by Holly Hook
"Yes. I have nothing. I have no money if that's what you're looking for."
The boy laughed. He was even shorter than me by a few inches. "We're not after money. We're just after the reason this entire kingdom turned dark. If I linger in this place too long, I might want money from you or maybe even your firstborn, but otherwise, no."
I let out a breath. They didn't have knives. Or swords. Or even blunt objects. Maybe I was lucky, and these people were like Henry.
The girl laughed even though there were nerves in it. "We're not robbers," she said. "I've seen robbers and they're not people you would ever want to approach. Have you lived in a tower all your life?"
"I—"
Then I realized what she was saying.
“You know about me?”
The girl nodded. She was about my height and able to stare right into my eyes. She had blue eyes much like mine. “The hair gave it away.”
“Gave it away? My hair gave what away?”
“She means it revealed your past,” the short guy said. He didn’t seem normal, but I hadn’t seen too many people yet, so how was I to know? “There’s only one person in this world who has hair like yours, and we’ve been trying to find you for the last month.”
The girl faced him and lowered her voice. “Her story fell.”
Here was this story business again. “My story?” Anger ran through me and my face flushed. “All I know is that I was living in a tower with my mother, and then this man in black appeared to her one night. A young man climbed up into my tower not too long ago. His name is Henry. He might have hurt his eyes yesterday. Have either of you seen a Henry?”
The girl and the guy stared at each other, and the guy grimaced. “The story’s already almost over,” he said. Then he faced me. “You need to come with us if you want to see this Henry again.”
Chapter Nine
“Excuse me?” I asked. The bird walked past again, pecking at the ground. It drew out another worm. Those seemed to be plentiful here. All this darkness was full of rot and despair. Worms would thrive here and so would these birds. “You know Henry?” Hope rose inside of me that maybe, just maybe, they had seen him. He might even be in one of these houses, resting. I could see him again. We could escape from the man in black together.
Alric said us being together would make the story end right.
“Hold on,” the guy said. He shook his head. His ears had an odd pointed shape and some strange inner glow radiated from deep within. He made me feel funny in a way not unlike Henry. As if sensing it, the girl moved in front of him.
“We don’t know Henry,” the girl said. “But we know what your story is and what part he’s supposed to play.”
“I’m not part of a story,” I insisted.
“You are,” the girl said. “We all are. I am. Stilt here is. Even these townspeople have small roles to play. And if a story doesn’t end the way it should, the surrounding area turns dark. And the dark wizard, Alric, gets more powerful. If this keeps up, he will rule all of Fable and everything will be like this.”
She backed up and waved around her to show all the gray and the gloom.
I withered inside. This girl reminded me of how Mother had been whenever I asked if I could go outside with her. So far, what she was saying matched up with what I had already heard.
It was getting less and less likely that I wasn't in a story.
“You’re telling me this is my fault,” I said. “I didn’t do what the story wanted me to do, and now this is dark because of it.” Turning away, I stalked back through the buildings. I’d ask someone else for help. Humiliation burned and I couldn't stand it. I had never felt this bad before.
“Wait,” the girl said. Her hand landed on my shoulder and I jumped. “I’m not saying that at all. It’s just that, well, it’s complicated. Stilt and I know things. It’s why Mary sent us out here in search of you, so we could do something about your story and prevent Alric from destroying it. We’ve been trying to find all the tales before he does.”
Mary.
Henry had said something about her.
I whirled around to face the girl. The guy—Stilt—stood behind her as if too scared to enter the argument. Perhaps it was a trait for men to not want to join in on them. Or another survival rule.
I dropped my braid and sent it toppling to the dusty ground. At least it wasn’t swamp water. “Who’s Mary? And people have been searching for me?” The dread feeling returned. Perhaps I was a character playing out an act. The thought was terrifying. Three people had already confirmed it.
“Mary knows all the stories. She's from the other world and she’d love to meet you,” the girl said. Now that she acted friendlier than before, I could relax. She lowered her hand from my shoulder and gave me some breathing room. “Now that Alric's trying to take over, she's sending people like us out to stop these stories from falling. I’m Brie. I sort of know how Fable works. You're someone from a famous story which is why your hair gave you away.”
“Revealed your history,” Stilt said behind her.
“I’m Rae,” I said, extending my hand.
We shook. I tensed, but she didn’t pull out any knives. In the distance, a man shouted something about sheep, whatever those were.
“We might want to leave this village before we talk about this,” Stilt said. “I can’t stay in this area too much longer. I don’t want to go anywhere near turning dark ever again.” He glanced at me as if sizing me up as I went to work gathering my braid again. His eyes seemed just a bit more wild and more dark than before.
He might be like my mother, helpless to turn wicked in this darkness.
“I agree,” Brie said. “This town is getting out of control. Chaos always follows darkness. We weren’t expecting to be in a place that turned dark this fast."
She linked her hand with Stilt’s.
They were friends. Good friends, like I wanted to be with Henry. Maybe good friends didn’t want others intruding. It explained why Brie didn’t want me near Stilt.
This outside world had so many rules.
“Is there anything left that isn’t dark?” I asked.
Stilt nodded. “This is the Stone Kingdom. It’s not a large kingdom by any means. Only this one would have turned dark after your story fell. Come on. We can leave this place in less than a day if we walk now.”
Exhaustion made my knees buckle. “I need food.”
Brie nodded. “We both do. Stilt might have to hunt.”
The bird marched over to Stilt’s feet and pecked at the ground again, trying to satisfy some unstoppable hunger. Stilt reached down and seized it by its feet before it could dodge him. The bird made a horrible gargling sound as Stilt smiled. His eyes got a little darker.
"This will work," he said. "Let's get out of here before they hear this. These people will not like us stealing."
I wanted to protest and to tell Stilt how wrong it was to take things from people on the verge of starving, but my stomach rumbled at the thought of food that wasn't rotten. The bird writhed in Stilt's grip and the guy's eyes darkened more. All the evil around here was affecting him, just as it had my mother.
"We need to go," Brie said. "Now."
"Is someone over there?" a man shouted.
I hugged my braid tighter. I didn't want to know what these people would do to us if they caught us stealing. "We need cover."
Brie waved us through a couple more narrow, dirt alleys. The last one had garbage lying between it and the smell was terrible. Footfalls echoed behind us and Stilt put his free hand around the bird's neck. It went silent, and he motioned for us to follow him into a small, dark building.
We dodged inside and boards creaked under us. The air smelled of more straw and dust. A saw lay on a table nearby and sawdust lay everywhere. I'd seen Mother use one once to fix a broken chair of ours. This must be a fixing shop and the candles inside had burnt all the way down as if this encroaching darkness had sucked the life out of them, too.
&nbs
p; The footfalls rushed past the building. Stilt kept his grip on the bird’s throat next to me. I wondered what it was thinking. My stomach roared and cramped. Hunger was taking over. I had never been this hungry in my life. I didn’t even care we were stealing. Perhaps this was the way of the world. Or the way it would have to be in this new darkness.
“Don’t move,” Brie whispered. “If we’re caught, these people might kill us.”
Fear blossomed through me like a black, dying flower. “Kill us?” Mother had never told me about that. Maybe she had watered things down and Henry had lied.
“Even if they wouldn’t before, they might now,” Brie said. “Panic does things to people.”
I kept my mouth shut as the man passed the building again, cursing. “Foxes,” he muttered as his footsteps vanished.
I let out the breath I was holding. Next to me, Stilt did the same. “Now,” he said.
We tiptoed out of the small building and out into the open. We were on the edge of the village. The sky remained as gray as ever and the land dead. Alric’s influence had killed this entire area. I hoped that Brie and Stilt were right that only this part of the world had gotten infected. Otherwise, we might not be alive much longer.
The three of us made a silent trip across a field, one with several trails branching off in every direction. We got onto the widest trail that cut right through the middle and Brie and Stilt drew close to each other, leaving me to walk behind. It was clear where I stood here, and it wasn’t close to Stilt. I shouldn’t even walk near him. It was another rule of the outside world I needed to remember.
We didn’t dare speak until we had reached the crest of a hill. Brie stopped and looked over her shoulder. “I think we’re all clear. Of that village, anyway. There is a few more we must pass through on the way back to the Fox Kingdom.” She faced me. “We’ll be a lot safer there. I don't think it will be dark."
Confusion exploded through me and I felt like a baby here, not knowing a thing about the world. There was so much Mother hadn’t told me. I eyed the village we'd left. We stood almost above it now and I could make out the tops of all the houses. Ravens had landed in droves on rooftops as if ready for something to happen. I couldn’t see the crowd from here but excited shouting rose from the middle of the village and echoed across the land.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Stilt said. “I think someone’s taking the blame for this darkness. I hope someone’s not getting accused of being a dark witch.”
My stomach turned over, and I wasn’t hungry anymore. The bird still hanging from Stilt’s free hand made that odd gagging sound again. These people were in this nightmare because I hadn’t climbed down the tower with Henry when he gave me the chance. I had let Alric have his way with however my story should end.
It was because of me Henry might have lost his vision. I couldn’t imagine walking through this land, not able to see. There was no way I could leave him or Mother.
“I can’t keep walking away from here,” I said.
Stilt and Brie turned to face me. “Staying here is death,” Brie told me. “We need to get out of here, and now. You don’t want to see Stilt when the darkness gets to him.”
“I don’t want to see me, either,” he said. “Come on. We have to keep walking.”
“But Henry. I’ve left him. I’ve left Mother.” My panic overtook me and I forgot all about my hunger. I shifted and dead grass crunched underneath as if it hadn’t rained in years.
“We need to come back for them later,” Brie told me. Her tone softened. “I know you’re scared, and this is your first time out in this world. I know that feeling. But there might be a way to save Henry. We’ll have to meet with Mary. If anyone will know a way to fix your story, she will.”
"The one who knows all the stories?"
Brie waved me further up the trail. "Yes. Her. I think you need something to eat. And water. "
The full thirst hit me when she said that as if it had been waiting under a rock to come out and strike. My throat felt as if it would close. “There’s no fresh water around here.”
“Which is why we will boil some,” Brie told me, waving me along.
I followed, because there was nothing else I could do. The bird had given up struggling in Stilt’s grip and he swung it around like he didn’t care. My legs threatened to go out from under me. How were we supposed to boil water? Why? Mother had always gotten ours out of the well and it was always clean and fresh. She did all her boiling down on the ground where she kept her cauldron.
The shouts in the village died behind us. I checked to make sure no one was following. Each time I looked back, I hoped to see Henry bounding behind us, trying to catch up, but there was no sign of his green tunic or his freckles anywhere. In the distance, more of those cloud animals grazed along the ground as if oblivious to the surrounding doom. The bird flapped its wings once and went still from exhaustion.
And so was I.
I had to keep going. Brie and Stilt were my only link to this world right now. Without them, I was a ghost, wandering around here until I dropped.
We made it to the edge of the field. More dark forest spread out in a wall of shadows. Stilt stopped at the edge and made a face. He seemed to have forgotten about the bird he held. "This won't be fun to walk through. Do you see any owls?"
I'd seen a few owls before in my life, flying past the tower at night. I checked the trees. The forest was almost dark enough for them to tolerate dwelling there. Maybe the darkness would change owls, too. "Why are we worried about them?" I needed to eat and drink. Drink first. Drink anything. My tongue felt like a giant wad of dry cloth.
Stilt and Brie turned their heads to face me. "We've met bad owls in forests like this," Stilt said. "Alric the dark wizard has one. You don't want to meet her. She's vicious. Alric likes evil birds and there is a lot of them in the dark region." Stilt looked around. "I guess you could say this is part of the dark region now."
"I see no owls," I said, but it was a hopeless venture trying to check all the dark trees and see through the blackish, velvet leaves. We stood before a world of shadow. Only that and despair existed out here.
And a desert?
Mother had told me about places where it was so dry that no plants could exist at all. They were out there and people died in them all the time. There was no water.
"I need to drink something," I said.
Brie faced me. She had puffy bags under her eyes, the same ones that Mother would get whenever she got a headache. "We all do," she said. "We have supplies stashed in the forest not too far in. I hope they're still there. As soon as we reach them, we'll start a fire and boil clean water."
The word water got me moving. I found the will to follow them into the forest. The trail was still here, but weeds and thistles choked it. They grabbed at the yellow fabric of my dress, getting tiny thorns stuck in my skirt and making it appear dirty again. I wondered how my dress had gotten clean in the first place after my trip into the pond. I should smell terrible, but either I was too weak to notice or something else had happened.
"And so we venture into the dark woods," Stilt said. He swung the bird and its head missed thistles growing on the side of the trail by inches. He was getting meaner and meaner with it.
"Be more kind to that creature," I said.
Stilt faced me and smiled. His eyes were even worse now. He was falling down the spiral into darkness himself. Soon, he might not be any better than Mother had been back with that man. "We're going to eat this chicken," he said. "Why show kindness?"
My heart ached. I had seen no one being mean to animals before. The animals that came around the tower were my friends. I had named them over the years and waited hours for them to show. This was another thing Mother had never told me about. Was this normal? I knew animals had to die for food, but were people always cruel before the fact?
"Because it must have feelings, too," I said. "Look at it." The bird—the chicken—was trying to flex its wings again. The creatur
e was losing strength.
"You have lived in a tower all your life," Stilt said. "This is how it is out here. Things have to kill and eat other things."
Brie, I noticed, wasn't holding his free hand anymore. I wondered how I'd feel if I saw Henry doing something like this. "Stilt, we should just hit the chicken over the head and put it out of its misery. There's no need to make it any worse for it than it has to be."
Stilt didn't say a thing to her. I recognized worry creeping over Brie's face. We had to get out of this darkness soon.
The two of them led me over to a small clearing next to another small black pond. More scum grew across the surface of this one. Brie leaned down and drew a leather bag from a bunch of tall, yellow grass. "Our stuff is still here," she said. "We need to start a fire without sending a smoke signal into the air. I wonder how we'll do that." She faced me as if expecting an answer, then shook her head and looked at Stilt. He had stopped swinging the chicken, at least.
I fell to my knees.
I couldn't walk anymore.
"Just sit." Brie rushed over. "We'll get water ready and then some food. Stilt, can you please just kill that chicken? I don't want to watch it."
Stilt wandered over to a rock and put the chicken on it. As if injected with a new life, it made that sound again and flapped its wings, trying to escape. Stilt grabbed another rock, and I looked away as a thunk sound followed. The bird continued to flutter and Stilt hit it again. And again. "Chickens always do this when you take off their heads," he said. I caught glee in his voice. "You should look at this."
"Stilt, stop it," Brie said. "The darkness is getting to you." She faced me. "He's not like this when we're in better areas."
Stilt's eyes were dark when I studied him. It reminded me of how Mother had been when I was eight and she took me to the dark spot.
I had to ask a question. "Why do certain people get all mean when the land goes dark, and others don't?" I had to keep my mind off the hunger. And the death throes of the chicken. I hoped it was no longer suffering.
Brie set a metal pot on the ground, the same kind that Mother used to make tea sometimes. Brie went to work gathering dry sticks, of which there were many. "Elves turn dark if they stay in places like this for too long. Stilt's not always like this. And if we linger here too long, he'll get worse. We have to get him out of here. So if you can help me by getting water, we'll be able to eat and drink and leave sooner." Her eyes were pleading. There was a memory there—a bad one. "I understand if you can't."