Halfway (Wizards and Faeries) (8 page)

There must be a way out.
 
They got in here somehow.

I began to shiver, clinging to the rock like a wide-eyed rat. Icy water rushed past me, and I realized, as my fingers numbed, that my grip on the stalagmite was weakening.

How far downriver had I been pulled? Was there even a way out from where I was?
 

#

    
Everything was beautiful… even death. So what if I died… it would be beautiful to expire in this water. Beautiful water. Like crystals rushing past me.

    
I shook my foggy head to clear it, fighting off the numbness of the cold. How long had I been clinging to the stalagmite?
 
I mustn’t sleep… mustn’t.
 
Hypothermia
, the books had said.
 
I had to get out of the freezing water fast.

    
Biting my lip so the pain kept me conscious, I tried to move, my clothes weighing me down. I had to move soon, though, or I knew I’d die.

But where to go?
 
The current was too strong for me to fight against it to go backwards, and forwards would mean I’d be carried downriver for miles. I could see nothing in the darkness.

No
, I thought.
 
I don’t want this to be the end for me.
My thoughts sounded distant, as if from another person.

Slowly, I stretched my legs out from their position curled under my torso.
 
My limbs felt like wood… and I felt solid rock under them.

Stunned, I let go of the stalagmite and stood up to find myself in chest-deep water. The water was shallow now? I must have been carried far…

     
Reaching out, I felt around me.
 
Water.
 
Treading slowly, I made my way to what I thought was the river’s left edge.
 
Maybe there was a rock ledge I could climb.

The water kept getting shallower as I walked.
 
When it was waist-high, I squeezed the water from my hair and sleeves.
 
My teeth were chattering so loudly I was sure there was an echo.

The water kept getting shallower, and almost sandy on the bottom.
 
Now it was almost up to my knees.
 
What had I stumbled upon?

Ahead of me, I saw a glimmer of light. I moved more cautiously, thinking of the Enforcers and their lanterns. As I drew closer, I breathed a sigh of relief. Three mushrooms, glowing with a green that brightly illuminated the sand and rocks nearby, grew on a single jutting rock.
 
I scrambled towards them, dragging my feet across the sand.
 
Light!

Reaching out, I caught my breath.
 
Heat!
 
The mushrooms gave off heat!

Gratefully, I cupped my hands around the three mushrooms, careful not to bruise the delicate-looking stems… and looked up.

Beyond the rock was a whole patch of them, glowing like little beads of the moon.
 
I stumbled towards it—and tripped, collapsing in a heap on top of the mushrooms.
 
But to my half-conscious surprise, they held up under my weight, strong as metal.
 
And they were warm… so warm, almost hot.

I stood up, peeling my wet clothing off, exposing my body to the comforting warmth.
 
As I knelt before the mushroom patch, I felt my muscles relax enough to stop shivering.
 
My teeth were no longer chattering.
 
I stretched out my hands over the mushrooms.

Soon, I felt my breathing even out.
 
I stretched out, lying facedown on the green carpet, and breathed in.

#

Vines grew everywhere, and I danced among them with Temet.

Beautiful music issued from instruments I had never heard played, only dreamed. Something with strings, bowed strings.

     
The vines turned into an ocean, with Temet and I sailing home on curling green waves on a ship formed from a leaf.

The leaf slit down the middle, separating us.
 
I reached for Temet as the music around us started to take on an unearthly tone. The vines bore him away, beginning to engulf him.

Temet was getting farther away.

“Temet!” I yelled.

He reached out to me, face blank. “Find me.”

Chapter 12

Cemagna

    
I awoke to find myself where I had fallen asleep—sprawled naked in the cave atop a bed of glowing mushrooms.
 

I sat up, running a hand over my face.
 
Reaching for my clothes, to my delight, I discovered that the heat from the mushrooms had reduced the icily wet cloth to dry warmth. Giddy with the relieved joy of someone who had just escaped several kinds of death, I dressed.

With one sweeping glance around the cave, I took in what little I could see from the light of the mushrooms.

To my back was a wall extending up into blackness.
 
No escape there. Ahead of me was the gray sand of the underground pool. I shivered, staring at its deceptively beautiful, luminous water.

How was I going to get out of here? And was everyone in the world so crazy? Attacking me, trying to kill me, stealing my brother… even Nessy during her last moments raging into the storm. I hoped Temet was still as I’d remembered him.

Shaking bleak thoughts away, I struggled to my feet and dressed. How was I going to get out of here?
 

There had to be a way out. The Enforcers used this place so regularly that they had a
noose
down here, so they
must
have had several escapes. Testing each step to make sure there was solid ground beneath me, I crept towards the unseen sides of the cave. After a few steps, I felt cold roughness under my fingertips and felt along the cave wall. I hoped there was a passageway somewhere in this darkness…

My fingers brushed blindly over a protruding stone, and I heard a
click
. I froze.

The cave wall was rearranging itself. A massive stalactite shifted into view, steps meticulously carved into it. An easy climb for me.

What was this? Did the Enforcers have some massive network of catacombs down here?

I didn’t trust the steps to lead me to safety, but I had little choice so I climbed until my fingers, reaching above me, struck wood. Feeling around, I could discern a trapdoor, which I pushed until it opened. The next moment I was standing in an empty room.

The few pieces of furniture were covered with cloth, and dust covered the place with the exception of the floorboards leading to the door. An abandoned room, then, but one that was frequently used to get to the cave.
 

Shaking my head, I looked around. The windows were boarded up, but from a few hints of sky peeking through, it was past evening.
 

Walking to the door, I cautiously pushed it open, only to find another empty room and more boarded-up windows. Exploring further, I found I was inside a house, and when I exited through the front door, I saw I was at the edge of a broad cobblestone square.

At the far end of the square stood an immense stone building. I recognized it instantly from Nessy’s books as a cathedral, one of the places where people went to talk to the Above.

I smiled. The books had always mentioned those as places of peace. I would be safe there.

As my gaze swept around the rest of the square, I saw that in the center of the square was a fountain, water trickling up from it to fall into a pool below.

All around me were shops and houses, multi-storied and crowded close together, sometimes even touching.
 

Slowly, I crept forward. As I crossed the stone courtyard towards the cathedral, I realized I was thirsty. As I passed the fountain, I bent over and splashed my hands in the water.
 

Scooping up a handful of water, I pressed it to my lips and drank.
 
So wonderful… wonderfully good…
 

I reached down for another handful… and stared at my reflection.

I looked like Nessy.

Stunned, I put a hand to my cheek.
 
Yes, I had seen myself in looking-glasses in the house, but I hadn’t bothered to look very often, and certainly not from this angle, looking downward at the pool.
 
The same angle ten-year-old Cemagna would have looked up at Nessy.
 

Slowly, I traced the lines of my face. My nose, lips, chin… they were all hers, but softer somehow.

I raised my face to the night stars, so dim compared to the impressive star field at home.
 

    
Had the Enforcers tried to kill me because they had thought I was Nessy?
 
And what had she done that had merited this?
 
Was she a dangerous criminal?

    
Nonsense
, I told myself, raising a hand to splash away the reflection.

    
A fat drop of rain smacked into the reflection before my hand could.
 
Another raindrop followed.

    
Me. Temet. Nessy.
 
Our mother.
 
A criminal?

    
Reaching down, I scooped up another handful of water—and recoiled with a shout.
 
The water was burning hot.
 
Yelling again and shaking my scorched hand, I started to stand up.

    
The water was shining, steam issuing from its surface.
 
I paused, staring at it, while something clicked in my mind. I had seen this before. This same fountain, at night. The same cobblestone square.
 
The water glistening dully, like it did now.

    
With a scream, I bounded backwards.
 
The attack in my dreams!
 
This was it!

    
But I wasn’t fast enough.
 
Four colorless forms burst forth from the surface of the water and shot towards me like liquid darts. I turned to run, only to see another one struggling to emerge behind me from a rain puddle forming on the stones.

    
The rain was now a full storm, and a peal of thunder drowned out my cry.

    
With another yell, I leaped back—into another of the creatures behind me.
 
I collided into his soft body and toppled backwards as he pulled me into the fountain with him.

    
As water filled my mouth, I gasped.
 
With a burst of desperate strength, I forced my face up and out of the water, away from his grasp. Gratefully, I sucked in a breath of air… and then he pulled me down again with him.
 
The dark water closed over my head.

    
All around I heard howls, and the water was like being gripped by a fist of ice. What had happened to the heat?

    
I opened my eyes.
 

    
The water wasn’t as dark as it had looked from above.
 
I could see inky, formless shapes writhing, forming and re-forming in a bottomless pit.

    
In terror, I threw my attacker off me, bursting to the surface and leaping out of the fountain.

    
The nearest attacker lunged towards me…

    
I screamed.

    
The attacker’s body exploded… into raindrops.
 

    
My breath froze in my throat in surprise. Had that happened… because of me? My Magic! I was using it! Again!

    
Something shoved me hard in the back, and I felt sinewy arms wrapping themselves around me.
 
Cold arms.
 
Like water.

    
Bending double, I reached for one of the thing’s legs and pulled… the thing fell to the ground like a waterfall.

    
I stood back up, my hair and the rain falling into my mouth, stifling my breath.
 
I shook my head.

    
Three of them were left, glimmering dully like tarnished silver.

    
They lunged at me all at once.

    
I spread my hands and they all collapsed as rain.

    
Shaking, I stumbled away from the fountain.
 
What had just happened? I was so tired…

    
Blinking through the rain, I could vaguely make out the dark silhouette of a building. The cathedral…

    
Lightning split the sky, highlighting figures on the roof—open-mouthed, fanged, angry beasts.
 
Startled, I staggered back, ready to fight again, feeling blue flames form on my fingertips.
 
But the beast did not move. Looking closer, I saw with a flood of relief that the figures were made of stone.
 
The many ledges on the side of the cathedral were covered with them—bat-winged monsters clinging in various ways to the cathedral.
 

    
Gargoyles, I knew. They couldn’t hurt me.

    
I stumbled away, determined to keep moving. Nothing was safe except the darkness that hid me. A flash of lightning illuminated everything again and I saw there were houses all around me. I kept walking, faster, shivering in the rain.

    
Did I imagine those shadows to be Enforcers?
 

    
My walk turned into a run. I didn’t know where I was going anymore…. I just wanted to get somewhere safe, fast. I ran, my heart pounding, legs aching, breath heaving.

    
Lightning crashed through the sky again, and in its brief light I could see several of the watery figures shimmering ahead of me, coming for me.

    
Searching for an escape, I spun around and saw a very faint light off to one side, through several alleys. My heart pounded and fear clogged my throat as I ran towards the light, through the alleyways.