Shadowed Veil

by Emery Blake

  “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Skylar Dufrense.” His voice was melodious, resonating in the cramped space. “I am guessing you tried to veilwalk out of here, yes?”

  I nodded weakly. So, he knew who I was and what he was. But I didn’t know what he knew beyond that. I had to keep my wits if I was going to avoid letting anything slip.

  “I’m afraid you won’t be leaving that way, my dear. I’ve shielded this room, you see. Hardened the Veil, as it were. Even I couldn’t bypass it, so I am fairly confident that you will be staying for as long as I wish.”

  I could feel the fear building up in my stomach. I was truly stuck.

  “What do you want from me?” I affected a confidence I did not feel. “I don’t know anything, I don’t have anything. If you are planning to kill me…”

  “Kill you?” An expression of shock that bordered on sincerity appeared on the thin man’s face. “My dear, I have no intention of harming you in the least. No, no. I am here to set you free.”

  “You have a funny way of showing it.”

  He smiled wryly.

  “I regret our manner of meeting, I truly do.” He stood up and clasped his hands behind him. “Let’s begin again, shall we? My name is Malcolm. It is a pleasure to finally meet you.” He gave a slight bow. His manner, the formal politeness, was beginning to grate. The incongruity of being tied to a chair in a dank basement while this refined gentleman in his gray suit and impossibly shiny shoes offered me courtesies was too much to bear. I couldn’t bring myself to respond.

  “Skylar, you have been through some terrible things in the past months, have you not?” When I did not respond he arched an eyebrow but continued. “Assaulted by a dirty little Voidnik, nearly abducted twice by a clumsy Djinn, forced to escape to a desolate realm, terrible. Djinn are such fools, you know, too consumed by their anger. Easily provoked. You know, Skylar,” he leaned in conspiratorially, “one who can be provoked is easy to control. You only need to poke him in the right places and he will dance to your tune.”

  Malcolm sat back down in his chair and crossed one leg over the other.

  “And now here you are, certainly not where you would want to be, yes? If I may, I would venture a guess that you might prefer if everything were to go back to normal. Am I right?”

  I kept my face a mask, stoic. But inside, what he said had struck something. I had been more afraid and overwhelmed, felt more out of place and alone in the past few months than I had in my entire life. I had escaped death, narrowly, several times. And I didn’t seem to be making much progress in my training. I felt hopelessly behind, lost.

  “You’ll never really fit in there, you know.” Malcolm continued. He must have sensed my weakness because he focused right on it. “Humans will always be outsiders to the other realms. You will always be an outsider. Wouldn’t it be better if you could just go back? Go back to college and finish your degree, forget this ever happened. I promise you, you can put this all behind you and no further harm will come to you.”

  “How can you promise that? Who are you?”

  “I work for someone who has your best interests at heart. Someone who made a mistake with you and wants to make things right. Lord Asa'kah.”

  I had suspected it, but to hear him admit it was still chilling. It was Asa'kah, the Opener of Ways, who had sent the Voidnik and the Djinn after me in the first place.

  “Lord Asa'kah tried to kill me. Twice.”

  “A misunderstanding.” Malcolm gave a dismissive wave of his long-fingered hand. “He begs your forgiveness for the…over-eagerness of his servants. He regrets that you have been drawn into issues that don’t involve you. It isn’t fair, you know. You should have the right to go back to your old life and be free of all this. Don’t you want that?”

  A part of me was tempted by the offer, the part of me that was scared, that felt small and weak. That part of me wanted to trust this tall, thin man and the power behind him, not because they were trustworthy, but because they were saying something I wanted to be true.

  But that was only a part of me. I thought back to Zhas, to the pain on his face when he described the destruction of his world and the massacre of his herd. I thought of Tevita and Aiken who had offered me friendship, real friendship, despite our differences. I thought of Finian, who believed I could be more than I thought possible. And I thought of Kaia, who always treated me with respect even when she acted like a big sister. Kaia, who was probably being held in some other dank dungeon nearby, who was certainly not being offered the same courtesy as me.

  As much as I wanted to close my eyes to the horror and fear that awaited me as a TRIP agent, I couldn’t go back. Alongside the monsters and the danger, there was beauty and mystery. I couldn’t return to a world so much smaller. I couldn’t abandon the people who had believed in me.

  “Thank you for your offer, Malcolm. But no, I am not going back.”

  He stood up and smoothed his jacket.

  “Pity. Perhaps you will feel differently in the morning. You have to know that we will not allow you to disrupt our work here. The creature must complete its task.

  With that, he swept out of the room and back up the stairs, his trolls trailing behind him. The door closed, the light flickered off, and I was left in darkness.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The sound of footsteps faded until the only thing left in my ears was that cotton-ball feeling of utter silence. I knew I had made the right decision, I couldn’t leave TRIP, the Inter-realm, and the new world I was only just beginning to understand. I couldn’t shut my eyes and pretend it all wasn’t real. I had done that once before, under the guidance of my parents and my counselor, and I was still angry about it.

  Malcolm said that he would come back in the morning. It must have been night outside, or nearly so. I didn’t want to sit tied to this chair for the whole night. I probably wouldn’t be getting any sleep and I was certain I didn’t want to chance another encounter with Malcolm and his trolls. I needed to get free somehow. I was pretty sure I had heard all three sets of footsteps leave the floor above me. Malcolm seemed arrogant enough to leave me here alone. After all, if I couldn’t veilwalk, how was I going to get away?

  I twisted my hands, trying to close my fingers onto the bitter ends of the ropes holding my wrists to the chair legs. At one point, I thought I felt the coarse fiber, but I could not get a grip. My fingertips began to go numb. Even in the cool basement, I could feel sweat on my wrists from the effort. But then I thought for a moment. There wasn’t a drop of sweat anywhere else on my body and my wrists and hands were slick with it. It wasn’t sweat. My wrists were bleeding.

  I leaned back, as well as I could, and tried to relax my shoulders. There was no use continuing to struggle against the bonds. I was only going to hurt myself further. I was stuck here until Malcolm came back to collect me. There was nothing I could do. I felt myself falling backward into an abyss, dark and bottomless. I started to cry. Overcome with fear, depression, and rage at my own impotence, my body was wracked with heaving sobs. I was furious with myself for indulging in such self-pity. But I couldn’t stop.

  A jolt of pain in my shoulder jolted me back. I was still stuck here, I still needed to escape, and crying wasn’t going to do anything to help. I thought about Kaia. She wouldn’t be wasting time pitying herself. She wouldn’t stop fighting, she would find a way. She wouldn’t give up on rescuing me, either. I admonished myself for wasting time with tears. My friend was in trouble and if I had any chance of helping her, I needed to try.

  I felt a tingling across the skin of my arms. At first, I thought they had just fallen asleep, but then it hit me. The magic. Before, the magic had come and gone so quickly that I had barely had a chance to feel it, but this time was different. A thousand little pin pricks danced across my shoulders and down my arms, exploding off my fingertips. I looked down, but there were no sparks. My muscles were tense, straining at the rope around my wrists. I strained them further. Maybe the magic would gi
ve me strength to break through the ropes.

  It didn’t.

  The more I strained, the more intense the pinpricks became. I let out a breath and rested. The electrical impulses crackling along my nerves subsided, returned to a light tingle. I had to try the ropes again. I drew in a deep breath and pulled my arms forward, straining every muscle in my chest and arms. The pain exploded. I saw flashes of light, but it was only the stars in my eyes. I gave up. The pain went away.

  The tingle was still there, the magic. Earlier, I had used the magic without thinking. I saw what I wanted to do, and it happened. But it wasn’t working this time. Even if I could fight through the pain, the ropes were not breaking. I would break my wrists before I got free that way.

  I relaxed my muscles again, sinking back against the chair. The pain was gone, but the tingling was still there. I tried to focus on that. With my body calm, or as calm as it could be in my current position, I simply felt the magic. I did not try to force it, I surrendered to it. The tingling swelled to a buzz, like my whole body was vibrating with energy, but instead of the energy crackling with pain like electricity, this time it felt like warmth. It was as if I had come in from the cold and downed a mug of hot chocolate. Heat radiated from my center out to my skin.

  I looked down at the rope knotted around my right wrist. I allowed my arm to hang slack and visualized the knot coming loose. I could feel a connection between myself and the rope, like I had with the little kelpie in the river. I tugged at the layers of braided line until there was enough space to slide out my hand. My wrist and hand were still covered in blood, but I did not feel any pain. The magic had suffused every part of me with warmth.

  With my free hand, I untied the rest of my bonds. I stood up awkwardly, the muscles in my legs had gone dead from hours in one position. But in moments, the blood began to circulate normally again, and I felt strength return to my limbs. I held on to the magic lightly, as if it were a bird. The warmth effervesced through my whole body.

  Feeling my way, I slowly crossed the room toward the stairs. I tried to call up the image of the room as I’d seen it in the light, but I was unsure which direction I was facing. A few tentative steps brought me to the rock wall. My hands felt along the rough surface, the stones, the frozen drips of concrete, until they came to a section of smooth steel. The door. I was on the wrong side of the room. If I walked straight across, I would end up at the far wall and then the stairs would be on the left. I put my back to the door.

  A muffled sound broke through the cottony silence. It had come from behind me. On the other side of the door. I couldn’t make out what it was, so I put my ear to the door. Nothing. I strained my hearing. If someone else was imprisoned in this cave, I needed to try to release them. I felt around for the door handle. It was locked. More sounds from the other side. A higher, lighter sound, like an animal sniffing.

  Then I heard heavy footsteps pounding on the packed dirt floor. They were running. Something slammed into the door. The impact shook the steel, straining its hinges. I leapt backwards in terror. Furious pounding boomed against the door, reverberating throughout the little chamber. I scrambled backward until I ran into the rock wall on the far side of the room. The pounding stopped. The only sound was my ragged breathing. I stared into the inky darkness at where the door should be.

  Through the window I saw a faint glowing light. A pair of pale green orbs rose into the aperture. Eyes, burning with malevolence, stared straight at me. I didn’t know whether the creature could see me in the darkness, but I didn’t want to wait around to find out. I crawled on my hands and knees to the staircase and climbed. The door at the top was shut and locked.

  I took a breath and tried to collect myself. I could still feel the light tingling of the magic. I opened myself up to it and felt the warmth build from my core. I focused on the door and raised my arms toward it. I opened my hands, releasing the power. The door blew off its frame and smashed against the wall on the other side of the room.

  I was free.

  The cellar dungeon that had held me and whatever it was behind the steel door was topped by a ramshackle cabin. The walls were worn wood. The ceiling had holes large enough for the stars to peek through. The moon was up, casting pale silver light into the one-room building. It was clear nobody had used this place in years. Except Malcolm, apparently.

  I stood in the center of the room for a few moments. The pounding on the door below had ceased and it didn’t seem like the creature was going to be able to get out anytime soon. I had some time to catch my breath and figure out a plan. I had no idea where I was and no clue where they were holding Kaia. It was probably another cabin nearby, but in what direction? I could wander the woods all night and find nothing. I needed a plan. I sat on the dusty, sagging mattress and tried to come up with something.

  A shadow passed in front of the low window. Someone was outside. My breath caught in my throat. Nobody had any reason to be out here except Malcolm and his trolls. Heavy footsteps shuffled along the ground outside. Whatever it was made a circuit of the cabin and came to a stop at the door. I had nowhere to go. The windows didn’t open and there was only one way out. I gathered myself and tried to grab a hold of the magic. It wouldn’t come. There was no tingling, no pinpricks, not warmth, nothing. Fear seized me, settling into my gut in a cold lump.

  The solid wooden door swung open slowly, old hinges protesting loudly. But what walked through the entry was not Malcolm or a troll. It was Mack. The big black bear padded into the cabin and nuzzled his broad snout against my hip. I let out my breath with a shudder. I reached down and scratched Mack behind his little rounded ears. He looked up at me with a serious expression, or at least what I interpreted to be a serious expression for a bear. He swung his head towards the door, motioning me to follow him, and then turned around and jogged outside. I followed.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Mack took off at a trot through the woods surrounding the cabin, a darker shape in the dark forest. The bear’s rolling gait looked awkward, but I struggled to keep pace. We ran for close to a mile. Mack would slow periodically to sniff the air and then make slight course corrections. Finally, he stopped and sat back on his haunches. I stood doubled over with my hands on my knees, sucking in deep breaths of cold, night air. When I lifted my head again, Gitchee was there.

  “You managed to get out on your own,” he stated. I thought I could hear a grudging admiration in his voice. “I was on my way to get you.”

  “Thank you, Gitchee. I still need your help. They have Kaia somewhere.”

  “I know, young one, I know.” He patted Mack on the side, a hollow sound boomed from his cavernous chest. “First things first, though. Tell me what killed Don Harper.”

  “Seriously? We don’t have time to play games, Kaia is in trouble!”

  “We made a deal. I said I would hunt with you if you identified the creature.”

  “But I don’t know! And I need your help, now. Besides, rescuing Kaia is not the same as hunting the creature.” Gitchee’s face could have been carved from wood for all the impact my pleading had. “Please, they are probably torturing her right now.”

  “I will give you a hint.”

  I rolled my eyes. Hopefully he didn’t notice in the darkness.

  “You spoke to several people in town, yes? One of them mentioned a possible motivation for the murder. What was it?”

  I thought back to the women that I had talked to and to the conversation among the men at the bar. Then it hit me.

  “Greed. One of the people said Harper had swindled someone.”

  “Good, good. Greed is a powerful force. It can drive people to great evil. But sometimes, it draws evil to them.”

  I wracked my brain, trying out every piece of information I could muster like some macabre jigsaw puzzle, except I didn’t know what it was supposed to look like. Lots of creatures were associated with greed, that narrowed the list down some. I supposed it could have been a curse, presuming those were real, but
we probably would have heard more stories about this old lady that Harper wronged.

  Then it hit me. The pale shape I had seen in the woods, the unseasonable cold in the forest around the attack. A creature of hunger, greed, and winter.

  “A wendigo. The creature that killed Harper was a wendigo.”

  Gitchee nodded and twisted his lips into a tight smile.

  “I hadn’t seen a wendigo in these woods for a very, very long time. I thought they were all gone. But it is unmistakable.”

  “Help me find Kaia and we can make sure this one doesn’t hurt anyone else.”

  “A deal is a deal,” he said as he leaned down to pat Mack on the back of his head. “Go on, Mack. Lead us to the Valkyrie.”

  He leaned down and picked up a heavy, leaf-bladed spear from the forest floor and trotted after the bear at a pace that I wouldn’t have imagined such an old man could manage. But Gitchee was obviously far more than he appeared. I followed the two of them through the forest, taking care not to stumble over the rocks and roots and trunks of fallen trees. The moon still hung giant in the night sky, bathing the forest floor in dappled, silvery light, making it easier to find decent footing.

  After several long minutes, just when I started to run out of breath again, Mack slowed his awkward, rolling run to a cautious walk. Gitchee crouched beside him, showing no sign whatsoever of fatigue. That annoyed me. The bear lifted its nose in the air, drawing in deep, resonant breaths. Then he changed course and walked a curving path in the direction the wind was blowing.

  We were close, I thought, he is leading us downwind of the target. I thought about what we might find when we reached the cabin or whatever it was where they were holding Kaia. They had left me unguarded. It seemed Malcolm didn’t consider me to be a threat. But Kaia, she had already killed two trolls. She was a warrior. They would never leave her without guards. We were going to have to fight our way in.