Fox closed her eyes. “Would you truly have gone through if you knew what waited for you Chas?” She asked and opened her eyes again. Her hand touched my arm, yet I still couldn’t feel it. I just stared at her hand. What did they do to me?
“What is this place, why through the mirror? What is the Clencing he spoke about?”
She looked over her shoulder at Tom, who glanced down at his watch. “We have time,” he said and she nodded.
“The Clencing is a process that all Dream Casters must go through. It doesn’t matter whether you are light or dark. It strips you of your human DNA, the thing that makes your body yours, and reprints another, and that is why there is pain. We can only be seen by other Casters inside the Domain, Chastity. Humans aren’t able to see us. They don’t see our dust, they only experience what we wield for them. The Clencing is a must, and one I’m not very fond of.”
“So my body is no longer human?”
“It is, it’s just not human to the Nomads.”
“So what am I back in my world?”
“Inside the Domain, you are invisible.”
That hit me quite hard, and I don’t know why I felt as if I’d fallen asleep and woken up inside one of my novels. “So what, next you are going to tell me that Jace, Clary and Edward Cullen are real?”
She squinted slightly. “I don’t know who you are referring too.”
“Of course you don’t,” I said and got up from the cold floor. I huffed slightly. The funny part of not being able to feel was that I could still feel the cold, not on my skin, but deep inside of me, as if it had made a home in my bones and organs. It was the only thing I could feel and I wondered if there was any warmth that would make me feel human again. Scratch that, I wasn’t human anymore, well not to humans that is.
This really sucked so much.
“Look, I had no choice.”
“Yeah, I heard you the first time,” I sort of snapped at her and wiped my hands on my wet soggy jeans.
I found John hitting his hat a couple of times against his leg.
“You okay?” he asked without looking at me, as I stationed myself near him.
“I’ll live,” I huffed again. Still making jokes, and not knowing if any of it was real or not. “So what now, we tap our heels or something and say Revera three times real fast and poof, we’re out of here?”
John smiled.
“It’s not the Wizard of Oz, Chas. It’s Revera and we are not going to Revera just yet, we need to make a stop at one of the Compounds in the Outer.”
Again that name, what was the Outer?
I knew I wouldn’t get the answer from him. “Then how do we get out of here?” I looked at the ceiling which was still pretty dark, but the bright light from the mirror liquid made the cave wall slightly visible. “Cause I hate to break it to you, Cowboy, but there is no sign of a door or anything.”
“We don’t use doors to get into the Outer.” Fox walked toward us. “But you are going to have to experience a bit more pain, Chas.”
PAIN…AS IF IT WAS MY BEST FRIEND ALL OF A
sudden. Pain that Clare had caused me for four weeks, pain of losing my mother and lying about it, pain. It was constantly around me and I hated the existence of it so much that I wanted to puke.
What pain, Fox didn’t say. I guessed she didn’t have the stomach to explain it to me.
The only thing I figured out was that the cave worked like a clock as Tom kept gazing at his watch, an action that was really tugging on my nerves.
Then a slight rumble came. The cave shuddered slightly but not to the extend where loose rocks fell to the floor. When it stopped, Tom walked into the other side of the lake, held out his arm and whistled. The owl came and landed on his arm.
For some reason I’d forgotten about Henry. He’d disappeared through the mirror with us, but the only person that had made it out was Tom and this owl.
Then what Phil had said jumped into my mind. It’s time to squawk again…I don’t squawk, I hoot.
“Henry is an owl!” I yelled which made all of them look at me as if I was crazy. Tom shook his head, the owl hooted while Fox and John laughed.
“He’s an Anitule, which mean that in the Domain he transforms into a human. Anitules are very sacred to Light Casters.”
The name I’d heard before but I pretended it was foreign. I remembered what Mom had said about her Shadow Hound, or what they called Nimgolians.
“Fox, we have to go,” Tom ordered and Fox pulled me by the arm. A grip I still couldn’t feel.
We walked into the lake again. “Take a deep breath, Chas.”
“How big? How long are we going to be under?”
She sighed, “See this is what I was talking about. We don’t have much time, Chastity, now take a deep breath.”
I took a couple of deep breaths and watched how Tom and the owl disappeared into the water. How could an owl swim? It didn’t make any sense.
“We need to go, now.” She gave me a motherly look and I nodded. I shook off the fear of going through excruciating pain again, and walked into the lake as fast as I could. My jeans instantly became heavy as they connected with the wet of the substance.
I dove in and swam a little with my head above the water. The bright light from the water made me close my eyes. Then I took a mother of a breath and dove down.
I didn’t open my eyes but felt a current guiding me to where I needed to go.
Then I started to turn in the water like Leigh’s arrow had that night in the dream where we’d met.
I turned so fast that I didn’t know what was up or down anymore.
I connected with something hard, and I felt the dull pound inside my head just before an excruciating pain jolted though my mind, but for some reason I didn’t lose consciousness. I couldn’t feel the pain on the outside, but inside my skull it was burning like fire.
The silent grunt didn’t help, I lost my breath and twirled into the water for a long time.
No end was in sight and I knew for sure that this time I was going to die. My lungs started to burn, in need of air that would never come. My muscles ached from twirling around like a piece of crap flushed down the drain. I felt like crap, the worst kind.
Memories of my entire life flashed through my mind. Mom was constantly in them. Clare too, the Clare who used to be my friend. We laughed at something funny. Then other memories, one of me as an adult, the future of what could’ve been. I was happy, I’d found someone and we walked hand in hand. I couldn’t see his face but I knew I was extremely happy.
The pain wasn’t that hard to deal with anymore, now that I knew I wasn’t going to make it.
My mind started to shut down, memories disappeared until there was nothing but the dark.
VOICES IN THE DISTANCE SPOKE. I COULDN’T HEAR what they were saying, they were so far away.
Then I heard my name.
“Chastity?” I heard it again.
Water spilled out of my mouth and I coughed. “She’s coming to,” Fox said. “Give her space, John.”
An owl hooted, and for some reason it sounded relieved.
“Chastity?” Fox voice was softer. She didn’t yell it anymore.
I opened my eyes. They burned, and I closed them again. I’d never felt so tired in my entire life.
“Don’t sleep, wake up,” Fox said a bit harder this time and I opened my eyes partially.
“I can’t,” I croaked out. “So tired.”
“I know, baby, but you need to wake up.”
“Fox, she almost drowned, she must be exhausted,” John tried.
“She needs to stay awake, just until we reach the Compound then she can sleep as much as she wants,” she said to John. I could swear there was a cuss word in-between that sentence but I didn’t care anymore. Heck, ever since I came to this world, a part of me just wanted to cuss the whole time.
“Now, wake up.” A hard slap connected with my face. It brought back pain with a snap of a finger.
“I�
��m awake,” I said, my eyes still burning like hell. Both their figures were blurry, but to my surprise color came through.
John picked me up.
“John, she needs to stay awake,” Fox grunted at him.
“I heard you the first time, she’ll stay awake. I’ll make sure of it. But she is exhausted Fox, she’s been through hell and back. A little compassion won’t hurt anyone.”
Fox mumbled something and it felt so good in John’s arms that I really just wished I could sleep.
“Chastity,” he shook me and my eyes flew open again. Tom mumbled something from the front and I could see small lights mounted to the ceiling passing us every five seconds.
John’s eyes looked down at me every five seconds too as he walked extremely fast.
A door opened and I closed my eyes again as a cold breeze rushed over my body.
“Chastity, wake up.”
“I’m awake,” I grunted.
“Then open your eyes. I know you are tired, but you need to stay awake just a couple more minutes.”
Voices, loads of voices, like we were in a crowd appeared. Then cars made it in there too. Curiosity of where we were now grew and I opened my eyes again. We were in some sort of city. The people were minding their own business and the city sounds lingered in the back.
No one asked if we needed help. I knew that it must have looked strange seeing the four of us with a wet owl on a man’s arm, drenched in wet clothes. I knew we were wet, I could hear the slof, slof, as we walked, still, nobody offered to help.
I opened my eyes again as John shook me like I was a rag doll.
“If you close your eyes one more time, I swear I will make you walk the rest of the way.”
“I’m awake, I promise,” I croaked softly again.
The bright lights of the building that we walked under didn’t help much with my burning eyes, but I had no choice, as I knew the minute John would put me down, I would fall flat on my face and snore.
Hooves galloping on the turf made me turn my head and I saw a horse with one of those carriages couples like to take.
A park was on the opposite street.
It didn’t make much sense as I could swear this was the Domain. It looked like a city back home.
“Where are we?”
“The Domain, but it’s part of the Outer too.”
I shook my head slightly, which brought on a horrible ringing sound. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“It doesn’t have to now. Just concentrate on staying awake. We are almost there.”
“Where?” I asked.
“The Compound. There is a healer and he will take care of you, Chas, but you need to stay awake.”
“I’m awake,” I whispered again and felt the urge to close my eyes once more.
I did, and to my surprise, opened them again five seconds later.
We were past the city lights now. Most of the sounds of cars and galloping hooves with strangers just walking by were gone.
I kept staring at the stars. They were so bright and I wondered why I never stared at their beauty before now.
We passed through a big old steel gate that made a horrible squeaking sound and trees blocked my view from the stars.
A hard knock on a door came from in front and then a woman’s voice acknowledged Tom as she opened the door.
“We’ve got her, but she almost drowned in the Lining,” Tom spoke fast.
“Come in, come in.” The woman’s voice was full of alarm but still sweet.
The warmth came first, it caressed my skin and it felt wonderful.
“Chastity.” John shook me one last time.
“I’m awake,” I said but I didn’t open my eyes. Screw him, I was where he said I needed to be and I could sleep.
“Put her on the couch, I’ll get Elliot,” the woman said.
“Thanks Ginny,” Fox spoke and I felt the soft couch on my back and the softness just urged me to drift away again.
A light so bright shone in my eyes. I hated it and disliked whoever was disturbing my sleep pattern.
Then it disappeared slightly, as I could still see the blotch of bright behind my eyelids.
“There is no damage,” A manly voice said. “Get her upstairs, the first room on the left and leave her be. She’ll be fine.”
“Thanks, Elliot,” Fox said.
I felt myself being carried up a staircase and placed down on another couch.
“Scoot,” Fox’s voice came again. “Thanks, John.”
“Hey, you did nothing wrong. There is no other way to Clence.”
She huffed. “Yeah, I know. Still it doesn’t help with the crappy feeling about all this.”
“Fox, she’ll be fine.”
No reply came and then I felt her shaking me softly. “Come, Chas. You can sleep as long as you want to but we need to get you out of these clothes.”
“Can’t you just use your sand or something to cast a drying spell?”
Fox giggled. “Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. Now sit up, let’s get these wet clothes off you.”
I did what she said, or tried to do. Still I couldn’t open my eyes.
Shit, I’d never felt this crappy before. My stomach turned, my head spun and it felt like I was coming down with a fever.
She tugged and pulled on my hoody, then my shirt and pants were next and I hated that she pulled off my underwear too.
I was completely vulnerable and couldn’t even lift a finger to help myself.
I’d never experienced being tired like this before. Not even after Rollins’ worst ballet class, and she was a master at giving those.
When a warm garment fell softly over my body, and a bed underneath, I didn’t wait to feel the covers being pulled over me.
This was it, I couldn’t stay awake another minute longer and I drifted away faster than counting to three.
I TOOK A DEEP BREATH AND THE URGE TO STRETCH had me lifting my arms above my head.
It felt good.
Mom was probably cooking up a storm this Saturday morning….then it all came back to me at once.
There was no Mom, or home. The last thing I remembered was being carried by John, somewhere safe…the Compound, wherever that was.
“Two days, that is a record, Chastity,” a voice to my left said and I found a man, in his late forties, maybe early fifties with blonde hair sitting near me. He had soft blue eyes and a slight scar over his left eyebrow.
He sat casually in a chair with a newspaper in his hands and black framed glasses resting on his nose.
He took them off and put down the newspaper.
“Usually when your kind come to us, they sleep an entire week.”
“Wait, I slept for two days?”
He chuckled.
Yeah, I usually pondered on the not-so-intelligent questions. But I couldn’t help it. I was wired differently and the smallest, unimportant things usually come up first.
“Are you sure you don’t want to sleep some more? You’ve been through a great deal.”
“No, I’m fine. I don’t think I’ve ever slept like this before.” I pushed myself up straight.
My muscles were still sore, as if I’d just done a million different types of exercises.
I looked around. The room had a very old ambience to it. The walls were brown, the lighting was in a form of a chandelier and the bed was posted, with white embroidered linen.
“Where am I?”
“You don’t remember Fox and the rest bringing you here?”
“Vaguely.”
He smiled softly. “My name is Elliot. I am the Guardian of this Compound inside the Outer.”
My head started to ache just listening to the foreign words again.
“What is the Outer?”
He leaned forward in his chair and rested his arms on his knees. “The Outer is like a barrier between the human world or Domain like Reverians like to call it, and Revera. Lots of things happen in the Outer. We deal with many Shadow Casters and
we keep the Domain safe as well as Revera. Nobody can go to Revera without going through the Outer.”
“So this is like an invisible world inside the world?”
He smiled again. “Something like that. We like to teach in the field, it will help you understand it better.”
Teach? Nobody said anything about classes.
He got up and took a couple of steps toward the door. “You are safe here, Chastity. I’ll send Stacey up with a fresh pair of clothes.”
“Thank you,” I whispered still dumbfounded about the whole teaching thing and what he’d meant by teaching in the field. I watched him leave.
Oh crap, crappy, crap, I hope he wasn’t speaking about facing Shadow Hounds and their Casters.
My mind only thought about that for a long time. If I had to face Shadow Casters, would my sand turn dark? Mom never mentioned anything like that and I hated not knowing what it was I should do.
A girl with dark brown hair and the brightest pink hair piece I’d ever seen walked into the room. She was all leather, leather pants, with a leather vest over a pink t-shirt.
“Hi, I’m Stacey, I bet you have plenty of questions huh? It’s not like we get a lot of Diddles. No, Casters are usually born in Revera and we chose the crazy of it all,” she spoke extremely fast.
I shook my head. “Diddles?” It sounded like someone that was extremely shallow.
She giggled. “A word I came up with for someone like you.”
I raised my one eyebrow.
“You know, that had no idea what they are until they are told.”
She wss clearly a huge morning person which I wasn’t, and seemed to babble a lot.
“Here, Elliot asked me to bring these up for you. We’re more or less the same build, they might be slightly long. It’s a mission to find something that fits my length.”
“Thanks,” I took the clothes that she handed over to me.
“So, Fox told us that you were kidnapped by a Shadow Caster, and not just any Shadow Caster. You get that she’s one of the deadliest out there, right? I wonder what kept her away for so long, we always thought she’d died the night Graig did.”
Graig. Was that my father’s name? I could’ve sworn Mom mentioned someone like that before. It slipped out once, a long time ago. It had to be.
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