Passages (Alternate Worlds Book 1)

by Taylor Leigh

  Victoria’s brain buzzed. She could feel the slight tug of Elberon. He could sense something about the place, too, and didn’t like it. There was something powerful, something horrible about the place. It was ancient and evil, and didn’t want her here. The hollow eyes of a deer skull stared at her unforgivingly. If there was some magic here, she’d pay for it.

  Still, the Light had told her to come. She wasn’t about to doubt it now.

  Victoria steeled her nerve and pulled the horse past the tree. She was determined not to look back again, though she could still feel the hollow eyes boring into her back. Her heart pounded in her ears. She was beyond the point of return now. There was no going back.

  Other trees round her were covered with the same grisly decorations, the dead skulls turning, in her mind, to watch her pass by. She pressed on, following the only dry path through the steaming fen. The adorned trees and muddy prints told her she was going the right direction. She kept her eyes open for them now, relieved the grotesque sights were still with her.

  Ahead, the pine trees abruptly ended. Victoria walked slower now till she came to the edge of a quiet, watchful clearing. At the far end of the clearing sat a mountainous pile of rocks. The clearing was nothing special, simply filled with grass swaying dead in the cold breeze. Steam drifted up lazily like fragile ghosts. Sticking out of the grass here and there were what appeared to be lumpy posts. At the distance Victoria was at she couldn’t rightly make out what they were. They looked like old trunks struck by lightning. Something was off. It wasn’t a good place. The clearing radiated a feeling of badness she couldn’t shake.

  Victoria breathed out. She didn’t want to enter the open space before her. And which way did she take now? Surely not into the rocks. She needed to find water! Victoria scanned the clearing for a long moment, hoping, but not really believing she’d see the Light. As she expected, it didn’t appear.

  Crows were shouting overhead. Victoria watched them swoop down and land on one of the posts where they began pecking. She sucked in a breath and, deciding there was no other way, stepped out from the watchful canopy of the trees.

  Peck, peck, peck, went the crows.

  With her first foot down in the grass, something cracked, then she sank into ankle deep water. It was shockingly warm as it seeped through her soft boots but Victoria hissed as the ice from the grass dropped down her shoes.

  She cast a look round her. Water and thin ice blanketed the clearing.

  She tried to take that as a good sign. She must be getting close to the river’s source. The buzz of insects grew irritatingly persistent as she began to wade into the grass. Giant gnats swept round her, biting at Elberon’s skin. The horse’s ears were flattened to the back of his head in obvious displeasure. His eyes went wide as he tossed about, trying to get free from the insects. His whinnies pitched up to a near scream. Victoria didn’t know what had him so spooked but the animal’s near panic was making her nervous.

  As Victoria neared the first of the lumpy posts, she directed their path that way so she could make out what it was. The crows, upon seeing her and the horse, took to the sky with cries of warning. A foul smell hit her nostrils. A dead smell. Victoria peered up at the post and realised in horror what made it look so misshapen. A corpse was tied to it. The body had clearly been there for some time and there was not much left to make out. Victoria could not tell if it had once been a man or woman nor did she know if it was Blaiden or Druid, though the bones appeared rather large.

  She turned round in a tight circle. She estimated twenty such posts staked out round the space. She looked back up at the dead, leering face above her and took a deep breath. She was beginning to feel she should have gone round the clearing.

  She took a step backwards away from the post and almost fell over a skeleton, half submerged in the ice. Her eyes raked the weedy ground and she saw them.

  Everywhere.

  She was in the Blaiden’s boneyard. This place had to be sacred to them. She didn’t know if these dead souls were captives or Blaiden themselves, but what did it matter? She had walked straight into a place where the dead made their final resting and she was tromping through it with little regard. She was definitely gaining no favour in her passage now.

  Victoria cast a glance behind her. She was halfway through the clearing. Her gaze flickered back up to the staring skull. Every body in the place was watching her. She pulled at Elberon’s lead and quickened her pace.

  Clenching her teeth, Victoria picked her way round the fallen bodies. Her heart was hammering through her ribs like a bird against the bars of a cage. Her imagination went wild, bringing to life in her head the dead, pulling themselves out of the ice to follow her.

  She was almost to the rocks! With relief she spotted a slight path shielded by scrubby trees; it wound off through the boulders, away from the open clearing and the dead. Safety was almost in reach. Victoria closed her eyes, trying not to imagine the waterlogged dead behind her. One would surely grab her ankle at any moment. Oh, if only she had a logical mind like Andrew at a time like this!

  At last, Victoria reached the rock path, bottom of her dress soaking with water from the dead pool. She shivered with relief as her feet touched the firm, slippery path of the boulders. She didn’t stop till the water was out of sight, and then she collapsed against the rock wall to catch her breath.

  Victoria peered down the path cautiously once her fear began to ebb. It was almost a tunnel it was so narrow, just wide enough to allow Victoria and Elberon inside, as if someone from above had taken a large knife and sliced the rocks down the middle. A few small trees leant down into the path from the rocks above, the only visible life.

  A drizzling snowy rain began to fall and Victoria ducked into the new path to avoid it, not wishing to be any wetter than she already was. The quiet forest suddenly seemed to have been noisy compared to the stillness in the path. Wind sliding through the passageway was all she could hear besides her and the horse’s progress.

  Etched onto the walls here and there were images. Stick figures of hunters, beasts, death. She tried to not notice the skulls and bodies which were crammed into every available crack. Some looked like they had taken quite a bit of forcing. Disturbingly large insects, apparently immune to the cold, appeared to have taken up the tunnel as their choice residence. Victoria didn’t like the way the spiders and centipedes eyed her as she passed, as if both her and the large horse were nothing more than lunch.

  A great flat wall ahead of Victoria made her pause. Water dripped down the stone, turning it black. Rough etchings were clawed into its wet surface: Depictions of men bowing and fleeing from something, though Victoria couldn’t see what the thing was because it had been violently chiselled out. She could see snatches of teeth in some of the drawings. Something eerily similar to blood was splattered into the grooves of some of the pictures. One of the images showed figures walking round water with a great clawed hand reaching out to grab them. Her eyes fell on a new carving. Wavy lines, showing water surrounding what looked like split eggs. Something was spilling out of the eggs into the water. Her heart leapt. It had to be the sporepods!

  Her eyes followed the pictures. The dots from the egg travelled the streams to the great lake. People and animals were drawn drinking from the water. They looked crazed and evil. She smiled grimly. She was on the right path. The Blaiden’s spore cache had to be nearby.

  Elberon did not appreciate the tight rock passage in the slightest. His horns almost grazed the continuously overhanging rocks, threatening to catch him fast. As Victoria crept down the path she felt her stomach turning over. With each twist she dreaded what grisly new sight she would face. Any moment she expected to see another crazed, drugged Blaiden struggling her way. Meeting one in such a tight space, with no escape route? The idea clogged in her chest, catching her breath.

  Their progress was slow. Elberon, a horse bred for battle, was out of his element and Victoria often had to tug on his lead as if he were a stubborn mule
to get him moving again. She told him—or perhaps herself—it was nothing but crickets that jumped out at them and the only noises were the whistling of wind, dripping of water and the distant cawing of crows far above. There was nothing to fear. She didn’t quite believe it.

  She turned a corner and came face to face with a grinning skull full of jagged teeth. She pulled Elberon back slightly and gasped as she realised what she was looking at. It was the skeleton of a human, save for its head. Someone had stuck a wolf’s skull on the bones. The skeleton was tied to the stone wall, leaning forwards slightly, mouth ajar. She stared at it in dull wonder, feeling a chill slide down her back. The creature’s hollow eyes burned into her. She yanked Elberon into movement again and even after she left the thing round the bend, she could still feel its hollow sockets staring at her back. Watching.

  Victoria often cast her gaze up to make sure she could still see the foggy sky. Snow and leaves drifted down from the top of the gully, caught now and then in the abandoned webs of the large spiders. It brought her some small comfort. There was still light up there, still life. If she just kept reminding herself that, perhaps she wouldn’t go insane.

  The path widened out to a flat, stony ground and it was here that the last horrible landmark of her journey stood guard. The clear space in front of them was light. About ten metres above them was the top of the ravine. Water dripped down from grass and moss and Victoria could see snatches of grey light in the snow clouds.

  Growing at the very centre of the open space was a shrubby, stunted tree. But there was something odd about it that Victoria couldn’t figure out till she grew closer. It looked like it had hundreds of bulbous growths attached to the branches. As Victoria approached, she realised what she was seeing and felt ill. The growths were eyes. The tree was a thorny one, and stuck to each thorn and end of each branch was a frozen eye. Most were foggy and deflated, yet some were so fresh and clear Victoria could have sworn they were alive. She couldn’t stop gaping at the tree that was staring at her. Her eyes were locked on a bright blue eye, so similar to Andrew’s she thought she might vomit. Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest it hurt. How could any group of people be this…disturbing? How could anyone in their right minds—that was just it. They weren’t in their right minds. She swallowed, tasting the acidic sting.

  Beyond the tree—which Victoria finally managed to pull herself away from—was another dark stretch, and beyond that, glorious grey light. Victoria and Elberon stepped out from the tunnel into the fresh air at last. She took a deep breath and leaned against the rock wall.

  They were on a ledge of rock. Above them was the top of the gully. Before them was a steeply sloping wet rock slide that went down to boggy ground. At the foot of the spongy rock was a field of seeping, steaming water. Tuffs of dry land stuck up here and there around the bowl-shaped valley. At the far end of the valley, which was perhaps thirty metres away, was a line of weedy trees. From the centre of the field came the noise of bubbling water and Victoria saw the spring that Flynn had described to her. Water was flowing up from the earth in a beautiful blue pool. The water formed several pathways and fell down through the rocks at the base of the rock wall Victoria was standing above. She could hear what sounded like a roar coming from the foot of the wall. A great river must be running under there. It sounded like it flowed back the way she had just come.

  Made sense, she decided. It would flow towards the great lake, just like she’d been told. An underground river that broke from the mountain and became the stream she’d followed the previous day.

  From where the water was bubbling up from the ground, Victoria noticed black, lumpy shapes. It was the pods! She realised with a thrill. In an undignified moment, she jumped up and down. ‘Yes! I did it!’

  There were several of them—six—lying about the field. It was hardly the amount she’d seen drifting up from Scrabia, but it was a start! Still, she frowned in brief confusion. Where were the dozens she’d seen in the sky? She hardly wanted to go tramping all over the mountain looking for them.

  She sighed. Ah well, one thing at a time. They all appeared to be split open, spilling their poison into the boggy ground. Her heart sank. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do now.

  She turned back to Elberon and rifled through his pack. She pulled out the fire supplies she’d found at the keep and placed them in a pack she’d slung over her shoulder. She had hoped there would only be one pod. It would have been so much simpler. But she supposed nothing for her was that simple. Now it looked like she would be rolling the pods towards the centre to get them all in one spot to light them on fire. Rather a difficult job, unless she could get the horse down there, which didn’t seem very likely. Not to mention that fire didn’t seem too probable either, considering the pods were all sitting in standing water.

  Victoria pulled also from the saddle a few long coils of rope. She eyed the steep, slick slope before her with a sinking feeling. It would be difficult getting down to the water, and might be next to impossible getting back out. A thought struck her. Perhaps that was the whole point. She looked round the rocks. For the first time she noticed more carvings on them. Pictographs of more human figures fighting and bowing down to something. From the looks of the pictures, Victoria was pulled back to similar images from Scrabia. Human sacrifices. That’s what this was. This was a place of sacrifice.

  She raked the land below her with new eyes, trying to find anything suspicious. The steep rocks below her had great jagged lines on them. Perhaps nothing, but all her mind could think was claws. She wished Flynn was with her. His hunter eyes would have spotted anything irregular about the land below her. She couldn’t tell if the flattened shrubs were simply crushed by wind or something else.

  Victoria let out a moan. Her wild brain was jumping to conclusions and she didn’t know what she was up against—if anything. The image of the Guardian kept surfacing in her mind, but Victoria saw no sign of the beast. It was most likely out in the forest, far away from here. All she knew was that time was running out for her friends. They were fighting against a huge force and she was here, afraid to move sporepods.

  ‘Okay, you might have to help me pull these things out in case they don’t light up down there. Don’t make a big fuss of it, okay? We have to do our part to help our friends.’ She stroked the animal’s face absently.

  Victoria tied her rope round her waist and the other end to a rock and then started down the slope. She had hoped to make her way down slowly, but ended up sliding down the rocks, uncontrolled. She hit the bottom hard, elbows torn to shreds.

  Victoria sat up, covered in mud, and let out a disgusted noise. So much for a good start. She cast a furtive look round her, ignoring the distant stinging of her torn skin. The sound of falling rocks didn’t seem to draw any unwanted attention. She stood up and tugged on the rope she was attached to. Still seemed to be tied tight. Elberon watched her from the top of the slope. He put one clawed foot forward and seemed to be trying to decide on his way down.

  ‘No! Stay!’ Victoria cried. She wasn’t exactly sure what the proper thing was to do to make a horse stay. But that’s what the villagers said to dogs. Maybe it worked for horses as well. ‘Whoa!’ she added as an afterthought. The animal snorted but didn’t move forward. She doubted it wanted to slide down the slope anyway.

  Victoria untied herself from the rope and went splashing across the field towards the first sporepod. She was soaked when she finally reached the horrible, lumpy thing. Crows eyed her from one of the tall pine trees. She hoped they wouldn’t give her away.

  The sporepod was split open and the soggy spores were almost completely spent. Victoria sighed. It was going to be a job, much greater than she had imagined.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Andrew and his brother ran through the village towards the vast field, where most of the noise was coming from. His heart beat more from the amount of exercise he was getting than from any actual fear. Andrew couldn’t remember the last time he’d eve
r felt that emotion. It didn’t seem to compute in his mind. All he felt was a thrill over the fact that something was actually happening in his life.

  Sleety rain was falling in a faint, steady patter, making the already muddy roads extra slick. Andrew pulled the collar of his coat up to keep the slick icy wet from sliding down his neck. Thedric seemed completely beside himself with the attack on the village. He was stammering something about how unbelievable the damage was. Andrew wasn’t listening. Thedric’s shock at the external damage of the buildings wasn’t helpful and wasn’t needed.

  Andrew jogged down a side street and up the sandy hill that overlooked the pasture. He stopped at the sight. Bodies were strewn about in the wet grass, both townsmen and cattle. Villagers were milling about, looking unsure of what to do, gathering horses and lighting fires. A few were sharpening weapons. Not much seemed to be happening. He frowned in thought.

  Thedric hurried to stand next to him, panting. ‘The battle’s over? Where is everyone? Have we won?’

  ‘No,’ Andrew replied simply. ‘There’s hardly any real damage, not enough bodies. Come on.’

  Andrew moved down the slope nodding curtly in greeting to the soldiers and townsmen there. He noticed the scowling faces as people recognised who he was. No big surprise there. His gaze rested on a few faces that looked hopeful. No doubt they thought he had some brilliant plan to get them out of this mess.

  ‘Andrew, Thedric! Thank the Seafather you’re safe!’ Bard turned towards them, expression barely readable through his thick facial hair.