breath possible, once, twice, three times, and dove down. Be a torpedo, I thought. Be a shark. I opened my eyes and strained in the dim water to find my target. There! I spotted the geyser, the crack atop the teal splat. Down I went.
“Movens subsisto!” I cried. Bubbles shot out of my mouth. My voice was muffled in the water’s deep. I’d never tried to speak underwater before. I’d only seen it in movies. “Movens subsisto!” I bubbled once more. I felt my breath diminishing. Don’t panic, I thought.
The crack shook a bit, but water kept shooting upward. Had I said it right? I feverishly reviewed that day in the field with Uncle Seb, the rescue of Dragon on the plane. Yes! I was right! That’s how I commanded the spheresaii to stop. Why wasn’t it working?
“Movens…!” I tried to force one last command. It was no use; my lungs burned. I had to get air.
I shot up the surface. Choking, I scanned the dark room for Baert.
“Baert! Baert! I tried to stop the orb – it didn’t work, Baert! Baert!” I sputtered and spit. I had to stave off the panic that settled into my waterlogged soul.
I caught movement up ahead of me. A small figure, dripping and coughing, pulled himself out of the rising water and scaled the stone wall. Baert! His small bare feet cautiously felt for the slightest jutting rock and expertly climbed higher. My heart dropped.
I wanted to cry out to him, to tell him to stop, to tell him it’s not worth it, to demand what he was doing or thinking. But I swallowed the lump of fear in my throat and kept quiet. Any sound from me would surely alert Obrenox to his presence.
I tread water and felt helpless. Dragon’s head was almost fully submerged, the neon lights of his deathly shackles blinked just enough to illuminate his fallen black mass in the water. The expanse of computer monitors and odd displays fizzled and sputtered and smoked before giving up to the rising tide with a screeching singe. The great stone door through which we had entered stayed unmoved. It had no doorknob, no handle. I don’t even know how we had opened it in the first place. The mysterious wall of shimmering stones remained intact, although its majestic rainbow had lost some luster in the maelstrom.
Above me, Obrenox stretched and yawned atop his inky chariot.
“Thissssss isssss almosssssst boring to me now,” he said as he smacked his lips and yawned. He shifted onto his other side; his back was to me now. His rear-end was disproportionately large and very round compared to the rest of his sinewy, long form.
“Wakesssssss me when you’re jussssssst about to kissssss death,” he said drolly and gave a little wave over his head.
Just then, I caught something moving in the shadows below Obrenox. From the left, Baert crept stealthily closer, closer to the inky cloud. I was stunned. Did I know that elves were such deft climbers? Should I stay quiet and still, or create a diversion? Treading water still, I noticed the pressure on my lungs lessened. I looked around; the water was going down! The sphere had heard me!
Obrenox sat upright. His giant bum made his ink cloud bounce under the shifting weight. I couldn’t let him see Baert or notice that the water was draining. I kicked my legs violently. I thrashed my arms and splashed water around as ferociously as I could. I coughed, I choked, I screamed for help. And repeat.
Obrenox peered down from his black puff, kneeling forward with his hands on either side of his legs like a child fascinated by koi in a pond. I continued my histrionics, exhausted and desperate. I took a big gulp of air and resumed my fake coughs. A giant wave of water surged into my open mouth. Whoops. Coughing for real now. I sputtered and strained to get above the water. I heard Obrenox let out a frustrated shriek.
“The waterssssssss lowering itssssssself!” he wailed.
I kicked harder, I splashed more. Fear gripped my gut.
Just then, crouched like a cat getting ready to pounce, I spotted Baert. He launched from his rock to a ledge just below the black cloud. Even so far below, I could see his eyes flash red. One more pounce. He flung himself up through the ink and onto Obrenox. He latched onto the villain’s shoulder and bit down hard. Obrenox let out a high soprano shriek and tried to shake Baert off his body. But the elf was mighty and fueled by rage, hatred, vengeance, hunger – everything you don’t want an elf to feel.
Baert pulled the red hood over Obrenox’s face. His little arm nimbly slipped around the wiry neck and held Obrenox in a chokehold. The robe snakes hissed and stood erect. Their long, black bodies bobbed and swooped angrily toward Baert.
“Lassie, can ye call upon thah stone nigh!” he shouted, then mumbled some choice words in his native tongue at the struggling figure he held firm.
Nervous, I stopped treading water and extended my legs downward. Ground! I could touch! My shoulders were just above the water. I nodded at Baert and thrust my arm forward. Rotating my palm upward, I focused all my might on pulling the warmth of peridiote toward me. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut. My arm trembled and my palm ached, but I held steady. Images flashed in my mind – Philippa, Dragon, my mom … something powerful burst through me. My body shook. Yellow flashed bright everywhere. I felt warm, gooey. Warmer, warmer … My body burned. My palm was surely on fire but I didn’t dare open my eyes! Screaming, roaring, I pulled the stone’s warmth into me until my arm shook, my body shook, and I felt like I was on fire. Instinctively, I made a fist and knew I’d captured the stone in my hand. I threw it to the ground and opened my eyes.
There was no fire. Just dark. The stone was shrunked and looked more like a river rock than the powerful orb I battled. It fizzled in the puddles at my feet and turned a sallow yellow-green, dull and unimpressive. I kicked more water at it and it hissed, flashed, and shrunk even more.
Obrenox shrieked in agony. His cloud dissipated. He fell straight down, his robes floating outward like a dying bat. He landed with a thud and a crunch on the stone floor.
“Baert!” I screamed and sprinted over to the black mound.
The robes moved; my heart froze. A small hand groped through the folds and gave me a thumbs up before disappearing into the robe’s abyss again. I screamed again; but Baert appeared on the other side of the robes, his beard curly from the wet. He smiled a tired smile. Something hissed beneath him.
“That’ll be our cue, lassie,” he said as he heaved his pained body up and over the pile of slithering robes.
I kicked more water where Obrenox lay, partly because I was too scared to actually touch the writhing robes and party because I felt that the water disabled the dark powers in that immense keep.
“Baert! You’re limping!”
“Ne’er mind ye,” Baert croaked, “Aye, look! The chains!”
I ran to Dragon. His shackles had dropped. His mighty wings fanned out beside him. Lifeless, but free. Free! I pushed at one of the chains with the bottom of my shoe. It lay still, dead, dull, on the wet stone ground. Without the evil orb powering them, they held no current.
“How do we get him out of here?” I whispered to Baert, scared to imagine any alternative.
Baert was quiet. He put a trembling hand on Dragon’s downward nose. He held it there for a moment, then brought his other hand to his friend’s face and softly stroked the dark, shimmering cheek.
“Oh, my bonnie friend,” Baert choked and fell upon the great beast’s face, hugging his small, damp body to Dragon’s massive nose.
“Baert, you can’t think like that.” A lump formed in my throat. Tears welled in my eyes. “Goddammit, Baert. You can’t!”
Baert buried his face against Dragon’s. The little elf began to sob quietly. Tears streamed from his face to Dragon’s. They dripped off of the black scales and swirled in the puddles at Baert’s feet.
“Baert, we have to get him out of here!” I repeated. Fear stung my eyes.
Baert didn’t move. His small hands held his dear friend’s face and his thumbs gently pulled Dragon’s mighty eyelids shut. Baert’s cheek fell upon the bridge of Dragon’s nose once more. His little body heaved under his sobbing embrace.
“My bonnie friend, my dear friend,” Baert whispered again and again.
I stood apart from them.
“This can’t be how this ends,” I murmured. “There has to be a way out. I can’t … it can’t end like this.”
Heavy with grief, confusion, anger, I scanned the austere room. Its stoned walls still stood, impenetrable. The wall of rainbow gems still blinked ambivalently. Some of the higher screens and monitors flickered static. I spotted the duffle a little way off and retrieved it. I tried to ring it out; the spheresaii shuddered inside as I tilted the bag to drain it. I looked over to the teal sphere. It shivered innocently in a puddle.
“Nunc colligentes,” I grumbled and halfheartedly raised my arm toward it. The little orb hopped up and bounded into the duffle and happily settled aside its mates.
I heaved the bag across my shoulder again and tried to fix my own attire a bit. I rang out the ends of my tee-shirt. I wiped my hands on my jeans and sighed – I’d have to be ok with wet knickers for the time being. I pulled one shoe off, shook it, and then pulled off my sock to wring it out. A tiny sparkly something went flying out of my sock and landed with a tinny ping! It sparkled a lovely blue on the drying stone expanse.
“What the – aquamina!” I exclaimed under my breath.
I bounded forward to fetch the little stone.
“Baert! Baert! It’s ok! Oh my god, Baer! I have –”
A gaunt, bloody hand grabbed my wrist.
“Aquamina, yessssssss.”
Obrenox had slithered his shattered body over to where I stood. I looked, panicked, at Baert. He still the head of his dear friend. Baert’s eyes opened woefully, met my frenzied gaze, blinked slowly and turned back to Dragon. He pressed his cheek to Dragon’s lifeless nose and turned his back to me. I wrestled my wrist away from the bony grasp.
“Baert!” I shrieked.
“Isssssss uuusssselessssss – your friend no more,” Obrenox hissed.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I snarled.
“Oh, how ssssssssssad it makesssssssss ussssssssss.”
Obrenox pulled his contorted body upright. The pain was clearly great for him. He dropped back down to the ground and sat, heaving, wet. The ridiculous red hood still shielded his face from view. It hung damp and dripped water onto his weak, pointed shoulders. The snakes hissed and recoiled from the waterdrops.
“Baert!” I screamed once more. “Baert! Please!”
“Oh, how polite she isssss assssssss she asssksssssssss!” Obrenox cried gleefully.
He clapped his boney hands and slinked forward. His robes slithered, hissed, and lunged toward my feet. One of the snakes darted up my leg and around my calf.
“Ugh! Get off, sicko!” I screamed as I shook my leg furiously.
“I am not ssssssicko!” Obrenox hissed.
A wave of anger refueled him, for all at the once the robes took form and lurched upward. That long bony hand with longer, bonier fingers shot out from one of the folds and pawed at my clenched fist. Fingernails like daggers sunk into my skin; I yelped. He pinched the aquamina stone from my palm.
“No …you…don’t….!”
I grabbed ahold of his twiggy arm and used both hands to pry open his disgustingly febrile palm. I felt him weakening. I grinned and stomped hard on the snakes slithering at my feet. The book or movie version of Eve would definitely have a rad catchphrase to utter as she bests her foe. Craaaack! A bony finger snapped and the snakes screeched.
“Zoinks!” I grunted as I pried open the other wiry fingers and freed the stone. Blood streamed down my fingers and I didn’t know if it was mine or his.
“Did she ssssssay zzzoinksssssss?” shrieked Obrenox. He clutched his scrawny wrist and shrieked again as purple blood shot out from the broken finger. His robes hissed and fell away from me in pained folds.
“BAERT!” I screamed. I ignored my shame and kicked the squirming robes farther away. “Baert! Now! Catch!”
Channeling all my focus and broken dreams of ever being anything remotely athletic, I squeezed the aquamina stone in my hand, kissed my fist, (felt immediate regret over doing that), and threw the tiny precious gem to Baert.
Baert looked over his shoulder. His eyes widened. He twirled around, never removing a hand from Dragon’s face. He reached up to receive the stone, and, without missing a beat, gracefully brought it down and pressed the tiny gem to the bridge of Dragon’s nose. Resting one hand atop the other, Baert bowed his head and closed his eyes reverently.
Obrenox shrieked and twisted toward me. His robes, still wet, swarmed at my feet. They gripped around my ankles and pulled; with a yelp, my arms went up over my head and I fell backward.
“Owwwww,” I moaned as I lay on my back.
A hissing laughter responded. An inky blackness closed in on me, swirling and cloudy. Everything faded away, and all I felt was tired. I was so tired. I couldn’t remember what I was fighting for. I was totally depleted and without anything witty or altruistic or motivating ... just tired. More ink, darker, clouded around me. My mom’s gone. Philippa’s gone. They had been gone for days. Dragon is …. I couldn’t bring myself to admit it.
“Dragon’s dead.”
Who said that?
“He’s dead.”
It was my voice. Me.
“They’re all … dead.”
“Yesssssssss, yessssss,” the black smoke hissed all around me. It echoed and bounced about the inky cloud. “Yesssssss, dead, dead, yesssssss.”
The smoke was stifling, suffocating. I choked, and an odd thought drifted. Choking is your body’s response to an intruder – your body is trying to expel something that’s breached the system. So, I need to stop myself from choking. What was the intruder? Why choke? Why try to rid myself of this fate?
In the distance, I heard more hissing. I heard more shrieks. I yawned and stretched in the confines of the black smoke. Just a quick nap, and then …. Nothing. Yes, I had made it to the end.
I closed my eyes when a great gust of wind met my face. The breeze freed the cloying smoke from around me. I squeezed my eyes more tightly shut, but another gust of wind came, and another, and at last my eyes were forced open. When I looked, the inky blackness had dissipated and a mighty talon was holding a writhing, wriggling mass of robes pinned against he stone floor.
“Dragon!” I screamed. “Dragon! But how? Oh, Dragon!” Relief and joy pulsated through me and energized my every vein. I fell upon him in disbelief.
“Really, from the one who had just pronounced me dead,” Dragon sniffed, but he didn’t pull away from me. He breathed deeply, and I felt a talon on my back. I smiled.
“Enough a’the honey wit’the bairn!” Baert’s voice came, rejuvenated and full and lovely to my ears. “Skeedaddle!”
Baert bounded over. Dragon crouched down and Baert and I climbed aboard, confused, ecstatic, crying, hugging.
“Easy, if you don’t mind. I’m a bit sore. Evechild, the water stifles their powers here; can you affect this again?”
I grinned and pulled the teal orb from the duffle. Somehow it remained slung over my shoulder. I held the shivering sphere out once more, letting it swoop and dive just long enough to produce a shower of water that covered the stone floor, including a soaking wet Obrenox.
Below us, the robes twisted and contorted, like a firework on the pavement after its spark fizzles and goes out. I expertly called my aquamarine savior back into the bag, feeling very successful with a wink from Baert.
“Hey, Dragon?” I shouted as the mammoth wings spread out and flapped hard. “Uh, we’re still in that stone room, buddy. The impenetrable one that you couldn’t fly through with your fancy dragon abilities, remember?”
He flapped faster.
“Indeed, and?”
“And where are we flying then?”
“Up!”