The Nexus Ring (10 page)

“We walk now,” Eneirda said. “We walk to water flow on other side.”

I had hoped I could carry the boat in my pocket, but it grew as soon as I took it out of the water. I lifted it onto my shoulders as Maddy and Eneirda started up the ­ice.

Walking on the glacier was slippery, like crossing a skating rink tilted uphill, but it sounded like crunching across hard snow. There were deep cracks in the ice, big enough for a person to fall into. As soon as I started walking, I realized how high we were. I was warmer, moving, but short of breath and ­lightheaded.

I hurried to catch up with Eneirda, tipping the boat to one side so I wouldn’t hit her. “Will we be okay at this altitude?”

She just looked at me, ­puzzled.

“We’re really, really high,” I said. “The air is thinner. Will we be okay here?”

Eneirda nodded. “Forget. High altitude bothers humans.
Tss
, where do you live? Near ocean? Or in high place?”

“Well, Calgary’s pretty high. Not like this, but way higher than sea level.”

“Fine, then.”

But it didn’t feel fine. This was the hardest I’d ever ­worked.

As I struggled up the ice, I looked around. Mountain
peaks surrounded us, lit by golden sunlight. A constant wind whistled in my ears and chilled the sweat on my ­skin.

Eneirda spoke softly. “Many dangers here.
Tss
, be quiet inside. Magic will guide us.”

The low sun cast shadows in the deep cracks waiting to swallow us. I peered into a crevasse and gulped. If we fell into that, we’d never get out. I was scared, but fascinated too. The ice inside the crevasse was a deep blue; I gazed down, wondering how I could capture that translucent blue on ­paper.

As we climbed I could feel sweat dripping down my back, then freezing in the cold wind. Maddy looked blue, from cold or maybe lack of oxygen. I finally noticed how quiet she’d been, ever since I’d decided we would go to the giant. But it wasn’t the giant that was scaring me right now. A chant kept echoing in my head:
Troll in the morning, troll in the ­morning.

And then I slipped stepping over a crevasse. As I slid, fear blazed through my body and somehow propelled my legs in a great leap to safety. Then I stood, clinging to the boat, panting and waiting for my heartbeat to ­slow.

Eneirda’s lips tightened as she glanced at me with a look that reminded me of how she said “humans.” I looked ­away.

She touched my arm. “Quiet your mind must be,
tss
. Human minds always busy. You must stop. Maddy is quiet.”

Sure, because she’s terrified
, I thought. And then I slipped ­again.

“
Sssst!
You must listen! Let muskberries help. Look from inside.”

“I don’t see with my insides. I see with my eyes, and my hands.”

“How see with your hands?”

“Well, I sort of feel what I’m drawing.”

“
Chrrr.
Then see with hands. Be still inside. Let fingers guide you.”

I groaned. She was as crazy as Mom. But then my feet slid out from under me and I collapsed as my legs dropped into a crevasse. Maddy and Eneirda leapt forward and pulled me out, then Maddy hung on to the boat to stop it from sliding ­away.

Once I was standing again, Eneirda stood in front of me, arms folded. “
Sssst!
If cannot, will be dead.”

Dead? Oh, come on! But the look on her face was deadly serious. I gulped. She meant it! Maddy was frowning at me too. I made a face back, then remembered her dragging me out of the path of the avalanche. She saved my life then, and I promised to get her ­home.

Okay
, I thought,
I can be quiet
. I took a deep breath, then another. Then I concentrated on my fingers. I imagined drawing the glacier, the crevasses, the deep blue shadows, sun gleaming off the ice. I felt a surge of energy, like when I ate muskberries. And suddenly I knew where to step, as if I was connected to the glacier ­somehow.

Eneirda looked pleased for just a moment, then she turned and walked on. I kept breathing and drawing in my head, and we kept climbing up the glacier. Then we reached the top, and I thought,
Hey, I did it! I haven’t been falling!

And then my feet slid out from under me and I crashed down, dropping the boat. It slid away from me, and I scrambled to grab it before it slipped down a crevasse. I tried to settle myself again. As long as I focused on my fingers, and not on the troll or the giant or my pride, my feet seemed to know where to ­go.

The setting sun lit the sky in peach and orange and pink. Even the blue shadows were warmed by it. The sun sets around 9:30 in late July in this part of the human world; I wondered if it was the same ­here.

As we climbed down the east side of the glacier, we could hear a trickle of water. Eneirda started searching for a stream. Past the edge of the glacier, I could see ­ground-­up rock everywhere, as if someone had dumped thousands of truckloads of ­fine-­ground gravel, ­fist-­size rocks, and large boulders. They were in all colours – lots of greys, but browns and oranges too, greens and ­blue-­greys. I could see the same colours in the rocks in the surrounding mountains. ­Blue-­grey on one mountain, rusty orange on another, greys and tans. I took another mental snapshot, determined to paint ­this.

Eneirda spotted a trickle of water cutting through the ice, winding its way down the mountainside. When I set the boat in the water, it shrank to fit the tiny stream, then each of us shrank as we stepped into the boat. I was the last in and I worried I’d sink the boat. But as I shifted my weight, I began to shrink. My skin tightened and squeezed, and everything around me grew as I settled into the ­boat.

Breathing was easier once we were smaller. We cheered as we slid off the edge of the ice into a creek. The creek was small but wild, crashing over rapids, flinging us with it. But somehow Eneirda slowed us with her paddle, and as we flew down the side of the mountain, the creek became wider and calmer. It must have been a hot day; the air was warm and the sky clear as the sun set. But the setting sun didn’t reach down the ­east-­facing slope, and soon we were travelling in the shadow of the ­mountain.

“How long can we keep going?” I asked. “Can you see in the dark?”

Eneirda kept paddling. “
Chrrr
. River will guide us.”

Trees closed in above us, and we travelled through gloom and then total darkness. The stream grew larger, and as it grew, the boat grew. I could feel my arms and legs stretching, but no matter how hard I stared, I couldn’t see them ­change.

Eneirda said she would drop us off at the base of Castle Mountain, but how were we to climb it in the dark, before the troll and Aleena came after us? This was our second night away from Mom and Dad; they’d be frantic. I couldn’t believe that the Shadows would fool them for ­long.

Maddy and I sat silently, listening to the sounds of the forest and watching the water. We could hear paddle splashes and Eneirda’s breathing, an owl call startling us out of the silence. I blinked as my eyelids drooped and grew ­scratchy.

Then I spotted a shadow. “Look out!”

The boat slammed to a stop, filled with icy water and tipped. I was flung into the river. Water filled my nose and my lungs were bursting. I struggled to the surface, coughing and ­numb.

I looked frantically for Maddy. I couldn’t see anything in the dark. “Maddy?” I yelled. “Maddy?”

I heard choking, and flailed around. Something soft brushed my hand. A pigtail. I grabbed it and pulled Maddy close, then swam sideways to the current. We swept up against a tree trunk fallen over the ­water.

I pushed Maddy ahead of me, then climbed out of the water and collapsed on a pebbly shore. We huddled together, shivering, as we peered into the darkness, looking for Eneirda, the boat, the ­paddle.

Chapter Nine

Before Dawn

M
addy and I staggered out of the
river
, gasping and numb, but soon I could feel the warmth of the magic world wrapping itself around me. We were still shivering in wet clothes, but at least we weren’t in danger of ­hypothermia.

“Eneirda, Eneirda,” Maddy and I shouted. “We’re over here.”

I could only hear water rushing. What if Eneirda was drowning? Should I go back in? I knew I couldn’t, not in the dark, not back into that icy water, with Maddy here, depending on me.

I couldn’t see a thing. The sky was a deep teal blue, speckled with stars, but there was no moon. Even in this magic world, I couldn’t see by starlight ­alone.

We kept calling and finally, we heard a faint call back. “Eneirda?”

“Here,” she answered.

I listened carefully to the direction of her voice. “I think she’s across the river.” I shouted, “We’re over here. Do you have the boat?”

“No boat,” she called back. “Ankle hurt. Cannot swim.”

Eneirda hurt? No boat? I leapt up, arms waving around me. “The troll will be coming for us by dawn. And when he’s free, Aleena will be too. What are we going to do?”

“F-­f-­first, we ­n-­need to get ­d-­dry,” Maddy said, teeth ­chattering.

“And how are we going to do that? Do you have any matches?”

“Humans,” I heard Eneirda grumbling. “Fur easier than clothing. I have firestone,” she ­called.

“We can’t come across to you, and you’re too hurt to swim to us,” I ­said.

“I can throw. Can you catch?”

“But firestone is magic. I can’t do magic.”

“You ate muskberries?”

“Yes,” I ­said.

“You crossed glacier, saw with fingers?”

“Yes,” I said, ­puzzled.

“Then can use firestone. I will throw it.”

My heart skipped a beat. Me? Do magic? “How will I see it?”

“Be quiet inside. Firestone gleams. Feel for it with fingers.”

Oh no, not that again. I took a deep breath, then tried to feel catching the firestone. When I could imagine its cool softness in my palm, I decided I was as ready as I was going to be. I called out, “Okay, can you tell where I am from my voice?”

“Yes. Catch now.”

I could almost see it glinting over the river. I reached up and felt it graze my hand, but I missed. I heard a splash. Maddy plunged a hand into the water and came up with a fistful of rocks. One of them shone at me in the moonlight. “I have it,” I called back. “Now what?”

“Collect dry wood. Find safe place.”

Shivering, Maddy and I groped for dry branches. I found a gazillion needles, most of them poking into my knees, but I found dry wood too. We cleared a spot near the river, laid a base of dry moss, and set small twigs ­nearby.

“We’re ready,” I called ­out.

“Josh make fire,” Eneirda called ­back.

Oh sure,
I thought. How was I supposed to do that
?
I held the firestone in my icy hand, a round blackness with threads of gleaming ­gold.

“Let mind be quiet. Let fingers feel magic. Find thread to pull.”

Was she kidding? Do magic, with hands trembling so badly I couldn’t hold the firestone still? But I could try. I took a couple of deep breaths, trying to settle inside. Except I kept worrying about the troll, Aleena, the giant, the boat, Maddy, Eneirda, Mom and ­Dad.

I took another breath, and energy pulsed through my body, steadying my hands. I focused on the firestone. My eyes must have adjusted to the darkness, because I could see the stone more clearly. I reached out to touch it and could feel a thread. It was hot, but it didn’t burn ­me.

I gently grabbed the tip of the thread and tugged it out of the stone. It was like pulling a loose thread from a button. I dangled it from my fingers over the dried moss, and when it touched, fire flared up the thread. I dropped it, and the moss began to smoulder. I carefully added twigs, then, as the fire grew, small branches. Maddy and I wiggled out of our wet jeans and runners, hoodie and fleece, then huddled close to the ­fire.

“Good work,” Eneirda called. “Better now?”

“Much ­b-­better,” Maddy answered. “Are you okay?”

“Ankle is hurt. Will heal. Boat is smashed. Lost.”