Sienna felt a tug towards the interior of the island, through the darkness of the trees and onwards. She was sure the dark castle lay ahead of them on land, not by sea anymore.
"It's this way." Her voice was confident.
"Agreed," Finn said. "And I much prefer land to water." He took a few steps towards the trees and looked up at them. Sienna walked forward to join him. The dense foliage smelled of wet earth and moss, overlaid by the mold of dead leaves. A low buzz came from the semidarkness ahead, and Sienna caught sight of clouds of flying insects within.
"Looks like fun." Finn grinned.
Sienna pulled the sleeves of her top down, covering as much skin as possible as she smiled back. She was glad Finn was there. He was an outsider and as unsure of his place in the makeshift team as she was. They were a strange group, each with their own agenda. She turned to look back at the others. Mila stood facing the water, arms wrapped around herself as if she held herself back from diving into the blue and swimming away. Perry and Xander pulled the coracle further up away from the water's edge, bantering back and forth.
Sienna didn't know their individual reasons for being part of the Mapwalker team, but she understood Finn and his desire to free his sister. As long as they headed towards the castle, Finn would stay with them. And for that, she was glad.
Finn took a step into the forest and Sienna went after him, the others close behind. Within a few meters, the beach was out of sight. The canopy of trees rose above like a prison in shades of green with bars of thick tree trunks, hung with lianas, around them. The springy ground was dense with plants and entwined roots, tendrils wrapped around her ankles and seemed to drag back every step. The air had an intense humidity, every breath a gulp. Sweat trickled down Sienna's spine, and her clothes clung to her as moisture soaked through.
It was as if the land was decomposing, the body of the earth rotting, each footstep sinking into a bog of dead flesh. The ground opened like a huge dark mouth, roots of trees like decayed teeth waiting to devour any who stepped inside. The forest canopy cast a dark shadow, vines hanging down like sinister tentacles, a path of obstacles, an entangled world where chaos reigned.
Finn strode ahead, using his sword to chop down branches in their path. He was clearly used to the swing of it, his strokes confident. Sienna found herself mesmerized by the movement of the muscles on his back, his breath even as they pushed on.
"I think I came here a long time ago with my father," he called back. "We were on a hunt for wild pigs." His voice faltered. "But something else came out of the forest. I still don't know if we really saw it, or whether I just remember something that scared me as a child. But we didn't stay long after it had passed." He turned, and his eyes met Sienna's. "I'm sure it was nothing."
Sienna thought back to the warlord who ordered child sacrifice at the Tophet. What would scare a man like that?
It started to rain as they walked on and soon the ground was slick with mud, their feet soaked through. The sound of rain dripping on leaves was a calm meditation, a welcome respite from the crazy pace of the last day. Sienna turned her face up so the cool drops touched her skin, glimpsing the sky through the canopy of leaves above. A sky that linked such diverse environments. On Earth-side, she would have to fly, drive, then trek huge distances to get between a buried Turkish city of lava and a jungle like this. Yet here in the Borderlands, they rubbed up against each other, pushed together by the ridges in the map.
Suddenly, Sienna thought she saw something move in the trees, a shadow swinging like a monkey, jumping from branch to branch. A hoot rang out, a low sound that echoed around them.
The group stopped, bunching together back to back as they faced out into the jungle. Finn held his sword in front of him, arms wide in a fighting stance. The hoot came again, and it sent a shiver down Sienna's spine.
"Any idea what it is?"
Finn shook his head. "But we need to keep moving. We have to be out of here before it gets dark."
They walked on, ducking under huge branches and climbing over logs.
"Keep an eye out as we walk," Finn said. "Look for slimy and scaly textures that stand out against the leaves. And don't touch anything. Try not to put your hand out even to help yourself over a log. That's when you're most likely to get bitten."
Sienna wondered what kind of first-aid knowledge the team had between them, what training they had in general. She was the newbie, and in the haste of the expedition, she had missed out on whatever passed for the standard training program. But she trusted Finn to keep them safe. He took the lead here, this was his land, after all.
She felt a sharp sting on her arm and slapped at a mosquito the size of a coin. A splash of blood exploded from its body onto her skin. Sienna grimaced. It would be crazy to die of a mosquito bite in a jungle only miles from downtown Bath. She shook her head in wonder.
"Oh, that is cool." Xander's voice rang out.
Sienna turned to see him gazing at something on the trunk of a palm tree. A huge spider with a body as big as her hand and legs as long as her arm. It squatted on the bark, seemingly oblivious to their presence.
Xander pulled out his sketchbook and began to draw, sure strokes quickly recreating the shape of the spider on his page. He bent closer, and the spider reared up, fangs dripping venom. As Xander backed away, his eyes fixed on the creature, a smile on his face, Sienna couldn't help wondering what he did with his drawings. If he could only illustrate on maps created by others, did he have some pile of discarded maps with monsters on them ready to emerge into the world?
The rain grew heavier. The smell of the jungle intensified with the must of mold and the heavy fragrance of tropical flowers. Sienna felt suddenly alive. She had been slowly dying in the never-ending grind of her job back in Oxford. But this was adventure. This was geography made life.
She looked around with new eyes, noting the jungle seemed more Latin American than African. It was certainly as wet as the Amazon. A place where everything fought to survive, from the bugs biting through her shirt to the parasitic plants wound around the trees, up the food chain to the apex predators.
She tried not to think what they might be.
A skittering noise came from a log next to them. A giant centipede scurried across, its segmented body over a meter long in shades of ochre and orange. The striped legs all moved separately, and its head waved around as its antennae scanned ahead.
"This place is awesome," Xander said, with a wide grin.
A sharp cry rang out. They turned to see Perry wrapped in the coils of a huge snake, its muscled body completely encasing him.
"Titanoboa." Finn leapt forward, his sword outstretched to cut Perry free.
"Wait, don't harm it." Xander stepped in front. "It's a constrictor, so Perry has a moment. Let me try."
Xander reached out to touch the skin of the boa. Sienna recalled that such a creature, the largest snake ever discovered, had become extinct millions of years ago on Earth-side. But these huge ancient creatures clearly thrived in the Borderlands.
Perry gasped as the coils tightened, his eyes wide with panic.
Xander stepped closer to the snake, its scales shining as rain dripped off them, rainbow colors on a copper skin marked with bands of black. The snake's head stretched out towards him, its tongue flickering. He stood there, letting the snake taste his skin, eyes closed as if he was communing with it. Sienna glimpsed the predator in him, a reflection of the reptile, perhaps.
Finn stepped closer, his sword raised. "Hurry."
Then, as suddenly as it had arrived, the boa unwrapped its coils from Perry's body. He dropped to the ground and the snake curled around the branch above.
Xander ran his hand along the boa's length, whispering something to it. When he turned, his eyes were as black as the snake's. Sienna blinked, and his eyes were green again.
"Time to go," he said. "It will be dark soon."
Mila put her arm around Perry's waist, supporting him until he caught his breath. They walked on through the jungle, stumbling over hidden branches as the light faded. It seemed like it would never end but then at last, there was a break in the trees ahead.
The quality of light changed from tropical green to a dull, cold grey as they approached. The edge of the jungle was a bright line where verdant foliage ended, and as they stepped out of the rainforest, Sienna could see derelict buildings clustered ahead of them, overgrown with weeds. The smell changed from lush jungle to the scent of smoke.
Tendrils of the forest reached out as if life wanted to encroach here but the green shoots curled up, dying on the black, brackish soil. The change in the landscape was disconcerting, like jumping through time and space all at once.
Finn bent and picked up handful of the soil, bringing it to his nose to smell. He rubbed it between his fingers before dropping it back to the ground, then wiped his hands on his clothes.
"I think this is Poveglia. I've heard rumors of it. They say the soil here is fifty percent human, made from burned and buried bodies." He frowned, looking ahead to the ruins. "They say it's cursed."