by Linsey Hall
“Yeah, definitely looks like a test.” Bree’s voice sounded from my other side, and I turned. She stood next to me, arms crossed and staring down at the cliff. “You’re not going to like this.”
Rowan appeared next to her. “She really isn’t.”
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked.
They looked up, almost surprised, then at each other.
“Shit, I don’t know.” Bree frowned. “We were in the vaults one minute, hunting more ingredients to make the potion that allows the tattooed Protectorate members to leave the castle, then I was here.”
“I think we’re here to help you. Emotional support on your test, and all that.” Rowan reached out to touch me, and her hand passed right through. She grinned. “Yep. This is some cool magic. No idea how it’s happening, but it’s cool.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here.” It made me feel a bit calmer, just thinking about it. We’d had to split up in order to cover enough ground on the tattoo problem, but I preferred working with them. “How’s it going, by the way?”
“Not bad,” Bree said. “We’ve almost got our hands on enough potion to allow ten people to leave the castle for up to a week. That should help us hunt answers, or defend the castle if we ever need to.”
“Good.” I nodded. We were making progress. Slow, but I wasn’t going to turn up my nose at any forward movement.
“You’d better get moving with your test,” Bree said.
Muffin meowed. Yep. Test waits for no one!
“Freaking tests.” I looked at Muffin, then at my sisters. “This is hero shit, that’s what this is. Tests to prove my worthiness. What I’d do to achieve my goals. The hero’s journey—the lot of it.”
Better get climbing, then, eh?
Rowan grinned. “Suck it up, pal.”
“It’s so over the top.” I cracked my knuckles, ready to get started with the horrible journey. Always heights, wasn’t it?
With my heart pounding in my ears, I got down on my belly and looked over the edge of the cliff. Little handholds peeked out, jagged rocks and tiny indentions. It was enough that I could get down, but it wouldn’t be fun.
“Here goes nothing.” I shimmied off the edge, my skin feeling numb from fear.
My sisters followed, each taking up position on either side of me.
Slowly, I climbed down, my stomach doing jumping jacks. Muffin stayed by my side the whole time, shouting weird encouragement as I descended.
“You’ve got this,” Bree shouted.
“It’s a piece of pie!” Rowan said. “I prefer pie.”
I laughed at her dumb joke, then regretted it when it made me lose my focus. I kept going, silent and determined. I never once looked down.
I spend far too much time encouraging you to climb great heights.
“I couldn’t agree more.”
“You talking to your cat?” Rowan asked. “We can’t hear him, remember?”
“I am, but let me focus.” Sisters!
My head was buzzing by the time I made it halfway. When I reached for a protruding rock that looked particularly promising, it broke off beneath my hand.
A tiny shriek escaped my throat as I hung there, scrabbling for another handhold. Muffin flew down and pressed his little paws against my butt, trying to keep me elevated.
Bree reached out and tried to grab my arm, but her hand passed right through since she wasn’t really here.
“There’s a handhold four inches higher!” Rowan shouted.
Heart thundering, I flailed until I grabbed the rock that she had pointed out and clung, my face pressed to the cliff as sweat chilled on my skin.
You got it? Muffin kept pushing hard on my butt, trying to keep me from falling.
“I got it.” I panted, the words barely audible. My muscles trembled like jelly.
Muffin flew away, and I kept climbing down. By the time I reached the bottom, I was shaking.
Bree jumped down next to me. “Good work!”
“Not half bad,” Rowan said.
“Thanks, guys.” I turned from the cliff.
More stepping stones stretched out in front of me, creating a path through the silvery water. I turned back to the cliff, but it was gone. So were Rowan, Bree, and Muffin. My helpers had disappeared.
The huge white room with the cloud ceiling was back, and I was alone.
Annoyance flashed through me, a far better feeling than the fear. “Freaking tests.”
I turned back to the stones and stomped across the water. Partway across, another gray-robed figure appeared. I stopped and waited.
“What would you do?” The figure’s voice echoed with power.
“What do you mean?”
“What would you do?”
There were no clues in the figure’s voice, but this was obviously another test of some sort. What would I do? To what? Achieve my goals?
What were my goals?
Save my friends. My family. Defeat the Fates to save the world.
“Anything.” The word escaped my lips almost before I thought it.
The figure nodded and stepped aside, hovering over the water.
All right, then.
I continued on, stepping across the stones until I reached the other side.
When I reached it, the cloudy sky cleared. The path across the empty room was obvious, and I followed it to a massive archway. I stepped through into a huge round room with no ceiling. The sky above roiled with dark clouds. It poured rain and glinted with lightning. Through the open space above, I caught sight of a towering green mountain.
Beneath the open sky, the floor was a gleaming white marble. Though it was raining above, none of the water splashed on the floor below. In the middle, a green fire burned, reaching at least ten feet tall and seeming to flicker with images amongst the flames.
A dozen gray-cloaked figures sat around the fire, their faces obscured by their hoods. About twenty feet away, Lachlan appeared, stepping through an archway that was identical to the one I stood under. His face was pale and his gaze frantic as he searched the space.
When his eyes landed on me, they calmed. He rushed toward me, wrapping his arms around me. “Thank fates you’re fine,” he muttered into my hair.
Suddenly, I remembered what his greatest fear was. Losing me.
Was that the challenge he’d faced while crossing the stepping stones?
He pulled back. “At least we made it.”
I nodded, but I could feel the gazes of the Elders upon us, so I turned to face them. I gripped Lachlan’s hand. “Let’s go.”
7
We walked toward the Elders of the Indomidae and stopped at a gap in their circle that had clearly been left for us. The green flames died down until they were only three feet tall, short enough that I could see over them.
The Elders stood.
“You seek answers.” They spoke as one, their voices echoing through the room.
“Um, yes.” I couldn’t figure out who to look at. I raised my hand. “My friends and I have been given these tattoos. They’re imbued with a spell that will make us the slaves of the Roman Fates if we leave the protection of our castle.”
“Let us tell you a story.”
I blinked. “Wait, what?”
“Long ago, there was a seal that could turn into a woman.” They spoke in unison still, not bothering to answer my question.
I glanced at Lachlan, who shrugged. So we listened, since there wasn’t much else we could do. Now was not the time for being rude. Not when we needed their help so badly.
“This seal was one of many. In our land, it is believed that seals were once people who voluntarily gave their lives to the sea. Once a month, they are allowed to come upon the shore and shed their seal skins to take human form.”
Where was this story going?
As if they heard my question, the Elders continued. “And thus, the seals climbed onto the shore on the thirteenth night of every month. They shed their skins and hid them away, and
then began to dance and play games.
“One month, a farmer from the town of Mikladalur decided that he wanted to see if this were true. He went down to the shore and hid amongst the rocks. He waited, watching as the seals climbed upon the shore. One of the seals was a beautiful young woman, and as she lay her skin down upon the rocks, he watched her. After hiding her skin, she went onto the land to join the festivities.
“The party went on all night, and toward the end, the man crept from his hiding place and took the skin of the beautiful young woman. She returned to the place where she had hidden her seal skin and searched for it, to no avail. As she was crying, the farmer stepped from the bushes and showed her the skin. She begged for its return, but he would not relent. And thus, she was compelled to follow him toward his home."
The Elders paused in their story, just briefly. I frowned, really not liking where this was going. And I really didn't like this farmer.
“The man locked her seal skin away in the trunk, and wore the key tied around his neck at all times. The seal woman was forced to become his wife and bear him several children. No matter how much the seal woman wanted to return to the sea, she could not.”
I scowled. What a kidnapping bastard that farmer was.
“One day while the man was at sea, he realized that he had left the key to the trunk at home. He turned to his fishing friends and said, ‘Today I shall lose my wife.’ The men rowed back to shore as quickly as they could, but by the time they arrived, the seal woman was gone. She had doused the fire and hidden the sharp knives so that the younger children could not hurt themselves. The farmer knew that she would not return."
Thank fates. It was about time the seal woman escaped.
The Elders continued with their story. “As for the seal woman, she ran to the ocean and put on her seal skin, then leapt into the sea. A large bull seal waited for her after all these years. She had loved him when she had first been abducted, and he had waited for her. She joined him once again in the sea."
Oh, I like the happy ending.
But the Elders were not finished. I frowned when they began to speak again.
“Any time the seal woman’s human children went to the seashore, a seal would appear in the water, its head turned to look at the shore. The townspeople believed that this was the seal woman. And so the years passed. Until one day, when the men of Mikladalur planned to sail deep into the caverns along the sea and conduct a seal hunt. The seal woman appeared to her human husband in a dream and begged him not to kill the great bull seal that would be sleeping at the entrance of the cave, and to spare the lives of the two seal pups who were her children.”
Oh no, this was not going to end well. Nerves skated across my skin as I waited for the Elders to continue.
"The men of Mikladalur began their seal hunt, and the farmer did not heed the message from the dream. He joined the others and killed the bull seal and the two young pups. For his own share, he took the head of the bull seal and the fins and flippers of the young seals. "
Oh, what a bastard. A total sociopath.
"Later that evening, after cooking the bodies that were the seal family of his enslaved wife, a giant troll appeared in the farmer’s cabin. Immediately, the farmer recognized the troll as his enslaved wife, transformed. She sniffed the food that was her family and shouted her curse: ‘Here lies the head of my husband with his broad nostrils, the hand of Hárek, and the foot of Frederick! Now there shall be revenge, revenge on the men of Mikladalur, and some will die at sea, and others will fall from the mountaintops, until there be as many dead as can link hands all round the shores of the isle of Kalsoy!’"
I frowned. She was getting her revenge, and that was good in a sense. But it could in no way compensate for the loss of her family. And innocent people might die. The story opened a deep chasm of sadness within my chest, leaving me feeling empty for the seal woman and her late family. Even the people of Mikladalur.
The Elders continued. "Once the seal woman laid down her curse, she vanished and was never seen again. But today, her curse still lingers. The people of Mikladalur die in greater numbers due to tragedies at sea and falls from the cliffs. It is because of the selfishness of that one man, and his cruelty to the seal woman, that such horror remains."
Silence fell in the enormous room. I glanced at Lachlan, and his face was solemn.
"That's the saddest story I've ever heard." I blurted the words, realizing too late that they were out of place in the quiet room.
The Elders turned to me. "We agree."
"But what does it have to do with me?" How did this have anything to do with the tattoo and the curse that we bore? How would it help us save our friends?
"Does terrible have to stay terrible?" Once again, the words were said in unison.
"What do you mean?"
"Go." The word boomed through the huge room, every voice so loud that it shook my insides. "And do."
The world spun around me, and my head began to pound. Darkness crashed, and I fell to the ground. When I opened my eyes, all I could see were the stars above. Thousands of them glittering in the night against a blanket of inky black darkness.
Blinking, I sat up and looked around. The air was sharp and cold, and smelled of the sea and salt.
"We're not in Kansas anymore,” I muttered. We were at the seaside. No, scratch that. I was at the seaside. Lachlan was nowhere to be found. I climbed to my feet and inspected my surroundings.
The waves crashed against the beach only fifty meters away, and large boulders had tumbled upon the sand. Enormous mountains rose tall behind me, and I’d guess that they were green in the daylight.
What the heck was going on? Was this a new test?
Moonlight glittered on the ocean waves, and I squinted at them, finally catching sight of tiny little lumps in the water. They moved closer to shore, eventually climbing upon the pebble beach.
Seals.
One by one, the seals crawled towards crevices in the rock and other hiding places. Beneath the light of the moon, they shifted into the form of humans and hid their seal skins among the boulders.
Understanding dawned.
I was witnessing the story of the seal woman.
I searched for the man who would steal the young woman's seal skin. What was I supposed to do if I found him?
I didn't know, but it had to be something. That story had been one of great injustice and tragedy, a story of one man's selfishness that had not only ruined the life of the seal woman, but also the lives of many of his fellow villagers.
I couldn't stand such selfishness and cruelty.
As quietly as I could, I crept over the rocks on the beach, hiding behind large boulders and hoping that the seal people would not smell or see me. Occasionally, I caught glimpses of the seals going toward the shore and dancing under the moonlight.
Wind swept my hair back from my face and cut through my clothes. Only my arms and chest were warm, protected by the jacket from the Seamstress.
Pebbles crunched underfoot as I walked. Finally I caught sight of a rustling in the bushes at the end of the beach. I approached, maintaining a low profile, and crouched behind. I squinted toward the bushes, sure that something was there.
A moment later, I spotted the man, hiding between the branches and peering out at the seal people. The glint in his eyes made me uncomfortable.
It was avarice, and I hated it.
I searched the shore, hoping to find the seal woman and warn her away from this area. But it was too late. She was already shedding her skin and standing up in the moonlight, just ten yards away.
Time seemed to race forward, like I was seeing the Elders’ story in super speed. The young woman went up to the beach to join her friends, and the man stole her skin. She returned and they argued. She begged and cried, but he wouldn’t relent.
My heart tore as I watched him begin the process of ruining her life. He would kidnap her and keep her for decades.
I couldn’t let it happen.
“Crap.” Indecision warred within me, but I couldn't watch this tragedy unfold. I began to creep out from behind the rock.
What’s going on?
I stopped, turning back to see Muffin sitting on the boulder. His green eyes glinted in the moonlight, and his black wings looked semitransparent.
"I'm here to see. And do."
What the heck does that mean?
"I don't know, but I think it means I'm going to save that seal woman." That’s what I wanted it to mean, at least.
You're going to change history? Haven't you seen the movies?
"You have a point." I frowned. “But it's just a story."
Then why do you care?
"Every story needs a happy ending." And I couldn't watch this happen, not if I could help the seal woman. I had to be here for a reason. I had to. It wasn’t just to witness tragedy and do nothing.
That wasn’t my style.
I stopped behind a rock, close enough that I could see the tears glinting on the seal woman’s cheeks. My heart ached even as rage swelled within my chest.
I stared hard at them, trying to figure out the best way to stop this tragedy. As I stared, it felt like I could see something new. Particles in the air, almost like time had become a thing. A molecule.
What the heck?
Reach for it. Change it.
I didn’t know where the voice came from. The Elders? I followed the command, acting on instinct.
Magic rose in my chest, strong and strange. New magic. I reached out with my power, using it to grab onto the molecules. To grasp time. I didn't know how I did it, and it barely made sense to me, but I could feel it. I knew what I was doing, somehow.
My magic wrapped around the molecules of time that seemed to float in the air, and I began to turn back time.
The world went silent. Even the waves ceased crashing.
Events began to rewind themselves, like a movie. The seal woman walked backward up the beach, returning to her revelry with the other partiers. Time creaked backward. The man laid down the seal skin and slipped back into the bushes. Eventually, the woman returned and donned her skin, then returned to the sea.
Enough.
Immediately, I heeded the voice and let go of my grip on time. I couldn’t go back too far. It was too dangerous.