by J. R. Ford
Lantern light glistened on two black orbs, just above the water’s surface. They were the size of tennis balls and were propped up by thin stalks. My teeth pressed together in painful certainty.
“Guys!” Heather said.
A moment later, Farrukh replied, his voice strained. “Get away from the water. Slowly. Don’t let it touch you, no matter what.”
“Have you seen one before?” Ana said.
“Only shopkeepers’ rumors.”
Heather grabbed the tent pack and we backed up the slope. I stumbled on the uneven rock, and when I looked down to check my footing, splash! A massive slimy body flew at me. I leapt aside, fell onto the slope, and scrambled up. It landed where I’d been with a wet smack.
A black slug glistened, about five feet long and three tall. Besides its eye stalks, two long feelers extended before a mouth of razor teeth.
Good thing I had the reflexes to avoid a humiliating death by gastropod. It squirmed around for a moment, then began gliding toward me.
“A gastrolith,” Farrukh said in a tone that made it clear they were bad news. “We need to go, now.” He traversed along the slope, hugging the cliff face on the right. His gaze flicked between the slug and the lake.
More eye stalks poked from the surface. We followed Farrukh.
Another splash. I drew up short, sliding on gravel, but kept my feet as a gastrolith flopped onto the rock ahead.
Great, they were intelligent enough to predict where they should jump. I scrambled further up the slope, close to the wall where the others clung.
“Careful you don’t twist your ankle,” Ana said. Then she had to duck as a gastrolith flew at her. She stumbled a few paces, fell onto her side, and had to lunge away from another. She lashed out with her Lightning Blade, and the cavern reverberated with the boom. Ripples cascaded over the lake surface.
“Come on!” Farrukh shouted, hurrying his pace, heedless of the uneven footing. “Trust me, you don’t want to touch one of these things, or their goop.” He had his bow out, aiming at a gastrolith that had leapt onto the stone before us. Bowstring twanged, and his arrow sprouted between eye stalks. The slug tumbled down the slope, leaving a slime trail in its wake. Farrukh launched over and scrabbled to his feet on the other side.
Heather, Ana, and I stopped short as it flopped past us. It smacked into an outcrop over the lake, righted itself, and resumed gliding. Eye stalks rose behind it like reeds.
I took a step then cleared the slime trail. I landed on a flat stone, stabilized with my other leg, and turned back. Heather jumped over, but as she crashed into me, I realized she’d expected me to keep going. I hit the stone hard, the breath driven from my lungs. She shoved off of me.
I deserved that. Not just for opening my mouth. A bright doorway past a corridor writhing with ants flickered on my television.
I’d almost abandoned her on that roof, to be consumed by ants and condemned to her father’s prison. The only thing that had stopped me was not wanting to look cowardly in front of Ana.
I really was a terrible friend, wasn’t I?
Ana helped me up. My back stung. I tried to catch my breath.
“Pav!” Heather shouted. I whirled and saw a gastrolith flying at me, too late to do anything. Then Heather’s spear squelched into its side and drove it past me. It wriggled where it landed, feelers reaching. I scampered away. Heather gave one tug of her spear but had to abandon it when the slug reached for her.
A couple more slid toward us from the front. Ana lunged and cut off one’s eye stalks with a flash. Farrukh grunted, and his bowstring twanged.
Ana stumbled into me. The arrow splashed into the lake. “You trying to kill us?” she shouted, before slicing open the side of the second.
“I was about to get that one, before you blinded me,” Farrukh said.
“Well, next time you see me swing, close your eyes and don’t shoot!”
The slope evened out, the ground on our left rising into a ridge over the lake. Unfortunately, it wasn’t high enough to deter ambitious slugs. I danced away from one, and Heather dodged the other way, onto a rock which gave way under her weight. She squealed, tripped, and tumbled to the edge. The gastrolith between us slid after her, its movement eerily smooth. Ana crashed her sword onto its back while I raced around. The corpse shuddered down the slope, toward where Heather lay stunned.
I reached her side just as she was pushing herself up. “I can take care of myself,” she said and brushed past me. But a crowd of gastroliths glistened before us.
“There!” Farrukh shouted, pointing at the rock face. The lantern shone on walls thick with moisture and moss, and where he pointed, a crack of pure darkness. A crevice.
Ana, Heather, and I sprinted up before any more slugs jumped us. When we arrived, Farrukh was sprinkling a jar of salt across the entrance. We squeezed past him.
“Shopkeepers and their horror stories,” he said. “Good thing I listened to that one. The salt should keep them at bay.”
Keeping them out, while they kept us in. The stone walls pressed in like a cell. Past the mouth, there was room for any two of us to stand abreast, except for Ana and Farrukh. Above us, the lantern light faded into darkness.
Ana walked about fifteen feet in and sat down, squirming against the rocks and lichens below. “Might as well get some rest.” She eyed the gastroliths, which were shrinking away from the salt barrier.
“I’m going to see how far it goes,” Farrukh said, sounding close to panic.
“Won’t get far without a light,” Ana said.
Farrukh scooped up the lantern and squeezed further into the crack. Heather’s face faded from pale to nearly indistinguishable in the dark.
Farrukh stalked back over, shaking his head and hyperventilating. He sat down next to Ana. “Let’s try to relax. Who knows when we’ll get another chance.”
“What an original idea,” Ana said.
“Enough!” Heather said. “Shut up, both of you. Give me the lantern. I’ll keep watch.”
Ana startled but did as she was asked. Farrukh donned his hood and began fiddling with his arrows. Heather stomped toward the entrance. Some gastroliths watched us, but the salt seemed to deter them well enough.
She knelt, cleared some debris, and plopped herself down. I took a seat across from her. Silence surrounded us like a sparring circle ringed by blank screens.
We both tried to speak at the same time, like two newbies who didn’t know how to drill, let alone fight. I motioned for her to go first.
“Reminds me of when we first met,” Heather said. “When we were sitting in that alley, the three of us. Things seemed simpler then.”
A strike to probe, not injure. My turn. “I wanted to apologize.”
We sat for a moment. She seemed unsure in her stance. “For what?”
“Well, I acted like a jerk back there.” I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry despite the humid air. But a second stroke was oncoming. The words slithered out. “There’s another thing. Back at Riyaasat…I almost ran. I just didn’t want you to see me running away. Better to die.”
The ring of screens flicked to life, showing that bright doorway. My own survival, guaranteed at the cost of my friends’ lives. I’d been so close. The image stung, but the pain was nothing compared to the riposte Heather would soon deliver.
I couldn’t look at her. I didn’t want to see the horror on her face as she reconciled what she may have thought about me with what I really was.
But I couldn’t escape the truth. Silence’s screens went mirror-blank, and a coward stared back at me. A coward who hid behind reckless decisions, knowing deep down there was only one release from my shame. I shrank away from the blow I knew was coming.
When she first tried to speak, tears choked her voice. She cleared her throat, adjusting her footing. I waited in agony. Then she swung, “Well, you didn’t.”
The words reeked of false comfort. My gaze remained locked on the stone at my feet.
“Pav, look a
t me,” and I did. Tears glittered, but her eyes met mine unflinching. “Up there…we were worried, but you came back. There’s nothing to forgive. It’s not about wanting to run.”
“There’s nothing to forgive,” an absolution in itself. Any response stuck in my throat, trapped beneath an upwelling. In the end, I nodded.
She squeezed my knee. “But I have a question for you. It might hurt.”
I nodded, readying my guard. I had nothing against which to brace myself but her hand.
“Are you trying to die?”
Her words entered my heart like a blade. I collapsed to the sparring circle floor.
15
Don’t know how long I sat there in silence’s prison, Heather’s hand on my knee. Everywhere I looked I only saw myself, unless I looked at Heather, but looking at her only made me feel worse.
“Are you trying to die?” How many times had I imagined drowning, in a river or in my own blood? Rationalized leaping headfirst into the jaws of premature death? Reminded myself that shame would dog me as long as I lived?
I hadn’t thrown myself into danger because I was ashamed of living, I’d done it because it had been the right thing to do. That was what heroes did.
But the only hero in those mirrors had her hand on the knee of a pretending coward.
A gentle hand shook my shoulder. I wiped my face with my cloak.
Ana stood over us. “We have to go.”
“Can’t I just stay here?” Forever?
Ana pointed at the cave entrance. A gastrolith was squirming toward us along a ridge on the wall.
Chains shackled my feet to our prison wall, but Ana and Heather pulled me up by my armpits and dragged me free.
“Not today,” Heather whispered.
More gastroliths slid past the lip of the crevice. Farrukh took aim with one of the arrows he’d been fiddling with. With a twang, the arrow shot true. There was a sizzling sound, and the gastrolith tumbled down the chasm. It landed with a wet slap.
“Don’t touch it!” Farrukh said, nocking another arrow. But the slugs outnumbered us, more and more crawling in the wakes of their kin. Another arrow flew, another gastrolith died, and two more slid into sight on rock ledges above.
“If we run under them, they’ll fall on us,” Ana said. She had her sword out but seemed unsure what to do with it.
“Think their aim is that good?” Farrukh asked. Arrow shrieked against stone. He cursed, fumbling for another. Light caught on white grains of salt stuck to the arrowheads by pitch.
“I don’t want to bet my life on it,” Ana said.
“What choice do we have?” Heather asked.
“We decide who goes first,” Farrukh said. Another arrow pinged against stone. He lowered his bow, expression fierce. “That was my last salt arrow. It’s time to move. I figure, whoever goes first has the best chance. Last to go, either the slugs are falling, or they’ve already fallen.”
“You three go first,” Ana said. Farrukh motioned.
Heather and I locked gazes. Her stare burned with insistence.
Six dark gastroliths slid along ridges in the rock, some five feet above our heads, others fifteen. I ran. Heather was at my heels. I skirted past the first dead one, but another barred the entrance. I leapt it like a hurdle and hit the stone hard. I rolled, wheezing, and got my feet back. Gastroliths lounged all about, but mostly in the direction we’d come from. A fat plop behind me — a gastrolith had fallen in the middle of the crevice. Farrukh jumped onto the wall, stutter-stepped, and cleared it. Ana raced behind him. A blur of motion from above.
My cry came too late. The gastrolith landed right in front of Ana, who crashed into it and tumbled over. She was up in a moment and was running before it could set teeth on her.
More began to leap from the lake. Ana rushed for the shore, ducked a gastrolith, and swung the Lightning Blade at the bank. Thunder echoed throughout the cavern, and eye stalks shuddered like a forest in storm.
“Plus 170,” she said, triumphant, whipping her glowing sword to shake the water from it. There were still a few between us and freedom, but they were slow, and navigation would be easy.
The lake sloshed. Lantern light shone on two humongous globes emerging from the depths, each as big as my torso.
“Ah,” Ana said, and a slug the size of a house launched itself at her. She dodged back as it crashed down right in front of all of us. Its maw was gaping darkness harboring a razor tongue.
No way. “Run!” Heather screamed.
Ana shrieked and slashed its flank. It didn’t flinch despite the roaring thunder and squelching flesh, instead squirming around to face her. We took off the other way, only the thing’s thirty-foot tail reached all the way up to the ridge, blocking our path. Farrukh slung his bow over one shoulder and scampered up the rock, navigating diagonally up and over the massive slug. Thunder echoed endlessly throughout the cavern, renewed with each chop of the Lightning Blade.
The ridge was mossy and moist. I tried not to look down, tried not to think that slipping would mean a tumble down the thing’s back, tried not to imagine being smeared against the ground by that fleshy tail.
Farrukh pushed off and landed hard on the other side. I jumped after him, falling onto rough stone, but making sure to leave space for Heather. Her foot must’ve slipped, because she was dangling by just her hands, legs kicking for any foothold.
“Come on!” Farrukh shouted. “Ana!”
If she heard him over the incessant thunder, she made no sign. The slug squirmed toward her, giving Heather room to hop down, wary of the slime puddle left in its wake.
“Reckless,” Farrukh muttered, then dashed at the slug. With a flick of his wrist, the last of the salt from his jar arced out. Slug flesh sizzled. It writhed in pain, then rounded on him.
Ana took her cue and legged it. The rest of us joined.
The cavernous darkness stretched before us, but I kept running until my chest tightened and stomach ached. The squelching of the giant slug faded behind us.
Once we were long past it, I slumped against the rock face.
“Ana, you good?” I asked between gasps of damp air.
“Scratched up a bit, but I’m fine,” she said. She seemed to be in better shape than I was. “Must’ve cut that big one fifty times, and it barely noticed. I did hit one of the smaller ones back there, but considering I’m not dead or dying, I guess I didn’t touch it with my skin. I should change clothes though — everyone turn around.”
“Be careful,” Farrukh said. “Don’t touch where there might be any slime.”
“Thanks, I was planning on rubbing it all over my body.”
The rustling of clothes might’ve turned on my television, had I not been so tired. As it was, I just hoped she was okay.
I produced our compass and approached Farrukh, whose eyes were flicking back and forth across the dark surroundings. “What do you think?”
“What?” he said. “Sorry, distracted.”
“This wall runs north, toward Tyrant’s Vale.” Though it was looking unlikely we’d beat Edwin there.
He picked at his beard. “We have two options. Try to circle back, or head on this way and hope for an outlet to the overworld.”
“And if we don’t find one?” I asked.
“We hope slug sashimi tastes good.”
“I don’t want to face that thing again,” Heather said. “The Lightning Blade barely hurt it!”
“And I’m out of salt.”
“Let’s keep going,” Ana said, wiping her sword on her contaminated clothes before tossing them away. She’d donned her identical spare outfit. “Go uphill whenever we can. Find an exit.”
“You think we can get to Tyrant’s Vale before Edwin?” I asked.
“If we don’t, all this will be in vain. All the danger and death.”
Farrukh nodded. “Let’s go. The sooner we start making progress, the better.”
The air tasted dank. Farrukh and Ana walked ahead, talking quietly in grim tones.
They split after an angry outburst from Ana, “I’m fine!” I didn’t have the will to speed up to them. I could almost hear my manacles clink with each shuffling step. Misery had returned.
Heather walked beside me, though she said nothing. Not that I blamed her. I wouldn’t know what to say to me either. I’d have feared setting me off or stoking my anguish. Perhaps she was afraid that, now that she knew of my cowardice, I would leave her next time.
I never would, I told myself. But promises are brittle, and those left unspoken even more so.
The air grew wetter, a transformation I hadn’t thought possible. Before I knew it, we were surrounded by flora. Broad-leafed ferns blossomed from the rock face, and mosses clung to every exposed stone, giving us a soft carpet on which to tread. The plants glowed red in the dim lantern light.
My companions kept walking, so I did too. No sense in dallying. Step after step. Clink, clink, clink.
I hated walking. I should’ve stayed in the city, maybe joined the Azure Lance. I could be living large with Emily and Jacques.
That thought brought me some comfort. I wouldn’t trade my friends for anything, even a respite. So I kept shuffling, not happy, not even content, but at least acquiescent to the command issued by each of their footsteps, “Don’t hold us back.” I paid no heed to the scenery. Ana and Farrukh plowed on ahead, though Heather gazed around in wonder.
“How do you think they survive without light for photosynthesis?” she asked. Padded footsteps were her only answer.
Flora turned to mushrooms as big as me. When Heather approached one, it swung for her. She leapt back, and the mushroom sprang back and forth like a doorstop flicked by a bored child. Heather gave it a nasty look and went on, steering clear of any other mushrooms.
Watching her was interesting. She lacked the grace of Ana. Some might even call her clumsy. I had a bruised back to attest to that.
Thinking of my back triggered another memory: the smell of lilacs. I could almost smell it there, lingering in her wake.
Scents stick with me, though more often than not, I only notice them after the fact. The wafting air of a body turning away. The remembrance is always bittersweet.