by Gin Eborn
A lightning bolt ripped the sky apart and the blackness of raging storms formed in the sky as I stood like the sacrificed savior in the fierceness of the winds as the animals devoured me. And I sat on a throne of chiseled dragon glass, holding a scepter that glowed out into the night as beings came and bowed to me. A raven on my shoulder. I looked into her eyes and she into mine.
“I am so bored here,” I said to her.
“Do it, do it!” she called back at me.
I snapped my fingers and heard the screams.
“Maggie? Are you listening to me?” Thomas was pacing.
“Yes.” The snapshot still gripped me.
“Maggie, you gotta think outside of the box. You want to be in charge? Dream it. You could dream a life for yourself that is so sweet. You might even want to dream a life for your friends that is—sweet.” He leaned in to me closer. “You might even, say, dream something special for me, too, if I am able to help you escape from here?”
“So, you help me get out as long as I grant you a dream of your own?” I really didn’t blame him for going there.
“That’s what I’m thinking, actually. I could rot down here with these gals and you, let’s not forget you. Or we could change that.”
“And how exactly would you help me get out?”
“There is something I forgot to tell you.”
“And what the hell is that?”
“This place, this cave. This is the place of souls, and there is a piece of your soul stored here.”
“You mother—”
“The Arae can’t eat Caly chandy, but they wait for pieces of your souls to break off, and they collect them here. A good hostage maybe? Or what if they could figure out how to harness Caly power? Anyway, the trick now is getting yours back. Might be enough power to break us out of here.”
“Show me where it is.”
“I can’t. You’re going to have to find it on your own.”
“Don’t fuck with me.” The air moved.
“I haven’t actually seen it.”
“How do you know it’s here?”
“I heard them talking after the whole house incident with the snakes.”
You shit liar. You knew exactly where I was the whole time.
“And what happens when I get this part of me back?”
“I don’t know that either. But I do know they wouldn’t have been bragging if it wasn’t important.”
The coyote was quiet. I needed time to think, and I was getting hungry. Something about the stress, I think, always made me want to feed. My brain swirled—foggy and useless. For a moment, I thought Thomas was humming until I saw him looking up into the heights of the cave. I almost didn’t recognize it—a song in the air. Thomas looked at me as a small, black form made its way toward me. Wings swishing as it moved straight to me. The raven, with its silky feathers, reflected shades of plum and scarlet light within her black ruffles. Her call repeated over and over with growing force, shifting from a charming and melodious sound to one of borderline screeching. I wanted her words to come through like in the snapshot. That didn’t happen.
“One thing I know about animals in the Underworld,” Thomas gloated, “is when you see one, you pay attention.”
I tapped Thomas’s face. “How’d we ever get along without you walking on Earth? Hang tight.”
The raven landed on a knoll and started a steady hop up over a second knoll and onto a series of cave ledges. An easy climb for me—my fingers tender but capable. The raven’s beauty was undeniable and alluring. I hadn’t even paid attention to how high we’d climbed until she stopped, launched her call at me again and then pointed her beak down like an arrow. Her full attention on what was below.
The stones glistened. But not stones—crystals. The cave was full of them. Only visible from our vantage point, they looked like a pool of water shifting in and out of shadows.
“This must be what pieces of Caly souls look like? Souls in crystals.” I picked one up. “Crystals as money for the Regys. Of course.”
“What are you saying?” Thomas looked nervous pacing below. The coyote had to be somewhere.
I talked to the bird. “Crystals are the wisdom-holders from the Celestial Kingdoms. So, a Calypso whose heart shatters would indeed send that piece to the Crystal Spirits for safe keeping. Unconsciously, of course. If the Regys know that, and the Arae know that, then someone from the Celestial Kingdom must have their grubby claws all up in this.”
The raven hopped onto my shoulder. Time paused for a moment.
“And that, my friend, is how that Regys scum knew the crystals at Flies were fake. No one can replicate a fucking soul. Son of bitch. I missed that. They knew we’d been sending fakes all this time. Well, I had. George was innocent.” The raven nuzzled my neck.
“Do you see anything?” Thomas could not help himself. I ignored him.
Idiot.
“Hey, Maggie, you just going to leave me down here?”
My feet bobbled. The cave shook like a million Arae were descending on us. Time was out.
Fuck. No time to find my soul piece.
The raven took off, flying to an apex where she looked quite safe.
“Smart choice,” I called after her. “But you are welcome to come with me.”
I descended on all fours, jumping through one water artery after another. Something tapped my paw. I looked down and found a small glass vial. Cork top. Nothing special. Only a few drops of water. I shifted and put the vial in my pouch.
Thomas screamed out as I reached him, “Oh boy, we are screwed.”
“Oh shut up! Help me move this stone.” There was a good round boulder just to the side of the door. Big enough to buy us some time. “Now follow me.” I bolted to the back of the cave and launched my climb with hands and feet in perfect rhythm. The raven called out as she flew over behind one more large mound. The sounds of the door cracking and Thomas screaming was almost too much.
“You can do it, Thomas!” I called down. He was not in sight. I took one more step up. It was a miracle step, because there was the raven hanging on a rope—a rope that was tied to a bridge.
9
TaTas
The suspension bridge ran from stone wall to stone wall. It was literally a bridge to no where.
Thomas pulled himself up to my feet. Breathless. “They’re here. There’s no point, Maggie. Just give yourself up and this will all stop.”
“You mean give myself up so you can save yourself.”
“Well, we don’t both have to die.”
“You are dead.”
“And I’d die again back up on the surface, and you know they will send me there. I won’t survive a day up there.”
“There’s a bridge.”
Thomas jumped to his feet. “Well, hurry up. What are you waiting for? Let’s go.”
He flung himself to the other side of the cave just below the bridge. The raven dropped a climbing rope attached into the cave ceiling. Thomas, suddenly agile enough to save his own ass, was on his way up when I smelled them behind me. One of the Arae tapped my shoulder as my fist landed squarely in her wretched face.
“Oh no, I did not just do that!” I laughed.
“Maggie! Eyes on me.” Thomas was half way up and waving his arms like I had no idea where he might be. “Yup, do not, I repeat, do not look back.”
I grabbed the bottom of the rope and tethered myself on.
“Come on. Come on. Come on,” he prompted.
My arms burned as each muscle tore over and over. Screaming helped. Thomas was at the top and then flung himself onto the bridge slats tied together with rope knots. With one more focused burst, I reached the bridge, throwing one arm up and then the other. Thomas reached down to help me; he was stronger than I ever imagined.
“What?” he questioned. “I always worked out. Even at the end.” We pulled the last of the rope up and out of reach of the Arae. Their full army was down below us. I couldn’t help but gasp. It was an overwhelming ass
embly.
“Look at me. Look at me.” Thomas had my face in both hands and would not let go. “They don’t fly. They don't float.”
Sounds of small pebbles clinking startled me. Thomas locked down harder on my face. Only my eyes could move left and right.
“Look at me. No flying. No floating. But they can actually climb.” He released me. “Okay, so,” he pointed to the stone wall at the end of the bridge, “go ahead.”
“What do you mean, go ahead?”
“Well, do what you came here to do. Open it.”
“Open what?”
“Open a damn doorway, Maggie.” Things were intense.
“I don’t know how to open a damn doorway, Thomas. And I don’t have my fucking soul piece. You said you could help me if I helped you.”
“I am helping you.”
“This is not helping me!”
“Well I got you this far, didn't I?”
Despicables.
The smell from the Arae en masse brought up acid in my mouth, which of course, I spit down on them. Only fair. Several of them climbed on top of each others’ shoulders as one reached up to the left of us and blew air on the rope bridge at the far side. First smoke, then fire.
“Oh, right, right, right. They can do that, too.” He thumped his forehead. “They climb and they blow fire.”
The fire consumed that part of the bridge in record time while some of the Arae climbed up the right stone wall and onto the bridge on the other side.
She was there. Down below. The coyote and the green, glowing woman. Watching.
Too far to jump to try to kick your ass once and for all.
“Uh, Maggie. Kind of trapped here.” Thomas was in a panic.
“Okay. I really hope you’re ready for this one.” I grabbed my blade, wrapped the climbing rope around my waist and hacked into the four remaining bridge suspension ropes. The bridge floor dropped away; the rope grabbed me. Thomas screamed sliding down my leg and holding on with sheer grit and determination as I managed to swing us both onto a small ledge. And just in time. The ceiling rope broke from above and coiled itself into my hands.
I think it was the first time Thomas wasn’t ranting. In fact, he said nothing at all. The green woman looked at me as the coyote barked a long, lonesome sound, and the Arae stopped. We were all frozen. Checkmate, sort of. Really it was more of a time out.
I caught my breath and slid into a squat untying the rope from my waist and winding it into a loop. My eyes welled up as I looked at the coyote, and she looked at me. Her gaze was that of a seeker looking right through me. Somehow already sure of my next move and how it would happen even though I had not yet figured it out.
I broke the gaze first.
“You,” I turned my head to glare at Thomas finding my nose buried in his crotch, “you have been no help.”
“That’s just not true. Foul. I got you here, didn't I?”
He made me laugh as I brushed a tear away from my eye.
“Why are you crying?” Thomas threw his hands in the air.
“Oh, don’t make this a thing.” I wondered how long we had. “Contrary to popular belief, tears are normal. I think not crying right now would be absolutely insane.”
Thomas’s eyes scanned my face. “Absolutely,” he said in a quiet slow voice.
Dammit, do not make me like you right now.
“You’re going to take me with you, right?” He ruined the moment.
“You said you could help me get out of here,” I poked back.
“And I will. And when I do, you will take me with you?”
“You think you know how to get me out of here? I mean, look at where we are.”
“Us. You mean get us out of here.”
“Us, of course.”
“Yes. I do think I know a way.”
“So, are you going to share that with me?”
“If you promise.”
I swallowed and wedged myself up to standing.
“Thomas, I promise. I will take you with me. And I make no promises about what it is like where we are going. Because I don’t have a fucking clue. It could be worse than here. It could be better. No idea.” Thomas nodded. “Great, now, how the hell do we get out of here?” I asked.
“Okay, so what would you normally do?”
“What?”
“Seriously. What does your instinct tell you to do?”
“To grab my knife, jump down there, and fight my way out. Get back to the tree. Go into the fog and see if the other side has a door or something that will open up. ”
The Arae and the coyote gathered in tight to the woman in green. They were anticipating the warrior. Like they had heard me.
“Really? That’s what you would do?” He blinked at me. We stood there in silence.
“Yes. Do you have a better idea?”
“Well, yes.” He looked around. “You know, Maggie, I don’t think there is much time.” He took the rope from me and tied one end of the rope around his waist. “Close your eyes.”
“Close my eyes?”
“You have to trust me. That’s just all there is to it.”
“Fine, Thomas.” I closed my eyes.
“Just keep them shut. Our escape depends on it.”
“Whatever.” I didn’t believe we were going to get out alive anyway. Humoring him was the least I could do.
“Okay, now you can look at me.” He tapped my shoulder. I opened my eyes.
“I’m looking.”
“Eyes right here,” he said, pointing to his eyes. “Right here. Don’t look away—no matter what.”
“Okay.”
“Yup, do not look away. I just want you to trust me.”
‘I trust’ was coming out of my mouth as he shoved me off the ledge with one quick slam. I know I screamed; I’m fairly certain it was high-pitched. And then the rope grabbed tight around my ankles abruptly stopping my fall. He had lassoed me.
“You fucker. You fucking crazy shit of a dead man.” I yelled, hanging upside down. The woman in green and the coyote cocked their heads as the Arae went back into motion.
Yup, I am a hero Creation Dreamer all right.
“Okay, we don’t have any time now.” His feet shuffled to brace the weight of me.
“Ya think?”
“No, you think. You have to think differently than tra la la, I’m going back to the tree and hoping for a damn exit.” So whiney, I thought.
“Well, no shit,” I quipped, swinging.
“So, new view, new ideas.”
“That’s what you were going for here?”
“Um, not to alarm you, but they are coming.” He pointed below. They were climbing. I was dangling, and Thomas was looking down at me and them.
“You had better hold on tight. I swear to the gods, if you drop me down there—”
“Okay, Maggie, please hurry up. Maggie, you can do this. Don’t doubt yourself.” His voice sounded strained.
I arched my body and began swinging like a pendulum. Mostly because I wanted to get back on that ledge and strangle him for pleasure. That’s when I saw it. Up past my feet. Up past the man I was going to kill again and again—up the wall to the rock above us. It was there. A crystal wrapped in the stone. A shadow of an indentation in the stone to the right of the crystal and a hole in the indentation.
Ah, my Goddess. Thank you.
And from the new vantage point, I also saw another little ledge just to the right.
Footholds.
“Hold tight, Thomas. Here we go!” I took one deep breath, pulled my stomach muscles in tight, and with one roar-ish shout I catapulted myself to the stone face and climbed up to the new ledge.
Thomas was bent over clapping and breathing heavily. I had one last move. The rope was bouncing as I tied my end around my waist and gave a huge and joy-filled yank that sent Thomas flying and slamming into the rock below me. It felt so good.
“Do you think when we get you out of here, you will be alive or dead?” I had no choic
e but to taunt him.
“I think either way I’ll be bruised.” An Arae grabbed his foot. “Maggie?” My hands clenched tight onto the wall. The Arae were on a rapid climb. Swarming.
“Maggie?” Thomas was about to pull me down with him.
There was no way to hold his weight for long. I heard a laugh between his gasps. A familiar laugh—soft but there. Pulling out of the pack and just to the right was Chama. Her eyes locked on me as she delivered a very subtle wink. I screamed one last time, pulling Thomas up as she pushed on his ass. He made it. He was on the ledge.
It was surreal. The Arae were on us. Chama reached out her hand and placed her finger in my palm.
“Break it off,” she whispered. “Just do it.”
Without shifting my gaze, I wrapped my fingers around her pointer as she nodded, and with all I had left in me, I twisted up until I heard a crack and a snap. She yelled, falling back down into the others who caught her. She looked at me with such love as I closed my eyes and felt the cave wall. Her detached finger in my hand, I scaled up with a fierce determination and slammed that pointy vengeance spirit fingertip into the hole just above my head. It was a perfect fit.
Something clicked, and out from the rock moving down toward my face was a round doorway. A tunnel. I climbed up, lugging Thomas behind me as he kicked the last Arae off. The green lady was looking up at me—her face unchanged as I pulled the door closed.
And together Thomas and I walked down a dark tunnel.
“You didn’t have to throw me to the Arae like that,” Thomas said.
I reached out to hold his hand. It was cold. I wished I could feel his pulse. “Yeah, I kind of like you, too.” I said.
But I’ll never trust you.
Part Three
10
Now You See Them, Maybe
The bottom dropped out as I was tossed down a twisting chute and dumped, rather ungracefully, into the center of an outdoor amphitheater. A filled outdoor amphitheater. Thomas waylaid me coming out of his descent, screaming even as I shoved his ass off me.