Chapter 44
I ’m dumped, as unceremoniously as I fell into the abyss, out of it into the world. Silence envelops me and mist shrouds my legs, my hands, my feet. I look down and panic, there is nothing to hold my body up but more mist. Taking a step, I test the surface, it’s like quicksand, slowly gobbling me up. Each foot wades forward painfully and I swing my arms around to help gain some momentum.
Reaching out in front of myself, I try to find the way out. Mist swallows my hands. I bring them back down. It’s impossible to tell which way I should go. Why would The Heart leave me here?
A giggle sounds from the right. Then one from the left.
“Hello,” I shout, but I’m ignored as I wade further and further. Shadows twirl around me, darting left and right.
“Hello,” I say again, my voice coming to me through a fog, the mist so heavy it breaks sound.
“You smell of death,” something whispers, something old and ancient. I shiver.
“And fear,” another calls out to me.
“What are you?”
Another shadow darts behind me. I swivel around to face it but by the time I’ve turned, it’s already gone.
“Dying,” the whisperer replies.
I pause my relentless wading, open my mouth to say something, but then close it when I can’t think of anything helpful.
A tinkling sound that mimics laughter echoes all around me.
“I just want to go home.”
“Which home?” another whisperer laughs.
I’m in the Nori, I’m sure of it. It’s not exactly like I saw it when I watched the hag traverse worlds, but how many places have ground made of mist? If I’m right, these are the nymphs, which means they can send me home.
“I’ve only got one, Mum’s house. Send me to Devon.”
The mist begins to part, swirling aside in two large columns. Was it really that easy?
Towards the end of the newly formed tunnel, large swathes of dark shadows roam, slowly creeping in one direction. I squint. “What is that?” A whisperer brushes past my neck and I shiver. “Do you have to be so creepy?”
She says, “That’s Hell, storming Ellyllon.”
So, that’s why she left me here—it’s a choice. I can go home, grab my mother, and run. Or, I can try to save Ellyllon.
I let out a sigh. “Fuck’s sake, send me to Ellyllon, then.”
“Perhaps we’ll eat you, instead,” one whispers, its shadow whooshing right in front of me, a ghostly touch brushing the skin on my stomach.
The ground swallows up my legs. I stop moving and close my eyes, taking a deep breath in through my nose. “What do you want?”
“Who says we want anything?” one voice, ancient and cold and filled with silly games, asks.
“From what I’ve heard, you barely stop anyone. What do you want?”
“Perhaps you heard wrong.”
“I don’t think so.”
The dancing stops. “Balance,” a shadow says, swishing where the others have stilled. “There cannot be two gods.”
“Fine, I promise I’ll bring balance back.” Eventually, either I die, or Dad does. And if my death doesn’t bring balance, well, I’ll be dead. What will it matter?
A sharp slash sounds from the right and my arm splits open, blood pouring. “Oi, ow,” I grab my arm and try to stare down the shadows. Spots shine in my vision.
“Swear it,” the shadows whisper as one. “Swear on your wicked soul that you will bring balance to the ground and creatures. That you will set magic right.”
The shadows sway in a circle around me. Bumping up and down in tandem. A rhythm with no end and no beginning.
“Yes, yes,” I scowl. “I swear I’ll do it if you leave me alone.”
The shadows disappear all at once and I’m suddenly very, very alone, surrounded by vast white emptiness and complete silence.
Then, a shadow appears to my left, moving further and further away. The ground releases my legs. I get the hint, following it. Eventually, a longer, more solid stretch of darkness appears in the distance. I keep following the shadow until, as we reach the darkness, it falls in and out of view, finally disappearing for good.
The ground rapidly turns from quicksand to gravel. I run, plummeting headfirst into the darkness.
My eyes take a while to grow accustomed to the dark as my feet hit solid ground. I glance up. Small lights speckle the night sky. No, not lights. Stars. Those are stars. I keep running.
Tall shadows rise up all around me. No, not shadows. Buildings and sculptures. It’s an empty, bare city, completely devoid of all life. The only way is forward.
I run and run, further and further, until eventually, the sounds of war begin to trickle in. I clear a large arch, shrouded in red light, and sprint straight into a world filled with mayhem.
I’ll never find Dae in this.