When he was finished, Draven let the stone drop to the floor. He held out his hand, and Bijarki quickly handed him a small, stone bowl. Draven held it to his waist, the blood slowly pouring into it.
“W-What are you doing?” I asked, unable to stay silent a moment longer. Draven looked up, surprised to see us all watching him. He turned back to the bowl.
“I’m drawing a map,” he replied tersely. “The symbols act as directions. They’ll guide us as we travel.”
I hadn’t a clue what he was talking about, but I decided not to push it. When the cup was full, he moved to a table, emptying another substance in with his blood.
“This is ash,” he explained before I could ask. “It’s from a tree out in the garden—centuries old.”
“What tree?” asked my brother.
“The one I think you saw in your vision,” Draven replied, glancing up at Phoenix. “It belongs to the Daughters.”
He mixed the ash and his blood together, and when he’d finished he looked back up at us.
“We will meet the Daughters in the mists that surround Eritopia. The mists can be deadly if you do not show enough caution,” he warned. “When I tell you to, you need to all hold hands, to be connected to me at all times. Under no circumstances must you let go—do you understand?”
We all nodded silently.
“If you let go, you will be lost—doomed to forever wander in the mists between the rest of the In-Between and Eritopia, never existing in either space. The shape-shifters also inhabit the mists, though these are slightly different—more deadly than the ones Serena encountered in the swamp. They are shifters who have changed form too many times, and as a result have been driven mad, unable to reclaim their own identity. They will call to you, trying to separate you from one another. Pay them no attention. They can’t harm you if we’re together.”
I felt sick. The thought of facing those shape-shifters, but in a deadlier state than the ones I’d already encountered, was terrifying.
“Don’t worry,” Draven replied, more softly, his gaze directed at me. “They can’t harm you. I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I nodded. I trusted him.
Draven picked up the cup again, and moved over to the flame. It was the same, ever-burning fire that I had seen The Shade in. He placed the bowl in its center, the flame completely consuming it from sight.
“Connect to one another,” he commanded, moving forward to take my hand. His skin was warm next to mine, his grip firm and reassuring. Bijarki joined the end of the ‘line’, taking Vita’s hand. I was furious, but before I could complain, the room shifted and blurred in my vision, eventually melting away till all I could see was darkness, and gray, swirling mists.
Phoenix
I closed my eyes against the mists, feeling a brief but intense suction-like sensation as if my entire body was being forced forward against my will. When I opened them again, we were all standing on cracked, red earth. Without letting my grip on Vita or Field go, I looked around, expecting to see evidence of a portal, but behind me there was nothing except a wide, empty expanse with nothing breaking up the line of the horizon. In front of us there was a large sandstorm barrier, following the earth in a straight line as far as I could see, and as tall as the plantation house so it was impossible to see what lay beyond it. The barrier whipped and screamed as the wind blew hot, grit-filled air in our faces.
“What is this place?” Field murmured.
I stared at the huge sandstorm in front of us, guessing that Draven would be telling us to walk through it, but wishing he wouldn’t. I couldn’t help but feel, though the barrier was only sand and wind, that it was furious—that it wanted to rip and tear and destroy anything that crossed its path.
“Remember what I told you!” Draven shouted out over the noise of the winds. “Whatever you do, don’t let go.”
He moved us forward, looking back to ensure the link hadn’t been broken. Vita’s grip was like a clamp, her eyes wide as we approached the wall.
“Don’t worry,” I murmured to her, thinking immediately what a stupid thing it was to say—there were plenty of reasons to be worried.
The sand slapped at my face like a whip, tearing at my hair and the loose shirts we’d been wearing from what the girls had managed to scavenge in the attic. It felt like my skin would blister from the onslaught—any exposed flesh felt like it was being burnt by both the intense heat and the grains of sand.
I lost sight of both Vita and Field. I looked down, squinting at where our hands were clasped, but I could only see their fingers and wrists—beyond that, they were swallowed by the barrier. Once we were inside the sandstorm, the ferocity of the wind had died down, so it no longer felt like it was roaring at us, but the density of the sand didn’t let up. I soon felt I was completely lost and alone. No wonder Draven had told us to hang on tightly to one another—it felt like I could be lost in here forever, completely disorientated and never finding a way out.
We kept moving forward. I started to hear a strange whistling noise, as if it was coming from everywhere at once. I tried to tune into it, to listen more closely, beginning to distinguish strange voices and sounds.
“Can you hear that?” I called to Field and Vita.
“Yeah,” Vita replied, her voice muffled, but Field didn’t reply.
“Field?” I called, but he remained silent. I tugged on his arm, to get his attention. He tried to yank out of my grip but I held on tight.
“Field, are you okay?” I yelled again.
Silence.
I looked down at our hands, reassuring myself that he was still there. Perhaps he couldn’t hear me. There was nothing much else I could do other than make sure my grip didn’t falter.
The whispered voices continued, and I stopped, stunned, as my name was called.
Phoenix.
Vita and Field both yanked me forward, and the voice was swallowed up by the cacophony of the other strange sounds and whistles carried in the winds. A few moments later, I could hear my name being called again, and it was in a voice I was sure I could recognize, but couldn’t quite place.
Phoenix.
Why haven’t you told your friends that you saw her?
I looked around, instantly angry. Who was this? Was it the Druid or Bijarki taunting me? Had they seen me trying to dig her up last night?
She is beautiful, isn’t she?
But will you be worthy, Phoenix?
Are you a great man like your father—or are you a mere shadow of him?
I gritted my teeth against the voice. I was now sure it wasn’t any of our company. I doubted the Druid or Bijarki knew anything of my father, or my relationship with him. How I truly felt. But someone was managing to push my buttons…Who? I listened out for the voice again, trying to rack my brain to work out where I’d heard it before.
“Don’t listen to the voices!” Serena shouted across the winds. It snapped me back to reality. “Remember, the shape-shifters!”
Right. Yes, the creatures that had called out to my sister in the swamp, taking on the voices of Field and Jovi. The shape-shifters must have been mimicking the voice of one of us, but distorting it so it was unfamiliar and couldn’t be placed.
Phoenix. The voice came again. Phoenix.
If you come with us, we will show you how to save her.
You can be with her, always.
You can find true love, contentment.
I yanked once again at the hands of my friends. Their grip was suddenly irritatingly tight. Why wouldn’t they let me go? I wanted to follow the voices, let them lead me back to her, find a way to remove her from the worm-filled earth, from the rot and decay that surrounded her.
Come with us, Phoenix.
I looked around, searching the empty expanse of the sandstorm. I could see shapes, emerging from the mists, but flickering so quickly in and out of my vision I wasn’t sure if they were real or imagined. I squinted, trying to make them out.
One appeared
in front of me, a few yards ahead. It was the figure of a man, I was sure of it, but from this distance, and with the sand still stinging unrelentingly in my eyes, I couldn’t make out any particular features. The figure struck me as strange though, as if its arms were too long for its body, its head too slim and small for its frame. As I watched it, the figure flickered and darted away, moving at great speed.
“Wait!” I called out, trying to run after it.
“No!” Vita cried out. “Phoenix, don’t listen to them! They’re lying to us!” She pulled on my arm, keeping me alongside her. Field’s grip didn’t falter either.
I saw another, moving up ahead through the mists. It was running on all fours, not upright like a man, but still with a human figure—long legs that arched its spine upward, its arms scrabbling in the dirt while its face appeared to be turned at an unnatural angle, looking at me as it ran past. They moved fast—surprisingly so.
The noises started to give way to cries. Long, pain-filled and tortured, they echoed through the winds. I knew my friends had been right to hold on tightly and not let me go. These creatures were hungry. I could hear their howls of misery that none of us would join them.
Help us! they now cried. Please help us!
The voices that called out were no longer familiar. They belonged to the tortured and insane—wretched creatures that seemed to be locked in these mists. Never finding their way home, only desiring to feed, to follow their most base instincts.
I shuddered, gripping Vita and Field tightly. I couldn’t wait to get out of here. How long did this barrier continue on for? I couldn’t see an end in sight, just more of the red and yellow hues of the sandstorm with the same dark, flickering figures lying in wait up ahead.
I dreaded the voices calling to me again, tempting me to follow them, using the girl as a ploy. Had the others heard what they’d been saying to me, or had they been locked in their own madness, the shape-shifters playing on their innermost secrets? My own behavior seemed completely baffling to me now, especially what I had done this morning. Why wasn’t I telling my friends about the girl I’d seen? It was foolish, and actually downright dangerous, to keep them ignorant of what lay beneath the magnolia tree. It started to occur to me that the shape-shifters weren’t the only ones that had managed to create some kind of hold over me—last night I had been scrabbling at the dirt with my bare hands in some kind of desperate frenzy to uncover her. Was the sleeping beauty manipulating me in some way? Using me to uncover something that was just an illusion, or something potentially deadly?
The Druid needed to be told of what I’d seen when I visited the tree—that I knew about the last Daughter’s hiding place.
The tree had come from the Daughters of Eritopia, and if they were as dangerous as Bijarki and the Druid had claimed they could be, then I needed to be on guard. I vowed not to visit the magnolia tree again till I had told the others. It just wasn’t safe.
Vita’s hand pulled again suddenly on mine, and I gripped her more tightly.
“Focus on my voice,” I called to her. “They’re not real. Keep hold of me.”
“Vita, no!” Bijarki yelled, at the same time that Vita tried to slide out of my grip. Our hands were becoming hot and slick with perspiration, making it harder to hold on to one another. I quickly grabbed her wrist as her fingers slipped from mine, holding on to her delicate bones, almost afraid that I could break them. I ignored my concerns—better an injured wrist than Vita breaking free and joining the shape-shifters.
Soon, her pulling stopped and it seemed like she’d come back to reality. Her arm went limp and the tension of my arm lessened as she moved closer next to me. I worried again that Field hadn’t made a noise, but his grip was still firmly in mine.
Slowly, the whipping of the sand seemed to die down. I thought I could see a horizon beyond the storm—hope that we would soon be leaving the sand behind. Sure enough, a few minutes later, all of us picking up the pace in a desperate need to escape the creatures and their taunts, the sands died down completely. We stepped out on to the same cracked red earth, finally freed.
Serena
I was relieved beyond words to finally escape the sandstorm. I had thought my experience in the swamp would have prepared me for facing the shape-shifters again—and in a way, it had—but their tactics were different this time, and far more insidious. At first, I had thought it was Draven calling to me, but then the voices had started speaking about Draven, and how, if I ever wanted to get home, to realize my dreams of Brown and the other Ivy League colleges I was so set on, I would need to leave him and my friends and follow them. I had found myself bizarrely tempted, even though I knew deep down what they were offering was completely illogical. They had also told me it was Draven himself who had brought about Elissa’s death and his father’s eventual downfall. None of this could have been true, but the shape-shifters did such a good job at painting Draven out as a cruel, vindictive demon that the moment we left the storm, I dropped his hand abruptly.
No one spoke for a few moments as we stood looking out at the horizon. The earth was the same as before—red and cracked, completely desolate, with arid sand brushing up against my bare feet as it was sucked into the storm behind us.
“That was intense,” Jovi said huskily, not looking at any of us as he kicked the ground with his shoe. His tone was bitter, and I wondered what he had been told in there. Draven looked no better than the rest of us—his expression was pale and haunted, and he looked out on the horizon with his lips set in a disgusted grimace.
I was confused about where we were. From the way Draven had spoken, I had thought we’d be out in the atmosphere of the planets somewhere, staring at them all in the distance, in the same way we traveled through the In-Between from the portal to the fae star. If the Daughters were guardians of Eritopia, why were they on ground level? Why were they on a star? I asked the Druid to explain, partly trying to distract him and refocus our guide on the matter in hand.
“This is all an illusion,” he muttered. “None of it is real. Not the desert, the sandstorm—they’re just protections created by the Daughters. I don’t exactly know where we are.”
“But our bodies are really here, right?” I asked, checking as I tried to gain an understanding of a land that was just illusion. “We’re not just back in the basement, dreaming or anything?”
The Druid shook his head with a smirk.
“No, we’re really here, it’s just that ‘here’ doesn’t exactly exist.”
“Right,” I replied sarcastically. That made zero sense.
“So, what do we do now?” Jovi asked. “Where do we find the Daughters?”
“We don’t, they find us,” Draven replied, moving over to a rock that jutted out from the earth—the only barrier I could see against the steady influx of sand that ran like an ocean along the earth. It provided a little shade from the intensity of the sun’s glare, and I went to join him, already feeling like my skin was burning.
“For how long?” I asked as I sat down.
“As long as it takes,” he replied, exhibiting a patience I didn’t share in the slightest.
One by one my friends and brother sat down to join us. Bijarki was the only one who remained standing, pacing up and down as if he was unbothered by the heat of the day and preferred to remain active.
“This heat is intolerable,” Aida grumbled, holding her hair up off the back of her neck. Her cheeks and nose were already growing pink, and both Jovi and Field shoved over to give her more space in the shade.
I started to look around in concern.
“Hang on. We have water, right?” I couldn’t see any other way of getting it unless we’d brought it along, and neither Bijarki nor Draven looked like they had any provisions.
“We do,” Draven replied.
I looked at him questioningly, and the others followed suit. Mentioning ‘water’ had been a mistake—my throat suddenly felt as dry as the land we were sitting on. Draven removed something from his pocket.
He opened up his hand to reveal a small blue crystal. It glimmered in the light.
Right. Magic, of course.
I should have been used to stuff like this, having lived in The Shade, but as I didn’t have any of the skills myself, I often assumed a rational state of mind, forgetting that others had access to a completely different kind of reality.
“What’s that?” Vita asked, leaning over me and eyeing the crystal with curiosity.
“A form of the hemimorphite crystal,” he replied. “It’s known as a ‘throat healer’ in some Earth cultures, I believe.”
He rolled the crystal along the ground and it came to a stop about two meters away from where we were sitting. I watched as the crystal started to morph, spreading out as if the earth was melting it, until it became a smooth pool of water. I was about to exclaim that it was unlikely to be enough for all of us when the water started to move more forcefully—a jet reaching up into the air and falling back down when it reached its apex, like a water fountain.
“How long will it last?” I asked, already getting up, transfixed by the cool, clear water.
“Long enough,” Draven replied. “Just take your fill.”
I greedily drank from the fountain, letting the water run down my chin and drench the front of my already sweat-soaked clothing. The others moved to stand behind me, everyone but Draven and the incubus forming an orderly queue for the water.
“Come on, Serena,” my brother growled, “I’m dying here.”
A House of Mysteries Page 14