by Tricia Barr
Sensing her frustration and probably wanting to ease all of their spirits, Skylar sparked a conversation.
“So Phoenyx,” he began, “you said that you and past Lily met in Salem, Massachusetts during the witch trials. How did you end up all the way in…where are we going again?”
“Littleton, New Hampshire,” Phoenyx offered.
“Yes, what brought the two of you into a different state?” Ayanna asked.
“Well, it wasn’t something that we just decided,” Phoenyx said. “And it took us two decades to end up in Littleton. We knew that, after the botched witch burning, our time in Salem was over. We had to start new lives where no one knew us or knew of us. Relocating was the first step, and it wasn’t so easy back in those days for two single women to travel alone, especially one with unsightly scars on her face.”
Phoenyx’s lip trembled, remembering how difficult the scarring had made life for her in that lifetime. She’d had to rely completely on her compulsion to achieve anything, because no man wanted to dote on a scarred face. It had been one of the worst hurtles she had endured in all her long existence.
“Once we had made a new home for ourselves, we began studying,” Phoenyx continued after clearing her throat. “We knew from the start we wanted to hide the stone in a cave. Originally we thought we would have to find one already established and add obstacles to ward off travelers, so we learned everything we could about the geography of the colonies, studying maps and compelling information from scholars we found. But over time as Lily mastered her powers, she decided that we should attempt making our own cave complex. We had learned enough about the processes that led to their formation and she felt confident that she could build one.
“Lily didn’t stop there. She wanted to learn as much as she could about different plant species, so that she could incorporate poisonous plants. She spent years studying, and amazingly enough, her studies led her to a botanist who fell head over heels for her. They got married and pretty much lived happily ever after—after we constructed the cave.”
“Aww, how sweet that she got to lead a happy life after all that,” Ayanna said.
Phoenyx smiled, remembering how happy Lily had been in her old age with that botanist, who was such a sweet guy that he never once looked down on Phoenyx for her scars.
“You said Lily was studying poisonous plants,” Skylar prompted. “What exactly are we about to walk into?”
“Yeah, what type of obstacles did you girls put in place?” Sebastian asked. “We should be as prepared as possible.”
“There are several different species of plants keeping guard all throughout the cave, but we won’t have to worry about that,” Phoenyx explained. “We set up the cave so that only she or I could get through it—as far as the plants go, she could control them with her Earth powers, and I could burn them with my Fire power. There are also geological obstacles—traps, sort of—but we set up safe ways to get around them, paths that you could only use if you know where they are. It’s hard to explain, but I’ll show you when we get to that. This will be much easier than sneaking into a mermaid den, trust me.”
“Mermaids!?” a young girl squealed in the row behind them, pulling forward to poke her head over the back of Phoenyx chair. “I love mermaids!”
“Sit back down, sweetie,” the girl’s mother beside her said, tugging the girl’s arm. “Sorry,” she said to Phoenyx.
Phoenyx sat back in her chair and frowned at them.
“One question,” Sebastian said at a more intimate volume. “If this is all below ground, how can you be sure the plants would have survived?”
“I don’t know the science behind it, and well truthfully the science wasn’t established at the time, but Lily somehow crossbred plants so that the ones we used could live and thrive without sunlight,” Phoenyx answered. “That’s just the way her powers work; she has the idea in her mind, and her powers take care of the rest.
“To watch her put the cave in place was truly amazing. She had drawn out the exact layout of the cave complex, and then we went to the spot we decided it should go, and she held her hands up like a conductor and the ground quaked like it was about to open up and swallow us. You could see parts of the forest rising and falling, and then it all settled like nothing had been disturbed. Rocks didn’t even roll unless she wanted them to.”
“Wow,” Ayanna said. “I had no idea she was so powerful.”
“I’ve known her such a short time,” Sebastian said. “But I have a hard time imagining sweet, petite Lily moving mountains at will.”
Skylar nodded. “It’s easy to forget that Earth isn’t just flowers and greenery and life. Earth is also the ground and the forces that support that life.”
“Remind me never to cross Lily,” Sebastian joked.
“I think you would have to try pretty hard to get on Lily’s bad side,” Phoenyx said, “if Lily even has a bad side.”
“If anyone can do it, I’m sure Sebastian can,” Skylar said.
“Oh good, you’re teasing me again,” Sebastian said with a big gorgeous smile, despite the fact he had just been insulted. “You’re finally back to normal.”
Skylar snickered and said, “Only you would miss being made fun of.”
And that started a long string of back and forth jokes and insults that Phoenyx had actually missed. The taunting lasted nearly the entire flight—Skylar and Sebastian may have even outdone the gaggle of girls in the row behind them—so Phoenyx and Ayanna were thoroughly entertained. It was so nice to see Skylar and Sebastian acting like brothers again.
“Okay, we’re getting close,” Phoenyx said from the front passenger’s seat, eyes moving back and forth from the forest they were driving through and the Google Maps app on her phone. She tried to use both what she was seeing now and what her memories told her to find the entrance of the cave.
They had rented a car and driven two hours from the airport in Lebanon—one hour on a highway and the next hour up a winding mountain road. Sebastian nodded at her directions from the driver’s seat.
“How much farther?” Ayanna asked from the back seat beside Skylar.
“I’m not sure, but I’ll know what I’m looking for when I see it,” Phoenyx replied, her eyes darting through their surroundings.
Phoenyx knew that the possibility of this mountain road taking them right to the entrance was unlikely and that they’d have to hike quite a bit, but she wanted to get them as close as possible to save time. It was already noon, and this was their second to last day of freedom before the Four Corners expected them to surrender. After they found this cave and got that stone, surrender would be completely off the table.
“Pull over right here next to this tree. I think this is as close as we’re going to get,” Phoenyx said. “If I’m remembering correctly, the entrance should be just around the other side of this mountain face. We’re going to have to do a little bit of climbing, but it should be easy enough.”
Sebastian pulled over into a very small clearing, trying to go far enough forward that the bushes and trees concealed the car from passersby on this road. Phoenyx got out of the car and took a look around. Bits of memory from the last time she’d been in this forest flashed in her mind. The trees and shrubbery were different, as there had probably been several fires here in the last three hundred years, but the large boulders were all still in the same orientation, making her certain that she was in the right place.
She waited until everyone else had gotten out of the car, then she trampled into the forest. The forest was thick with very tall, skinny trees growing in clusters, with older, fatter trees that had managed to survive the fires sprinkled here and there.
They trekked through the labyrinth of conifers that wound around the mountain side for a good half hour before Sebastian said, “Are you sure you know where you’re going?”
“The forest will soon come to an end and open up to a sort of canyon,” Phoenyx said, and just as the last word came out of her mouth, sunlight f
looded through the trees before them and they could see a sudden end to the forest. “How could you ever doubt me?” Phoenyx said, sending a wink back his way.
“I will never question you again,” he said in a light, teasing tone.
As soon as they got through the last fence of trees, the ground dropped before them and it was clear that they were at the precipice of a tall cliff, and the cliff’s face rose to left to tower high above them and stretched out a long distance.
“Well, I might question you,” Skylar said. “This looks like a dead end to me.”
“It’s supposed to,” Phoenyx said. “I told you guys we would have to do some climbing. The cave entrance is over to the left and up a few yards.”
Her three compatriots peered around dubiously at the cliff face reaching high up to the left of them.
“Wherever you go, I will follow,” Ayanna said in a to-hell-with-it tone.
“Ditto,” said Sebastian. “And hey, if we fall, Skylar can just catch us with his telekinesis.”
“Don’t be so confident,” Skylar said. “You just might slip through my telekinetic fingers.”
“Hey guys, love to see the bromance back in your relationship, but I kind of need you to focus right now,” Phoenyx said.
“Phoenyx, we are perfectly capable of mocking each other while rock-climbing,” Sebastian said, and he was all jackass in that moment. “Allow me to demonstrate.”
He swung his leg out onto a rock protruding from the cliff and began scaling its stony face, making cracks about Skylar the whole way up.
Phoenyx rolled her eyes and laughed to herself as she began climbing up behind him, and Ayanna and Skylar followed in silence.
Sebastian slowed his advance so that Phoenyx could take the lead when he realized, without stopping his monologue of jokes at Skylar’s expense, that he didn’t know where we was going. Phoenyx pulled ahead of him.
She grabbed a rock and pulled with all her weight, and then the rock gave and she slipped, panic gripping her heart as gravity yanked her downward. She felt a firm hand on her buttock slowing her descent, and her raking hands caught hold as her heels dug into the cliff face. She hugged the rough earth for dear life, hearing the relieved sighs of Ayanna and Skylar below her. When her bravery returned to her, Phoenyx looked down at Skylar, whose hand was still firmly cupping her left butt-cheek.
“I got you, babe,” he said, his creased brows smoothing and a sexy smile spreading across his face as he squeezed his hand.
She let out a somewhat hysterical laugh and continued upward, albeit a bit shakily. She climbed until she reached a ledge that was hanging out like an upside-down nose on the cliff face.
The ledge was about five square yards wide, and a single twisted and decrepit tree stood in the middle of it. The tree was about five feet in diameter and ten feet tall, and had obviously not held leaves for a very long time. Its bark had all fallen away long ago, leaving only the naked tree flesh behind, and it was so ancient that it appeared to be partially petrified.
Phoenyx pulled herself up to stand and admire the tree, allowing the others to get up onto the ledge as well.
“Why are we stopping?” Ayanna asked, unable to look away from the pitiful yet beautiful wizened tree.
“This is it,” Phoenyx replied.
The other three looked around in confusion.
“What is?” Sebastian asked.
“The tree,” Phoenyx clarified. “The tree is the cave entrance.”
They all squinted and cocked their heads at the tree, as if waiting for some illusion to be blinked away and for a cave mouth to appear where the tree stood.
“Here, I’ll show you,” she said.
She approached the tree and climbed up its twisting knots to where the naked branches sprouted from the base, and in the middle of the branches was an opening wide enough for an average sized adult to fit through. It was a straight drop. She slipped in and lowered herself down, landing on the solid ground of the inside of a tunnel several feet below the opening in the tree. A minute later, she could see Sebastian’s head peaking down at her from the opening, then he swung his leg over and began lowering himself down as well. Skylar and Ayanna were quick to follow.
“Alright, that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” Sebastian said, dusting off his hands on his pants. “That’s one hell of a secret entrance.”
“I have to agree, it’s pretty damn brilliant,” Ayanna said, stepping onto the flat ground beside her. “You would never know to look there unless you knew what you were looking for.”
“That was Lily’s idea,” Phoenyx said. “Lily constructed that tree, too. I mean, she grew it from a seed and sped up its growth to the point of being ancient, all just in a matter of minutes. She made it with a hole in it. Again, don’t ask me how she does it, I have no idea.”
They stood nodding in silent respect for Lily for a moment. Then Phoenyx turned attention to the ground and found a foot-long branch. She picked it up and willed it to light aflame at the other end. The tunnel before them illuminated, allowing them to see a few yards ahead.
“Down the rabbit hole we go,” Phoenyx said, gesturing for them to follow her as she proceeded into the tunnel.
They followed the tunnel for about fifty yards before it broke into a fork of three different passageways. They stopped and Phoenyx thought for a moment to remember which one was the safe path.
“Which way do we go?” Ayanna asked.
“We take the passage to the left,” Phoenyx said. “I’m sure of it.”
“Where do the other two lead?” Sebastian asked.
“One is just a dead end, and the other leads to a very long drop,” Phoenyx answered.
“Come on, passage number one,” Sebastian said, holding up his hands with finger crossed.
“Well, this way leads to a hall full of Venus Fly Traps and carnivorous vines,” Phoenyx said.
“Oh,” Sebastian sighed, then hung his head.
They went down the left passage, which opened up much wider the further they delved, making the light from her torch spread much thinner. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something slither along the cave wall. She turned just in time to see a snake-like vine reach out toward Skylar’s arm, and she incinerated it before it could touch him.
Skylar jumped back in shock, only seeing the ashes as they fell.
“What was that?” he asked, looking jumpy.
“One of those vines I mentioned,” she said. “Keep an eye out, they’re hidden everywhere in this section. They aren’t poisonous, but they have thorns and they are strong enough to do some damage if they get a hold of you.”
“And the Venus Fly Traps?” Skylar prompted.
“Those are poisonous, but they don’t have the range of motion the vines do. And I don’t recall there being that many of them that we put in place.”
They continued forward, Phoenyx burning every vine that dared reach out toward them. Some of them were skinny and pale green with leaves on them, while others were thick and dark and covered in thorns. Those were the ones to really worry about, but luckily, they were the easiest to spot. The passage opened up into a tall and wide cavern, and as they entered, the light of the torch revealed Venus Fly Traps lining the walls, with a few sprouting up randomly in the middle of the path. Every inch that was left bare by them was covered in vines, layers upon layers tangled over each other.
“What was that you were saying about there not being many Venus Fly Traps?” Skylar asked sarcastically.
Phoenyx shrugged and said, “They must have really thrived down here and increased their population. But it doesn’t matter. Everyone stand back, it’s about to get really hot in here.”
The other three scooted back into the narrower passage, and once they were clear Phoenyx commanded fire to burn every plant in the cavern. Instantly, the cavern turned into a crematorium. The Venus Fly Traps let out terrible shrieks that echoed in the cavern, making Phoenyx cover her ears with her hands. The anthropomorphic
plants gaped their mouths and writhed away from the flames that embraced them, and Phoenyx felt a sort of pity for them. These plants had done nothing wrong, they were merely an obstacle in her way. This was the first time she had used her fire to kill a living thing that didn’t deserve it.
As she was distracted by guiltily watching the Venus Fly Traps die, she didn’t notice that one of the vines closest to the cavern opening had slithered behind her foot, and she heard Sebastian’s “Phoenyx, look out!” too late to move her leg before it wrapped around and pulled her off her feet.
She yelped as she smacked the ground. She clawed at the earth instinctively as the plant quickly dragged her into the fire that was burning its relatives alive. Sebastian, Skylar and Ayanna ran in to rescue her, but the flames whipped at them and kept them at bay. Phoenyx was well aware of her power now, so the flames didn’t harm her as they licked at her flesh, but being swallowed by them meant that she couldn’t get any help from her friends, and the vines were so stalwart that they were taking a long time to burn.
Once the first vine had dragged her in, other vines swarmed on her, constricting her limbs and waist, slicing wherever the thorny ones made contact. At this rate, the vines would choke her before the fire killed them. She struggled against them, but as she had warned, they were very strong and didn’t budge. What am I going to do?
In a desperate fit of anger, she wrapped her hands around the closest vines and squeezed, and without meaning to, her hands ignited and the vines immediately crumbled to ash. That’s it, I just need a hotter fire. She willed for her entire body to ignite, and she could feel the intense heat emanating from her in waves. The light she emitted was so hot she had to close her eyes. But even without her sight, she could feel the vines singing to oblivion, melting off of her.
As soon as she was free of them, she shot up to her feet and darted out of the tangle of burning vines before another one could latch on.
“Oh my god, are you alright—Oh!” Ayanna stopped mid-coddle and put her hand over her mouth. Then she quickly removed the jacket she was wearing and wrapped it around Phoenyx.