by Hanna Peach
Dammit. What now?
The sound of the ground breaking up came from the base of the tower. Black spikes began to grow up around the stone wall. The spikes formed branches, and this strange black forest began to grow out in a circle from the tower.
Israel ran for the tower. “You keep blondie safe,” he yelled over his shoulder.
He focused ahead, ignoring Alyx’s calls behind him. He jumped, timing his projection. Missing the end of a spike, he grabbed onto one of the branches still growing up. It felt hard under his grip, like some kind of metal. Iron, maybe. He swung to the next branch and pulled himself up to a standing position. He scrambled from branch to branch as this strange forest began to close into a cage above him.
Israel leapt up, throwing all his strength into his legs and grabbing the top branch of an iron tree. He pulled himself up just before the branches closed around his feet.
Israel stood up on the top of the canopy and looked out, away from the tower. The black, thorny forest spread out like an inky wave towards the horizon. Alyx and Jordan were trapped within the canopy. And he was trapped on the outside. Which meant that there was nothing else for him to do other than to start climbing.
Israel made his way across the top of this iron forest. He now stood on one of the branches that had grown against the tower wall. From what he could see, the tower was made of large irregular-shaped stones that jutted out from the mortar holding them together. Jutted out enough for him to use as handholds. He tested his fingers on the edge of a stone. It was enough for him to use as a grip. Perfect.
And what if he fell? Israel made himself light on his feet like the Elder taught him in China. He tested it with a jump and was disappointed when he landed heavier than he wanted to. Hmm, Alyx did say that she found it hard to fly in these DreamScapes…he looked up at the tower again. He would just have to make sure that he didn’t fall. He swallowed down the knot in his throat and slipped his toe into an edge, pushing himself up.
Israel had experience climbing. He had never been scared of heights, although he still retained what he thought of as a healthy respect for them. Most people looked over the edge of high spaces and instinctively drew back, whereas he desperately wanted to jump, to feel what it would be like to fly. Most people stood on the ground and raised their eyes to tall things − trees, buildings, mountains − and rooted their feet more firmly into the ground. He saw paths to another world, above people, above the city, a world within the wind where he felt he belonged, which beckoned to him like home. He now knew this was an effect of his part-Seraphim blood and his Airmagic.
As a boy growing up in Port Safaga, Egypt and living with his aunt before his step-uncle came along, he had been left alone quite often when his aunt had to work. They hadn’t much money, so she had to work often and she didn’t trust anybody to look after him while she was away. She just told him to go home straight after school and lock himself inside.
He hadn’t done so. His heart had been too wild. He spent too many afternoons roaming the dusty streets, climbing trees and buildings, and jumping along from rooftop to rooftop like a little monkey. He even took to plucking ripe figs from private gardens or dried dates from the marketplace behind the stall-keepers’ backs. He only returned to climb back into his bedroom window in time for his aunt to come home. All this helped him survive when he was forced to live on the street. It had made him a valuable member of the Saint’s Clan.
As Israel climbed this tower, handhold by handhold, foothold by foothold, he was able to appreciate how he grew up. My early training, as he now thought of it. As he got closer to the top of the tower, he could see a window, just big enough to let him in. Just a few more meters…
Chapter 8
“You keep blondie safe,” Alyx heard Israel yell back at her as he ran towards the growing thorns.
She stared forward, yelling for him to stop. Her heart lurched as she watched Israel leap up for one of the thorny branches. Thank God he made it.
But she didn’t have time to keep worrying about his progress. A wave of thorns was coming for them. The ground under her feet broke apart. She spun and leapt towards Jordan, knocking him aside before a tree spiked out of the ground where he had just been. They hit the ground on their sides and rolled together, missing the points of more spikes and thorns until they hit against the base of a black tree with a thud. Alyx landed on top of Jordan. She looked up to see this strange forest spreading past them like a brushfire. The ground continued to rumble beneath them.
“Sleeping Beauty,” Jordan said.
“What?” Alyx turned her attention back down to him. He was gazing up at her with a serious look on his face. Alyx ignored the tug at her belly and the ache of her fingers. Damn him for feeling so good under her body.
“The forest of spikes and thorns. It’s from Sleeping Beauty.”
“Oh. Right.”
Alyx pushed herself up off Jordan and onto her feet. She held out a hand to help him up. His hands lingered on hers for a moment too long after he had stood.
Alyx cleared her throat, trying to rid herself of that odd little lump that had developed. “Sleeping Beauty, huh? You know your fairy tales.”
“I used to read them to Ky.” Jordan paused, his face fell, and he swallowed before he continued, “When he was younger. Sometimes we would make up our own. He would always make himself the knight or the valiant prince. He liked that…”
Brave little Ky. He tried to save Mini’s life, but lost his own. Alyx felt her heart weep and the lump in her throat grew. Ky had been like a younger brother to Jordan.
Her resolve hardened. They would get Samyara. He would pay with his life and not just to save Israel. For Ky and for Fernando and for every Seraphim who died at his hand and at the hands of his demon army.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
“We wait. See if the boy can succeed.”
“He will.”
They stood side by side, peering through the thorny forest. The spiked branches stuck out in every direction from the trunks, creating a chaotic mass. The thorns had grown so thick above their heads that she could barely see the sky anymore. The forest had an eerie sense of stillness. Unlike the forests of Michaelea, this forest didn’t give out any sound. There were no birds, no scuttling of lizards through the dry undergrowth, no rustle of larger animals.
Alyx heard what she thought was a crush of dirt under a foot. In her periphery, she thought she saw something dart in a gap to her right. Alyx drew her sword and raised a finger to Jordan for him to be quiet. She steadied her breathing, waiting. Watching.
She suddenly felt vulnerable on the ground.
“Jordan,” she whispered, “maybe I should get you up into the−”
Then she saw him. A man crouched on one of the branches, his black eyes glaring down at her. He was dressed in a red and black flannel shirt tucked into thick brown pants that fell into black boots splattered with pale dried mud. Then she noticed the glint of metal by his side. He was holding an axe in each hand. Sharp-looking axes.
Oh crap.
The woodcutter lifted an axe above his head and he leapt.
Alyx rolled forward so that the woodcutter would fly over her head. As she rolled she heard the crunch of one of his axes striking the ground where she had been standing. She spun as she got to her feet.
The woodcutter yanked his axe from the dirt as he swung his second axe around at her body. She launched back, the edge of the blade narrowly missing her belly. But the woodcutter kept coming for her, swinging his axes around him with the ease of a fire twirler. All she could do was duck and roll and jump. The swinging axes kept her far enough away from him that she couldn’t get a decent stab at him.
Alyx ducked under a swing of his axe, which whistled as it went over her head. She heard a soft thud and the woodcutter’s eyes widened. Jordan had thrown a knife at the woodcutter and it embedded in his back.
Alyx saw an opportunity and lunged, lashing her sword out towards his wrist.
His hand and the axe fell to the ground. A look of rage came over the woodcutter’s eyes, and he howled at the loss of his left hand. With one side of his body unprotected, Alyx thrust her sword at his side.
Before her sword could taste flesh, a dark, furry mass knocked into her. She fell to the ground and instinctively raised her forearm. The beast that bore down on her was a massive wolf with large white teeth that dripped with viscose saliva and fur as thick and black as a moonless night. The wolf snarled as it closed its jaw around her right arm. Pain shot through her and her warm blood started to pour from the holes in her flesh.
In her periphery she could see the woodcutter advancing upon Jordan with his remaining axe, blood dripping from where his left hand used to be. She had to do something, otherwise they were both going to die in this DreamScape. A thought struck her cold. What would even happen if they died in here? She never asked Jordan. But she sure as hell didn’t want to find out.
She dropped her useless sword and grabbed the dagger at her side as the wolf began to shake its head, causing white hot pain to make her scream and her vision to go blurry. She stabbed the dagger into the wolf’s side once, twice. The wolf howled and she was able to pull her arm out of the grip of his teeth. Using her legs, she shoved the wolf aside just as it snapped for her arm again. He missed.
Alyx aimed the tip of the dagger at the wolf’s eye. The blade slid in with a horrid squishing sound. The wolf let out a whimper then was still. She pushed the furry body away as it disintegrated into dust. A warm relief went through her arm, which immediately started to heal. She leapt to her feet as the ground began to tremble and shake, pieces of the dirt cracking like a desert gone too long without rain.
“Alyx!” Jordan cried. The woodcutter was swiping his axe at Jordan, who ducked and stumbled back. His face screwed up with intense concentration. The ground shook even harder. Oh God. He was going to lose control of this DreamScape. Jordan slammed back into the trunk. Now he had nowhere to go.
Alyx flipped forward onto her hands, ignoring the pain of her healing arm. Her right hand fell perfectly around the handle of her dropped sword. She grabbed it and pushed herself up, flipping in the air towards the woodcutter just as he raised his axe high above his head.
Alyx landed on his shoulders, clenching her legs around his neck. The woodcutter roared and began to swing his axe back toward her. Alyx swung her sword above the woodcutter’s head, catching the blade end with her other hand to create a block. The woodcutter’s axe handle slammed against her sword, cutting into her left hand. She winced but she held on. He tried to shake her off, twisting left and right. She squeezed her legs tighter and tighter around his neck, keeping the oxygen from his lungs, causing him to make choking noises. And yet he still pressed down with his axe against her sword.
Come on, Alyx thought. Her thighs trembled and the blood dripped from her left hand as the edges of her sword cut into her palm.
In a last desperate attempt, the woodcutter staggered towards a trunk and turned. He thrust his head and shoulder back, repeatedly slamming Alyx against the trunk. She gritted her teeth as the wind was knocked out of her again and again but still she held on.
Finally the woodcutter dropped to his knees, his hands weakening, his axe dropping from his grip as he began to black out. Then his torso fell towards the ground.
Alyx jumped back, pulling her sword free of his falling limbs. She thrust her sword into his back, ensuring that he wouldn’t get up again. As the woodcutter hit the ground, a wave of energy rolled through the earth with a loud boom, causing the whole DreamScape to shake.
Jordan sank to his knees, crying out.
“What’s wrong?” Alyx cried as she ran to his side.
He didn’t answer. He just continued to clutch at the ground, dirt squeezing through the gaps between his fingers.
The sound of cracking stones caused her to look up through the canopy. Good Lord, the tower was growing again. This time it shot like a rocket into the sky until it disappeared into the clouds. Oh God. Israel was still climbing.
* * *
Without warning a loud boom shook the entire earth, rattling the tower that Israel was climbing. Israel’s right hand slipped, and he felt himself tilting back off the wall. He gripped the wall solidly with his left hand and jerked himself forward. His left palm hurt as it scraped against the jagged stone, but he didn’t let go.
As his center of gravity tilted forward again, he lashed out for a grip with his right hand. His action was too desperate. His fingers slipped and he felt gravity pulling him backwards again. Then his feet dropped as their perch crumbled away.
For a second he hung from four fingers. His shoulder burned painfully. He reached out again. This time the fingers of his right hand found a grip. And he knew he was safe as soon as they touched, the familiar feeling that his fingers had found “home”. Once anchored, he was confident to move his toes against the tower, seeking a place to rest. He found a small nook with his right foot and was able to lodge his foot in it. He held still, anchored by three points of contact against the tower as it trembled.
The tower suddenly began to grow above him, extending from a point just under the room at the top of the tower. Pieces of stone and grit fell into his hair. His heart sank as his squinted eyes watched the window above him move farther and farther away. It disappeared through the low cloud cover that was rolling across the sky above him.
What the hell was happening?
When the tower stopped trembling, he glanced down. The ground was still carpeted in the black thorn forest. He had to believe that Alyx was still down there, alive, unhurt, waiting for him to reach Adere. He had to keep going. Even if he desperately wanted to climb back down to make sure she was alright.
He began to climb again.
As he climbed higher he could feel the air getting colder and thinner. He could feel the pull of the ground growing steadily thicker and deeper. Soon he reached a strange low-hanging cloud blanket. It wrapped tightly around the tower, blocking his view of whatever was above it.
He didn’t allow himself to pause as he pushed his head up into the cloud, feeling uneasy when his vision disappeared in the white mist. He could barely see his fingers and toes on the stone wall, so he had to feel around for his next grip. He continued this way up through the cloud.
Odd. He could swear that the cloud smelled sweet. Sickly sweet. Clouds shouldn’t smell, should they? He began to feel lightheaded. But he kept climbing.
* * *
Alyx wiped the sweat from Jordan’s forehead and pushed the damp hair from his eyes as the DreamScape rumbled around them. The muscles in his neck and arms were standing out in obvious strain. Finally the earth stopped shaking, the tower stopped growing and Jordan’s body began to relax.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I almost lost control over this DreamScape.” His voice sounded exhausted. “The woodcutter and the wolf were both part of Adere’s subconscious. I think when you killed them, you hurt her. She reacted in pain by pulling herself and the tower farther away from us, and her pain rocked this DreamScape to the point that it almost broke apart.”
“So this means…?”
“If she sends any more DreamShadows to fight us, you can’t kill them. It’ll destroy this DreamScape and Israel will lose his chance of getting through to her.”
“If I can’t kill them, then how the hell am I supposed to fight them off?”
Jordan was silent for a moment. “Axes and wolves. If we’re lucky, that’s all that Adere will try to throw at us.”
“We’re so not that lucky.”
“Speak for yourself. I always get lucky.”
“Play your cards right, and you just might again, handsome,” a soft sultry female voice floated over to them.
Alyx snapped her head around towards the voice. Leaning against a tree was a dark-haired beauty. Her dainty fingers were placed on her hip that jutted out under a long yellow silk skirt cinching her in at the waist. A royal
blue blouse with puffy shoulders was tucked into her tiny waist. Her thick bud-like lips contrasted with her pale snowy skin. Who the hell was this?
Wait a minute…lips as red as roses…skin as white as snow…oh brother.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Alyx said. “Snow White?”
Snow White ignored Alyx and gave Jordan the most brilliant smile. Hmm. Even her teeth were as white as snow.
“Jesus, even in your dreams you have girls throwing themselves at you,” muttered Alyx.
“What?” Jordan replied. “You can’t honestly be mad at me for that. I can’t help this, Alyx. This isn’t my dream.”
Alyx rolled her eyes.
Snow White began to walk towards Jordan, if you could call that damn thing a walk. It was more like a slutty slither complete with doe eyes and fluttery lashes.
“Oh,” Snow White breathed, “you certainly are the most handsome of them all.”
“She doesn’t look like any fairy tale I’ve ever seen before,” Jordan muttered.
“Why? Do you have slutty fairy tales hitting on you often?”
Jordan opened his mouth.
“Wait,” Alyx interrupted. “Don’t answer that. Just concentrate on keeping this ’Scape together. I’ll deal with Hoe White.” Alyx shot Jordan a look before turning back to Snow White.
Alyx stepped in Snow White’s path towards Jordan.
Only then did Snow White actually acknowledge her. “I’d like to speak to him, the handsomest of them all.”
“Sorry, Snowy. He’s unavailable right now.”
Snow White fluttered her eyelashes at Alyx. “But you don’t understand. I need to speak with my prince.”
Alyx snorted. “He’s not your prince.”
“He could be.”
“If you want to talk to him, you have to go through me.”
“Fine.” Snow White’s eyes glittered with a deadly steel and her red lips split into a nasty smile. “Have it your way, bitch.”