by Shea Berkley
This was her family. I looked on with interest.
The brother shrugged off the mother and hissed, “We can’t let her stay here like this. Even you aren’t that heartless.”
A gasp followed his words, and the mother stepped back as if she’d been stung.
“Gordie,” the father warned.
The mother’s watery gaze fell on the kneeling woman. “I shed tears for her, too. Who would not when faced with such heartache. This is why I sent him away. This is what I wanted to avoid. He was doomed from birth. ‘Tis a sad ending to his sad life. And what are we left with? Nothing but an empty hurt, a hurt that touches us all. Oh,” she lamented in a keening tone, “the talk that will find us. Because of Nari, we now share in his doom.”
The brother threw a disgusted look at their mother. “Can you think of no one but yourself?”
“I-I—” The mother turned away, her hand to her trembling lips, her gaze downcast.
The father turned his back on his wife and faced his son. “As hard as it is for me to admit, she is right in that we can do naught for your sister but wait for the pain to subside.”
“And when will that be?” the younger man demanded to know.
“Never,” the younger woman’s lifeless voice rose eerily. She hunched down further, salty tears falling into the water as she dragged her fingers through the wet sand and gentle surf.
I peeked at the scene through the reeds. Such sadness had deep power. I could feel the magic of her tears and feared they would command the waves to bring her love back. I must stop her, and soon.
“Come away, my love and rest,” the mother said, pulling her husband toward her and the village that lay beyond.
He hesitated, “I have not been the father I should have been…nor you the mother she deserves.”
The older woman glanced at her daughter, and then at her son who stared contemptuously back. Tears threatened to burst when she looked to her husband. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You are a good man.” She then cast a humble, yet pleading look toward the younger man, and said in a weak voice, “Gordie will stay with her, won’t you?”
In the end, he nodded and escorted the older couple out of sight. I saw my chance and pushed through the reeds to where the young woman knelt.
As the mist thickened, she suddenly grew tense. Her head snapped up and she peered out over the lake. I pushed against the wet air until she had a clear view of me as my head crested the water.
She grabbed a handful of sodden skirt and stood. Without even a flinch of concern, she waded into the lake. “Give him back,” she cried heatedly.
No timid woman this. She snapped her jaws as threateningly as a dragon. With surprise, I realized I did not scare her. Even though I’d nearly drowned her, she would face me full on and risk her life.
“Nari. Where are you? Nari.” The brother had returned and sounded alarmed as he blindly wandered the mist in search of the woman.
I threw up my hand toward the woman. “Stay where you are, human, or risk your own death.”
With the water surging around her thighs, she stilled. Tears, again, coursed down her cheeks. “Where is he? Give him back. Please. I beg of you.”
“I cannot.”
“Why? He has done nothing to you.”
“But he has. His fair face has stolen my heart as I have stolen his. He does not wish to return to you.”
For a moment, a horrified expression shadowed her face, and then her eyes narrowed. “You lie.”
She would not be easily persuaded. I colored my skin a dusty rose and waded closer. My dark hair, my greatest vanity, instantly dried and blanketed my body in luxurious waves. “Look at me. Listen to my voice. What man would wish to leave my side? None. All love me. He loves me. He is mine. Forever and always.”
As the last word grew silent, I opened my palm. Within the center lay the cloth and the stone inside it.
On seeing the cloth, her mouth opened on a deep, shaky breath. Her arm rose and her fingers stretched out to the cloth.
“Ryne?” sounded the pitiful word.
I had her on the hook. All I needed now was to set it deep. “He bade me give this to you as proof. Take it and leave us be.”
As she stared at the cloth, her tears grew dense, one after another until a constant stream flowed. They spilled into the lake and pooled around her.
The power of her tears brought forward a long-buried memory of another. He had been hurt by my abandonment. He had called out mournfully for me. I gasped amid the emotions the memory had stirred.
My hand clenched the jagged edges of the rock. My jaw grew tight.
Tears showed a human’s weakness. My heart hardened against her, and I tossed the cloth-wrapped rock toward her. As it arced in the air, I dove into the waves, away from the magic that dared fight against mine. The water cooled my heated skin, and I looked back. The woman had managed to retrieve the token even as she fought the hands of the younger man who tried desperately to haul her back to dry land.
“Take her away,” I sang. “He is no more.”
“Where do you go? Into the lake?” the brother asked as he wrapped his arms around her and hauled her out of the water. “Do you wish to die, too? Please, Nari, you cannot do this to yourself. To us. He is gone.”
“No. She was here. The nix. She was here. Ryne’s alive.”
Mindless wretch.
What more proof did she need? If I couldn’t break through her stubbornness, my plan would be for naught. As the man fought to reason with the woman, I slipped back into the water. Agitation caused my skin to flash a brilliant display of colors, warning any creature to keep its distance.
She did not believe.
Somehow, I had to find a way to make her believe.
15
Swimming into the cavern, the water grew murkier and murkier. Specks of dirt floated freely, and a new layer of shale and limestone that made up the cavern had settled far below. Had there been a cave-in? Had he been crushed, his bones smashed into a million pieces? The vision caused my heart to leap with joy, and I quickly surfaced. As I looked around, I noticed one thing. He wasn’t there. Not one spot of mangled flesh and bone showed itself. Only a dirt-riddled mess.
Panic gripped me. I twisted back and forth, my breath coming in quick angry gasps. And then a clump of dirt splashed into the water next to me. I looked up, and there he was, hanging by his fingertips at least fifteen feet up the rock wall. His sharp intake of breath sounded as a section of the wall broke free and tumbled past his dangling legs. He quickly sought another handhold, but the limestone broke under his weight.
He fell. Hard.
A rain of dirt and debris tumbled down, and I dove beneath the water. Rocks of varying sizes hit the pool, sinking past me, and the reverberations of stone hitting stone shook the water. When the cavern finally grew quiet, I crested, expecting no less than what I found. Rubble littered the cavern, and the man lay in a crumpled, dirty heap. Moonlight caught the glint of miniscule bits of mica that still floated in the air, and a pain wracked moan filled the cavern.
A fit of coughing followed, which meant he was bruised, but most assuredly alive. It would have been convenient if he weren’t. I glanced up toward the shaft of moonlight. The opening rose more than fifty feet above us where he had tried to climb out. He was determined. Much like me.
He moaned and his eyes flutter open. Water rippled as I moved closer, drawing his attention my way. His body tensed, and his startling sky blue eyes grew large. He bit his words out in sharp staccato. “What did you do?”
“I delivered your gift.”
He pushed himself to an unsure sitting position, but his gaze remained intense and focused solely on me. “You saw Nari? What did she say?”
“She cried.” I delivered the news with glee.
He did not receive it as well. “What did you tell her?” he demanded, gaining his feet as his strength returned with every passing second. He was a healthy specimen. Much more than the poo
r soul clamped to my wall had been.
I ignored his mounting alarm, and pulled myself from the water. My hair instantly dried and fell about my hips in blue-black waves. “She will go on with her life, now. She will find another to love.”
“You told her I was dead?”
“All living things die, human. Soon so shall you.”
“You keep telling me that, but here I am.” Shocked realization bloomed across his face. “You can’t kill me, can you?”
I whirled on him. “Sudden death need not always be the goal. There are many ways to punish man. Ask him,” I said, pointing to the long silent chained figure. “I can keep you here until you become mirror reflections. Or if I so will it, I can feed you bit by bit to the dragon.”
He went to the man and gripped a rusted chain in his fist. “Poor devil.” He cast a hateful look at me. “You are right. All living things must die.”
He suddenly ripped one of the weakened chains out of the wall, the skeletal remains breaking free, and faced me. “I wonder. Does a nix bleed?”
With a swirl of his arm, the chain whipped in a wide arc, whizzing toward me and forcing me to dive back into the water. I glared up at him through the muck of his doing. How had this happened? How had he caught me off guard? Surely something was wrong with this human. He should be cowering in the corner like all the others who begged for their lives, not racing after his own death.
Anger shivered along my skin. I shoved off the bottom and flew high into the air, stretching over him as he swung the chain uselessly over his head. I landed on my feet in a crouched position and slowly straightened.
My eyes reflected the hate in his. “Your death will not be pleasant.”
Holding out my hands, I called on the stones. The man swirled the chain faster, the whiz of its passing coming closer and closer. My appeal grew louder, and my fingertips began to bleed. The cavern groaned as if in pain and within a heartbeat, chunks of rock flew from their moorings, pummeling the man to his knees.
My pent up breath rushed from my lips. I was not surprised to see he still lived. He was indestructible. I approached his beaten form, yanked the chain from his hands and snarled, “Attacking me was unwise.”
He tipped his head up to reveal a multitude of abrasions. Blood oozed from dozens of cuts, yet he gave me a joyless smile and stared directly into my eyes. “Unwise mayhap, but oddly satisfying.”
Fearless as ever. Just like his father.
I twisted the chain around his body and dragged him to the opposite wall, securing a new mooring for the old stake before I stood back. “Not as satisfying as me watching you starve.”
“Is that how they died?” he said, nodding toward the dried up human.
“They?” I asked. I only had one trophy of my past vengeance.
“The man and the baby.”
My blood went cold. My gaze went straight to the place where I’d carefully laid out my daughter’s bones, but found the niche empty. I turned on him, my ire so strong, its heat dried my skin to a crackling parchment. “Where is she?”
Simpleton that he was, he only stared at me.
I flew at him, wrapped my hands around his throat and squeezed. Yet just as before, a searing pain raked at my fingers, crawled up my hand and slithered toward my elbows. I gritted my teeth, determined to hold on and finish what I’d started.
He sputtered.
The pain clawed up my arms and over my chest.
His body lurched.
My neck burned and my vision blurred. And then blackness consumed me, shutting out all sound, all sight, all touch, and I crumpled to the floor.
When I came to, I felt the cold touch of iron upon my skin. The man had wrapped the chain around my arms…and he held the slack. I moved and he jerked against the chain, causing the iron to bite into my flesh.
“So, it comes to this,” he said, an exhausted, yet wicked smile on his lips. “We will both die.”
“You will die. I have always been and will always be.”
His smile turned knowing. “Your magic is strong, but not all powerful. Surely I will wither into a heap of skin and bones, but you…” He motioned to my flaking skin. “Without water, you will dry up into a pile of dust. A fitting end, seeing as we both win.”
I dropped my gaze to see a myriad of tiny fissures running along my hands and up my arms. My anger had depleted me of moisture. I glanced at the water. A surge of fear I had not felt in a long time rushed through me. I fought against the chain and tried to wriggle loose, but he only tugged harder.
“Do you know how long a man can live without water? They say three days, maybe a week if he’s very lucky.” He leaned back, opened his mouth and caught several drips of water that ran down the walls and onto the floor. His gaze returned to mine, and he smiled. “I’ve got water. What about you?”
The cavern that had always offered protection had turned against me. It carried water that I needed to my enemy and left me dry.
I slanted a glance at the man. He lay weakly nearby, eyes closed, his strength a faint reflection of itself. I turned my back on the grinning human and wrapped my arms about my knees. Yet a smile touched my lips. I concentrated on the water. Every drop, every small bead that hung on the walls of my cave I called to me. Slowly thin rivulets began to form, colliding with others as they snaked across the floor to where I sat.
He didn’t know it, but time was on my side…and I had little doubt he would die.
16
I lunged toward the pool, my hands grasping for Ryne–my one true love. But he disappeared into the depths, the horror of the moment etched on his face and on my brain. The mist had retreated as suddenly as it had appeared, and the moon highlighted the suddenly calm water. It was if he had never been.
This couldn’t be real. My mind balked at the possibility, but my eyes did not lie.
The fear of him drowning flooded my thoughts, and I pushed it away. I would not give in; I had to save him. I dove into the pool, searching for him one blind inch at a time. Rising to the surface for air and then diving down again, the repetition put an ache in my side as the terror of not finding him climbed higher with every passing moment. On my final pass, I felt a fissure in the rocks, big enough for a man to fit through…and I knew. He was gone. The nix had finally collected her boon.
My lungs burned for air. It would be so easy to just breath deep now and end it all–the pain, the misery, the madness that had suddenly entered my life.
He is alive.
The voice whispered within my mind as clearly as if it were said in my ear.
Alive.
The crazy feeling pulled me to the surface. It made me reach for the bank and drag myself onto dry land. I gazed out over the lake. Could it be? Somewhere, out there, Ryne was alive. I knew it was true. As the mist swirled ever farther out, I curled my knees to my chest, and wrapped my arms around my legs. My body rippled with exhaustion and tears slipped down my face. My mind had frozen on one thing only. “Ryne. Come back.”
What would I do without him?
I could not remember my life before Ryne. The moment I met him was the moment my life truly began. When I was younger, I adored him. When I grew older, just the sight of him sent me into clumsy fits and awkward silence. I did everything to impress him. Now, the very breath I took was done for him. He loved me. He had saved me. And what had I done?
Nothing.
Helplessness seared my mind with pain, with guilt—with longing. “Ryne.”
I would not leave this spot until he returned. I would lay siege to the nix and curse her very existence. I would mourn my love until God took pity on me and brought him back.
The color of deep night gave way to pre-dawn luster when the search party, a dozen men from the village including my father, brother and Ryne’s father, found me.
“Nari.” My father rushed forward and sank to his knees before he wrapped me in his arms.
Shivering and delirious, I muttered Ryne’s name over and over again.
/> I heard the men grumble, concerned for my condition, asking after my clothes and the absence of Ryne.
“What is wrong? Tell me,” my father pleaded.
A crack in my litany allowed the unbelievable to be spoken. “The nix.”
My father’s arms tightened around me as he stared out over the lake. “That cannot be.”
“What is wrong? What did she say?” the other’s asked, drawing close to hear.
My father turned disbelieving eyes on them all. “The nix.”
Ryne’s father turned pale. “The nix came?” he whispered on a hoarse note. His handsome face, so like his son’s, seemed to age ten years. The men beside him grasped his arms and supported him when his knees suddenly gave out.
My brother swung a cloak over my shoulders, and my father lifted me high against his chest. I laid my forehead against his neck and clutched at his shirt. “I cannot leave. He’s alive.”
My father’s arms tightened, holding me closer. “No, my child. He is gone.”
If I could have fought to be free, I would have, but I was too exhausted to do anything but curl against him as he carried me home.
I lay fevered for two days, and my delirium stoked their fears. The new wife’s hands trembled as she bathed my brow, and my father clutched my fingers tightly when I called out my distress.
All thought Ryne was lost forever. All gave up hope.
If they thought I would do the same, they were wrong. As soon as I was able, I went back to the lake. I knelt before the waters, ignoring the tide as it lapped at my skirts, and willed the nix to appear. Tears came and went, my sadness so heavy it felt like I would never breathe again, yet I did. Each breath came as a painful reminder of the water that separated Ryne from me.
I would not eat. I could not sleep. My vigil was the only thing worth doing. My father and brother, and even the new wife, came to take me home, but I would not listen. And when the nix came, I was ready.
The mist grew thick and the feeling I was being watched shivered down my spine. I snapped my head up and blinked away my fear. I searched the mist, until slowly a portion of it thinned, and the head of a woman emerged from the water.