Burnt

by Lyn Lowe

  Jun frowned. “How?”

  Kaie’s eyes drifted, first left, then right. Where were his visions now that there was need of them? “Did your father ever tell you what’s beyond this room?”

  His friend’s eyes screwed closed. “No. Gods, please don’t ask that! We can’t go further! The lost souls will rip us to shreds!”

  He couldn’t help but to gape. Sojun was strong. He was aleardy one of the strongest in the family at only his fifteenth year. Nothing gave him pause. Not going against a handful of boys, not the bear that wandered into the village last spring. Nothing. But now he was pleading like a babe. He didn’t know how to deal with this. Where did this fear come from? How long was Jun keeping it hidden? Always?

  “I’m sorry.” He bit back frustration. How could he berate his friend for this? If it weren’t for Sojun, they wouldn’t be this far. “I’ll go myself. You can stay here and look after the Lemme?”

  Kaie drew in several deep breaths, trying to will strength back into his body with the air. Then he shoved himself to his feet. And, once again, damn near fell over. He caught himself on the stone wall as the world tilted horribly out of control. Suddenly he was kneeling on the floor again, gagging on the burning bile spilling from his lips, not entirely sure how he got there.

  Sojun was beside him. “Kosa take me,” his friend spat. “I have to go, don’t I? You can’t do this by yourself.”

  “No, Jun.” Kaie tried to smile. It didn’t quite work. “I can do this. I just need a minute.”

  He wasn’t at all sure he could. Gods, but he didn’t want to go. His friend wasn’t the only one terrified of the spirits lost in the tunnels. But what else was there? So he took his minute. Just one. Sucking in a long, apprehensive breath, he tottered to the right.

  “You’ll come back for me?” Sojun called out before he turned the corner.

  This time, Kaie added, hating himself all over again. “Fast as I can.”

  Another word and he wouldn’t go at all. He could convince Jun to go instead. His friend was so much stronger than him. Talking his heart’s brother into things was never hard. He was sure he could manage, even with something Sojun was so clearly terrified of. And it made so much more sense. Before he could do it, Kaie forced himself around that corner.

  He wanted to go back. Right away, he needed to go back. The next light was just a glimmer in the distance; his chances of reaching it just as high as the ones of reaching the moon. He was alone in the dark. There was something wrong with his head, something very wrong. And there were spirits. He could feel them watching him. The chill of their gaze was already draining the heat from his skin. Soon they would see what the Lemme did; they would know he was a seer. They would come for him then. And Sojun wouldn’t be there to drag him to safety.

  “Please, Mother Lemme,” he muttered as he dragged his feet forward. “I know you won’t help me. But she is your voice. You have to care about that. Please.”

  Kaie closed his eyes, trailing his hand along the wall for a guide. It was stupid and he knew it. There wasn’t much light but there was some. He should be using it to help find what they needed and to make sure there were no unexpected turns. Just one could see him lost in the tunnels forever. But he couldn’t stand to see the darkness spanning out before him, didn’t want to see when the spirits manifested to rip him apart.

  Time moved like sludge. He shuffled on slowly, hoping each move would run him up against some great pot filled with just enough water to take care of them. He decided to stop counting his steps at 82. At 124, he did. The next step, slide really, his toe caught on a stone and Kaie tumbled forward. His eyes flew open, but there was nothing to see. Just like he feared, the walls turned him away from the light. He threw his hands out in front of him, remembering only in that instant the fall from the tree, the way his little finger bent, the sound of the bone snapping. Gods, it was going to suck.

  When he hit, it wasn’t stone.

  The water filled his mouth before the cry of pain could get out. It surged up his nose and down his throat. His eyes burned and he lost all sense of direction. He flailed, his response instinctual and panicked.

  No.

  Lungs aching, Kaie forced himself to think through the terror. He didn’t know which way was up. But he didn’t swallow too much water, and it didn’t feel like he was caught in a current. If he was wrong, he would drown. If he kept on like he was, that would happen anyway. So he stretched out his body, thought light thoughts, and waited.

  He gave up, certain he made the wrong choice and was dying alone in the dark, when a cold brush of air kissed the back of his neck. The temperature difference was slight, and it was everything. Kaie reacted instantly, flipping his body over and sucking in as much as he could. A second later, he was hacking up all the water he swallowed, but it didn’t matter. It was still the sweetest thing of his life.

  Breathing resolved, he tackled the next problem: finding his way back. Without the light it was impossible. He didn’t know where he started from and wouldn’t be able to find his way back even if he did. But he couldn’t tread water forever. He needed to find land again. Closing his eyes, not that it made much difference, he picked a direction and swam.

  It didn’t take long. He took it as a good sign. Either the pool was small or, hopefully, he didn’t get far from where he fell in and chose the right direction. Pulling himself out of the water made the world lurch dangerously. He nearly passed out, could feel the blackness of the vault trying to pull him down into the frozen depths, but he fought his way back and up to solid ground. He struggled back to his feet, trying to force himself to believe that he was facing the right direction. He would know in 125 steps. The cold air leached what life was left in him, but Kaie pressed his hand against the wall. Closing his eyes again, he did what he could to fight through the tremors ripping through his body and reproduce his slow, shuffling gait of before. And, between each count, he prayed.

  Nine

  He woke up aching, back in the light of Toman’s lamp. Kaie didn’t remember making it back, didn’t even remember losing consciousness, but the sight of that small globe of safety brought tears to his eyes. When Sojun’s grisly mask appeared over him he actually laughed.

  “Thank the gods!” Sojun jerked him up off the ground and hugged him. Kaie winced and laughed again, all at once. “I can’t take losing you another time, Rosy. Lemme’s name, I’m not letting you out of my sight again.”

  Kaie was too tired to weigh the merits of that. All he could think was that he wouldn’t be alone in the dark again. “That works for me. You can be the one who goes swimming next time.”

  Jun let him go and tried a smile. The face paint made it a very grisly look. “I wasn’t sure if that was water or you figured sweat works just as well.”

  “That might be your worst joke ever,” Kaie said, realizing he was wearing Sojun’s shirt, large enough to fit three of him, and that his own was gone. With some curiosity, he tracked it down. Part of it was wrapped around his hurt arm, the rest seemed to be around his head. The one on his arm was stained dark red. He didn’t remember it bleeding before. “And that’s really saying something Jun. The Lemme?”

  He was afraid of the answer. The way Sojun’s eyes darted away told him he was right to be so. “She’s not ok. I can’t…What are we going to do?”

  Of course she wasn’t ok. Even asking was stupid. He scooted up against the wall. The stone was so cold. Everything was so damn cold. “Jun, I know you’re scared. But…”

  Sojun sighed again and dropped his head against his knees. Kaie listened to his friend suck in several long breaths. “Destroyer take me.”

  “There weren’t any spirits, no spirits. There was just water, lots of freezing water. If there was another way…”

  The other boy looked up, his eyes so wide they were more white than brown. “I know. There’s not. You couldn’t carry her if you weren’t half dead. I’ll do it. Gods.”

  Before the fire, before the visions, h
e would be furious about the implication that he was weak. Now he couldn’t summon up enough energy to care about the half dead part. “Ok. I need a minute.”

  Jun scoffed and rolled his eyes, making a pretty decent attempt at good humor, for all that he was obviously frightened. “Take five, Rosy. For me.”

  Before they left he convinced Sojun to pull the lamp out of the wall. Neither one of them wanted to spend any more time in the darkness. Kaie took the light, Jun took the Lemme. Hand pressed firmly against the wall, he led the way back to the pool with eyes open.

  The trip was easier now. The distance that seemed so impossible transformed into a short distance just off the main path. The circle of light he carried made them blind to everything outside its small radius but it made all the difference in the world. He was still exhausted, still hurting, but all his fear seemed to be banished to the darkness outside the span of light. They were at the pool before his shaking could really get started again.

  The darkness around the water refused to be broken, so Kaie still couldn’t tell how large the pool was, but it was clearly big. Even the small stretch the lamp illuminated was more than enough to get lost and drown in. At least one of the gods were with him, that he found his way out and back to where he needed to be. He could almost believe it was a sign they were going to be ok.

  Sojun settled down with the Lemme near the pool. Much as he longed to lay down himself, Kaie crawled over next to them and began scooping water up to her. It took a great deal of coaxing, but they got her to drink. She waved them away before he thought she got enough, but no amount of wheedling would get her to swallow after that. So, giving up, they let her go to sleep.

  A few minutes later, Kaie knew exactly how she felt. Once the Lemme was down, the other boy turned all attention to him. His head was poked at, his eyes checked, water was shoved down his throat until Kaie feared he was drowning, and he came dangerously close to being stripped and bathed by his best friend. It was a singularly horrific experience, and if Sojun wasn’t clearly struggling for distractions from the fear that kept the boy’s eyes far too wide, Kaie would be pissed off about it.

  He let it go as long as he could stand it in the hope that his friend would relax when the spirits continued to leave them be. But he was not one to be fussed over, even when he was sick. “Jun, I love you, man, but you’re not getting my pants off.”

  He didn’t get a laugh, didn’t get much of anything. Sojun looked up slowly, as if not seeing him. When the other boy spoke, there was no question what Jun was really looking at. “Why did you leave me, Kaie? I know I’m not as fast as you, but I could’ve helped.”

  Kaie cringed. What answer could he possibly give to that? Nothing he said would make up for the fact that Jun went to sleep next to his friend in a peaceful village and woke up to a world on fire, all alone. His own experience was bad. That would be so much worse. And that was on him. “I didn’t. Not like that. I went before anything was happening, to talk to the Lemme.”

  Sojun focused on him, but just for a moment. Then the other boy’s eyes dropped. “You changed your mind, didn’t you? You were going to take exile.”

  Kaie dropped down to the ground, not caring that it was cold and hard. “I don’t think it matters anymore.”

  “I knew it,” Jun said wiping at the ash and blood mask with wet hands. “You can’t ever go along with someone else’s plan. Not even if it’s in your best interest.”

  “I’ll stick to your next plan. Promise.” He could tell Sojun wasn’t angry. There was no trace of any emotion in the other boy. Somehow, that made it worse. He wanted to apologize, but there was nothing he could say to put any of it right. “How bad was it?”

  Sojun grimaced. “Your roof fell on me. When I got out, the village was burning and everyone was screaming. I thought I was stuck in a nightmare. They were waiting for people running. I saw Bridgett’s clothes catch fire. A man cut down Ned while he was trying to put them out. Then the man killed Bridgett, too. I couldn’t move. I just watched.”

  Kaie closed his eyes against the image. Bridgett made the best bows. And the clothes Ned made always seemed twice as colorful as anyone else’s. Their children were still babies, the oldest only just walking. And Sojun, his heart’s brother waking like that because he left him. He spit out words, any words, to keep those images away. “Navin. I watched one drag Navin right past me.”

  “But you saved the Lemme.”

  “We saved the Lemme,” he amended. It was weak; a flimsy shield thrown up against the shame and guilt of watching their family torn to bits by a ruthless beast. But it was all there was, and Kaie refused to keep all for himself.

  “Dahlia.”

  They jumped at the cracked voice cutting into their conversation. Both boys turned to the large, slumped figure a few feet away.

  “My name,” she croaked. “It has been nearly twenty years since someone called me that. If I am to die here, I would have it be as myself.”

  Kaie sat up, shaking his head. “You’re not dying, Lemme. Dahlia. We’re safe here. You said so.”

  “For a time,” Jun added lowly. Kaie avoided looking at his friend. The other boy was terrified. It wasn’t fair to be mad at him for that. Not after everything. But he was.

  “You’re the heart of the tribe,” he insisted. “For us to live, you must live.”

  She smiled faintly, but her eyes would not meet his. “Of course.”

  Kaie began to say something more, something comforting and meaningless, when a sound echoed through the cavern and snapped his mouth shut. He and Jun both craned their necks, trying uselessly to search beyond their circle of light for what sounded like someone’s shoe scuffing against the stone of the floor.

  Kaie pulled himself to the Lemme’s side, determined to throw his body between her and any danger. Jun crouched, hands clenched into fists. His friend’s face was twisted with the same fear that was there since entering the vault, amplified a thousand times. They both knew the stories, knew what came next. This was when the lost souls rose up to smite them for their trespass.

  It wasn’t a spirit that turned the corner, holding a flickering lamp over its head. It was Toman. Kaie sagged with relief but Jun’s tension didn’t diminish in any visible way.

  “Sojun? Is that you?”

  “Da? What are you doing here?”

  Kaie didn’t know Toman well. He spent much of his time holed up in his home, making the lamps or out here replacing them. Jun didn’t speak of him often and in all the years of their friendship, they only spent time at Sojun’s house a handful of times. Never when Toman was there. Kaie always got the sense that his friend was ashamed of something and, despite more than a decade of curiosity, never pressed the matter. So he could only wonder why Sojun seemed so upset now, instead of grateful to find his father alive.

  “Devin had a bad night,” Toman replied lowly, as though trying not to be overheard. It wasn’t necessary. Kaie did know Sojun’s younger sister, and was quite aware that she wasn’t born well. Her mind wasn’t altogether in the world. On occasion she would fly into fits of screaming and flailing with no clear cause. Sometimes the woods helped calm her. He helped bring her to them a few times over the years. But maybe Toman didn’t know about that.

  “So you brought her to see our family’s dead?”

  Toman’s lips pursed. “I brought her to the hill. Then there was screaming and fire. I brought her here to keep her safe.”

  Sojun’s fists dropped. “Where is she?”

  Toman gestured to the tunnel behind him. “I came for water. I left her in a cavern further back.”

  “Alone in the dark?” Jun demanded, the anger missing before showing clearly now. “Where she can stir up the lost spirits and no one is there to protect her?”

  Sojun’s father looked just as surprised at the tone as Kaie was. “I’m not new to this. She’s in a well-lit and safe place, calm, eating her crackers.”

  Ignoring the voice telling him to stay out of another fami
ly’s problems, he interrupted whatever Jun was about to say. “You have food?”

  Toman looked at him as though only just noticing he was there, then the same for the Lemme. The man’s face tightened in a way vaguely similar to the expression Sojun wore when especially anxious. “Some. I’ll give you what I can. Sojun, come with me. You can see your sister is fine and get food for your friend.”

  Jun’s whole body tensed up again, fists balling tightly. “No. Bring it here. Bring Devin here. She likes Kaie. She’ll be happier with us.”

  If Devin did feel any particular attachment to him, that was news to Kaie. She treated him no differently than anyone else. Whatever Jun’s reason, he couldn’t believe it was that. It looked like Toman suspected the same. But after a moment of silent staring, shrugged and went back into the tunnel.

  Kaie waited until the sound of footsteps was gone, waited two breaths more, then turned on his friend. “What’s going on?”

  His friend shrugged, staring off after Toman. “I told you, I’m not letting you out of my sight. With your luck, the instant I turn that corner there will be a rockslide and we’ll never see each other again.”

  “Jun…”

  “Don’t. I know you. I know you need to push. But for Mother Lemme’s sake, don’t. Not on this.” Sojun sighed. “I won’t leave you behind when you can barely stand, alright? Not for him, not for anyone. Can we just let that be enough?”

  He nodded, though his friend wasn’t looking to see it. “Yeah, Jun. It’s enough.”

  Ten

  “You need to listen to me Sojun!”

  Kaie kept his eyes closed, feeling awful for listening in on his friend’s whispered conversation but doing it anyway.

  “No, Da, I don’t. I’m not leaving them.”

  “Quit with the dramatics boy. I’m not suggesting we weight them down with rocks and toss them in the pool. Will you think about it for a minute? She’s sick. I don’t know that she’ll survive another day. And your friend is beat half to death. Can he even stand? When the soldiers find this place, they’ll slow us down. Get us all caught in minutes.”