The last thing she remembered was being in the water, and then she was running. It was a struggle to remember why. Where were the others? What was this place? With every ounce of her strength, Crystal hoisted herself up and looked around. Is this... a dungeon?
The walls were bare and unadorned, and the place smelled of urine and old poop, mixed strangely with pine and mildew. Straight in front of her was a solid oak door, with a barred opening at the top. The floor was made of stone and strewn with loose hay. It looked like she'd imagine a dungeon would look, though she'd never been inside one before this day. At least I'm not in chains. Summoning all her strength, she pushed herself off the hard cot she'd been placed on. It had a mattress, of sorts, though she could feel the wooden slats beneath the flimsy padding. In that moment, her head spun around and around, and it was a moment or two before she could refocus. She heaved, though brought nothing up. There was nothing left in her stomach to vomit.
On her feet now, she staggered over, one hand on the wall to stop herself from falling, to the thick door, and put her palms flat on the frame for support. It was locked, and she collapsed weakly against the hard surface.
"Is there anyone out there?" Crystal croaked. Her voice was weak, and she doubted anyone would hear her. She rolled around, leaning into the wood, hoping this awful feeling would soon pass. She ran her tongue over her dry lips. "Water, I need water. Someone, please."
A heavy key rattled in the lock, and as the door opened, she was pushed off-balance and slid in a heap to the floor, scraping her palms on the rough stonework.
"Son of a... not again..."
A young Guardsman looked down at her. He was carrying a silver jug and goblet. His face was pleasant, and he seemed to be examining her with some compassion. He put the jug and goblet down and helped Crystal back to her cot.
"You need to drink some water. The sickness will pass. You were bit by the wyvern. Its venom lasts a few hours, and then you'll be yourself again, or so they say. I've never been bit myself."
Crystal grabbed the empty goblet from his hand, though hers shook violently as he poured the drink out. Without hesitating, she brought the full cup to her lips and guzzled it down as fast as she could, not caring that the water trickled down her chin, or that she was his prisoner. She drained the cup, then her hand shot in the air, demanding a refill. The Guardsman filled her goblet a second time. This time, when she half drained it, she came up for air.
Like everyone else in this strange place, the boy was her age, and he had a strange, unfocused look about him. Now she thought about it, Jake also had that almost far-away, otherworldy look.
"What is this place?" she asked.
"Why, this is the guard outpost, of course. You're in one of the cells."
"Why am I here? Am I a prisoner?"
"We have orders to detain you and your companions. So yes, you are our prisoner."
"What gives you the right to hold me, or any of us for that matter? Speaking of my friends, where are they? What have you done with them? Are they prisoners here too?"
The effort was more than she could bear, and she reeled back onto the bed and collapsed on it. Water sloshed everywhere, but the Guardsman simply stepped forward and refilled her goblet.
"Drink some more; you are unwell. Your friends were captured at the ravine but are already on their way to Somnia. You were deemed unfit to travel, so we kept you here until you were better. Now that you've recovered, we will follow on."
"We?"
"You and I."
"Just us? How romantic!"
The Guardsman drew his sword, showing he meant business. "Romantic? No, not at all. If you have strength for abuse, you'll have strength for the journey. Get on your feet."
She sighed. "And I was just getting to like you."
The Guardsman nudged her roughly towards the door. She raised her hands in the air, submissively. "Alright, alright, I get it. There's no need to be so pushy."
What she thought was a dungeon turned out to be just a solitary room off a long hall. She counted three other such rooms, and a much larger room at the end of the cedar building. It was probably where they ate and slept, but she didn't ask, hoping never to see the inside of this place again. Her mother, Jade and herself had camped in similar, if smaller buildings. After this escapade, she wondered if she'd ever want to camp in the woods again.
The Guardsman led her out into the open. The sun was just setting, and the warm day was ending in a wash of pinks and lilacs, like the highlighters she sometimes used in her books at school. It was amazing, but this was no time to admire the view. After all, a strange, seventeen-year-old rider had a sword pointed at her back. He nudged her forward with his hand.
Outside, already saddled and ready to ride, was a tall black stallion, with snowy-white feathers and a white star emblazoned on his nose. The Guardsman said nothing, but he gestured with his sword, and Crystal got the message. She put her foot in the stirrup and tried to hoist herself up, but she'd never mounted a horse before, and she still felt nauseous. On her third attempt the Guardsman grew impatient.
"Are you deliberately stalling?"
"No. I've never done this before. It looks much easier on T.V. than it is in real life."
"You need to bounce more."
"Sorry. All outta bounce today."
The Guardsman sheathed his sword and stood directly behind her. As she pulled herself up, she felt his hands on her backside as he shoved her up behind the saddle. Now seated, she indignantly cast back her hair and looked down at the Guardsman with scorn. "Don't you dare lay hands on me again."
The Guardsman, who held the horse by the bridle, shook his head. "And I thought this was going to be easy." With a quick one two, he was up in the air, and seated ahead of her. "Hold on to me and try not to talk."
Talking was the last thing Crystal wanted to do. Nervous, she held onto him, perhaps a little more tightly than she should, but she didn't care. She'd been through enough as it was and had no intention of capping her misery by falling out of the saddle.
Ahead of them, the sun finally dipped down behind the trees and the last of the light began to fade. "Shouldn't we have waited till morning?"
"No. My orders were to follow as soon as you were able to ride."
"Great. Are we going to ride through the night in the dark, then?"
"We will see well enough. And our journey will be just a few hours. There will be time enough for sleep in Somnia."
There was something about the way the Guardsman said this that gave Crystal the willies. Exhausted, she leaned forward and nestled into the rider's back. Oddly, she didn't feel as threatened by him as she thought she should have. After all, he was the enemy, and he had held a sword against her. On the other hand, there was a calm gentleness in his voice, and she sensed no malice, just the carefulness of a soldier doing his job well.
"Do you have a name, Rider?"
"My name is Stefan."
"And are you seventeen, too?"
"Of course. Who isn't?"
"Indeed. Silly me. I'll shut up then and try and get some sleep. You see any more of those wyverns, you let me know, okay?"
"Sure. Though you have nothing to fear from them now. Unless, of course, you try to escape."
The perpetual but bone-jarring movement of the great stallion prevented any chance of real sleep. All the same, Crystal found herself falling in and out of semi-conscious daydreams; the annoying kind that lulled her into a false sense of pleasantness, then for fun, zapped her back to reality with a neck-snapping jolt.
Several times she felt the rider turn to check she hadn't slipped away, but she managed to maintain her seat behind him.
When she snapped awake for the umpteenth time, Stefan brought the horse to a halt. "Okay, that's enough. If you fall and hurt yourself, heaven knows what they'll do to me. We're gonna stop for a little while so you can rest, sleep a little maybe, and then we can set off again."
"Good, good." Crystal swung her leg over the s
tallion and practically slid out of the saddle.
"First, we must make a fire."
"Is it safe here?"
"As safe as can be, but there's no harm in being cautious."
Crystal sat down on a fallen trunk and watched as Stefan gathered scraps of wood and dry leaves for a fire.
"I don't suppose you thought to pack any blankets in those saddle bags?"
Stefan peered at her blankly.
"I thought not," she said.
In no time at all, Stefan had a good fire going and was toasting his hands in front of the flames.
"So, have you met your queen, this Ella?"
"No. I am too insignificant to be awarded such an honor. Still, I hope that now we have captured the thing she desires, we will be elevated to a higher position."
"We are not things."
"You, and your two companions then."
Crystal started at the words. "Only two?"
The words escaped her lips before she could stop them, and Stefan jumped up straight, looking frantically about. "There are others? You must––.” Stefan froze in mid-sentence, his eyes wide. Crystal stared up at him, confused. His eyes rolled and he toppled sideways like a felled tree, just missing the fire.
Startled, Crystal crawled quickly to her knees, while Jake stepped forward, a thick branch in his hand, and helped her to her feet.
"What the heck?"
"There is no time now," Jake said. "I didn't hit him that hard. He might regain consciousness any moment. Leave everything. Come with me. I have a horse hidden a little way away."
"You have a horse?"
"I stole one. Please hurry. You should steal his."
"But I can't ride."
"Then we'll have to just take mine." He undid the reins on Stefan's horse and slapped his flanks hard. The horse whinnied and trotted off into the dark.
Jake led her away from Stefan and into some trees where, sure enough, another tall horse was tethered to the bark of a tree. Jake gave her a push up into the saddle. This time, she didn't complain. In a flash, he, too, was off the ground and seated behind her, reaching round to grab the reins.
"Haa!" he cried and the two galloped off, into the darkness. Crystal stole one final glance at the Guardsman on the ground. She hoped he'd have a thumper of a headache when he woke up, just like she had. It would serve him right for prodding her with his sword.
The Wall
"Has the sickness abated?" Jake asked.
Crystal turned awkwardly in the saddle, but even this close to him she could barely see Jake's face in the dark. "A little. At least it's not as bad as it was."
"Good, because in ten minutes we'll reach the city perimeter and you'll need your wits about you."
"Great. Looking forward to it," she said flatly.
Crystal turned back to face forward and stared hard into the darkness ahead of her. All was black. Thank God Jake knew where he was going, because she would have been totally lost. She could hear nothing over the dull thud of the horse's hooves as it galloped on the mossy ground; yet still she peered into the darkness, waiting for the first signs of light to herald their arrival in Somina.
The night remained thick and all enveloping. Minute after minute passed, and nothing changed, there was just the swish of the leaves as they brushed past them, and the occasional hoot of an owl. Even the stars were gone.
"Are we ever gonna get there?" Crystal asked. "You said ten minutes and I'm pretty sure we've been riding for longer than that."
"No, we are there. Look."
Even as he spoke, the trees thinned around them and they almost collided with a mighty black wall that seemed to go up and up forever into the skies. The sudden appearance of so tall a structure made Crystal gasp.
"Oh wow! No wonder I couldn't see the moon."
"This is the city wall. The gates are somewhere to our right, but I can't be sure in the dark. We should probably wait till full light." He dismounted and helped Crystal down from the horse. She rather liked his assistance, but he let go rather too abruptly for her liking. She blushed, and for once was a little glad of the darkness.
"I don't understand why the city's so dark. Don't you people believe in lights? Surely some people are awake. No city ever sleeps, not completely."
"This is the city of dreams. By night, all sleep. They have no need of lights. Until the sun rises high in the sky directly above the wall, all will be black."
"Okay. Well this place is just nuts. I suppose we can't risk a fire?"
"Perhaps we could, I mean, after all, even the guards are asleep at night," he said. "I think until the sun rises, we'll be safe."
"That's just craaazy."
She could hear him scurrying about somewhere close. "No, it's not really. Somnia is an impenetrable fortress with enchantments to protect the city streets while they sleep. They have nothing to fear by night."
This was the last thing Crystal wanted to hear. She was tired and as bruised as a bad apple, and she had been through all this for nothing? "You're telling me this now? You don't think it might have been useful, I dunno, before we started out?"
Jake ignored her and scurried about in the darkness. A bright light suddenly illuminated the base of the wall. Jake had gathered several branches and bound them into a torch, which he'd lit. Crystal's eyes adjusted to the glare. She couldn't help but be impressed and her frustration abated a little.
"You know, you're one handy guy to have around at times."
"Thank you," he said. "Hey, look!" Jake raised his torch, illuminating the horse.
"What am I looking at?" Crystal asked.
"He's fallen asleep on his feet."
Crystal had to admit, she was feeling a little sleepy herself. "I know the feeling," she said though a yawn.
"Try and fight it. Outside the city wall, the enchantment is weaker, and we can at least resist it. Just try and stay focused until the spell lifts."
"When's that?" Crystal asked.
"Dawn, of course.”
"Ah."
Crystal could now see they were just a few feet away from the face of the wall. While Jake secured the horse to a tree, she ran her hands along the smooth, flat surface. "Wow, this feels like marble. A helluva lot of marble. You know, this shit is expensive. My mom thought about marble for the hallway once, but the price was ridiculous, even for just a little bit by the front door. She went with linoleum."
"What's that?"
"Never mind." She was too tired to even try to explain. And his ignorance of every normal thing was a continual irritation. This world was driving her crazy!
Her neck ached from craning up to see the top of the wall, but it was futile - it was all so black it just blended with the night. She lowered her head, and as she rubbed the back of her neck, she noticed an unusual shadowy indented area further along the smooth wall.
"What's that?" she asked.
"What's what?"
"That thing? There? Shine your torch just there. On the ground and to my right"
Jake walked around her to where she was pointing and illuminated the spot with the torch. It looked like a square grille, bolted to a metal frame. "Oh, that's part of the sewage system."
"Interesting." She walked over and knelt down just in front of it. "Ewww. Does everything stink in this place?"
"Well. It's sewage."
"Right. Pass me your torch, please."
Crystal held the torch close to the grill and peered inside. The sewers ran deep, and she could see a walkway just above the floating poop. The walls were made of some black, coal-like substance which seemed to go on forever.
She yawned, fighting the desperate urge to curl up and sleep. "Does that walkway run the whole way through the system?"
"No idea," Jake said, who looked ready to drop, himself.
"Hmmm. Hold this so I can see." She handed him back the torch.
Crystal grabbed the grille with both hands and tugged. With a screechy clank, the thing shifted a little, but did not dislodge. She
looked up at Jake. "It's loose, but I'm gonna need your help I think."
Jake set the torch down carefully on a patch of mud then joined her at the grille. "One, two, three..." Clank! The thing shifted a little. "And again!" This time the bolts popped loose and it came away from the wall. With a big heave, they slid it off to the side and leaned it up against the wall.
Jake looked up toward the top of the wall. She followed his gaze and they could both see the sky was beginning to lighten. "We'd better hurry."
"So I see. Can you make another one of those torchy things? I'll feel better if I have one of my own, especially in that awful place."
"Okay. I'll be as quick as I can."
Crystal watched in awe as Jake scoured the ground and in no time at all he had another torch burning. "One day you're gonna have to show me how you do that," she said, stifling another yawn.
"Sure. Let's go."
"Right."
She slipped her legs over the edge of the opening and carefully lowered herself down onto the walkway, anxious not to miscalculate and fall into the oozy sludge running through the center. If she thought the odor was bad above, it was nothing to the stench inside. The malodorous fumes invaded her nose and throat.
"Phew, this god-awful stench!" she cried, covering her nose and trying hard not to barf.
"Uh, yes, yes it does." Jake handed her the two torches, and quickly followed her down.
"We'd better put the grate back or they'll know we came in this way," she said. "Can you do it on your own?"
"I'll try."
Crystal waited anxiously as Jake leaned awkwardly through the gap and slowly pulled the heavy grate back over the opening. But he didn't have the leverage to set it properly in place without her, and the path was too narrow for Crystal to help him.
"I can't quite get it in place," Jake said through gritted teeth.
She stared at the ground beneath her feet. In spite of the smell, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to lie down for a minute and just close her eyes....
Sorcery & Sirens Page 10