18. Trust
CHAPTER 18
Trust
SHEN
S he listened.
Nearly before I was ready, she had leapt out the window, arm outstretched. I grabbed it and used her momentum to send her around me and through the open window. She rolled when she landed, coming up and breathing hard. “We gotta move,” she said.
“Hold tight,” I whispered to the nymph. He held tighter to my neck, his skin slimy yet crusty. A very disconcerting texture.
The mage was still in the room when I arrived, and her eyes were open.
“What happened—” Her vision cleared when she saw us. “You?”
“Your friend is dead, killed by your own. Your choice is to come with us and live or stay and die,” I said.
Alia glared at me, but this was not the time to mince words.
“He’s a little rough around the edges. You get used to it. Kinda. I’m sorry about your friend, but you really need to come with us, ok?” Alia held out her hand.
“I have my powers back. I could turn you over,” she said.
“We do not have time for this,” I said.
Alia sent me a look that told me to shut up. “You could, but you won’t.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” the mage asked, her face tensing.
“Because you need more than what they can provide.”
The mage blinked as if not expecting that. Alia had a way of saying things that meant no sense to the average person, but had a connection to an individual that struck their soul.
The mage nodded and followed us out the door. A yell rang out behind us, and I threw a blade as a guard rounded the corner, arrow cocked. The blade sunk into his shoulder, making his arrow thwack into the wall beside the mage.
Alia darted downstairs and then took a right instead of a left.
“The outside is—” I cut myself off and hid a smile as I realized where she was headed.
She smiled at me, eyes crinkling.
“What coocoo pot did I manage to emerge in?” the mage muttered. She followed us down the steps and into the cellar. Alia turned to the nymph, gesturing for me to set him down.
“Can you sense the water?” she asked.
He held out his hand. His eyes turned black and hope showed in the way he eagerly stretched forward. Then he slumped and shook his head. “No,” he sighed.
Alia’s shoulders deflated. “We have to go back?—”
Footsteps pounded down the stairs. I turned to stand between the black mages coming down those steps and my little motley crew, but I counted at least twenty different footfalls and heard more further up. “We cannot go up,” I said.
My hands curled into claws as the first mage rounded the corner. A fireball shot from his hand. I used my cloak to absorb the worst of the heat, not dodging for fear it would hit those behind me. I lunged to meet him, slicing his throat before he threw another flame.
“Please don’t kill them!” Alia yelled.
I grumbled under my breath, grabbed the next mage by the throat, and tossed him up the stairs at another.
“Even I cannot handle this many without killing. Get us a way out of here!”
“I can’t?—”
“I do not wish to hear those words uttered again, Little Red. Believe in yourself.” An elf stabbed under my guard, and I threw him at a mage who was about to zap someone in the area behind me. They went down in a tangled mass of limbs.
I heard the trickle of water. It started as a slow drip then slowly turned into a whirlpool.
“Duck!” Alia yelled. I dropped into a crouch, getting a knee to the face for my efforts.
A tiny orb sailed over my face and landed in the midst of four mages, two dark elves, and a werewolf. I covered my eyes and ears just in time for a bright flash of light.
I was up before the rest of them and found a massive hole in the earth where the nymph and mage had been a moment before. Alia saluted me and jumped into the hole.
I grumbled about idiotic, trusting Reds and leapt in after her.
The blackness sucked me in. Took me back to a place I promised myself to never return. As I was falling, a part of me felt the walls closing in around me. My arms felt the sides of the tiny stone cell where I had been left for hours to contemplate my failures?—
My feet hit resistance. Then it gave. Cold water enveloped me. It shocked me back to the present as I clawed at the water spinning around me. There was no water in the punishment cave. Only cold rock.
That did not mean I would survive this.
Water burned down my throat as my body craved air. My head broke the surface and the water spat me out on a sandy shore. It was pitch black. Some assume werewolves can see in the dark. We can. But even we cannot see where there is no light.
Something glowed. I blinked quickly. It was an eerie yellow-green. Then I smelled Alia. Her face appeared next as my eyes adjusted to the scant light. The mage was a wet bundle of disgruntlement while the nymph was playing in the water, splashing and smiling, a gentle song with an ethereal quality to it coming from him.
My original instructions were to bring the captive to Mother, but there were no detailed instructions besides that. She was beyond her Command limit for the month, so I did not have to do anything. Surely, when I accidentally lose the creature during our escape, it would not be much of a problem. I had done worse.
"Where are we?" the mage asked.
“Underground water-source," said a voice which was layered with other voices—the nymph. He sounded much stronger.
Another glow began.
A turquoise-haired nymph emerged from the waters, the gold scrolling on her forehead alight as her eyes locked onto the nymph we had rescued. A song washed over us. A song of longing. Of joy. Of such hope, it was nearly painful.
The song intertwined with the song of the child nymph we had rescued. A splash erupted from the water as the child jumped into his mother’s arms, his keening so like a pup's whine my chest clenched. The mother enfolded him into her arms, her hair swaying in the air as if they were still under the black waters.
A blue circle lit up around the nymphs and extended to the surrounding waters, clearing the sewage from the waters and making it clear as the south sea.
"Source heard my pleas, and sent you to bring home my child, just as was asked. You two will be blessed of the very Life- Source of this world. Thank you.” It was the nymph Alia had consoled after she saved Fenbutt’s life by nearly killing herself.
The nymph rose to the water surface. Her seaweed-esque dress went down to her knees. Fins emerged from either side of her calves, and her feet had webbing in between the toes. She knelt before Alia, the mage, and me, bowing her head.
Alia caught her shoulder, lifting her up with a gentle, joy-filled smile. The mother's eyes were wide as she glanced up at Alia. "We are grateful it was us. Go help him heal from this, and live a good life.”
The nymph reached out a hand and touched Alia's cheek. "My name is Ahhanhi," the nymph said.
My entire being froze. Nymph names were regarded as a precious honor, given only to those who are considered allies of their kind.
Alia now had the might of a nymph army at her back. Though she was the one person who would never use it. Nor did she even know it.
Alia's smile softened as the nymph child peeled himself from his mother and plastered himself to Alia.
"Name Ahhirian," he said, his voice no longer weak and his lips no longer cracked. His wide eyes stared up at his rescuer with reverence.
"It's nice to meet you, Ahhanhi and Ahhirian," Alia said. The child nymph smiled at the way her voice mispronounced the rolling vowels, almost as if they were a sound her vocals could not replicate. "I’m Alia."
"Alia and Shen, friend of nymphs, should you ever have a drastic need, call my name," Ahhanhi said.
Alia nodded. "Thank you, Ahhanhi. You have honored us."
"No, human knower of the dissenters, it is you who have honored us. You will be remembered. You can heal your broken soul, human knower of needs. You need not only meet others where they are broken when you also have the power within you to heal yourself. And you, Alpha of werewolves, must not reach to the past for the future's answers. You need only speak to your soul. And last, you, little mage who is hiding."
The dark mage had tried to avoid the nymphs, but came forward at Ahhanhi’s insistence. "You no longer need to supplement your Gift to help your family. This will be all you shall need."
From the water emerged a waterspout about the size of a bird. It landed in the mage’s outstretched hands. When the water drained away, she was left with a simple, spiral pendent necklace.
"Go, and look to the dark no more for your answers."
The mage stared back and forth between us all before darting into another passageway, the necklace still glowing.
"Would you two wish to be taken elsewhere?” Ahhanhi asked.
"Can you drop us out at the ocean?" Alia asked, nearly bouncing with glee.
At the thought of another ride on the roiling waters of a nymph's powers, I nearly lost what was left of my breakfast.