by Kyle West
“I had a dream last night, and a dream this afternoon. And if I go to sleep now, I suspect I’ll have a dream again. This won’t be settled until I do what this voice is telling me.”
“Shanti, you’ve been through a lot lately...” He shook his head. “The mind does funny things when it’s tired. And you’re tired. I can see that.”
I knew Isaru was right about that much. Much to my surprise, I found myself nodding and agreeing with him.
“Isandru is gone,” I said. “There’s no one else to talk to about this. No one to tell me if it’s real.”
Isaru went quiet. It seemed as if he realized something I didn’t.
“What?” I asked.
“There is one person,” he said. “Maybe.”
It took me a moment to realize what he was talking about. “I mean...can we see her?”
“We’ll soon find out.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
ISARU AND I MADE OUR way back across the Great Hall to the Sanctum’s west wing. It was late, and by this time most people would be asleep, so the halls were quiet. We passed no one as we turned down the corridor that connected to the clinic. I didn’t know where it was, but Isaru seemed to know where he was going, so I followed him.
“This is it,” he said.
We turned in to a large room, with two rows of beds lined on opposite ends facing each other. Only one of those beds – the furthest away – was occupied. There was no one else there, and the fact that Fiona was doing well enough to have been left alone was a great stroke of luck.
Isaru and I walked into the dim hall. There was no light save for that entering through the windows, one of which was open to the back grove. White curtains shifted in the cool breeze that found its way in.
When we were ten feet from Fiona, she stirred in her sheets while muttering something in her sleep. The instant we stopped in front of her, she opened her eyes, the intensity of her blue-eyed stare taking me aback. Her eyes were unusually bright in the darkness of the room, and it took a moment for them to dim.
“He said you would come,” she said. “We must go. We must go now.”
“Who said we were coming?” I asked. “Did Isandru tell you anything?”
“You had the dream, didn’t you?” she asked. “That’s why you’re here.”
At those words, a chill ran down my spine. “You foresaw my coming?”
Instead of answering right away, Fiona forced herself to sit up in bed. When she was settled, she spoke again.
“The reversion lies to the north. The dream told us both to go. Did you not have it, Shanti?”
“Yes. That’s why I came here, to ask you if it was real. Did you dream my name, too, or did Isandru tell you that?”
“Yes, Isandru told me your name, and that you were a new initiate of potential. Dreams aren’t as specific as that.”
“I know a little of you as well, I suppose,” I said. “And I’m sure you’ve heard of Isaru.”
Fiona’s eyes took him in. “I thought it might be him, just from the descriptions I’ve heard.”
“You’re saying the dream is real, then?” Isaru asked.
“All I know is this. Something is going to happen at the reversion tonight, and if neither Shanti nor I are there, we will miss the revelation of a lifetime.” She shook her head. “I’m afraid we might already be too late. I know how sudden this is, but for me, I was on that mountain for a week. This has long been in the making. In fact...I think I might have caused the reversion.”
Isaru’s eyes widened. “That’s insane. How would that even be possible?”
“I don’t know,” Fiona said, “but I had a prophecy of an opening gate, and within was the voice of Annara herself. I caught but a glimmer of her, but we are still too far.” Fiona turned to me. “We both shared the same dream, and the voice told me that you would come. The signs have never been clearer. And if we don’t take the next step...”
For some reason, I found myself protesting. Isaru was right earlier; this was all too crazy to be believed.
“Fiona...I’m just an initiate. I can’t...”
She interrupted. “Initiate is but a word, and it matters nothing when Elekim himself bids you to go.”
Isaru gasped, while I found myself at a loss for words.
“Yes,” Fiona said. “And if not Elekim himself, it might have been one of the other gods.”
“I thought it was a dragon,” I said. “It was a dragon in one of my earlier dreams.”
“Whoever it is, it is a being of great power,” Fiona said. “The gods speak so little that it would be foolishness to disregard this. And if it was a dragon, it would have to be an Elder Dragon. For an Elder to break their silence after over two centuries...” Fiona shook her head. “Whatever the case, we must go. There is no other option.”
“Whether a god or an Elder Dragon,” Isaru said, “why would either reveal themselves now? What’s so important that they would break their silence?”
Fiona looked at him levelly. “That is what we have to find out.”
Both Isaru and I had been struck silent, still hardly believing anything Fiona was saying. But she was a full Seeker, and she was bidding us both accompany her to the reversion.
“I’ll go,” I said.
“So will I,” Isaru said.
She nodded, as if expecting nothing less. “We’ll need to go to my rooms. I’ll need my sword, and I have a couple of canteens. We have to make it before they restore it to the Wild, before they can catch us.”
“Fiona, are you well enough?” I asked.
“I’ll have to be,” Fiona said. “The gods never give anything we aren’t capable of handling. Our pressing need will be enough to sustain me.
As if proving her point, she got out of bed, wearing clean linen she had changed into out of her Seeker’s robes.
“Let’s go,” she said. “It’s nearly ten miles north, and we’ll have to make good speed to beat the expedition there.”
WE ARRIVED IN FIONA’S room upstairs. It wasn’t much larger than the one Isa and I shared, but Fiona had it all to herself. I supposed the rest of the Seekers had similar quarters. It was taken up by a medium-sized bed in the corner, a wardrobe, a washbasin and mirror, a large chest, and a stand on which her sword was stored. Some light came in through the upper window, just enough to see by.
“I need to change, so both of you turn.” We obliged as she changed. Out of the corner of my eye, Isaru shifted uncomfortably.
“Alright,” she said, after a moment. “You can look now.”
She had changed into pants and shirt that, while finely made, looked a bit travel-worn, and over these she wore a burgundy cloak, also faded from wear. She latched the sword to her belt.
“Do you really think there’ll be trouble?” I asked.
“I don’t think so, but you never know. I just want to be prepared.”
She went to the cabinet by her bedside, opening it to reveal more gear – a couple of canteens, a pack, and other things that were lost to the dimness of the room.
“We’ll need these,” she said, grabbing the canteens.
We took turns filling them up from the tap over the washbasin.
“So, how are we actually leaving the Sanctum?” I asked.
“The Arch is the only way to go without being seen,” Fiona said.
“We’re already breaking every rule in the book,” Isaru said. “What’s one more?”
“I had a dream about that Arch,” I said.
“Dreams about the Arch are common,” Fiona said. “But the Arch in the waking world is different from the one in dreams.”
It was then that the reality of what was happening fully hit me. I was about to go to the reversion with a woman I didn’t know because we had dreamed the same thing.
“Fiona...” I said. “I don’t know if I can do this...”
“We have behind us the will of whoever was calling in that dream, Shanti,” she said. “You need nothing more than that.”<
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We left the room and walked the empty corridors, down the stairs, and entered the Great Hall. We went to the large doors in back, not meeting a soul the entire way.
As we passed through the double doors and into the rear Grove, I nearly jumped out of my skin upon hearing the tolling of a single bell, which reverberated through the trees and off the mountainside. Fiona held up a hand, causing us to pause a moment.
“The final hour,” she said.
We waited for a moment, perhaps to give whoever had rung the bell time to descend the tower. After a moment, Fiona seemed satisfied, and we moved on.
We went down the steps and followed the path until we were lost to the trees, not stopping until we reached the Seekers’ Arch, coming to a halt about twenty paces from its opening.
The Arch was the only way to proceed onto Nava Mountain, because Nava’s sides were flanked by steep cliffs that would be dangerous, if not impossible, to climb.
“The moment of truth,” Isaru said.
“We better hurry,” Fiona said.
We moved on, and as the trail sloped upward, the Arch grew larger and larger until we were mere feet away. Then, without breaking pace, we passed through. Despite myself, I closed my eyes, not opening them until a few seconds had passed.
When I turned back, we had passed it. The Arch, along with the stone trail, disappeared into the Grove behind, where I could see the Sanctum and its two domes rising above the trees. Only the Great Silverwoods rose higher, subtly glowing beacons in the night.
FIONA SET A FAST PACE, walking as if she had made this journey many times before. Even though I felt anxious, I couldn’t help but be a bit excited. We were breaking the rules, and not only that, something was calling us to the reversion. Within hours, we would discover that voice’s identity.
Isaru seemed settled into his role of accompanying us, but at the same time, there was an element of unease to his bearing. Even he was made uncomfortable by this, which was saying a lot, considering all the trouble he had managed to get into over the years.
“The trail heads south here, so we’ll have to make our own path north,” Fiona said, after we’d ascended five hundred feet or so.
I looked back to see that the Sanctum appeared smaller, and over its roof I could see the huts of Nava Village, tiny with distance, lit only by the light of the full moon.
Fiona paused, as if considering our path. Then, she climbed the slope of the mountain, sometimes using her hands, doubling back toward the north.
We spent the next hour or so working our way along Nava Mountain’s western face. As we did, a new landscape came into view, previously hidden by the mountain, a vista of shining xen, mesas, and stands of xenotrees, all of which ended in a thick line of tangled growth – a thick forest of trees that couldn’t be bypassed. It seemed impossible to cross it before the expedition got there.
“The reversion is on the opposite side of the river,” Fiona said. “There’s a ferry downstream, and there’s no way we can reach it before they do. We’re going to have to hope for some shallows we can cross, but first, we have to cross that forest.”
The mountain sloped downward, and it wasn’t long before we were walking across the xen plain. The journey became easy at this point, and Fiona took advantage by setting an even faster pace, even jogging at times. I was amazed at how she had recovered so much of her strength. I remembered what Isandru had told me, about Sustenance – it was possible that Fiona was using the power of the xen to give her energy, though I did not know how such a Gift would function.
Half an hour later, the xenoforest loomed, and we found an opening and plunged into its depths. The trees’ trunks were thick, interlocking and joining one another so frequently that it seemed as if we had entered a cavern rather than a forest. Various tubers and stalks grew from the bed of xen below, all glowing to provide sufficient light. We wove in and out of the intricate network of tunnels, and looking back, I could not see where we had originally entered.
“How do you know the way?” I asked.
“Do you not feel it?” Fiona asked. “The reversion is like a pulse, pulling us forward. I can feel its strength, greater than what I felt on Nava Mountain.”
I didn’t know what Fiona was talking about, but the only thing I could feel was that something would jump out at us from around every bend.
As we went on, though, I felt a sense of being...pulled. What that something was, I couldn’t guess, but the feeling grew stronger as we proceeded. By the time another hour had passed inside the forest, there was no doubt.
“I can feel it,” I said.
“I don’t feel anything,” Isaru said.
“The reversion is near,” Fiona said. “It won’t be long.”
The forest’s overhanging branches thinned, while the trunks grew less densely from the xen. Meadows broke the trees, and in time, the forest itself was gone, replaced by a wide plain, which dropped abruptly about a quarter of a mile in the distance.
“The river,” Fiona said. “We’ve made excellent time. Let’s just hope it’s enough.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
WE MADE IT TO THE end of the plain, and just as Fiona had said, at the bottom of the steep cliff rushed the Colorado River. There was no easy way across I could see.
Fiona went to the cliff to look for a place to go down, and we followed her east until we came to a likely spot. We took turns climbing down on our hands and knees, careful not to let the loose rock send us tumbling the rest of the way.
Within five minutes, all of us were standing at the bank of the rushing river. The flow of the water was too strong, so we followed Fiona upstream, where the river was widened a bit and flowed at a slower rate.
“This is dangerous,” Fiona said. “But I see no other choice.”
“We’re going to swim this?” Isaru asked.
“You can swim, right?”
“Of course,” Isaru said. “I would have mentioned it by now if I couldn’t.”
“Shanti?”
I nodded. “I grew up next to the river. I’ll be fine.”
“I was hoping to find some shallows,” Fiona said. “But that might take too much time, which is something we don’t have. The water will be cold, but it should take no more than two minutes to cross. Try to swim quickly. You don’t want to be caught in those rapids downstream.”
“Let’s just do this,” Isaru said.
With that, we approached the dark water. Fiona was the first one in, and she began swimming with powerful strokes. Isaru was next, gasping at the cold by the time it reached his chest. It wasn’t long before he, too, was silently swimming.
I went into the water next, and like Isaru, I was shocked with its chill. I made myself swim, gasping as the heat fled my body. Within seconds, my extremities went numb, but at this point there was nothing I could do but keep going. The flow was strong, but so long as I kept myself above water, getting to the other side wouldn’t prove difficult.
By the time I was halfway across, Fiona had already made it to the opposite shore. Shortly after, Isaru stood and walked out of the river to meet Fiona, both of them shivering and jumping up and down. It wasn’t long before my own feet scraped the sandy bottom, which I hardly recognized at first because I could barely feel it. I quickly exited the water, shivering with cold. All three of us stood for a moment to catch our breaths.
“We’ll warm up once we start walking,” Fiona said. “Let’s go.”
Not far downriver, the cliffs broke, allowing access to the northern side. By the time we were making our way north, the wind, seeming colder than usual, chilled me to the bone. I could only hope walking would be enough to warm me up.
To my surprise, though it was the darkest hour of the morning, I didn’t feel tired. Instead, I only felt the pressing need to keep going.
The stars above shone in their multitudes, even as the surrounding xen began to dim. It was hardly noticeable at first, but after another fifteen minutes, it was clear that something h
ad changed. I felt curiously empty, as if something had been stripped away. It felt very much like my dream of the wasteland and the dragon flying in the sky.
“We’re here,” Fiona said.
Just as she said that, we crested a rise, arriving at a valley that was completely dark, save for a bright glow emanating from beyond the next rise. I couldn’t tell what was glowing, but I was sure that it was the source of the pull Fiona and I felt.
It was where we would find our answer.
“I’ve never seen the Wild dark like this,” Isaru said. “It feels...wrong. Empty.”
“It’s disconnected from the Xenofold,” Fiona said. “And it will be until the Sages fix it. All of the energy is being concentrated at a single point: the reversion. Likely, the expedition will wait until morning before trying anything. This is our chance.”
She drew her sword, and I felt my heart race at that action. “Let’s get on with it.”
With that, we walked into the dark valley.
THE ONLY SOUND WAS that of our feet squishing against the xen beneath. Even the wind grew still, as if some unseen force barred it from blowing. There was no light, no smell, and no sound. It felt as if all the color and feeling had been drained from this area of the Wild, as if it were devoid of thought and memory. The feeling of the void only grew as we walked deeper into the Wild, and from Fiona and Isaru’s silence, I knew they could feel it as well. My mind was blank, and it was difficult to hold onto any thought for long before it slipped away.
Only one feeling remained in this vacuum, and it was that of the pull, until it was the only feeling that remained. Even Isaru seemed attuned to it, now, and our steps quickened as we neared.
“Seek Silence,” Fiona said, her voice seeming to come from a distance. “It helps a bit.”
I tried to do as she said, but I could never form that elusive sense of calm for long before it was replaced by a different, more hostile form of emptiness.
We walked for about half an hour before the land started to ascend. Though the light was bright at the top of the rise, it seemed to be swallowed by the darkness immediately surrounding us. As we neared, I could see auroras dancing in the sky, most likely a reflection of the reversion in the distance.