by Logan Byrne
“What do you think?” Blake asked, looking at me.
“I think it’s perfect. We might have to blast our way out tomorrow, though. Not sure I can fit in again,” I said, smiling.
“Are you feeling anything yet?” Faus asked.
“I don’t know, it just feels kind of the same, really. Maybe a little different, stronger, but I don’t feel a nudge in my side pushing me in any direction. Maybe I can meditate tonight, if I have the energy, to see if I can find any clues,” I said.
“That still astounds me, that you’re able to do that. I wish I could,” Faus said.
“You mean you, a man of science, want to meditate?” Britta asked. “Who are you, and what have you done with my friend?”
“Get your jokes in now, but I have actually read many mortal studies that have shown the positive effects of meditation and calmed breathing. It is quite scientific,” Faus said, as he pushed up his drooping glasses.
“I tried meditating once, but I fell asleep,” Charlie said, as he walked around the perimeter of the room and felt the slick walls.
“I’ve never done it,” Blake said.
“Do it with me tonight,” I said, smiling.
“Yeah? Do you think I’d be any good at it? My mind races a lot,” Blake said.
“About what?” I asked.
“You,” he said, raising his left eyebrow just slightly.
“Save it for later,” Charlie quipped.
Later that evening, after we’d eaten dinner and gotten changed out of our sweaty, frosted clothes, I cracked my knuckles, calming my breath. I knew I needed to get my meditation done now before bedtime swiftly fell upon me. I had a bit of nerves, knowing everybody would be watching me, even though they were my friends.
“Anybody doing it with me, so I don’t feel singled out?” I asked, laughing, before walking over to the wall.
All four of them came over, taking me by total surprise, as they sat beside me, their backs frozen against the frigid wall. “I can’t promise I won’t fall asleep,” Charlie said.
“I think we all know that’s a definite,” Blake replied. “So, how do we do this?”
“Cross your legs, put your hands in your lap, and clear your mind of all troubles and worries. Don’t think about anything,” I said.
“What if something pops into my head?” he asked.
“That’s okay, but just don’t actively think about it. Let yourself be free and calm, as if you’re lying on a beach somewhere, the waves crashing around you. Focus on that,” I said.
“Got it,” Blake said, before closing his eyes, his entire face shifting downwards, as I knew he was feeling it already.
I opened my eyes as I stood outside in the vast snowy abyss I’d been in not too long earlier. Even though I was standing out there, I wasn’t really there, and I could tell that I was meditating. I was standing on the snow, for one, not sinking into it, and I wasn’t wearing my coat. I didn’t feel anything—not cold, not hot, just contentment, as if I were the perfect temperature already. The hard snowflakes swirled around me, dancing, as if they were trying to lead me somewhere.
I didn’t say anything, not daring to ask, but instead following, walking, as the swirl moved with me. Before I even got twenty steps in, the spinning gust of snow wrapped around me, picking me up, and I looked down at the ground as it grew further and further away. What was going on? I wasn’t scared—I was more intrigued than anything. We must’ve traveled far, at least ten miles, before we came to an opening in the earth and I was gently set down inside. It wasn’t large at all, the crack only about six feet long and four feet wide.
I floated downwards, an array of traps and natural formations providing obstacles, but the wind didn’t care. It navigated me gently through until I entered the main room.
It was huge, massive, the top of the ceiling at least two hundred feet from the ground. I came down, gazing at the smooth ice room with an eerie feeling. I looked around, confused, trying to find out where to go, but there was nothing inside. It was empty.
The wind gust set me on the ground, flying away before I could thank it. “Wait,” I said, trying to get its attention, but it vanished without a trace. I walked around the enormous room, looking at the pillars made of ice as a small draft trickled through.
I shivered, my former contentment with being jacket-less now betraying me as I felt the bitter bite of the Greenlandic winter. I walked towards another chamber, where there was a perfectly carved door with ornate designs etched in the ice. I tried to walk up to it, to get a better look at the runes inscribed in it, but I couldn’t. I took one step forward, then ten, then twenty, but it never got any closer. I was walking in place, it felt like, and I quickly became frustrated.
I turned back, looking at the room, and it grew even more in size, the dome now two hundred feet wide at least. It appeared to be more of an arena than anything else. Why did they bring me here? What was here to see? This wasn’t, no, it couldn’t be. There was no way the wand was here, where were the golems? All I’d heard about were the ice golems, and they were nowhere to be found. Maybe they couldn’t enter this plane, my meditation plane. As I tried to search for answers, I started to feel watched, and I looked over my shoulder and tried to catch whoever was there.
I knew somebody was there, watching me. I felt their lingering presence no matter how hard I tried to ignore them. “Show yourself,” I said, trying to bait them out. It didn’t work. Instead, they were hiding, stalking me from the shadows like a predator stalking its prey.
I reached for my wand, but it wasn’t there. I tried to activate my mark, but no matter how hard I squeezed, trying to flex that muscle within me, it wouldn’t work. I could always use it when I meditated, or at least feel its presence. Why not now?
I grasped my head quickly, feeling a sharp, stabbing pain, as I yelled and felt my eyes watering up. This was getting to be too much, and I knew if I felt pain in here, then I needed to get out immediately.
I tried calming myself, thinking of the room with my friends, and leaving my trance. I calmed my breathing as tears rolled down my cheeks, before the ice dome melted around me and I was flushed out of the meditation and back in the room.
I gasped, opening my eyes, before touching my head. It was fine. My friends looked at me strangely, like they’d seen a ghost, before I sighed a huge sigh of relief.
“What happened?” Britta asked.
“I was taken somewhere, in the meditation,” I said.
“All I thought about were sausages,” Charlie said, shrugging.
“Where were you taken?” Britta asked.
“I don’t want to sound stupid, but part of me thinks it has something to do with the wand, like it was calling me or something. I was lifted somewhere, maybe ten or so miles away, and shown an entrance to a hidden ice cavern, a massive dome, that looked too perfect not to be manmade,” I said.
“And you saw the wand inside?” Blake asked.
“Not exactly, no. There was a door, and it was carved, but I couldn’t get close. It was like any time I took a step, I was walking in place. It made no sense,” I said.
“What about the golems? Were they there?” Faus asked.
“No, not really, but before I could look any more I started to feel an immense pain in my head. I don’t know, I just think it’s something. How could it not be? Why would I be taken to a place not too far from here, and shown a massive underground cave, if it weren’t related to this? My mark wouldn’t do that to me,” I said.
“Would you know how to get there again?” Faus asked.
“Where’s your map?” I asked. Faus fumbled with his bag, taking out the map and also giving me a marker, and I looked for where I was taken. “Here, it was around here.” I circled a spot on the map, following the peaks and valleys on the map and comparing them to what I remembered about the journey.
“We should check it out, it could be something,” Blake said.
“I think it is. What if it’s there, but didn’t reveal itself
to you? What if it just wanted to communicate with you somehow, and wanted to give you directions?” Britta asked.
“I don’t know, but what I do know is that something is there. I felt it. Whether that’s the wand, or something else, I don’t know, but we need to check it out. We could make it there by tomorrow, I think,” I said.
“It will be a long day, but yes, I think we could make it over there within a day of walking. No long stops, though, so make sure you’re well rested tonight,” Faus said.
“Are you going to be okay?” Blake asked later that night, as we lay in our little tent inside the cave.
“Yeah, I think so, at least I hope so. It was weird, you know? I’ve never quite experienced anything like that, and sometimes I wish I didn’t. I just wish things would be a little more clear,” I said.
“I bet it’s frustrating to have to try to decipher these clues, especially by yourself. I wish I could’ve been in there with you so that I could help you,” he said.
“I felt something there, like a person or being watching me. I could feel their presence, like when you feel like somebody is watching you from across a room. It was like that, but worse. There was nobody there,” I said.
“Well, you were under a lot of stress and the entire situation was hard to deal with. Maybe it was just your mind playing tricks on you,” he said.
“Yeah, maybe,” I said, letting out a deep breath.
“Hey, it will all be okay. We’ll all go down there, and we’ll get you that wand,” Blake said.
“I just don’t think it will be that easy,” I said, shaking my head.
“Why not?” he asked. “Did you see something else down there you’re not telling me?”
“No, not that, it was just the scale of the place. You don’t understand, it had to have been two hundred feet high and just as big around,” I said, sitting up, getting a little antsy. “Why would Merlin create something that big? Think about it for a second.”
“Maybe he wanted something grand, like a grand ballroom, if he were going to hide something this valuable and powerful down there,” he said.
“Or maybe it’s to house the golems inside guarding it, or anything else that the legends don’t talk about,” I said.
“We’ve beaten the odds many times before, Lexa. A few ice statues aren’t going to kill us or even make a dent in us. All you have to do is hit them with fire spells and they’ll melt, that’s the great thing about it,” Blake said, laughing a little.
“Yeah, I guess,” I said.
“Hey, just relax, and don’t stress about it too much. Before we can do anything, we need to get there. Just hang back, get some sleep, and before you know it morning will be here. That walk is long, you know,” he said.
Part of me felt like Blake just didn’t get it, but I supposed I couldn’t expect him to—I couldn’t expect any of my friends to. They weren’t there with me inside that cavernous dome, and they didn’t feel something strange watching them. Until they were there, they’d never understand what it was like.
What if Merlin had created it because he hid something inside? What if Blake was right and it was just to look pretty? I guess the answer would lie in front of me tomorrow.
Until then, all I could do was ponder it all.
12
“Come on, suck it in!” Charlie yelled, as Faus tried to get back out of the small slit that we’d come in through.
“I can’t! It won’t budge!” Faus retorted, getting visibly frustrated.
“Here, I’ll get it open,” Britta said, taking out her wand.
“Don’t do too much, or you could trigger an avalanche. Remember, the ice is fragile, no matter how strong it might seem,” Faus said.
Britta started to swipe her wand, cutting out little sections of the ice, as the pieces fell and shattered on the ground. A path was widened, only about two feet more, though it was more than enough for all of us to push through and back out into the Arctic tundra.
“Well, it looks like the storm is gone,” Faus said, as the bright sun beat down upon our faces.
“This is more like it,” Charlie said, basking in the sunlight as if he were trying to get a tan.
“Which way to start?” Blake asked, his hands gripping the straps of his pack, as he tried to get the show on the road.
“This is the way I was taken,” I said, pointing towards the right, and Britta began to carve us a path. The winds had died, the weather cool but slightly pleasant, the snow around us pockmarked with holes from yesterday’s hail.
“Nature sure is amazing,” Charlie said, as we walked past a graveyard of fallen hail.
“There’s the area it’s around, way up there,” I said, pointing off towards some mountains in the distance, as we turned around a corner from the cliff we’d just been walking along.
“If we hurry, we should be able to make that. I’d say about eight miles, maybe nine?” Blake asked, looking at Faus.
“Yeah, it seems that way. Make sure to be on the lookout as we walk on, guys. Remember, there are cracks and crevices in the ice. You wouldn’t want to fall in one or sprain an ankle,” Faus said.
I felt an overwhelming sense of haste as we shuffled our feet through the snow and tried to make time and close the distance towards the site. I just wanted to get there to see what it was like and to finally find out if the wand was down there.
There wasn’t much said between us, most of us huffing and puffing a little, as Faus seemed to struggle with the weight of his pack. “Blake,” I said, stopping him. “Why don’t you switch packs with Faus?”
“Too heavy?” Blake asked, taking his off.
“Yeah, just a little. All this equipment really adds up,” Faus said, taking his off. “Thank you for switching.”
“No problem. Yeah, this won’t be too bad for me. Let’s keep moving,” Blake said, as he slung the pack around his shoulders. I grabbed onto his hand, holding it, taking him by surprise, before he flashed a little smile and showed me those pretty white teeth.
“Doing okay?” I asked, as we spread apart on the path.
“Yeah, it isn’t too bad. How about you? Getting nervous?” he asked.
“Yeah, a little bit, but I’ve had a version of this feeling since we got here. I think it’s just the anticipation,” I said.
“Soon enough,” he said, clearing his throat.
The sun moved through the sky as the day slowly wore on. My throat felt burnt from the cold, my face feeling both hot and freezing at the same time. Blake told me I had a little wind rash from the cold. “Stop,” Charlie said, at the front of the pack, with his arms out.
“What—” Britta said, stopping, as she tried to shuffle herself backwards. I walked up with Blake, slowly, to see a chasm a few hundred feet deep. The crevice never seemed to stop, as its walls melded into darkness inside.
I kicked a piece of ice down, and it took about four seconds before a faint clacking sound echoed back up the chamber. “About two hundred and fifty-seven feet, give or take,” Faus said, pushing up his glasses.
“So basically what I hear you saying is not to take any chances falling down there,” Blake said.
“Basically,” Faus said.
“Do you guys hear that?” Britta asked, looking in front of us. I heard it, like a rumbling noise, but it wasn’t anything I’d heard before.
“Uh, guys,” Faus said, catching our attention. He pointed behind us, backing up slightly, before Charlie put his hand behind Faus’s back and kept him from falling down.
I turned around, seeing a massive polar bear with two young cubs playing in a small den near where we were standing. “I think we stumbled upon her den,” I said calmly.
“What do we do? She’s huge,” Charlie whispered. The polar bear was at least ten feet tall and larger than any bear I’d ever seen. She growled at us, moving forward slowly, though her cubs were none the wiser. They squeaked at each other, rough-housing, and mom wasn’t too thrilled about us being close.
“We mu
st’ve stumbled past it on our way over here. Whatever you do, don’t provoke her,” Britta said. “She has the power to hurt us, and we definitely don’t want to cause her harm.”
“Well, what if she tries to kill us?” Charlie asked.
“She has two young cubs, Charlie. She doesn’t know if we mean to harm them or not. Besides, maybe she needs to feed them,” Britta said.
“I don’t taste good, trust me,” Charlie said nervously.
“Okay, you four are going to get across the chasm. I’ll distract her and then join you,” Blake said.
“Don’t play the hero, Blake. You know you couldn’t take her,” I said.
“Just Levio everybody over there, and then I’ll jump. Trust me, I can make it,” Blake said, with a slightly cocky tone. The chasm was ten feet wide, enough of a distance that we’d really have to jump. I was sure I could Levio us over, especially with Britta, but what about Blake? There was no way he could make a jump this large, especially because we weren’t elevated now. It was a flat jump, and he’d never been to the Olympics.
“Levio Maximus,” Britta said, lifting herself, Charlie, and Faus. “Toss your packs over first, they’ll weigh you down.”
“Good idea. We want as little drag as possible,” Faus said, before chucking his bag over. It floated over, landing two feet in on the other side, and Charlie put his hands under Faus’s feet and tossed him over.
“Okay, Faus is over. You next,” Charlie said to Britta.
“You go, I’ll be fine,” Britta said.
“No. I care about you too much to let you go last. Go, now,” Charlie said, staring into her eyes, and she nodded and leapt over.
“Charlie,” I said, shooing him away. He had a four-foot run-up, leaping through the air and going a bit further than he needed to, before scurrying back over to the group.
“You next,” Blake said, looking at me.
The polar bear wasn’t backing down, her razor-sharp teeth gleaming in the sun as her massive paws pressed firmly into the packed snow. “I’m not going without you,” I said.
