Tides of the Dark Crystal

by J. M. Lee

  skekUng sniffed, then spat, curling his lip. “This is a waste of time. I say we kill the princess as we killed her mother and let the Vapra bow directly to us. As they should.”

  “My mother,” Tavra whispered in Amri’s ear as the two Skeksis lumbered again toward the citadel. “They murdered her, after all—”

  As the lords passed out of earshot, Amri heard someone else approach from behind. Before he could react, a hooded figure grabbed him, jerking the cold flat of a blade against his neck.

  “Wait!” Onica said.

  “He’s possessed by a spider,” hissed a female voice, familiar in Amri’s ear. “On his shoulder—quick, grab it and crush it!”

  “No, it’s not—” Amri’s explanation was cut short, almost too literally, by his attacker’s blade. He held out his hands and waved them as Tavra scurried into his hair. “It’s not what you think!”

  Onica stepped in, pulling her hood down to reveal her face.

  “Put down the knife, Tae! It’s all right!”

  The familiarity clicked. Amri recognized the jewelry on the Sifa’s hand where she clutched the knife.

  “I’ve seen what those crystal-singers can do,” she said. “Now take it and kill it while I hold him, before it’s too late!”

  “It’s not what you think,” Amri said, careful not to move. “Tavra . . . it’s time. You have to tell her. Tae, no sudden moves, all right?”

  Amri couldn’t see Tavra as she revealed herself, but he could hear Tae suck in a breath and stiffen. Tavra let out a tired sigh.

  “Tae, it’s me. Katavra.”

  “Tavra? But how . . .” The Sifa girl faltered, letting Amri breathe without a knife in the way. He pushed the blade the rest of the way from his face and turned toward her.

  “It’s a song we must tell elsewhere,” Amri said.

  Tae couldn’t look away from the spider on his shoulder. She nodded.

  “Follow me,” she said, then hurried away. They followed, putting the citadel behind them, though Amri could still feel it gazing down on their backs.

  CHAPTER 21

  At the far end of Ha’rar, the cliffs dropped away into the ocean. A narrow, carved stairway cut down the steep mountainside and deposited them at the wharf, a stretch of ice shelf held against the Ha’rar cliffside with stone pillars. Metal poles—used for docking ships, Amri imagined—stuck out of the ice and water like spines. But all were empty. What had probably once been a bustling marketplace and landing for the Sifa and other seafarers was now barren and silent.

  There was only one ship in the harbor, a familiar Sifa craft with red, blue, and purple sails. Amri felt safer as soon as they were inside, cabin door locked and the cushions and quilts surrounding them with the scent of Onica’s herbs and Sifa fernsage.

  “Where’s Ethri? Where’s the Omerya?” Onica asked. “What are you doing in Ha’rar?”

  “I accompanied Ethri when she responded to Seladon’s summons. We didn’t know what to expect when we came here, so we took your ship instead of the Omerya,” Tae explained. “I’ll tell you what I know, but first, you need to explain what’s happened to Tavra.”

  They sat at the table and Naia told the song of what had happened. About Krychk the crystal-singer, who had taken over Tavra’s drained body to infiltrate the Gelfling resistance. How Kylan had used dream-stitching to attach Tavra’s soul to the spider’s body when her physical one died. At last, how they’d sent their message of the Skeksis’ betrayal with the Sanctuary Tree.

  It was all just a beginning to the rest of it: their voyage to the Dousan Wellspring after they’d left Cera-Na. All of it. Although lighting the fire with the Dousan seemed to raise Tae’s spirits, it was the fate of the Vapra princess before her that she returned to when they were done telling their tale.

  “So you’re still able to do as the crystal-singers do, and whisper songs in the ears of Gelfling,” Tae said. “What’s it like?”

  Amri wasn’t sure if the question was to him or Tavra. Tavra seemed hesitant to answer, especially since the occasions when it had happened hadn’t been planned. In skekSa’s ship and then in the desert storm.

  “It’s sort of like dreamfasting,” Amri answered for them both. “You know how in a dreamfast, you feel like you’re someone else, just for that dream? It was like that. I felt like I was her.”

  “And I was you,” Tavra finished in agreement. “Yes, it was like dreamfasting. I was able to see through Amri’s eyes. When we flew to save Onica from the Crystal Skimmers, it was as if for a moment . . .”

  As if for a moment I was Gelfling again, she had been about to say. Amri frowned. He wondered how it must have felt, if even for a moment. To fly once more, only to have to go back to being a spider again.

  “I can’t believe this,” Tae exclaimed. She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, as if she might rub the strangeness out of her mind. “All that time in Cera-Na. On skekSa’s ship. When we lit the fires, you were there. Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “What was there to say?” Tavra asked with a spider-size shrug. “My own sisters do not know I am still alive. If this state could be called living.”

  Before Tavra could go too far down that depressing path, Onica spoke up.

  “Tae, it’s your turn. What has happened? We overheard the General saying the Skeksis killed the All-Maudra—is it true?”

  “All anyone knew was that she had died—but I’m not surprised to learn it was the Skeksis that killed her!” Tae bunched her fingers in an angry fist, then sighed, shaking her head with a huff of frustration. “Seladon sent the windsifters with the pieces of the living crown and the message that Mayrin had passed. The maudra came to Ha’rar to bless Seladon’s ascension as All-Maudra. Ethri and I attended the blessing, but it was . . . wrong. Now that I know it was the Skeksis that did away with Mayrin, it makes more sense.”

  “What do you mean?” Amri asked.

  Tae rested her chin on her folded fingers. “In front of all the maudra, Seladon declared All-Maudra Mayrin a traitor. Refused to return her mortal body to Thra—disobeyed sacred tradition in doing so. Then, at the blessing ceremony, she invoked the Skeksis order. Declared the Vapra’s loyalty to the Castle of the Crystal and Emperor skekSo. When time came for the maudra to bless her ascent, if anyone refused . . .”

  “Then it was as good as declaring war against the Skeksis,” Tavra finished. “This was planned by Emperor skekSo. A power play like this reeks of his manipulation. What happened when she asked for the blessings?”

  “I thought with the Ritual Master and General so close at hand, the other maudra might be cowed into pledging anyway,” Tae said. “Ethri didn’t know what to do, so she blessed Seladon in the hopes that unity among the maudra might still support the resistance. But . . .”

  “My mother withheld,” Naia said. She looked down, lips pressed and pensive. Naia’s mother, Maudra Laesid, whose two children had become targets of the Skeksis’ lies of treachery. Of course she would withhold blessing an All-Maudra who would swear loyalty to the Skeksis.

  Tae nodded. “As did Maudra Fara of the Stonewood.”

  “What about Maudra Argot?” Amri asked. “The other maudra?”

  “Maudra Seethi and Maudra Mera blessed Seladon. Whether because they swear to the Emperor skekSo or fear his power, I do not know. As for Maudra Argot, she sent her piece of the crown, though she did not attend in person. After the blessing ceremony, Ethri returned to Cera-Na to bear the news, but I stayed here.”

  “You shouldn’t have,” Tavra said. “It’s dangerous. There is a storm coming. It may not be in the sky, but it is black as Skeksis cloaks and rains sharp as their teeth and claws.”

  Tae’s cheeks colored, but she crossed her arms and didn’t back down.

  “I know that. But the last time I faced a storm near Ha’rar, I could do nothing to stop it. You had to save me.
This time, I will do everything I can to do the saving.”

  Naia and Kylan glanced at each other and Amri remembered he was the only one who had seen Tavra’s memories and heard from Onica about her Far-Dream of the storm. Naia and Kylan had no idea what Tavra and Tae were talking about.

  “There’s no point arguing about it now,” Onica said, breaking the strange quiet. “Tae is here and she’s brought my ship. Instead of telling her she was wrong to do so, we might as well accept it.”

  Naia pounded the table with a fist. “Right. The storm is coming either way. We’d be better off prepared.”

  Amri spoke his thoughts aloud, though he didn’t know if any of them had the authority to guess at the answers. “What do you think Maudra Fara will do, now that she’s challenged Seladon? Stone-in-the-Wood lies closest of all the clans to the Castle of the Crystal. They are Rian’s people—surely they believe and stand behind him by now. Do you think they’ll . . .”

  “The Stonewood are loyal and Maudra Fara is a fierce maudra for her people,” Kylan said. “I learned that much when she forced us to leave instead of offering us sanctuary. If she’s decided to stand with Rian, and knows that the Skeksis will come for her people first . . .”

  “She may go to war with them,” Tae finished. “She said as much when she challenged Seladon. And Naia, your mother, Maudra Laesid. What do you think she’ll do?”

  “Fight,” Naia replied without hesitation. “She didn’t lose her leg running away from battles . . . But this is wrong! Now isn’t the time that any of them should be fighting among themselves. We need to unite, not break apart!”

  “This is as I feared,” Tavra said quietly. She walked down Amri’s arm and to the table, where they could all hear her. “The Skeksis are using Seladon. That is the real reason they killed my mother. They found out she was planning to resist them, and knew Seladon would be easier to manipulate.”

  “And because they knew you were gone,” Amri finished. He thought again of what Naia had said on Tappa’s back. That Tavra should be All-Maudra. He hated the thought, not because it wasn’t right but because it felt so impossible. He didn’t want to think about all the ways it would have changed the past, and how it could have changed the future, if it were only meant to be.

  “Do you know where Seladon is now?” Onica asked Tae.

  “That’s the thing. After she took on the living crown, no one has seen her. There are rumors among the Vapra that she has left Ha’rar and that only the Ritual Master and the General remain. I was trying to follow them into the citadel tonight when I found you. Hoping to find out whether Seladon has been killed like the All-Maudra, or taken captive by the Skeksis. The fact is, so long as she does not rise against them, the Vapra remain docile, if uncertain.”

  “Like the Stonewood, the Vapra are loyal,” Tavra murmured. “And now I see it is to a fault. If their leader does not raise her voice against the Skeksis, neither will they. But if that leader is not given a voice . . .”

  An uncomfortable, cold silence fell on the room. It almost felt like death. What was the point of going on, if this was the Ha’rar they had finally arrived in? After all they’d overcome, just to arrive to find the All-Maudra murdered. The Vapra fire unlit, their throne overtaken by a daughter who had bent to the Skeksis. Amri slumped and put his head in his hands.

  “This can’t be. There has to be something we can do,” he whispered.

  Tae slammed her fist on the table.

  “This isn’t fair, Tavra! It should be you leading the Vapra—your voice that should be heard. It should be you standing against the Skeksis for the Vapra, not Seladon! Everyone has always known it should be you!”

  Tavra’s reply was more morose than ever. “Even if I wasn’t this way, I have no right to the throne. Seladon is the oldest.”

  “You could challenge her,” Tae insisted, all fire and wind. “And you would win.”

  “Clearly I would not, as I lacked the fortitude to withstand the Skeksis when I discovered their truth, leading to this predicament.”

  “And yet you fight on, like a true leader—”

  “Because there is nothing else I can do!”

  Tavra glinted, reflecting the firelight from the candles in the cabin. It was the only sign of emotion from her crystal body . . . that, and the spike of pain that barbed her voice.

  “Of course I wish I could displace Seladon. Lead my people. But I can’t! The Vapra cannot see me. Ha’rar cannot hear my voice. I cannot wield a sword against the ones that killed my mother. I cannot even hold the one I love. So let it go, Tae. Let me go and find another hero to put your faith in.”

  Tavra slipped through the cracks in the table planks, a moment later twinkling as she disappeared into the bedchamber. Anything to escape the conversation, Amri imagined. He felt a hard rock in his chest when he thought about how she must feel, trapped in a body that wasn’t her own, unable to do what she otherwise might.

  Onica was the one to break the solemn quiet.

  “We came here hoping to light the fire of resistance in Ha’rar,” she said. “We were nearly too late in Cera-Na, and in the Wellspring of the Dousan. The All-Maudra told us in a dream that she had lit the Vapra fire, but we don’t believe she has. There was no sign of it when we lit the fire on the Omerya, or in the Dousan Wellspring caves. We need to find a way to unite the Vapra. But I don’t know how we will be able to reach them all with the Skeksis in the city.”

  Tae sighed, running her hands through her hair and tugging briefly on her ears.

  “The Skeksis requested the Vapra gather on the steps of the citadel tomorrow night. Some believe Seladon will make an appearance there and explain what the future holds for Ha’rar. Others believe the General will announce she’s dead as well. Perhaps if the Vapra are gathered in one place, we might be able to reach them then . . .”

  “But the General and the Ritual Master will be watching,” Kylan finished with a pensive sigh. “If we speak to the Vapra then, and even if we’re able to light the fire, the Skeksis will know. Our secret rebellion becomes a declaration of war, and I don’t know if it’s one we’ll be able to win in the open.”

  Amri thought of the Mariner, watching the Sifa hearth fire light with rainbow flames from the deck of the Omerya.

  “If they don’t already,” he murmured.

  Tae reached out to hold Onica’s hand in hers. “Onica, will you look into the fire for us?” she asked. “Ask Thra what we should do, and see if Thra answers?”

  “Hmm. I will try.”

  Onica rose and went to the clay hearth, as she had the first day they’d met her. Amri cleared the table, leaving only the clay bowl. When the burning herbs were ready, they joined hands. Amri set his thoughts aside, trying to be present as Onica closed her eyes, deeply inhaling the dark scent of the smoke. He listened to Onica’s steady breaths in the otherwise quiet little cabin. Amri tried to match the Far-Dreamer’s breathing. His eyelids drooped as the smoke filled his lungs, clearing his mind. The ship rocked on the waves, but he felt one with the motion, as if he were the one floating on the current.

  Nothing came out of the darkness. After a while, Onica shook her head. At first she looked like she might reach out again, initiate the meditation once more, but in the end she leaned over the bowl, grinding the herbs and putting out their smoldering.

  “Nothing?” Tae asked, as if she’d hung all her hope on it.

  “Thra is not answering,” Onica replied solemnly. “It does not always, and we must find peace within that. It has been a long day, for all of us. There’s nothing we can do for the Vapra tonight, and we cannot help them if we do not help ourselves.”

  She stood, wrapped her shawl around her shoulders, and left them, slipping behind the curtain that separated the cabin from her sleeping quarters. Amri chewed on his lip as the rest of them sat at the table in silence.

  “Is she all rig
ht?” Kylan asked.

  Tae stared after Onica, as if she could will the Far-Dreamer back to the table and the smoke. But nothing stirred, and so Tae gave it up, shaking her head. “I don’t know. I guess she’s right, though. We should rest while we can.”

  Amri started to protest, but he wasn’t sure what to say. Onica was the Far-Dreamer and had seen nothing, and that seemed to be that. He exchanged a glance with Naia as they found quilts to bundle up in for the night. She reached out and squeezed his hand.

  “It will be all right,” she said, but her usual warmth and confidence were tempered. They all knew what they were up against. It didn’t feel right to go to sleep, safe in Onica’s cabin, while the Skeksis slowly plucked the fires from the hearths of the Vapra. Soon there would only be one light to look to, and it would not be the Waystar but the darkened heart of the Castle of the Crystal.

  Amri stared at the herbs swaying overhead. One by one he heard his friends drift off to sleep, Naia snoring gently nearby, as he remained awake in thought. What the Vapra needed was something to remind them that there was hope. Something to remind them that they were not alone. It was what all the Gelfling needed, but now that the Skeksis walked in the citadel halls and held dominion over all of Ha’rar, it was the Vapra that needed it the most.

  No, not something. Someone. But Tavra had no body and no voice. No way to reach her people in her current state. So small and silent, forgotten as soon as she disappeared from sight.

  A creak and a CLUNK echoed off the planks of the small ship’s hull. At first Amri thought it was just the boat bobbing against the wharf, but then it came again, followed by a splash.

  “Naia. Did you hear that?”

  His friend didn’t stir at his whisper. He reached out and touched her shoulder gently, but she only snored and rolled the other way.

  CLUNK.

  He bolted up and then it was gone, the cabin still and silent. Only the fire moved, white coals undulating with red heat. Naia and the others slept, undisturbed.