by Gin Eborn
Waiting was no longer an option. My magics in hibernation only made me more determined to get the fuck out of there. I dressed in my torn, dirty, wonderfully comfy clothes and tied back my hair. Lola would’ve been horrified, I think. I liked that. I looked out the window to the fire on the mountain. It hadn’t moved. That was my target.
“It’s a good day to get answers, Maggie.” I offered into the random openness of day. “Think I’ll shatter some fucking illusions. After I have one more cup of coffee.”
11
It’s a Bloody Business
The mountain was an easy climb. Grass covered ground with a thin path weaving up each knoll until I reached the rock face—much faster without quakes. So like Stoney Cliffs in the Basin, I half expected to smell the ocean and see Chama at the sacred tree. A beautiful thought—hajone—until I remembered Chama was Arae.
For all the chatter in my head, the air around me still sat in pervasive silence. Nature there had an odd lack of movement and sound. Perhaps I was just acclimated to a world of constant noise. Neither world was normal.
There was a sudden sound of feet in the grass, and my knife was in my hand before my head could respond. I was not going down, ever, without a fight. With the next rustle, I pivoted around, blade ready to slice.
“It’s me.” Thomas froze.
“Being alive makes this knife to your throat all the more meaningful, doesn’t it?”
“Can you please put it down?” He stammered.
“Don’t sneak up on me—ever.”
“Got it.” He reached his hand to my wrist and moved my hand down.
“Why are you here?”
“I followed you.”
I stared at him. “Yes. Yes, you did. And why did you follow me?”
He leaned in close to my ear. “Did you notice all the orbs? They are not just at Fire Council. Look.” His eyes bounced in every direction.
I squinted. He was right, and I had missed it. There were orbs everywhere, hidden like eggs we used to hunt during Spring Nox Festival. Woven into the landscape and almost undetectable, but glowing.
Alphazia was a land of non-truth, just like my own, only painted with a little more color and bling. I grabbed one of the orbs holding it up in the sunlight. An internal landscape of paths and spirals, it was just like one of the witching balls I had in my room growing up. Hand-blown glass of greens and blues, I used to fill mine with cinnamon and pieces of mistletoe. The first to calm my anger from all the evil that existed, and the second to keep that evil from getting anywhere near me. But my ball didn’t glow and vibrate from the flow of a powerful energy.
“Should you be touching that?” Thomas pointed down to where the orb had rested. What was once a green, lush bush had, in moments, died. Black, burned leaves like cinders in my hand. I put the orb back in its place as the light flowing inside it went silent. Dead, as if I hit the power button.
“Okay. I need you to go back to the Village. Keep an eye on what’s happening down there for me. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to go home.”
“You’ll take me with you?”
“Yes. I will take you. If that’s the Dream Lodge up there,” I pointed to the fire still contained and still burning as it was the night before, “then that’s our path home.”
“You got it.” Thomas touched my shoulder. “You know I am loyal to you, right? No matter what.”
“Stop being weird. You want me to knight you or something? Go.”
“But if you go up there and you do this dream thing and the world reboots, how will I know? I mean, will I even know you anymore? Will any of us even remember? You could just—”
“I could, but I won’t. So stop. I don’t have a fucking clue what’s going to happen. You go back. Be my eyes. Learn more. I’ll see you soon.”
“Yeah. Right. Okay.” And he was off, crouched low and looking in every direction like some kid playing a spy game. He really did amuse me.
Of course, I hadn’t thought about the consequences of my new potential powers. He was right. With a world reboot I could just make every memory vanish. Everything would change. My life and everyone else’s would never be the same. What would any of us be like back home without the Regys? Did I want to dream Mom and Dad were never killed by the virus? Would Rosie be Rosie and George be George if there was no Regys? Would Dragon Flies have existed? Would Fisher want me? I could build a world where he did. But would that still be free will? If I was the one putting all the pieces on the chess board, and then with some magic power igniting a new reality to my liking and design—what would that make me?
My body shut down, overwhelmed by the thoughts. I couldn’t comprehend that kind of power and yet there I was on the verge of tasting it. Of claiming it. Claiming my authentic nature. A part of me wanted to find another way. A tiny little sliver of me. The rest of me craved the power with a full-on thirst, and that thirst startled me.
I grabbed one more orb and watched the ground go black with death.
I only remember something slamming me in the back of the head.
My cell was cold stone—empty except for a small bed and side table. One window looking down onto jagged rocks guaranteed to kill me if I jumped. Which I wouldn’t. Torch light on the walls, a bit like Dragon Flies only without the chance for a bad beer and a little smoke. Door. Locked. No sounds outside. My head pounded. Bruised, but not bleeding.
“Well, this is not good.” His voice came. The voice from the theater. “Thought I told you to be careful.” He laughed.
“You’re amused?”
“Yeah, just a little.”
“Well, I’m feeling a bit fucked right now. Anything you could do to help me?”
“We’re working on it.” I’m not sure if he sounded as confident as I needed him to be.
“You’ve never told me who you are.”
“You’ll know when you see me.”
“None of my magics work here.” I felt so lost without my snapshots.
“Maggie, it’s going to be okay. I told you. There are those of us dedicated to helping you.”
The door to my cell moved; someone was about to visit.
“So, maybe you could hurry?”
There was silence. I sat back on the bed. A corner position felt the safest strategy for the time being. The hinges screeched as they moved.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Blue Eagle stood in front of me, staff in hand. “You did this?”
“It was what needed to be done.”
“You needed to knock me out and lock me—in what, what is this? Some kind of throwback, Rapunzel, dark lord bullshit?”
His face confirmed he had no idea what I was talking about. “What is your intention here?” He asked.
“My intention? You want to know my intention? I am the one locked in a fucking tower. My intention is to leave!”
Blue Eagle looked old. Nothing like the mystical creature who met me in the amphitheater. His shoulder seemingly uninjured as he posed in front of the window. The light touched his face revealing his inner nature. Not that of an Eagle but a hood-flexed cobra. My gasp was unexpected. I wondered if Aldon knew.
His head pivoted. “You see me? How?”
“What do you want from me?”
He coiled back as if to strike. “Who are you aligned to? That’s what I want to know. You can’t expect us to trust an Atlantian after the devastation you caused.
“I had nothing to do with the damned Great Separation. You can’t hold me accountable for something I wasn’t even alive for.”
“Blood to blood.”
“Root to water, asshole.”
There was a long pause as we just looked at each other. I was not about to look away.
“What did you say?” Blue Eagle’s eyes seemed to soften. There was a hint of a tear.
“Root to water? Asshole?”
“Calypso.” He peered at me.
“West Calypso.”
Would you please stop telling him everyt
hing.
“Who is your mistress?”
“Rebekah.”
Oh my gods!
The smallest whisper came out of his mouth. “Not Aldon.”
“Who?” I asked, making sure this time I held a few secrets.
“A Calypso I knew. Her name was Aldon.”
“Aldon? No. Nope. Don’t know anyone by that name.”
“It would have been too much to think—” He laughed with sadness. “You see, there is the way it was in the beginning and then there is the way it is each time a Dreamer dreams. The last Dreamer changed things.” He drew a deep breath and snapped at me, “Who directs you? How can I be sure you are interested in everyone’s highest option?”
“Including yours?”
“Yes, including mine.”
I didn’t have my magics, so I had to go another route to get what I needed. “Oh, I get it. You want to be in charge.”
“I am ordained to ensure all Alphazians are cared for.”
“But not the Atlantians. Us you want to punish, right?”
“Insolence!”
I puffed myself up. If my magics were all gone, I wasn’t sure I could even shapeshift into my animal. And if I could, I wasn’t sure I wanted him to know that part just yet. My animal against a snake? I win. “Let me out of here. Now.”
“And why should I do that, exactly?”
“A little thing called an energy orb? You know, the little beauties hidden all along the edges of the realm here, and underneath those orbs—”
“Dying Earth.”
“Which, I’m guessing, is a little bit of intel you’ve kept all to yourself? Your fucking world is as damaged and as bad off as my world.”
“Your world is damaged?” His surprise seemed genuine.
“We made a few mistakes.”
“I bet you have. Thinking you could make it without the rest of us.” He leaned into me. “I placed those orbs to protect all who live here.”
“You mean lie to them.”
“I mean, protect them until I could find a way to save them. Why live in fear if you can’t change it?”
“Because, all lies are a manipulation. And if we don’t know something’s wrong, we can’t do anything about it. The lies prevent the change. Trust me, creating a world based on nothing but lies is one of the greatest evils there is.”
“Now that you know, why not just kill you?” He continued looking away.
“Because I am your only hope. If I don’t bring back the Creation Dreamer energy—we all die. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to quit just yet.”
Blue Eagle spun toward me and laughed. I felt mocked by him, the tone so belittling.
“You kill me and there is no chance of taking the power I can harness.” He wound his way around me and hissed. “What if all the power is yours and you get to deeply influence all that I dream. Shit, for all I know, you may even get to control me.” I knew it wasn’t true. But I was never above a little lie myself. Especially if it meant I could win. “Wouldn’t it turn you on to control me?”
I knew his kind. I knew what they wanted in the end.
“You have no idea what you are talking about.” He was so calm walking back toward the door.
“I think you are a tiny little being who wants more and more power and can’t get it. And the only way you can, is to try to trick someone like me.” This time I wanted to be the one getting information. So I kept pushing buttons. “You think you could actually handle my power?” I jeered him. “You? Don’t be ridiculous!”
His venom pulsed from his fangs. “I already have access to such power. You are the fool here. And death is all you are going to taste.”
He was the spawn of Regys, his venom only inches from me. I could feel my skin edge into fur. My animal was still alive inside me and ready for a takedown. When the time was right. Blue Eagle flung open the door. No guards. Just him. For all I could tell, no one even knew I was here. Except for the mystery support team I hoped was getting ready for a coup.
What power? What did he have that made him so fucking okay with killing me?
I sat on my bed waiting for night to fall. Listening for anyone who could help me. Death on my own terms was far more appealing than under his blade. There was no way that was going to happen.
I rocked and paced, trying to think of any way out. Having faith in beings I’d never met didn’t really work for me. But it was my only choice.
Night deepened and I passed out.
The whispers woke me in the darkness, drifting up from the rocks below. Three or four different voices; it was hard to make them out. But I did know one of them. Lola.
Rattling echoed from the hallway. Maybe keys and then silence. I tried the door. Still locked. The cell full of shadows as the waning moon gave little comfort. A full moon in my world and a waning moon in their world, I accepted time was not in sequence and either days had passed as I moved across worlds, or we had completely different celestial rotations. Either way, I was the only one who knew both worlds. All three worlds, actually. And that had to be an advantage.
A shadow swooped through the window, moving straight for me as I ducked down.
“Sugar, you don’t have to be a scaredy cat.” She giggled.
I approached her with great caution, until I could just make out who had joined me in my confinement. “You? But how?”
“I go where I want, when I want.” The raven from the Underworld moved to my shoulder. “Magpie Turnley. I am Clarimonde.”
“Unusual name.” I wasn’t surprised I could hear her speak. In fact, it was comforting. There was some magic in her that felt forbidden and desirable at the same time.
“You have no idea. Okay, listen. The others are coming. You will soon be free, my darling. I volunteered to come be with you while they figure all of that out. Not my thing.”
“There were others in the hall just a few moments ago.”
“Do not worry so much. This is an easy escape. Trust me.” She flew back to the window ledge. In the hint of torch light, I saw her in a sumptuous black lace corset, hair down to her waist and lips of red. She peered back over her shoulder to me.
“In this light—” I started.
“Yes, you are Calypso.” She smiled and flashed her eyes.
“I don’t understand.”
“Calypsos can see us in both energy patterns. You just have to adjust your eyes. I had forgotten. Delicious, really. No hiding. No struggling.”
“But which is your true nature? You are all animal?”
She laughed at me. “Yes. Just as you are Calypso first and always.”
“But do all of you look at me and see my totem?”
“Your animal? Well, of course I do, sugar. Any good bird knows when she is in the company of a cat. And a big cat at that.” She sat up, returning to winged form. “I wanted to thank you. You opened that door from those awful Arae beasts of boredom. Trapped down there for I don’t know how long. Dreadful, really. But before the tunnel door closed, I flew right through.”
“Why didn’t I see you?”
We were interrupted by whispers floating in through the window. Lola was there and one man-cat.
“That’s Zach.” Clarimonde was back on my shoulder. “You can always trust him.”
Out of the shadows another walked up. Each step deliberate, striking the ground in a confident gait. Cloaked, I couldn’t see his face, but I felt him. With each breath his energy filled my lungs, and I was again intoxicated.
Could it have been you? You make me feel—
His head tilted for a moment as a hint of his eyes flashed up at me and he vanished into the shadows. Clarimonde pecked my cheek, breaking the skin.
“Hey, that hurt.” She jabbed her beak into the blood and drank it down.
“There, there all better now. You—you need to stay focused. We are about to get out of here. And don’t worry, we’ll escort you all the way through the forest to the bottom of the mountain. Mountain Bear wil
l meet you at the top.”
“Mountain Bear?”
“Well, yes. Don’t you know anything? He’s the one who will help you at the Dream Lodge.”
“I was told I needed to find River Wolf.”
Clarimonde laughed at me again. “Sugar, we all need some River Wolf. Now get ready, because if everything is going according to plan, we are about to—” The door busted open as Lola and Zach rushed in, “—get out of here.”
“Hurry. We have to hurry.” Lola put out her hand. Zach stayed silent staring at me. But I could feel his fur prickle.
Down and around, the stone stairs spiraled into the shadows. There was no time to waste as the lights passing outside the windows grew more intense. Blue Eagle and his goons were coming to get me—or kill me. Lola and Zach threw passing glances at each other as we picked up speed. Clarimonde pierced her claws into my collar bone as her nail grazed the cord around my neck, giving her a warning jolt. I swear she laughed at me again, her eyes changing from black to red between blinks.
“This way.” Zach crouched low and yanked my sleeve. Lola nodded at him, stretching out her wings and taking off into the night. My hesitation was met by a swift Zach-smack as we sank deeper into the night and away from the tower. The commotion of Blue Eagle and his companions was loud, though unintelligible, as their orb staffs circled around the Tower and we moved out of sight. Rocky steps to grassy knolls, our night vision served us well.
Someone yelled “Split up” as we neared the edge of a forest. Zach nudged me to keep up. The spark of moon energy struck the side of his face as his panther glanced at me. I was safe and in good company. We laughed together. I imagined he saw my tiger in her full force. Enemies in another plane of existence, there was a peace in knowing I was with my own kind. Different and yet the same, I felt stronger being with him. Lights came closer from behind.
“I have to leave you both here.” Zach stopped as I ran a couple feet ahead. “Clarimonde, no matter what happens, get her to River. Don’t worry, Maggs. I’ll join you if all goes well.”
Clarimonde and I crossed the tree line, my feet on leaf-laden ground tucked under the forest limbs collapsing onto themselves like arches. Little lights popped up slowly at first and then more came. Fireflies dancing in the darkness showed us the way. The path below just wide enough for my feet let me know few had walked there.