| |
Nara was sure someone called to her. The sounds seemed to echo around inside her head. The world was foggy around her, as though she were still sleeping, or at least not fully awake. The sounds of movement echoed around her. No, that wasn’t right. It was that there were footsteps closer to her, around her, moving away. People moved around the cavern as she tried to pull herself from her foggy state.
The world was skewed; it had been since she had arrived. Since they had arrived. Haven had been distracted, or was it something else? Had he been watching the world around them, or did he not want to be with her? She longed for him now. It was as though she had hunted for him, searched through her sleep for him. And he was not amongst the number moving through the cavern now.
Shadow had been alone, she had claimed, but as Nara focused on the soft light against the stone above her, disappearing into the darkness, the world became more silent around her. She was still warm, but not like she had been—not like her skin was alight with the flames of the fire tree, as she had been so sure it had been.
She breathed in slowly, her throat raw. Even swallowing hurt. Had she been shouting in her sleep, calling out for Haven? She had the strange thought that she had called him by the wrong name. She had never called him anything other than Haven; it was his name, and it suited him. Others called him Ellery, and he had been a captain or the like in title.
It wasn’t clear. None of what had occurred since they had arrived here in this life, in this place, made sense. The creatures she was sure would end them were not the threat they had come to find, and yet she knew it was coming. They were coming. And she had no clear idea what or who they were. She reached for the pouch that wasn’t at her belt, for she still didn’t wear one, but her fingers touched against the blade beside her. Realising she was beneath furs, she reached with the other hand and found the stones at her side. The pouch smooth beneath her fingers, she squeezed it tight in her hand.
“Are you awake?” a soft voice asked.
Nara blinked and turned her head to the side to take in Shadow, the stone still in her hands, and nodded slowly.
“Are you ready to eat, or do you want water?”
Nara shook her head. It felt heavy, and there would be nothing to lean against if she were to sit up. She didn’t want to reveal the sword or the stones beneath the fur. She turned her head slowly the other way, but there was no sign of anyone else. She had been certain of others moving around the cavern, she thought, turning slowly and taking in the stone held tight in Shadow’s hands.
“Where are the others?” Nara asked, and the effort burned her throat.
Shadow shook her head, looking towards the entrance to the cavern. “He left.”
Nara could feel panic rising in her chest, burning at her throat. She had been thinking of Haven but had not focused on the fact he was not in the cavern when she woke. Her heart beat too fast, and it felt as though a weaver sat on her chest, preventing her from drawing breath. She had to believe that he would return.
He too had felt unsettled; she could see that, sense that. Whether for the same reason she felt unsettled in this life or something else, such as her illness, she couldn’t guess. She looked towards the entrance, surprised in some way that there wasn’t a doorway or covering to protect them from the elements beyond. There was a warmth within the space, but that might be her own internal heat rather than something in the stone. The whole world had seemed to burn around Nara before, and she wondered if she was getting better or if this was just another stage in the illness that had taken hold.
“Water,” she rasped, looking back to Shadow still standing beside her, the large stone held tight in her arms as though it were a child.
Shadow nodded slowly but didn’t move. Nara released her hold of the stones into her lap, pulling her arms out from beneath the furs and holding them out to Shadow. She motioned with her hands that the woman step closer, but Shadow still didn’t move.
“Water,” she said.
“It is there,” Shadow said, her voice a little distant as she turned and looked over her shoulder towards a pail by the wall.
Nara had followed her gaze, but something else moved in her periphery. Her hand closed around her sword, and she clutched at the stones as she threw the furs back. It was as though the sword moved on its own, arcing out, the tip stopping just shy of the woman standing to the side of her—another woman, dressed similarly to Shadow. She looked very much like Shadow in her features, as though they could be family, sisters perhaps. They also appeared to be close in age. The new woman did not carry a stone, and Nara tried to slow her breathing and gather her thoughts.
Was her mind playing tricks on her, or was this something else? Hadn’t Shadow been alone since the man with the walking stick had taken her mother and destroyed her people? Nara raised her fist to her head, the stones still clutched within it, trying to work out what was real and what was not. The woman beside her stepped closer, and the sword lit up blue-green without any thought from her at all.
“Who are you?” Nara wheezed. It was hard to breathe, and yet she had done nothing but lie down or be carried since she had arrived. No, she had taken on a weaver and very nearly lost.
“She is me,” Shadow said, but Nara didn’t take her eyes from the woman who had not moved. That wasn’t right. They did look alike, but not the same; she was not a twin.
The woman at the end of her sword smiled, both friendly and not at the same time.
“I thought you said she wasn’t dangerous,” a deeper voice said, and Nara looked towards the man at the end of the platform. He was dressed similarly to Haven, but he was more slender, younger perhaps. A son? Or maybe not that young.
Where had these people been hiding? Had Haven left, or had something happened? How far away might he be? The panic that had built in her chest closed in again. The sword became brighter.
“We should throw her out to the elements,” the man said. His deep voice did not quite fit with how young he appeared.
Nara blinked, trying to take him in, unsure of what she was looking at. She wondered then if it was some odd reflection. She squeezed the stones tighter in her hand and, as she turned her gaze towards Shadow, found that the woman was looking at the stones. Shadow’s grip was now tighter around the stone in her arms, which was pulled against her chest as though to shield it from Nara.
“You have to put it back,” the man said, but Shadow shook her head. “Ama.” His voice was low, as though talking to a child. “It must go back.”
Shadow sighed, looking down at it, and then moved slowly around Nara. Very carefully, she put the stone back into its place in the wall. Nara felt an odd calm as she watched Shadow bow to it, run her fingers over the stone one last time, and then turn away.
“You can hear it,” Nara whispered.
Shadow didn’t lift her head to look at her, but the man growled something. When Nara looked back at him, he shook his head once.
“You can’t,” Nara said to him.
“No one can read the stones. It is a lost skill.”
“She claims to,” Shadow said. And his face shifted from annoyed to pure anger. Nara squeezed the stones tight in her hand, wishing they were not in the pouch but against her skin and that Haven was closer. “She has her own stones,” Shadow continued, reaching out and pulling at Nara’s hand.
The sword swung back around to protect her, the buzz of magic loud in Nara’s ears, and she wondered if everyone else could hear it.
“Leave her,” the man said, although he sounded more resigned. Nara wondered where the anger had gone.
“Where have you come from?” Nara asked.
“We were always here. It is you who have come to us from elsewhere,” he murmured, looking her over.
Her arm moved to shield her body somewhat, despite it being covered. “Where is Haven?” she demanded, relieved that her voice had returned.
“Gone,” the man said, a small smile lifting the corner of his mouth that changed the whole outlook of his face. He was handsome, and yet it frightened her. The memory of another who had frightened her with his smile returned, the lord from long ago, the man responsible for Haven’s death and, in a way, her own.
Nara glanced towards the opening to the cavern. “You were not here when we arrived.”
“We heard you coming,” he said.
It seemed an odd way to say it, for she was sure they had moved silently through the environment. Although she had remembered her squeaky boots in the snow. Her gaze rested on the stone in the nook in the wall. Someone understood more than they were saying. When she turned her gaze back to the man, he had crossed his arms, a comfortable, cocky smile resting on his lips.
“They are coming,” Nara whispered, and his smile slipped away instantly. His arms dropped to his side, and he turned to Shadow.
“She said so before. I thought it the illness. She did not even recognise the man with her.”
He turned his glare on Nara, and she moved the point of the sword from across her body out towards him. He sighed as he looked to the sword, still bright with magic. She wouldn’t have to move to take him down if he became the threat she was worried he might be. The lightning would end him in moments, although she had never used the lightning on a man before, only monsters. These people hadn’t been here when she had arrived; they could be monsters in hiding, or hiding the monsters.
Nara lowered the sword into her lap, knowing she could collect it in an instant if needed. Despite the watchful gaze of the three people beside her, Nara tipped the stones into her hand. She rubbed them between her palms and closed her eyes. There was no danger close, only a background hum as though she knew it was here, closer than she wanted it to be.
She wanted Haven. The world was not as clear as it should be. The feeling of the ocean pressing in on her returned for an instant, as though something like the Mer song was interfering with her, blocking what she would normally understand. The message she felt was to stay where she was, to wait, and all would be clear.
Nara licked at her lips. She was so thirsty. Slipping the stones back into the pouch, she closed her hand around the sword. Then she swung her legs from the platform and climbed down to the cool ground. It was hard beneath her feet, which felt tingly as she put her weight on them. Her knees buckled. She would have hit the ground but for the sword, which she used as support. If Haven were there, he would have chastised her for using the blade in such a way.
She straightened, her focus on the water in the pail, perfectly carved from what appeared to be a single piece of wood. It too seemed odd, as though it didn’t belong here. The strong feeling that she should wait flowed through her again. That she shouldn’t even take the time to step forward.
Something moved in the distance, as though a stone had dropped from a height or the stone surrounding them had shifted. The woman who looked like Shadow cried out, and the man raced towards the opening of the cave.
“They are coming,” Nara said, although she had no idea of the meaning behind the words.
The stone around her creaked and groaned as though something had upset it. She vaguely remembered a distant silhouette on the snow, and an understanding that they had to go in that direction. Was that where she was now? Was she inside that place? How much stone surrounded her that it might fall and crush them? The walls shook, and she looked up into the dark crevice above them. Something glinted in the dark. Just as quickly as she thought she saw it, it disappeared.
Perhaps they should all have run out, but it took all she had to stand. The sound of stone moving across stone echoed through the cavern. Dust trickled down from the dark above her. Nara watched in awe as it moved on the air as though in slow motion, as though invisible air currents kept the particles aloft.
Something shifted, and the stone nestled in the opening in the wall shivered as though something vibrated through it. The shelf it was on buckled, and before Nara could work out what it was doing, the whole crease in the cave squeezed closed. The stone was lost behind a narrow line that had once been a fissure.
If her stones had disappeared, it might have been more frightening, but as she stared at the fine line in the wall marking where the space had been, Nara thought the stone was still within the wall, as though the cavern itself were keeping it safe. Shadow dropped to her knees, her hands against the wall.
As Nara closed her hand tight around her stones, she wondered how true Shadow’s stories were and how far away Haven was.