by BJ Hanlon
“I know… but that doesn’t mean I can’t stare when you take those off.”
She slapped his bicep. “Come on.” They packed everything they could inside the sack for Edin to haul across the pond while the bulky cloaks were carried by Arianne. As they waded into the cool water, the soft sand felt like a bed for his feet.
Small waves spread from the churning waterfall but they had all but disappeared by the time they reached their beach. The bed of the pond grew deeper and deeper and when they were barely a quarter of the way across they had to swim. Edin held the pack above his head and began to scissor kick while pulling with his free hand.
It felt like a leisurely dip. Something to do when you had nothing to do. Under the glasslike water the colorful fish darted in and out of craggy rocks and light seaweed that flowed gently with the movement.
About halfway across, he glanced back up toward the waterfall and the door.
Something struck him. There was… someone there, looking back down at him.
A figure. One that sent a chill through him. A moment later, something slimy brushed his hip.
Edin yelped. Arianne, a few feet ahead looked back. They locked eyes and then he noticed the fish.
They were now swimming around them. Swirling colors like a tornado of spring flowers began to encircle her. He looked his own body. It was the same.
“Faster,” Edin gasped as water splashed in his mouth. He kicked and pulled. Arianne was already moving. She was swimming faster, then a moment later she disappeared under. The cloaks dropped and landed like lily pads on the surface.
He looped the straps of his pack over his arms not caring that it got wet.
His heart raced and from somewhere over his shoulder, he heard a great splash, as if a stone had fallen from the cliff. Glancing back up toward where the figure was, he blinked. The sun blinded him for a moment, but in that half a second, he saw the figure was gone.
Edin swam toward where Arianne had disappeared. He pushed the cloaks to the side and saw a cocoon of darting fish.
Slowly, a whirlpool effect began to tug slightly at him.
Edin dug his hands into the cocoon and felt the small bodies slam into him with an incredible force. Edin didn’t care. His hands hurt as he reached for her.
Edin ducked beneath the water and kicked, the fish around him were also tugging at him with the water. He reached through the bodies and felt something. An arm or a leg.
Edin tugged and saw her foot pop out. A moment later, it kicked and she burst through the fish encasement. The little colorful monsters scattered like glass breaking on stone.
They locked eyes and Edin pointed toward the far bank. A moment later, Arianne was swimming with everything she had.
His lungs were bursting as he felt the whirlpool tug even more. He broke the surface for a gasp of air and saw Arianne ten feet in front of him running through the water.
His heart raced as he tried to swim after her. The fish began slamming into him with fury. Like being pelted with hail. He felt like a meat sack used for punching. A foot touched the sand and he stood, but he didn’t look back.
The moving was hard and slow. It would’ve been faster to swim, but he couldn’t. He was panting now.
Edin looked at Arianne, she was on the bank now and nocking an arrow. Edin drew his sword and turned.
Standing above him, somehow on the surface of the water was a thin figure with golden hair and a light green cloak and tunic. Despite the water, he was dry.
Words came from his mouth and his hands raised as if praying to the gods.
“Get out!” Arianne yelled as an arrow flew toward the chest of the figure.
Suddenly, the blue sky turned an awful shade of gray, a dark and foreboding color that often predicted a storm. A lightning storm.
Then it happened, the flicker and boom directly above him as the yellow bolt flickered into existence and lashed at the pool.
It struck the man and flowed through him as if he were an iron rod. The shock pulsed through the water and into Edin.
All around, fish began to float up and the drag from the whirlpool was gone.
Edin felt fine. He may not be able to use the talents, but the elements didn’t seem to affect him either. He turned back began running through the water again as lighting and thunder crashed.
Rain began to pour down in sheets so thick that every time he’d blink, his eyes were filled with a haze of water. All he could do was move forward. His feet, despite pumping hard barely made progress. Then a hand grabbed him and hauled him completely out of the pool and onto the now wet sand.
Edin stood and turned. Behind him, like some mystical god of old stood the man. He was not wet despite the pouring rain and his eyes, the ones that had been blinded by the sun were glowing a fierce red.
“It’s…” Arianne said but didn’t continue.
Edin saw her face was slack and scared. He grabbed Arianne’s forearm and began pulling her toward the jungle. He remembered the dream he’d been in. It wasn’t real… neither was this.
He hoped.
A loud boom came from the open mouth of the man as they sprinted toward the forest’s edge. Edin spotted a thin path that wound like a serpent toward the tree cottage.
He followed it, hearing bangs from the lighting and the ancient man or whatever it was behind him. Then they were at the base of the tree and there was a rope ladder that led up to some sort of trap door.
Its cordage and slats were brown and nearly blended in with the surrounding vines and tree boles. He pushed Arianne toward it.
“Climb!” he shouted over the thunderous sounds. Edin glanced back and although he couldn’t feel the rain, it pounded the canopy above him.
She was hesitant at first, confused almost. Edin grabbed her shoulders and turned her toward him. “Arianne, he’s not real. Now climb, let’s get out of this rain.”
She stared at him for a moment, then slowly, she nodded. She grabbed the first rung and left the ground. Arianne was above his head when he began climbing. The rope swung inward and Arianne missed a step. Her foot fell and crunched Edin’s hand.
“Ow!”
“Sorry.” She continued climbing. Arianne reached the trapdoor nearly twenty feet above the ground and pulled herself inside.
Don’t look down, Edin thought as he continued. A few minutes later, he was through and inside.
Arianne was breathing hard and staring at something over his shoulder. Edin glanced over and saw a blank wall.
“What is it.” Edin said trying not to shiver. The rain was cold and they were in their skivvies.
She shook her head, “I saw something. That man, he was an elven mystic. An oracle from my time.”
The way she said saw, made him think of Suuli and his own vision. The one of the old elf and the communication wave that the man used.
She shivered again and Edin wrapped her in his arms. “I saw him enter my father’s throne room and tell of a coming darkness where men and elves would need to stand side-by-side.”
“You were there?”
She shook her head. “My father did not heed the warning… he threw the elf in the dungeons and let him slowly starve to death.”
“How do you know?”
“I just do… now it, he is coming back for me, coming to seek vengeance.” She shivered again.
Edin pressed his lips to her cold forehead and held her close.
“He wasn’t a good man, was he…” Arianne whispered. “My father I mean.”
Edin said nothing. From everything he’d learned about the last king of Bestoria, being a good man wasn’t part of his legend.
“Hold me until it comes. I wish to die in your arms.” Arianne sobbed. She felt weak and somehow diminished, no longer the strong and sassy woman he’d fallen for.
“You won’t die…” Edin said and took a better look around.
The cabin was small and cozy with a cot pressed up to a wall, a pair of chairs, and a table. There was a black bottle at the center of
the table and above a counter were herbs, oregano, thyme, basil and others. Large windows looked out through the trees to a perfect view of the waterfall and of a setting sun. No rain clouds.
At the back was a postern door.
Edin helped Arianne to the cot. He drew his sword and opened the door to a small porch with reclining chairs. The porch overlooked a small garden somehow unobstructed by the large trees. He saw vegetable plants with huge ripe tomatoes and cucumbers.
Large leaves lashed together with a natural cordage made up the eaves and the roof. It took Edin a moment to realize there were no bugs. None at all.
He shook his head, the sweet smell of the recent rain was enticing. It was paradise. Exactly like he’d promised to take Arianne… but it wasn’t.
Edin sat at the table and looked at the black bottle, Yaultan wine. “Arianne it’s…” he started turning toward her.
She was asleep on the cot and her lips were tinged blue. She shivered beneath the thin blanket he’d found.
Edin rushed over and found her underclothes were wet and freezing. “Arianne?” he asked, his own body shaking slightly. No response. He began to rub her hands then feet, they were ice cold. He was chilled a bit, but not that bad.
Edin remembered some of the old woodsmen from Yaultan. Stories from when they’d fall into an ice-covered river. To warm, they’d take off their wet clothes and huddle around a fire if possible.
Another man told him, hesitantly, that he and a few other men cuddled up together to share their body heat. They’d been uneasy about it and rarely recounted the story… but they lived.
Feeling as uneasy as the woodsman when he told Edin that story, Edin undressed her. He took off her thin shirt and her undertrousers. Then he took off his clothes and laid next to her and covered both of their bodies.
“Arianne,” he whispered shaking her shoulders and rubbing her back. He squeezed her into him. Edin pulled back her eyelids, her pupils were dilated and vacant and her breath was fogging despite the warmth.
Somehow he knew her mind was somewhere else, somewhere like he had been. A dream world.
Briefly, selfishly he wondered if he lived there and what type of man he was.
Arianne had been a duller version of herself, not the wit or strength that she normally stood with. Edin hoped he wasn’t a blubbering idiot.
He remembered her tears, her telling him not to die… could he have? Could she?
No… She couldn’t die. They were going to get out of this, they’d be wed one day, they’d have a grand wedding, or maybe a small one on a beach. It didn’t matter to him. What mattered was she made it out of whatever nightmare she was stuck in.
He shook her and whispered her name. She still breathed which was good but she didn’t answer, which wasn’t.
Edin laid with her; his naked body pressed against hers for hours. Her breath was cold and slow, but she was still breathing.
Sometime later she shuddered.
It shook Edin awake and he leaned over to look upon her face.
Her eyes were fluttering beneath closed lids as if she were having a vicious nightmare. Then, her eyes popped open. She was looking at him, but unknowingly. It took a few seconds before she recognized him.
“Edin,” she whispered. Then she looked at his chest and her hands began moving around beneath the warm blanket. She touched him. “You’re… we’re naked…” she said.
He felt his face flush, she was going to accuse him of something. “I… you were freezing.”
She blinked and then a rush of remembrance seemed to come over her. Slowly she nodded but it was a stiff motion. “You didn’t do anything to me?”
He flushed more. “No. We just shared body heat. I heard stories from woodsmen this is how they survive.” His words were rambling together as if one long word made up of a hundred different syllables.
Arianne seemed to think and then said, “What happened to that elf?”
“He hasn’t appeared.” He paused. “Are you okay? Did you dream?”
Suddenly she turned red and nodded. “I’m starving… and I think it’s time we got dressed.” Her hand slipped down to his groin and he felt himself stirring. “As much fun as it would be, I don’t want to do it in this place.”
Edin did. He very much did. He held her gaze for a long time before she let go and rolled off the bed taking the blanket with her. Edin felt a chill as he laid there saluting her with his manhood.
She looked down and grinned.
A moment later she turned back and pulled up her underpants. “They’re dry…” She said then looked back at him accusingly.
“They weren’t.” Edin said as she tossed his own undertrousers at his face a little too hard. He caught them and pulled them on. As he did, he noticed the sunlight coming through the windows was dim. He glanced out the bay window and saw the forest and waterfall were still there but it felt different.
The trees began to look like they had in the swamp, though sans fog, and a chill ran deeper.
“We should get out of here.” Edin said and quickly dressed. Clothed he walked toward the trapdoor and opened it.
Edin gasped. The rope ladder was gone and they weren’t above the forest floor anymore. Below were metal rungs bolted into a stone shaft that disappeared into darkness.
He glanced around. The bottle of wine was still there… but covered in cobwebs. The room was dark save the dim light and felt abandoned. “Arianne…”
She was noticing it too.
“Touch the window.”
She did. “It’s a painting…”
“It wasn’t a minute ago.”
He went to the rear door and the porch. The door didn’t open. Not that it was locked but it was as if the door was actually drawn onto the wooden walls.
“The forest is gone,” Edin said.
“Pointing out the obvious again.” Arianne took hold of the wooden chair and kicked at the leg. It snapped off. She picked up the leg, put a hand over it and spoke. The end burst into flames then she dropped it down the trap door.
Edin crowded next to her as she let it go. It descended quickly for almost ten seconds before it clattered to a hard-stone floor. The fire vanished as if snuffed out by a quick gust of wind.
“I don’t like this place…” she whispered.
“You’re just figuring that out now?” He said. “I’ll go first.” He leaned over and began down into the darkness. As he descended, the air changed. It felt stale and warm. The image of a tomb ran through his mind.
It grew dark, though some ambient light was still visible. The only sound came from their feet. Edin didn’t speak, it felt wrong to. After almost five minutes of descending, the stone that was behind and to the sides of him disappeared. Only the wall in front of him remained.
Edin looked up and saw far above the dim square trapdoor of the cabin beyond Arianne. His feet touched the ground and he stepped back. His foot landed on something and he stumbled. Edin groped in the darkness for it and found the chair leg. Arianne’s feet landed on the stone floor.
“I’m here,” Edin whispered in the darkness and pressed the leg into Arianne’s hands. “Do your thing.”
The fire blinded him for a moment. It was disorientating and he had to look away. As his vision cleared, he saw they were in a gigantic room. A vault of some sort with a thirty-foot rounded ceiling and walls of thick black marble.
“It’s like a tomb.” Arianne echoed Edin’s thoughts. “But there are no statues, no sarcophaguses, nor shrines.”
He nodded and adjusted the pack. “On we go,” he said and took her open hand.
The air grew colder and the smell of the tomb grew more putrid, like milk left out in the blazing sun for days.
“There goes my appetite,” Arianne whispered.
They moved cautiously through the giant black marble tunnel. The entire place was empty of any relics or furniture. Though it didn’t feel empty.
Nearly an hour later, or so Edin guessed, the opposite wall appear
ed.
“This had to be a couple miles long…” Arianne said.
Edin spotted an opening at the center of the wall. “There,” Edin said pointing at it. It was a doorway and small. Edin pulled her over and looked into a small room with a spiral staircase set in the center. Stairs that were shorter than normal stairs.
“Stairs to the heavens…” Arianne whispered.
“What?”
“The stairway to the gods… it is said there is an endless staircase that leads to the heavens, the place where the gods reside.”
Edin raised an eyebrow. “If it’s endless, how can it lead anywhere? Wouldn’t it just keep going?” He felt a whack on his shoulder and mocked an ‘ow.’
“Don’t be a smartass.” Now let’s find out,” Arianne said. “It has to smell better than this place.”
It didn’t lead to the gods. Edin led until they reached a small doorway about ten minutes later. They opened it and found themselves in the main vestibule. The one they’d originally entered through though the white light above had gone black.
“That’s crazy,” Arianne said. “How are we back here?”
Edin didn’t know, he shrugged and called “Fokill?” They stood quietly for a few minutes hoping to hear some sign from the Foci Dun Bornu warrior. There was nothing.
Edin looked at the other two openings. There was no way he was going into either of those. “I say no more exploring. Let’s wait a little longer, then we leave. We have no choice…”
“You read my mind.” Then her stomach growled. “I’m going to grab some food. I’ll be right back.” She said and headed toward the entrance.
Edin sat and put his head in his hands. For a moment, all was quiet, then he heard soft footsteps. Edin glanced up and saw the front door slam shut.
Muffled on the other side was a scream. Then he thought he heard her yell ‘Fokill.’ Edin ran to the door and tried the handle. Stuck.
Edin pulled at it with all his might but there was no give. It was as if it’d become part of the wall and there was no way through it. The doors were solid, at least six inches thick.
He pressed his ear to the door and heard a muffled cry of pain.
His heart sunk. Edin tried to summon an ethereal ball, to blow open the door as he had in the Boganthean Tower. Nothing happened. This place was a dead zone of talent and he was trapped.