Saska stared at Torrullin bent over the tiny fire as he tended it. “How did this happen?
“Opposite of the Void is nothing, strange as that is. We should have realised it meant no power as well.”
“And now?”
“We cope, that’s what.”
“Well, well, well,” Declan said. “Elianas, look at this. Giant stacks of wood.”
“And rush torches,” Elianas added. “Brittle, old, but they will burn. Clearly someone from Avior needed us to succeed.”
“Avior stacked wood and the like on the other side of the door before it took on permanency,” Torrullin murmured.
“They knew it would be dark,” Elianas muttered. “I wonder what else they knew?”
Gathering sounds ensued, and then the two men were back. Elianas held a torch over the small blaze, watched it smoke up and catch alight with a whooshing sound.
“That stinks,” Torrullin said.
Elianas held the bright flame high.
The giant stack of wood flickered nearby, as well as a pile of torches. And a small pile of bones. He did not point them out. Other than that, there was nothing in the space.
Declan knelt and loaded the fire.
Elianas took another torch and set off into the dark. “I won’t go further than the sight of fire.”
Torrullin pulled a face and helped the Siric build a decent blaze.
Declan looked at him. “He is brave.”
“Gets him into trouble often.”
“We are in trouble here, Torrullin. No power means no food and water.”
Saska unpacked. “A knife, a mirror, fruit, cheese, pot, cup, spoon, fork,” she listed. “Herbs, bandage, underwear …” She grinned when both Declan and Torrullin glanced at her, and went on, “… comb, soap, and hand towel. Spare clothes - that was my dishcloth, by the way, what you’re burning over there - sugar, coffee, bowl … er, personal stuff, and a sleeping roll. That’s it. Elianas didn’t give me much time.” She looked up. “And I was counting on you to do the food-finger-snapping-thing.”
“Likewise. At least you have coffee and sugar.”
“Two cups each, at a stretch.”
“May I see the knife?” Torrullin asked.
She passed it to him. It was sharp and strong. He handed it back. “Keep it on you.”
Declan, meanwhile, pulled a dagger from his boot. “I have this, but that is all I brought.”
“Sword,” Torrullin said, and checked his pockets. “Ah, string …” He smiled. “A bag of sweets one of the village kids gave me, bless his little heart.” He handed it to Saska. “Put that with our stocks.” He gave her the string also.
Elianas’ torch bobbed closer and he was soon back. “It’s a cave. I could hear external noises and somewhere the sound of water.”
“Excellent.” Declan sounded relieved.
“Sit, and let us figure safety measures before we go on.” Torrullin threw another log on the fire. The wood burned fast, too fast. Very old, very dry. “One, we take a bundle of wood with us and, two, this flint is now gold.” He handed a piece to Elianas as he sat. “Three, we never leave each other’s sight. Four, priority is food, water and anything useful we find. All else can come after.”
“Agreed,” Saska said. “How about a sweet?”
Torrullin laughed. “Pass them around.”
Not long after, they set off.
Elianas tied the string around a fair bundle of wood and hefted it onto his shoulder. Torrullin took Saska’s pack and Declan lit four torches, and hefted four more.
They left the fire burning as point of reference.
THE EXTERNAL SOUND grew louder soon after they lost sight of the fire.
Water dripped nearby, out of sight, out of reach.
“The air is cooler,” Saska remarked.
“If it’s air,” Declan muttered. “Something here isn’t quite normal.”
“Metallic taste,” Elianas murmured. “Possibly a product of sealing.”
“Or it isn’t air as we know it,” Declan rebutted.
“Have to be positive,” Saska said.
They walked on. Underfoot the rock was smooth, as if eroded by ages of water flow, and overhead the ceiling was rounded. The rock was an outlandish green colour.
Elianas, in the lead, glanced over his shoulder. “Bug’s gullet.”
Torrullin grinned in the rear. “Shut up, will you?”
“Bug’s gullet?” Saska repeated.
Elianas laughed. “Torrullin and I once had ourselves eaten by a giant bug. This is what it looked like inside, only messier.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Serious. It was beyond the outer rim in the primordial oceans of Akhavar. There were some unlikely creatures in those waters then.”
“Quiet; you’re scaring even me right now,” Torrullin muttered.
“Tell him,” Declan said.
Saska giggled.
They went on. The air, if it was air, cooled further and grew ever colder.
Elianas’ torch snuffed out. “Wind!”
“Keep it down,” Declan admonished. His torch snuffed out as well.
Torrullin shielded his with his body and paced forward to join Elianas. Together they peered ahead.
“I think there might be light there.” Elianas pointed. “Hard to say with this flickering.”
“Saska, stay back and keep your torch alive,” Torrullin said, and lifted his. It went out. “Could be, yes. Declan, stay here.”
He and Elianas crept forward, making little noise, both men holding their dead torches like clubs.
It was definitely a breeze. Little gusts blew against their faces, lifting hair.
They walked into a wall of rock.
Torrullin swore, but Elianas dragged him to the right. The cave curved, and light came from that direction, causing a faint glow on the opposite face. They followed the curve, and Saska’s flame vanished from view.
Then there was light. Bright, brilliant light. Light that did not mix with dark, light that glowed on opposite rock merely to point the way.
“It is like a portal,” Torrullin murmured, standing with Elianas before a man-sized oval of light. They could not see beyond it; in fact, it acted as a mirror, reflecting faint renditions of the two men in the brightness.
“I do not like it,” Elianas murmured.
“What choice do we have?”
“I will get the others.” Elianas stumbled away.
A few minutes later all four stood before the oval. There was no discussion; they had to go on. Torrullin shifted Saska’s pack on his shoulder, glanced wryly at Elianas, and stepped into the light. It swallowed him.
“Go, Saska,” Elianas prompted.
She went, clutching her dead torch.
Declan followed with the five torches he carried and then Elianas was through, hand bloodless as it gripped a bundle of wood.
THE FOUR SWAYED precariously on an outcrop of rock, a circular pillar no more than six feet in diameter in the centre of a gigantic ocean.
All suggestion of hill or mountain vanished, as had any suggestion of a portal. Speechless, they stared in every direction over a changeless sea, where sea was unmoving, appearing painted in greens and blues, and where nothing lay on the horizon.
Saska swore under her breath.
Declan flapped his wings, and found the air too dense to allow lift.
Torrullin shifted the pack off, and knelt. Leaning over, he put a hand to the ‘sea’. It was like to treacle; dense liquid that moved slowly, displacing to touch. It was warm. He withdrew his hand and licked experimentally.
“Tastes like sugared water.”
Frowning, Elianas said, “I think we can walk on this.”
“Walking on water, a legend I never thought to act out. To where?”
Elianas sank to his haunches. “It does not matter. Remember how in the Void everything was, but we were helpless despite power? Well, if this is opposite, then this is nothing and we have no po
wer, but we are not helpless. In the Void we simply fell; here we have control over our movements.”
“There is possibility wherever we go.”
Elianas gave a lopsided smile. “I’m taking a walk.”
“Only as far as the touch of my hand,” Torrullin said. “We test first.”
“So cautious, brother? Where is your impulsive nature now?”
“Your devil-may-care attitude scares me,” Torrullin snapped. “Now take my hand and lower carefully.”
Elianas grinned, gripped, and went over. Holding tight, he managed to straighten and stand.
While wobbly in position and with boots sinking into the liquid, still he stood and the sea supported him. “Told you.” He took a step, still holding on. The liquid sucked at his boots, then released. Another step. “It will be hard work, but it is doable.” He tore his hand away.
“Damn it, Elianas!”
The dark man laughed. He took another step, then another, and danced a jig - comically strange - and attempted an experimental jog. The sea supported.
“Toss the wood and my torch.”
Torrullin did so, and hefted the pack. He lowered over, felt the slight sinking and thereafter the feeling of wobbling support, and held his hand out to Saska.
“Is it safe?” she asked, gripping her torch and passing Torrullin his.
“Probably not.” He smiled and shrugged.
She took his hand and climbed down. She stumbled upon the strangeness and found footing.
Declan, scowling, followed.
It was hard work, without doubt. Within minutes muscles protested the constant pull and arms flailed often to retain balance, but they went on, slowly.
Above the sky, if it was sky, was a misty haze, and sun, if there was sun, lit all in hues of grey.
Chapter 20
Shadow and shade, relative darkness caused by light rays being intercepted by an opaque body
~ Titania Dictionary
Beyond the Door
NOTHING CHANGED FOR untold hours.
Not the light, not the landscape, not the temperature. They could not sit, for they displaced too much surface and sank in, and they could not stand for long before sinking began. They needed to keep moving. It numbed the mind along with everything else.
All four periodically tested for return of power, to no avail.
“Endurance test?” Declan muttered at one stage, but no one bothered to answer.
More uncountable hours went by. In another reality day followed night, and night followed day, many cycles. In the nothingness time could not be thus measured, but bodies, minds and lack of strength told the tale. Not a word passed, no extra movement was made, except once when Torrullin shared Saska’s fruit among them. Each step was tiny, and giant torture.
Elianas, surprisingly, surrendered first.
He halted. Dark, vague eyes turned to the others. “I can do many things, but this is pointless. I hate pointless.”
“Walk,” Torrullin said.
“I refuse,” Elianas said, and dropped wood and torch. Both sank away.
Torrullin attempted to reach him. “Do not do this.”
Elianas started sinking also. “Come with me.” He sank further.
Torrullin shoved the pack at Declan and lunged. He caught Elianas as the man descended to chest level. “Don’t you dare abandon me!” he hissed, clutching futilely at fabric.
Elianas’ head disappeared, and then Torrullin, having displaced too much on the surface, submerged as well. In the treacle their hands connected, gripped, and they vanished together.
Saska screamed and dived after them.
Declan swore and stood over the place, forcing a deliberate sinking. Either he would drown or survive. The fates would decide.
With no sign of life, the strange ocean was no more.
SIGHT WAS NOT lost in the liquid.
Neither Torrullin nor Elianas could succumb to lack of air, another mercy. They levered closer, pointed feet downward and sank like arrows into the treacle. Fast.
Saska’s momentum brought her into contact with them and Torrullin arrested her fall, wrenching his shoulder from its socket in the process. The pain was excruciating, but he held on. She pointed her feet downward, and discovered she could at least breathe, although it was a smothering kind of gill-breathe. She would not survive it long.
Elianas twisted his head up, seeking Declan. The Siric was bound to follow. Live or die together, and he wondered whether mortality was a reality in this strangeness. It was after all the opposite of everything.
He noticed a shadow and concentrated, seeing the Siric spiral to achieve faster motion, and shoved his free hand through the treacle to snag him by a wing nub as he almost spiralled past. A muscle tore in his arm, but like to Torrullin, pain was ignored, and he drew the Siric closer.
Declan, clearly, was drowning. He pulled him near, and pointed at his mouth. Declan’s frantic nod indicated he understood, and opened his. Elianas leaned in and breathed for him.
In that manner - Elianas and Declan locked by mouth, Torrullin and Elianas by hand, and Saska and Torrullin by her arms around his waist - they sank together, ever swifter.
Green-blue became green, then yellow, amber, then red, translucent colour that did not obscure vision and yet intruded in a manner decidedly uncomfortable.
Saska started flailing and Torrullin did for her what Elianas did for Declan; he breathed for her and felt her go limp against him. He could not hold her with his useless arm and prayed it would end soon.
It did, in a way.
Treacle gave way to a less dense substance and they ceased downward motion. Suddenly they were buoyant, although not much else changed.
They hung suspended, and Saska understood first.
She took her mouth from Torrullin’s, took an experimental breath, and found it was oxygen rich water. She breathed in, out, in, out, clearing her gills of treacle, and then pointed up. As she breathed, her tail completed, and she flicked it and rose upward.
Almost immediately she broke surface.
Torrullin jerked Elianas’ hand and pointed.
Elianas shoved Declan up and they headed for air.
WATER SUFFUSED WITH the scarlet of an alien sky. Current and sound. The cry of a gull. And the greatest gift, an island.
Saska and Declan struck out towards the shore where waves broke in familiar patterns upon a beach. Declan still had hold of the pack Torrullin shoved at him, but the torches were lost. He did not care; he was alive, and dry land was near.
Elianas swam backwards, an arm around Torrullin’s neck, pulling him along. The man helped as best he could with his good arm.
Declan was there to aid them from the water. Saska’s tail receded; until her legs returned she could not move. She sat with her spare breeches to hand, waiting. Unfortunately her boots were permanently lost.
On the beach, heaving, Elianas sat Torrullin up and kneeled before him. With one hand behind the shoulder as support, he pushed hard. The shoulder snapped in with an audible sound and Torrullin cried out, and sat with head hanging, swallowing the sharp agony.
A minute later all four were asleep, wet and uncaring of danger; the oblivion of true exhaustion.
HOW MANY HOURS passed as they slept, nobody knew, but when they awakened nothing was different.
An ocean of freshwater lapped at the beach and a red sky glowed. It was not a sunset sky, and there was no sun. Nothing heralded night or change, but there were coconut trees and there was wood.
Elianas started a fire and Declan collected coconuts and pried them open with his dagger. They sat around a bizarrely purple fire, drank coconut juice and chewed the pulp slowly.
Only then, with strength restoring in increments, did they haltingly speak. No one was in a rush to go exploring and they were certainly in no hurry to move on.
As Saska put her pot to boil for coffee, she said, “This doesn’t make sense, none of it.”
“The only factor that strikes a chor
d is that someone saw this place and left wood and flint to start the journey,” Torrullin said. “We must assume Avior, and must now respect their foresight.”
Declan sighed. “Stupid Siric wars.”
“They probably only saw dark emptiness,” Elianas murmured. He massaged his left arm where the muscle tore. He lamented the loss of their healing powers.
“In the dark will be found light,” Torrullin muttered, “but I do not think that meant wood, torches and flint.”
“In the light is found dark,” Elianas said and squinted up. “Where?”
“We have had complete dark and now we suffer continuous light, and in between was the long walk until we surrendered. It brought change. Where are the shadows, though?” Saska asked. “Is that not the point? If you two, or all of us, one of us, can bring shadows into this mixture … I don’t know, just a thought.”
“A good one,” Declan said. He cleaned three hollowed shells to add to Saska’s cup, salivating at the thought of coffee.
“Everywhere is shadows,” Torrullin mused. “Is. Not will be, not may be. The shadows are here, if Avior saw true.”
“I don’t see that tree there throwing a shadow,” Saska muttered.
“It is not physical.”
“Shadows are never physical.”
Torrullin stared at her. “No, they are not. They cannot be, not ever. Shadows are alchemical perfection, the two elements of light and no light combined to form something entirely unique. They cannot be created, they are. The perfect accident.”
Elianas glanced at him. “What are you thinking?”
“Remember when we solidified a lake into pure reflection? It did not work, for we overlooked the accident that was shadow? We made it to reflect light, but it reflected nothing …”
“… because to see yourself clearly you need to see the play of light and dark on your face. You need shadows to define features. I remember.”
“Yet shadows are not physical. Light can be felt in heat and dark in cold, but no one feels a shadow.”
Lore of Sanctum Omnibus Page 81