Wow. He was powerless to move, his feet nailed to the stone. And then he saw the skull.
It was old; lichen sucked at its lower jaw like a beard. Years in the cave had made it slimy and dark. A jagged gash high on its crown hinted at a mortal wound.
Death had followed him, even here, but at least he was alone.
Seth cast along the cave floor. There were bones, he realized, scattered throughout the cave as if tossed away by the lake. They were all like the skull: black, grimy with age, overgrown with the weird, glowing lichen.
The reverent silence shattered as Angbar burst out of the pool, gasping for air. Seth felt a sharp pang of resentment. Was there nowhere he could be alone?
"That..." Angbar managed between gulps of stale air. "That's drearmoss!" He climbed out of the pool. "I've heard of that! How—how did you... find this place?"
"I just came down, I don't know." The question irritated him. What do you mean, how did I find it? Didn't you see the glow?
Angbar nodded. "Me and Helix seen it and went back up. I think Syntal—" His jaw dropped as he laid eyes on the skull. "Kirith a'jhul."
"Yeah," Seth said, dismissively. "Yeah, I seen it already."
Angbar approached it as if sneaking up on a rabbit.
"Watch out," Seth said. "There's more bones."
Angbar marveled at the scattered skeleton. "This is him," he whispered. "This is the pirate! He swam away to die, and got sucked down by the lake. I knew it. He must've been here for—" His eyes suddenly widened. "His sword!"
Seth followed his eyes. A longsword lay in the back of the cave, its hilt protruding from a bright patch of crimson drearmoss. He'd been so dumbstruck before that he hadn't even noticed it.
"Keeps," Angbar said.
"You can't call keeps," Seth snapped. "I got here first."
Angbar broke into a run. Seth gave chase, but Angbar beat him to the weapon and jerked it away.
Unlike the armor on the shore, the sword hadn't rusted. The blade wasn't deadly sharp, but it wasn't dull either, and it was beautifully crafted. Under the guard, draped in rotten shreds of black leather, marched a line of strange, tiny markings. Seth stared, trying to make some sense of them, but they were indecipherable.
Helix climbed out of the pool and came over, dripping. He cast long glances at the moss and the bones, but the sword entranced him at once.
"Let me see it," he said. Behind him, Syntal bobbed into the cave, panting.
Angbar grabbed the hilt, scratching the blade on the floor as he put it behind his back. "No, I called keeps, it's mine."
"No it's not," Seth growled, "because I got down here first and called keeps on everything, especially the sword."
"You did not!" Angbar retorted. "You didn't say anything about that until I found it—you didn't even know it was down here!"
"I just want to see it," Helix said, still holding out his hand. "C'mon, let me see it."
Angbar sighed, but handed it over. Helix accepted it with the reverence of a cleric handling a holy book. Even wrapping both his hands around the hilt, he couldn't support its weight.
"It belonged to the pirate," Angbar said.
"It didn't belong to a pirate!" Helix scoffed. "Look at it! It's brand new! It looks like my dad just made it today!" He gave it a clumsy swing. The weapon bobbed vaguely toward Seth, who stepped away. "Besides, it was a knight, I told you."
"Maybe it got pazerved by the water," Angbar countered.
"Swords rust in water."
"Well, you obviously don't know nothing about it," Angbar said, and held out his hand. "Now give it back."
It should be mine, Seth raged. I should be down here by myself. This was all here for me. I was the one who wanted to come. He fought the childish urge to whine, to scream at them to leave. He wanted them all gone.
"Give it to me," Seth said, to rankle Angbar. "I found it."
Angbar turned on him. "You didn't find it, liar!"
"Did too, I was down here first."
"But you didn't even see it!"
"It doesn't matter," Helix interjected, "because it's mine now."
Angbar whirled on him, but Helix hefted the sword and arched his brows. His bare chest tensed, showing off the hours spent at his father's smithy.
Angbar glanced at Seth in mute appeal, but Syntal had just walked past them, shivering in the drenched glob of her dress. She seemed small and vulnerable.
Seth followed her.
Beyond the curve, the cave walls drew together into a tiny, lightless crack. A second, shallower pool had formed in the back of the cave. In the shimmering colors of the drearmoss, Seth could just make out a large, leather-bound book at the pool's bottom, wedged between the walls.
Syntal started to tug on it, trying to pry it loose, but she was too weak. Her efforts triggered a new spasm of spiteful anger in him. Why does she care? Obviously, any book that had been sitting underwater would be totally ruined. But she wanted it, and suddenly, he didn't want her to have it.
Seth knelt in the pool and grabbed the book by its spine. The thing was gigantic, easily bigger than his own head. Syntal continued to try to pull it free, but it was Seth's sharp, repeated tugs that finally yanked it out. Syntal stumbled and fell to her knees in the water, splashing him in the face.
"Seth!" she accused.
"I found the cave, I get to keep something," he snarled.
"What does it say?" Angbar said, hurrying over to see. "Open it!"
Seth tried, but the book was locked with a metal band. There wasn't even a key hole. "Can't," Seth said.
"It doesn't even have a title?" Angbar asked. The cover was blank; there were no markings on the book at all.
Syntal sloshed over. "You can't even open a book?" she spat, and grabbed for it. Seth jerked it away.
"Se — eth!" she yelled.
"It's mine!" he snapped back.
The girl burst into tears. Sobbing, she ran past him to the front of the cave.
Hurting her had been easy.
Helix looked at him with reproach. "C'mon, Seth. Let her have the stupid book."
Seth shook his head.
"C'mon!"
Seth stared at him.
"What are you gonna do with it anyway?"
"Yeah," Angbar chimed in. "At least give it to me, I can probably read it. You ain't gonna learn to read, I bet."
An angry retort flashed to Seth's tongue, but Helix cut him off by raising his hand.
"Look," he whispered, chewing his lip. "I'll trade you the sword for the book."
"Why do I want your stupid sword?" Seth said. Helix's face went lax with surprise. He finally turned to console Syntal when there was a splash from the pool. The girl had left.
Angbar began pulling clumps of different colored drearmoss from the walls. "I should get going," he said. "I need to be home when my parents get back." Then he darted to the skull and snapped it up. "Ha!" he shouted, and jumped into the pool.
Seth scowled. "I called keeps on that skull!" Angbar's victory enraged him, as if he'd been defeated in some fundamental conflict he couldn't define.
Helix shrugged. "There's nothing else here. Are you coming?"
"In a minute," Seth answered.
Helix grinned. "It's weird down here, isn't it? Like a different world, or something."
"Yeah." Seth stared hard at the other boy, willing him to leave.
"Well..." Helix's smile faded. "I'm gonna go check on Syn. Don't take too long. I might need help getting this sword up."
"M'sai."
Helix lowered himself into the pool. With an effort, he was able to tread water holding the sword. "You know, it's actually not as heavy as it looks." Then he drew a deep breath and stopped kicking, letting the weight of the weapon carry him down.
Finally, silence settled over the cave again. Seth waited for his serenity to return, but the sacred privacy of the place had been violated. The other kids' voices echoed from the walls now, destroying his peace as surely as shrieks.
Images danced in the shadows. The faces of his parents in that final, eternal instant before they fell in. Mom playing with him. Black water. Dad rehashing some old story. Empty rope.
He became a statue at the water's edge, his drying hair curling against his scalp. Finally, he tossed the book back into the smattering of old bones and jumped into the lake.
He'd never wanted it anyway.
Chapter 9
i. Helix
He flew for the cover of the trees, lashed by blind panic, his lungs burning with the frozen air. He still had Syntal's hand but Seth had pulled ahead, nearer to Lyseira and Angbar. They were invisible, somewhere in the dark. He only knew they were there by their panting.
The tree line had to be a hundred miles away. He would trip and break his ankle before he reached it. He would feel a sudden flower of pain between his shoulders, and plunge face-first into the grass with an arrow jutting from his back. He would catch the barest, fleeting glimpse of that horrible winged helm before a flashing sword struck his head off.
He glanced back. The distant fire was spreading toward the camp; it painted the scene in garish reds and yellows. A swarm of silhouettes fought the blaze. Soldiers shouted contradicting orders. Riders galloped into the village, or out of it. It was chaos.
Then they made the trees.
They crashed into the undergrowth with the noise of an avalanche. He winced, prayed no one had heard it back at the camp, and plowed deeper into the woods. He saw Seth—or was it Angbar? —just ahead and to the right, a lean shadow darting between the midnight boughs. It would be too easy to lose the others, to get split up. We have to stay together. He clutched Syntal's hand tighter.
"Wait." It was Angbar, somewhere behind them. When did he get behind us? "Wait. Need..." Helix looked back and saw a shadow doubled over, its back to a tree and its chest heaving.
"M'sai. Quickly." Seth's voice, without a trace of fatigue. "Does anyone else need a rest?"
Helix sank against an old stump. His legs were burning. He tried to answer, but his lungs wouldn't let him. He waved instead.
"Do... do..." Lyseira fought to catch her breath. "Do you think... they saw us?"
Helix shook his head. "They were... busy... fire." He gestured stupidly the way they had come.
"You're sure?" Seth pressed.
"Pretty... sure."
"Then they may not know which way we went." He paused. "They may not even realize you're gone. They may think you're burning."
Only my legs, Helix thought, but he was too winded and too terrified to say it out loud.
"We have to keep going," Seth continued. "We need to get as far as we can."
Helix's legs felt like jelly, but he pushed himself up. Angbar's shadow waved behind them. "C'mon," Helix panted. "If I can... you can."
They pressed on, more slowly now, picking their way through the darkness and the bushes. They came to a frozen creek and Seth led them down to it, using it like a road.
Then a bugle split the air behind them, and they were running again.
ii. Angbar
The forest was a nightmare, the frozen creek bed a path to Hel. Somewhere, behind his terror and shock and growing resentment of Lyseira's sense of duty, Angbar filed these metaphors away for future use. Nothing like real experience, he mused through the whistling stitch in his side, to make a text feel authentic.
But he wasn't a Preserver or a smith's son; he wasn't even as fit as Lyseira, who was always running around town on errands. He was slowing down again. In less than an hour they reached the end of the creek bed, and at the thought of trying to shove through the forest's heavy underbrush again, his legs gave out.
"Sorry," he gasped. "Just... need... break." He couldn't see Seth's face, but he could imagine it glowering at his weakness. Everyone else, on the other hand, sank wordlessly to the ground.
They hadn't heard another horn blast since the first one, but Angbar felt like they could at any second. What if the next one's closer? He could make out the shapes of his friends as they caught their breath in the darkness, but he wished he could see their faces. It was easy to imagine that it was already too late, that the silhouettes might actually belong to their pursuers.
"M'sai," Helix said at last. He regained his feet. "Should keep moving."
"No," came Seth's voice. "Syntal, what did you do at the tent?"
Helix's answer sounded like a scowl. "We don't have time—"
"They lost us," Seth interrupted. "They're not right behind us, not yet. And I need to know."
Helix's shadow turned to face another, still crouched on the creek bed. "Syn, you don't have to tell him anything. Let's just—"
"It was sorcery," Syntal interrupted. "It was just what it looked like."
The silence was absolute. Angbar's thoughts whirled in it. Syntal, a witch? He shouldn't have been surprised, not after what she had done at the tent, but he'd been able to put it out of his mind while they ran. Now it was here, indisputable, admitted by her own lips.
The Church would want her dead. She could be burned at the stake. She was lucky she'd never been caught.
Finally he heard himself ask: "How long?" The words rippled in the silent dark like pebbles in a pool.
"Since I first cast a spell?" Syntal paused. "A few years. But I had to study the book for years before that."
"I knew it," Helix breathed. At the same time Lyseira asked, "What book?"
Syntal gave a shuddering sigh. Just before she answered, Angbar realized what she would say. "The one from the lake."
"You went back for it?" Angbar asked.
"From the lake?" Lyseira said. She sounded confused.
"It was in that cave," Syntal told her. "You never saw it. It was right after my... right after that flood. When Seth came to live with you."
"There was a witch's book in the lake?" Lyseira's voice was dumbfounded and horrified, as if she'd just learned her house was built on a demon's tomb. "I remember you and Seth fighting, but..."
"It was locked," Seth cut in. "I remember. No key hole. Did you break it open?"
"No."
"Then how'd you get it open?"
Silence. Angbar's mind summoned an image of Syntal at age nine performing some dark ritual, her hands slick with blood, a mutilated rabbit on the ground next to her. His stomach lurched. Ridiculous. Not Syn. Lyseira just told me too many stories from scripture.
"It opened on its own," Syntal finally said. She drew another wavering breath. "After the Storm."
Helix sank back to the ground. Seth made a noise somewhere between a whistle and a growl. Lyseira said, "Oh, Syntal..."
"I know," Syntal said. "I know. But Lyseira, if you had seen it, you would've wanted to read it too. It's written in First Tongue. I had to learn—"
"You knew about it while The Abbot was teaching you First Tongue?" Lyseira accused, and then sucked in a breath. "By Akir. Is that why you had him teach you? You tricked him?"
"If you had seen it—"
"I never did see it, Syntal! You never brought it to the church! As soon as you figured out what it was, you should've brought it to The Abbot!"
"He would've just burned it!" Syntal snapped.
"Exactly!" Lyseira threw back.
They were getting loud. Angbar raised a hand no one could see. "M'sai," he put in. "What's done is done. Keep your voices down, at least."
"It's not done," Seth answered. "We can still make this right. Where's the book?"
Syntal scrambled to her feet. "No."
"Is it with you?"
Angbar flashed back to the few minutes at Syntal's house, when she'd run into the back to pack some things. The sack was lying at her feet now. She put a foot on it.
"Let me see," Seth pressed.
"You are not touching this bag," Syntal said.
"Seth!" Helix hissed. "Back down!"
We're dead, Angbar realized. We even pulled off the rescue, I have n
o idea how, but we can't get two miles before we start fighting?
"I came for you, Helix," Seth said, "because Lyseira was sure you were being framed. I didn't risk her life and my own tonight for a witch. You know there's only one thing we can do."
"We wouldn't even be here if it weren't for her!" Helix snarled.
"The Church—"
"Sehk on the Church!" Helix hurled at him. "Sehk on it! It's a bunch of liars and murderers!"
Lyseira recoiled as if he'd slapped her. They all plunged into a stunned silence.
He's right, isn't he? Angbar realized. They framed him, they wouldn't let him speak at his own trial, they rigged the results and bribed a fake witness just to make him look bad in front of the village. It was rampant corruption. But how far did it go? What did it mean?
"Helix," Lyseira said. "The Rending opened the book. You know what the Rending was. Too much sin, too much rev'naas. A sign of God's displeasure. If it opened the book, that proves—"
"It doesn't prove anything," Syntal said. "They lied about Helix. Why can't they lie about that?"
"About the Rending?" Lyseira was incredulous.
"Matthew said the Storm was Akir damning the Church," Helix said. "Not Akir damning mankind."
Maybe it wasn't either one, Angbar thought. Maybe it was just a damned lightning storm.
Lyseira scoffed. "Of course he did. He hated the Church."
"And with good reason!" Helix said. "Look at what happened tonight! Look at what they did to him!"
"Why would they lie about the Rending, Helix?"
Helix had no answer, but after a heartbeat, Syntal did. "So they can kill people like me."
The naked trees rustled.
That's crazy, Angbar thought reflexively, but he'd always wondered how the Church knew the Storm was something bad. It had looked beautiful to him. How did they know what it meant?
"Syn..." Lyseira began, but the distant baying of hounds cut her off.
"Dogs," Helix muttered. "Oh, sehk, they have dogs out."
"We'll finish this later," Seth promised. "Go."
iii. Iggy
He'd wanted to challenge the judge. He'd wanted to demand evidence, or to serve as a character witness at the trial. He'd wanted to go to the Smiths, to offer them what support he could and reassure them.
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