tense as he paced among the rows of fae, barking orders and checking weaponry.
“Hey!” I called, touching down in the snow.
I really did not appreciate the grim expression on his face after the hell I’d just been through for him.
“So you killed them,” he said. Strangely, it was a statement, not a question.
“Uh, they’re dead,” I replied, frowning at him. “How did you know?”
He reached into a leather pouch fastened to his waist and pulled out a pendant. Identical to the one I held in my palm. His had popped open like mine, too, and a little key rested within it.
Before I could ask, Sherus explained, “These pendants… three were made. One for the oracles, one for the fae, one for the ghouls. The closed metal shells around these silver keys were symbolic of our pact so long as they remained tightly clasped.” He paused, clenching his jaw. “I knew you’d managed to end them as soon as my pendant snapped open. And so will the ghouls. Our scouts have already informed us that they are all but deserting The Underworld for battle. Hordes will arrive any moment now.”
“Battle?” I asked. “What for?”
“Obviously, the ghouls are not happy that the pact has been broken before we fulfilled their ludicrous demands. They will not let us off easily.”
I tensed. “What do you mean? What will they do? Attack and storm your homeland?”
“Attack us, yes. Storm our kingdom, hopefully not.” His eyes left me and wandered across the snowy landscape before returning with a resolute expression. He took the pendant from me. “No matter the repercussions,” he said with a heavy sigh, placing the second pendant into his pouch, “this is our fight. You have fulfilled your end of the deal, Prince Novak. And now… you are free to leave with what I promised you.”
My chest swelled with relief. As soon as Sherus had started talking about the impending battle between the fae and the ghouls, I’d been expecting him to spring on me another hoop I’d have to jump through before he’d allow us to keep our bodies. But Sherus had proven himself to be a man of his word. He might not be at the top of my friends
list—or anywhere near it—but I respected and recognized the fact that he had at least some integrity.
I could not bring myself to say thank you, but I bowed my head slightly.
He nodded curtly, then pivoted on his heels, heading back into the midst of his army, where he busied himself again in preparations for the looming attack.
I turned to my companions. Eyeing the line of jinn, I smiled faintly. How ironic it was that, after everything, we had not even needed them for Sherus’ task. The oracles had done the job for them… though Sherus didn’t need to know that.
Ben
If the ghouls were heading this way, we ought to get a move on. I did not want to get caught up in the crossfire, especially not with River around. We left the fae’s plateau and moved to a mountain several miles away, where we could talk without anxiety.
It still hadn’t registered in my brain that this was where my journey was supposed to end. My wild, crazy journey that had started the day my father had turned me into a vampire—or even far before that, if you counted my encounter with Basilius.
I kept thinking something else was about to come flying at me. Another blow to return me to my knees, another bombshell to shatter me.
River slid off my back. Standing on my feet to keep her soles from touching the snow, she gazed up at me.
“This… this is it?” she breathed, only half believing it herself.
“I guess so,” I said slowly, like I was drugged.
I’d gotten rid of my old infected vampire body, and managed to find a brand-new one—one that would hopefully last me for the rest of my life.
And River and I… we could be together. We could marry.
What more was there to solve?
Yet there was a nagging at the back of my head. A tugging in my chest. That this couldn’t be the end, not yet. There was still something I had to accomplish… and as I recalled Sherus’ words, I knew what it was.
“… they are all but deserting The Underworld for battle.”
A Bridge of Stars Page 12