by Brindi Quinn
“Yeah, Aura, tell us everything about the officers!”
Ardette and Nyte answered at the same time.
“She cannot.”
“Quite impossible. Hate to disappoint.”
“Aww man!” Kantú crossed her arms and huffed away.
Nyte helped me up, and the four of us ventured to the coast where we watched the colored gulls and other seabirds that swooped along the top of the water.
I tried my best not to alert Kantú and Nyte to my unspoken distress . . . surely die . . . though I could tell they suspected something was wrong anyway. Both remained by my side, pointing out oddly shaped rocks and particularly aggressive birds while the salty breeze sprayed us more and more vigorously as day turned to dusk.
The weight of responsibility loomed near me like an ever-present shadow. Whenever I tried to escape it, I turned around only to find it right behind me, growing larger as the light of day faded. Could I be the peoples’ new savior?
But I’m normal. But every time the words squirmed their way into my head, there was Nyte, glancing over at me like I was anything but normal. Something special; something to be treasured.
My Nyte . . . I treasure you too, and for you I’ll try. But not just for you. For Illuma, Kantú, Grotts, Scardo, Rend, Ardette, everyone . . . I’ll take the role of your savior: The Heart of Salvation. Even if I fail, I’ll try.
Chapter 17: The Flame
“Everything seems to be in order,” said Darch, removing his hands from my ears.
He straightened up, causing the light from the full moon to glint off the side of his spectacles.
“Have I passed check-up?” I asked.
He smiled brightly. “Brilliantly! But your spirit seems to have changed a little.”
“Changed?”
He leaned in close again and examined me over the top of his frames. “It was there before, but it seems to have grown stronger.” He rubbed his temple and tried to determine what exactly ‘it’ was. Finishing his analysis, he abruptly grabbed my shoulders and gave them a little squeeze. “Are you in love?” he asked, voice welling with exhilaration.
“In love?!” I waved my hands wildly in front of my face to block his perceptive Magir skills.
The comment seemed to have piqued Ardette’s and Nyte’s interest, both of whom were waiting for me to pass inspection just a short distance away with the rest of the guard. Nyte stiffened and looked over his arm at me inconspicuously. Ardette, far less subtle, leaned in eagerly. He cleared his throat and raised a brow.
“Ah . . .” Should I deny it?
“Just kidding!” Darch winked and tapped his chin.
I laughed awkwardly.
He leaned in again. “Secret’s safe with me,” he whispered. Then he raised his voice a little too loudly and said, “It was such an honor to meet you, Aura! I’ll be waiting here for you to get back. Take care of your spirit between now and then.”
“Thanks, Darch.” I stuck out my hand to give him a parting shake, but he instead wrapped his arms around me and gave me a spin, as he had on our first meeting.
“Well then, good luck, everyone! Wish I could come along!” He waved to the party before turning back to the fortress.
I wobbled away from him dizzily, and going around the eavesdropping Daem and Elf, walked over to Kantú. She was having an animated conversation with Grotts.
“I don’t get it!” she said, putting her hands on her hips.
“The full moon’ll light the way, that’s all I know.” He shrugged.
She removed only one hand from her hip and used it to gesture up at the sky.
“But the full moon is right there. Where’s the path?”
She was right. The night sky was cloudless, the eastern moon full and fully exposed. Its light lit the ground all around us, but no path could be seen.
“I dunno, Kantoo, we just have ta be patient. If the officers said it’s gonna work, then it’s gonna work.”
“First of all, I don’t like being patient. And second of all, those dummy officers didn’t like me enough to invite me to their secret meeting, so I don’t-”
But at that moment, the ground started shaking. It started as a slight tremor, but quickly reached quaking. The smallest of the rocks along the coast broke free and fell, rolling and bouncing into the ocean. The massive fortress held, unwavering, but the ground below us trembled vigorously, so much so that it was difficult to stand. I grabbed Kantú’s arm for support, but she was even unsteadier than I was, and we both toppled to the ground.
“Sorry, Kantú!”
She hid her face in her tail and let out an eek. I put my arm around her and looked up at Grotts.
“What’s happening?” I asked. “The path?”
“Must be.” He looked around apprehensively, clutching his hammer in both hands.
Rend was bracing herself against the fortress’ stone wall. “It would have been better for us to remain inside,” she hissed, struggling to remain grounded.
“You are quite right about that, dear Rend,” said Ardette, also trying to resist the quaking.
She flinched at his address but said nothing.
Ardette said something nice . . . and Rend didn’t call him a pig or worm or anything? That’s weird.
“Is everyone all right?” asked Nyte. He was holding onto an obsidian, one-winged cherub statue for support. Sleek and clean, I hadn’t noticed before how out of place it seemed against the otherwise ivy-covered landscape.
Wait a minute, something’s off.
“Look out!” I called, noticing how the cherub seemed to tremble more vigorously than the ground around it, but before Nyte could act, there was a grinding sound, and he was thrown to the ground by the cherub’s sudden jerk.
“Nyte!”
“Cousin!” Rend jumped away from the wall and unevenly stumbled toward him.
“I am fine,” he reassured.
We all turned from our respective steadying points to watch the cherub, which continued coarsely jerking and turning against its base. When it had pivoted a half circle, it stopped.
Is it done?
One at a time, we warily approached it.
“Is this it?” Scardo asked. He paced around it, hands behind his back and shoulders forward.
Grotts rubbed his chin. “But where’s the door?”
We weren’t given time to speculate the issue, for just then Parnold Rekrap walked out of one of the side doors. He briskly headed over to me.
“Parnold?” I said.
“Here you go, Miss Rosh.”
He extended his hand to me. In his palm sat a small dark stone.
“An angel stone?” Another one? I started to reach out to receive it.
“Wait! Miss Havoc, what about what happened last time?” Nyte put his hand on my elbow and pulled my hand back slightly.
“Yes,” said Parnold, “Scardo recounted the tale for me, but such things only happen if one misuses the stone. We need only keep it away from moisture.”
“Oh.” I looked to Scardo for verification.
Scardo nodded, and I accepted the stone in the sleeve of my shirt. Like the last time, it was cold to the touch but rapidly heated, growing blood red as it did.
“Ah!” It quickly reached searing.
“Bring it to the statue!” urged Parnold.
I did as he said, and the stone hopped from my hand, just as the one at the Sea of Mud had. Finding its groove, it rolled around the cherub’s side and then sank into a divot. There was a loud thud, and the cherub fell forward, revealing a trapdoor.
“Another Orolian Tunnel entrance?” asked Nyte, crouching down to inspect the door’s strange characters. They were exactly like the ones from the mud’s hidden door.
Scardo, Grotts and Ardette looked as surprised as the rest of us.
“My, my, are the officers keeping secrets from us? How disheartening.” Ardette bit his thumbnail and pretended to pout.
“Yeah,” growled Grotts. “Why didn’t we know ‘bout this?”
>
“You know how it works,” said Parnold. “They only reveal what you need to know.”
“That’s right. We should not question it.” Scardo bowed low in agreement. Or maybe it was veneration. Either way, it bothered Ardette.
“Tch. Suck up.” He masked the insult with a cough, but Scardo heard it anyway, and his jaw flexed a little. Even so, the hunched man said nothing to lash back.
“Well then,” prodded Parnold, “you’d better not waste any more time. Hurry along!”
“Right.” I nodded. “Okay, guys, should we be off-”
But I was interrupted by the call of a meek voice. “W-wait!”
“Hm?” Upon turning around, I found that the voice belonged to a very flustered Poe. The dainty woman had just come rushing from the same side door that Parnold had used, and in her fluster, had left the door to close with a banging clap.
I assumed right away that something was wrong because she was without bonnet, and her strides were much more aggressive than usual. Kantú and I had already said our goodbyes to her earlier in the day, but it seemed she’d left something unsaid.
She marched in our direction, looking oddly determined.
“Poe?”
But she brushed right past me.
Huh?
And instead walked up to . . .
Scardo.
With pink cheeks, she pulled something from her pocket and shyly held it out to him. Curious, I inched closer and saw that it was a white handkerchief with eyeleted edges.
“May your voyage be safe,” she said, dainty as ever.
I stared at the pair of them. They stood awkwardly. What exactly had happened in my two days of avid brooding? Had the dance actually spawned something between them?
Apparently it had, because Scardo bowed lower than I’d ever seen him bow. This time his tails not only lifted off the ground, they came all the way to mid-calf. He said nothing but reached out and accepted the cloth. Poe, being the formal woman she was, returned the bow with a proper curtsey and then immediately turned on heel and scampered back to the fortress. Still flustered, she left us with another banging clap.
It was too funny. The two really did have similar temperaments.
Kantú dropped her mouth at me in stunned shock.
The salamander and his mouse. But I was glad. The scene brought a comfortable half-grin to my frowning mouth.
“Ah, heh heh, alrigh’ better get goin’, then.” Grotts punched Scardo in the arm and winked before pulling open the trapdoor and slipping inside.
Scardo looked up from his bow only enough for me to glimpse the awkward and disgruntled look he was wearing. My half-grin turned into a full-fledged smirk.
One by one we entered the tunnel.
Right away, it was clear that this section of tunnel contained no effulgence flowers, much to Kantú’s disappointment, so I cast my light for the group.
It was the first time Ardette had heard me sing.
“Well, well, so you’re a real songstress after all. I was beginning to doubt.” He said the words with an air of detachment, but as I held the song, his gaze contained a slight wonderment, giving away that he was actually impressed.
“Does it strain you to keep the light going? Or once it’s cast does it no longer affect you?”
“Of course it strains her,” said Nyte, shooting him a perturbed look.
In reply, Ardette only let out an arrogant sniff.
The mood between the two of them hadn’t eased up at all since the dance. It was understandable, but after two days of cutting remarks and glares, and with everything else going on, it all seemed petty. The task ahead of us was way greater than their rivalry, and to be honest, it was getting old. We had to strengthen our bonds if we really hoped to defeat Druelca, but they weren’t even trying!
It was annoying, and I searched my mind for a way to make them behave, but what could I do? They were two grown men . . . well, not really men, but still.
On top of it all, Scardo had been treating Nyte like he carried some contagious disease. It was apparent by his numerous uneasy glances that, as promised, Ardette had told him and Grotts all of the charming details of Nyte’s dark past. Luckily, Grotts seemed not to care and treated the shrouded Elf no differently.
If only the same could be said about the hunched man.
“Why don’t you let me accompany you today, Miss Heart?” he asked, scuttling in between Nyte and me.
Nyte looked away, ashamed.
“I’m fine, Scardo.”
“But . . .” He looked over at Nyte nervously.
“I am fine. Thanks.” I bared my teeth and the light flickered.
He sighed and reluctantly scurried away.
“What’s up with him?” asked Kantú, filling in the space where he’d been.
I shook my head, pretending not to know.
Poor Nyte. It wasn’t like he’d had a choice. How could he be expected to repent his sins when he didn’t even know them?
Rend had picked up on Scardo’s change in attitude towards Nyte as well. She peered after him with obvious suspicion.
“Cousin!” she barked. “I must converse with you. Come to me at once.”
Nyte, looking tired, nodded and went to her.
It can’t go on like this.
I hoped our trek through the tunnel would be swift. I didn’t know how much longer I could put up with all of the feuding and remarks and suspicion.
But to my disdain, I wouldn’t get my wish.
~
By the third day in the tunnel, I was feeling like some cave creature, crawling through the unchanging cavern, taking in the thick, musty air. I dropped my light at night while I slept, but carrying it for days on end was wearing me out, and each morning I awoke as exhausted as when I’d gone to sleep – at least, we thought they were mornings. None of us knew for sure where one day ended and another began.
I was starting to feel the despair I’d felt from the Feirgh’s mist all those days ago. The lack of moonlight and sunlight was depressing.
Kantú was probably the most stir crazy of all of us. She whined and bounded around and made up games with herself, and sometimes broke out in random spells of chitters that echoed down the cavern like insane, high-pitched howling. Things weren’t looking good.
Then one day, or night, or whatever it was, Kantú came bounding down the tunnel with a wide grin on her face. In her hand she held a small wand covered in bells. It made a tinkled ringing as she bounded towards us.
A chimbree? What’s that doing down here?
“Kantú! Did you steal that chimbree from Yes’lech?” But even as I asked the question, I realized how unlikely it was that she’d managed to conceal something like that for that long. The hidden treasure would definitely have driven her mad. Not to mention, we would’ve heard the ringing from inside her pack long before that day – since she wasn’t the steadiest walker.
“Of course not! I found it. I like the sound it makes.”
Ardette snatched it and gave it a shake, driving Kantú into a gleeful frenzy.
“Where’d ya find it, Kantoo?” Grotts eyed it like it might be some ancient relic bewitched with dark magic.
“Just down there.” She pointed down the hall. “There’s a little room!”
“A room!” Rend’s eyes gleamed hungrily. “Why did you not say so earlier, hybrid?” Without warning, she took off in a graceful leap down the hallway.
The rest of them followed, but my pace was much slower than theirs under the strain of the song, and without realizing it, they left me behind.
I walked after them, alone – but not really alone. Unbeknownst to me, someone had lingered in the darkness behind me.
Huh? I jumped when that ‘someone’ grabbed me from behind tenderly.
“This is like when we first met,” whispered a gentle, male voice.
Mmm. The warmth alerted me to who it was before I saw his face.
“Nyte, you scared me.”
“Sorry,
Miss Havoc.” He grinned and scooped me up in his arms.
“I feel so helpless when you do that,” I said, but in actuality, I entirely enjoyed being so close to him.
“Are you not?” he teased.
I rolled my eyes, but nevertheless wrapped my arms around his neck. He easily carried me down the hall after the rest of the guard.
We entered the room where they were, but he didn’t put me down.
Mmm, keep me this way, in your warmth. I tried to keep breathing.
The room was small and dingy, and resembled the first dwelling we’d encountered, though there were no symbols dotting its walls.
“Is there an exit point?” I asked too calmly. The warmth soothed the otherwise dreary surroundings.
“It doesn’t look like it,” said Scardo.
The atmosphere in the dank room turned dismal then, because each of the others let out sighs and outcries of disappointment.
My sigh wasn’t so depressed. Warm.
“Wait!” cried Kantú.
“What is it?” Grotts looked down at her. She froze and then-
“Aura Telmacha Rosh,” said a raspy voice that could’ve only belonged to the feather lady. Or rather, feather man.
The eerie raspiness finally broke me from my subdued state of warm intoxication.
That’s right, I have things to do!
I jumped from Nyte’s arms.
“Elder Nosrac?” I asked, grabbing Kantú’s shoulders and peering into her blank eyes. I had to use the opportunity to get some answers.
“It is as I was once known, but I am no longer so.”
“Oh. Spirit of In-between, then, is the ‘other’ that searches for the Inscription The Mystress? Will we find it before her?”
It was an issue that’d been bothering me since leaving Yes’lech. Wouldn’t she too be trying to gain the prophecy before ad’ai? And what if she was waiting when we got there?
More than anything, I wanted him to tell me something useful, but my questions would remain unanswered; the Spirit of In-between had something else to say.
“Aura Telmacha Rosh,” he said, “the exit lies concealed. Open it with fire!”
“Wait!” I shook Kantú, but she fell limp. At the same time, feathers blew into the room from the outside tunnel.