by John Corwin
I gripped her hand. "I've never seen you so scared."
Her violet eyes grew large. "Falling through an endless void, wasting away and helpless to save yourself—doesn't the thought terrify you?"
My gorge rose at the thought. "Why did you have to tell me that? No I'm going to have nightmares."
Elyssa jerked. "We have to go. Our reflections will catch us if we don't hurry."
Faced with such terrors as this void, I'd almost forgotten about the other horrors somewhere out in this reflected world rushing to catch us and steal parts of our souls.
I took Elyssa's hand and we stood. "One, two, three, go!"
We ran. The invisible bridge kept us from a fate worse than death, and brought us safely to the other side. We entered the crack there and crawled through the tunnel. Emerging on the other side, we found a world of crooked black trees and purple grass that writhed like snakes as we walked through it.
The looking pool, a black foreboding pond, waited in the middle of this surreal scene. Wasting no time, I rubbed the pebble and reversed the previous incantation. "So below, as above."
We jumped.
Another flip-flop of my innards, my entire body seemed to turn inside out. We sailed from the pond and landed heavily on the other side. I rolled to my feet and staggered in a semi-circle as my ear canals struggled to find balance. Elyssa grimaced and grabbed a nearby tree for support.
I stumbled on something hidden in the tall purple grass and fell on my ass. The thick scaly blades felt waxy to the touch. As I pushed to my feet, another sight stopped the breath in my throat. A huge green moon hung suspended above a mountain shaped like a crooked witch's hat. Sparkling like jewels on a necklace, the other realms encircled the green hunk of rock Cora called the anchor stone.
White clouds swirled in blue skies on one world, while another glowed sullen red with streaks of black. Zooming my vision on the spectacle, I saw a desert realm, one that looked like a giant snowball, and one that was black as night. Hovering above the moon like a specter was a swirling darkness that could only be one thing.
"The Abyss," I murmured.
Elyssa followed my gaze. "Have you ever felt insignificant as a speck of sand?"
"Right now." My throat felt dry, senses numb. "Is this real?"
"Yeah." Elyssa blinked and shook her head. "We need to head to the Soul Tree." She took out her arcphone and studied the directions Cora had given us.
I climbed up a nearby tree, careful of the thorns and spikes on its bark and looked over a forest of similar trees. Though I wasn't high enough to get a true view of the land, our target was clearly visible on the horizon, a massive umbrella of white branches spreading like the protective arms of a mother over her children.
The tree looked miles away from the crooked mountain. "If the queen lives in the mountain, why would Evadora be way over at that tree? How could a little girl survive the wild?"
"Nature is her domain," Elyssa said. She motioned me down. "Let's get moving."
I dropped to the ground and we headed past a large glowing mushroom and onto a narrow trail between the trees, their twisted branches forming a dark tunnel lit only in spots by glowing fungi. The glow only made the shadowy forest look even creepier, so I channeled another sphere of light and sent it hovering over our heads. "I still think a flying broom would have been primo for this mission."
"Cora said it would expose us to the queen's eyes," Elyssa said. "The last thing I want to worry about is the plants rising up against us."
"Yeah, but if the queen controls nature, wouldn't every animal around here be spying on us?" The deeper we went into the forest, the darker it seemed, so I sent my light ball floating higher to illuminate more of the path ahead.
The branches above us burst into a cacophony of squeaks and a flurry of wings. I screamed at the top of my lungs and threw up a shield around us. My screamed trickled off to a croak when I realized a flock of birds was the source of my terror. One of them landed on the shield and looked down at us with curious feline eyes. Webbed black wings like those of bats flapped as it gained balance, but its body resembled a bird, and its head, that of a house cat.
"I don't know what frightened me more—you or the bird things," Elyssa said.
I peered closer at the little monster. "Freaky." I lowered the shield and the bird-cat—did that make it a bat or a card?—flew away to join the rest of the flock circling overhead. "I hope those aren't the minions Cora warned us about."
"They're kind of like flying cats," Elyssa said. "I think they're cute."
"Cute as a felix?" I asked.
"There's cute, and then there's beautiful." Elyssa shook her head. "Knowing that felix was Kaelissa somehow cheapens the experience."
I noticed something white reflecting from beneath the trees and sent the light ball questing deeper off the path. It revealed a mound of bones several feet tall. Some of the skulls might have come from small horses. I sucked a breath between my teeth. "Holy farting cats. I think those things are carnivorous."
"Duh, they're cats," Elyssa said, though she seemed a bit more wary all of a sudden. "If they eat such large prey, maybe they wouldn't be good pets."
I imagined them swarming over an animal like piranha, stripping flesh away like a sandblaster. "Let's hope they don't eat people."
"I say we pick up the pace," Elyssa said, looking up at the swarm. "Just in case."
Our walk turned to a jog over the rutted uneven ground, spiky limbs trying to snag our Nightingale armor as we passed by. The armor responded as it would to a knife, hardening to deflect the thorns.
When we reached the edge of the forest, the bent bough of a giant tree arched off the edge of a cliff, bridging the gap between our side and the other. But when I stepped closer to the edge, my knees went weak as jelly. Cora had told us about this shattered world. She'd warned us about the treacherous land. Nothing could prepare us as we gazed over the cliff and into the infinite vastness of space.
Chapter 27
The giant tree provided a nice wide bridge, but I felt weak with fear knowing a void waited to swallow us up if we fell. As Elyssa had noted at the rift, falling forever between the stars seemed worse than death. When we reached the middle where the top of our tree entwined with one from the other island, we stopped to gape at the mind-blowing view. Chunks of land hovered in a sea of stars as far as the eye could see, the big green moon crowning the mountain in the center.
The Soul Tree looked close as the crow flies, but remained miles away by foot.
"How can such a place exist?" Elyssa said. "I can't believe the Lyrolai survived when the Sirens tore their world apart."
"There shouldn't be an atmosphere," I said. "These plants should all be dead without sunlight, and anyone who did survive is probably stark-raving mad."
"Then again, there shouldn't be a huge moon with realms orbiting it either," Elyssa said. "This place is like stepping behind the props at a play and seeing they're made from cardboard."
"All the world's a stage, and we are merely players," I murmured. The moon looked close enough to touch. "Never thought a Shakespeare quote could be taken so literally."
"Much as I'd like to gawk, we should hurry." Elyssa checked her phone. "Only a little over twenty-two hours left."
I looked along the path of islands and bridges leading to the destination. "That should be plenty of time."
Elyssa threw up her hands. "Great. You just jinxed us."
I face-palmed. "Sorry, wasn't thinking. Maybe we should run for it."
"Uh, maybe once we get off the bridge." Elyssa backed away from the edge. "I wouldn't want to trip."
We had to walk along a wide branch where the tree from the other island met ours, leaving only a three-foot ledge between us and oblivion. I hugged the bough and made my way to the other side. Once there, we carefully walked to the bottom and then set off at a run on solid ground through another tunnel of trees.
A scrubby yellow plain unfolded before us on the other sid
e. Miniature ponies grazed peacefully in the distance. I was just about to comment how cute they were when a hissing to my right sent me scampering sideways.
What could only be described as a giraffe with six legs and a serpent's head munched on the spiky trees. Its playmate stared down at us, fangs bared and hissing. It skittered toward us, but when it came to within a few yards, it stopped and stared. Its companion stopped chewing, the webbed wing of a flying cat hanging from its mouth.
"I didn't think snakes chewed their food," Elyssa whispered.
I backed away from the new monsters. "Is that really at the top of your mind right now?"
"Why didn't it attack us?" she said.
"Cora's blessing." Though she hadn't specifically told us what the blessing did, I assumed it prevented the monsters here from chowing down on us. I decided it was worth testing. Besides, I could probably shield myself before the giraffe spider ate me. I walked toward the creature. It hissed, but backed away, nearly tripping over its friend.
"What's the matter?" I shouted. "Scared of little old me?" I ran forward and it stumbled over its own feet in the haste to get away. I shook my fist as it ran. "That's what I thought!" It suddenly occurred to me that when a person seemingly scared away a big monster in the movies, they always turned around to find something even larger standing behind them.
When I spun around, the only scary thing I saw was Elyssa's glare.
"If the blessing really keeps us safe, we need to hurry," Elyssa said. "I don't want to be here when it wears off."
We sprinted across the plain through a herd of miniature ponies. They whinnied and galloped out of our way. Several of them snapped razor teeth in our general direction, but made no move to pursue. After carefully crossing the next tree bridge, we found the path on the other side blocked by brambles.
I poked and prodded, but the patch blocked off the rest of the island. "Should I burn it?"
Elyssa shook her head. "That would be a bad idea. Remember how upset Cora got when you even mentioned fire?"
"How else will we get through this?" I asked.
"Use something other than fire," she said. "Pry an opening."
Simple but effective. "I'm glad you have enough brains for both of us."
"Just barely." Elyssa knelt and examined the patch. "I don't see any weak spots."
"I'll make a weak spot." I channeled a wedge of Murk slightly taller and wider than me and pushed it forward. The briar patch crackled and resisted, bending unwillingly out of the way as I formed a tunnel of Murk. I maintained the barrier until we cleared the patch. When I released it, I expected the brambles to collapse and cover the exit, but they remained where I'd left them.
"Not that I'm complaining, but this doesn't make any sense." I touched a bramble. Brown and stiff, it felt like it should have broken instead of bending.
"Nothing in this place makes sense." Elyssa tugged my arm. "Let's go."
We continued our run and started up the next tree bridge.
Elyssa paused to look at the broken land when we neared the top. "I wonder where all the people are. I don't see houses or anything."
"Maybe they live in the trees or underground." I hadn't given it much thought. "From what Cora said, not many survived the breaking of the realm."
"It's like being on a wild safari without a guide." Elyssa navigated the narrow branch at the top. "I'm not sure if I like it or not."
Several miles and two bridges later we reached the Soul Tree. It looked big from far away. Up close, it seemed large enough to house a city in its branches. The trunk measured at least a hundred yards in circumference, and the bough rose hundreds of feet before massive branches sprouted off in all directions.
Wispy white leaves resembling sheer strips of cloth dangled from the limbs. Cora hadn't explained why this was called the Soul Tree, but it definitely emanated an aura that both soothed and frightened me.
Something big and hairy moved in the branches. It looked down at us and growled. Elyssa's hand tightened on mine. Cora had told us to expect this, but that didn't make the next part easy.
The creature scampered down the tree trunk and leapt to the ground. If the Yeti was real, it would look something like this. Standing eight feet tall with shaggy white hair and fangs as long as my hand, the monster's wide nostrils flared, drawing in our scent. It stepped closer, smelling the back of my neck.
"Just don't sniff my ass and we'll be okay," I muttered.
After pacing around me, it dropped to all fours and loped toward the tree, vanishing between the large roots. Moments later, it returned with a small girl tucked under one arm and set her down.
"Oh my god, she's adorable," Elyssa gushed.
Evadora looked up at us with eyes too large to be human. Long green hair hung to her shoulders, and her skin held a silvery sheen.
Elyssa knelt. "Evadora?"
The girl replied in a language I'd never heard, her voice as cute as any little girl's. Unlike other children I'd seen, she didn't smile or frown at the strangers, nor did she betray any other kind of emotion I'd expect.
I took out the package and handed it to her. "Cora sent this."
Evadora looked at the package, face still as stone. She touched the vines holding the packaging. They unbraided themselves and dropped to the ground. The leaves unfolded, like a flower blossoming, to reveal a small crystal bottle glowing with an inner light. Evadora looked up at the Yeti thing and said something in a questioning tone.
The beast replied in a rough voice and tapped a long brown claw on the cork in the top. The stopper popped loose when Evadora tugged on it. The beast spoke in the strange language once again, and the little girl nodded. Carefully, she tipped the bottle into the palm of one hand. Tears piled like frozen drops of water. Each glowed a different color—yellow, red, green, and some of those in-between colors paint manufacturers invent so women think they're better than men.
Evadora plucked one tear from the pile, a sunny glow emanating from it, and funneled the rest back into the bottle. She placed it on her tongue. Her eyes widened and a smile spread across her lips. She corked the bottle and jumped up and down, giggling and clapping her hands.
Elyssa laughed. "The tears gave her emotions!"
Evadora hugged her leg, looking up and talking rapidly. Elyssa knelt and gave the little girl a big hug. "You are just too cute! Can we keep her, Justin? Please?"
I snorted. "I think Yeti here would have something to say about that."
As if responding to me, the shaggy beast nodded sagely and said something even though it had to know we couldn't understand it. Its gaze turned to us and it pointed back the way we came.
I understood that. "I think it's time for us to go."
Elyssa checked the time on her phone. "Looks like we'll make it out of here with plenty of time to spare."
"Now you're the one jinxing the mission," I said with a grin.
We waved goodbye to Evadora, but the girl was too busy playing and leaping around to pay us any attention. We headed back at a jog, though taking the time to cross the tree bridges carefully.
"I'm so ready to be out of this place," I said as we headed through the bramble forest. "Something about the void all around us makes me feel agoraphobic."
"Fear of the environment?" Elyssa looked around uneasily. "I completely agree."
"I wonder if the Void Cephus wants to reach is something like this." I imagined a realm of nothing but insubstantial darkness and it terrified me even more than the Glimmer.
We were about halfway through the briar patch when I felt a sting on my neck.
I blinked and Cora appeared before us, face so expressionless as to be carved in marble. I tried to talk but my words were too slurred to understand. "Wh-wheee?"
"Uhh?" Elyssa grunted.
I sluggishly turned my head to face her. She looked paler than normal and a black vine hovered near her neck, a sharp thorn glistening with green fluid.
"You are from Eden," Cora said in a monotone voice. "M
y sister sent you, did she not?"
Fear surged in my chest, but wallowed in the mud of my grogginess. "Naeve." I pushed the word out slowly like a drunkard at the end of a binge.
"Why did she send you?" Naeve asked.
It took Elyssa a few tries, but she finally got out, "Gift for Evadora."
The Glimmer Queen stared unblinking at her. "What sort of gift?"
"Tears." My tongue slowly unglued itself from the roof of my mouth. "Emotions."
"A dangerous gift indeed," Naeve said. She leaned toward me and sniffed. "Almost gone."
"What is?" I asked.
"Cora's blessing." Naeve walked around us, inspecting our bodies like slabs of meat. "It must be quite a curse to deal with emotions. They were Cora's undoing, and perhaps they'll be yours."
Elyssa struggled with a question. "What do you mean?"
The vine venom seemed to be wearing off because my mouth no longer felt like I was talking underwater. "Are you going to kill us?"
Naeve shook her head. "Cora has already done that by sending you here." She stood in front of me. "Do you think it was coincidence these vines blocked the way to the Soul Tree?"
As my limbs thawed from the effects of the venom, I looked around and realized that by pushing apart the brambles, I'd tripped an alarm somehow. I almost threatened her with magical violence, but bit my tongue. If she knew what I could do, all she'd have to do was prick me with another thorn and that would be that. The venom in those things must be incredibly potent to knock out someone with my recuperative abilities.
"You intend to let the Glimmer creatures kill us," I said, keeping my voice as emotionless as hers.
"The Eden folk despoil nature." Naeve ran her fingers through Elyssa's glossy black hair. "They care only for themselves, not the creatures of the woodland. One day I will venture to Eden and reverse what man has done. For now, I will allow my creatures to sample what is to come."
"How do you know what man has done if you've never been to Eden?" Elyssa said.
Naeve brushed her fingers across Elyssa's full pink lips. "I know much of what Cora knows. After all, I possess half her soul."