Chapter 22
Mist Bound
Ben
AT FIRST LIGHT, Lillian and I make the difficult decision to relocate from our perch high above the trees.
Morning light revealed a path, a dangerous one, but one we have to take.
I don’t want to move her in the condition she’s in, but we haven’t seen a single person from our party—even if we did, I don’t know if I could trust them.
Margaret didn’t stumble upon us either, which means she’s been found by her group, or she’s still stuck behind us in the darkness.
I shudder thinking about being trapped in such a place, but then I remember what she’s done.
I should have shot to kill her instead of snuffing out her light.
After watching Ademir die, after every piece of information she’s likely been slipping to her counterparts, I should want her dead.
I just couldn’t do it, and it seems she couldn’t shoot to kill me either.
She could have shot me as I sat there defenseless, but she didn’t.
“Ben,” Lillian says from beside me, staring down at the rocky face we’ve decided to slide down. The left side is far less of a drop-off than in front of us and to the right, but one wrong move could send us careening down into oblivion. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Sure you can,” I answer back. It’s our only option. “I’ll go first to show you a decent path and then you’ll follow right behind.” This seems to put her at ease, at least enough to knock the worst of the nerves away.
I’m nearly inching myself out onto the thin ledge over the steep face when I remember the freedom that exists between us now.
Turning back, I place a hand behind her neck and pull her in for a kiss.
“I love you,” I say to remind her. I need her to know it every second of every day going forward.
I’ll be saying or thinking it before every action, dangerous or otherwise. I hope she plans to do the same.
When I pull away from her, there’s a smirk on her face. “I love you too. Now do the bloody thing already before I get cold feet.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I nod before continuing out over the edge.
Back to the mountainside, I shuffle sidelong until I fear I’ll slide right over the ledge.
Lillian’s close behind, studying each careful placement of my footing.
It’s like old times, when it used to just be the two of us.
We had only each other to rely on in some of the most trying situations, and now we’ve landed in a place that will demand more trust and care than we’ve ever offered each other.
I set loose one deep breath before swinging my body for momentum and taking the leap.
My backside collides with a jagged stone, causing discomfort.
There’s no time to dwell because the slick mountainside already has me picking up speed.
Thankfully, I manage to keep control by digging my heels in sharply and keep sliding at a diagonal toward the landing we outlined earlier.
The landing comes quicker than I was expecting, so when my feet hit flat ground, the momentum keeps me jogging a few extra steps. I let out a breath I had been holding in concentration and then turn to see how far Lillian’s gotten.
I can hardly see her from here, below the heaviest of the mist. She’s still stuck up on that thin lip, hands pressed hard into the mountain behind her.
She’ll be judging the momentum she needs to leap to the side and clear the cluster of rocks planted a few feet away.
She’ll also be assessing how to avoid damaging her already injured leg.
We managed to slow the bleeding, but it will need extra help to heal. Perhaps if we make it back down to tree level, Lillian will be able to make something for it. She always did say the answer to every ailment could be found in the forest.
As the memory of a younger Lillian fades from view, a present-day beauty comes careening my way. I’d been waiting for her to start her slide, so I don’t know why it frightens me so much when she flings herself in the same way I just did.
She misjudges, but not by much. In a terrifying moment, I have to reach out and latch onto her before she can fly past. Gathering her into my arms, I find her shaking, not in fear, but in laughter.
“That was exhilarating,” she says through an uncontrolled giggle.
I hardly find it amusing, but to see the love of adventure back in her eyes is enough to get me to crack a smile.
Lillian breaks from my hold faster than I would have liked and goes to peer over the ledge.
A ledge she would have disappeared under had I not caught her just a moment ago.
Her demeanor changes the moment she looks over the edge. Waving me over, she drops to her hands and knees to better see over. I squat beside her and peer over with her, afraid of what I might find.
Below us, a massive camp sits in a decimated section of forest. A German camp. Our world sobers at the sight of living, breathing enemies. For so long, they had been heard but unseen.
Lillian raises a shaking hand toward the opposite side of camp. “They beat us to the gate.”
Sure enough, the ancient gate made from amazonite and iron stands tall.
To either side, jagged rocky spires create a natural barrier that would take days to climb.
The earth in front of the gate is scorched in a pattern, as if a massive force had blown outward from the gate and forever scarred the plant life.
I’m thankful that whatever force resides there had enough mind to close the damn gates and lock them.
“Okay.” I nod. Accepting the facts is step one in moving forward. “How do we get through?”
She looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “We? I don’t even know how they get through. Diederick was supposed to have his theories when we arrived. He was supposed to help me through it.”
We both pause thinking about those in our party that are lost. “Do you think that they–”
“Don’t say it,” she says before a sigh. “They’re smart, if they survived the initial collapse, I’m sure they’ll find a way out.”
“And Margaret?” I ask.
Lillian only clears her throat and shakes her head. She’s clearly not interested in thinking of the traitor that may be at fault for her losing a piece of her family.
My mind goes back to the things Margaret said about Lillian and the necklace, how the others weren’t sure if they needed her and the necklace yet. They have the keys, or rather, Margaret does, somewhere out there.
“Is there another way around?” I ask, doing my part to change the subject.
Looking below us, I notice another opening into the caves; this one has a path straight into the camp.
Upon seeing this, I pull Lillian away from the edge, back toward the mountain face, to take us both out of the sightlines. I pray we haven’t been spotted already.
Lillian goes without complaint. “I don’t know if there is. I just always expected us to get here first.” I glance down at the necklace, and she shakes her head in answer. “It’s been silent since yesterday’s run.”
I rest my hands over her frantic ones. “We’ll just have to make our own way.”
“Should we move so much during the day?” she asks.
Pride courses through me at the knowledge that I’ve taught her well.
Moving in daylight is not my first choice at all, but we have no water, no weapons, and nothing to light a path at night.
We’re relatively safe from being spotted here, but too isolated to find anything to aid us.
“When was the last time you ate?” I ask, shifting the questions back on her.
No answer.
“We need to keep moving,” I say in response. “We’ll figure out what to do when we’re safe.” She catches my hand, scared I might get too far ahead. “We’ll go together this time. From here on out, we go together.”
“If they do catch us…” A breath escapes her lips as if she weren’t fully expecting to say what she's about to. “If they do catch us, we need to go willingly.”
I’m already shaking my head. “Lillian, we can’t do that.”
“We can. They won’t hurt me, and I’ll make sure they won’t hurt you.” She’s so sure of herself, and for one second, the confidence almost has me agreeing, but reality creeps in quickly.
Crossing my hands in front of me, I shake my head. “Stop.”
She just as easily lowers them but keeps ahold of me.
“I’m not saying we waltz right into camp and surrender.
I just am looking at this from every perspective I can find, and I think it would lead to the least amount of bloodshed if I let them take me.
” She steps so close to me that the rest of the world blurs behind her.
“No matter what happens, I need to be there when that chamber is opened.”
I have no choice but to study her eyes. The blueish gray that has laced my dreams for a decade, a color I could envision even at the darkest of moments.
“I don’t like it,” I answer, shifting my gaze to her hair.
Even after the running and sliding, it still has its signature bounce.
Threading a hand through the pieces that frame her face, I find the courage to voice my complacency.
“I don’t like it, not one bit, but I understand. ”
She leans in slightly. “Thank you.” All I can do is nod in her wake as she moves toward the edge of our sanctuary.
Once we leave this ledge, nothing will be guaranteed.
There won’t be another chance to take in the sight of her just to do so; every step I take will be with the intention of keeping her out of the hands of those searching for her.
Lillian
A thin ledge hugging the mountain was our saving grace. With the pain in my leg, I was worried for any more sliding we might encounter. Even the minimal climbing from one foothold to the next caused great discomfort. I was nearing my limit when we finally reached the forest floor.
Resting now with a sticky salve on my leg, Ben and I sip from a shared coccoloba gigantifolia leaf.
His eyes had gone wide when I’d pulled it, freshly fallen, from the underbrush.
From tip to stem, it nearly reached his entire height.
I was able to roll and fold it into a large bowl and collect the water rushing from a nearby stream of water rolling down the side of a boulder from the rainstorm overhead.
Watching Ben drink the fresh water has me much too pleased with myself.
Pleased and perhaps a bit unnerved. This is where I belong, but not as a savior or a sacrifice; I belong here as an observer and teacher.
Feeling the necklace buzz at my chest, I pinch the open folds of my shirt together to hide it.
For just a moment, I want to enjoy this part of the planet that I’ve loved my entire life.
In light of all the tragedy, I’ve lost sight of the beauty.
Of course, covering it does nothing to dull the need to reach the mountain or the need of the necklace to return to the earth from which it came.
Ever the observer himself, Ben motions to the necklace. “Ademir wouldn’t want you to hide anything you are.”
“I’m not hiding,” I counter. I let my shirt fall open again. “Just pretending for a moment.”
“I think the time for pretending has come and gone, sweetheart.” He wants me to be as prepared as possible, and that certainly won’t be found in make believe.
“You’re probably right,” I answer.
He’s always right, the voice says—the same one from earlier.
The voice that so callously told me to turn myself over.
I feel a tug at the back of my mind and glance up overhead.
The ominous Pico da Neblina rises far above us, so high that the unique double peak is hardly recognizable through the mist. And somewhere beneath are the answers I’ve been searching for.
Shrouded in mystery, the mountain’s shadow does cast clarity on one thing: the fact that the end is coming.
When I tear my eyes away from the ghostly hues of blues and purples of its rocky face, the chorus of whispers rises on the wind.
They come so harshly that even Ben’s ears perk up to hear what secrets they might divulge.
It’s the same as always.
Shadow of a mountain.
Light of the Amazon.
A sacrifice must be made before a new dawn.
I block it out, wishing it would tell me something of importance or leave me alone, but then a distinct voice breaks through the rest. A voice that almost sounds like my m?e’s.
Heal, Lillian. Heal the earth from which we came.
Ben doesn’t comment on hearing Isadora, but there’s no way I’ve imagined it.
She told me to heal the land, and I will do my best to listen.
I turn my head in the direction of the gates and the scorched ground it rests upon.
The moment I flick my eyes toward it, I feel the necklace start to pulse, thrilled that I’ve begun to put the pieces together.
Turning toward Ben again, I find him already staring intently. “Can you get me closer?” I ask.
At first it looks as if he’ll give me a hard no, or find some excuse to keep us further away, but then his features soften.
“Whatever you need,” he says lightly into my hair as he wraps an arm around my shoulder.
He pulls me close and hugs me tightly, as if he expects it to be the last time he does so.