From the Earth to the Shadows

by Amanda Hocking

  “Do you hear that?” Asher interrupted, tilting his head.

  “What?” I asked, but then I heard it, too.

  A high-pitched chirping sound, like a cross between a tiny alarm clock and baby bird. And it was growing louder.

  “What is that?” I stood up and turned around, scanning for any sign of it.

  Oona looked up at me with wide eyes. “Mal, I think it’s coming from your bag.”

  She was right. I still had my gear bag on and I hurried to slip it off and threw it on the ground.

  Behind me, I was vaguely aware that the kirin sounded agitated—stomping their feet, moving around, and chuffing a lot. But for the moment, I was more focused on finding what was chirping inside my bag.

  I opened the main pocket first, digging around, but when I leaned in closer, I realized the chirping was coming from an outer pocket.

  “Hey, Malin,” Valeska said.

  “Hold on,” I told her absently. I unzipped a few pockets—which turned up empty—before I finally spotted something. An oblong lump that didn’t belong.

  “But Malin—” Valeska repeated.

  “I think I got it!” I shouted excitedly.

  I reached in and pulled out a big scarab beetle, chirping loudly in my hand. It was beautiful—for a giant bug, anyway—with an iridescent shell of bright purples and blues.

  Asher peered down at it, sitting calmly on the palm of my hand, and he asked, “What is it?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “Do you think it’s dangerous? Like, should we kill it?”

  “I would rather you didn’t,” a woman said from behind me. “Since she’s mine and I would like her back, safe and sound.”

  I turned to see a simurgh standing a few feet behind me. The simurgh was a massive feathered beast with the body of a white lion, the crimson head of a dog, two gigantic brightly colored wings of emerald and violet, and a tail made of long, vibrant peacock-esque plumages.

  The sight of such a colorful, large creature so near to me, with the herd of kirin parting around it, took all my attention, so I didn’t immediately notice a woman standing beside it. Not until she stepped away from it, pushing back the hood of her dark cloak so I could see her better.

  It was Lyra Kothari.

  She had followed us.

  THIRTY-FOUR

  “She’s a homing beetle,” Lyra said as she plucked the little creature from my hand.

  She held it up and made a soothing chittering sound, which quieted the beetle. With her other hand she opened the large locket around her neck—the one shaped like a golden bell jar. Inside, in one half of the locket, was another beetle, this one bluer but just as beautiful and bright.

  “She’s angry about being separated from her mate,” Lyra explained as she put the beetle back in the locket, and the two of them nestled next to each other before Lyra shut it again. “But she stays wherever I put her, sending out a psychic signal to her love, and he chirps whenever I move closer to her, directing me where to go.”

  “You tracked us?” Valeska was incredulous.

  She’d moved closer to us, scowling and casting angry glares at Lyra. Her black wings had extended slightly in her anger, the feathers spreading and puffing up to make her appear larger and more menacing.

  “It was the only way I knew I’d be able to find you again.” Lyra offered Valeska an apologetic smile, but Valeska remained unmoved.

  “Why did you need to find us again?” I asked. “Did you come to stop us?”

  “No, of course not!” Lyra insisted, her eyes wide as she shook her head emphatically. “I only wanted to help.”

  Valeska snorted. “Help us or help yourself?”

  Oona shot Valeska a look, and then gently but firmly told Lyra, “You can’t come with us. You know that, right?”

  “I do,” Lyra replied with a sad smile. “I know that better than you, I’m sure. I don’t plan to leave here, but I did want to ask a favor of you.”

  “I knew it!” Valeska shouted triumphantly, startling the kirin, who were already on edge with the simurgh loitering about.

  For his part, the simurgh seemed content to lie down in the clearing, but the kirin weren’t taking any chances and started galloping off, heading farther down the river.

  “It was why I had to leave you before. I had to get something for my daughter.” Lyra’s dark eyes were imploring as she looked at me. “Can you give it to her?”

  “No,” Valeska replied instantly, before I had a chance to answer.

  I hesitated before cautiously saying, “It depends on what it is.”

  “It’s only this—” Lyra reached into a deep pocket and pulled out a heart-shaped stone of crystallized pink tourmaline. “An itayakkal.”

  “What is that?” I asked as she handed it to me.

  “It’s an enchanted stone,” Oona answered, leaning over to look at the gemstone in my hand. “Whoever it’s given to will be able to feel how much the enchanter cares for them.”

  Lyra’s eyes were moist as she smiled nervously. “I want Sloane to know how much I still love her.”

  I looked to Oona, who seemed to know plenty about this stone, but she just shrugged.

  “Sure,” I decided, since I owed both Lyra and Sloane for helping me so much. “I can do that.”

  “Thank you,” Lyra said, looking relieved and elated. “In repayment, I can help you navigate the forest quickly and safely.”

  “Are we going to ride on that through the forest?” Oona asked hopefully, motioning to the simurgh, who was busy preening its feathers.

  “The trees are too close together, and it’s much too dangerous,” Lyra said. “She won’t go in there.”

  “But we’re going in there?” Asher asked.

  Throughout the conversation, he’d been standing to my side, with his arms folded, taking in the situation. He’d said nothing and hardly reacted to any of her claims, but now he looked at her with pinched eyebrows and dark eyes.

  “We’re much smaller, and I know the way through,” Lyra said.

  “How and why would you possibly know that?” Valeska asked, apparently taking turns with Asher on being suspicious of everything Lyra said and did.

  “I told you that when I first came down here I still wanted to be free,” she explained. “I wanted to liberate Sloane and everyone else on earth and below. So I planned an escape. I learned everything I could, including how to get through the Cryptomerian Forest, and I practiced it until I had it down.”

  “But then you decided not to escape?” Asher asked.

  “I will admit that initially it wasn’t so much a decision as it was an impossibility,” Lyra said. “I couldn’t get through. But eventually I came to the bitter conclusion that escape came at a very high price. If I got through, I risked creating a tear between our two worlds that would allow every vile monster in here to escape onto earth.

  “My mortal daughter would almost certainly be killed, perhaps even the whole world would be destroyed. I would not and I could not do that to Sloane,” Lyra finished, with enough conviction that Asher relaxed his stance.

  We’d already taken a long enough break, and with Lyra here to lead the way, it seemed like as good a time as any to get going. We packed our things—with me safely tucking the itayakkal in my bag—and Lyra began to describe what we could expect in the forest.

  “Stay close to me, and never stray off course,” Lyra warned. “Don’t touch anything, not unless you absolutely have to. And don’t respond to anything, either. Say and do as little as possible.”

  “What about breathing?” Valeska asked dryly. “Can we do that?”

  Lyra only gave her a hard look before continuing her explanation, telling us we wouldn’t always be able to trust our eyes or ears in the forest. Finally, after warning us once again to stay close, she started leading the way, lifting her long skirt to walk across the shallowest part of the river toward the forest.

  “Who is she?” Asher asked in a hushed voice as he fell in st
ep beside me.

  “She’s a friend of a friend, I guess,” I said, since that was the easiest way to explain her.

  “And you trust her?”

  “Maybe. A little,” I admitted. “But we have to leave as soon as we can, so I don’t see what choice we have.”

  He licked his lips and stared ahead at the dark, twisting forest. “I guess we follow her into that, then.”

  THIRTY-FIVE

  “We’re getting close,” Lyra said, after we had wound our way through the dark and twisted forest.

  But she hadn’t really needed to say anything. I could already hear it—a whooshing roar, like a plane taking off mixed with the rush of a waterfall.

  We were close enough that I could smell it. I remembered it clearly from when we had been in the ossuary. Unlike everywhere else in the underworld outside of Zianna, which smelled vaguely of mustiness and death, this was clean water and sunlight and dirt. Not the stale scent of decay around us, but like the freshly tilled soil of a garden during a summer rain shower.

  It smelled like life.

  I wanted to tear through the forest and race on ahead. I couldn’t wait to get out of here and feel the sunlight and breathe air that hadn’t been bottled up for centuries. But I kept my pace slow, following Lyra’s steps exactly.

  Even though we were close enough to hear and smell what was ahead, the fog and the branches were still too thick for us to see it. A light mist fell over me, dampening my hair, and I looked up, searching for a source, but it was only trees soaring into the darkness above us.

  “Is it raining?” Oona asked, sounding as confused as I felt.

  “No, it’s the portal,” Valeska replied.

  It was so loud now, I could almost feel it rumbling through me. Wind rustled through the trees.

  An overgrown thicket of brambles blocked our path, and Lyra crouched down, carefully lifting up the branches to make a narrow opening for us to squeeze under. Pools of water sat underneath, rippling from a gust of wind that blew in through the gap.

  I crawled on my hands and knees, with fresh mud soaking through my pants, but I barely even noticed.

  And then there it was, right in front of me—a cyclone of water that stretched all the way up toward the ceiling, as far as I could see. Closer to the top, it looked like it stretched a mile across, but it slowly narrowed until it came to a point where it hovered a mere six feet above the ground.

  We had found it. We were going home.

  Or at least some of us were.

  THIRTY-SIX

  “The cloak isn’t big enough for four,” Valeska said in a hushed voice, barely audible over the sounds of the rushing wind and water.

  My gear bag was open, sitting by my feet, with the cloak still tucked inside. It was all ready to go. I just couldn’t bring myself to pull it out yet.

  I’d been standing and watching the cyclone while Oona got ready. Asher stood directly under the cyclone, with his eyes closed and his head back, letting the mist and wind blow over him.

  Oona was a few feet away from us, mixing up a fresh batch of her protection armarria potion before we went through. Lyra crouched beside her, helping some, but mostly watching her and talking.

  “I know,” I told Valeska finally, as I watched the sublime relief on Asher’s face as he breathed in deeply. He’d been here for so much longer than me—especially in Kurnugia time—and I imagined he had to be relishing the feel of the clean air and water.

  I swallowed hard then turned to look at Valeska. “But you made it through without one. Your biggest injuries were from the geyser, going into Kurnugia. This shouldn’t burn me.” I paused, pushing back my fear. “Right?”

  “No, this one won’t burn you. If anything, it’s cold.” As she spoke, she tilted her head back, letting her eyes follow the full length of the water cyclone up to the ceiling. “But it takes a long-ass time.”

  “Well, that doesn’t sound so bad. I can handle being cold for a while.”

  “Yeah, but how long can you hold your breath?” Valeska asked.

  “A couple minutes?” I chewed the side of my cheek. “How long does it take?”

  She shrugged. “Ten minutes? Maybe twenty? I just know that my protection spell ran out halfway through, taking all my oxygen with it. I almost blacked out by the time I surfaced, and I was coughing up water.”

  I glanced over to where Oona was hard at work. “Her potion is more powerful.”

  “Is it?” Valeska asked. “Or was it the cloak that protected us earlier?”

  “Are you trying to freak me out?” I asked her directly.

  “No.” She scoffed. “I just don’t want you to kill yourself. If you die on the way up, I’m the one stuck getting that spear to Odin.”

  “What else would you have me do?” I asked, lowering my voice in case Asher or Oona might be able to hear. “I’m not leaving any of you behind, and I won’t stay here by myself. So what else can I do but hope that everything is enough?”

  Valeska didn’t say anything for a moment, and then she looked at me. Her wide eyes were solemn under her heavy lashes, and her small mouth was pressed into a thin line.

  Oona had finally finished her potion, so we all gathered together to get ready. We said our goodbyes to Lyra before Oona got started with her incantations, but she lingered at the edge of the forest to watch.

  “Leaving requires a few more steps than it did to get in,” Oona explained. “But I’m going to start with the protection spell first, and then move on to the next part.”

  Like she had before we entered Kurnugia, Oona began the protection process. First, she handed us each a mirror-black hematite crystal and warned us to hang on to it. Then she opened the vial of her armarria potion and marked each of us with it in an X over our hearts as she recited an incantation.

  Asher was wounded above his heart, but Oona insisted the placement was necessary. He pulled down the collar of his shirt, giving her easier access, and he winced as she gently slid her finger across his lacerations.

  “Oh, damn, that burns.” He grimaced, looking down at his chest. Steam actually came out of the cuts, but only for a second.

  “Sorry about that,” Oona said. “But I don’t want you getting hurt any worse, so I had to do that.”

  “No, it’s okay.” He let go of his shirt so that his marks were covered up, and he rubbed his hand over the spot.

  “The next part is weird, but at least the Kurtari incantation is quick.” She pulled out a vial of thick purple liquid. “So, first I’m going to pour a bit of Eralim blood on your head”—she shook the vial—“then I need you to spin counterclockwise while reciting the incantation.”

  Valeska wrinkled her nose and said, “I used only the Eralim blood when I did it before.”

  “Yeah, well, you were alone,” Oona countered. “There’s four of us going back, so the portal needs to be bigger and open for longer.”

  Oona ushered us under the cyclone, the wind whipping through our hair and clothes. She smeared purple blood across each of our foreheads, including her own, then shouted to be heard over the noise. “Repeat after me: At-eh-bah-map ah-dilz ah oh-doh!”

  We all turned counterclockwise, going the opposite of the direction the cyclone was churning in.

  “Okay!” Oona yelled when we’d finished. “All we need is the cloak and the key, then we should be home free!”

  “But how do we know if it’s worked?” Asher asked. “Nothing’s changed!”

  “If it sucks us up, it works!” Valeska shouted over the roar.

  I had the cloak out, but I’d been holding it balled up in my hands. Now I let it unfurl, hanging on to it tightly to keep it from blowing away. Asher was in the center, because he was the tallest, so I put the hood over his head. Oona and Valeska took the spots on either side of him, with me standing in front, so my back was to the open gap in the cloak.

  Valeska took the Sibudu Key off from around her neck and raised her hand up high until the key touched the bottom of the wa
terspout.

  “Are you—” I started to ask, but then it sucked us up.

  One second I was standing on the ground, and the next I was submerged in icy cold water. I buried my face in Asher’s chest, breathing for as long as I could, and I felt Valeska’s hand over mine—small but strong as she gripped tightly.

  My back felt frozen, and there was an intense pressure, like I was being slowly squished. It was getting harder to breathe—my lungs didn’t have enough space. I tried to push back from Asher to get more room, but there wasn’t any to be had.

  My throat burned and my entire chest ached, and pain and panic set in as I realized I was suffocating. I gasped for air, and the muscles in my abdomen began to spasm painfully. My eyes were closed, but I could see spots dancing across my vision as my mind felt black and foggy. I squeezed Valeska’s hand as tightly as I could, but within seconds I was gone.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  It was like falling asleep in reverse.

  Before I even opened my eyes, I could feel the sun warming my skin and the sandy beach under my back. I looked up through a blur of water and tears, and I could see the blue of the sky.

  “She’s alive!” Oona shouted excitedly, and she leaned forward, blocking out the sun. “Oh, gosh, I’m so glad you’re alive. You are alive, right?”

  “I think so,” I replied thickly.

  “Oona, give her some space, will you?” Valeska said. “I told you she would be fine.”

  Oona groaned but moved away from me. “Just because you say things doesn’t make them true.”

  I sat up, looking around at the pond in the center of the cave. Above it was the wide opening, letting in the daylight and a beautiful view of the sky. Across the pond was a mossy staircase carved into the wall, which would be our emergency exit out of here. We were back on earth, in the cave beyond the tunnels that stretched below the ossuary in the Gates of Kurnugia.

  This was where I’d lost Asher, and now it was where I found him again. Lying beside me, with the sun bathing his face. But his eyes were on me.