“When you reach the water’s edge, look for the flowers, like that of your amulet. They mark the gate. Where the flowers are thick along the water’s edge, dive in and swim straight down. You’ll find a white cave, Eudora’s fortress. She rules the swamp haints and she’ll know what’s become of your mama.” She added her face crumpled with worry.
“Keep your focus, don’t let Eudora snatch your mind. If she plays games with you, won’t give you an answer about your mama, remind her of the covenant.” She warned.
By now the map in the hominy looked like a series of ancient symbols painted on a cave wall. There was a curving line, a row of connected peaks, a circle and a sun.
“What if Eudora won’t let mother go?” I asked.
Cora’s face pinched and anger flashed in her eyes.
“Eudora has no right to keep Nia even if she was foolish enough to let them steal her so many years ago. Eudora broke the covenant. You have the amulet to remind her that there are others who know of her wickedness. But mind me, child, if she plays tricks with you, leave directly with or without your mama. Swamp haints can’t be trusted.” She warned fiercely. “When you leave Eudora’s fortress, swim toward the light and home will find you.” She said softly, unloading an assortment of pots and vials from the basket.
“Cora?” I asked weakly.
“Yes, child?” She paused, meeting my gaze with guarded worry.
“If I can’t get out, what will happen to me?” I asked hesitantly.
The edges of Cora’s eyes creased and the lines around her mouth deepened.
“Your heart won’t beat forever, child. Your Shadow must return and it will.” She said with conviction.
Then taking my hands into her lap, she closed her eyes and muttered several words too quiet for me to hear. When she opened them she dipped her finger into one of the tiny pots and dabbed my head, hands and feet.
“Yarrow, for courage.” She whispered and reached into another pot.
She sprinkled something over my head.
“Horehound, to protect you from the haints mischief.” She said crisply.
Lastly, she reached for the small vial.
“Drink this.” She said softly, holding out the vial for me to take.
I stared at it and froze.
“What is it?” I asked, my voice a frightened whisper.
“Agrimony elixir. It will help your Shadow separate from your body. Come now, we don’t have much time. You must go before the night settles in.” She cooed in a soothing voice.
I closed my eyes and inhaled one last breath before taking the vial in my hands. The liquid flowed down my throat like fire and settled into the pit of my stomach like a pile of smoldering coals. I clasped the amulet tightly and remembered too late to ask Cora how to carry it as a Shadow. My lips were numb and thick. No sound could escape my throat because my breath was shallow and detached. Darkness flowed over me like tar weighing me down pressing me deeper and deeper into the ground.
And then, I was light.
24
The question hanging on my breath was answered. The amulet swung from a chain around my neck and flopped against my chest. The next sensation was a chill, a humid blanket of air wrapping around me and most unnervingly, blowing through me.
When my vision finally arrived the scenery was nothing but a tunnel of jumbled shapes, like peering through a kaleidoscope. But slowly, the flat shapes gained depth and definition until I could clearly make out the ruffled silhouettes of the trees that flanked the dirt road beneath my feet. The soles of my feet rested lightly on the ground buoyed as if I was standing in a pool of water. A feeling of dread settled in my stomach as I absorbed the sensations of a place I’d been before, under equally unpleasant circumstances. I forced the terror crawling up my chest back into the pit of my stomach.
This time, I’d chosen to come here and the creatures in the water, weren’t expecting me. I began to walk. The symphony of night noises from the forest echoed around me but my footsteps made no sound. It wasn’t long before the shimmering surface of the water came into view. And soon after, the road terminated at its edge. I crept along the shoreline searching for the gate. My fingers found the amulet around my neck and traced the grooves of the carved flower, studying its shape.
My heart raced at the sight of the first flower in the water. The gate was near. The water lilies glowed like ultraviolet pearls in the moonlight, cradled on beds of waxy leaves. Then the scatter of flowers began to close over the oily black water separating them until there was no trace of the water beneath only a plush bed of leaves and petals.
I stood before the carpet of flowers struggling to find the courage to dive to their roots. The amulet on my neck warmed against my chest, a reminder of its power.
There is no earth and no air but your Shadow won’t mind.
I recalled Cora’s assurance and dipped a toe beneath a broad leaf growing over the shore. The water was seasonably cold. Bracing myself for the shock, I plunged the other foot forward into the water and instinctively held my breath.
A sickening shriek echoed off the trees.
I froze, the cold water lapped around my ankles and I knew instantly that my plan was shattered. A chorus of chilling laughter and icy whispers slithered across the water. A tendril shot from beneath the leaves and fastened around my leg followed rapidly by a succession of other tendrils sucking at my arms and neck. There was no use fighting it. I was going down.
Cora was right. I sank into the inky water, flailing and gasping. The cold liquid poured into my mouth and slid down my throat. It filled my chest and swirled around my belly but there was no pain like I’d heard accompanied drowning. The water flowed through me. All my limbs were tangled in slippery cords that tugged me toward the bottom of the swamp.
After the initial shock and moment of drowning panic, my head cleared. I searched the murky water for a view of my captors but all I could see was darkness. It was quiet, the kind of suffocating quiet that makes your thoughts sound like screams inside your head.
Then from somewhere hidden in the murk, a faint light reached out from the deep. At first, it was just a fuzzy amber ball in the distance but as we drew closer, the light spread and I was able to see the tendrils wrapped around my arms. They were black, smooth and shiny as eels.
The water brightened from blue-black to a peat stained brown and the glowing ball in the distance slowly split into two distinct orbs. A wall of white rock emerged like a massive cliff face. The tentacles pushed me toward a large black hole in the rock marked on either side by the lights.
“Join us.” The words seeped into my consciousness, a slippery whisper.
In the growing light, I traced the line of the tentacles searching the tea colored water again for my captors. They were surprisingly close.
The creatures’ faces were fine like marble statues with skin a cold bluish gray hue against the brown water. They sailed forward, effortlessly propelled by rippling fins that fluttered like wings from their backs. The black tentacles streamed behind them, fastened somewhere beneath the feathery fins. Their long legs trailed gracefully through the water. They must be the scylla, I thought feeling defeated and slightly awestruck.
As we neared the cave’s mouth, the current strengthened and pulled me from behind the scylla toward the dark portal. The tentacles began to slip around my arms, loosening their grip, slowly relinquishing me to the current of water flowing rapidly into the disorienting dark. Finally, my arms broke free, sending me tumbling into the black void. Then my body slammed into a surface so hard I was certain my Shadow was smashed to pieces.
When I awoke, I lay on a dry slab of rock. The sound of water dripping echoed around me. Soft silver light, like that of the moon, illuminated the cavern.
“Welcome to Merepen Hallow, Eliza.” Said a voice like the tinkling of a wind chime.
I lifted my head from the rock floor and searched for the owner of the startling voice. The stone slab sat before a still black pool of w
ater. The walls of the cavern were pocked with dark holes of all different sizes.
A small spritely nereid stood not a foot from where I lay. She looked similar to the nereids I’d already seen except for her size. She was markedly more petite, almost childlike in stature. Her large almond eyes shone like polished amber and vivid red hair curled around her shoulders.
“Keepers!” She called in a shrill tone that probably would have shattered my eardrums, if I’d brought them.
There was a loud whir and flapping noise, like bats in flight and a flurry of shadows bounced around the cavern fracturing the light. Cold hard hands clamped around my arms and pulled me to my feet.
The scylla stood next to me once again, sleek and hard as statues. Their paper-thin wings and tentacles tucked tightly against their backs.
“Eudora will be so pleased… to meet you.” The sprite nereid said, her tinkling voice sharpening like the edge of a razor. As she spoke, a set of mossy green wings slowly expanded behind her, glittering with smooth scales.
“Escort Eliza to her room.” She ordered before flitting into one of the tunnels leaving behind the faint sound of beating wings.
The sentries remained stone faced and I wondered if they could speak since their expressions certainly gave no indication of emotion. Without so much as a glance my way, they began to flap their large wings. Trapped between them like a mouse in a hawk’s talons my feet lifted off the ground. My toes skimmed across the floor of the cavern as I was carried with increasing speed toward one of the larger holes in the cave wall. The sentries tightened their grip as we soared into the tunnel. The walls of the tunnel were smooth and shiny, illuminated by the same strange silver light of the cavern, giving the pale rock the appearance of marble.
As we moved into the depths of Merepen Hallow, twisting and turning down passageways, we passed endless openings to other tunnels. Before long, I was certain that I would never be able to find my way back to the cavern I’d entered alone. After what felt like hours of travel, we arrived at a door. There, fixed into the stone, was a deeply stained wooden door with a vintage crystal doorknob, an exact replica of my childhood bedroom door. The sight of it made my skin crawl with suspicion.
The sentries released my arms and turned their expressionless faces to the door. I fell to the ground and rocked back and forth from heel to toe grasping the floor beneath my feet. My arms ached from the sentries grip and I alternated hands, rubbing each arm in an attempt to soothe them. The doorknob sparkled and the aged brass keyhole shone in the crystalline light. A dull nail protruded from the top of the door where my wooden nameplate had hung years ago.
Why would the nereids have my bedroom door? My mind raced and heart pounded as I considered how poorly prepared I was to spar with this adversary. I glanced at the sentries’ faces waiting for them to make a move but they just stared blankly ahead. I reached out and touched the doorknob, remembering the cool glassiness of it in my palm, and pushed. My breath caught in my chest.
Beyond the door was my bed with yellow rosebud sheets and little bookshelf lined with all of my favorite books. Save the window, which was absent, the room appeared to be not just a replica but my exact childhood bedroom. I stepped inside marveling in astonishment until I heard the door creak. I spun around just in time to see it slam shut, trapping me inside.
* * *
Time passed slowly and unremarkably as I lay on the bed staring at the ceiling fan circle lazily above me. There were no clocks in my room and the only light was the unchanging pale moonlight that seemed to exist everywhere in Merepen Hallow independent of origin.
I didn’t grow hungry or tired in the predictable manner that I normally did which made it difficult to determine just how long I had been waiting for something, anything to happen beyond the confines of the room. I tried to pick the lock of the door and pry it open to no avail. I banged on the door and shouted demanding freedom but no sound, not even a footstep or flutter of wings, could be heard on the other side. For all I knew, I could have been abandoned in the room until I died… or at least my body gave up waiting for me. The thought made me panic and pace the floor until I remembered that the spritely nereid had said Eudora would be pleased to meet me, which meant at some point, they would have to let me out.
At last, the doorknob turned. In a blink of an eye the sprite nereid stood in the open door frame, her eyes sparkling and mouth tweaked in a malevolent smile. I shot up off the bed and dashed toward the door but the nereid had her wings spread firmly blocking the exit.
She stared at me with a cunning expression for several moments and then, without a word, stepped aside. I lunged forward, expecting it to be my opportunity to leave the prison but halted when I noticed a figure lurking in the dim light of the tunnel. I struggled to believe the vision before me.
“Mother?” I heard my own voice float from my lips, vulnerable and hopeful.
The figure stepped closer confirming her identity.
“Mother!” I shouted excitedly and dashed toward her.
But as soon as I reached the door, she disappeared like smoke in the wind. I frantically peered into the depths of the tunnel but all I found was the nereid grinning maliciously at me.
“What happened to my mother?” I demanded fiercely losing my patience with her games.
She glared at me, her eyes narrowing and expanding as she watched me grow angrier by the moment. It was only a glance but I noticed her large amber eyes flit toward the amulet on my chest. Recognition flashed in her gaze and I seized my opportunity.
“You’ve broken the covenant. You have no right to keep her here or me for that matter!” I spat.
The nereid’s expression relaxed. “Eudora will be the judge of that.” She responded coolly.
And the door slammed, trapping me once again inside my room.
Suddenly the amulet grew warmer and throbbed like a heartbeat against my skin. My fingers protectively curled around it. The keyhole grew dark. The rhythm of beating wings echoed loudly in the tunnel beyond the door. It swung open once again but this time, the sentries waited on the other side with their wings spread wide.
Join us… You will join us… Join us.
The words swirled around my head like the rustle of fall leaves on the breeze. My gaze narrowed on the sentries’ blank faces. Their mouths were frozen and expressionless yet I was certain it was their voices I heard, dancing around the room.
“No way.” I stated boldly just before the tentacles shot into the room ensnaring me.
They bundled me tightly like a fly in a spider’s web. This time, the sentries aggressively weaved and swooped through the tunnels but all I could see was the path we left behind from the space between the tentacles on my face. Finally, giving up all hope of remembering a path through the intricate catacombs, I closed my eyes, thought of my mother and hoped I could get us both out of this mess.
As the sentries pace slowed, the light brightened and the tunnel expanded until we emerged into a high ceilinged cavern. The tentacles cocooning me unraveled and I floated like a feather onto the glossy floor.
“Eliza. At last, we meet.” Said a voice as smooth and dark as a shark.
I scrambled to my feet preparing to meet the adversary who held the key to my mother’s fate.
Eudora was perched in a divot, shaped like an egg, high on the wall. Her pale face was framed by a mass of black hair that swayed like the tentacles of an anemone in a current, an intriguing contrast of light and dark.
I raised my chin, feigning confidence.
“You know why I’m here. I’m not interested in getting to know you.” I replied firmly.
Eudora slipped out of the base of the egg and instantly a brilliant set of black and white wings edged with shimmering ultraviolet scales spread behind her. She sailed gracefully to the ground.
“Ah, so defensive.” She quipped lightly as she flitted closer to me.
Her large purple eyes gripped mine.
Instinctively I grasped the amulet, its
rhythmic throb intensified with every inch Eudora crossed.
“You broke the covenant. You can’t keep us here.” I said hostilely.
Eudora’s long slender hand reached for my neck and took the amulet from my fingers.
“Cannot and should not are different things.” She said bitingly.
The chain fell against my neck and I looked down in horror to find the amulet missing. Eudora held up her palm, her purple lips drawn in a line. The amulet melted, leaving a scarlet pool of liquid in the cove of her hand.
“I think it’s about time to reclaim that promise.” She said and crudely licked the liquid from her hand.
I stared at her in shock. It felt like the battle I’d come to fight was already over and I’d lost.
Eudora fluttered her massive wings and circled me slowly.
“I’m not completely without scruples, dear Eliza. Bear in mind, your mother came to Merepen Hallow willingly. I did not take her against her will.” She cooed flitting in and out of my range of sight.
I spun around trying to face her.
“My mother may have come with you willingly but she didn’t intend to stay!” I snapped fiercely.
Eudora laughed, a sound like crystal smashing against the walls.
“Your mother doesn’t remember her intentions, much less you, Eliza.” She said.
Anger bubbled in my stomach.
“What do you want? You’ve trapped my mother and hunted me. We have something you want. What is it?” I baited her contemptuously.
At once, Eudora stopped circling and stood before me, bobbing from one foot to the other. Her vapid purple eyes widened and turned black.
“Eliza Gowan, I’d like to make a new covenant.” She said, her voice as slick and sticky as oil.
I glared at her. “Really? Like the one you just ate?” I spat.
Her lips stretched into a smile.
“That covenant grew stale centuries ago. Besides, I have something you want, rather someone, don’t I?” She said.
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