Relics and Runes Anthology

by Heather Marie Adkins

  The New England Revolution played the Timbers in Portland. We didn’t go to games anymore, but Mom still watched them on TV, and I caught enough to stay on top of the US teams. Maybe Tamor picked international teams, but if I had to picture it, I chose US teams.

  “The red team is driving the ball. The green team is tired, but they have an excellent goalie.”

  In my head, I saw full people, a ball, and fans cheering in the stands. On the field, I saw flickering smudges of red and green drifting over the grass. A streak of white shot toward the goal. Like the forest, the players gained more detail as I watched.

  “What’s happening to me?” I whispered.

  Tamor patted my arm. “Good job, kid. You need to keep breathing, though.”

  I sucked in a breath. The game gained more definition until it snapped into focus with an audible click. Then it seemed so real I could taste the sweat and churned earth. Strength flowed into my limbs, which didn’t make sense because I hadn’t felt weak.

  Except I’d struggled to recover from everything since then, including the attack itself. Running had winded me much faster than normal.

  “Good thing you don’t have to sort everything in your life to do this or it’d never work for anyone.”

  “This is...” I groped for words to express wonder and incredulity at the same time.

  “Something you need to be able to conjure a lot faster to be useful on the other side. Take note of everything you sense right now, at this moment. There’s something like a switch inside you to turn it on and off. On the other side, it’ll feel just like that, like flipping a switch.”

  “Okay. Why would I want to turn this off?”

  “So it doesn’t blind you if you happen to look at something really powerful, and it makes you glow like a star to anything else magically active. Also, it’s distracting while you’re driving or talking to someone. But right now, you have what you need, so get back to the lake and find your magic things.”

  Tamor shoved against my chest again. This time, I flew backward and spun underwater.

  Instead of the pure darkness I’d swam through before, something glowed white in the distance.

  Had that thing with Tamor really happened? Maybe?

  I headed for the glow. My arms felt lighter, more like me before the attack. Muscles complaining only five minutes ago clamored for more. Like at the end of a game on a drive toward the end zone with less than two minutes on the clock and we only need one touchdown to win. No matter how tired I got, those moments cranked me up to eleven.

  But I’m not stupid. I set myself a reasonable pace, one I thought I could keep up for a while. The glow grew brighter and larger.

  Sharp, white hot pain punched me in the back.

  “Welcome to our domain, knight,” an androgynous voice said, battering my ears with malice.

  An arm or something like it wrapped around my neck before I could do more than grunt. My body flipped and the arm-thing dragged me much faster than I could swim. I gripped the arm-thing and discovered smooth flesh. The moment I tried to kick against its grip, more arm-things wrapped around my legs.

  No, not arm-things. Tentacles. I could see them. They didn’t quite glow blue so much as appear different and distinct from the darkness. Unable to move much, I craned my neck to try to glimpse my captor.

  Crater Lake had squid bigger than me.

  Of course Crater Lake had man-sized squid. What else would you expect to find in a body of fresh water with no connection to the ocean? Whales would be ridiculous, after all.

  I did not panic.

  Okay, I panicked a little. Alone, practically naked, and trapped, I had no idea what to do. Did squid eat humans? Since it didn’t kill me outright, I hoped this one wouldn’t. I still wriggled and flailed, trying to free myself.

  More tentacles wrapped around me. No escape for me. Not this way, anyway. Resigned to my fate, I tried to watch for something else to see.

  Between one heartbeat and the next, light flared so bright it hurt. I cringed from it. My captor swam into it. Even with my eyes closed, it burned with the intensity of a thousand suns smashed together. Pressure rippled against my skin in a wave from my head to my toes.

  As soon as the wave passed over my nose, the light dampened. I opened my eyes to a world of nothing but clear, perfect blue sky. The squid kept swimming, but the water felt more like air. It ceased to press against me, and I could tell I didn’t breathe water anymore, except I did.

  This world gave the impression of water, the idea of water without the wetness. Imaginary water?

  After my time in the forest with Tamor, I suspected we’d passed into a similar sort of alternate realm. Tamor’s had mimicked Earth. This one...did not.

  Here, my squid had a purplish cast, setting it apart from the environment. In the distance, a swarm of more squid waited for us. Great. Tons of squid. Did squid have a proper collective term? Probably, but I didn’t know it.

  Had this one brought me to serve as a buffet?

  “Hey.” With the tentacle still wrapped around my neck, I couldn’t speak above a hoarse rasp.

  “Quiet, knight.” The squid flicked its tentacles, waving me through the water.

  I grunted and considered throwing up. I also wondered how it swam if it didn’t have to use its tentacles for that. The thing jetted forward as if it had a propeller on its nose.

  Tamor had called me a knight, and now a squid did too. What kind of a knight searched for submerged magic shells in his underwear in the middle of the night after kissing a guy and liking it?

  Actually, come to think of it, the shells part kind of sounded like something a knight might do. Not the rest of it, though. Knights wore armor and carried swords.

  Knights rescued damsels and carried them off to marry them.

  I’m not gay.

  10

  We met the rest of the squid army by merging into the mass. Tentacles writhed everywhere, like I floated in a squirming, purple forest. The army vibrated. Thumping battered my ears. My squid released me.

  As much as I would’ve liked to escape, more tentacles slithered around my limbs. This time, multiple squid held me spread-eagle. If they pulled a little harder, they would tear me apart.

  I’d heard of drawing and quartering as an execution method. This situation struck me as distressingly similar. On the plus side, they didn’t hold my neck, so I could breathe properly again.

  “Knight,” a booming voice said. The word echoed in every direction, and I had no idea which squid spoke.

  “I don’t think so?”

  Silence. Just when I decided I should add something, the big voice spoke again. “Knight. Why have you invaded my domain?”

  Invasion sounded bad. They could’ve used a word like “entered.”

  I doubted they’d accept ignorance, but I tried it anyway. The worst I could expect was death, right? No matter how hard I didn’t want to die, once I reached the point, nothing else mattered much.

  Some part of me, I noted with distress, kind of longed for that release. No more dealing with Dad, no more fighting the weird, gross feelings that I totally didn’t have, no more trying to fake it with girls.

  “I didn’t know anyone considered this their domain.”

  The speaker snorted so loud I expected my head to explode. “Typical knight. Why are you here?”

  I wanted to lie, but had nothing ready and couldn’t imagine another reason to explain myself. “I’m looking for five shells radiating magic.”

  “These objects are known to us. Why do you want them?”

  “I was asked to retrieve them.”

  The disembodied squid voice said nothing for a long time. All the tentacles holding me tightened around my limbs, and I thought I’d given the wrong answer. The air-water vibrated again, hurting my ears. Maybe they did that to have a rapid conversation I couldn't understand.

  Unexpected squid hovered on the brink of killing me, and I could only think about that kiss. Did squid feel...
uncomfortable thoughts about other squid? Did squid have genders? Did they agonize over that fact?

  “I pledged to do it because...because I think I might kind of l-” I stumbled over this lie because it hit too close to the truth. Did I love him? No, of course not. I’m not gay. I felt strange, gross things for him that happened to cause me discomfort in my pants. If I had pants. Since I didn’t, I got only the unusual tingly rush of heat Nick inspired where no one else had.

  Right. One other person had given me that reaction, but never mind him. He didn’t matter because he played soccer. There might have been more than one reason I chose the football team. Gabriel Avenatti graduated this year too. His last name put him next to me alphabetically, which meant we’d sit together at graduation. I hoped it meant that, anyway.

  No, I didn’t.

  Yes I did.

  Still not gay.

  “We will deliberate on this subject. In the meantime, keep him out of trouble.”

  Deliberation sounded good. Keeping me out of trouble sounded bad.

  My squid keepers yanked on my limbs, fortunately all in the same direction. We flowed out of the mass. Tentacles brushed over my skin all along the way as if in greeting. Or maybe they wanted to taste me in case the head squid chose execution after all.

  How long ago had I eaten? I kept returning to that thought of becoming food.

  A smudge of darkness appeared in the distance. As we approached, it grew larger and more defined. I wondered if this place worked like Tamor’s and filled in the details as needed. Did the head squid decide the realm needed a prison and start building one the moment they made the decision to thrown me inside it?

  The smudge resolved into a cage. Algae and seaweed clung to the bars, waving in a current I didn’t feel. I’d seen this kind in movies, holding one or more skeletons. This one held nothing. Yet.

  Bars on our side rippled and bent, creating a hole. My captors flung me inside. Moving still worked as if I remained underwater. By the time my flapping and paddling turned me around, the bars had returned to their places, straight as arrows. The squid receded. Within a few seconds, I couldn’t see them anymore.

  I floated alone in a cage, in some all-water alternate realm, a prisoner of intelligent squid.

  Sure, drive down to Crater Lake and fetch some magic shells. No big deal. I’ll be home in time for school if I hurry.

  Rolling my eyes at myself, I checked every single bar. All seventy-two of them. Each resisted my efforts to bend or wiggle them. They’d used a smooth, dull metal, like unpolished steel. As I tested them, I noticed the cage didn’t wobble or bounce. It remained fixed in place.

  Settling to wait in defeat, I thought over my exchange with the head squid. Did I think they might let me go, either with or without the seals? I didn’t know what the shells or seals meant to the squid. Heck, I didn’t even know how these giant squid had managed to evade notice from divers, park rangers, and boaters. Crater Lake was deep, but it wasn’t that deep.

  What did the squid eat? Stories about missing park visitors suggested the answer, but why let me live? Because I didn’t drown? Maybe they only ate people who drowned. In that case, I had less than four hours before I became squid food. Probably closer to two hours at this point.

  If I, as a non-squid being unaware of squid priorities, had some magic thingies, and someone came looking for them, the situation offered two main options. One, I could not care and let them take the thingies and leave. Two, I could kill them. Letting them go without the thingies struck me as stupid. Anybody who came once would come again with more firepower.

  I didn’t know where I might get more firepower. Nick probably had ideas and options.

  Which made me wonder why I hadn’t asked him more questions. Had he known I’d find squid in the lake? No, of course not. He would’ve told me. Sending me without that knowledge or a weapon, or something, would’ve amounted to sending me off to die. Even if that didn’t somehow motivate him, my death didn’t gain him freedom.

  In the end, I should’ve thought about the possibility of finding hostile creatures in the water. Magic objects probably attracted magic creatures. That couple who’d created the seals might’ve even picked the lake because it had magic squid.

  Did I think the squid might let me take the shells and leave? Their words and actions so far didn’t lean in that direction. That left the other option of my death. Preventing it rose to the top of my list of priorities.

  To survive, I had to escape the cage, leave the air-water realm, and get out of the lake. One of those things sounded a lot more plausible than the other two. The cage had no door or weak points. How the squid had brought me to this realm, I had no idea. Either of those problems on its own was enough.

  I needed a miracle.

  Even knowing magic existed, I didn’t think miracles happened. Heroes didn’t swoop out of nowhere to save people from inescapable fates at the last moment. People didn’t resist temptation. Happiness didn’t last.

  I had to save myself because no one else would do it.

  Nick had said to focus my will. Tamor had harped on focus too. Following their advice might’ve helped a lot if I hadn’t noticed dark purplish shapes in the distance, getting bigger. The head squid had made a decision, I figured. A swift decision.

  Gulp.

  Wait to hear it or try to escape? They might have decided to let me have the shells and go. And I might also have become the Queen of England in the past five minutes.

  Not that kind of queen.

  Way to stay focused.

  Escape. If I escaped the cage, the squid would recapture me because this stupid place had nowhere to hide. No surface, no seafloor, no reefs, nothing and nowhere to blend with the scenery and escape detection.

  Might as well ring the dinner bell.

  11

  I wanted the bars to open for me so hard I thought I might burst a blood vessel in my head. The squid drew closer and nothing happened to the cage. My focused will made no difference.

  They arrived and I remained inside those bars. Tentacles reached through. The bars parted after they had me secured. Not even a tiny sliver of opportunity offered itself.

  Once again, they dragged me through the air-water. We merged into the squid swarm, though this time, my four captors kept hold of me.

  “We have deliberated. Because of your honesty and reasons, we offer you a choice. First, you may accept the honor of a swift death.”

  My chest tightened. I could already feel the squid straining to rip me into five pieces.

  “Second, you may leave this lake and never return under penalty of a slow, torturous death.”

  “The second one. I pick the second one.” Like I needed to think about it. Sure, I couldn’t do what Nick wanted. He’d probably reject me for this, and that sucked. But I got to live.

  “Remove him.”

  Yes, remove me. Throw me out of the lake. I’d learned the valuable lesson of not messing with things I don’t understand. The next person to ask me to do something with magic things would get a barrage of questions in their face, and I wouldn’t go do it until I’d had a chance to sleep on it and think of more questions.

  My captors released me. Tentacles slithered across my body and held me without squeezing. We darted away, leaving the swarm. A few heartbeats later, we crossed a barrier between light and dark. I didn’t feel the rippling sensation from entering, which seemed odd, but maybe it only happened in one direction.

  The squid dragged me through the water at high speed, then threw me. I flew through the water. My head broke the surface. It had brought me to the place where I’d started. Clear starshine showed churned snow leading upward from the shore and disappearing into the trees.

  I climbed onto the shelf near the shore and waded out of the water. At the edge, facing a long trek uphill followed by a long drive home and a long day at school, I decided to sit and regroup. Five minutes wouldn’t make much difference.

  The last time I’d failed thi
s hard at something had happened so long ago I couldn't remember it. A younger girl had beat me up once, and I’d never lived that down, but it had become a joke on her, not me. The guys had decided she cheated and deserved way more punishment than she’d gotten. If she’d ever showed at school again after her suspension, they would’ve ganged up on her.

  “This is a strange place to find you.” Dad’s voice scared the crap out of me.

  I yelped and lurched to my feet. The head squid’s warning rang in my ears, keeping me from jumping into the lake. Wary of his reaction, I clamped down on a few unpleasant words before they exploded from my mouth.

  “Nice to see you too.” Dad grinned. He wore his suit and trench coat, and somehow hadn’t damaged his polished shoes on the way down the snowbank.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I think the more critical question is what are you doing here in just your underwear?”

  My cheeks burned. I wished I had a blanket or his trench coat.

  As if in response to the thought, Dad shrugged off his coat and offered it to me. He wore a sword on his belt, which I never remembered him doing before. That hip normally carried a holster for a gun he didn’t bring into the house.

  Funny how I’d never thought about the oddity of that. Not once could I remember him bringing his gun into the house. Weird.

  “It’s, um...kind of a long story.” I took the coat and draped it over my shoulders. Even now, when I matched him for height, it still seemed bigger than I could ever hope to fill.

  The faint scent of his aftershave and sweat took me off guard. Memories of Dad threatened to overwhelm me. Years ago, he’d taken me to as many of my soccer games as he could. After a game in the rain, he’d always let me wear his trench coat to get back to the car so I wouldn’t get too cold from all the sweat. Then I’d wear it like a blanket on the way home.