“It’s getting closer,” Eref said, looking terrified into the tunnel. “The end of the vine. It’s moving quickly.”
“I’ve got it!” Caer exclaimed.
“Great! Now help me get him off!”
“Shut up,” Caer said.
“Excuse me?” Vul’s thin arms had now wrapped around his torso, pulling him backward and stretching the muscles in his shoulder.
“Everyone shut up now! Throat Vines can hear you. It’ll kill Eref if we make any noise. We made the right choice. We just have to be silent.”
“I don’t understand,” Vul said, still wrapped around Eref and tugging. “Throat Vines kill you on contact no matter what.”
“There’s a way to tame certain ones,” Caer whispered. “We chose the right vine, but you have to be quiet. Trust me. Don’t make a sound.”
Nobody spoke. Eref watched the vine snake its way toward him, its pointed end like the mouth of a snake searching for its prey. He held his breath.
Vul let go, trembling, and backed away.
Once it reached the top of the tunnel, the vine slid up the side of Eref’s body and neck. It touched his lips.
He wanted to cry out. With his free hand, he held the Moonstone in his pocket and prepared to toss it to Caer and Vul.
The vine pushed its way through his lips and touched his teeth. He clenched his jaw and breathed heavily through his nose.
No one made a sound, though Eref sensed the tension behind him from Caer and Vul looking on. He must have made too much noise already. It was too late.
At least he hadn’t let Caer touch the vine first. After he was dead, they would know how it worked, and they’d be able to make it out safely.
The vine slid across his teeth, his dry lips sticking to the green stalk.
He turned his eyes downward, where the vine brushed through his mouth as if it were examining him. Fear welled up in his chest, and the desire to shout almost overpowered him.
The pounding of his heart and the rapid sound of his breath had to be calling the Throat Vine to him. It would push through his teeth and force its way down his esophagus. He would have no way to breathe.
He had to remember to throw the Moonstone to Caer and Vul before he choked to death. Eref held on tight to the ring.
Suddenly, the vine pulled away. It just dropped out of his mouth as if it had lost interest and fell back downward through the tunnel. Eref’s hand unglued from the stalk, and he wiggled his fingers.
After an enormous sigh of relief, he turned back to Caer and Vul. Both of them wore terrified expressions. He waved them over.
Her arm around Vul, Caer led them both to the vine. Eref climbed down first, followed by Caer, then Vul.
No one even dared to cough along the way.
It was a long climb, sliding silently through a murky tunnel. Eref was careful not to bump the other Throat Vines nearby.
After he touched the ground, Eref stepped back and helped Caer and Vul down. They walked a few paces from the vines and stopped to catch their breath.
“That. Was. In. Sane,” Vul whispered.
Eref wiped his damp palms on his slacks. “You’re telling me.”
Down here, his pocket with the Moonstone in it felt much heavier than usual, as if the ring was trying to bore its way through the cloth. He reached down and patted it.
“What’s this?” Caer had already found something. At the end of the room stood a large, wooden door with nothing painted on it or carved into it at all. It looked very plain, except for a small golden handle.
A little whine came from Vul, who sounded emotionally exhausted. “I can’t take another puzzle. Seriously, guys.”
“What do you think it is?” Caer walked ahead and examined the plain wood.
“Maybe it’s just a door,” Eref said.
She turned back and smiled at him. “That would be nice. Let’s try it.”
“Come on,” Vul moaned. “Can’t we have a few minutes where we just sit still and be glad we’re not dead yet?”
“We’re almost done,” Eref said.
Vul stared back with a skeptical frown. “How do you know?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I can just feel it. The Moonstone’s doing something.”
Both girls looked straight at his pocket, their faces nervous.
“Does that mean—” Vul started.
“The Governors may be in the next room,” Caer whispered.
The ring quivered at the sound of the word “Governors.”
Eref nodded at Vul and Caer. They had to be very close now.
“I’m not ready for this,” Vul said. And then she turned to Caer. “Neither are you,” she said. “Not with your birthday coming, Caer. They’ll take you to that place, too—if they don’t just kill us outright. They’ll put that thing in your head. You can’t go through that. I can’t let you.” The crack of desperation in her voice was reminiscent of her delirious state in the jungle.
“Calm down, Vul,” she said. “You knew we were coming here. Don’t lose your nerve now.”
But Vul shook her head. “You don’t know,” she said. “That room, that horrible room. And those men….”
“That’s not going to happen,” Caer said. “All Eref has to do it protect the Moonstone for twenty minutes, and then there won’t be any Governors or Eighteener Entrance at all.”
Vul looked up at Eref with wide, sad eyes. Caer turned to him as well.
The ring felt heavier than ever.
He had no idea what lay beyond that door, but every instinct in him said it spelled doom. In the chaos of the puzzles, they’d almost managed to forget what was coming. But now, at the last stop….
Eref would walk in there to die.
And if he failed, they would all die.
The look on Vul’s face said she needed some reassurance they would be safe, but he couldn’t give it to her. Could he defeat the Governors and throw over Light and Dark worlds? Something told him it wouldn’t be easy.
He was through making promises he couldn’t keep.
“I’ll do my best,” he said, a lump forming in his throat. “I’ll protect the Moonstone. Just try to hold them off of me for twenty minutes if you can.”
Caer whimpered.
“Eref,” Vul said. “I—”
“You’ve been a great friend, Vul. Thank you for everything.” He extended his hand to shake hers, but she jumped up and hugged him instead.
“I hate this, Eref,” she cried. “You don’t deserve to go through this.”
“Neither do you guys.”
Caer stood just a couple of feet off to their side. She made a soft, pitiful sound. Vul let go, and Eref took a few steps in her direction.
“Caer,” he said.
Tears streamed down her white cheeks. She blinked, then fell into him and cried on his chest.
Her little arms hugged him as tightly as she could, as if she wanted to meld her body with his.
“Don’t do it,” she moaned into his skin. “Don’t, don’t, don’t.”
Eref stroked her head and held her fragile body. “I have to,” he said. “I’m doing it for you.”
“No,” she sobbed. “I don’t want you to. Please. Don’t go anywhere. Stay with me. Stay.”
With every word, she gripped him tighter and pressed her face more into his chest. Her tears slid down his torso like drops of rain.
“Caer,” he whispered. “I’ll never leave you.”
She shook her head and cried harder.
“Listen to me,” he said. “If I don’t do this, you’ll forget us all. They’ll capture you, and they’ll erase Vul and me from your memory forever.”
“They can’t,” she cried. “I wouldn’t forget either of you.”
“Balor forgot me,” he said.
Caer sniffed.
“But something tells me I won’t forget you when I become the Safety,” he said, putting his hand under her chin to bring her head up. Her broken heart was written all over her
face. “You’ll live in the Safety with Vul,” he said, “and I’ll watch you all the time. It’ll be like we’re together every day.”
Looking into her eyes was the most painful thing Eref had done in his entire life. They begged him not to go. Her aching sadness came through so clearly, he felt it himself. It took everything in him to tell her no.
“We’re the lucky ones, Caer. How many people do you know who’ll get to be together forever?”
She smiled weakly, more tears spilling out of her eyes.
Eref hugged her again and let her cry into him. “You’re going to be fine,” he said.
“It’s not enough,” she said, wrapping her arms around him in another tight grip. “I won’t be able to see you or hear you or touch you.”
“Sure you will,” he said, his own heart feeling as heavy as the Moonstone in his pocket. “I’ll be everything you see and hear and touch. I’ll always be there.”
“I want to be part of that with you,” she cried.
Eref kissed her forehead. She looked up, and he kissed her cheeks and nose.
“Be strong for me,” he said.
She blinked at him, and finally he saw complete trust in her sad eyes.
He kissed her lips. Tears from her face rolled down his jaw, and for a moment, it seemed they really were the same person. A tiny light glowed briefly between them, and it felt like Heaven.
The kiss ended, and they held each other again, taking in everything. The shapes of their bodies, the smell of their skin. He wouldn’t forget this, even after he had died.
She let go slowly and stood next to him. But after that embrace, he could still feel her, as if part of her soul had entered his. Nothing could separate them.
Vul shifted her feet nearby. “We ready to go?”
Eref nodded.
With a deep breath, he patted his pocket again and grabbed the door’s golden handle.
“Let’s do it,” he said.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Governors
The door swooshed open, revealing a small, circular room.
“No way,” Vul said. “Disgusting.”
In the walls were five huge cases of blue water.
Each case contained the floating body of an ancient Safe Person.
Eref turned around, examining them all with a nauseating chill. Five life-sized aquariums surrounded them.
A small podium stood in the center of the room, with each Safe Person facing it, bobbing slowly, eyes closed.
“What are these people?” Caer touched Eref’s arm, and he held her hand.
For a moment, he wasn’t sure. But the longer he stared at their wrinkled, wet faces hanging lifelessly in the water, the more he knew he recognized them.
“They’re the people from the carving. On the first door,” he said. “These are the Governors.”
“What?” Vul sounded amazed. “No way. These people are dead.”
But even as she spoke, the bodies began to prove her wrong.
One by one, the ancient people opened their eyes. Still bobbing in their cases, they stared straight at Eref.
The Moonstone tugged at his pocket; it seemed something magnetic was drawing it out. This was it.
“Eref,” Caer said.
He reached into his pocket and pulled the Moonstone free. It glowed the brightest neon blue he’d ever seen.
One of the Governors—the thin old woman—lifted a wasted arm in her tank and pointed a bony finger at him. Short gray hair, the thickness of wires, swam slowly around her sunken face and body.
He let go of Caer and closed both hands over the glowing stone. Instantly, a great feeling of calm washed through him.
Caer and Vul stood nearby, their mouths open in fear and surprise.
He smiled back. “It doesn’t hurt. I’ll be fine. How long do we have?”
“About nineteen minutes, I think,” Vul said.
“Could you keep counting the time for me?”
Vul nodded, though she looked very uneasy. All around them, the other Governors lifted their arms and pointed their bony fingers.
“Eref,” Caer murmured again.
“It’s going to be fine,” he said with a smile. Holding this stone reminded him of protecting Caer. Holding her, kissing her. It was a sensation of perfect health and happiness. He was saving the world. He was saving Caer.
Then he began to feel very light, as if his body weighed no more than the air. He looked at his hand; it was becoming transparent. He could see the Moonstone right through his own skin.
A tapping sound came from one of the aquariums.
“They’re trying to break through!” Vul called.
The thin old woman rapped steadily on her case, her fierce gaze never leaving Eref. Soon, the other Governors started rapping on their tanks as well.
“What do we do?” Caer spun around, looking at each carcass-like Governor.
Eref had to hang on just a little more. “How much longer, Vul?”
“Fourteen minutes, I think!”
The glass cracked on the thin woman’s case.
Caer wrung her hands. “What if she gets out?”
“Just hold them off for another few minutes! I can do it!” His whole arm had grown transparent now.
Water began to seep out of the woman’s case. It wasn’t a thin liquid like Eref had imagined. This was some kind of bluish gel, and it slid through the cracks like glue oozing from a bottle.
He held the Moonstone tighter, and the preserved woman started to claw at the crack in the glass, her long fingernails clipping the sliver over and over.
Across the room, one of the men had also cracked his glass and begun clawing.
“Eref,” Caer said in a shaking voice. “They’re going to get out.”
“Twelve minutes,” Vul said.
Just then, a hidden door to their left burst open. Three Dark World soldiers entered the room holding flamethrowers.
“Hands up!” they shouted. “Right now!”
Caer and Vul exchanged terrified glances and raised their arms.
Eref found that the top left side of his torso was disappearing. When he held up his hands, fists clenched around the stone, the Moonstone ring appeared to hang in midair above his head. It was difficult to feel fear with the incredible sensation of power and freedom coursing through him, but he knew that the arrival of the soldiers was very bad.
He looked at Vul, who mouthed “Eleven minutes” before turning back to face the soldiers.
What could they do? It seemed that the best decision was for Caer and Vul to be arrested, and for him somehow to dodge the soldiers for another ten and a half minutes. But could he do it?
The Governors continued to claw at their glass cases, seemingly unaware of the soldiers’ presence. Each one of them looked hungrily toward Eref’s invisible hands.
“Come with us,” one of the soldiers said, brandishing his flamethrower in a very clear warning.
Vul made a rude gesture with her hands above her head. “Why don’t you shove that thing up your—”
“Ooof!”
One of the soldiers collapsed, and the other two turned in surprise.
There stood the Exile, holding the flamethrower of the soldier he’d just knocked unconscious. “Back up,” he instructed the two men. “Now. Or I’ll light this whole room ablaze.”
The soldiers looked perplexed, but they didn’t obey. One of them said, “How’d you escape, old man? I thought the soldiers captured you outside, at least half an hour ago.”
“Eref,” the Exile said, fixing his flamethrower on the two men. “How much longer do you need?”
“We’re at about eight minutes,” Vul said.
Eref’s entire left side had gone clear, and despite the chaos around them, he felt amazing. “I can do it, Exile. Can you hold them back?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I had to come in through the front to create a distraction. You were seen sneaking in.”
“Oh, no,” Caer said
.
“It’s not your fault,” the Exile said. “But I had to do something to keep them from tracking you down. It was difficult fighting them off to get here, though. I don’t know how much longer I can—”
“Seven minutes,” Vul said.
One of the soldiers jumped suddenly and cracked the Exile over the head with the back of his gun. The old man crumpled to the floor and didn’t move.
“Watch it,” said the other man. “The Governors want him alive.”
“I had to disarm him.”
“Is he breathing?”
“I dunno,” said the soldier. “Kick him or something.”
“We’ll deal with that later. You three. Come with us.”
“Sure,” Vul said. “In about six minutes.”
The soldier who had attacked the Exile took a step closer and brandished his gun at her again. “You’ll come when we tell you to, or we’ll light your head on fire.”
“Ooooh,” Vul said in her most sarcastic voice. “Scared to fight me like a man?”
“Vul, hush,” Caer said. Every second her wide, anxious eyes moved to something else. Eref. Vul. The Exile. The Governors. The soldiers.
Suddenly, Eref noticed that the Exile wasn’t unconscious. He lay where he’d fallen, but his eyes were open, and he watched the scene unfold.
The old lady had managed to poke a fingernail through her aquarium and now tried to free the rest of her hand.
The soldier ignored Vul and turned to his comrade. “What’s wrong with the Governors?”
Both men looked around at all the cases filled with expressionless, wrinkled people robotically clawing their way free.
“No clue,” the other one said, visibly disturbed by what he saw. “Probably has to do with these four.”
“I say we kill them,” the soldier said. “Right here in front of the Governors. We’ll go down in history.”
“Four minutes,” Vul whispered.
The soldier nodded at his comrade. He seemed to want to act quickly. Either Vul’s countdown or the strange Governors or both had put him on edge. “Kill them.”
They threw on flame-resistant masks and aimed.
Both men pulled the triggers; just at that moment, the Exile leapt forward and grabbed Vul, who was closest to him. They hit the floor in a haze of smoke and fire.
From Light to Dark Page 19