by Scott Hale
“Explore the land, which is exactly what I’m doing now, so I shouldn’t complain, but, shit, I didn’t think it’d be like this. What do you want to be when you grow up, R’lyeh?”
R’lyeh hesitated to answer, as though she hadn’t considered Vrana would ask her the same question. “It’s stupid.”
“I doubt it.”
“A boy… a boyfriend,” R’lyeh stammered. “I mean, I wanted a boyfriend. I didn’t want to be someone’s boyfriend.” She laughed, blushed. “I want to know more. I don’t want to be a keeper, screw that, but at the same time, I want to be really good at kicking ass, like you, you know.” She grinned as Vrana grinned. “Something like a really badass librarian.”
“Badass,” Vrana repeated, remembering that it was Aeson’s favorite word, a word which he had once used to describe her. “We’re bound at the hip now, aren’t we?”
“I’d say so,” R’lyeh agreed.
“You have to take care of yourself first, though.”
“I’m trying.”
Vrana smiled, and she nudged the girl.
“Why,” R’lyeh began, her voice suddenly sounding quite serious, “why do you think it’s okay that they… feed the Worm here?”
Vrana furrowed her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“Geharra… Alluvia…” R’lyeh’s breathing became shallow. “I guess I’m saying it seems… I guess I’m saying it seems… okay… since they are doing something for the good of—of us.”
“They’re two entirely different circumstances, R’lyeh,” Vrana said, tracing with her finger a trail left by a tear on the girl’s cheek. I’m sure Alexander Blodworth thought he was doing good, too, Vrana thought but didn’t say aloud.
“I guess,” she said, sounding thoroughly unconvinced. “I mean, I don’t feel bad for the flesh fiends. I guess I just don’t see how we’re all that different from the Corrupted. I know we’re not.”
“I wish you’d stayed in Caldera,” Vrana said, moving closer to the Octopus.
R’lyeh wiped her eyes as she shook her head. “I can’t sit in some classroom.”
“You could’ve gone to your parents. You could’ve had them brought to you.”
R’lyeh started to chew on her nails, and then she closed her eyes. “I don’t want to risk it. Knowing they are alive is enough until everything gets better. I don’t want to risk… something happening. They’re—well, you and your mom—you’re… you four are all I have.”
“R’lyeh.” Vrana stared into the girl’s eyes. “Did Anguis really send you to kill those two Corrupted at Keldon’s Hill?”
She nodded.
Vrana paused for a moment, remembering the carnage she’d awoken to outside the cave days before R’lyeh’s butchery. If I asked her if it’d been her hand that had slaughtered those animals, would she answer truthfully? Deciding that she would not, Vrana pulled away from the girl and told her goodnight.
“Vrana?” The Octopus called out later, one final question in need of a response.
The Raven pretended not to hear.
CHAPTER XXXII
At sunrise, they rose. R’lyeh sharpened her daggers—the Cruel Mother’s talons—while Vrana turned the sealing stone over in her hands. The white streaks etched into the rock’s surface glowed warmly, and shocked her fingers when touched. She tried to understand why creatures as powerful as the Worms would allow an object such as this to exist, and then realized the futility of trying to understanding creatures as powerful as the Worms.
Maybe they have no ulterior motives, Vrana said to herself, smiling at R’lyeh as she slid the stone into her satchel and picked up her ax. Maybe they prosper because we expect them to.
Mara came to fetch them from their quarters shortly thereafter. When they were finished here, there would be little Vrana and R’lyeh could say about Lacuna, for they’d only known it by its exodus. Whatever great deeds and horrible atrocities had been committed would be carried away by those waiting to depart below. It was easy enough to imagine the process by which the great, writhing engine was fed, but the imagined said little of reality, and it said even less of the machine the engine gave life to.
“What was it like to live here?” Vrana asked as they passed through the field of crops at the back of the village, which had already begun to die.
Mara brought a long sword with her and used it to clear a path. This was the first time Vrana had seen the woman with a weapon, and it worried her. “Lovely,” she said, “but all things end.”
“How did you get to be in charge?” R’lyeh shouted, having lagged behind. She sounded distracted and kept looking back the way they’d come.
“I’ve fooled many Corrupted over the years into letting me into their beds and halls. The elders of Traesk were looking to make better use of this island, and since I knew the Corrupted better than most, I was assigned as overseer of operations.”
Vrana slowed as she waited for R’lyeh to catch up. They were at the fork in the tall grass, where waited the path that would lead them to the copse. “Are you okay, R’lyeh?”
The Octopus nodded feebly.
Vrana guided the girl to the breach in the dense foliage. “Are the Corrupted still in the chamber?”
“No, they gave themselves to the Worm.”
Vrana stumbled sideways as R’lyeh fell into her. The girl’s breathing was shallow, her body dripping with perspiration. She tried to catch her balance, but her legs gave out and she collapsed in the grass. She was panicking, and the anxiety that was gripping her head and heart was guiding her hands to the daggers at her side.
Vrana, knowing all too well what the girl was capable of, went to her knees and took her by the arms so that she could not draw her weapons. Mara, having seen all that she had seen, unclasped a bag at her side, produced a tiny vial, took out the stopper, tipped back the girl’s mask, and forced its contents into her screaming mouth. R’lyeh flailed as the Centipede held her mouth shut until it was clear she had swallowed the liquid.
“No, I can’t! I won’t!” The Octopus shouted, digging her heels into the dirt.
“She should’ve stayed in Caldera,” Vrana said, shaking her head. “She shouldn’t be here.”
The beating of Blix’s wings preceded him as he descended upon the scene and clamped down onto Vrana. The Raven needed only to glance at the crow to know that Mara had failed to heal him. The bird was still gaunt, his beak still weathered, and now his feathers appeared oily, clinging to his speckled flesh.
“There she goes,” Mara whispered as R’lyeh relaxed, eyelids half open. “She’ll be calm until we’re done here.”
Vrana released R’lyeh’s arms and stood up. She cringed as she caught the foul scent of Blix. “What do I do?”
“I tried to help him,” Mara said, nodding at Blix, “but the Witch weaved a spell too tight to be unwoven.”
Vrana looked at the crow, rubbed his head, and told herself that he would be fine. Despite often forgetting about Blix, she could not bear to lose him.
Mara propped the girl’s body up and wiped away a bit of drool seeping from her mouth. “Just follow the tunnel, and you’ll find the Worm’s Chamber. Give it the stone and get back here as quickly as you can.”
“Why? What’s going to happen?”
“I’m not sure.” Mara bent down, picked up R’lyeh, and held her like an infant against her body. “The Widening Gyre, the Sailor’s Bane—it’s going to disappear. And I know for a fact there is a group that has been watching this area very carefully, trying to find a way in.”
“Who?” Vrana stepped aside as Mara marched past towards Lacuna.
“We never made the effort to find out; we didn’t want to reveal ourselves. But whoever or whatever it is, it does not fear death, because that’s all you’ll find in the Bane—death, and the things that deal in it.” Mara looked back, already a small figure in the distance. “When it’s finished, come to the docks, and I’ll get you home.”
Vrana tore through the copse, and th
e copse tore through her, cutting, pricking, and stinging her skin as she went. She approached the rock formation, and without hesitation, she went through its doorway. On the other side, she found a tunnel lit by the same glowing rocks that lined the passage to the Inner Archive. The path before her, which led downward into the heart of the island, was wide and sat at a slight angle to the entrance. Vrana tried to imagine how many children had made the journey from the Worm’s chamber but found that all she could think of were the thousands of doomed prisoners that had marched willingly to their deaths beneath the streets of Geharra.
Apprehension saw that Vrana proceeded slowly, her back stiff, waiting for a bludgeoning from clichéd betrayal. The air in the tunnel was surprisingly fresh, calming even. Knowing this would be her first true encounter with a Worm of the Earth, she had to consider that all anomalies, however agreeable, were likely of the creature’s design.
Though it pained her to see R’lyeh in such a state, Vrana was glad the girl had remained topside, for she didn’t trust the Blue Worm to leave such a tarnished mind untouched. Will it leave mine untouched? she wondered, drawing a breath as she reached two wooden doors at the tunnel’s end. She looked at Blix, who was still perched upon her shoulder, and wished that he could speak to give her a word of support.
The wooden doors were not locked, so Vrana pushed them open with the head of her ax. A gasp escaped her dry lips as her eyes fell upon the great space beyond. A blue light befitting the name of the beast said to live here drenched the hollow. Small hovels and large pools filled with crystalline water sat upon and within the expanse of soft, red grass. It was difficult to determine how far the chamber stretched across the belly of the island, but it seemed to Vrana she could walk forever in any direction and never reach its end.
She was hesitant to send Blix forward, but she needed his eyes to see what she could not. Vrana removed the sealing stone, which was absolutely radiant in her hands, and held it high so as to guide her across the subterranean plains.
There appeared to be five hovels in her partition of the chamber, and she expected to find more beyond the natural wall that divided the area. Glancing through the glassless windows as she passed, she found that each hovel was roofless, with nothing more than a bed, pillow, and blanket to comfort its once-inhabitants. These homes, if they could truly be called homes, had not housed love, pleasure, or ecstasy—but the dull groans of duty and desperation.
Blix’s cawing echoed around Vrana. She followed the sound to its feathery source. Rounding the natural rock wall, she not only found the blue light to be much brighter here, but that there seemed to be more pressure in this part of the chamber. With every step she took, she felt an invisible vise closing in on her head, pushing both her skull and the Cruel Mother’s into her brain. Blood began to leak from her nose and her ears, with the pressure worsening the closer she came to the light’s origin.
“It’s there, isn’t it, Blix?” Vrana said, gritting her teeth, blood running down her throat. She expected the bird to fall to the ground at any moment, but he seemed indifferent to the pain. “What did the Witch do to you?” she rambled on, trying to distract herself from the discomfort of feeling crushed. “Maybe I should have had her weave a spell onto me. Another one, at least.”
Vrana dragged her ax through the rust-colored grass as she walked beside several pools. She felt her stomach drop as she heard something splash in the waters a foot away. With all her strength, of which there was little left to use, Vrana lifted her ax and leaned over one of the pools, using the glow of the sealing stone to probe its depths.
Another splash, but this time it was behind her. Vrana whipped around, blood flinging from her nose into the crevices of her mask. A wave of crystalline water from the disturbed pool washed over her feet. She could feel the sealing stone sparking, the electric current running along its surface adhering the rock to her hand. Would the Blue Worm be as large as the Red? The almost blinding light of the sealing stone suggested that it was near, but where?
Through the ripples and refractions, Vrana could see that something was alive at the bottom of the pool, moving wildly, hypnotically.
“Is that you?” Vrana asked the Blue Worm.
It was, but not all of it. Before Vrana could react, something blew out of the pool behind her and wrapped itself around her ankle. A yelp escaped her lips as it yanked her to the ground; her chest and head slammed into the ruddy soil. She twisted around as she was pulled backwards and saw that a long, bruised tentacle had attached itself to her leg. The ax was useless, too large and imprecise to cut the appendage from hers, and the daggers at her side were too difficult to reach.
“Blix!” she cried out, unable to hear her own voice over the pressure in her ears. “Blix!” she yelled again, her leg numbing in the beast’s grip.
The tentacle wrenched Vrana into the pool from which it had emerged. Frantically, she swung her ax at the sides of what was now obviously a tunnel, hoping to gain purchase. The walls, however, were coated in a thin membrane, and the ax passed right through.
She kicked her feet, dug her toes into the tentacle to no avail. It whipped her through the tunnel, smashed her against the membrane and rocks. Just when it seemed they could go no further, the tentacle pulled her upward, through another watery passage. If the end was in sight, Vrana could not see it, for the light of the sealing stone was blinding.
Her stomach dropped as the tentacle flung her up out of the water and into the air. She felt the pressure leave her body as she fell through a flashing, blue mist. For a brief moment, she was calm, at ease; serene as a landscape dusted with snow, untouched by wind, unbroken by noise. And then her body crashed into the ground, into a stretch of muscle covered in arteries, veins, and tiny skulls, cracked and deformed.
“Give me the stone and I will cease to be,” a voice whispered.
Vrana lifted her head and saw with unworthy eyes the gruesome glory of the Blue Worm. It sat upon a bed of children’s bones, a hundred slithering tentacles encircling its midnight form. The mist that Vrana had fallen through and that filled the chamber emanated from the creature, rolling out from under its mass in dampening waves. How large it was Vrana could not tell, but even in its constricted state, it dwarfed the Raven and could destroy her with ease.
“Having second thoughts?” A hurricane of tentacles spun around the Blue Worm, dull lights like eyes blinking in the abyssal body they guarded.
Vrana scurried rearward on all fours, hands sliding over the greasy texture of the sinewy floor. A sharp pain shot through her abdomen as she backed unknowingly into two large, wooden doors—the very same she’d passed through to reach the Worm’s lair. It was then that she realized there were no walls in the chamber, only a seamless expanse of roiling murk.
Vrana slid up the doors, using them for support as she came to her feet. She could somehow hear Blix clawing at the wood, even though she could see there was nothing on the other side. She held the sealing stone as far as she could from her body while she readied the ax, should the Blue Worm launch a tentacle her way.
“Give me the stone, and go back the way you came,” the Blue Worm uttered.
Vrana swallowed her fear and took a step towards the creature.
The Blue Worm unraveled a tentacle, slipped it into the pool that had brought Vrana to the chamber, and stirred the water. “What do you want to know?”
Vrana shook her head.
Out of the water, a hand rose and clamped down on a bundle of veins. Moments later, the pale flesh fell from the bones, and the skeletal remains sank back into the pool.
Vrana took another step forward, her feet slipping into the folds of muscle. “Why did you help them?” she asked finally.
“Help?” The Blue Worm retracted its tentacle; from its tip, secretions like semen fell into the water.
“What will happen if you take the stone?”
“Sleep will come.”
Vrana took another step. “Why do you want this?”
&nbs
p; The Blue Worm’s tentacles splayed out across the bones, revealing for a moment the black figure that stood at the center. “Would you rather I kill you?”
Vrana watched as the dripping tentacle reared back. “They’re your children, not ours.”
The Blue Worm rumbled and tightened itself, so that it was no wider or taller than Vrana. “You hesitate, and the womb is no place for the born.”
The Worm is right, Vrana thought. What am I doing? She was terrified, yes, but intrigued. She didn’t feel as she had in the presence of the Red Worm—that is, weak and minute, a pile of limbs to be added to its macabre figure. Was it because she knew more of the Blue Worm’s actions and their contributions to her tribe? Or was it something else, something more manipulative? Given her surroundings, she knew she should flee, and yet she stayed, anchored by curiosity in the bloody cradle of Lacuna.
The Raven took another step. The Blue Worm emitted a low growl; the sealing stone was beginning to have an effect. “How many of you are left?”
“The Green, the Black, and the White, for now.”
“Where?”
The Blue Worm sent several tentacles slithering across the ground toward Vrana. “The Centipede has too many questions, and so you are here to do what she could not.”
The Raven felt her heart pound as the tentacles snaked around her feet. Is that why she didn’t come? The elders knew she couldn’t do it. Vrana directed the light of the sealing stone at a nearby tentacle, and it began to shrivel as it retracted. Did she give something to R’lyeh to make her panic?
“What is it you wish to know?” the Blue Worm persisted. A thick layer of mist rose over the creature as it pulled back and downward into the bones upon which it sat, disappearing. Skulls, jaws, ribs, and feet all moved like discarded treasures as the Worm shook the pile from within.
It’s not worth it, Vrana told herself. Give it the stone and leave.
“Much has been forgotten since the Trauma,” the Blue Worm said, pale lights flashing through the gaps between the bones. “Why use an ax when a firearm would serve you better?”