Everflame (29 page)

It was inside the Witch’s Nightmare that Riverpaw and Evercloud had found the Tree of Death, and it was also there that they had suffered such a tragic miscommunication with their guide, the vulture. When the fingers of the bog had reached out and captured them, they were brought to the witch’s home. Black, covered in slime, oozing and dark were the walls, ceilings and floors of the witch’s den. The den was at the center of the maze
, but it was no grand castle, reaching into the clouds. It was a pit, reaching instead into the bowels of the earth. Far below the waters of Oldham’s Bog, Riverpaw and Evercloud lied upon the floor of an oozing cage, trapped.

Evercloud scrabbled on the floor in the darkness, searching for Riverpaw, but everything that he t
ouched was cold, wet and slick.

“Riverpaw,” whispered Evercloud. “Where are you?”

“I’m over here,” Riverpaw answered. “I can’t move.”

Evercloud crawled in the direction of the voice and finally
, he found Riverpaw’s fur. “Are you hurt?”

“No, I think that I’ve been bound.”

Evercloud continued feeling around, and sure enough, he felt slimy vines around Riverpaw’s legs. Evercloud used his claw and began to cut away the vines.

“Don’t move,” he said. “I’ll cut you out.”

Evercloud freed Riverpaw and they got to their feet, only to bump their heads upon a slimy ceiling. They crouched back down on the floor and tried to move forward. It didn’t take them long to realize that they were in some sort of cage. The cage was made of the same vines as Riverpaw’s bindings, so the two of them began to cut their way out. Something screamed in the distance. It was sharp and brutal and only came once, then silence.

“What
was that?” whispered Riverpaw.

“I don’t want to find out,” said Evercloud. “Keep cutting.”

Finally, they freed themselves from the cage and crawled outside of it. They were still in total blackness, so they stood with caution. This time, they were able to stand completely.

“What
do we do now?” asked Riverpaw.

“Feel for a wall. M
aybe we can follow it out of here.”

They groped for a wall and when they found one, they began to move along it slowly. The wall was smooth and slimy, like everything else. Something dripped upon
Evercloud’s head and he jumped.

“What?” said Riverpaw.

“I don’t know. Something dripped on me.” Evercloud’s heart was beating furiously. Scared, he had flattened himself against the wall, and as his heart rate came back down, he tried to move back away from the wall to find that he was stuck. The blades of his claw had punctured the wall. He wrenched them out and noticed that a faint light came from the holes he had made.

“Riverpaw, look.”

Riverpaw saw the light and started clawing at the holes, trying to make them larger. They widened with ease, seemingly made out of the same vinelike stuff that everything in the cage was made of. He ripped a hole large enough for them to move through and they moved out into the light.

They found themselves along the wall of a large pit that
descended, in steps, down to a center. They stood on the top ledge. Above them, the wall shot straight up a great distance. It was still very dark, but the pit was open to the sky, allowing moonlight into its depths. They looked up at the moon far above, neither of them ever having seen it seem so small.

“Do you think we could climb out?” asked Riverpaw.

Another scream came and they looked across the great pit. Far on the other side was what looked like a giant, green starfish, writhing against the wall. The creature was at the top ledge, just as they were.

“That thing ha
s got to be ten times bigger than you,” Evercloud whispered to Riverpaw.

They stood motionless and watched it as it moved against the wall of the chamber.

“Wait,” said Riverpaw, “it looks like it’s moving away from the wall.”

“We need to go back into the tear we made in the wall, Riverpaw.” The giant starfish pulled furth
er away from its place along the pit wall. “Get back into the wall.”

They rushed back into the darkness and watched the giant thing from the rip they had made. It wasn’t a starfish at all, and what they had seen of it were just its legs. It was the witch.

The pit walls were filled with smaller areas, “cages,” just like the one Riverpaw and Evercloud were in now. These cages within the walls were all filled with the unfortunate creatures that the bog had taken prisoner. The screams that they had been hearing were the cries of those creatures that the giant witch had chosen as her next meal.

They watched from the darkness as the witch slithered down to the center
of the pit. Her giant tentacle-legs that had looked like a starfish, carried her gelatinous body down the steps. She was a terror to see. The flabby torso of her body sat atop the tentacles, covered in arms that would have been considered human, if there had only been two of them. Her face might be considered human as well, but her mouth was gaping like the snare of a Venus flytrap, or like the hem of a garment that someone forgot to sew shut. However, what stood out most upon this ghastly monster was her hair, if it could even be called that, as upon her head sat a nest of fire that lit the pit walls red. The very sight of her made both Evercloud and Riverpaw tremble. As she slithered to the bottom of the pit, she sang rhymes only the blackest souls could ever know.

The hammer cracks, the hammer breaks,

The hammer splits ’
em narrow.

The bones of legs and arms and head,

For sweet and tasty marrow.

The witch reached the bottom of the pit and stood upon a bone-covered platform. With her serpentine legs, she reached underneath it and pulled out a hammer that, in comparison to her size, was tiny.

“That must be the hammer we need,” said Evercloud.

The witch stopped singing and stood still. “I hear voices and whisperses.” The witch’s voice was both low and high in pitch, discordant and petrifying to hear. She turned her massive head around, scanning the walls. Riverpaw and Evercloud tried to close the rip as much as they could, hoping she wouldn’t notice them. Holding their breath, they peered out of the crack that was left. They had apparently gone unnoticed and the witch began humming again and moving up the steps of the pit. She returned to the hole in which she came from and inserted her grotesque body back inside, again creating the appearance of a giant starfish upon the wall.

“How are we going to get the hammer?” asked Evercloud.

“We watch and wait, and hope that we’re not next,” answered Riverpaw.

In no time at all, the
witch began to pull away from the wall again and Evercloud and Riverpaw tried to close the rip and hide. The witch moved back down the steps as the frightened travelers watched her every move. She reached her platform and placed the hammer back underneath it. She then laid herself down and began to fall asleep.

Riverpaw and Evercloud watched her silently, unwilling to do anything that might interrupt her slumber. After a few minutes, Riverpaw looked at Evercloud with a look that suggested he might say something, but Evercloud shook his head violently and Riverpaw understood. They were trapped and too frightened to move, so they did the only thin
g that they could, they waited.

Time moved so slowly that it felt like torture
, and every time the witch moved an inch, their hearts jolted with shock. They had been so scared for so long that their bodies were becoming exhausted and their minds were becoming paranoid. Evercloud’s mind began to tell him that they were going to starve to death, and even if they got the chance to escape, their bodies wouldn’t have the energy they needed to be successful. As slowly as he could, he began to take off his pack and open it. Riverpaw looked at him in horror, trying to will him into silence. Smoothly and silently, Evercloud produced some cheese and bread from the pack. He broke the cheese and handed the majority of it to Riverpaw. Riverpaw took it in his mouth, chewed and swallowed it, never making a sound. Evercloud did the same with the small amount of cheese that he had kept for himself. They both looked at the bread. Evercloud reached for it. Riverpaw shook his head. No, he mouthed. But Evercloud wasn’t looking. He picked up the bread and began to tear it. The crust cracked and Riverpaw cringed. They looked out at the witch, but there was no movement. Evercloud handed the large piece to Riverpaw and he ate it whole, afraid to make noise chewing. Evercloud chewed his carefully and slowly. They had eaten without incident, and silently breathed a sigh of relief.

However, it’s always the one thing that we never take into account that ends up being the most important thing of all. Unfortunately
, for Riverpaw and Evercloud, their stomachs didn’t understand the importance of silence in this situation. Their stomachs had again felt what it was to digest after long fasting, and they voiced their opinions for it to continue. The two travelers looked at each other, wide-eyed and terrified, as their stomachs began to gurgle for more food.

The witch stirred and opened her eyes. “Time for more foods.”

Riverpaw and Evercloud stared, motionless and with bated breath. The witch slithered off the platform and began to climb the steps, thankfully, away from them. She reached the wall across the pit and tore into it, directly next to where she had been before. Again, screams blasted the air.

“She didn’t take the hammer,” said Riverpaw. “This is the only chance we’ll have.”

They slid out of the tear in the wall and began to descend the stairs without caution. Across the pit, the witch writhed in the darkness. They moved as quickly as they possibly could down the giant stairs, trying to be quiet, but speed was the priority. Nothing mattered but the hammer. They reached the platform and Evercloud turned to Riverpaw.

“Get the hammer,” he whispered. “I have to find the candle and the matches in my pack. When you get back up here, we can light the candle.”

Riverpaw nodded and dove under the platform. Evercloud began to dig through his pack. It was making a lot of noise, but he couldn’t help it and he didn’t care. He felt the candle at the bottom of the pack and took it out. Now he had to find the matches. Riverpaw poked his head up above the platform with the hammer in his mouth. He climbed up to where Evercloud searched.

“Let’s go,” said Riverpaw, with the hammer still in his mouth.

“I’m trying, I’m trying,” said Evercloud. “They’re not in here. I can’t find them.”

“No. No,” said Riverpaw, grimacing as if he was in pain.

“I never had the matches,” said Evercloud, realizing why Riverpaw grimaced. He stood up from the pack, dumbstruck. “Tomas had them.”

Suddenly, the walls of the pit glowed red, their damp and oozing surface reflecting the light of a fiery nightmare. The witch had come out of the wall.

“What’s it doing on our throne?” yelled the witch, her voice shaking the platform and piercing their ears. “The foods is out of its cage.” The two travelers cowered in fear as the giant witch’s tentacles carried her toward them. “It thinks it can have our hammer!” she yelled. “We’ll bites it apart!”

The witch opened her mouth wide to reveal rows and rows of razor-sharp teeth, coming at them lik
e stars falling out of the sky.

“Come on! We
have to run!” yelled Riverpaw.

“We won’t make it!” Evercloud yelled back. “Just hold on to me! Whatever you do, don’t let go of me!”

The witch was upon them and she bent down to take them in her mouth. Evercloud could see his reflection in each of her gigantic eyes. He raised his fist into the air, holding the candle as high as he could as he felt her fire come down upon him.

Chapter 27:
An Unlikely Pair

“So, anybody got any good stories?” Tomas looked at Ben but he was sitting at the table with his arms folded, deep in thought. He looked half angry and half scared, as if something important were weighing on his mind. Tomas looked over at Whiteclaw. He was sitting by the opening, looking out over the night sky. Tomas walked over and sat down, joining him at his watch. “What are you looking for?”

Whiteclaw looked over at Tomas, just realizing that he was there. “Oh, I’m not looking for anything. Just thinking.”

“Thinking about Riverpaw and Evercloud?”

“Yes, Tomas.” Whiteclaw looked back out at the stars in the sky. “It is a difficult thing to send your son and your nephew off to co
mplete what is sure to be a dangerous task. I swore to protect them. I made an oath to the Everflame.”

“What’s the Everflame?” asked Tomas.

“It’s the soul of our Kingdom, Tomas. It sits atop Gray Mountain and burns forever, as a sign of all that we are and all that we believe. To swear upon it is to swear upon your life. More than your life, really. Your life, and the memory of you after you pass.”

“I think I sort of know how you feel,” replied Tomas. “I’ve never sworn on anything like the Everflame, but I swore to keep my father and sister safe from harm, and I don’t even know how they’re doing. Sometimes
, I let myself think about it too much, and it makes my skin crawl with worry.”