by Eli Ingle
“Ow,” he moaned, rubbing his eyelids. It did not help.
The feeling of lethargy was getting worse. The longer they stayed here, the worse it got. Rona did not look much better. She had been woken a few moments earlier and was sitting on the edge of the cart, drinking something hot and looking miserable.
“You look happy,” said Rigel, trying to grin but failing and grimacing instead.
“You’ve looked better yourself,” she commented, her eyes shut and her head drooping.
“It’s getting worse, isn’t it?” he said quietly, making sure the others could not hear him. She looked over her shoulder before nodding.
“I don’t know what’s wrong but I’m starting to get worried.”
“I’m sure it will be fine …” he said, barely believing the words even as they came out of his own mouth.
“I feel much better after hearing your professional opinion, Dr Rigel.”
“Well, I didn’t spend four years at medical school just to sit around and look pretty.”
She laughed and they felt much better as the sunlight started to warm them up – even if it was the red light of a dying sun.
“What are you two muttering about?” asked Laurie, turning around in his seat.
“Nothing,” said Rigel immediately. For some reason, it seemed like a bad idea to tell him. Rona’s silence indicated that she agreed.
They travelled all day, and by nightfall they had finally arrived at the range of hills on the horizon – only to find that it was actually a mountain range. Rigel looked at the natural barrier. It was so large he craned his neck as he tried to see the top.
“It’s flat!” he exclaimed as he looked at the tops.
Everyone looked at the tops of the mountains and saw that they indeed were flat, forming a strange table-top effect. Laurie lowered the steps and hopped down, landing onto the slate floor and sending puffs of dust up around his heavy boots.
“We should probably have a quick look around before we settle down for the night,” he said, calling up to the others.
Gathering several lamps, they handed them out and jumped down the steps.
“We’ll split up,” instructed the Captain.
“That’s an easy way to get killed,” said Rona.
“It’s not Scooby Doo,” replied Rigel.
“I can’t see anyone around,” said Laurie, not bothering to ask what Scooby Doo was. “So I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
“That’s what they want you to think …”
“You’re getting paranoid,” said Rigel, grabbing her arm. “Come on.”
They walked together as a group for a moment and were just about to split up when they saw a sign up ahead. Walking over to it, they leant in to read it. Three arrows were nailed to the post. Each had writing painted sloppily onto it and they all pointed in different directions: one forwards, the other two to the left and right.
“Nightmare Gorge” was the one pointing ahead. The one to the right read “Insomnia Gorge”, and the one to the left, “Bliss Gorge”. Jhoan blinked.
“Looks like we came to the best place on Endirin,” he said dryly.
“What kind of name is Nightmare Gorge?” asked Rona, looking uneasy.
“Let’s go and have a look,” said Erdiz.
“Let’s not,” she said.
“Well, I am,” said the wise-woman, starting forwards. Laurie and Jhoan followed. After a slight hesitation, Rigel looked over his shoulder at Rona, shrugged and ran after them.
“Hey! You can’t leave me!” she demanded, stamping her foot.
Ignoring her, they walked forwards until they reached the edge of the mountain. Through the gloom of the approaching night, they saw a huge split as if the cliff face had been opened by a giant’s hammer. The darker air in the crack showed them where the gorge began. Just before the entrance, Rigel spotted another sign. He read it out loud.
“Keep out.” He touched the runny letters. The sign looked quite new … or at least no more than a couple of weeks old.
Moving back, they found Rona waiting for them with crossed arms and a sour look on her face. She was tapping one foot against the ground. Rigel gave her a cheeky grin.
“I hope you found something worth finding,” she said even as she swatted Rigel around the head.
“Well that depends on what you class as something worth finding,” said Jhoan.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“They’d written another sign that they’d stuck in front of the gorge that said ‘Keep Out’,” explained Laurie.
“Oh lovely.”
Falling into a glum silence, they walked back to the cart, grateful for the lamps as the darkness grew around them. Looking back up at the mountain tops, Rigel noticed they were going misty.
A meal was prepared and eaten in silence. The mist rolled down from the mountains and pooled across the floor before creeping around and over the cart, forming beads of moisture on the wood and their clothes. Crawling to bed, they hid under the covers even as the mist covered them completely, making it almost impossible to even see each other.
“Night night, everyone,” called out Rigel, “wherever you are…”
The night was filled with restless, uneasy sleep. Rigel was troubled by dreams of more purple eyes floating in the Darkness and woke the next morning feeling less rested than the night before.
The air was blowing colder than yesterday. His eyes were dragged around to the mountain range ahead. “Another day in paradise ….”
Later that morning they were sat on the cart eating breakfast.
“So what’s the plan?” asked Rona between a mouthful of food.
The adults looked at each other as if they had been talking about it. Rigel sighed.
“What have you discussed in advance this time?” he asked. “You can’t keep doing this.”
“Yes we can,” said Erdiz.
“Hey, we’re older than you are, you know,” he said, feeling nettled.
“Nevertheless, we’ve agreed that Jhoan will scout ahead and see if it looks safe and then we will make a decision,” Erdiz informed them.
Out of the corner of his eye, Rigel thought he saw Jhoan looking none too happy about this decision but when the focus moved onto him he straightened himself up, projecting confidence.
“All set?” asked Laurie.
“Nearly,” said the bandit as he pulled his revolver out, loading and spinning it before closing it up again. Rigel was biting his nail, staring at Jhoan. The bandit caught his gaze and dropped a wink. “All set.”
They walked over to the gorge again and paused just before the “Keep Out” sign. From his shoulder, Laurie pulled a coil of rope that he had been carrying.
“Alright, we’ll tie this to your belt,” he said, trying to grab the bandit. “You tug the rope three times if there’s something bad and we’ll pull you out.”
The bandit swatted him off and moved out of reach.
“What is this – Jason and the Wonder Maze? There’s not a three-headed snake waiting in there for me ….”
“You never know!” insisted the Captain.
“Doesn’t sound that bad actually,” Erdiz said.
“I didn’t come here to get a rope tied around me. I’m a bandit: it’s my job to do dangerous things. What are you, my mother?”
“Son! I wanted to tell you all these years but I was ashamed!”
“Get off me,” snapped the bandit, pulling the Captain off him. “Right, I’ll see you all in a bit.”
Jhoan spun on his heel and began walking to the gorge. Rona was chewing her nail and looking at him.
“Oh, be careful!” she called.
Without turning around he gave a jaunty salute, letting them know he had heard. Pausing as he reached the entrance of the gorge, he took a breath and stepped in … and faded away.
“Woah!”
“What happened?!”
“Jhoa
n!” shouted Laurie, running forwards. “JHOAN!”
“What?” came an irritated reply. It was dripping with three layers of echo.
“Where are you?”
“What are you, daft? I’m in the gorge. Honestly, I’m gone one minute.”
“No, you’ve disappeared.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Well, we can’t see you!”
“Well, I can see you.”
He stepped out of the gorge and appeared back into sight again. “What’s the problem?” he asked.
“I can see you now.”
“See, it’s fine.”
“There could be an enchantment on it,” said Erdiz, pulling out a palm-sized brass dome. It had wires sticking out of it and a large lightbulb on top.
“When did you get that?” asked Laurie, turning around.
“I made it the other day. I got bored.”
“And its purpose is?”
“It detects enchantments in the nearby area. Well, at least it’s supposed to ….”
“Go on then,” said the Captain, pointing at the entrance to the gorge.
Erdiz walked forwards, the device resting on her palm. As she approached, the light began to flash violently. When she was five metres away the bulb exploded.
“Now, is that because there’s an enchantment or did you build the machine really badly? Sorry for asking but with you I have to check,” grinned Laurie. Erdiz scowled at him.
“That’s some pretty powerful enchantments going on there,” she said, rubbing her singed eyebrows.
“Does it really matter?” asked Jhoan, starting to sound impatient.
“Just look,” said Laurie, taking a deep breath and stepping into the gorge. Just as quickly as Jhoan had, he faded out of sight. “See, I’ve disappeared, haven’t I?” he asked as the echo of his voice bounced around.
“Yes,” said Rigel.
“I suppose I can see why you were concerned,” conceded the bandit.
Laurie stepped back out of the gorge and patted Jhoan on the shoulder. “Just be careful, alright?” The bandit nodded before stepping back inside and fading away again. Moving away from the gorge, they stood together, staring ahead towards it. The looming mountains seemed to bore down upon them, taunting them with a hidden menace. The longer they hung around, the less comfortable Rigel felt around them. He sat down on the dusty ground and hugged his knees. Time passed and the sun rose higher in the sky but despite the progression of the day it felt as though the sun was barely touching their skin – it was cold and the wind blew chill off the mountains … almost as though were was a haze around them that filtered out the light and prevented it from reaching them.
“In the valley where the shadows lie, there is no sun, there is no life. I cannot scream, I can’t get out, no-one can hear my dying shout,” said Erdiz. They turned, scowling. She was reading off a bundle of papers strung loosely together.
“With that attitude, we’ll have to promote you to the Entertainment Committee,” said Laurie.
“What are you reading?” asked Rona as she stood up and moved over.
Rough Guide to the Realm, said Erdiz, pointing to the hand-written front cover. “They weren’t lying either – there’s barely anything in here until this point. It talks about the barren landscape and that’s it ….” She spotted Laurie looking at her. “Which is why I’ve only just mentioned it,” she explained. “Not much good telling you I have a guide that doesn’t say anything. The rest of it is just fragments and nonsensical at that … I suppose we’re lucky to have what we do considering that no-one’s been here for Gods know how many years ….”
“If it’s so rough, how are you sure that it’s talking about the Nightmare Gorge now?”
“I’m not, but it’s the first thing in here so I’d say it was a pretty good guess, wouldn’t you?”
“I suppose so ….”
“What about the other ways through?” asked Rigel. “I mean, Nightmare Gorge isn’t exactly the most encouraging name, is it? Bliss Gorge sounds much more appealing so why aren’t we just going through that one?”
“We’ve got to check them all out first,” said Laurie, “and then we can decide which one we’ll be going through.”
Rigel sighed and looked up at the sky again. The malignant sun shone weakly above them, bringing no hope or comfort. He was suddenly hit with a pang of homesickness. He wanted to go home – back to Kozenia. It did not escape his notice that he now thought of Kozenia as home, rather than Earth. He could not bear the isolation, desolation and hopelessness of the Realm with no hope and no end in sight. They had been here for ages and he felt as if they had barely even made any progress. He began wriggling on the spot, unable to keep still with his worrying.
“Just go for a walk,” said Laurie. “You’re making me edgy.”
Jumping to his feet, Rigel hurried away angrily. What did Laurie know about feeling edgy? Soft footfalls padded into step behind him. After a moment she caught up with him.
“I know how you feel,” said Rona as she walked beside him.
“You really don’t,” he said, annoying himself with his poor attitude but at that moment he really did not care. He just wanted to be alone. “I feel like–”
“You can’t bear the isolation, desolation and hopelessness of the Realm with no hope and no end in sight. We’ve been here for ages and you feel as if we’ve barely even made any progress,” she said. Rigel’s mouth closed with a snap and he looked at her. “Sorry. But when I say I know how you feel, I’m being serious.”
“How do you know?” he asked. She was rubbing her forehead as though struck with a migraine.
“I’ve just been getting glimpses – just little ones, mind you – and when I have one I know what you’re thinking.”
“Oh great,” he said, his face heating up as he suddenly worried whether he’d been thinking anything that would work against him.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “It’s not all the time and it’s only if I really try. See, right now I’ve got a headache because I tried too hard. I can do it but it’s not sustainable.”
“When did you first start noticing it?” he asked, now starting to feel more curious than embarrassed.
“Since we got here, but at first it was so unnoticeable that I didn’t pay any attention. I think everyone gets little glimpses into things now and again and I just put it down to that, but when you said something that a moment before I’d heard you say in your head, then I knew that it was starting to develop, so that’s when I started trying to build it up, but if I push myself I get migraines ….”
“Do you think I could do it?” he asked, as jealousy started to push away the curiosity.
“I was wondering if it was something we could do … you know … if it could be another one of our tricks, but when you never mentioned it I thought it might just be me. Try it.”
“How?”
“I’ll think of something really hard and you try to pick up on it.”
“Yeah, but how do I do that?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. Don’t think about trying to think about what I’m thinking—”
“That makes sense ….”
“Just turn your mind towards mine and try to pick up on something,” she explained, ignoring his jibe.
He turned to face her and attempted to do what she suggested but reckoned he was trying too hard. He was doing what she had said he should not – trying to think about what she was thinking. Turning away, he was about to say he could not do it when he saw a brief flash of the tree they had originally found her in, the one that had turned into a monster.
“That monster tree!” he cried, pointing at her.
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Well done.”
“I only got it for a second,” he said, but it was like a bright picture.
“Oh well done, Rigel!” she sounded delighted.
Now in a much cheerier mood, they walk
ed along the edge of mountains for a while before turning back again. They spotted the others in the distance and saw that Jhoan had returned. Hurrying back, they greeted him, eager to hear what had happened.
“Nothing,” he informed them. They looked disappointed. “Well it’s a good thing really, isn’t it? Would you really want to be walking through a gorge of nightmares? It just looks like your average mountain pass if you ask me.”
“What about the other gorges? Should we check them out?” the Captain asked Erdiz.
“I think that would be the most sensible option,” agreed the wise-woman.
“Hey, don’t we get a say in this?” asked Rona. “What’s wrong with just going through this one? We’re wasting time here.”
“I think it would be best to look at all the options,” said Erdiz. “Jhoan, if you wouldn’t mind?” She spread a palm towards the left, where Bliss Gorge was situated.
“No problem, Professor,” he said, giving another jaunty salute before walking off into the distance.
“What’s going on here?” demanded Rona. “Why all the sudden caution? We’re supposed to be making progress here and all we’re actually doing is being overly cautious.”
“We’re trying to make sure you’re safe. Would you really us rather put you in a situation that’s dangerous?” asked Laurie.
“It’s never seemed to be a problem in the past,” muttered Rigel.
“I heard that,” the Captain replied. “Look, it’s in our best interest to keep you safe and if that means spending some time deciding which gorge to go down then we’ll spend time deciding which gorge to go down. We’re in charge; we make the decisions.”
“But I don’t understand,” persisted Rona. “We can look after ourselves.”
“We know that, children,” said Erdiz, bobbing down to their level. The ‘I understand you; we’re on the same side’ gesture made Rigel feel a sudden and surprising surge of dislike towards the wise-woman. “But I also know that there’s something wrong with you that you’ve not been telling us.”
They fell silent and their jaws locked but the very poker faces they tried to portray gave them away.
“And until that either gets sorted out or you tell us what’s going on then we’ll be making the decisions regarding your wellbeing.”