by BC Powell
I slowly lift my face from the lilies. While gazing across the calm, glistening waters at the Serquatine, I’m spellbound by the beauty of their faces.
Why am I at the Springs? I think to myself.
After a few seconds of searching through my mind, I remember the Murkovin chase. It seems like a very long time ago. Or maybe it never happened and I imagined the whole thing. Gentle ripples beckon to me while the peaceful sound of falling water from the end of the pool sings my name.
There’s a reason I’m not supposed swim in the water, I tell myself, but I can’t remember what the reason is. I really want to jump in.
When I stand, the world around me pulsates with soft light. Colors bleed from the scenery, and I’ve stepped into a mystifying dream. After leaning down to take the boots off my feet, I slip my shirt over my head and toss it to the ground. I loosen my belt and let it fall to the rocks before I dive over the lilies.
Entering the pool with a soft splash, I’m bathed in soothing wetness. As I float to the top of the pool, the water caresses away the soreness in my body.
“Have more nectar,” Viridania serenades from across the pool. “The energy you seek will soon be inside you.”
With a casual stroke of my arms, I return to the lily pads. My feet hit hard rock beneath them, so I stand with the water up to my chest. Leaning my face down to the petals, I drink again from the center of a flower.
While I swallow the nectar, soft, smooth fingertips slide up my back. Viridania’s face appears above the water beside me. She presses her full, supple breasts against my body, their touch igniting my skin.
“Come with me to the center of the pool,” she whispers in my ear. “It is peaceful.”
She slips behind me, reaching her hands underneath my arms. Gliding on her back, she pulls me away from the lilies. As we float across the pool, I look up at the colors overhead. They’re alive and waltzing through the air all the way from my eyes to the clouds.
Near the center of the pool, Viridania releases her hold on me. I float on my back while she treads water at my side. After Rosealea swims to us, they each take one of my hands in their slender, webbed fingers and slowly stretch my arms across the water. In a blissful trance, I stare up at the clouds with a smile on my face.
A pleasurable sting scrapes across my skin. I turn my head to watch Viridania dragging her fingernail along my inner forearm. Her mouth traces the trail of red, lustfully licking my blood. Her tongue feels moist and warm against my skin, and I don’t want her to stop.
“No!” a woman’s voice screams from across the pool.
I look up to see Hycinthea treading water in front of the fall.
“This is none of your concern!” Rosealea yells at her.
“He is the one who helped me!” Hycinthea shouts. “Let him go!”
“We have no debt to him, and yours has been repaid,” Viridania argues.
“He entered the water of his own will,” Rosealea snarls. “You know the decree.”
Hycinthea powerfully strokes towards the center of the pool. Viridania suddenly lurches forward, sweeping her hands across the top of the water. An enormous wave lifts from the surface, surging away from us towards the fall. Hycinthea splashes to a stop before the wave reaches her, furiously spins in the water, and shoots a violent maelstrom across the pool.
The whirlpool surrounds us, trapping me inside the rotating funnel. I’m dazed by the sudden whirling motion, but it also sparks a moment of clarity. Panic sets in when I realize the two Serquatine are trying to kill me for my blood.
With a flood of new strength from the nectar in my body, I dive deep under the water. Powerfully kicking my feet and stroking my arms, I break out of the cyclone and into the calm. Deep under the surface, I swim with all my might as the waves clash above me.
When my hands hit rock, I claw my way out of the water just beside the fall. Without looking back, I spring down the rocks beside the series of terraced pools. Glancing to my side and behind me, I don’t see the Serquatine in pursuit.
The clouds suddenly thrash into motion, rain plummets from the sky, and the light recedes to Darkness. Knowing I narrowly avoided death, I sprint down the side of the hill.
Chapter 23
A stormy dark wasteland spreads out in front of me when I reach the bottom of the slope. Shooting down from a savage sky, rain batters my skin. I run along the banks of the river, hoping the energy from the nectar allows me to blend my light. The labyrinth flashes in my vision and I lock on to the few wisps of radiance I find heading to the south.
After just a few seconds of traveling, my focus drifts and I begin to feel disoriented. I have trouble remembering where I am or where I’m supposed to go. The only coherent thought I’m capable of assembling is: Follow the river.
I have no sense of time passing, no idea how many miles are flowing underneath me, and I’m becoming increasingly confused. Rational thought slips away as I struggle more and more to stay with the beams. I flutter occasionally, feeling my particles trying to slam into my body. Unable to maintain my concentration any longer, I retract from the blend to a run, but I immediately crash to the ground. The energy is there—I just can’t seem to muster the mental control to harness it.
Lying in the wet dirt, I roll to my back. While I run my hands over a few scrapes on my bare chest and arms, the torrential rain washes the mud from my skin. Not feeling any serious injuries, I sit up facing the river. As I watch the rapids, the rainfall begins to thin, so I look up at the sky. The clouds stop moving and light slowly returns. I squint at multicolored rays peering through the clouds, wondering why they’re not gray and white like I’ve always seen in the Barrens. And then another question pops into my mind.
Why is the river running in the same direction the light is pointing?
What did I learn from Tork? The light always points to the north in Krymzyn. But right now, the light is pointing to the south. The river flows north to south, and the rays never point in the same direction that the water runs. Or is the river now flowing north? I need to analyze this more thoroughly, but a bank of fog seems to be blowing into a void between me and my mind.
The rapids run to the south. Light always points to the north. I look up at the sky again before returning my eyes to the water. The light is pointing in the same direction that the river is flowing. Is that north or south?
I try to think of an explanation, and the answer is . . . gone. It was there for a split second, but it poofed away. Poofed. Is that a word?
“Poofed,” I mumble. “Poof.”
I don’t know if it’s a verb or a noun or an ad-something, but I quickly lose interest in semantics or grammar or whatever you call that and look around the Barrens. I don’t see any trees. An expanse of black hills goes on and on as far as I can see, but there’s nothing growing from the dirt. I guess parts of the Barrens don’t have sustaining trees.
Can I jump in the river and just let the rapids carry me to the Delta? Body-surf all the way home, one hundred thousand miles through the beautiful silvery-blue waves. Laughing out loud, I decide that’s a terrible idea. When my own laughter echoes from the hills and reenters my ears, a chill runs up my spine. It’s a hideous sound, like deranged cackling from inside the walls of an asylum.
After standing up, I walk to the south. Or is it the north? I’m not sure which it is. To be honest, I’m feeling a bit bewildered by this whole north-south thing and don’t want to think about it anymore. I don’t want to think about anything for that matter. I just want to walk. Or maybe lie down on my back and stare at the sky.
Why is it always so cloudy in Krymzyn? I glance up at the static gray billows, wishing that just once these motionless clouds that hover over my head every second I’m in this world would go away and reveal a beautiful baby blue sky as far I can see. Is that really too much to ask for?
“Poof,” I say, flicking my hand at the clouds. “You’re gone.”
I spin to a screeching sound behind me.
&
nbsp; My eyes squint and my mouth falls open as I look at the top of a hill. A monkey bounces along the crest. Monkeys like to be silly, I remember, and that makes me laugh again. Then another furry little primate appears, followed by several more. Jumping up and down with their arms swinging through the air, they look at me and howl. I wonder if they’ll be my friends. My silly little friends.
A dog barks from behind the hill the monkeys are on.
Waves of golden fur float around his body as my family dog, Casey, leaps from behind the ridge. The monkeys instantly scamper away and disappear behind another hill. With the feathered fur of his blond tail swishing behind him, Casey stops running and barks at me.
“Casey!” I holler.
He turns and bounds away, vanishing behind the hilltop. Did Casey die and come to Krymzyn? He was very old when I left Earth. How long have I been in Krymzyn? I don’t think I can answer that question because I don’t seem to be able to differentiate between the past, present, and future. Maybe I’m dead and this is Heaven. Or maybe it’s Purgatory, or maybe even Hell. Even though I suddenly feel very philosophical, I really don’t want to think about heavy stuff right now. I want to find Casey. He always loved me.
I run to the hilltop where he stood. My heart stops when I see the landscape in front of me.
Calm aqua waves gently curl across a sparkling blue ocean and break on the cream-colored sands of Zuma Beach. A gentle breeze laced with the smell of salt bathes my face. The sun hovers just over the horizon, flaming with tones of red and orange as it warms my skin.
A trail of paw prints leads across the sand to a lone blanket spread out on the beach. With their backs to me and Casey standing by their side, a man and a woman are sitting on the blanket. There’s not another person or living creature in sight. The man and woman turn to me.
“Mom! Dad!” I call out with tears filling my eyes.
I race down the hill, my bare feet feeling the soft, warm texture of sand against my skin as I cross the beach. My parents both stand up from the blanket.
“What did you think you were going to do?” my father yells at me. Veins bulge from his forehead and his jaw is clenched tight.
“What do you mean?” I ask, stopping in front of them.
“We found the gun in your apartment!” he shouts. “And your sorry attempt at a suicide note. How could you ever think of doing something like that to your family?”
“I don’t . . . I don’t know,” I stammer.
“Do you know the pain you’ve caused us?” my father growls.
“I’m . . . I’m sorry,” I say, almost starting to cry. “I’m alive here. Didn’t Ally tell you?”
“You’re a selfish, heartless person, Chase,” my mother sneers, shaking with anger, her cheeks flushed red. “You wanted the easy way out.”
“I didn’t want you to suffer watching me die of cancer,” I plead. “I didn’t want to put you through what Davis’s family went—”
“Shut up!” Mom screams. “Did you somehow think that planning to blow your brains out wouldn’t hurt us? I wish I’d never given birth to such a selfish child.”
“But I’m alive here, Mom.”
“You expect us to believe you’re alive in one of your hallucinations?” my father spews.
When he steps towards me, I look into his eyes. Narrow slits of blue glare at me. Without warning, the back of his hand slams into my face, knocking me to my knees. He stands over me with his fists clenched while blood trickles from my lips.
“I’m sorry,” I sob, knowing that they never once hit or even spanked me or my sister. “I never wanted to hurt you.”
“We would have stayed with you through anything,” my mother says angrily. “You were ready to throw our love away.”
Casey growls and suddenly leaps at me. I try to push him off me, but his mouth clamps on my arm and his teeth rip my flesh.
Behind my parents, a titanic wave at least forty feet high shoots up from the swell. I manage to shove Casey away, jump to my feet, and grab my mom and dad by their shirts.
“Run!” I scream.
My father laughs a horrible, evil laugh and pushes me away from them. “We’d rather die!” he bellows. “Just like you!”
The wave peaks high above the beach and collapses onto the dry land. As gurgling white foam rips across the sand, I turn and run away. The flood of water hits me from behind, hurling me against the side of the hill. When I look back, the beach is gone, empty dry hills in its place.
“Hallucination?” I whisper.
My heart feels crushed by my parents’ words, even if it was just a hallucination of some kind. But if it wasn’t real, why is blood dripping from the teeth marks in my arm?
I look again at the exact spot my parents were moments ago. All I see is black dirt with gray clouds overhead. Despite how confused and distraught I am, I still have to try to get back to the Delta.
After standing and walking over the top of the hill, I return to the banks of the river. Looking up at the sky, I try once again to come up with a reason that the rays of light are pointing in the same direction the river is running.
A Serquatine pokes her head out of the water in the rapids in front of me, creating a pocket of calm around her. Her green eyes are focused on me and the tips of her hair are glowing with blue.
“You should have stayed with me in the pool,” Hycinthea says, smiling in a way that seems threatening.
“They were going to kill me,” I reply.
“I would have protected you.” She reaches a hand out in my direction and motions with her webbed fingers for me to come to her. “You can stay with me forever.”
“I belong with Sash,” I say, not moving.
She narrows her eyes at me before hissing, “You are not worthy of the Hunter.”
“We love each other!” I yell, but then I wonder why the word “love” translates in her presence.
“She has no feelings for you. When she finishes learning what she needs to, you will be discarded.”
“You don’t know her the way I do,” I argue.
“I can see her spectrum!” she viciously retorts. “I know everything she thinks and feels. You are nothing to her.”
Her words sting me inside, but I tell myself that there’s no truth contained in them. All I want to do right now is find Sash. I need to be with her, to feel the reassurance of her arms around me and the comfort of her amber eyes looking into mine.
I wheel away from the Serquatine and pump my arms as I sprint to the south. Or is it to the north? Without even thinking about it, I glitch and latch on to the beams.
Soaring beside the river, I try to stay focused. I can’t judge how long my travel lasts—seconds or hours—but my mind is weary and my concentration gradually decays. I have to let go of the light, ending my blend.
When I come to a stop, I rest my hands on my knees. Flashes of bright light farther down the river catch my eyes. The steel bridge leading to the western Barrens arches over the river in front of me. I’ve never been to this bridge, but I’ve seen it from a distance when traveling to the Mount. In a red haze behind it, the Delta stands a mile or two farther downstream. I must have been traveling for hours and hours without even knowing it.
I start to run towards the Delta but trip on a rock, falling to my hands and knees. I don’t have anything left inside, physically or mentally. Whatever strength I gained from the nectar seems to be gone. I finally stand and slowly walk the mile to the bridge, staggering occasionally across the black dirt.
As I pass by the bridge above the fork in the river, I search the Barrens for Murkovin. I don’t see any sign of life, not even the blackened sustaining trees I know grow in this area. Squinting my eyes towards the Delta, I don’t spot a single Watcher on the marble wall.
My legs burn each time I lift a foot. I’m somehow able to place one in front of the other, step by step, over and over. Another hour of grinding my feet against the dirt seem to slip away before I reach the road to the Mount. I walk
to the edge of the bridge that spans the river to the Delta gate, but I can’t take another step.
After falling to the metal surface, I roll onto my back and stare up at the dark clouds. Nothing would feel better than sleep right now, but I refuse to close my eyes. Clenching my teeth, I force myself to turn over to my hands and knees.
“Help!” I scream, hoping a Watcher hears me, but there’s nobody on the wall.
Not receiving a reply, I crawl up the steel slope to the top of the arch. Resting on my knees, I stare at the wall.
“Help!” I yell again.
One door swings open, and Tork steps through the gate. With a huge sigh of relief, I smile at the sight of his face. He slowly crosses the bridge to me with his spear dangling by his side.
“Thank you for coming,” I say when he nears me. “I need sap.”
He stops a few feet in front of me and looks down into my eyes. “You don’t belong here.”
“Tork,” I reply, “why are you saying that?”
“You don’t belong in Krymzyn!” he grunts. “Leave now.”
“You know I belong here. I have a purpose.”
“No . . . you don’t!” he roars. “Return to the wilderness or die!”
“Please,” I beg, looking at the flask hanging by his side. “Just let me have some sap.”
“You never should have come to Krymzyn.”
With both his hands clamped around the shaft, he draws his spear back until it’s cocked over his shoulder. Hatred blisters from his amber eyes while he takes aim at my forehead. I try to raise my arms, but I don’t have the strength to even move. Tork plunges the steel point down at my head.
“Stop!” Sash’s voice screams.
The tip just kisses my skull before Sash slams into Tork, knocking his spear away. His body bursts into grains of dust. As the specs slowly float to the ground, I look around me. The bridge is gone and the Delta is nowhere in sight. My knees are resting on dirt near the edge of the river, and Sash is standing over me. Considering everything I’ve seen, I’m not sure I can believe it’s really her.