by Reilyn Hardy
Everything was hazy.
There was a bright flash of light that briefly illuminated the sky as it shot through it, followed by another loud roar of thunder that I could feel rattling the bones in my body. Speckles stopped abruptly and pulled back toward Jace while she flapped her wings to hover in the air.
She was getting so close to him that I was afraid she would have knocked Jace right off of Pippa if he hadn’t been hanging onto her so tightly. I leaned forward. My hand grasped her mane so I could make sure I wasn’t going to slide off of her.
Lightning brightened the sky again and bellowed at us in anger. Speckles stopped suddenly once more and this time I nearly fell off of her when she took a sharp turn to avoid the flash of light.
“Okay!” I agreed finally. “Let’s go lower.”
I pulled my feet back against Speckles’s body and leaned forward as we swooped down. Heavy drops of rain began to fall and they felt freezing against my already iced skin.
Speckles tucked her wings close to her body, covering my legs, and her speed increased. We dove toward the base of the Ashen Hills and into the shadowed abyss.
We were out of the clouds but the horses were still spooked by the storm. I didn’t want to land but at this point, I didn’t think we had another choice.
I was nearly thrown from my horse’s back when her feet planted roughly onto the ground and she galloped to a slow but steady halt. With the bend of her wing, she hit me in the arm hard enough to knock me right off of her. I landed on the ground just as Pippa came to a stop, only inches from my face.
What scared me was that I could barely see her hooves.
But I heard them, loud by my ears.
I sat up before she had the chance to kick up dust into my eyes, or stomp on my face, and Jace jumped off of her. He extended his hand to me and I grabbed it to pull myself back to my feet.
“So, which way is it?” He asked, readjusting the strap of his bag. I looked around. We were surrounded by darkness in the deep crevices of the Ashen Hills. I shielded my eyes with my hands so I could look up. Raindrops were flooding out from the sky, drenching us, and the horses flapped their wings to shake the water from their feathers.
Pointless, but still they tried.
Coin’s map didn’t navigate through the base of the hills so I didn’t bother getting it from my bag. I didn’t want the rain to ruin the ink on the parchment for no reason.
“Should we just stay here?”
I couldn’t believe he just asked me that.
“I mean, at least until the sky clears —” he continued, he knew I thought it was a bad idea. He was trying to justify his suggestion and he wasn’t doing such a bad job. “Then we might be able to see where we’re going.”
I wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince.
Himself or me.
I ran my hand against the hair on Speckles’s face and she nudged against my shoulder. Her wings were tucked close to her body and the both of them seem to have given up shaking the water from their coats.
“You really want to stay here?” I asked.
“No — I don’t. But what else are we gonna do?”
He had a point.
“You’re right. We —”
There was a loud crack in the distance and the ground shook.
I had forgotten what I was going to say.
The noise spooked the two horses, and they took off in the other direction as fast as their legs allowed.
“What in the world was that?” I whispered. I looked at Jace and he was glancing behind us where the two horses had ran. They already disappeared in the darkness, but he could probably still hear their hooves hitting the ground.
“I don’t know but now we’re definitely stranded here.”
The rain was falling harder. I kept my focus forward and squinted my eyes, trying to make something out in the darkness, while Jace was frantically looking around us.
The ground shook again.
“I’m starting to wish I was still on Pippa before she took off,” he mumbled quietly under his breath. The color drained from his face which made him nearly as pale as I was.
I never saw him like this before and I didn’t like it. It made me uncomfortable, the look in his eyes, the panic. This wasn’t him at all.
This was me.
I ruffled my wet hair and we just stood there, waiting for something to make its presence known. That was the worst part. The waiting, the unknown. We didn’t know where we were, we didn’t know where to go. We couldn’t see — there was just darkness.
It was quiet, nothing but the storm raging above and the rain falling around us.
We were blind and defenseless.
It was the perfect hunting ground for anything that lurked in the dark.
My imagination was starting to get the best of me.
The duration between each shake began to decrease as they got worse in severity. Whatever it was, it was getting closer.
“There’s nothing but munfolk in Edgewick,” Jace said quietly. “Literally the only place in all of Aridete that remained untouched by all other beings.”
“And?” I asked.
“I’m just wondering — like Coin said — no one could really get there unless they flew. What if no one could get out, either?”
White, silvery rocks slid down from the tops of the hills and hit Jace on the side of his head. He glared at the direction they came from, as if he expected to see someone there who had thrown them at him.
“Can’t get in, can’t get out,” he finished and rubbed the side of his head with his fingertips.
“Coin did,” I said.
“Because he flew over. How many people have winged horses, Mae? How many people have winged anything —”
There’s another loud crack and the ground shook significantly which cut him off. That quake lasted longer than just a few seconds, the way the others had, and more rocks fell from the hill tops and were sliding down the mountains.
“We’re gonna die.”
“We’re not going to die, Jace. Shut up.”
“Well, what are we gonna do? We have nowhere to go. We have nowhere to hide — I can barely even see you.”
“Snap out of it.” I tugged on his sleeve. “I’m right here.”
“Well, whatever it is, it’s coming for us. We are something’s lunch. We’re gonna be lunch.”
“You’re not helping. Do you have any idea what that could possibly be?”
Jace closed his eyes and hit the side of his head with his palm repetitively, attempting to trigger or recall a memory with the abrupt forceful blows to his temple.
“I really don’t know what could shake — the ground like th — this.”
He shook his head as he opened his eyes.
“I got nothing. I can’t smell anything either.”
But his voice was more of a whisper coming from behind me. I wandered away from him with my hand outstretched, hoping I would feel the base of one of the Ashen Hills. I’d feel safer if I could lean against something, knowing nothing could sneak up from behind me.
My hand brushed up against an uneven wall and I flattened my palm against it.
I could feel the vibration in the earth. The movement was gentler now, subtle; but it was still there — and we had no idea what was causing it.
“Hey, come here!” I shouted to Jace, my hand was still touching the wall.
I waited, but there was no response.
I frowned and turn around.
I saw nothing. I had been swallowed whole by a black void.
There was just nothing. I couldn’t see anything.
I couldn’t hear anything either.
“Jace?” I said. My voice was quiet — and I probably sounded scared out of my mind — I was. I couldn’t see him, I couldn’t see anything and I was trying not to panic.
I couldn’t hear anything but the sound of rain that continued to fall all around me. I was surrounded by the silent, eerie bases of the Ashen Hills a
nd I hated it.
We should have never landed. I’d rather take my chances with the lightning, at least it would’ve been quick. Electrocution, falling from that height. But it was too late for that. Now I was just waiting for something to attack me.
“Jace?” But still there was no answer. “Jace!”
There was panic in my voice as I continued to turn around, one way then back the other.
My heart was thumping rapidly in my chest.
I felt like it was going to explode.
I twisted the ring on my thumb. I hadn’t felt safe at all since I left Newacre and now Jace was missing. My mind started to torment me with possibilities of what could have happened to him. I tried to ignore it but I couldn’t. That was the worst part of the unknown.
Everything you could imagine became a very real possibility. You would scare yourself; you would cause your own panic and fear — and sometimes, you could even stop your own heart.
I didn’t want to panic so I tried not to, but I couldn’t quiet my mind. The silence was too loud. The deadly silence; it was deafening — and it was killing me.
“Jace!” I yelled again.
But I couldn’t find him anywhere.
Every direction I turned, only darkness continued to greet me. The storm above me was roaring angrily, and lightning shot through the sky, but my surroundings remained dark.
I was about to take a step forward when something shot out in the shadows and plastered itself against the wall. I could see it glistening, splattered on the black base. I took a step closer and I saw something writhing against the surface, just beneath the coating.
I took another step.
It was Jace.
Caught in the mucus, he was covered head to toe in the slime. His breathing was shallow and his movement began to slow. The mucus gathered at the center and streamed out into the void. I didn’t want to know where it led because I didn’t want to know where it came from — but I had my guesses.
I ran toward him.
“Don’t touch it,” he warned me just as I reached for him. I pull my hands away. “It’s numbing.” Jace’s voice is soft and throaty. He was struggling to speak, to remain conscious. His eyes fluttered. He could hardly keep them open.
“Run —” he said and tried to take a deep breath but it staggered. “It’s a — Witchfen Worm.”
I shook my head, unwilling to listen to anything he said. I readjusted the wet strap of my bag and I tried to think of something to do, some way to help. I went for my dagger.
“I don’t care,” I said suddenly as I dug through my things, “I’m not leaving you.”
I left Newacre because I didn’t want Jace to think he had to live in this world alone. I wasn’t about to let him die. My hands were shaking and I tried to ignore it. My gaze kept wandering to look over at Jace but I looked away as soon as I saw him nearly immobile against the wall, covered in translucent, milky slime. He was barely moving, barely breathing. It was too hard to look at. I had to do something.
Witchfen Worms lived deep in the earth of Aridete. They could grow to over twelve feet high and up to a hundred feet in length. Black in color, they fired sticky streams of snot-like webbing that would paralyze their victims, trapping them down, leaving them immobile until their death. Absorbed through the victim’s pores, the mucus would disintegrate the insides, essentially digesting the prey within the mucus casing before consumption. The worm would then retract the webbing and swallow it whole. The bodies of the Witchfen Worms excreted toxins that could cause nerve damage to anyone or anything that touched them, also coating themselves to allow easy mobility through the deep grounds of the cool earth.
“I’m going to cut you free —” I told him but I stopped talking when the ground shook. I saw the webbing begin to peel from the rock of the Ashen Hill. It was trying to pull him back into its mouth.
“Mae —” he began to say just before the Witchfen yanked him from the wall. He snapped back into the darkness of our surroundings before I even had time to react.
“No!” I shouted and ran forward. I shouted, over and over, as I turned in every direction, but I couldn’t see anything still. My heart was beating so hard that I wasn’t sure if it was thunder I heard overhead or the sound of my own heart pounding in my ears.
I turned once more and finally I saw it.
Its pink fleshy mouth closed over Jace’s body, and slammed against the ground, which shook the earth. Above its mouth and at the front of its face, was a sharp point it used to crack surfaces and make new holes, or clear out old ones. I staggered backward at the sight of the massive body, or at least what I could see of it. It started to slither pass me. The rain had somehow concealed my presence.
It jabbed its pointed face into the wall of the Ashen Hill, moist from the mucus.
It was trying to get away.
I had to move quickly and I didn’t even think my actions through — I didn’t have time to think about my actions. I only had time to act.
I ran toward the Witchfen as fast as I could and I jumped at it, lodging my dagger into its toxin excreting skin. With my weight, I pulled on the dagger and yanked it down to cut it open. The tear revealed a pink flesh wound which was bright in the dark. I wanted to use it as a target, but it shook me off of its side.
I fell onto the ground and landed hard on a rock that struck my ribs. The worm was screeching in pain, hissing as it flopped around. I could see the wound still, and I kept it locked in my focus as my mark. I got back up and leapt at it again, aiming for the same spot with my dagger.
The Witchfen sat up toward the sky and continued, trying to shake me off. I twisted the dagger in its flesh and slid down the side, cutting the wound down the length of the body. If I kept sliding further downward, I had a feeling I’d reach the ground in no time. I jammed my other arm into the cut and gripped onto the insides with my clothed hand.
Toxins were burning into the cuts Jace had left in my skin, but I couldn’t really feel it.
The Witchfen Worm fell forward, nearly landing on top of me, before it slammed its face into the wall. It wanted to get away. It wanted me off of it, but I wasn’t willing to give up yet.
My best friend was in there.
I wiggled my dagger free and struck it in the same spot, over and over to make the wound larger, and to make the cut deeper.
I was determined to get in there one way or another. My muscles ached, but the only toxins I could feel burning me were on my hand that I had stuck into the worm, absent of the rain. I realized then that the water from the storm was diluting the excreting venom on the Witchfen’s skin, rendering it useless as it rinsed away the toxicity. I stabbed it. I kept stabbing it, I wouldn’t stop.
It cried out in pain, its screeching bellows were piercing my eardrums and my heartbeat was no longer pounding in my head. I dug deeper with the blade and tore at its skin with my hands. I was growing deaf to the noise and everything was quieting around me. I didn’t like the silence, it scared me, but I didn’t have the time to focus on it.
Struggling on the side of the worm while it continued to drill into the wall, I managed to make the wound large enough to fit inside of it, just as the worm cracked the base of the hill and burrowed itself into the earth. I lodged myself into the flesh and the worm slid deep into its tunnels through its newest entrance. It rammed the sides of its body against the rocky walls in attempt to stop the pain, in attempt to get rid of me.
But it was too late, I had found my way inside.
I had to keep digging.
I had to work faster now that I no longer had the rain, and I was sure it was only a matter of time before my skin would feel like it was on fire. My body was already beginning to weaken on me, I could feel it. My muscles still ached, and my skin was burning now. Still, I pulled the dagger out and stabbed it one more time.
I managed to cut through the thick layer of its flesh, right to what resembled a throat. I pushed myself further in until I was completely inside of the Witchfen
worm. Covered in its blood, I continued to cut until I noticed the same slimy webbing Jace was encased in.
I used the dagger to scrape some of it away before I got to my friend’s head. I could see his hair in the mucus and his eyes — they were still open — open with a cold, blank stare. He wasn’t moving at all now, and I couldn’t tell if he was breathing. He could be dead.
I stuck my dagger into the flesh of the worm so I wouldn’t lose it, and pulled my bag from my shoulder, so I could begin wrapping the strap around Jace’s arm to tug him out of the cocoon. I scooted back toward the laceration I made and pull on the strap as hard as I could. Jace slowly began to slide out from the mucus shell.
Reaching for my dagger, I yanked it from its place and shoved it down at my feet on what I thought was its tongue, or maybe the back of its throat. It started shrieking in pain as I shoved it further down, as far as I could. My entire arm was starting to disappear into its flesh and I twisted my hand at the very bottom.
The Witchfen Worm was thrashing now, and trying to break out of the wall. It was still shrieking. I couldn’t hear it but I could feel the vibrations within the worm. Temporarily and very briefly, I let go of my satchel’s strap to poke my arm out of the cut I came in through and I could feel air. I could feel rain.
I pull my arm back in and yanked my dagger out of the worm. I tugged hard on the strap and moved Jace in front of the open wound. I shoved him right out of the cut with my feet, and forced myself through right behind him.
We plummeted straight down into a pool of water. It stung my skin as it rinsed away the venom that coated my body. I didn’t let go of Jace and I swam back to the surface of the water, gasping for air. The end tip of the worm disappeared into another hole just as I started swimming toward the shore.
All I was hoping for was that it wouldn’t come back.
What lurks in there can’t cross water.
I was sure we were safe now.
I dragged Jace to the shallow part of the lake but I didn’t pull him out of the water completely. It might help with the poisons that have soaked into his pores, at least I hoped it would.
“Jace,” I said as I splashed his face with water, dousing him with the clear liquid. His eyes were bloodshot and I tried not to look at them. “Jace,” I repeated, my voice getting weaker. “Wake up.” I persisted with the water before I tried to push away mucus from his face.