“This is a ridiculous amount of aggressive shrubbery. Who in their right mind would plant so many thorny bits?” She couldn’t see far above her, so she stretched her arm as far as she could reach and grasped the vines with her gloved hand.
It didn’t matter. The thorns pierced the leather as though it was linen and Chandra cussed at the pain. She winced once and raised her other, ungloved, right hand to grasp the vines and found that they could not penetrate the black skin. She shifted between hands, trying to use her left as little as possible. The more pressure she put on the vines, the more the thorns dug in, finding her blood and freeing it from her veins to coat the greenery. She brought her face above where her hands gripped and the vines began to shudder.
“Nonononono, please don’t break!” she prayed to the vines as they continued to shudder under her hands and feet. As she watched, the vines moved, wrapping around her arms and digging into the flesh there. Soon the greenery was coated red, and Chandra wept as the vines moved her forward, dragging her by the knots around her arms.
38
Chandra was pulled deep into the shrub, and the thorns and vines swept across her face and body. Sometimes they snagged her skin and drew more blood until she wondered if there would be any part of her left un-assaulted.
Suddenly, she was dropped from a good height and landed with a hard thud on her back in the grass. Chandra lay there and waited for her breath to return or pain to decrease. She got one but not the other.
Her body stung from multiple points but was quickly forgotten when she heard rustling in the shrubbery coming from every direction. As she watched, vines moved toward her like snakes, sliding across the ground with intent. They moved toward her, and Chandra saw no spot of ground not swelling with movement. When they reached her, they slid along her legs and torso, curling and wrapping her like a massive second skin. In moments, her legs and arms were covered and the vines continued: burying her torso, chest, neck and then head. As they dug into the flesh of her checks and covered her mouth, she screamed. Her mind had not allowed that release of terror until that moment.
Chandra could not breathe. She could not see or feel anything other than the eerie movement of the vines pulling tight across her limbs. Then they stilled. They continued to squeeze, but no longer shifted or moved. Her lungs felt as though they might burst, and her senses called out for air. Then, the vines released her and she could breathe.
Chandra coughed on great gasping breaths. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she watched through teary eyes as the vines slowly withdrew from her. She didn't move. Chandra wondered if a new attack was coming, but the vines simply melted into the shrubs. She pulled herself into a sitting position and felt the ragged remains of the hawker glove poke at her. She yanked the scraps of cloth away. Her clothes were torn and bloody, but she was otherwise unmarked. The cuts and pricks from the vines were gone, though her skin itched and reminded her of tenderized meat.
Chandra shifted forward to her knees. The ground was rough on her palms and knees, but her energy had been drained. A new rustling got her attention and she wondered what the garden would try to kill her with next.
A massive leaf formed in front of her filled with clear water. Chandra lifted her head and saw it sitting on top of a long vine, covered in flowers as though it were a small table that had been there the entire time. She reached forward and touched the water, bringing the smallest drop to her mouth. It was fresh to her tongue like melted snow. She scooped some into her hand and drank slowly.
The water flowed through Chandra. It spread from veins and through limbs, removing the memory of thorns and replenished energy from within. She dipped her hands in again and felt stronger still. She whispered her thanks as she had when the forest had replenished her. The flowered vine shuddered and withdrew the massive leaf into a shrub to Chandra’s right.
She stood, strong and whole, though her clothing hung about her in rags. The only things the vines hadn’t pierced were the mesh vest and plated boots. She sighed.
“Thanks for the water, but I’m getting a bit sick of not having proper attire,” Chandra muttered. The vines rustled again and parted. Hanging on the vines as though they were a coat hook instead of greenery was a long, pale tunic and breeches. Chandra frowned and looked around.
“Is someone here?” Her only answer was a ripple through the shrubbery as though a gust of wind had caught the branches and made the leaves dance. She reached forward hesitantly and took the garments. The clothing was soft and warm against her sensitized skin.
Dressed and ready, Chandra remembered that Alphonse had called it the "enchanted" garden. She wondered if whomever enchanted it had also put in some traps or puzzles.
“All right then. I want to find a way out,” she said to the shrubs around her. Chandra's cheeks flushed as she thought about how ridiculous she would appear to an onlooker. The vines shuddered and a way opened behind her. Chandra turned and saw an open path to the doorway into the castle, the same she had come through minutes or hours ago.
“I wish I could go that way,” she muttered. “I want to find a way to the path in the Willow Grove to the caverns.”
The vines shuddered and closed behind her instead opening a wide path in front of her. She could see the hanging branches in Frostwhite’s aerial view and heard him calling her. She reached for him with her mind but could barely sense him. It was as though she were somewhere far away from him.
Chandra took one step toward the opening and stopped. She wondered if it was a trick.
“Why are you helping me when you first attacked me?” Chandra couldn’t help but wonder what had changed the vines from stabbing and suffocating to a sentient mass of greenery that seemed to wish her well.
As she watched, a single dark vine shifted away from the rest and reached out to her. At first, Chandra thought the vine was black, it was so dark in the moonlight. When it got closer, she saw flowers growing along the spiked tendril. In the center, glistened a bright red core like a gemstone. It was blood.
“My blood?”
The rustling within the leaves happened again, and Chandra realized it was one of the only ways it could communicate with her.
“Then, I thank you for your assistance.” This time she heard something like a whistling sound run through the shrubs and a chill ran up her spine. Chandra shuddered once and stepped forward onto the path between the shrubs, hearing them close behind her as she went.
“Okay,” she said and pushed her way through the last set of trees and into the open, where a path led up the mountainside. She walked with care, watching her footing on the sparkling path covered with snow but lined with ice and frozen mud. Trees did not grow near the path and her vision was unhindered by night shadows. The path seemed to be in a crevice of the mountain arms. It was as though she was walking directly into the outstretched reach of some massive golem. The walk was an uphill trek that could have easily turned into a steep slide if it was not for the jutting stones and petrified roots that reached out. Chandra used each one as a new step in a natural staircase.
After hours of travel -- measured by the movement of the moon overhead but not once punctuated by the normal night sounds -- the path leveled and an opening appeared directly ahead. Chandra paused and drank from the water skein. Small touches of sweat had formed in the creases of her body and froze with the sudden lack of movement and exertion. She shivered at the ice fingers on her skin.
After a long, unremarkable trek up the unchanging path in which the moon shifted a good distance across the sky, mocking her with a faster journey, Chandra found a deep shadow in the side of the mountain ahead. At first glance, the opening appeared to be human-sized and little more than a split in the rock face. As she moved toward it, the opening grew with proximity. The ragged edges made it look as though it was newly formed. It looked as though it had not been subjected to the elemental exposure despite the harsh winters of Faust. When she got close enough, Chandra touched one of the lines of rock and f
ound it cold with a thin sheen of moisture. She thought this might be proof that, as Alphonse had suggested, this had been frozen over but thawed recently.
Chandra again lifted Frostwhite from her shoulder and faced him, leaning her head in to rest near his beak where it met the line of facial feathers. He chattered quietly at her for a moment and then she pulled back from him.
“Do not enter no matter what you hear or feel. Please do that for me.”
Fear that he would be caught by something or hurt in any way paled her face to a white that could rival new snow. She closed her eyes and reached him, the connection was still hazy and dream-like as it had been since the torture inn. His warmth in her mind, was all she needed as comfort.
“Thank you,” she whispered. Those two words caught in her throat on the emotion and intent of them as though she had spoken her true heart to her friend. She flung her arms up and sent him away from the mouth of the cave as he took flight. Chandra turned back to the mouth of the abyss that was so familiar and stepped inside.
Chandra had tried numerous times to use the torch, but every time she got it lit, a gust of wind would fly like a maelstrom through the darkness and douse it. Occasionally, she found light reflecting off of some unseen opening overhead, bringing in moonlight and a moment's comfort. It only lasted a heartbeat or so as she continued to walk. She tripped several times, unable to see the ground beneath her.
Her thoughts drifted to images of all manner of creatures that could be crawling the walls or near her feet as she went. She was like a child in the night, unsure of her destination or that safety would be there once she found it. In this case, she knew her destination to be deadly instead of secure.
She trudged on, feeling as though, at every step, the next would be her last and she would fall off into the abyss. The floor was hard but littered with stones and stuff that her eyes could not identify in the scant or lightless tunnel. At one point, she stepped wrong on some loose rock, fell forward and bashed her shin into a jagged outcropping.
Chandra sat where she fell, her leg stinging and scraped with the heat of torn skin, and she cussed. She couldn’t believe she was here, in this place, by herself walking blind through a cave filled with something evil that would destroy mankind and her, not in that order. She found herself getting angry at Alphonse for putting her on this journey. As she thought about the old seer, her right hand glowed. Chandra let go of the angry thoughts but fought to hold the magic to her. It wasn’t much, but at least it helped her see her surroundings somewhat.
She realized she had tripped and fallen into the frozen-over mouth of a tunnel in the cave. Her blood dripped across the jagged ice crystal that had apparently fallen from the top of the cave and shattered into a bunch of sharp edges like broken glass. To her right was an open tunnel. Chandra stood up, moved toward it and noticed more black ice on the wall to the left. She stopped and looked at the passage. It was as though the entire cavern was made of ice and something had burrowed through the center, opening only one path. She took a deep breath and walked again, using the glow from her hand to keep her from further injury on the treacherous floor. The shadows ahead of her moved in a manner that seemed more alive than darkness scattering before her magical light. She glared into the darkness, relishing the feel of the flame that now rode her arm.
A soft rumbling like stonework being dragged across hard ground came down her path. It sounded more, though. It seemed like the sound of someone lowering their speaking voice to make a rumbling in their throat. She shifted, almost starting, but then feeling adrenaline spike through her system. It fed into her and woke the rage that always seemed to be waiting below the surface.
She snarled. It was a sound that came from an animal, a sound of challenge. The sound she had heard came again. Her mind saw it akin to a chuckling sound but with a hiss in accompaniment.
The darkness moved to her, and Chandra found herself arching her neck to look up toward the top of the open cavern.
39
An image from a childhood storybook stared down at Chandra, fearsome and terrible in a way the artist had never rendered. The fable had been one of her favorites she had discovered in a dusty corner of Master Dreys’ library about a doomed hero and a dragon.
The ebony creature looked down its nightmare face at Chandra, the tiniest wisp of smoke coming out of its nostrils. Its amber eyes were as human as she had ever seen on something that was clearly not. Now and then, the nostrils flared as it watched her, though the dragon did not blink nor make any further sounds. It only stared back at Chandra as though it were waiting for something.
Chandra watched the beast. She felt as though she were missing some crucial information at this precise moment but had no thought about what it might be. All thought had scattered like the light that reflected off of the shimmering hide of the creature. Primal fear swirled within her, struggling and shifting inside as it fought restraint.
Chandra looked up and saw the massive size of the beast. The form was reptilian in nature: horned, spiked and coated in evil. So many emotions drifted in the air and assaulted her senses. Insanity shone in its eyes, but it seemed to swim in and out as though it was only allowed limited sight of her. There was also crafty intelligence in the creature; nightmarish appearance or not, it was created for something more than chaotic destruction. Her rage had died down as her fear snuffed it out and her mind seemed to separate from conscious thought.
“Hello,” Chandra rasped. Her voice seemed too frightened to make more sound than a whisper. The dragon’s eyes widened slightly and then narrowed on her. Chandra had the distinct feeling that she had offended the creature in that one word. As fear trickled down her neck, Chandra skin buzzed as magic circulated through her veins. The creature sensed the magic and its eyes narrowed while its mouth opened in a snarling show of teeth.
The next moment, flame washed over Chandra, intense and awful. Her skin blistered and her hair burned off some of the length she had grown before the sensation stopped. She opened eyes that had shut instinctively and found the flame no longer touched her skin but halted in front of her, as though hitting a wall. The hot breath stopped, and the dragon stared down at her again. Chandra saw the creature inhale, and she raised one hand, palm out to stay it. She had an intense need to understand what it was. The logical part of her mind saw that the intelligence in this creature ran deep enough that it would likely comprehend her.
“I wish to speak with you,” she told it when it cocked its head to one side. “The creatures that came through the town; were they like you?”
“There is nothing you have encountered like me,” it hissed, the words formed like the grinding of stone and metal. “But they are our harbingers.”
“I wish to know why your kind seeks to destroy.”
“Why must I have a reason to kill your kind,” a hiss formed words.
“I see the intelligence in you,” Chandra told the beast. “These actions have no logic. The creatures seemed mindlessly bent on destruction. Why?”
“Because the Lady told them to, wild one,” the dragon told her, almost shrugging. “Your kind has been in the way of our freedom for so long that we are pleased to take on this task.”
Chandra frowned at the creature. The way he said “wild one” was as though he had called her by her given name.
“What lady? Who sent you to attack? Why did you call me ‘wild one’?” Chandra stared at the creature with amber eyes overflowing with annoyance and scorn.
It sighed. Chandra thought in the way it stared down at her that the dragon was going to blast her with fire again. Instead, it surprised her and answered.
“She is the only one of our kind to live amongst the vermin of your kin. She is the last great lady to slay the ancient ones and discover the magic of transformation. She described your immature lack of control as far as your magic is concerned and told me you would come to me and told me what to do when it happened.”
The creature dragged claws on the stone floor
of the cave, making Chandra wince. She was surprised but had an uncomfortable feeling she knew what the answer was going to be if she asked for an explanation.
“Come, little one, ask,” the hiss seemed to be mirthful laughter. “It is the bane of humankind to ask questions, especially those that they already know the answer to.”
Chandra raised both hands in front of her and saw the familiar glow begin. The light outlined the mountainous form of the creature that stood before her, and it extended deep into the cave behind the colossal head and serpentine neck.
“As you wish. What were you told to do?” Chandra felt the sparks from her right hand flicker across the blistered skin of her arm while the snow numbed her other.
“Destroy you and bring your body before her, of course.” The beast opened its mouth wide and showed Chandra all of it's the wickedly pointed teeth before it let out a bugling roar that shook the cavern. Rocks mixed with ice shifted loose and dropped around her.
“Of course,” Chandra parroted and raised her hands.
The beast snapped at her, striking with the speed of a snake. It was for show as it didn’t hurt her. The beast was back looking down at her as though she ought to be impressed. Though she was, she tried not to show her fear of its speed. If it had struck Chandra in that one moment, the battle could have been over and not in her favor. So, she knew the dragon wanted to toy with her, and her fear spiked, and the beast seemed to smile. Chandra made no move to close the gap between herself and it.
The creature was like terror and nightmares that fill a child’s mind in the darkness of night. He was Night because his skin gleamed like spilled ink and shimmered like stars. As Night shifted his stance, placing weight on his left leg, Chandra leaned back, allowing his head to swing past in front of her. It passed by her with a rush of air but didn't connect She instinctively raised her left hand because it was closest to him. The blue glow reflected off of his black scales as she shifted. Frost encased her hand and formed helpfully as a mass of pliable ice. She drew back her hand and brought it forward in a throw at Night. A stream of ice flowed like water from her fingertips to strike the side of the great beast’s head.
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