by Kevin Sands
Then it exploded.
Fire burst outward in a broken sphere. I threw myself to the floor, blinding light and heat washing over me. Then the flame curled and vanished, and all that was left was the roaring pillar of magic by the altar.
“Lachlan!” Meriel cried.
The boy lay facedown on the ground. He wasn’t moving. The back of his clothes were on fire.
Foxtail leapt on top of him, smothering the flames with her body. We all did the same, singeing our skin in return. Gareth poured the remaining wineskins over his flesh.
The flames went out. But the damage had been done. His back was terribly burned. Alone, I wasn’t sure those burns were fatal. But the elemental’s sword had run him through.
He moaned, breathing deep, ragged breaths. “I messed up, guv,” he said. “Sorry . . . ah . . .”
Meriel looked up at me. Her face was deathly pale. “We have to get him out of here. We have to go back to Carlow, find a physick.”
I didn’t think he’d make it that far. But I nodded all the same. Gareth grabbed my arm.
“The light,” he said. “We have to m-mend the crack in the world.”
I turned to look. It had widened, the pillar brighter than ever. And it was growing.
The earth shook, threatening to break apart. The volcano rumbled underneath. I saw once more the vision of the future Shuna had shown me. Bolcanathair erupted, Carlow consumed by lava and fire. So many dead.
And us, here at the heart of it.
“How do we stop it?” I said.
Gareth pulled the Eye—the real one—from beneath his sleeve. “The story said Shuna used this.”
He took a step forward, resigned. Meriel grabbed him. “Are you mad? Did you not see what happened to Mr. Solomon? You can’t stick your hand in there!”
“No, he can’t,” I said. “But I can. Give me the Eye.”
“Don’t be an idiot.”
“The Eye knows me,” I said. “It’ll protect me. It did before, in the High Weaver’s house.”
That wasn’t exactly true. But, hey. Lying was my job. Right, Old Man?
He grinned.
Gareth looked at me, as if to say Are you sure? I nodded, and he handed me the stone.
“Go on,” I said. “Get Lachlan out of here. He needs you.”
Meriel opened her mouth to reply, but whatever she’d planned to say, the words died on her lips. She took hold of Lachlan’s shoulders. Foxtail grabbed my hand and squeezed it: a good luck and goodbye all in one. Then she lifted Lachlan’s legs and they carried him out.
Gareth remained. “Any advice?” I said.
“If Shuna did it,” he said, “then it can be done.”
“Shuna’s a Spirit. I’m not.”
“Then I’ll p-pray she blesses you.”
“Wonderful.” I looked up at the widening column. The shaking earth was making it hard to stand. “You should go with the others.”
“I’ll stay,” he said.
“It’ll be safer up top.”
“If this doesn’t work, nowhere in the world will be safe.”
“You just want to see what happens.”
Gareth looked at me sharply before he realized I was joking. He smiled slightly. “That, too. Shuna watch over you.”
“Thanks,” I said.
I stepped onto the dais and approached the light.
CHAPTER 62
I stood before the pillar, filthy and dripping with sweat.
Well, Old Man? I said. Not going to tell me how stupid I am?
You seem to recognize that already, he said, amused.
Right. How about you, Eye? Any advice?
It didn’t respond. The Old Man did, though. Now you’re just stalling.
I supposed I was. Gareth watched me from the pews. I gave him a salute, trying to look confident. Then I took a deep breath, gripped the Eye tight, curved side up—and plunged my hand into the light.
I wasn’t expecting such pain.
Agony. Pure agony. My muscles seized, all of them, everywhere, my body one wracking, terrible spasm. I was so paralyzed by the hurt, I couldn’t even scream.
I stared in horror at my hand. I could see through my skin, my flesh. I could see the bones inside. And I shook with the cruelty of the pain.
Then the light . . . the light.
It changed.
The Eye shaped it, sucking the column in, shooting it upward from the lens in a beam.
I need to use this, I thought.
But I didn’t know how. And though I thought it impossible, the pain grew even worse. I could feel myself starting to tear apart. I remembered Mr. Solomon disintegrating and I realized, This is happening to me, too.
I wasn’t breathing anymore. Through the agony, my mind began to drift. Everything grew hazy. I had only seconds before I passed out and I knew, once I did, I’d never wake.
I’m sorry, I thought. I failed.
And strangely, just like the last time I’d said that, I heard the Old Man once more.
Remember what I taught you, he whispered. There’s always a way out.
The light blinded. It roared. It burned. And then
I stood on an empty plain.
The pain was gone. Everything was gone. Nothing surrounded me but obsidian, utterly flat and perfect, stretching away forever. The plain was illuminated by a faint light, almost shadow, like it was dusk, but there was no sun, no moons, no stars in the sky.
Just . . . nothing.
“Hello?” I said.
My call disappeared into the void, no hint of an echo.
I shouted this time: “Hello?”
The voice came from somewhere behind me.
foxchild.
I whirled. No one—nothing—was there. Nothing anywhere on this plain. But I knew that voice well enough.
It was the Eye.
“Where are you?” I said.
I am everywhere, the Eye answered.
I looked across the infinite emptiness. “And where am I?”
you are elsewhere.
“Oh, good. More riddles.”
you think they are riddles, foxchild, because your minuscule mind knows nothing of this or any other world.
“Thanks for the insult. Am I dead?”
not yet.
“But I’m dying.”
yes.
“Let me guess . . . You’re about to offer me a choice.”
There was a pause.
I cannot decide, foxchild, if I find you amusing or not.
“Tell me something,” I said. “Did this same thing happen long ago? Did Shuna use you to close the rift in the world and prevent it from cracking? Or is that just a story?”
it happened.
“So how did she do it? Why did she survive, whereas I’m about to die?”
the fox understood my power. she knew how to use it. you do not.
“But you’ll tell me,” I said. “For a price.”
yes. I will save you, if you wish.
“And what will I have to do in return?”
come for me.
“I don’t know what that means.”
I know you do not, foxchild. nonetheless, this will be our bargain. come for me. agree to this willingly, and you shall not die.
I raised an eyebrow. “Ever?”
possibly.
That made me pause. Surely the Eye was joking.
choose, foxchild. agree to come for me and live. refuse and die.
The Old Man’s words echoed in my head. There’s always a way out, he whispered.
Was this the way?
choose.
I did.
“I’ll come for you,” I said
and the agony returned. I stood once more, hand in the pi
llar of light as the primeval magic wracked my body.
But now I could move.
The stream roared in my ears. I shouted, “What do I do?”
Beyond the pillar, among the pews, Gareth looked puzzled, as if I’d asked him, not the Eye. As for the Eye, I couldn’t hear it. Once more, it had gone silent.
And yet, even as I began to curse the treacherous thing, I realized: I already knew what to do.
Turn the Eye upside down, I thought.
I twisted my hand. The beam shooting from the Eye’s lens swung about, slicing through the temple wall like it was water. The earth shook, and stones came crumbling down.
I didn’t care. I turned the Eye all the way around, until the beam pointed downward—back into the pillar of light. The whole world rumbled with the power.
Now, I thought, push the magic down. Not with your hands. With your mind.
I closed my eyes and concentrated. I thought of nothing but forcing the light to return to the earth.
I strained. It resisted.
I pushed harder. It fought back.
Still I pushed.
And then it began to give.
I felt the energy flow back down. I felt it—I really could feel it, like water flowing under my skin—felt it slip back under the thin shell of earth that had covered it.
Now seal the rift.
As I thought those words, a strange image came to my mind. I saw Meriel, sitting on the couch in the Tiger Arms Hotel, sewing my new eyepatch. I watched her fingers, nimble and practiced, thread the cloth of her dragon-printed dress around the leather.
And as I imagined that, so the earth mended beneath my feet. The pillar of light narrowed, then flickered. The last of the magic filled the cracks before me, then solidified. Not as rock, but as green, spongy moss.
The roaring stopped. The rumbling stopped.
And then there was nothing, nothing, but quiet.
CHAPTER 63
I collapsed.
I didn’t even try to stay on my feet. Every muscle gave way, and I crumpled in front of the altar.
Gareth hurried onto the dais and helped me up. “Are you all right?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that. Every part of me still shook with the memory of the pain. My skin, everywhere, was red, like my whole body had been sunburned. The scars on my back stung, like the flogging, done so long ago, was fresh.
“Ow,” I said.
Gareth was astounded. “You’re still alive.”
“Maybe forever.”
“Pardon?”
“Never mind.” I looked down at the gemstone in my hand. I’d made a bargain. But the danger was gone. I wondered how the Eye planned to hold me to it.
Testing it, I let the Eye go. I guessed it would stick to my skin, as it had stuck to my eye before. Instead, to my surprise, the thing fell. It bounced on the stone, once, twice, then rolled until it came to rest on the moss that filled the cracks.
Are you there? I asked in my head.
The Eye didn’t answer.
I watched it for a moment. Was it spent? Had it lost its power?
And if it had, was I free?
I studied my open palm. My reddened skin was tender. The look of it reminded me: I might be all right, but Lachlan wasn’t. We had to get out of here.
I hurried away from the altar. Gareth balked. “What about the Eye?” he said.
I looked back.
“Leave it,” I said.
We went up.
* * *
The rumbling we’d felt below wasn’t just the magic.
The volcano had blown. A thick plume of smoke covered the sky, blotting out the moons once again in brilliant conjunction. The air was heavy with the rotten-egg stink of sulfur.
Fortunately, the eruption didn’t look as bad as I’d seen in the future-vision Shuna had shown me. A stream of lava flowed from the broken caldera, but it was moving toward the lake. As long as there wasn’t another explosion, the city of Carlow would be spared.
That was the only good news. Flakes of ash fell like blackened snow on the ground where Meriel and Foxtail knelt. Between them, among the brush, was Lachlan, breathing in painful, shallow gasps.
“Guv,” he said. “You made it.” Suddenly, his eyes went wide. “Galawan!”
I reached into his pocket and pulled out the enchanted bird. I placed him in Lachlan’s hand, showing him the construct was all right. Galawan hopped onto Lachlan’s chest, and the boy smiled.
“Is the world gonna survive?” he asked me.
“Yes,” I said.
“So I did good, guv. Didn’t I?”
“Of course you did.”
“Then I don’t mind going. I’ll get to see me mum again.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Meriel said. “Don’t talk nonsense.”
But Lachlan’s breathing was growing weaker.
I’d never felt so helpless. What made it worse was that I’d watched this happen before. I kept seeing the vision Shuna had shown me of the future. The volcano hadn’t blown as badly. But Lachlan had still been murdered by the Lady in Red.
“This isn’t right,” I said.
It had happened in that future, burning Carlow. And now it had happened here, too.
“This isn’t right,” I said again.
“Don’t be sad, guv,” Lachlan croaked.
“No. We had a deal. Do you hear me?” I shouted into the brush. “We had a deal!”
Gareth stood, watching. Meriel looked puzzled. Foxtail met my gaze calmly.
“We had a deal,” I said.
“What are you going on about?” Meriel said.
Foxtail just stood there. Then, ever so subtly, she tilted her head toward the trees.
I stormed off into the woods.
Meriel called after me. “Cal! Where are you going? We have to get Lachlan to— What are you doing?”
Foxtail had caught her sleeve, stopping her from following. I walked straight ahead, shoving my way through the brush. The brush gave way to trees and a tiny, burbling creek. The water, warmed by the volcano, ran over my boots. Then, suddenly, I entered a clearing.
And there, on a rock, among the falling ash, sat a fox.
Shuna watched me calmly as I approached.
“We had a deal.” I pointed an accusing finger at her. “You promised I’d change the future.”
“And you did,” Shuna said reasonably. “What you saw will no longer come to pass.”
“Lachlan still got stabbed by the Lady in Red. He’s still going to die.”
“Everyone’s going to die, Cal. That’s what it means to be human.”
“Don’t get cute with me,” I spat, even as I thought of what the Eye had said. “What you showed me in the pool, what happened here, it’s the same thing.”
“Not the same. It wasn’t the same place; it wasn’t for the same reason. That’s not the same at all.”
“What difference does it make?”
“You’d be surprised,” she said. “Regardless, this isn’t a vision. I’m sorry, but I can’t help him.”
“Can’t?” I said. “Or won’t?”
Shuna sighed. “Sometimes they’re the same thing.”
“Don’t tell me about your rules!” I raged. “We break the rules all the time! We’re thieves, it’s what we do!”
“Then do it.”
“Do what?”
“Break the rules.”
That caught me off guard. “What are you talking about?”
The Fox met my gaze steadily. “Just what I said. Break the rules. Go save Lachlan.”
“I . . .” I was puzzled. “I don’t know what you mean. How can I do that?”
“I can’t—”
“—tell you,” I finished for her. “Of course not
. Then how do you expect me to save him? I don’t understand any of this! What am I supposed to do?”
“Just because I can’t tell you,” Shuna said, “doesn’t mean there isn’t someone else who can.”
“Who else could possibly know how to—”
I broke off as I realized what she meant.
“The Eye?” I said. “You want me to go ask the Eye? I thought the thing was dangerous.”
“Oh, it is.” Shuna shook the ashes from her fur. “It’s the most dangerous thing in the world.”
“And you want me to ask it for help?”
“Funny, isn’t it?”
I stood there, not really sure what to say. “You know, I made a deal with the Eye, too.”
She sounded unconcerned. “Did you?”
“It made me do it. It was the only way it would show me how to seal the rift.”
“I’m sure you did what you thought was best.”
“You could have told me how,” I pointed out. “You did it once before.”
“And yet I said nothing. How odd.”
She really was trying my patience. “For our bargain, the Eye told me to come for it. Do you know what that means?”
“Hmm,” Shuna said. “If I say no, you’ll get cross and tell me I’m lying. If I say yes, you’ll ask me what it means, and I’ll have to say something like ‘I can’t tell you that,’ and you’ll be even angrier. So I think I’ll just sit here and say nothing at all.”
I stared at her, amazed. My fury swirled as I realized the truth.
“You knew,” I said. “You knew all along that this would happen. You’ve been playing me the whole time.”
“As I told you before, Cal: just because I’m playing you doesn’t mean it’s the wrong thing to do.” She hopped down from her rock. “One thing I will say: Don’t tell the Eye you spoke to me. Not now, not ever. You can’t trust it.”
“Of course I can’t,” I said. “I don’t even trust you.”
She smiled. “Oh, my sweet gaffer. There may be hope for you yet.”
* * *
I stormed back out of the woods. Meriel spread her hands, frustrated; Lachlan had slipped into unconsciousness. “What are you doing? We need to take him to a physick!”
“Just give me a minute.”