22

Crossbows were abandoned days before, too cumbersome to keep carrying. But as they approached the gray mist that was the Void, somehow magic didn’t feel like enough protection. Trees were black with twisted limbs that cut into the gray world around it. The farther in Sabi tried to see, the hazier everything became. The ground was the color of clay, puddles of wet moistening it in spots. But it was the silence that was pervasive, a vacuum where sound didn’t exist.

Wind at their backs blew back off an invisible barrier in front of them and the blue sky ahead failed to penetrate the clear line of gray over the Void. Even the grass under their feet trickled away, little green threads daring to poke through the gray until the clay fully overwhelmed it. Nothing lived in the Void ahead of her, and she couldn’t help but wonder if it would consume their light too.

“You live here?” Sabi asked as she kept her eyes ahead, still searching for something, anything, that looked like it could be alive.

Anya whipped her head around to face her, her hood fluttering in the little breeze that remained. Flowers would wither under that look.

“Of course not. On the other side.”

“It’s three miles,” Cabal said, not turning to look at them.

“That not very far,” Sabi said, her eyes in a daze, absorbed by the nothing in front of her.

“It’s the Void.” Cabal’s deadpan brought Sabi up short. She wanted to laugh even as the goose bumps crawled along her skin. “If passage were that easy people wouldn’t be so afraid of it.”

“Why did the Giver do this?” Sabi asked, frowning into the mist. “Is one side of the kingdom completely cut off from the other?”

“The sides must help each other through,” Anya said, not looking at either of them. “South Fair magic guarantees safe travel and trade continues as it should. Fear is the only peace.” She dropped her hood but kept her eyes out to the Void.

“Some people chance it,” Cabal added. Most never come out.”

Sabi turned to him, her eyes wide. “Are you kidding me? That’s what you say as we’re about to walk in there?”

“We have magic,” Cabal replied, and Sabi swore a hint of a question ended his sentence. As if he wasn’t so sure himself.

“This could be it, couldn’t it?” Sabi whispered, her words nearly stolen by the Void.

“I feel safer in there,” Anya said, “than in the castle with Jeviar.”

Sabi’s hand was in Cabal’s before she even realized he was touching it. He’d removed one of his shoelaces and tied it from his wrist to hers. He only had to point at her foot before she bent over to unlace her own boot. Anya’s hand was already out to her, ready to get bound.

“No matter what, walk straight,” he said.

“And if we lose straight?” Sabi asked.

“Don’t lose straight.”

She inhaled deeply, as if she were about to plunge into a tank of water, and stepped forward. The silence was astounding. A pure deprivation of noise. She chanced a glance behind her when she knew they were well and truly within the Void, and saw nothing. The meadow of grass, the light breeze, blue sky, all gone, replaced by a wall of fog that betrayed nothing short of its own totality.

Panic fluttered around her heart and even the deep, calming breaths she tried taking didn’t help. She turned to look at Anya, but there was nothing but foggy space. It was the same with Cabal, as if she were alone in a cloud. She tried to say Anya’s name, felt the letters pluck along her throat, but the Void consumed the noise. It was something out of a dream. One about to go bad that she really wanted to wake up from.

The laces on her wrists pulled tight and she knew they were still there. It was a mantra she forced herself to keep repeating. She reached out her fingers, expecting them to poke into the gray and watch them disappear but it moved with her, molding and forming around her flesh like a glove. They weren’t walking through it; it was shaping itself around them.

The gray continued to pull back as Sabi reached her fingers out. Soon flesh appeared, pink against the gray, and she watched as the hand flexed. When she pulled away Anya’s hand disappeared.

South Fair had wards against this, some magic that pushed the Void away, making the short distance bearable. Maybe her orange eyes could pierce through it, except she couldn’t muster that kind of energy now. It was taking all her power to keep her mind from shattering. Little noises fluttered in her ears and her head jerked from side to side, trying to find its source. If there even was a source, or if her head was starting to create sound.

Her toe struck something and she stumbled. The shoelace dug into her wrist as she fell and something hard cracked into her knee when she landed. The Void stole away her pained shriek and let her keep the blossoming hurt. The right lace tugged and a hand emerged from the gray, followed by a face, as if pushing up through water. They were nearly nose to nose and still Anya was only a head with fog for a body.

Anya pushed forward and Sabi held still, unsure of what the girl was doing. The crinkle of a moist mouth filled her ear and she scrunched her head and shoulder against it.

“You okay?”

The words were a whisper of a whisper. If it weren’t for the absolute silence around her they would have been lost to the otherwise normal ambient noise of nature. Instead of wasting her breath Sabi nodded and Anya backed away. The lace connected to Cabal tugged once and Sabi tugged back. Yes, she was still attached.

A chilled finger pressed into her cheek and Sabi looked down. At their knees lay what caught Sabi’s feet: bleached white, as if sun could penetrate the Void, and sticking out at all angles in an arrangement of grotesque flowers, were bones. Not intact as if their owner fell and died where he lay. Ribs were next to a femur was next to a skull shard was pressed against a piece of pelvis. And they were jagged, razor-edged in some places where the bone looked snapped off. Gnawed on in other places, the impressions not even dusty.

It was one thing to come across a sprawled out bone body. It was quite another to realize there was something in there with them that could snap them into pieces and shove them into the dirt. Because walking through a life-sucking void wasn’t bad enough.

Anya faded back into the fog and Sabi climbed to her feet, her legs wobbly, and stepped over the twisted funeral mound. The stroll was over. They needed to motor. There was a tug on her right wrist and her arm pulled forward. Sabi followed, tugging on the string on her left, quick, hard tugs that she hoped would send a somewhat frantic message to Cabal to pick it up.

A few more tugs and the Criers on either side were running pace with her. There was no way to tell how far they’d come or what was left. The best they could do was keep running.

A bloom of white-hot pain seared across her shoulder and she cried out. The Void snatched away the noise. Not even the sound of air trickled past her lips, but the non-noise still tore at her throat. She tried to make quick looks at her shoulder, but she kept losing her balance and the bounce of her body ripped the wound open more. Sticky wetness trailed down her back and the gray void burst with dots of light. The world around her was an unfocused blur to begin with, but the edges of her vision seemed hazier.

They jockeyed for position and each time one side lagged her heart skipped, but she kept her pace and the others always caught up.

Her leg buckled and this time her body felt the pain almost as quickly as she was hit. She tried to cry out, forcing her shriek against the vacuum, but it only absorbed her noise. Her injured knee touched the ground and when she looked down a splotch of black-red blossomed on her leg. Through the slit in her trousers she caught sight of skin burst open and blood pumping from it. Her small world wavered and the ground tilted beneath her. With the weight of the world on her shoulders Sabi hefted herself up.

She tried to keep up with her partners, but her run was barely more than a frantic hop. Pain screamed in her ears, the loudest noise she’d heard since entering the Void.

Her hands shot out and Sabi caught herself before her face smashed into the ground. All she heard was blood pumping out of her veins and for a second her vision blacked out before fading back to gray again. Only then did she notice her wrists. Both laces were knotted around them, but the rope on both was frayed. Attached to nothing.

Frantically she groped into the gray but felt only more nothing. The Void contracted and a little splinter jabbed into her mind. She’d lost her friends. She’d lost straight. There were an infinite number of directions she could take but only one wouldn’t kill her.

She struggled to her knees and knelt where she fell for a second. Aloneness was an elephantine weight on her back and her arms wobbled under the pressure. Crawling wasn’t an option if she valued living. The gashes in her shoulder and leg pulsed and the thought of running roiled her stomach. Searching for either Anya or Cabal would get her turned around and she’d never get out. There was no way to track herself. She didn’t leave footprints and the ground absorbed any marks she made. Knowing her luck the thing slicing her up could see clear as day through the Void and was watching her act like a wounded bunny. Sabi’s eyes prickled with tears that refused to be shed. She blinked them back and settled her feet underneath her.

There was no choice but to sprint as fast as she could hobble and as straight as she could manage. She hoped the others were doing the same thing and they’d all tumble out on the other side of the Void mostly whole. Blood clotted under her clothes and they stuck to her skin. The creature had the noiseless Void going for it. Sabi hoped it only appeared to be lightning-quick in the nothing. Never mind she’d never hear it coming, no matter how slow it was. Never mind it actively knew how to weaken her and the scent of her blood could be drawing more like it.

Her hands shook as she pressed them into the ground and pushed herself up. Flexed muscles stressed the slice on her shoulder.

First it was a shaky step, then another step with a wince. The third set down lighter and propelled her forward just a little bit faster before hitching again on the fourth. She swallowed hard, desperately trying to tap down the pain crawling up to excruciating levels. Barely a scraped knee in her life and now this.

With each progressive step Sabi hobbled faster. Soon the pain dulled itself to a thrum, a pulse that matched the beat of her feet. It was there, set behind her gritted teeth, but as long as she focused on the end of the Void, green grass, sunlight, noise, the pain stayed secondary.

Her hobble turned into a gimped spring, one arm pumping more than the other, one leg pushing more than the other, but still rocketing forward. Straight. Dear god, stars, Zeus, whatever, let her be going straight. Lungs filled to bursting, the stitch in her side sinking its hooks in even deeper. Her steps faltered but she kept pushing. If she fell now who knew what would descend on her and tear her flesh the rest of the way from her bones.

That thought, at first just passing through her scattered brain, burrowed in and festered. Slithering tendrils of paranoia embedded themselves in her mind. It wasn’t long before she felt eyes on her, setting her wounded shoulder on fire. Despite the screaming pain she ignored the need to limp and ran faster.

Noises made their way to Sabi’s ears and she nearly choked on her breath. Her gasps were still muted, but something else was making its way through the Void and into her head. The pounding of her feet sent vibrations up her legs. It was her brain. It had to be. The things never made a noise as they swiped at her. But a squeal, a slobbering screech resounding in her skull grew in pitch. She pressed her hands to her ears but the noise remained, growing to a shrill roar as she ran.

Tears stung her eyes and dribbled down her cheeks, a sob clogging her throat, hitching her breath and urging the fish hooks to dig deeper into her lungs. She didn’t know how much longer she could run, the pain on all sides of her sprouting like weeds through her sunny image of the end, turning it a mottled gray. A cry escaped her lips and the taste of salt filled her mouth. The screech in her head faltered and realization dawned in her panic: she heard her own scream.

Sabi opened her mouth and let the full force of her parched throat come ripping out, shattering the poisonous noise in her head. The Void had to have been thinning. She was nearing the edge. It was real and not just her sanity failing.

Soon the sound of her feet hitting the ground thumped up to her ears, the thudding urging her to push on. The notion that this was still all in her head ate at her resolve, but she kept running.

Screeching in her head returned but this time it wrapped itself around her and nearly threw her to the ground. Sabi lurched and stumbled, looking back over her shoulder as her body twisted. Behind her was a creature that nearly stopped her heart. Like a panther dipped in radioactive waste, three black legs the size of tree trunks protruded from its chest, two at the behind. Its paws were the size of dinner plates; its claws, silver against the black of its body, were something out of a Ginsu set. Its body was the size of a Volkswagen, thick and corded with muscle, its head the shape of a crescent moon, ending in deadly points on its forehead and chin with an equally deadly jaw, wide enough to be unhinged, salivating after her. Her tongue felt like it swelled to the size of her fist and Sabi choked on her own scream.

The creature grunted and snorted after her, making the closing gap all the more real and all the less insane. She propelled herself forward, her own breath crashing back in her ears but providing no comfort. The noise of the thing behind her overrode it all. Patches of green flashed by underfoot, the grass finally making its way to the outer reaches of the Void. Just as quickly as she placed her next step, the blinding brightness of the sun filled her eyes and she collapsed to the ground.

Digging her heels into the dirt, she pushed herself back, leaving the snarling thing at the border, trapped it in its own world. Her heart hammered, her breath rapid and hitching with its struggle to get out. The stitch in her side was now a full-blown cramp, keeping her doubled over with pain. Tears trickled down her face and she sniffed. Sound rang huge in her ears. Bird caws were piercing, the wind sounded like crumpling paper against her ears. Everything was a shotgun blast next to her head and she flinched with every noise. It couldn’t have been silent for more than an hour but it felt like days in the nothing.

When the pain eased enough to let her sit up she surveyed her surroundings. The creature had faded back into the Void, leaving a gray blank in its place. A line in the overly green grass was drawn between Ashkentik, Anya’s home, and the Void. But she was the only one standing there. Nothing but green and gray to either side of her. Sabi staggered to her feet, the pressure on her injured leg exploding in starbursts of pain. Light burst in the darkness of her eyelids when she closed her eyes.

The horizon drew her attention, the gray and the green melding together into a fine point. Could Anya and Cabal have gotten so turned around that they ended up out there? Should she start walking? She looked back over to her right and it was more of the same. A bird call from the woods a hundred yards off broke the soft rustle of breeze in her ears.

A thud tumbled behind her, followed by scrambling and a cackle that flushed Sabi’s skin. By the time she turned around Anya was lunging for her, nearly airborne, before crashing the injured Crier to the ground. Sabi wanted to hold her in the biggest, tightest hug, laugh with her, except the girl’s fingers were digging so thoroughly into Sabi’s gaping shoulder wound she could have thrown up in Anya’s face.

“Thought you were lost,” Anya said, her voice raspy in Sabi’s ear.

“I thought we all were.” She tried to angle herself under Anya’s weight, tried to disengage her fingers from her wound, but Anya only clung tighter and blood seeped into her mouth as she bit back a scream. “Anya, you’re hurting me. Get up.”

Anya detached and scrambled back as if she’d landed on glass. The release of pain was almost pleasurable until it came crashing back down that she was shredded and bleeding. And not the only one.

A gash ran across the top of Anya’s chest and her cloak was torn at her rib cage. It didn’t even look like she registered the damage as she stood straight, the worry on her face reserved for Sabi wincing on the ground. Maybe it was the years spent in the Goquin cell where she was able to build a basement in her brain to lock away the pain.

Sabi pushed herself up and wobbled until Anya reached out and pulled her the rest of the way up. Something toppled at her feet, sending puffs of air against her trousers. Sabi twisted herself around in Anya’s still-clenched arms and saw Cabal face down in the spotted grass, his back heaving. After a drawn out moment he finally stirred, turning over onto his side and clenching his eyes tight. Red spattered the green where he’d just been splayed.

Patchy flecks of stubble on his face rippled over the tension in his jaw and he sat up, eyes still closed. Slowly he pinched his cloak front and pulled it away from his stomach, slowing even more as the shirt underneath stuck into the wound she knew was there. His breath hitch in his chest, his whole body rigid against the pain. When his eyes finally opened they were glistening.

Anya took a tentative step away from Sabi, hands slow to leave her body, and reached out to Cabal. He stared at her outstretched hand for a moment, his expression blank, before looking up at her. After a tension-filled beat, he grabbed her hand and Anya helped him to his feet.

Her throat felt jagged and Sabi could barely force the words out around the roughness. “If I die from some kind of infection I’m going to be really pissed.”

“My home is half a day from here,” Anya said. “We can rest there.”

“Half a day at a steady pace,” Cabal said, a hint of a wince at the edge of his voice. “A full day if we’re lucky.”

Sabi felt the heat radiating from Anya’s glare. “We’ll make it.”

Through the thick throb of pain Sabi remembered Anya’s story of her parents, her brother. “We want to go there?”

For an unnaturally long moment Anya didn’t blink. “We’ll be fine. The village has a healer. We can rest.”

Sabi looked past her, but in the corner of her eye something flickered. Something near Anya. When she focused on it, it was gone.

With that first solid step away from the Void Sabi wanted to scream and then cry at the thought of walking all the way to Anya’s village. She was the only one with a bum leg, but even Cabal had a favor to his step, a tear in the fabric at his hip gaping open like a wet, blackened mouth.

A march of pure torture. Sabi felt the heft of her own weight and wondered how Anya didn’t develop a limp of her own. But she held strong, never complaining despite the slight shake that rattled her arm every so often. Cabal’s pace was a quickened hobble that set him next to Anya instead of ahead of them both. Before the back of his head was what pulled her south. Now it was just a filmy blur of thin trees and spits of meadow. The toe of her injured leg barely touched the ground as she limped and an unsettling heat threaded with chills kept flashing on her thigh. Goosebumps were needles under her skin.

The world tilted around sunset. The sky was still a subtle blue even though the sun had disappeared below the horizon when Sabi started flinching at things that might have been leaves, but were too sharp to be. With the night came the cacophony of the wild, cricketing and hooting and skittering across her eardrums, giving life to the world that should have been much stiller. The darkness made it easier on her sight, at least, except for when the stars exploded, causing her to flinch back against their brightness. The mermaid offered her support when she tumbled, holding her up despite her fins and scales. Sabi had no idea how she could breathe on land, but maybe she made a deal with an ugly squid who switched out her gills for lungs.

It was full dark by the time they reached the edge of the village. Flickering orange flames in the open windows looked like eyes dancing. Beads of sweat trickled down Sabi’s face. She could barely discern the blurs, everything smearing and swirling in front of her. Her sight slid off of anything she tried to look at.

The ground stopped being flat and Sabi was made to step up into one of the flickering openings in front of her. Maybe the orange was going to swallow her whole. The mermaid slipped her arm away from Sabi’s shoulder, leaving an iced chill flashing across her warm flesh and she shivered. It was quickly replaced by something thicker. Warmer. The arm of the upright cheetah that licked its lips with its blood-red tongue. She leaned into his shoulder and nuzzled his fur. Somewhere deep inside her she felt this might have been weird, but her brain pulsed with a heat just bordering on uncomfortable and she leaned further into the wild cat next to her.

Two other figures approached them: one a snake, its arms green; the other a parrot, far larger than it should have been, its wings beating a breeze on her face. Her mermaid screamed, a language best heard underwater. The snake hissed, its fangs extended, dripping venom. The parrot, its plumage ruffled, cawed, lashing its talons out, just out of reach of the land-locked half-fish. The mermaid didn’t even flinch. In her hand was a purple light leaving streaks across the air as it moved. The other creatures stopped and stepped back, giving the mermaid space to step forward. They cowered under the purple light and the mermaid grew, nearly filling the room, but Sabi still felt spacious despite the cat next to her. She blinked slowly and the scene shifted.

The purple glow flew out of the mermaid’s hand. Screams tore out of the creatures. It hit the wall and exploded into a million pieces of glitter, blinking out as they fell to the floor and popped like shimmering bubbles, each holding its own tiny bulb. The creatures slumped to the floor when the last bit of purple faded, leaving the orange flicker to return and add more heat to her face.

With a deep, ragged inhale Sabi moaned and fell with the purple into the night.