Spirit Followers

by Lydia Redwine

  If he was a Spirit Follower, which side was he on? He certainly did not seem to be aligned with Apollyon. If he was, then he would have already killed them or wouldn’t have aided them in escape in the first place. Perhaps he was one of that group who followed the small morals and held the same beliefs but did not live with his people.

  Presently, Cam came to notice as she attempted to gauge the size of the valley, that the darkness obscured any signs of valley walls. “This narrow path is sure to lead us out,” she thought to herself.

  As they continued onward, Cam’s eyelids began to droop. They only opened when Caleb asked how they were holding up. When they opened, Cam looked ahead and glimpsed the light of Caleb’s torch.

  She was struggling to keep herself awake, to keep Terra from falling, and to keep her mind from wandering into the shadows folding them in from all sides. Fiera’s breath was ragged. “The sulfur is affecting us all.” With gritted teeth, Cam forced her slumped shoulders upward. She strode forward, and her cloak snagged on thorns which jerked her back. A ripping sound reached her ears followed by the sensation of release. The back of her cloak was ragged and torn.

  The air tremored and sliced with the startling sounds of vague screeching and wailing. As she strained her ears she decided it was chains dragging upon stone and the cries were from creatures inhuman. The sounds came from ahead but also trembled beneath her. “Is the prison beneath us?”

  "What was that?" Terra asked, coughing obnoxiously. “Those are the sounds of theShadow Prisoners,” Caleb said. His expression was grim and he too was sweating under the flickering light of the torch.

  Caleb resumed the lead for quite some time before he finally halted before a massive set of steel doors. “Prison doors,” Cam told herself. Her heart thumped as Caleb braced a hand against the left side and pushed. The door swung open with a tremendous shriek that caused Cam’s bones to rattle. Reluctantly, the four walked into the nightmare awaiting them.

  Caleb’s torch flickered out.

  When the doors swung shut behind them, Cam felt as though she had stepped into a world like she had never seen before. The room was vast and dimly lit, not by sulfurous flames, but by an eerie blue light whose source was unknown. Fortunately, the air was cool and easier to breathe. Cam could feel the heavy presence of the stone dwelling’s owner.

  Although the prison’s coloring was what she had expected, the rest was not. Piles and piles and piles of treasure scattered across the floor mixed with bones and flowing around towering stone pillars. The pillars were marked with faded carvings of symbols and words in a language she did not know.

  Cam shut her eyes as if to rid her mind of the disturbing corners and dark entrances. When she reopened them, she gasped, for the fortress had completely transformed as if she had melted into another dream. The room looked as though it had been draped in gold, for it was brilliantly lit.

  Cam’s attention swept the room. It looked to be the throne room of an extremely wealthy king. She found that Caleb, Fiera, Terra, and she were still standing in the same places at before, but they too had taken on a new appearance. They also seemed to be draped in gold for their frocks were exotic looking and encrusted with jewels along the hems.

  A hiss swept through the room, brushing Cam with a cold breeze. “Welcome to the Court of Curses,” the voice said. A strange thing occurred as this voice echoed through the chamber. Caleb heard the voice as that of a woman with a tone smooth as honey. Fiera too perceived a delightful voice, though the voice she distinguished was deep and resonating. Terra heard a hissing voice but assumed it was all in her head. At first, Cam thought she heard the voice of Owen, and her heart instantly warmed. But why would he be here? Doubt seeped through her mind, and when the voice returned, she heard a hideous hissing.

  “They know we’re here,” she whispered anxiously.

  Caleb’s eyes were wide and greedy under the burning torch. A smile snatched his expression. The smile was not human. His hand reached out and grasped a handful of coins. “What is it?” he asked, stuffing more into his arms, for Cam had given him a terrified expression.

  She lifted a quaking hand and pointed towards bars in the wall just beyond Caleb. The image of the golden hall faded into the blue darkness Cam had seen upon their entrance. A heavy weight rested upon her shoulders. Fiera stood as though in a trance while Terra moaned. Cam let out an uncontrollable cry when the scraping of chains followed by a pair of wrinkly, scaly pair of hands that looked like talons grasped at the bars. She instantly clamped a hand over her mouth. “They're imprisoned,” she told herself.

  Realizing Caleb could not see what she saw, she leaped towards him knocking him to the ground. His hands dropped the gold, and he zapped out of his trance. Caleb turned slowly at the sound of wailing cries from behind the bars. Then there was a thunder of chains on stone followed by ear wrenching wails. “Hundreds. Hundreds. Hundreds of them,” Cam’s heart seemed to thunder. Her mind echoed with the sound of the hissing which still resonated from every corner.

  “Caleb, get back here!” hissed Fiera, having now heard the thunderous pandemonium of the prisoners. Caleb, needing no prodding, backed away.

  Caleb pointed ahead at a small door on the other side of the fortress. “That door, I’ve heard leads right out to the edge of the valley.” Cam andFiera aidedTerrato her feet andtogether they fled towards the door, careful to avoid tripping on the gold. It felt as if an eternity had passed before they reached the door.

  Without hesitation, Caleb jerked it open and ushered his followers through. They were once again surrounded by thick air and darkness. But they were relieved to find that they stood before a wall of jagged rock and light poured from ahead so that the torch was not needed. Cam breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the closed door of the fortress. “We have to climb,” Caleb panted.

  “Wait!” Cam exclaimed. Her heart plummeted as she realized her necklace was not around her neck. She spun around. She fell to her knees, her hands scrambling to find it. She must have left it inside. She had it before entering the fortress. “I lost it. I lost my necklace. We have togo back!” she said, feeling despair coursing through her.

  The doors of the fortress were just swinging shut when Terra, who had been released from Fiera's hold, lunged into the space between. Once the door was closed, one could not reenter. Cam's fingers found the door's edge. Terra, in a weakened state, slipped through and tumbled to the ground. Cam fell through the opening just as the fortress door banged shut with a sound of finality.

  She raised herself from the floor. The only sounds were her frantic whispers to Terra. All else was quiet. “Too quiet.” Cam shuddered. Her eyes darted over the contents of the building in search of her possession. She was relieved when she spotted it on the ground near to where they had entered. She snatched it up, examining it for any damages. Without it, she could not prove to the Royals that she had earned the right to the kingdom’s magic.

  Hurriedly, she slipped the chain around her neck. “Terra!” she whispered loudly, grasping at her sister’s arm. Terra attempted to stand but only slumped against the pillar. “I will drag you out of here," Cam said through a clenched jaw. As she grasped Terra's wrists, the sudden, ear-splitting sound of chains dragging on stone bombarded her ears. The sound was so horrendous Cam cried out as her hands sprang to protect her ears. What terrified her furthermore was that the scream did not come from the black abyss of the prison but from directly behind them. As if she was being controlled, Cam turned to face her doom. One of the Shadow Prisoners had emerged from the abyss. How, she did not know.

  In one swift glance, she took in the features of the tall creature which was thin and draped in what looked like a gray and black blood. Around it's wrinkly, scaly wrists were chains that dropped from its corpse to the stone floor.

  Cam stumbled back, nearly losing her balance. The next moment they were surrounded. Exactly where they had come from Cam did not know. They appeared from all sides and closed in like a poison
ous cloud.

  Suddenly, the cries and wails of the prisoners ceased. Cam compared the noise to that of a suddenly ended orchestra of instruments ill-tuned and rusted. “Shhhheeee wears the mark of the savior,” a hissing creature said. Cam’s attention was compelled to rest upon a looming prisoner who seemed to float above the rest. He wore what appeared to be a crown of bones. “Shhhheeee is the one who must die.” A shudder barrelled down Cam’s spine. What could his words mean? At that moment, the prisoner laughed. The laugh was hardly human, however, but horrendous in sound. Presently, the cackling of the other shadows resonated through the fortress. These were the sounds of nightmares.

  “If weeeeee kill her now we will be freeeeee. No savior for the…. humans.” Theprisoner spit the word “humans” as though the word brought detest to his mind. Cam’s mind searched widely for the “mark” they spoke of. Who was the savior?

  Hands flung to grasp at Cam's cloak. With a racing heart, she tripped and fell over her sister. As she tumbled, her back fell from her back, and an object rolled to the stone. The crystal.

  Cam grasped it in her hand as scaly fingers enclosed over her wrist. The next instant the blue light of the fortress caught the crystal, causing it to gleam before her eyes. Something sparked in Cam’s mind like a newly lit flame. “Close your eyes!” she hissed to Terra. Cam thrust the sapphire forward under the blue, glowing light and shut her eyes.

  The world went black.

  She could feel it careening in around them.

  When her eyes fluttered open again, the creatures were shrieking horrendously and fleeing to the dark corners of the prison. Cam stared blankly at the crystal which had now turned black meaning.

  “It’s lost its use.”

  She scrambled to her feet and allowed the crystal to fall from her grasp.

  She resumed dragging Terra to the door which she had opened. They were met with a blast of heavy, sweltering air. The door swung shut for the last time.

  “Start climbing!” Caleb shouted as they stumbled into the valley.

  “What happened? I heard screams.” Fiera grasped Terra’s other arm.

  “No questions! Just go!” Caleb shouted, heaving Cam up onto the rock. “Terra, you have to try to climb.”

  “I-I can’t,” she replied weakly, sagging against Cam.

  Cam looked to her sister. Her skin was gray and... peeling. “No, no, no…” Her heart became erratic.

  “You have to,” Fiera urged. Terra shook her head before slumping to the ground. Fiera fell to her knees, her face turning ash white.

  Caleb’s hands fell upon her shoulder as Fiera fumbled to find Terra’s flask of Medulla. “Medulla will not cure against the poison that has already entered her,” he said softly. A scream erupted from Fiera and tears burst from her eyes. Cam leaped from where she was upon the valley’s wall.

  She fell beside her sisters, her fingers reaching to touch Terra’s brow. “Terra...” The words were choked on the heavy hair, stuttering in a panicked tone.

  “I love you, Fiera. Tell them I love them,” Terra said softly, closing her eyes. Cam immediately thought of their family back home. “Mother and Father, though they did me wrong tell them…” Terra coughed, and Cam felt warm liquid on her face. “Tell them there is hope beyond death. They…can be saved.” Cam enclosed Terra’s coldhandinhers. Her heart tremoredandachedagainst her chest.

  “I love you too,” Fiera said, her voice barely audible. Cam watched Terra go limp. She finally sank to the ground, all strength she had summoned receding from her.

  Terra’s face had slackened, the lines fading into soft skin. Her lips had twitched upward in a small smile.

  Cam choked on a sob, her fingers trembling as she reached for Terra’s hand. Her fingers were cold, her palm quickly losing its warmth.

  Caleb shifted once over them before he bent down and touched them both gently. “Come on.”

  Cam didn’t remember standing. She supposed later that Caleb had helped her, had taken Terra’s hand from her own. “We have to...” she said, still choking.

  But Caleb knew. And Cam couldn’t remember how they had managed to bring Terra’s body over the edge of thecliff. But she did remember the steadily falling rain and Caleb a blur among it, digging, digging, digging.

  Cam only heard the roaring of the sky and her own heart tearing itself from her chest.

  Twenty-Three

  The wind rustled the little pink flowers that grew in the garden.

  Two voices were shouting nearby, but they sounded far off. Cam had long since left Mista and Adria to their arguing to find her other two sisters. Terra was bent over her garden, barefoot with sun-kissed legs extended in the dirt. She was pouring water over the little buds.

  Cam bent next to her, just catching the last string of words Terra was singing under her breath.

  “What song is that?” she asked.

  Terra’s lips twitchedinto a small smile. “It is abirthday song Grandfather taught me. It comes from the north.”

  Cam smiled too. “Happy birthday,” she whispered as she leaned in close.

  “Thank you,” Terra murmured distractedly.

  “You’re not leaving are you?”

  Terra shook her head. “This is home,” she said simply.

  Cam found she wasn’t going to get much more. Terra was too distracted. “Sing that song again. I want to hear it.”

  Terra obliged her.

  Camarranged little pink flowers in Terra’s hair before Caleb

  shoved the mud over the rim of the rectangular hole he had dug. The sky remained void of sun and had been that way since an hour after they had emerged from the valley.

  Cam muttered the song, her voice horse. Fiera was standing far off, her back to them and arms crossed.

  “It’s time,” Caleb said at last.

  Cam nodded. They had to be moving.

  The next day of traveling was made on foot. They slept during the remaining hours of the day after departing from the valley. All three were solemn and silent. The only interaction they had was when Caleb had insisted on tending to their deeper cuts. He rubbed salve on the wounds and had them consume some of Terra’s remainingMedulla substance.Caleb tendedto thefire, food, and camp throughout the following days on their journey to Cinis Lumen.

  The land covered between the valley and their next destination was mostly wasteland, some forest, and others wide open plains. The journey was difficult without horses. They slept for two nights on the ground in uninhabited fields next to fires that eventually burned out and left them cold. Cam could now see that not all of Mirabelle was beautiful, for the Valley of the Shadow penetrated her dreams even under the expanse of a star-speckled sky.

  In the morning they saw a volcano looming in the distance. Cam was stiff and still cold from their sleepless night before. The extinct volcano towered in front of them, black and strong. Cam’s mind flickered between wondering what this realm would be like and what they had left behind. This place wasn’t going to be like Imber Fel.

  Still, something light danced in her chest. She was finally finding something to look forward to. As they traveled on, she realized that there were several other volcanoes. Caleb explained that most of them were either dormant or extinct. Cam felt only coiling distress melting the numbness inside her when she remembered her remaining training. And that further discussion of Apollyon’s plans were to be had. And if she thought that Heiron of Imber Fel was difficult, she knew that Tyron Ardor was an entirely different case. He had an army, one he would not be likely to use for the mere word of a Medulla citizen. Even if she was Royal. Almost Royal.

  Cam glanced down at her necklace but immediately ripped her eyes from it. “If I hadn’t gone back…” The remainder of the thought was too sharp to broach, and yet another thought was surfacing. “Then Cinis Lumen would never believe me.”

  When they approached the base of the most enormous volcanic mountain, Cam stopped short to watch as creatures spanning quite a width of sky descended
towards, their wings a rich brown flaming red. “The Lumenbirds,” Caleb said, his voice nearly reverent. “They were formed of the ash and the stars themselves. They are not pets of the Cinis Lumen, but they dwell here just as we do. They are here to welcome us.” Cam glanced at Caleb, noting the smile that was forming on his lips. He was glad to be home.

  Home.

  The word didn’t have any meaning. Not now.

  The Lumenbirds braced themselves for landing, and Caleb was quick to swing onto one. Fiera and Cam glanced at one another before Caleb pulled them up behind him. Cam’s stomach tumbled inside of her as if it were turning itself inside out as the bird swooped upward. After the shock of the cold wind whistling in her ears, she saw that below them was the volcano which she saw was hollow and vacant. She held tight to the Lumenbird as it made a swift descending swoop into the interior of the natural mountain. The igneous walls rose around her, creating a circular opening at the top.

  A door in thesideofthevolcano’swallopenedandatallman clad in black and red clothing appeared. He was older, clearly agile, and strong. Strong in the sense that he knew himself better than anyone could know a person. Cam could tell this by the stern look in his black eyes and the way he stood, straight and rigid. Next to him, was a younger man, also tall with ruffled black hair and glimmering dark eyes. He stood not as rigid as the older man but still ready and alert. Cam slipped from the back from the Lumenbird and staggered until she had regained her footing.

  “Welcome,” Tyron Ardor said in a thick, elegant accent. He eyed Cam. She nodded, wondering if she should bow to this clearly prestigious person. A large ruby gleamed brightly on his chest surrounded by the familiar gray stone. He was no doubt the leader of this realm. His eyes wandered and caught Caleb’s gaze. A look of recognition crossed his countenance. “I am pleased to see you have returned,” he said, still unsmiling.

  Caleb nodded. “Lord Tyron, may I present Lady Camaria Briar. She comes from the Medulla Realm and has been elected the next Royal. We have made the journey here in order for her to complete training.”