by Abby Dewsnup
An unseen figure slammed into me from behind and I fell hard to the ground. We wrestled in the sand, his meaty hands trying to break the staff free of mine. I felt blood drip from my nose. I finally kicked him off and leaped to my feet, coughing from the sand that now swirled around us in the air.
Jay was parrying right and left, ducking repeated staff jabs. I had grown up fighting for myself in the streets, but I knew that I was no match for a group of trained slave traders.
Lynx was gathering up our belongings in the tarp, her small shoulders nearly crumbling from the weight of the backpacks. She took off running through the boneyard.
“This is ridiculous,” the leader roared, stumbling as he rose to his feet. “Administer the contagion. You all try my patience.”
The men immediately stopped fighting. Most of them rose from the ground to dust themselves off. They threw me from my staff and I thudded to the ground in a cloud of sand.
I watched as a tip of the trader’s staff began to glow, gathering on the tar-like substance and causing sunspots to dance across my vision.
There was a blinding flash that emanated from the staff. Light passed through the sand beneath us. Warmth flooded through my fingers, a tingling sensation that wasn’t unpleasant. The air smelled of static electricity.
Jay let out a sound that resembled a cry and a groan, and he collapsed to his knees. From behind the protruding rib bone, I heard Lynx fall to the ground.
“What have you done?” I asked, rising to my feet and dashing over to Jay’s side. His skin had taken on an ashy hue, and his hands trembled. He clutched his side as if he had been stabbed as he sank into my lap.
“We deal with ailments of all sorts.” The leader of the group was stroking his facial hair, circling around Jay and I as if we were the most fascinating creatures in the world. “It makes it easier to carry our cargo to the Glass Cages, you see. This contagion was an illness of the sun — a blend I created.”
“Well, stop it!” I shouted, watching them carry Lynx over to the group. “They’re in pain, can’t you see?”
The leader waved it off as if it was nothing. “It is only a trick of the mind. He will be fine, given time. All our patients are. No, what I want to know is why you’re not affected by my contagion.” He had resumed his circling, closing in on me as if I was a meal he couldn’t wait to devour. “It is a special blend, you see, a concentration of light that many races are not affected by, because they spend their days working beneath the sun. No, this specific contagion affects only Cave-Dwellers.”
It was as if his words had driven through me with all the force of a knife. I reevaluated myself for a moment, checking my hands and mentally searching my head and stomach. I felt fine. If anything, my heart was pumping with adrenaline as Jay lay like a dead man in my lap. I wanted to fight every single Glass Trader with my bare hands. “What are you saying?” I asked.
The leader approached me, and I nearly flinched away from him. At the last moment, he offered his hand, clasping mine in his own with a booming laugh. “We will take you and your ill companions through the Cutlass, and on the other side I want you to tell me the real reason why you’re out here in the boneyard.”
I didn’t want to argue. I wasn’t sure what the Glass Cages were, but I knew traveling anywhere would offer a better chance of escape than a stretching expanse of desert. I threw Jay’s arm over my shoulder and rose to my feet with difficulty, almost crumbling under his weight.
“We can carry the boy in here,” the leader said, motioning to a scarlet sack slung over one of his companion’s shoulders.
“I’ll help him, you get Lynx,” I said in defiance. “I don’t need help from anyone.”
“Well, it’s a good thing you haven’t far to walk.”
The leader dipped his staff to the ground, and a thin trail of black began to seep through the sand. I watched as the thick substance sprouted like a weed from the ground, melting and waxing into a doorway that towered high above everything else. The substance solidified, turning into a stone archway.
A faint glow began to emanate from the door. The leader strode up to the far pillar and placed his staff against the stones, illuminating a mirage in the gateway. Light swirled around the frame, displaying faint pictures of scenery and far off places.
For a moment, I forgot how to breathe. So great was my astonishment that I almost left Jay behind as I took a step towards the archway. I stretched out my hand and ran my fingers down the curve of the door, feeling the mirage wash over them like water in a stream. “This is a Cutlass?” I asked.
“Aye,” one of the men said. “We use it to get around.”
A sudden thought occurred to me. “And you can go anywhere with one these?” I asked. Jay must’ve heard what I said, for he raised his head a fraction of an inch, his eyes reflecting the light as he stared at the mirage.
“If at least one member of your travelling party has been to the desired location, then yes. We’re traveling to a tavern off the boundary of the Coppice villages, a place we’re familiar with.”
“Coppice villages, as in the kingdom of Coppice?” I asked, pulling my hand away from the doorway. “That’s awfully far from here.”
The leader’s grime-covered face didn’t appear as harsh as I initially thought it had. His eyes softened a fraction as he said, “You should be glad I’m interested in you, kid, because most Glass Traders wouldn’t be. I don’t know much, but I know it’s time you leave your cave behind. Considering my contagion didn’t work on you, are you sure you even belong beneath the dirt anymore?”
“No, I’m not sure,” I said with grim determination. “You’re right. All I have to do is step into the light?”
He motioned me forward with a nod. “Ladies first.”
Jay put his arm around my shoulder for more support. His sweaty hand grasped mine as his eyes scoured the portal. I knew he was scared. The idea of traveling so far from our cave was something I had never dreamt of. But when I took this mission I knew I would leave my old life far behind, and now all I had to do was step through the doorway.
I took a step into the Cutlass, and light spilled around us. The ground disappeared and for a moment Jay and I fell through a bright nothingness, the world too full of light for me to open my eyes. My stomach dropped, my words catching in my throat as blood rushed to my ears.
Jay’s strong arms wrapped around me, and I feared that if one of us were to let go we’d be moving through the expanse of emptiness forever, our feet never finding the floor.
Suddenly I was on the ground, laying on my back and staring at a gray, clouded sky. Trees replaced the sand, their branches stretching into the sky like a child reaching for its mother. The world spun slightly.
Jay was sitting up, shaking his head as if to clear it of the sickness. I looked past him, becoming aware of what we were surrounded by.
Giant, green leaves sprouted from the trees high overhead. The bark on the trunks was crawling with moss and weeds. The grass was moist beneath me, swaying in the humid breeze, and black dirt stained my dusty boots. For a moment there was a silence that was only disrupted by the ferns rustling in the wind.
“I didn’t know there was this much green anywhere,” I whispered, clenching my fist around thick stalks of sprouts on the ground.
“Remind me to never touch one of the Glass Trader’s staffs.” Jay shoved his sword into the damp earth and used it to rise to his feet, a grimace crossing his face in the effort. He had regained that cool expression of determination in an instant, as if he had pulled a sleeve over his wound. “Once we reach the tavern, we bail,” he said. “I don’t trust them.”
“We should ask them what they know about the Light Kingdom first,” I said.
Jay shook his head. “No, that’s exactly the opposite of what we should do. If we ask them, then they will know where we’re going.”
“Maybe they can help,” I insisted.
There was a flash next to Jay, and the leader of the traders st
rode forward. He looked a little winded, bending over to cough as if he had just run a dozen miles. I noticed he wore a pendant around his neck, the symbol on its surface foreign to me.
Once the rest of the Glass Traders came through the Cutlass, we began to trek through the undergrowth. Lynx walked next to me, shaking despite the heat. “Are you good?” I asked her, trying to sound supportive. “I have an extra string if you want to tie your hair back.”
“No,” she said, her voice small. “I’m okay. Why didn’t you get sick?”
I shrugged, eyeing the men walking ahead of us. “I guess it didn’t work on me.”
“And what if they’re taking us to the Glass Cages?”
“I dunno if they are,” Jay interrupted, keeping his voice low. “They must work for profit, but I’m not sure what their currency is. There’s a chance they keep interesting people for themselves.”
“What are the Glass Cages?” I whispered.
There was silence between us. The sky above was growing darker, the clouds gathering like they had when the sandstorm began in the Boneyard. I liked the way my shoes sank into the muddy ground, and how the air smelled of green. I wondered if it would rain soon.
The idea of a storm made my heart beat a little faster. I had only ever heard of rain in stories, but I dreamt of it once. The way the sky broke with lightning, the spray of water down my face as I closed my eyes.
As we walked, the trees grew taller. The clearing we had left behind now seemed minuscule in comparison to the towering jungle trees above us. The branches bent and twisted around each other, some even floating in the sky. Houses appeared amongst the foliage, and I began to see lanterns and signs of life. People sat outside their houses, washing laundry or cooking food.
They were the strangest people I had ever seen. Their skin was marked in dozens of places and pigmented with bright, odd colors. Black pelts were tied across them and hanging across open doorways. The people’s eyes followed me as we passed, expressionless against dark faces. I watched as two kids ran around, chasing each other with a giant fern leaf.
Situated at the base of an overgrown tree was a large hut. The tavern’s walls were rotting in the intense humidity, much like my hair and clothes, which were slowly growing damp with perspiration. A man opened the door and threw a drunk onto the trail, shaking his fist and shouting something in a language I didn’t recognize. Insects buzzed around the open doorway.
I decided to turn my attention to the Glass Traders. Only the leader was without a mask, and I made a mental note to interrogate him on his name and background once we were inside. The other men were stoic, grasping their staffs with clenched hands. I wasn’t sure what had them so spooked. They must’ve been to Coppice plenty of times.
The tavern glowed from within. It was filled with flickering lamps of all colors, and tables bustled with crowds of people. I had never seen such a lively place. I thought back on the dim taverns back home, where mine workers went to be merry before the night began and the Stygian materialized.
I slid past a group of men who glanced down at me as if I was a strange creature they had never seen before. Touching my black hair, I stared down at my desert colored clothes. I didn’t fit in here.
“We’ll need a new look,” Jay whispered in my ear.
I glanced up at him and nodded. “If we can blend in with Coppice villagers, I bet we can blend in anywhere.” Then again, I wasn’t even sure what other kingdoms there were in the Fringe. I could hardly imagine how many other races of people we would encounter.
We sat down at a cramped booth with the Glass Trader leader, who ordered a pint of mead. Once the waiter had left he leaned forward and clasped his hands together, a single eyebrow raised beneath his curtain of greasy hair. “Only fools travel in the Boneyards at night, unless you’re looking to stir up the spirits,” he began. “And you don’t strike me as someone foolish enough to do so. So tell me, what were you lot doing outside of your caves?”
I kept my expression stoic as I asked, “What are the Glass Cages?”
The leader tipped his head back and laughed, his voice booming through the tavern. “I’m Maddox, little miss. And I send anyone without importance to the Glass Cages. Gives me a good day’s earnings and keeps the High Prince amused.”
Jay leaned forward. I noticed his hands were clutching the sword at his side. Next to him, Lynx looked as if she might pass out. “You send them to the High Prince?” She asked. “Why?”
“I travel around, generally in the western area of the Fringe — the Caves, the Plains, Coppice, you name it. There are certain areas people don’t just wander into, you see. Places like the Boneyards. And the High Prince deemed those areas fair game for us Glass Traders. Once we find them, we ship them off into the Cages, where they become enlisted in the High Prince’s armada. It isn’t a bad fate, to be fair. The Glass Cages turn you into a fighter real quick.”
I had only ever heard about the High Prince in stories. In the Fringe, each kingdom was ruled by their own monarchy, which is why they waged war so often. But I knew another ruler, the pinnacle of all life in the Fringe, presided over us like a dark cloud within his city. We had reason to believe the High Prince was the one who sent the Stygian to the Caves in an effort to threaten the Elders. Why threaten them, I didn’t know.
“Did you send the others to the Glass Cages?” Lynx asked. “Rose, Ash, Lake, and Jaren?”
“Let’s see,” Maddox stroked his facial hair. “Two girls and a pair of twins, correct? The short one was a real pain —”
“That’s the one,” I interrupted. I felt my stomach clenching and unclenching at the thought of our group members sent away. That left only the three of us to find the Light Kingdom. “Why did you spare us, then?”
Maddox grinned, a terrifying expression on his hardened face. “Because of you, miss. Do you know what those symbols across each of your collarbones mean?”
I looked down at the dots and dashes. “Three dots for a rescuer, one line for bravery,” I said. “That is what it means in the Caves.”
Jay hadn’t revealed his symbol. I recalled that the Elder’s had branded him with something else back in the Caves, and I had been the only one to see it happen. He glanced in my direction, his eyes pleading for me to keep quiet about his difference.
“That may be what your cave-rotting leaders told you it means, but in the language of the Lucent’s, it means something entirely different,” Maddox said.
“And I suppose you’re familiar with this ancient language then?” Jay asked, crossing his arms. “How would a Glass Trader know the dialect of —”
“Who are the Lucents?” I interrupted.
Maddox looked over at me with his greedy, smug expression. “The people of the Light Kingdom, they are. Now tell me, you three wouldn’t be searching for a Lucent, would you?”
I glanced at Jay and Lynx in turn. When neither of them spoke up, I said, “The Stygian ghosts plague the Caves. They came in one night and killed off hundreds, and they haven’t left since then. There isn’t a way to fight them.”
“Except with a specific cure from the Light Kingdom, or am I wrong?” Maddox leaned back against the chair with a sigh, clasping his hands across his stomach. “And that’s why your Elders sent two Cave-Dwellers out into the Boneyards.”
“Two Cave-Dwellers?” Lynx asked, her voice trembling. “I think your math is wrong, sir.”
“Aye, miss. Perhaps it is.” Maddox looked at me as he said this, a ghost of a grin stretched across his chapped lips. I couldn’t help but feel that Maddox was formulating an idea in his mind. “The Light Kingdom is a myth, a rotten legend for daydreamers and Wind Walkers. The Stygian is plaguing more countries than just your precious Caves. Your people have no hope of finding salvation from the Shadows if they chase around fables all day.”
“You’re wrong, actually,” Jay said with the slightest shake of his head. “The Elders have seen it. They sent Anya and my little brothers there, and Lynx’s father. They�
��re waiting for us to retrieve them from the outside. The Elders told us they couldn’t leave the Kingdom until someone liberates them.”
Maddox let out a bellowing laugh, loud enough to send a wave of silence through the tavern. He wiped tears from his eyes and straightened up in his chair, leaving a streak of grime across his cheek. “Is that what they told you?” He asked, laughter still prominent in his words. “Tell you what, Anya, Jay, and Lynx, you’ve convinced me to your ridiculous cause. The Coppice leaders might know a thing or two about your Light Kingdom, and I am due to carry out a favor I promised for them. Come, let’s head into the village before the rain starts falling and the villagers realize who you are. They don’t like Cave-Dwellers, you see.”
“And why is that?” I asked as we stood up from our booth.
Maddox turned to me with a twinkle in his eye and said, “you’re too serious. Just wait until you see the rain for the first time.”
5
The Bounty Hunter
The tavern had long disappeared behind us when the storm finally broke. A drop of water beaded down my forehead, and then another, the sensation passing over me as the rain began to fall. My breath caught in my throat. I stopped walking, turning my head up towards the heavens as the shower picked up the pace and began washing over me.
I closed my eyes, listening to the thunder boom. Soon I was dripping wet, my hair soaked with the water from the clouds. There was a familiarity within it all, as I had always suspected there would be. The feeling that the storm had always been there, balancing on the edge of my subconscious, and though I had never felt the rain until this moment, the rain had always known me.
Lynx had run ahead of us, much like she had done at the first break of sunlight in the Boneyard. She knelt in the mud, her eyes closed tight. I didn’t bother her.
Jay was next to me, his shoulders stiff. “I don’t like getting wet,” he said, his voice void of humor. “Can we keep walking?”
I tore my eyes from my sky, grinning at his annoyed face. “Alright, alright,” I said, then added, “How do you bathe, then?”